Topic: Non wants to buy a computer
started by: Non
Posted by Non on Jun. 01 2002,05:13
I am going off to college this fall and I am going to buy a computer; the problem is, I have limited funds.I am thinking something like a 1.3 Ghz, 128megs SDRAM, 20 gig HD, CDRW drive, 17" monitor. Since I only have like $800 to spend I don't think I can get a DVD drive or a Video Card with TV out
. If you guys have any suggestions on where to buy it or what specs I should be focused on I would really appreciate it.I intend to use it mainly for making CD's and I was thinking of hooking it up to my amp and use it as a Stereo. I would like to be able to plays DVD's and hook it up to my TV, but that prolly won't happen. It will be hooked up to a T1.
Posted by editor on Jun. 01 2002,05:39
Interesting, I would think this would be in the Geek Forum...I read yesterday that the prices of chips was dropping so in about a month,..... go for it.
I was pleasantly surprised with XP when I found out I can burn disks with one mouse click instead of 5-8 and dragNdrop.
Standalone DVDRWs are running 450$ right now so that isn't going to happen...
I would be very interested in ghosting the HDD with a second one; you know you won't regret it later....
Check and see about USB 2.0 for your puter too!
My experience in LA is that Dell and Gateway have good service and eMachine offers quite a bit for the money, but I don't know about the service compared to the other two.
Local to LA is www.outpost.com and they have good deals and I think they ship outside of LA.
Sorry I'm too lazy right now to do the link for you.
Posted by editor on Jun. 01 2002,05:43
< This one works, check the price with monitor. >
Posted by Dysorderia on Jun. 01 2002,06:29
| Quote (Non @ 01 June 2002,00:13) |
| I am going off to college this fall and I am going to buy a computer; the problem is, I have limited funds. I am thinking something like a 1.3 Ghz, 128megs SDRAM, 20 gig HD, CDRW drive, 17" monitor. Since I only have like $800 bucks to spend I don't think I can get a DVD drive or a Video Card with TV out . If you guys have any suggestions on where to buy it or what specs I should be focused on I would really appreciate it.I intend to use it mainly for making CD's and I was thinking of hooking it up to my amp and use it as a Stereo. I would like to be able to plays DVD's and hook it up to my TV, but that prolly won't happen. It will be hooked up to a T1. |
| Quote (NeoComputers @ neocomputersdotcom) |
SYSTEM PRICE $759.19 AMD DURON PROCESSORS AMD ATHLON 1.3GHZ 266MHZ PROCESSOR $80.50 CPU FANS COOLER MASTER DP5-6131A CPU FAN $9.50 SOCKET A MOTHERBOARDS FIC AD11XP DDR SOCKET A MOTHERBOARD $70.15 DDR MEMORY 128MB PC2100 DDR MEMORY $22.80 IDE HARD DRIVES MAXTOR 20GB ULTRA 100 HARD DRIVE $72.25 CD-RW DRIVE LITE-ON 32X12X40 CD-RW DRIVE $84.00 AGP CARDS ATI EXPERT 2000 32MB VIDEO CARD $39.00 SOUND CARD 32 BIT SOUND CARD PCI $14.00 NETWORK CARD EDIMAX 10/100 ETHERNET ADAPTER PCI $14.00 FLOPPY DRIVES 1.44 MB FLOPPY DRIVE $14.00 MID TOWER CASES EVERCASE MIDTOWER CASE 250W ATX $49.00 KEYBOARDS CHICONY INTERNET KEYBOARD PS2 $11.00 MICE MITSUMI 2 BUTTON SCROLL MOUSE $7.00 OPERATING SYSTEMS MICROSOFT WINDOWS 98 SECOND EDITION OEM $99.00 SPEAKERS MIDILAND MLI452 6 PIECE SURROUND SYSTEM $34.00 MONITOR NEO D1770 17" MONITOR $138.99 |
::edit::editor's is cheaper, but this has more good stuff and less crap(56k modem, integrated video et cetera)
Posted by Non on Jun. 01 2002,07:16
Editor's is more what I am looking for."EMachines T1600 AMD Athlon™ 1.4GHz/40GB/256MB/CDRW/56K/NIC/XP"
Price: $ 624.99
After Rebate: $ 549.99
I like the 256MB PC2100 RAM and it has XP. It's got a nice sized HDD too. Most importantly even with a good monitor I can still aford it.
