Computer Science Canada

Building a computer this week
Author:  Martin [ Tue Apr 19, 2005 8:26 am ]
Post subject:  Building a computer this week
And another one of these threads. We need a new forum for them Wink.
Anyway, first off, unless someone finds me a 25% off coupon, I'm not buying a Mac.

Alright, the system I'm looking at right now (well, parts really) has the following in it:

XFX GeForce 6600 GT 128 mb
Chaintech VNF4 nForce4 motherboard
AMD64 3200+ processor
2 x 512mb Dual Channel Corsair PC3200 RAM
Maxtor 160GB 7200rpm/8mb cache HD
Hyundai L70N 17" LCD
Case and 400W PSU
Samsung DVD +/- RW

Right now, with some mail in rebates, it prices in at $1250 before tax. All of the prices are through tigerdirect.ca

Help me out here. The only real requirement is that it's an nVidia video card. Sorry ATI, maybe it's time to write some Linux drivers.
Author:  StarGateSG-1 [ Tue Apr 19, 2005 11:23 am ]
Post subject: 
Thats a nice computer i wish I had one like that except i would change a few custom things for myself. I would go with pentium because i like them better and I know more about them.
Author:  Martin [ Tue Apr 19, 2005 12:19 pm ]
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Yeah, I wouldn't mind a Pentium processor, but at this price range, the AMD one is just faster. Also, with Windows XP 64 bit edition *supposedly* around the corner, this would give a nice speed boost in the near future. Finally, although buggy, 64 bit linux is nice too.
Author:  Tony [ Tue Apr 19, 2005 12:21 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Building a computer this week
Martin wrote:
And another one of these threads. We need a new forum for them Wink

No we don't. I mean we do. But Dan will delete it. He doesn't like such things.
Author:  Martin [ Tue Apr 19, 2005 12:24 pm ]
Post subject: 
It's okay, I already fired Dan I think. Dan, are you still fired?
Author:  Blade [ Tue Apr 19, 2005 3:48 pm ]
Post subject: 
I'm getting a new one too.

- DFI LANPARTY NF4 SLI-DR MOTHERBOARD ATX S939 NFORCE4 SLI DDR 2PCI-E16 PCI-E4 PCI-E1 2PCI SATA
- SAMSUNG 193P 19IN LCD MONITOR 1280X1024 0.294MM 800:1 20MS SILVER ANALOG&DIGITAL
- PIONEER DVR-109 DVD-RW 16X6X16 DVD+RW 16X8X16 DUAL LAYER+-R 6X CDRW 40X24X40 INT IDE NO SW OEM
- AMD ATHLON 64 3500+ PROCESSOR S939
- eVGA E-GEFORCE 6800GT 256M TV-OUT & DVI PCI-E VIDEO CARD
- OCZ POWERSTREAM 520 WATT LOW NOISE POWER SUPPLY
- WD CAVIAR SE 250GB HARD DRIVE SATA HARD DRIVE 7200RPM 8MB CACHE
- OCZ DUAL CHANNEL OPTIMIZED PLATINUM 2X512MB DDR PC3200 HEAT SPREADER REV.2 CL 2-2-2-5

it came to roughly 3500$

no, i'm not rich, i'm workin my ass off in the CF(canadian forces, good money) right now, and i'm living at home so all the cash i get is 100% disposible
Author:  Martin [ Tue Apr 19, 2005 4:30 pm ]
Post subject: 
3500? Where're you getting it from?
Author:  Blade [ Tue Apr 19, 2005 8:43 pm ]
Post subject: 
most of my stuff iam getting from a place in london, ontario.. the stuff i cant get from there iam ordering off of ncix.com
Author:  Blade [ Tue Apr 19, 2005 8:49 pm ]
Post subject: 
k i just looked back at it and it came to exactly 3,163. but like i said, roughly, and at the time it was alittle more expensive for the stuff i was getting. waiting can benefit you in some areas
Author:  rizzix [ Tue Apr 19, 2005 8:52 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Building a computer this week
Martin wrote:
Anyway, first off, unless someone finds me a 25% off coupon, I'm not buying a Mac.
ooh wait wait... i have one.. Very Happy darn it.. shoot it expired four years ago.. Mad
Author:  Martin [ Thu Apr 21, 2005 8:20 am ]
Post subject: 
So umm, nobody sees anything that I'm missing or could do better with this one?
Author:  jamonathin [ Thu Apr 21, 2005 8:49 am ]
Post subject: 
Speakers in your chair?
Author:  Martin [ Thu Apr 21, 2005 9:08 am ]
Post subject: 
I've already got speakers and a mouse/keyboard.
Author:  MyPistolsIn3D [ Thu Apr 21, 2005 2:46 pm ]
Post subject: 
Go to a 19" monitor?
Author:  Martin [ Thu Apr 21, 2005 2:47 pm ]
Post subject: 
I thought about that, but that's $200 more and you're getting the same resolution. For the extra $200, I'd rather get a nicer video card. In any case, out of my budget.
Author:  [Gandalf] [ Thu Apr 21, 2005 2:50 pm ]
Post subject: 
It's pretty similar to my current one... One thing I would personally get is a bigger hdd. The two hardest things (surprisingly) that were hardest to buy were a case and the cpu... Good job on going Athlon/nVidia Smile.

