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| Thread ID: 33411 | 2003-05-15 09:48:00 | Which Machine to Buy? | Stevo (3797) | Press F1 |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 144491 | 2003-05-15 12:52:00 | Hi Keep to the name brand motherboards. Asus, Gigabyte or Intel. I would favour AMD with an Nforce chipset on 2 or 3 and leave out the vid cards and run grfx off the board to save some $$ for now. You won't lose anything/much on the graphics side and will give you a chance to save for a decent card if you think it necessary re type of apps you'll be running. Otherwise wait a while and go with an all Intel solution, once the wrinkles are ironed out. Cheers Murray P |
Murray P (44) | ||
| 144492 | 2003-05-16 01:28:00 | What about this one? AMD Athlon 2200+ w/AMD approved Ball Bearing Fan Ga-Barebones System with Gigabyte GA-7vax 256MB sdram x 2 = 512 MB DDR Ram 80GB ATA100 17" Monitor Digital Control OSD Pixelview Geforce 4 mx440 video card 1 . 44 FDD 48 x 16 x 48 x CD-Writer ATX Miditower Case Multi-media Keyboard Optical mouse 56 k modem 380W PMPO Multimedia Speaker Sound Card (onboard) Windows XP Home edition Price $ 1670 . 00 |
Stevo (3797) | ||
| 144493 | 2003-05-16 01:42:00 | Stevo, as you state that it's just normal business software and maybe a bit of internet/email use, then you won't need a good graphics card . Go for a good brand-name motherboard with onboard graphics instead . Use the money you save by not buying a graphics card to get a decent monitor, keyboard, and mouse since they'll be more important for if you use your computer a lot . Seeing you're working with CAD, then maybe a larger screen might be a good idea? |
somebody (208) | ||
| 144494 | 2003-05-16 02:14:00 | > Windows XP Home edition If you are going to use it for any business purposes, go for XP Professional or W2000 rather than home. Don't forget to check little things like how many USB ports it has (it's always handy to have at least two on the front). You may save time later by getting something with a network card also, should you need it in future. |
honeylaser (814) | ||
| 144495 | 2003-05-16 03:08:00 | Western Digital SE hard drives have a three year warranty, most of the other brands of consumer hard drives just have one. Just a mention cause reliability is important. |
Ron Bakker (356) | ||
| 144496 | 2003-05-16 04:11:00 | why not try a Soltek SL-75MRN-L, it has onboard video so theres no need for a vid card, but still has an AGP slot for future upgrades. Buy two DIMMS instead of one and use Dual Channel. Its build around the nForce 2 chipset its rock solid and fast. grab a Seagate Barracude IV 80gb nice and big and fast. There not the fastest on the market but should surfice. There 7200rpm + ATA100. You should have to pay more than $190 for one. The philips monitor and the ASUS CD-RW are good and well worth their price. are you buying the machine pre-built or building it yourself? consider building it urself its fun and easy and will save you cash. heres what i would build: Soltek SL-75MRN-L $245 AMD Athlon 2100XP+ $172 2x256MB DDR PC2700 RAM $139.5 Seagate Barracude 80gb HDD $190 ASUS 48x12x48 CD-RW $100 1.44mb FDD $30 Philips 107E4 $264.37 total: $1140.87 then just chuck in a case, keyboard, mouse, modem, speakers and OS that suit ur tastes and budget. looking at what u were considering paying that gives you about $500 to spend. |
Pete O'Neil (250) | ||
| 144497 | 2003-05-16 06:51:00 | Thanks Pete and everybody else for these great and helpful replies. No I wont be building it myself, I build houses, not computers. I am quite prepared to pay around $2000 for a good machine. I would prefer a separate graphics card even if its just so that I don't have to share my 512Mb with integrated graphics. I do not want to upgrade at a future date. I bought my last computer 2 years ago from a major PC COMPANY whose name I wont mention here using the "More Bang For Your Bucks" theory. I got the fastest computer money could buy for a very reasonable price BUT it has been back to the shop Too many times. Admittedly the repairs have been under warranty (I purchased a 2 year warranty) up until now but it has cost me around $200 in courier charges getting it back to Hamilton each time. Plus my monitor has been there for 3 weeks awaiting repair and still no sign of it. This time I will buy local and get good quality components (I HOPE) I have narrowed my choice down to the above 3 models so now I would like some EXPERTS to advise on which you would buy for my purposes. Thanks Stevo |
Stevo (3797) | ||
| 144498 | 2003-05-16 06:53:00 | Hey Pete. Just how hard is it to build? I'm no computer whizz kid but I can follow instructions Cheers Stevo | Stevo (3797) | ||
| 144499 | 2003-05-16 06:56:00 | I have the downgrade of the Gigabyte GA7VAXP Ultra, the GA7VAX1394, and haven't had any stability problems with it. Could just be a one off bad experience for you, Biff. | wintertide (1306) | ||
| 144500 | 2003-05-16 07:11:00 | Well my Soltek motherboard works well here. VIA chipset and fitted with a Athlon 2400+ CPU, 1 Gig Ram, two 60 Gig Seagate drives, LG CDWriter and LG DVD, 64Meg AGP X8 card and SoundBlaster live card. Running WinXP Pro It works for me. |
Elephant (599) | ||
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