Posted by Bozeman on Jun. 01 2002,15:08
DON'T BUY AN HP!Seriously, mine crashes daily. Get a Dell, or beter yet, an alienware! That is, if you have that kind of cash.
Posted by PersonGuy on Jun. 01 2002,16:51
| Quote (Bozeman @ 31 May 2002,23:08) |
| Get a Dell, or beter yet, an alienware! That is, if you have that kind of cash. |
MY ALIENWARE COMPUTER ARRIVED ON MY DOORSTEP YESTERDAY! I'M USING IT RIGHT NOW! 19" MONITOR! GForce3with64cashe! SoundBlasterAudigy! 1.8GHz! I'M HAPPY!
Posted by compact3000 on Jun. 01 2002,18:29
DONT GET WINDOWS XP!!! Get a dell or something... i wouldent get a gateway because they usally crash more often and i think they collect more dust for some reasion... windows XP is its own platform insted of DOS and since its like the first microsoft OS without dos there are a lot of bugs and it is not compatable with most things. I perfer Windows 98 second edition... winMe and 2000 are also ok... get like at least a 15 gig hard drive and 128 ram... i dont see too much diffrence of the memory over 300... a pentium 3 and 4 are mostly the same... i would get a 17 inch moniter. But if you go and do the custimize desktop thing on the dell4me.com place they only like allow you to get windows XP and the newist stuph... and dont get one of those congo things where they have like extremely cheap computers and if theres something wrong with it they replace it with an old one and you dont have any stuff on it at all... and their "upgrades" are a new computer that someone brought in and they formatted it and installed a new version of windows or something...
Posted by kuru on Jun. 01 2002,18:58
XP isn't the 'first Microsoft OS without DOS'.Windows NT never did run on top of DOS, it existed completely without it. It does, however, have a DOS emulator to do certain DOS-type operations, which some people confuse for it actually having DOS.
But shit, get your facts straight.
Posted by editor on Jun. 01 2002,19:08
In XP, goto windows start/run enter "command" without quotes
and you're in the DOS emulator.
Posted by just_dave on Jun. 01 2002,19:32
| Quote (editor @ 01 June 2002,02:08) |
| In XP, goto windows start/run enter "command" without quotes and you're in the DOS emulator. |
just "cmd" if your lazy like me ....
dave
Posted by editor on Jun. 01 2002,19:39
Cool, I have learned a new thing! Thanks.
Posted by liquid metal on Jun. 01 2002,19:52
| Quote (compact3000 @ 01 June 2002,13:29) |
| DONT GET WINDOWS XP!!! Get a dell or something... i wouldent get a gateway because they usally crash more often and i think they collect more dust for some reasion... windows XP is its own platform insted of DOS and since its like the first microsoft OS without dos there are a lot of bugs and it is not compatable with most things. I perfer Windows 98 second edition... winMe and 2000 are also ok... get like at least a 15 gig hard drive and 128 ram... i dont see too much diffrence of the memory over 300... a pentium 3 and 4 are mostly the same... i would get a 17 inch moniter. But if you go and do the custimize desktop thing on the dell4me.com place they only like allow you to get windows XP and the newist stuph... and dont get one of those congo things where they have like extremely cheap computers and if theres something wrong with it they replace it with an old one and you dont have any stuff on it at all... and their "upgrades" are a new computer that someone brought in and they formatted it and installed a new version of windows or something... |
breathe in...breathe out...
use a paper bag if need be
now jump into a river.
tks.
Win xp is a wonder, I am running it right now. I had a 2 week uptime on a GATEWAY until yesterday when we had a brown out and the machine rebooted.
everything you said after "win xp is it's own platform..." makes absolutely no sense. please show us your "facts"
Posted by Wiley on Jun. 01 2002,22:59
My XP box doesn't reboot ...ever! Always runs good. The only problem I have ever had was with a scanner that has no XP drivers. It depends a lot of what hardware you run it on and then what kind of crappy ass programs you try and load onto the OS. My suggestion is to always go with parts made by somebody who is on the Harware Compatability List given out by Microsoft ...you will have way less problems. That means Do Not Buy A Cheap Ass Motherboard From China With Drivers Written By A Highschool Student!!. And don't install ever piece of crap freeware program you find and expect it not to fux0r up your PC.
