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Author Topic: buying a new computer  (Read 1312 times)

Offline -ammo-

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buying a new computer
« on: September 03, 2001, 07:12:00 PM »
In My position, where although with a little luck and more time (and less kids) I would probably build a machine. But lets just say I would rather buy the thing the way I want it. Nice components, centered around flight sims, where or who would you go to to buy it? Who offers the best value? would you go with the newest and hottest vid card, processor, etc.. or would you buy a geforce 2 AGP, a Pentium 3 or celleron, (or whatever processor is competing with intel.

opinions? I am seriously considering this. My current machine will ahve to be fixed of coarse and that is another matter altogether.
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Offline jihad

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buying a new computer
« Reply #1 on: September 03, 2001, 07:36:00 PM »
Build your own and buy a big honking monitor with the money you saved.  ;)
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Offline Staga

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« Reply #2 on: September 03, 2001, 07:41:00 PM »
I just built a AMD Athlon (Thunderbird) 1,4Ghz computer for myself and I'm quite happy with it.

Pics One, Two and Three

Right now AMD gives best bang/bucks ratio and only one thing gave me gray hairs: My old SbLive's gameport did not work with Asus A7M266 motherboard I bought (Others have this problem too with SB-Live products) but after I changed that SB to Terratec 512i my problems were wiped away  :)
(Only issue with Terratec 512i is it uses more CPU than SB-Live thought difference is not too big)

In Videocards my guess is GF2Pro could be good choice, Quite cheap now but still more than enough power with half of price of GF3 (At least in here).
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Offline -ammo-

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« Reply #3 on: September 03, 2001, 07:48:00 PM »
yea that would be cool...if I had $1500 sitting around. However I will need to borrow, steal and beg. I would love to build though. It saves money, but not my headaches ;)
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Offline Ozark

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« Reply #4 on: September 03, 2001, 08:12:00 PM »
Ammo,

Check private messages.

[ 09-03-2001: Message edited by: Ozark ]
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Offline Tac

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« Reply #5 on: September 03, 2001, 08:43:00 PM »
staga, you have to disable onboard sound via jumper and bios. Your SBlive wouldve worked

I also have that mbd and my sblive xgamer works fine.

One thing though, lower the voltage for your ram, the A7M266 was shipped with the ram jumper set to overclocked setting, this causes most ram types to overheat and lock the system up.

The VI/O1 Jumper is default at 2.7V for the DDR memory, however, usually DDR memory is designed for 2.5V. This could cause system instability and cause crashes during heavy memory load. This is especially true when I played 3D games. The fix is to remove the VI/O1 jumper, which set the voltage to 2.5v, I don't understand why Asus doesn't even give the option for 2.5V for the jumper setting, and yet clearly stated DDR RAM uses 2.5V in their OWN MANUAL!

Remove that jumper if your system crashes for no reason, constantly.

go to www.lostcircuits.com  and look for the article on that MBD. Tells you whats with it.

What I love about it is that it will support the Palomino chip  :)
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Offline -ammo-

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« Reply #6 on: September 03, 2001, 09:29:00 PM »
Quote
Originally posted by Tac:
staga, you have to disable onboard sound via jumper and bios. Your SBlive wouldve worked

I also have that mbd and my sblive xgamer works fine.

One thing though, lower the voltage for your ram, the A7M266 was shipped with the ram jumper set to overclocked setting, this causes most ram types to overheat and lock the system up.

The VI/O1 Jumper is default at 2.7V for the DDR memory, however, usually DDR memory is designed for 2.5V. This could cause system instability and cause crashes during heavy memory load. This is especially true when I played 3D games. The fix is to remove the VI/O1 jumper, which set the voltage to 2.5v, I don't understand why Asus doesn't even give the option for 2.5V for the jumper setting, and yet clearly stated DDR RAM uses 2.5V in their OWN MANUAL!

Remove that jumper if your system crashes for no reason, constantly.

go to www.lostcircuits.com  and look for the article on that MBD. Tells you whats with it.

