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CO_17thRecon
Kell Hounds
Major
Joined: 10-Sep-2002 00:00
Posts: 1297
Location: United States
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 Posted: 15-Oct-2002 11:10 Post subject: Building My New Computer (Help me...) |
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After many headaches trying to get what I want pre-built, I've decided just to frickin' build a computer for my self. Granted, I haven't done this before, but I've high hopes of assembling something that should work (after a bit more research and actually gathering the parts of course). Since a few people on this board seem a lot more hardware savvy then me, I was wondering if I can count on your advice or possibly help if I run into a problem?
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Major Joseph Garbo
CO 17th Recon Battalion,
Harewood's Harvesters
“An engineer can look at a pile of junk and tell you what it was, a good one can tell you what went wrong and an expert engineer can put the pile of junk back together.”
[ This Message was edited by: CO_17thRecon on 2002-10-15 14:40 ]
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Jarylan Blackwell
"What the...?! Where did you get THAT?!"
"Creative aquisition."
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Sir Henry
Team Bansai
Senior Tech Specialist
Joined: 04-Feb-2002 00:00
Posts: 4899
Location: United States
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| Posted: 15-Oct-2002 15:38 Post subject: RE: Building My New Computer (Help me...) |
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Anytime Joe. I have built several myself and I'm sure some of us have more experience then that.
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Sir Henry
A Dragon in the disguise of a bunny, is still a Dragon.
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Hardware
Clan Ghost Bear
Star Colonel
Joined: 04-Feb-2002 00:00
Posts: 605
Location: United States
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| Posted: 15-Oct-2002 16:47 Post subject: RE: Building My New Computer (Help me...) |
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I'd be happy to share my opinion with you.
Buy a Dell. 
Other than that, there is no substitute for a tech on site, but that's a lesson best learned for yourself. So, sally forth young apprentice, looks like it's time to take your lumps.
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The more I get to know people the more I like my dog.
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CO_17thRecon
Kell Hounds
Major
Joined: 10-Sep-2002 00:00
Posts: 1297
Location: United States
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| Posted: 15-Oct-2002 17:02 Post subject: RE: Building My New Computer (Help me...) |
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Dells are expensive, and give me too much of things I don't want (Hard Drive Space and extra monitors and crap to go with it) and too little of what I do. (Memory and Video Memory)
Anyhow, I'm now commited and wheather or not it is my perfect PC, I WILL buildsomething that works. That is my vow. Anyhow, I have a small list of guts to buy for the thing and two requests. First, please alert me if something important is missing. I'm pretty sure I covered it all though. Sencond, is there any real difference in case/chassis types? Do I have the liberty of assuming that so long as the mother board is smaller than said case I can fit the thing in? (Bigger is better in my opinion. My current PC tower is rather small and difficult for me to get around in when I went to put in more memory last time) Anyhow, thanks for your support and here are my notes I took while searching for parts.
Processor: AMD Athlon 1133 (266 MHz FSB) ATX Form
Motherboard: Chaintech 7VJDA (www.chaintech.com.tw/PRODUCTI/mainboar/SocketA/7VJDA.htm)
Case/Box/Where the guts go: Not sure. Do I have the Liberty of assuming so long as the case is big enongh it will work?
Cards:
Video (Hercules 3D Prophet 4500 64MB)
Sound (Sound Blaster Audigy)
Modem (U.S. Robotics 56K* V.92 Internal Faxmodem PCI)
RAM (256MB, brand seems irrelevent)
Hard Drive (Western Digital WD CaviarTM HDD)
Disk Drives (DVD and 3.5, seems irrelevant to find a particular brand)
Other: Ajigo MF014-021 Cooling Unit (For the processor)
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Jarylan Blackwell
"What the...?! Where did you get THAT?!"
"Creative aquisition."
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Karagin
Imperial Karagin Army
Imperial General
Joined: 04-Feb-2002 00:00
Posts: 4120
Location: United States
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| Posted: 15-Oct-2002 17:32 Post subject: RE: Building My New Computer (Help me...) |
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Dells run less the $800, how is that too much?
You can customize the DELL...I did and I got what I wanted, plus when I upgraded they were more then helpful.
Everything you listed above, could be gotten through DELL or Compac or Gateway. Have you given any of these compaines a call and talked to them?