Posted by CatKnight on Jun. 02 2002,00:51
windows 2000 is more stable, faster, and less buggy. My uptime was 24 days until a thunderstorm power surge rebooted me. XP is nice but there are too many small odd bugs that piss me off.my dream system (upgrading towards it now):
geforce4 4600: $300
athlon xp 1800: $100
512 megs pc2700 ram: $150
kt333 motherboard: $100
60 gig maxtor hard drive: $100
16x dvd: $50
8x cdr: $50
santa cruz sound card: $50
case with psu: $100
speakers: $150
keyboard, mouse, nic, modem, fans, etc: $50
17" LCD: $500
total: $1200 + $500 = $1700
good deal system:
geforce4 mx: $100
athlon xp 1800: $100
256 pc2100 ram: $35
kt266a motherboard: $75
40 gig hard drive: $75
case: $50
dvd drive: $50
cdr drive: $50
accessories: $50
17" crt monitor: $150
total: $535 + $150 = $685
Posted by Wiley on Jun. 02 2002,02:36
| Quote (CatKnight @ 01 June 2002,16:51) |
| windows 2000 is more stable, faster, and less buggy. My uptime was 24 days until a thunderstorm power surge rebooted me. |
I agree that Win2K is the most stable of all the MS opperating systems. And actually 24 days is nothing, I've seen Win2K go for over a year without rebooting. My webserver that is running my site < (This little Dell 350 pizza box server) > has been going for about six months since I last rebooted it. It is fed conditioned power and kept at a cool 50°f at all times ...that helps a bit.
But I think XP has a lot of features that make it a worthwhile install. (fresh install!!!! never upgrade to XP!!!
I have a lot of strange shit plugged into my XP box that never conflict and I store all my data on external firewire drives that XP never drops. The RDP protocal is greatly inproved in XP and runs my Win2K desktops just as fast as if I were in front of the Win2K box. Personal firewall and increased TCP/IP security is a plus for the overly paranoid and video runs smoother for me on XP then it did when this box was 2K, thanks to better use of DirectX. I would cast my vote for XP as a home system ...Win2K as a server.
Posted by editor on Jun. 02 2002,02:53
Win2k was missing a lot of drivers.WinXP just missed the scanner.
Who said that?
Posted by CatKnight on Jun. 02 2002,06:08
my only beefs with XP are 1) that it likes to spontaneously disable dma mode for my cd drives, just because it is getting errors, which are due to scratches on the discs. the only way to reenable is to reinstall the ide controller, which is a minor pain to do every other day (and it also forces me to have to reboot). 2) the funky mouse acceleration that really throws me off in games, 3) the bugs in tweakXP such as the sticky mouse bug, that just irks me, and 4) toolbars and window sizes like to revert to the defualt (or some random) position for no reason, every single time.
Posted by Wiley on Jun. 02 2002,09:09
Straw Poll - This was just taken out of my server log ....last 7 days
Seems that the most popular OS by far is 2000 or XP ...the script that collects this information doesn't know the difference. Linux is sure sucking ass though.
Posted by WrineX on Jun. 03 2002,13:21
| Quote (CatKnight @ 01 June 2002,22:08) |
| the funky mouse acceleration that really throws me off in games, |
WrineX has the < *fix* >
finally you're able to play QII normally
Posted by seph on Jun. 03 2002,21:53
if your on a budget build your own.. seriouslymy specs
1.1ghz duron
Radeon 8500 64meg DDR
1gig DDR pc2600
2x40gig Quantum 7200RPM drives
430watt PSU
19" Monitor
totaled about $720
Posted by CatKnight on Jun. 04 2002,01:24
All of the mouse bug fixes that I have found just disable mouse acceleration completely, which is not what I want. I want the windows 2000 style mouse accleration to work in XP and in games. if that is fixed, maybe I will consider going back on next format.