Building a New Computer

 
grumpy
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Post by grumpy » Wed. Feb. 10, 2010 6:02 pm

matlock wrote:dont waste your time go with a mac book.
I wont go back to any windows machine.
I just installed windows 7 on a friends computer today and compared to apples os I would still run a apple.
Just my opinion
Matt
Can someone say baro.... yeah once you go Mac... I'll never ever have a windows PC again. I used to know a lot about computers. I don't anymore, why because mine works all the time so I don't need to know anymore.

My powerbook G4 is going on year seven, I could not be happier.

 
Viperhawke
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Post by Viperhawke » Thu. Feb. 11, 2010 1:19 am

Ahh, thus you also don't make money off of computers. lol

 
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Post by Rob R. » Fri. Feb. 12, 2010 8:22 am

Viperhawke wrote:My advice as an IT Professional and avid gamer is...
Now I'm not going to be pushing HP for any reason other than their customer support is awesome, something Dell's support USED to be. Thus I'm now supporting HP.

Try getting an HP desktop, something with a nice processor (usually the most difficult part to upgrade) and whatever nice features you like on it, BUT don't spring for extra memory or other things YOU can upgrade yourself. You have the experience and ability to be able to upgrade those as you wish later and at a much better price. You'll be covered by HP's great warranty service for at least the first year and you get interesting little bells and whistles you won't be able to get in such a clean package if you build your own. I personally do just that, use HP machines or cases and build on from there. Its overall cheaper for me and I have a brand name behind the machines I sell my clients.
I have had excellent luck with HP desktops as well. I've even bought a few used desktops for <$100 and upgraded them with additional ram, faster/larger hard drive, and a DVD writer; they make excellent PC's for basic use.

My main PC at home is a HP xw8200 workstation that I bought used. What a beast, it has two 3.2 ghz Xeon processors and 8 gigs of ram, even came with a SCSI drive. I run Mint linux on it and enjoy having a fast, quiet PC.


 
Viperhawke
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Post by Viperhawke » Fri. Feb. 12, 2010 8:19 pm

See...I'm not alone... lol

 
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tvb
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Post by tvb » Fri. Feb. 12, 2010 8:42 pm

I'm running with an old (2003) HP Pavilion a350n that back then came with a 2.80 GHz Pentium 4 processor. A year ago I upgraded to 2 gig RAM. It's quiet and it's been trouble free for 7 years and still faster than some new things on the market. I only wish the processor could handle HD video but it's a great internet machine and good for the kids until they discover gaming.

I'm seriously considering a new HP 5380 for a HTPC set-up but wish it were a bit smaller along the lines of the new Dell Zino.

 
Viperhawke
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Post by Viperhawke » Fri. Feb. 12, 2010 8:46 pm

You can always pull the guts and place them into a custom case.


 
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e.alleg
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Post by e.alleg » Tue. Mar. 09, 2010 12:56 am

my HP is a 552w. It runs quiet, the power supply fan quit a couple years ago but it was an easy fix. The 30gb hard drive it came with started making me nervous so I swapped that out, the integrated grafix sucked that was an easy fix with a pci card, the memory it came with was a joke 128k or something ridiculous I put in 512 right away and then 2GB when the price dropped. The HP CD drives don't last (all were LG) I change mine or start tapping the door to make it work every year at least. I put in a Light-ON unit DVD/RW from newegg we'll see how long this one lasts. Next up is a 2.0 USB card thanks viperhawke for the tip.

BTW if you want old school my toughbook is in the classified section. Pentium III, 800 Mhz, takes like 5 minutes to boot up. Unstoppable machine, has a carry handle and magnesium case. The state police paid like $7500 each for them back in 2000. :lol:

My wife has a Compaq Presario desktop circa 2004, maybe 2005. The fan sounds like a hair dryer on high 40% of the time and a hair dryer on low 20% of the time, the other 40% of the time it sounds like the McDonalds hand dryer machine. Even sitting idle with no programs it kicks on and WOOOOSHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!! what a piece of junk I'll be happy when it breaks. It's also slow for what the specs are and it was slow from day 1. Bad design, that's all I can think of.

 
Viperhawke
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Post by Viperhawke » Thu. Mar. 18, 2010 12:43 am

Glad I could help.

I'm not sure about the old toughbook...I run a 2.53Ghz Quad core laptop...and I'm not rough on these machines physically anyway.

That old compaq has a software issue causing such high idle speeds unless its so full of dust that its trying to keep cool. Most likely some spyware/adware or svchost.exe is having its memory leak...an issue on windows XP machines. Go to task manager via Ctrl-Alt-Del and see what process is taking the most CPU time...that's your culprit.

Let me know if I can be of any more assistance.

-Fahad

 
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Post by wilder11354 » Sun. Apr. 10, 2011 2:50 pm

Just built, asus MB m4n75td SLI ready, AMD PhenomII x4 955 Deneb Blk edition 3.2G CPU, corsair ballistix DDR3 12800 2g sticks x4, Corsair HX modular 650w bronze PU, EVGA 01gP31450TR GeForceGTS 450 Fermi 1GB PCIExpress2.0x16HDCP SLI video,Asus sata 24xdvd/cd burner/reader, WD 1TB blk caviar HD, OS W7 64 bit Premium OEM. Reused case I had laying around with its aux cooling fan.went together easy, ran MEM-test 86 before even installing OS, pass with flying colors, installed OS, upgraded all drivers on internet, and updated OS. So far have $550 in hardware, and software, and its fast. Haven't seen anything at any Big Box stores, or internet that offers anything close for less than $950. so I am happy. ASUS I beleive builds some of the better MBs out there, last one was custom built 10 years ago, ASUS A7A 326 MB, never had a problem with it other than newer software requires faster CPUS and bigger rams.

Anyone needs a cheap desktop for whatever??, the asus A7A 266, amd 850hz duron, 1024 ram desktop is available, takes up to 2GB DDR ram and Amd cpus up to the thunderbird class. 1.2>1.8G, includes 2 lite on cd burners/writers, PS, &floppy. NO HD its in this new computer for files on it. Just don't need it anymore, and hate to toss something that works. XP OS is what I ran in it. Just pay for shipping its yours.

 
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Horace
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Post by Horace » Mon. Apr. 11, 2011 11:50 am

I used to build all my computers. Remember setting the jumpers to match the voltage of the CPU? Scary stuff if you got that one wrong. Jumperless motherboards sort of took the fun out of it. But, if you can hook up a surround-sound system, you can easily build a PC.

When my last computer was on its last legs, I broke down and got an Acer from Newegg. Fantastic machine. I've had it for nearly three years and, after upgrading the video card, I see no reason to replace it. Intel 2.4G quad core, 4G ram, 320G HD, DVD reader/burner with lightscribe, multi card reader. At the time, a fairly good machine (except the on-board graphics) that I think I got for less than $400. I've since added a second 500G hard drive.

I've always felt that PCs slow down over time because of software installations. For instance, Nero and some other burning software add a whole host of services that eat system memory with very little benefit. At one time, both Nero and Vista ( :sick: ) were indexing my hard drives. Unnecessary. I got rid of Nero, turned off indexing, and use Imgburn to burn everything. I have two printers, both of which ran services in the background. I turned all of them off and reclaimed my memory (and I can still print).

As a favor, I helped someone with a PC. They had so many services running that they had no memory left. Older machine, running XP, but all the memory was the swap file. We shut everything off and it was like a new machine ... well, new as in as fast as when they bought it.

Sorry, got off topic. Building a PC is fun if you have the time. But, since the computer manufacturers can't prey on the ignorance of the users any longer, the price differential has tightened a bit.

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