Is the time right for a new Comp?? If so, give advice. :)

Predabot · Post by **Predabot** » Sun Sep 16, 2007 4:55 pm

Aye. I've definitely started thinking about buying a new comp. Since my old one has started to get a bit old.

I noticed it in perticular whilst playing a game of Visual Pinball.

I'll's give you the current specs here:

CPU: Pentium 4 1.8 Ghz (singlecore) L1 cache8kb, L2 cache 512kb. Has had some overheating in the past, because of being overclocked for a long time to 2.5ghz.

RAM: 2x 512mb DDR SDram modules. One is PC2700 and is only running on 166mhz, the other is PC3200 and is running at 200mhz. Both have reduced update frequency. I believe atleast one of them is supposed to have a max speed of 400 Mhz. The motherboard is to blame...

Motherboard: Asus P4PE. 4x AGP 2.0. Perhaps the real villain of the drama, since it's slowing down both my graphics-card and my Ram. Last system bios came out in 2003...

GPU: ATi Sapphire Radeon 9800 Pro. 128mb onboard memory, gpu working at 378Mhz. AGP 8x.

Harddrives: Primary 20gb, secondary 372gb. These are fairly good. Maybe in reality I should get rid of the 20gb, but eh. 'Tis cheap.

So, computer-savvy folks, what do you think?

Post by **Kaylee** » Sun Sep 16, 2007 5:17 pm

CPU is woeful and such a memory/board combination should be illegal.

Try and keep memory speeds/specs the same and match them to a board which can actually handle them or you're just wasting resources.

Predabot · Post by **Predabot** » Sun Sep 16, 2007 7:35 pm

Good advice. Henceforth I shall.

So, I take it you think I should upgrade a few things?

The CPU and motherboard appears to be the first things. Should I also get a new box/tower? My current one is a high-tower, wich I've never truly used to the max, because I haven't added very much extras.

I'm guessing new mobo first, then cpu? And if I can afford it, a new box?

Thanks for having a look Karlos.

Post by **Kaylee** » Sun Sep 16, 2007 9:21 pm

You'll probably need to do the mobo and cpu at the same time, tho the tower will be fine as it is I'd expect. Memory will probably suffice until you can get a couple of sticks- I tend to use Corsair 1GB sticks. Two of those and XP will fly.

The motherboard I had last was an ASUS A8N-SLi deluxe, that was pretty good but its designed for AMD 64bit processors so unless you head down that road you'd want something else (obviously) good brand and not too expensive. Personally I'd recommend staying away from 64Bit for now, I know from bitter experience it's still a driver nightmare unless you install a 32Bit OS and if you're doing that you might as well use a 32Bit chipset.

Intel or AMD is very much a matter of opinion but general concensus (although again subjective) is that AMD is better for memory access (speedier application loading for example) whereas Intel are better in terms of raw CPU power (encoding MP3s for example). I've always used AMD in my own build systems.

Pretty certain most budget boards tend to come with an onboard graphics card but at some point you'll probably want a decent PCI-Express card- both ATI and nVidia do some perfectly good budget cards which give good performance.

Predabot · Post by **Predabot** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 12:03 am

Karl Lynch wrote:You'll probably need to do the mobo and cpu at the same time, tho the tower will be fine as it is I'd expect. Memory will probably suffice until you can get a couple of sticks- I tend to use Corsair 1GB sticks. Two of those and XP will fly.

The motherboard I had last was an ASUS A8N-SLi deluxe, that was pretty good but its designed for AMD 64bit processors so unless you head down that road you'd want something else (obviously) good brand and not too expensive. Personally I'd recommend staying away from 64Bit for now, I know from bitter experience it's still a driver nightmare unless you install a 32Bit OS and if you're doing that you might as well use a 32Bit chipset.

Intel or AMD is very much a matter of opinion but general concensus (although again subjective) is that AMD is better for memory access (speedier application loading for example) whereas Intel are better in terms of raw CPU power (encoding MP3s for example). I've always used AMD in my own build systems.

Pretty certain most budget boards tend to come with an onboard graphics card but at some point you'll probably want a decent PCI-Express card- both ATI and nVidia do some perfectly good budget cards which give good performance.

Hmm, the problem with my tower is that the ventilation is bad, and there's no sound-insulation.

But, you're probably right, it'll probably do for a while more.

So, XP really does have the ability to use USB-sticks as RAM? I thought that was a Vista-only feature? I'll probably be upgrading me comp in a few months. Right now I have to buy a Wii and a Wacom. 'Twill cost me.

And PCI-express is still the standard? Haven't there been some murmur of an AGP 3.0 or some such? Anyways, I'll probably get an nVidia-card, since this generation of ATi has given me some trouble with drivers and compatibility.

This is some choice advice, Karl. Microdaft is for the worse without you.

Mirrormere · Post by **Mirrormere** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 1:16 am

Get as many USB ports as the thing will handle. Most peripherals run off of USB.

Post by **Kaylee** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 6:59 am

XP won't take USB memory sticks as RAM, when I said stick I meant stick of internal RAM. If the ventillation in your tower is bad you might consider getting a couple of extra fans. It'll be noisier but your PC will last longer.

Impactor returns 2.0 · Post by **Impactor returns 2.0** » Mon Sep 17, 2007 9:12 am

I dunno, I run these 120mm Noctunas (4 of them) in my new PC, they are super silent, in fact, I cant hear my PC...