What I love about it is that it will support the Palomino chip   :)


Quit Hijacking :)
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Offline SKurj

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buying a new computer
« Reply #7 on: September 03, 2001, 09:30:00 PM »
Personally Ammo, I would go to a local retailer, preferrably a small place, and have them build what you want.  If u can't build yourself.  You maybe able to hang onto several of the components u have, monitor, ethernet card etc.  By doing so you can likely get 1ghz+ for under $1000 easily

Oh yeah.. as far as components go..
Well you have an SBLive, you have a Geforce(2?), keyboard, mouse, speakers etc etc, you can likely pick up an AMD 1.4 with a mobo for $3-400 and a harddrive for $100, oops and a case of course.  $600 and you are up and running.  For now you could hold onto your current GeForce and replace it when you have the cash, the same applies to the monitor and SBLive!

SKurj

[ 09-03-2001: Message edited by: SKurj ]
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Offline Swager

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« Reply #8 on: September 03, 2001, 09:56:00 PM »
Ammo,

I am building a new computer. the specs are:

1.33 GHz Athlon T-Bird
Epox 8k7A DDR Motherboard
512Mb Curical PC-2100 RAM
1.44 Mb floppy drive
Seagate Barracuda 40.1Gb hard drive
MSI GeForce2 PRO 64M
Hercules Game Theather XP
Lite-On 16x/40x DVD
Lite-On 16x/10x/40x CDWR
Taisol CGK720092 HeatSink Fan (30CFM)
Antec SX830 case with 4 fans

All for about $1075 shipped.

Using the 19" monitor I already havea nd a network card given to me by Roadrunner.

I know prices have already gone down on the CPU, DVD, CDRW and RAM since I have ordered.  I've seen better deals on the HSF I bought.  If you need to know more, send me an e-mail.  I would be glad to help in any way.

<S>
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Offline Staga

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« Reply #9 on: September 03, 2001, 10:05:00 PM »
Thanks Tac but I already did use my weekend by playing with bios, IRQs, jumpers and different slots and reading  about dozen tech-sites but nothing did help. When I installed that new soundcard it worked like a dream  :)
Reason could be my Live! is made in '98 and as far as I know Creative changed components later.
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Offline Staga

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« Reply #10 on: September 03, 2001, 10:10:00 PM »
btw fast Athlons need lots of power. Be sure you got at least 300W, preferably 350W powersupply.
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Offline Tac

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« Reply #11 on: September 03, 2001, 10:10:00 PM »
lol ammo. You may be getting *that* mbd anyway! Its the only ASUS mbd that currently will support the palomino and its performance is great.  :)

So gimme back my gun copper!  ;)
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Offline Robert

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buying a new computer
« Reply #12 on: September 03, 2001, 10:37:00 PM »
Ammo

I've been looking at this for a longtime now. Every day the prices get lower and lower.

Abit KT7a mainboard:               $106.00
AMD CPU 1.4ghz 266mhz              $116.00
big hitter fan                     $ 37.00
256MB PC2400 DDR Memory Module     $ 80.00
Translucent COLOR Mini-MID ATX CASE
WITH 300W                          $ 32.00

Total                              $371.00 includes shipping.      08/31/01


RWY
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Offline SKurj

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buying a new computer
« Reply #13 on: September 04, 2001, 09:58:00 AM »
translucent case... EEEEEWWWWW......

SKurj
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Offline Maverick

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buying a new computer
« Reply #14 on: September 04, 2001, 01:18:00 PM »
Quote
Originally posted by Robert:
Ammo

I've been looking at this for a longtime now. Every day the prices get lower and lower.

Abit KT7a mainboard:               $106.00
AMD CPU 1.4ghz 266mhz              $116.00
big hitter fan                     $ 37.00
256MB PC2400 DDR Memory Module     $ 80.00
Translucent COLOR Mini-MID ATX CASE
WITH 300W                          $ 32.00

Total                              $371.00 includes shipping.      08/31/01


RWY

RWY,

Where you getting prices from? I'm ready to upgrade now.

Mav
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