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Karagin
Only the dead have seen the end of war. - Plato
"Wasted trip Man. Nobody said nuthin' about lockin' horns with no tigers." Oddball
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Talen
Capellan Confederation
Sang-shao
Joined: 05-Feb-2002 00:00
Posts: 1269
Location: United States
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| Posted: 15-Oct-2002 17:52 Post subject: RE: Building My New Computer (Help me...) |
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I just built my PC (as close as I could) at Dell. Now, a few things were hard to work with there...but things shouldnt be THIS bad.
My system has cost me a total of $850 to put together. That includes the following
1800Mghz AMD Athalon XP (case, motherboard)
512 mb 333mhz DDR RAM
40x CD 12x DVD Player
40x/12x/48x CD-R
3d Sound Card
128mb DDR RAm GeForce 4 AGP
Keyboard
Optical Mouse
Game Pad
Fans/etc.
The Same* system at Dell was over $2,000.
The only main difference was that it was an Intel Pentium 4 2.0Ghz.
Okay...now...tell me that Dell isnt expensive...
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"Historians exercise great power and some of them know it. They recreate the past, changing it to fit their own interpretations. Thus, they change the future as well." - Leto II
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Vagabond
Mercenary
Mr. Referee
Joined: 04-Feb-2002 00:00
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Location: United States
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| Posted: 15-Oct-2002 18:12 Post subject: RE: Building My New Computer (Help me...) |
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i'd say just from my own experience.....
DON'T BUY AMD!!!
every system i've seen with an AMD is buggy as hell.
as for HDD, must be UDMA 100/66 AT ATLEAST 7200RPM. board must be compatible, i prefear abit boards.
RAM, no no no... brand matters. get a semi good brand atleast, or you'll suffer memory leaks and band perging of the ram cache. which means bad mojo.
AND FOR GOD SAKE..... make sure your board, cpu, ram, and agp card all have compatible FRONT SIDE BUSES. if your RAM's 333mhz make sure your board and cpu are 333mhz FSB. otherwise you'll quickly screw yourself.
as for case, i does matter. get a good one with space, a good power supplie, and has good air flow. aluminum cases are good, as the conduct heat better then steel. and if your gonna use USB, try getting a case and MB that supports face mounted ports.
oh.... an buy a NIC card even if you don't have high speed access, cause it means you wont be needing later.
my last bit of advice is to get win98se as your os. its the most dependable of the bunch, and can be cheep.
hope that helps.
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one must work hard to cultivate the mind and body. and one must always cultivate the mind.
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Karagin
Imperial Karagin Army
Imperial General
Joined: 04-Feb-2002 00:00
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Location: United States
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| Posted: 15-Oct-2002 18:32 Post subject: RE: Building My New Computer (Help me...) |
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You can get a P4 from the for $800...they show it on TV all the time...plus my step father just bought a nice system from DELL for about the same price and he made adjustments to the setup...adding in more RAM and going with a 21in monitor over a 15in, then add S&H he paid $970 total for the machine with the warranty and the other tech support deals, like if it breaks they replace with in two days tops, etc...
Seems well worth the $800 dollars to go through DELL then going to the computer store and building it that way.
But each to their own...
Oh yes, before I forget...the one that is adveritised on TV currnetly from Dell is the one my step father got with some adjustments...he spent less then $1000 on it so that is a lot cheaper then buying it piece by piece. Plus it's covered by a warranty and such...I doubt very much if the computer store is going to give you that.
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Karagin
Only the dead have seen the end of war. - Plato
[ This Message was edited by: Karagin on 2002-10-15 18:35 ]
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Karagin
Only the dead have seen the end of war. - Plato
"Wasted trip Man. Nobody said nuthin' about lockin' horns with no tigers." Oddball
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CO_17thRecon
Kell Hounds
Major
Joined: 10-Sep-2002 00:00
Posts: 1297
Location: United States
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| Posted: 15-Oct-2002 18:37 Post subject: RE: Building My New Computer (Help me...) |
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Exactly Karagin. This is something I've been meaning to learn for a few years anyway... As for AMD, I considered it because it is the major competitor of Intel, and from what I heard cheaper. I'll keep shopping for a good processor then. As for memory, dualy noted. And processor/board compatibility; I've been looking only for boards that were tested with the appropriate processor.
Anyhow Cyrix is another competitor... Or does anyone have a recommendation?
I've got a good tower in mind I think.
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Jarylan Blackwell
"What the...?! Where did you get THAT?!"
"Creative aquisition."
