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Tue Sep 20, 2005 8:34 pm
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Forum H4xor
Joined: 25 Nov 2004
Posts: 4336
Location: Eugene, Oregon
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I need a new computer. BF2 and F.E.A.R are throwing rocks at me, mooning me, and laughing at me. They know they have system reqs of 1.6 and 1.7 GhZ. They know my computer only has 1.5 GhZ. They know this and they laugh. I must rectify this. I know of the various sites for individual computer parts. www.newegg.com and www.tigerdirect.com. Both those sites are great. I'm also the lazy type, and I do like prebuilts, especially since they are covered by warranties, which can be an issue if you pick and choose seperate parts and buy them yourself.
Tinkering around on www.cyberpowerinc.com I've come up with some nice set-ups.
I really like this one:
| Quote: |
CASE : HOT NEW! Xplorer Mid-Tower Case 420W W/ WINDOW & LCD Temperature Display (Black Case w/Blue Face)
CPU : (939-pin) AMD ATHLON64 3700+ CPU w/ Hyper Transport Technology
MOTHERBOARD : (Sckt939)ASUS A8N-SLI nForce4 SLI Chipset SATA RAID Dual PCIE MB w/Gb-LAN, USB2.0, IEEE-1394, &7.1Audio
MEMORY : 1024 MB (512MBx2) PC3200 400MHz Dual Channel DDR MEMORY (Corsair Value Select)
VIDEO CARD : NVIDIA Geforce 6600 GT 128MB 16X PCI EXPRESS VIDEO CARD
VIDEO CARD 2 : NVIDIA Geforce 6600 GT 128MB 16X PCI EXPRESS VIDEO CARD
MONITOR & LCD : NONE
HARD DRIVE : 200GB Hard Drive (SATA150 - Maxtor 200GB 7200RPM 8MB Cache Hard Drive)
Hard Drive 2 : NONE
Optical Drive : 16X DVD ROM (BEIGE COLOR)
Optical Drive 2 : (Special Price) LG GWA-4161 16X DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW DRIVE DUAL LAYER (BEIGE COLOR)
SOUND : HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD 7.1 AUDIO |
Price: $1,298
That's a reasonable price for a reasonably powerful computer, right?
Since college kids can't afford to buy new computers, this is what will have to last me the 3-3.5 years (Hooray DeVry!) that I'll be in college. I really don't want to go over $1,500. Should I bite the bullet and go for 2048 RAM? Should I opt for a more powerful CPU? Does anyone know of any other build-a-PC sites with a good variety of options and a fair price?
Opinions and comments would be loved especially from the more tech-savvy folk, such as Gilliam and AOM. |
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(dead)-[CfH]-Server Admin but--- because I could not stop for death, He kindly stopped for me
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Tue Sep 20, 2005 8:39 pm
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Forum H4xor
Joined: 08 Dec 2004
Posts: 2504
Location: NJ
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| BF2 pfftt lol TFC |
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Tue Sep 20, 2005 9:21 pm
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Grand High Exalted Mystic Ruler
Joined: 23 Nov 2004
Posts: 6505
Location: New Jersey
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Cyberpower is the company I bought my first comp from back in '98. There were the only ones I found at the time that would put what I wanted in the box. I can vouch for thier quality...the P2 300 I bought from them still works like a charm to this day. I'm using it to serve up mp3's to my home theater audio system.
That said...am I crazy, or do I see 2 video cards listed. 
Drop the second card and get yourself a nice monitor, which I see you didn't pick. I don't see the need for 2 gig of memory...1 should suffice. Even though you picked a PCI express card...128 ram seems kinda slim for todays offerings. I'm not up on these new cards...jmo.
I'm an Intel junkie...intel boards and chips...can't go wrong. AMD chips don't play nice with some boards out there...ACER and ASUS boards seem to get along well with them...good choice. |
_________________
The only good game, is a fair game...
Why do we park on driveways and drive on parkways! George Carlin - 1937-2008
-[CfH]-Server Admin |
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Tue Sep 20, 2005 9:28 pm
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Forum H4xor
Joined: 25 Nov 2004
Posts: 4336
Location: Eugene, Oregon
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I've got a guy willing to drop a nice monitor on me for a great price already, no reason to muck up that price with something I won't need.