Out of interest preads, how much cash u got to spend, sometimes its just worth hitting ebay and buying somthing there, £400 would get u something amazing.

Predabot · Post by **Predabot** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 4:41 pm

Impactor returns 2.0 wrote:I dunno, I run these 120mm Noctunas (4 of them) in my new PC, they are super silent, in fact, I cant hear my PC...

Out of interest preads, how much cash u got to spend, sometimes its just worth hitting ebay and buying somthing there, £400 would get u something amazing.

I'm planning on something like £420 yes!

But I ussually like to put together me own comp... I like the tinkering. ^^

I'll keep that in mind tho, Mark. =)

Impactor returns 2.0 · Post by **Impactor returns 2.0** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 8:40 pm

At that kind of price its hard to buy the bits yourself and beat the competition.
Id seriously recomend checking out some big ebay stores, u can buy some amazing hardware for about 400

Obfleur · Post by **Obfleur** » Tue Sep 18, 2007 8:46 pm

Komplett.se (swedish store) has "ready to build" computers.

Check this **** out.
It's like IKEA!
I'd hit it.

Predabot · Post by **Predabot** » Thu Oct 04, 2007 10:51 pm

Impactor returns 2.0 wrote:At that kind of price its hard to buy the bits yourself and beat the competition.
Id seriously recomend checking out some big ebay stores, u can buy some amazing hardware for about 400

eBay sounds more and more promising, I have to hit that up.

Obfleur wrote:Komplett.se (swedish store) has "ready to build" computers.

Check this sh*t out.
It's like IKEA!
I'd hit it.

That does indeed seem like something quite nice, ( except that Impy has said that the first run of DX10 cards are naff, and next run will be super-awesome)

Meanwhile, I'm thinking of this deal instead, but there's no vid-card in it:
http://www.komplett.se/k/ki.aspx?sku=323786

Impy, what would you say that the primary benefits would be if I bought a comp off of eBay compared to a packet-deal like the above?

EDIT: I think I may have found something amazing on GERMAN eBay!!

Mark, Karl. I simply MUST know what you think of this, and the seller in perticular? He seems to have some fine feedback.

http://cgi.ebay.de/KOMPLETT-PC-AMD-X2-6 ... dZViewItem

Impactor returns 2.0 · Post by **Impactor returns 2.0** » Thu Oct 04, 2007 11:14 pm

thats not bad, not sure of the Power supply, and I have heard bad things of those AMD chips to be honest, id deff go with a core duo if i had the choice, shouldnt cost any more.

Post by **Kaylee** » Fri Oct 05, 2007 8:28 am

Sounds alright- the mobo is a bit generic. I can't remember but I'm pretty sure my last AMD was an Athlon Dualcore X2 and I had a very good experience with it, but that was running on a more meaty motherboard.

In any case I'm sure it's fine if you don't plan to do anything ridiculously strenuous on it- i.e. a few games, a bit of Internet access and some word processing, as most people use their PCs for.

Tho a word of warning it doesn't look like it comes with an operating system. Make sure whatever you do, you do not install a 64Bit Windows OS. You will be regretting it from the time you do it until the time you remove it. I know from bitter experience

Stick to the 32Bit editions, it makes everything from driver support to random compatibility issues so much easier.

Impactor returns 2.0 · Post by **Impactor returns 2.0** » Fri Oct 05, 2007 11:38 am

I run XP64, its great for my work and ive not had any problems with it?

I admit, some of the applications I install require some creative management of the folders due to installation dir but otherwise its really solid.

On another note, I really like Vista

or somthing...

Post by **Kaylee** » Fri Oct 05, 2007 11:54 am

XP64 is great if you are able to get equipment with compatible drivers and stick with it. If (like me) you're a chopper-and-changer it is absolute hell. It's far more of a proof-of-concept OS (imo) than something I'd really want to use (certainly at home anyway).

Vista is much better but still suffers from a lack of drivers and dodgy compatibility (but again, depends what you're doing with it). That's not really Vista, it's the driver providers.

Impactor returns 2.0 · Post by **Impactor returns 2.0** » Fri Oct 05, 2007 1:20 pm

I guess im built my system with the knowledge that it worked with all things 64, and that all my software benifited from it too.

On the subject of vista, ive been keeping an eye onit, and I have all the drivers I need for my system ready and waiting now. I have an offical copy of Vista Ultra super duper 64, which I got for free, from MS, after some creative thinking on the XP64 upgrade options...

But untill all my cad software is Vista compatible, i wont be switching, id like to because I do like the look and feel of vista.

Post by **Kaylee** » Fri Oct 05, 2007 1:23 pm

I tried to do that when I ran XP 64 but it wasn't long before I was plugging stuff in that I'd got and found it wouldn't run

Vista has improved that quite a bit AFAIK but the driver manufacturers are still playing catchup- my friend runs a crossfire Radeon setup and running that through DirectX 10 for games was just a joke. I'm sure it'll get better though.

Good work on the Vista upgrade

MS are quite keen on that as it gets the new OS out there.

Predabot · Post by **Predabot** » Fri Oct 05, 2007 1:47 pm

That's some nice advice there lads.

Ok, sounds as if I might be buying a feeble mobo again, wich is something I desperately want to avoid once more.

Perhaps some info on a decent mobo? Thereby I can adjust my search a bit better. I'm guessing Asus is a fine brand? Or should I be looking for specific models?