Buying a new Computer, suggestions?

[Cichlisuite]

Originally Posted by Grona

You mean I can hook up 5.1 speakers to it right? ^^' I just use a splitter on my current rig and will probly use that for my phones

Yes, it supports up to 7.1. And i dont think a splitter will work on a mobo that supports 5.1 but with only 3 jacks.

[kree]

Originally Posted by Cichlisuite

That only applies for older mobo with an outdated bios, IDE controller and without SP1 of XP. Most mobos today can go well beyond the 137 gig barrier, then again all the hds i recommended he get are SATA, which are pretty much "immune" to that sort of thing.
From what i see Seagate and Hitachi now are the best bangs for the buck even though WD is a good buy.

Oh I understand the 137 barrier is broken, my only concern with the larger harddrives is in the case of reinstalling XP. after reinstalling you lose SP1 and from what I hear if data is written to the last sector of the harddrive XP has trouble working with the harddrive.

And does anyone know about the 'primary drive under 80GB 'rule? it appears most online shops also suggest getting a 76GB drive and adding a large backup for extra data.

[Kurz]

You could always make partitions to be less than 137 gigs. And just install it on that partition.

[Grona]

Anyone else have a opinion of the case, and the whole airflow issue?

[Cichlisuite]

Originally Posted by kree

Oh I understand the 137 barrier is broken, my only concern with the larger harddrives is in the case of reinstalling XP. after reinstalling you lose SP1 and from what I hear if data is written to the last sector of the harddrive XP has trouble working with the harddrive.

And does anyone know about the 'primary drive under 80GB 'rule? it appears most online shops also suggest getting a 76GB drive and adding a large backup for extra data.

If you get a SATA drive then you dont have to worry about it at all, the 137 barrier only applies to IDE.

Originally Posted by Grona

Anyone else have a opinion of the case, and the whole airflow issue?

Main reason i dislike the case is because of inadequate airflow going in to the case. A good case usually has 1 to 2 intake fans (some come with dust filters) with sufficent ventilation to take in that cool air. Normal cheap ATX cases usually dont have this, your lucky to get a internal fan mount with shitty ventilation.

[kree]

Shucks, I just lost a post,

Quick recap,

WaveOfFire Aha, great idea.

Cichlisuite, I see, I did not know that.

Grona, You could look into liquid coolant.
.

[Grona]

Originally Posted by kree

Shucks, I just lost a post,

Quick recap,

WaveOfFire Aha, great idea.

Cichlisuite, I see, I did not know that.

Grona, You could look into liquid coolant.
.

rofl, man I wish ~__~ I saw those little deleies that go on your processor and run to the rear fan, and they are all self contained. It looked neat.

I'm pissd now becase all of the cases that look like the have decent cooling all have doors on the front, and thats no good for me ><

[Cichlisuite]

The doors arent too bad, you get used to them after awhile. Some of the doors are lockable, and usually also have the side panel lockable as well. Just some piece of mind when you consider getting a good case with a door.

Another thing to consider when you get a good case is that they usually come with drive rails and or hard drive rails/ cages, unlike cheap cases in which you have to screw drives in through both sides of the case.

[NarutoHead]

bro don't get the parts like I did.

2 friends(just buy the parts its easy)

FREAKIN HEADACHE I thought the damn thing wouldn't work like 4 times and had about 6 heart attacks.

the whole "1k down the drain thing" flashed through my head plenty of times.

My 250GB hardrive with all my anime on there ended up melting/frying/breaking who knows but NOT WORKING through the process. So I'm out of $167 AND alot of Anime aswell.

I'm not even sure if this computer is running correctly. I mean it's a 3.2Ghz Pentium 4 I'd assume it would give me no lagg? That's not the truth.

If you are still not convinced atleast don't get the parts online no matter how cheap they are. Get them at a store like microcenter and make sure there is a 30 day warranty on them.

Ask them things like "what If i put it together and some part doesn't work?."

just don't make my mistake.

[Keitaro]

Originally Posted by NarutoHead

bro don't get the parts like I did.

2 friends(just buy the parts its easy)

FREAKIN HEADACHE I thought the damn thing wouldn't work like 4 times and had about 6 heart attacks.

the whole "1k down the drain thing" flashed through my head plenty of times.

My 250GB hardrive with all my anime on there ended up melting/frying/breaking who knows but NOT WORKING through the process. So I'm out of $167 AND alot of Anime aswell.