Is two cards not worth the benefit?
Should I go with one great card instead of two good ones?
Like a NVIDIA Geforce 7800 GT(X even?) or Radeon X800? |
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(dead)-[CfH]-Server Admin but--- because I could not stop for death, He kindly stopped for me
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Tue Sep 20, 2005 9:29 pm
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Forum H4xor
Joined: 06 Jan 2005
Posts: 1573
Location: middle o' no where Nebraska
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| Audhumla wrote: |
I need a new computer. BF2 and F.E.A.R are throwing rocks at me, mooning me, and laughing at me. They know they have system reqs of 1.6 and 1.7 GhZ. They know my computer only has 1.5 GhZ. They know this and they laugh. I must rectify this. I know of the various sites for individual computer parts. www.newegg.com and www.tigerdirect.com. Both those sites are great. I'm also the lazy type, and I do like prebuilts, especially since they are covered by warranties, which can be an issue if you pick and choose seperate parts and buy them yourself.
Tinkering around on www.cyberpowerinc.com I've come up with some nice set-ups.
I really like this one:
| Quote: |
CASE : HOT NEW! Xplorer Mid-Tower Case 420W W/ WINDOW & LCD Temperature Display (Black Case w/Blue Face)
CPU : (939-pin) AMD ATHLON64 3700+ CPU w/ Hyper Transport Technology
MOTHERBOARD : (Sckt939)ASUS A8N-SLI nForce4 SLI Chipset SATA RAID Dual PCIE MB w/Gb-LAN, USB2.0, IEEE-1394, &7.1Audio
MEMORY : 1024 MB (512MBx2) PC3200 400MHz Dual Channel DDR MEMORY (Corsair Value Select)
VIDEO CARD : NVIDIA Geforce 6600 GT 128MB 16X PCI EXPRESS VIDEO CARD
VIDEO CARD 2 : NVIDIA Geforce 6600 GT 128MB 16X PCI EXPRESS VIDEO CARD
MONITOR & LCD : NONE
HARD DRIVE : 200GB Hard Drive (SATA150 - Maxtor 200GB 7200RPM 8MB Cache Hard Drive)
Hard Drive 2 : NONE
Optical Drive : 16X DVD ROM (BEIGE COLOR)
Optical Drive 2 : (Special Price) LG GWA-4161 16X DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW DRIVE DUAL LAYER (BEIGE COLOR)
SOUND : HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD 7.1 AUDIO |
Price: $1,298
That's a reasonable price for a reasonably powerful computer, right?
Since college kids can't afford to buy new computers, this is what will have to last me the 3-3.5 years (Hooray DeVry!) that I'll be in college. I really don't want to go over $1,500. Should I bite the bullet and go for 2048 RAM? Should I opt for a more powerful CPU? Does anyone know of any other build-a-PC sites with a good variety of options and a fair price?
Opinions and comments would be loved especially from the more tech-savvy folk, such as Gilliam and AOM. |
 all that for 1,200?? holy cow! the only think i would change is the proccesor. but thats cause i am also an intel guy. you should also get another hard drive, or a portable one to back everything up on. im surprised you're not going for a full tower as well. you shouldn't need anymore ram. im running great off of 512 mb. |
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Tue Sep 20, 2005 9:35 pm
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Grand High Exalted Mystic Ruler
Joined: 23 Nov 2004
Posts: 6505
Location: New Jersey
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The only reason you'd want two video cards is to have one as a tv tuner or spread/split your desktop. Running two video cards can be a massive headache.
Most importantly, most two card set-ups are AGP and PCI...yeah, the old PCI. So...you can't have two identical cards if they're both AGP...you only have one AGP slot. Again, I'm not all that up on these new PCI Express cards...but I'd imagine the motherboard would only have one PCI-E slot for one PCI-E card.
Drop the second vid card and get a REAL soundcard and an extra hard drive...this switch should be fairly equal in cost. If you really want to do the TV tuner thing (like I do)...get yourself one of the ATI All in Wonder series of cards that do all I mentioned above. |
_________________
The only good game, is a fair game...
