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Thread ID: 121594 2011-11-02 00:05:00 Build your own desktop PC tinakarori (5695) Press F1
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1241374 2011-11-02 04:11:00 And if you get a mobo with firewire on it, MAKE SURE you dont connect a front USB connection to a firewire header on the mobo. Or you'll be buying another mobo

:thumbs: Builder damage or lack of knowledge is not covered by any warranty. Seen it happen a few times, people build a new PC, hit the power button -- the smoke comes out -- :xmouth: Opps - dont go at all now.
wainuitech (129)
1241375 2011-11-04 03:30:00 Many thanks to all of you for your helpful responses to my query, and I am encouraged by the generally positive comments. tinakarori (5695)
1241376 2011-11-04 05:05:00 Nobody has suggested you could have a look at the series of 'how to build' in recent issues of Australian P C magazines. Wellington Public Library has these. PENTIUM (426)
1241377 2011-11-07 07:29:00 Thanks for the info, Pentium - will take a look at the series as ap. tinakarori (5695)
1241378 2011-11-07 08:28:00 TBH any of the cheapest PC's from your office supplies places will romp through your "heavy duty" excel stuff and a bit of web surfing. You'll save yourself a lot of time (assuming your time is worth something) and possible aggravation.
You will also have a warranty to fall back on if required.

... Unless, of course, you are doing it for fun rather than profit. :)
fred_fish (15241)
1241379 2011-11-10 03:08:00 I sort of understand what you are saying about "any of the cheapest PC's from your office supplies places will romp through your "heavy duty" excel stuff", but in my experience a reasonable PC specification and performance is needed to run large Excel wordbooks, together with other open applications, at an acceptable speed and without something stalling. The more so because I have the common accountant's habit of having several workbooks open at once, and switching frequently between them, and other open apps such as Word, Outlook, etc etc. Given this, what would you regard as a "good" PC specification for the job? tinakarori (5695)
1241380 2011-11-10 03:11:00 I sort of understand what you are saying about "any of the cheapest PC's from your office supplies places will romp through your "heavy duty" excel stuff", but in my experience a reasonable PC specification and performance is needed to run large Excel wordbooks, together with other open applications, at an acceptable speed and without something stalling. The more so because I have the common accountant's habit of having several workbooks open at once, and switching frequently between them, and other open apps such as Word, Outlook, etc etc. Given this, what would you regard as a "good" PC specification for the job?

Just about any old crap will run that, Its not even slightly taxing.

In my experience office PC's run like pigs because they are set up badly, and in some cases their techs are just twats and don't know how to get em to run, or its money for them to keep them crappy.
Metla (12)
1241381 2011-11-10 19:12:00 Speaking of work PC's, I saw one in the ASB @ Otahuhu the other day. It looks like its used to get access to Fastnet, or whatever they use. A window on the screen, saying it was running out of virtual memory lol. You would think, since its in a bank, they could afford to put a computer there (with enough memory) to run it. It probably runs like a snail Speedy Gonzales (78)
1241382 2011-11-12 07:27:00 I agree with Fred Fish and Metla. The Office apps do not require much grunt at all. My old P3-500MHz can blaze through any Office stuff I do.

If you like to leave all your apps open then simply get loads of RAM, but you sure don't need a beefy processor. I keep this machine underclocked for all but gaming.

The most taxing of all the tasks you mentioned is internet usage, and if it wasn't for all the Java applets using resources then even that would be trivial for even an old computer.

Course with online access comes the need for security apps - firewalls and antivirus, so there's another performance hit... particularly if you use Nortons!
Paul.Cov (425)
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