Also, dont bother trying to get the beta or whatever edition of WinXP 64 Edition its not really worth it, just wait for it to be released...
Author:  Martin [ Thu Apr 21, 2005 2:57 pm ]
Post subject: 
Bigger than 160GB? Why?
Author:  md [ Thu Apr 21, 2005 4:08 pm ]
Post subject: 
It might be a good idea to see if you can get a couple of sata 80gb drives and raid them together (raid-0 ? the one with mirroring anyways...) If it's not much more expensive it'll help out quite a bit when you need to load big things into memory. The other thing is that I'd say go for more memory; you can never have enough memory... but 1 gig will probably do ya
Author:  Mazer [ Thu Apr 21, 2005 6:42 pm ]
Post subject: 
Have you considered looking for used monitors? I'm not saying you're going to find this all over the place with great results, but I've got a 19" Mitsubishi with a max resolution of 1600x1200 at 80Hz for $80. If you've already got a 17" I'd say it's fine, unless you want to go dual monitors or are upgrading from... 15" Confused
Author:  md [ Thu Apr 21, 2005 10:13 pm ]
Post subject: 
Yeah, dual monitors are definitly a good thing; if at all possible tow monitors that are the same are best though...

You might look into getting two 30" apple cinama displays it your really crazy Razz
Author:  wtd [ Thu Apr 21, 2005 10:14 pm ]
Post subject: 
With the prices on 17" LCDs, dual monitors is becoming a really appealing option.
Author:  Martin [ Thu Apr 21, 2005 10:20 pm ]
Post subject: 
In the future, yes, but right now it's still too expensive for me.
Author:  wtd [ Thu Apr 21, 2005 10:33 pm ]
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Yeah. It's just an increasingly affordable alternative to one bigger monitor. For instance, you could get two 17" LCDs and a good dual-head card for less than a 20" LCD.
Author:  Blade [ Thu Apr 21, 2005 11:38 pm ]
Post subject: 
i would probably consiter getting a mobo from a different manufacturer, like asus, abit, gigabyte, msi or even dfi. I bought a chaintech videocard and it was a piece of crap. i kept getting artifacts and other types of bad renders. it wasnt a heating issue cuz i didnt overclock it or anything. i returned it and got an msi geforce fx 5200 and put it in and it was fine. i also heard that XFX isn't the best videocard manufacturer as well. i read a few reviews at ncix.com about a couple of cards sold there and people were having problems. as for the ram, i dont know much about the corsair types but i havent heard anything bad about them. as for myself i prefer OCZ's EL edition because of the very good latency timings at high speeds. athlon loves low latency
Author:  Martin [ Sat Apr 23, 2005 11:28 am ]
Post subject: 
Well, turns out I won't need it for another two months. Hopefully that'll bring the price down a fair bit.
Author:  md [ Sat Apr 23, 2005 11:43 am ]
Post subject: 
Won't need it... what are you getting this system only for new games which come out during the summer? Confused
Author:  Andy [ Sat Apr 23, 2005 12:54 pm ]
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why would u ever use raid 1?? honestly.. how many times have your hard drive failed on you and pissed you so much that u now back up everyting you do? raid 0 "data stripping" is the way to go... almost twice the performance
Author:  wtd [ Sat Apr 23, 2005 12:58 pm ]
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For a gaming system, this time of year, I think you have to be insane to invest in a PC when new consoles are around the bend. Once they do arrive, you have about 3-5 years of guaranteed game compatibility without costly upgrades.
Author:  Martin [ Sat Apr 23, 2005 1:53 pm ]
Post subject: 
No, my mom wants my laptop, and I'd really like a desktop.

Besides, I'd go with PC gaming over console gaming any day.
Author:  md [ Sat Apr 23, 2005 3:45 pm ]
Post subject: 
Andy wrote:
why would u ever use raid 1?? honestly.. how many times have your hard drive failed on you and pissed you so much that u now back up everyting you do? raid 0 "data stripping" is the way to go... almost twice the performance


Er... actually mirroring increases performance of reads too... write are the same speed; and I have had drives fail on me, and lose all my work... just recently one did that, but since I keep backups now I didn't lose much

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