Why do we park on driveways and drive on parkways! George Carlin - 1937-2008
-[CfH]-Server Admin |
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Tue Sep 20, 2005 9:36 pm
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Forum H4xor
Joined: 25 Nov 2004
Posts: 4336
Location: Eugene, Oregon
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| I've already got an 80 gig external. |
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(dead)-[CfH]-Server Admin but--- because I could not stop for death, He kindly stopped for me
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Tue Sep 20, 2005 9:39 pm
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Forum H4xor
Joined: 06 Jan 2005
Posts: 1573
Location: middle o' no where Nebraska
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*agrees with chips*
i gotta remember that website. convince my dad to buy from there. post your review of how your computer is when you get it, my dads gonna want proof its reliable. he's paranoid with buying things online (except for that van he bought from NJ a year ago...) |
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Tue Sep 20, 2005 9:52 pm
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Grand High Exalted Mystic Ruler
Joined: 23 Nov 2004
Posts: 6505
Location: New Jersey
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| Audhumla wrote: |
| I've already got an 80 gig external. |
I have a 120 gig USB 2.0 external also.
But...having your OS on one smaller drive and all your apps and games on another makes for smoother sailing. I have a 16 gig drive for my two OS's (win 98se and win xp pro), all my internet and all my office apps. Everything else including graphics apps and games are on a different 120 gig internal. Read/write times from your games are faster cause they're not mixed in with requests from your OS to the same drive.
HINT: If you can, make a partition for just the windows swap file. This will mean the drive your OS is on will fragment less...leading to less maintenance. |
_________________
The only good game, is a fair game...
Why do we park on driveways and drive on parkways! George Carlin - 1937-2008
-[CfH]-Server Admin |
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Tue Sep 20, 2005 11:01 pm
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Forum H4xor
Joined: 25 Nov 2004
Posts: 1269
Location: sacramento ca
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take it from someone who has a similar setup already. SLI dual video cards WILL work in that mobo but theres only a few apps/games that will take advantage of SLI dual cards. drop the 2 optical drives and get an EMPEREX(or EMPREX) 16X DVD-almosteverything drive.
use your existing case and upgrade the guts unless the case is good.
| gilliam wrote: |
info from EVEREST Home Edition ( http://www.lavalys.com/ )
| Code: |
Computer
Operating System Microsoft Windows XP Professional
OS Service Pack Service Pack 2
DirectX 4.09.00.0904 (DirectX 9.0c)
Computer Name VESPA
User Name Kevin
Motherboard
CPU Type AMD Athlon 64, 2100 MHz (10 x 210) >>>(thats athlon64 3200+)
Motherboard Name Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe (3 PCI, 2 PCI-E x1, 2 PCI-E x16, 4 DDR DIMM, Audio, Dual Gigabit LAN, IEEE-1394)
Motherboard Chipset nVIDIA nForce4 SLI, AMD Hammer
System Memory 1024 MB (DDR SDRAM)
BIOS Type Award (04/29/05)
Display
Video Adapter NVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT (128 MB)
3D Accelerator nVIDIA GeForce 6600 GT PCI-E
Monitor Samsung SyncMaster 711N/712N [17" LCD] (HCJXB18502)
Multimedia
Audio Adapter nVIDIA MCP04 - Audio Codec Interface
Storage
IDE Controller NVIDIA nForce4 ADMA Controller
IDE Controller NVIDIA nForce4 Parallel ATA Controller
Disk Drive HDS722525VLSA80 (250 GB, 7200 RPM, SATA)
Disk Drive HDS722516VLAT80 (160 GB, 7200 RPM, Ultra-ATA/100)
Optical Drive DVDRW IDE 16X
SMART Hard Disks Status OK
Partitions
C: (NTFS) 238472 MB (77790 MB free)
E: (NTFS) 157065 MB (22695 MB free)
Total Size 386.3 GB (98.1 GB free)
Input
Keyboard Standard 101/102-Key or Microsoft Natural PS/2 Keyboard
Mouse Microsoft USB IntelliMouse Optical
Network
Network Adapter Marvell Yukon 88E8001/8003/8010 PCI Gigabit Ethernet Controller (192.168.0.11)
Peripherals
Printer \\http://192.168.0.100\lan_printer_1
Printer Tektronix Phaser 240 17
USB1 Controller nVIDIA MCP04 - OHCI USB Controller
USB2 Controller nVIDIA MCP04 - EHCI USB 2.0 Controller
USB Device Microsoft USB IntelliMouse Optical |
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_________________
Albert Einstein once said “The only reason for time is so that everything doesn’t happen at once.”