I'm not even sure if this computer is running correctly. I mean it's a 3.2Ghz Pentium 4 I'd assume it would give me no lagg? That's not the truth.

If you are still not convinced atleast don't get the parts online no matter how cheap they are. Get them at a store like microcenter and make sure there is a 30 day warranty on them.

Ask them things like "what If i put it together and some part doesn't work?."

just don't make my mistake.

Bummer...

When you buy computer parts online you take a huge risk. That's why I recommend first time builders to buy the parts at your local cheapest computer store if they can before ordering online. Because it’s much easier to get customer service and return merchandise if you f*uck up something. As with online ordering it’s much harder to return merchandise and they sometimes charge you a restocking fee and shipping at your expense for returns. I order online mainly because the parts are cheaper then the local computer shops here and I know exactly what I'm getting. If you still want to order online then I suggest you do lots of research on the parts your buying. I've found Newegg.com to be the best place to buy computer parts. I also find newegg's product reviews very helpful when deciding on which parts to purchase.

[Grona]

Originally Posted by Keitaro

Bummer...

When you buy computer parts online you take a huge risk. That's why I recommend first time builders to buy the parts at your local cheapest computer store if they can before ordering online. Because it’s much easier to get customer service and return merchandise if you f*uck up something. As with online ordering it’s much harder to return merchandise and they sometimes charge you a restocking fee and shipping at your expense for returns. I order online mainly because the parts are cheaper then the local computer shops here and I know exactly what I'm getting. If you still want to order online then I suggest you do lots of research on the parts your buying. I've found Newegg.com to be the best place to buy computer parts. I also find newegg's product reviews very helpful when deciding on which parts to purchase.

Ahh, once again, I'm not ordering from any place in the US, I'll be sure to check the reviews though.

Why are people relutant to build their own? It isnt like its hard to check if you have the right connectors on your PSU, or the right type or clockspeed of memory, or the right motherbord from your processor ^^'

[_Sin_]

Originally Posted by Grona

Ahh, once again, I'm not ordering from any place in the US, I'll be sure to check the reviews though.

Why are people relutant to build their own? It isnt like its hard to check if you have the right connectors on your PSU, or the right type or clockspeed of memory, or the right motherbord from your processor ^^'

It's just that you can return a broken part (which broke because you screwed up or because it was already broken) immediately and get an exchange part for it.

BTW: Didn't you like the case I was suggesting? It got a nice airflow and looks cool

[Grona]

Originally Posted by _Sin_

It's just that you can return a broken part (which broke because you screwed up or because it was already broken) immediately and get an exchange part for it.

BTW: Didn't you like the case I was suggesting? It got a nice airflow and looks cool

heh, I am so unsure of the case thing, I dont know what I'm doing yet >__<

[kree]

Originally Posted by Grona

Why are people relutant to build their own? It isnt like its hard to check if you have the right connectors on your PSU, or the right type or clockspeed of memory, or the right motherbord from your processor ^^'

Personally I dislike mounting the CPU. A small mistake will leave me 400 dollars poorer. With a company built machine they could destroy 20 parts trying to put my machine together and it will not cost me a dime more.

Although it is true you can get broken parts replaced at no cost, I am reluctant to see how far the 'accidental' damage clause in the warranty will get me. I do not always recieve the full goodwill from companies.

[Kurz]

Well if you google and ask around for advice it aint too hard.

[kree]

I might have to on my next computer. The cases that come with pre-built machines are so useless, I might as well built a machine from scratch instead of trying to get the case to work with my needs.

[Cichlisuite]

Originally Posted by kree

Personally I dislike mounting the CPU. A small mistake will leave me 400 dollars poorer.

Mounting a cpu is pretty easy, all you need to do is line up the arrows and put it into the socket. The part that is the hardest and scariest is mounting the heatsink/fan >.<

[Kurz]

Yea alot of care is needed when putting on a heat sink.

I have a link give a bit to find it.

[_Sin_]

I've mounted the heatsink/fan about many times now and it sill freaks me out

[navi432001]

If your a big gamer buy a AlienWare Area-51 ALX

Intel® Pentium® 4
Extreme Edition @ 3.8GHz Processor

Microsoft Windows
XP Professional Edition operating system

1GB Dual Channel DDR2
PC-4300 SDRAM at 533MHz memory

148GB Western Digital
10,000 RPM RAID 0 Hard Drive

Nvidia GeForce
6800 Ultra 256mb DDR3 Graphics card

Creative Sound Blaster
Audigy2 ZS High Definition Sound card

My dream machine :-(