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Talen
Capellan Confederation
Sang-shao
Joined: 05-Feb-2002 00:00
Posts: 1269
Location: United States
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| Posted: 15-Oct-2002 18:53 Post subject: RE: Building My New Computer (Help me...) |
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both my AMD systems have been good...and faster than same priced Intels
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"Historians exercise great power and some of them know it. They recreate the past, changing it to fit their own interpretations. Thus, they change the future as well." - Leto II
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Talen
Capellan Confederation
Sang-shao
Joined: 05-Feb-2002 00:00
Posts: 1269
Location: United States
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| Posted: 15-Oct-2002 18:56 Post subject: RE: Building My New Computer (Help me...) |
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Go read consumer reports on AMDs. Its more bang for your buck than the Intel.
And those Dell's on TV for $800 have crap in them. They start at $800. I was JUST at their site building my computer and I saved $1200 by building it myself....okay....$1200 is a LOT of money.
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[ This Message was edited by: Talen on 2002-10-15 18:56 ]
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"Historians exercise great power and some of them know it. They recreate the past, changing it to fit their own interpretations. Thus, they change the future as well." - Leto II
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CO_17thRecon
Kell Hounds
Major
Joined: 10-Sep-2002 00:00
Posts: 1297
Location: United States
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| Posted: 15-Oct-2002 19:20 Post subject: RE: Building My New Computer (Help me...) |
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AMD hasn't been eliminated, looking back, the computer I use is AMD and I've never had a problem. (Performance just isn't up to par anymore.) I just feel I should expand my options. And since nothing has been bought yet, it's the best time to consider those options. 
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Jarylan Blackwell
"What the...?! Where did you get THAT?!"
"Creative aquisition."
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Raven!
Clan Snow Raven
Galaxy Commander
Joined: 04-Feb-2002 00:00
Posts: 1326
Location: United States
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| Posted: 15-Oct-2002 19:24 Post subject: RE: Building My New Computer (Help me...) |
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Yeah I use AMD and it flies. I have never had a problem. And I get less blue screens with the AMD then I did with an Intel chip (intel can burn in hell is my opinion, i hate them). As for OS, I would say RedHat Linux. You can get support for it, despite what MS would have you believe (funny thing, I have never actually talked to an MS person when Win screws up on my system, yet I can always get RedHat people to help me fix problems on my unix box.. go figure). RedHat is more reliable, and penquins are cute.
Raven!
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Talen
Capellan Confederation
Sang-shao
Joined: 05-Feb-2002 00:00
Posts: 1269
Location: United States
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| Posted: 15-Oct-2002 20:15 Post subject: RE: Building My New Computer (Help me...) |
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Yeah...dont read after you buy!
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"Historians exercise great power and some of them know it. They recreate the past, changing it to fit their own interpretations. Thus, they change the future as well." - Leto II
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Karagin
Imperial Karagin Army
Imperial General
Joined: 04-Feb-2002 00:00
Posts: 4120
Location: United States
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| Posted: 15-Oct-2002 21:27 Post subject: RE: Building My New Computer (Help me...) |
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The $800 DELL's are designed for the starter computer users...you can get a decent machine and not spend a small fortune on it.
$1200 for a computer is not that much give that some machines that are setup for gaming or working with video editing and such can run you from $3000 up to $9000 or more.
A lot of folks take the basic system a company is offering and modify it. I did that to my DELL DT4100 and got exactly what I wanted and I didn't spend over $1200, in fact I came in at less then by $200. Then when I upgraded I spent maybe the $200 I originally save and again got what I wanted.
The thing about computers today is they are very interchangable and not locked in to one setup...best thing for anyone to do is figure out what they are going to be using the computer for mainly and then go from there. If you aren't going to be running high res video on it then you don't need the state of the art video and graphics card. But if you are going to play nothing but games then you may want a lot of RAM, a big hard drive, SOA Vidcard and DSL or T1 for the internet.
So for some the basic computer offered from DELL or any other company, the $800 one is right for them. While a bigger and faster machine is what you want, thus you have the opintion of getting that.
Saying that the DELL computers are crap is like saying all of the BT players love MWDA. And we know that's not true. 
Again I say call one of the computer companies talk to them tell excatly what you want and how much you are willing to spend. Don't let them talk you into anything else and get what you want.
Average price will be around $1000 or so depending on what you get as far as CPU goes...but again go with what you want, since you always have the opition of upgrading later.
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Karagin
Only the dead have seen the end of war. - Plato
"Wasted trip Man. Nobody said nuthin' about lockin' horns with no tigers." Oddball
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