-[CfH]-Server Admin
Hanlon's Razor. Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity. |
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| Posted:
Wed Sep 21, 2005 12:02 am
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Forum Sniper
Joined: 23 Nov 2004
Posts: 538
Location: Maryland
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| If you do go for just one video card the X800 should be good. I have it in my new computer and it runs HL2 and the source mods great. I've also played the Age of Empires 3 demo on it today with all the graphics setting turned all the way up and only got a little slow down when I had massive amounts of action going on the screen. |
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-[CfH]-Server Admin |
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| Posted:
Wed Sep 21, 2005 12:12 am
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Forum H4xor
Joined: 21 Dec 2004
Posts: 1164
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| just buy all the parts and build it yourself, save some cash. |
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Wed Sep 21, 2005 11:20 am
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Forum H4xor
Joined: 25 Nov 2004
Posts: 4336
Location: Eugene, Oregon
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My idea now
| Quote: |
System Summary
CASE : HOT NEW! Xplorer Mid-Tower Case 420W W/ WINDOW & LCD Temperature Display (Black Case w/Silver Face)
CPU : (939-pin) AMD ATHLON™64 3700+ CPU w/ Hyper Transport Technology
MOTHERBOARD : (Sckt939)ASUS A8N-SLI nForce4 SLI Chipset SATA RAID Dual PCIE MB w/Gb-LAN,USB2.0,IEEE-1394,&7.1Audio
MEMORY : 1024 MB (512MBx2) PC3200 400MHz Dual Channel DDR MEMORY (Corsair Value Select)
VIDEO CARD : ATI RADEON X800 GT 256MB 16X PCI EXPRESS VIDEO CARD
VIDEO CARD 2 : NONE
MONITOR & LCD : NONE
HARD DRIVE : 200GB Hard Drive (SATA150 - Maxtor 200GB 7200RPM 8MB Cache Hard Drive)
Hard Drive 2 : 80GB Hard Drive (SATA150 - Seagate 80GB 7200RPM 8MB Cache Hard Drive)
Optical Drive : (Special Price) LG GWA-4161 16X DVD±R/±RW + CD-R/RW DRIVE DUAL LAYER (BLACK COLOR)
Optical Drive 2 : NONE
SOUND : Creative Labs SB Audigy-2 ZS 7.1
Price: $1339.00 |
If only I could get $2 off....
I added a second HD, went to one optical drive, went for a better sound card and speaker set, and went to one (albeit better) video card.
This look good? |
_________________
(dead)-[CfH]-Server Admin but--- because I could not stop for death, He kindly stopped for me
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| Posted:
Wed Sep 21, 2005 11:37 am
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Grand High Exalted Mystic Ruler
Joined: 23 Nov 2004
Posts: 6505
Location: New Jersey
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| Audhumla wrote: |
| If only I could get $2 off.... |
Looking better. 
How much is an upgrade from the Corsair memory 
Corsair is teh sux.  |
_________________
The only good game, is a fair game...
Why do we park on driveways and drive on parkways! George Carlin - 1937-2008
-[CfH]-Server Admin |
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| Posted:
Wed Sep 21, 2005 1:01 pm
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Forum Medic
Joined: 13 Jul 2005
Posts: 184
Location: Las Vegas, NV
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| Looks good. |
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| Howling Man is 1337 wrote: |
The sniper is what we like to call a 'gateway class'. It opens the door to more unsanitary, unsightly games like Counterstrike. Friends dont' let friends snipe.
Just say no. |
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