For those thinking of building their own machine.

http://sysbuild.corsairmemory.com/report.aspx?id=2

 

You know I have neglected my favorite machine of upgrades for two or three years. I am starting to run into issues becasue of lack ou upgrades and just getting to be out of date. I looked last night at revamping it with new MB, Processor, memory, video card. Started adding up the total cost....

Thinking about just buying a tower off teh shelf somewhere.

 

Depends on what you want/need. If you're just runnig some graphics programs just about anything new (p4 amd64) will foot the bill as long as you have 2+ gigs of ram I think the best way to determine what you want to do is find a shelf machine and compare what it would cost to match it part for part.

For me I want specific types of parts and that's hard to find without buying an overpriced machine like the alienware or the new dell thing (even though it's still a pentium, who knows Intel might finally come out with something in the next few months). I can easily set aside the time to build one too. I know what a PITA it can be once you get all the parts together and find out something doesn't work right and have to go through the RMA process. If you do your research you can usually avoid that though unless something is DOA.

 

Yea... I just want to look at ****.

J/K
Only 1/2 the time.

Other 1/2 is graphic editing and basic computing.

Really it wasnt bad, I ran up to $300 for basically a new system. Only keeping my case, Power supply and roms.

It's the knowing thier will be headaches when I have this machine running so stable.... Slow but stable.

 

Well I was at Best Buy and Circuit City today, poking around when I ran across thisWestern Digital 250GB Internal Hard Drive for $69! I couldn't pass it up!
So guess that settles it, I'm building this system back up to par. LOL
Now off to newegg to shop for a new motherboard/processor combo, some memory and a video card.

 

Just so you know, Sata motherboards have IDE hook ups too. That way you can upgrade in the future if you want. Sata isn't a major speed difference at the moment unless you get into expensive drives. It's a bit smoother than IDE IMO, but that only makes a difference with multiple drives or burning DVD's at 16X

 

Man I hate this, I was glancing around some last night and found a Biostar (I think) MB with AMD 64 processor, nvedia chip set, and 2gb capacity but came with 512MB, sata, raid, 1 agp, 1 pci express, 4 pci, for $129. On Newegg.com and now I can't find anything anywhere close to those specs for any price on there. Bad thing is I almost posted a link to it here it and see if anyone knew anything about it, now I'm wishing I had.

I'll probably run by a couple of the local shops tomorrow and see what they might have.

If anyone is browsing and runs across anything,
needs:

CAP (Cheap As Possible) LOL

Prefer AMD... but not 100% true to them. Running a pIII now.
at least 2gb memory capacity
usb 2.0
prefer onboard video over on board audio (I go thru video cards like they are candy. Nice to have a back up with out having to dig thru old parts.)
sata/raid
agp
pci express
pci

bundled kit would be great.

 

Are you looking for cheap or power? If you're lookingfor soemthing that should go together reliably, try an MSI 939 motherboard, AMD64 3000+ or 3200+ (socket 939), Kingston value RAM pc3200 and whatever level of video card you want.

I'm personally not a fan of onboard video, but being a gamer that's mainly why. If you don't really ccare what video it has just do a search in the motherboards section on newegg for ones with onboard video. There's 69 of them. Jetway makes a decent board, at least in performance reviews. One thing I notice is a lot of onboard video boards are Micro ATX boards for small cases. Actually there's only one that isn't and it's complete crap.

 

I was going to build my friend a computer (its been years since I have built one) He just went to HP and got a P4 3.6 with nothing on it for $299. We got him a Dual Layer DVD burner for 30 bucks and 2 GB or ram. It has SATA too.

Under 400 bucks and has a nice machine.

Deals are so good these days its hard to justify building a NEW one.

Nice link though.

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813130491

That board looks pretty good. What size power supply do you have, or are you going to get a new case and stuff?

edit: this would be a good solid board too..
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131569

 

Ah, saw the part about the power supply just now, sorry, missed that part. $300 for a base machine isn't bad, but you're paying for the case and power supply. You'd have to see what the motherboard and processor would run.

I think I'm having a tendancy to lean towards a tad higher $ amount here. If you're wanting to upgrade the video card to pci express it's worth it in MHO. If you're looking to keep your old video card then you need to find something AGP. Another thing to keep in mind is if you get an Nforce4 or a couple other types of board you'll need a 20 pin to 24 pin adapter for the power supply. If you're running anything under a 350 watt power supply that might cause you problems too. The newer chips are pretty power hungry.

Well, gotta run for now....

 

One more thought, something I keep forgetting about, AMD is coming out with a new socket design soon called the AM2. They aren't going to make any more 939 chips. When the AM2 comes out the prices will drop on the 939 stuff and then you'll have the option of upgrading to the lates socket type or going with the 939 for cheaper.

 

Dang it, I hadn't even thought about power supply. It has a 300w now; so probably going to have to get a new one too.

I'll use the same case it's a medium to large case with 7 slot that I've had since mid 80's. I'll never fill it with anything in my price range.

I just want fair power for fair price.

That MSI looks like it has EVERYTHING I need except the AGP. But your right I am going to get a new video card. My Nvidea Gforce3 died a couple of month ago so I'm using an old Diamond Stealth S540 which is only 32MB that I had laying around. It sucks! So I guess I could go with a PCI express card. I don't do alot of gaming anymore, but I do alot of graphic editing, some video editing and some audio editing. Would like to run a game on occasion, but it's like URT, R6, NFS, MOH, otherwise older action. The 32mb Stealth just can't run them. LOL

Just to give you an idea, you'll laugh, but currently been running a tweaked Aopen MB, with an oveclocked 733mhz PIII, and 256mb of ram and it runs reliably and ussually mediocre fast, depending upon what I ask of it. At LAN parties I was keeping up with the P4 and Xenons with alot more memory than mine, and I didn't crash as often (til I lost my video card) LOL.
So I don't require a lot of power to run, but I have been getting memory errors lately and the MB is maxed out with the one 256 stick. More memory and another video card with video capture is the only things I want to get. But since the MB is maxed on recognizable memory, then I have to get a new MB to get more memory, so forces me to also get a new processor, which is forcing me to get a new power supply. If I could put a GB of memory in it then I could probably run this set up another 2 years and be happy with it.


Edited to add:
I dont like onboard video for daily use either, it's just a nice safety net and helps for trouble shooting. I keep it disabled, but if something goes wrong then you can pull all your cards including video, use the onboard chip set and maybe get it to boot. Then start installing everything one at a time till you find the problem child.

 

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817167005 (I have this same unit with pretty lights and stuff, rock solid for over a year) 27.99

Asus motherboard listed above http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131569 86.99

cpu:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103535 166.00 can overclock to 2.4ghz with an aftermarket heatsink and arcit silver % thermal compound (I have a similar processor in my machine overclock to 2.4ghz)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103568 153.00 (A little cheaper, good processor, I'd go with the 3200+)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103514 203.00 (also a good bang for the buck)
You could also go with the AMD 64 X2, but they are running mid 350's and up (this is what I will most likely be using in the next 6 months or so)

Memory
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820141308 159.00 (unless you want some good overclocking memory, that'll step you up to the low 200's)

So, good base system that will totally smoke what you have for 440.00 These prices will probably come down some when the new socket tpe comes out.

 

You know what sucks?
This is essentialy $300-$400 dollars for more memory.

I'm getting ready to jump in the shower now, then I'm going to run to a few stores and see if I can find any deals. Maybe find something used cheap.