Help me pick my new PC:)

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Rainband

#21 Postby Rainband » Sun Mar 07, 2004 7:55 pm

ColdFront77 wrote:My Windows XP only was very slow/freezing up in the first 30 hours I had it, December 17th and December 19th and I have 512 MB of RAM.

Speakers should work on any computer; as far as I know there is no such thing as them needing to be compatible.
I think it's because the sound and video are intergrated to the motherboard on the 2400 and therefore there is no sound card to adapt to?
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Stephanie
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#22 Postby Stephanie » Sun Mar 07, 2004 8:02 pm

My old PC was an IBM Aptiva which was okay. The onle I just bought in October is a Compaq Presario. I got it at Sam's Club for just under $600. I've had a Compaq Presario before, but after 3 years, the hard drive crashed. I invested in a new hard drive and then a year and a half later I bought the IBM.

People at work highly recommend the Dell. The website that Lindaloo gave you can help you "build" your own PC.
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Anonymous

#23 Postby Anonymous » Sun Mar 07, 2004 8:51 pm

Rainband -- good luck choosing your new PC.

I would recommend Dell or Gateway if you are looking for pre-built PC's... they seem to be more reliable than Compaq/HP.

Personally, I found that buying the individual parts online and putting the system together myself saved some dough and got me a pretty powerful computer. If you're interested in spending the time to do this, I'd recommend http://www.newegg.com and http://www.zipzoomfly.com as online retailers (these are great stores for all things computer-related).

I built my first system about a year and a half ago... it was an interesting experience, but not overly difficult. I have since built a new system for my parents, and about 6 months ago did a major overhaul of my own system :D. After you choose the parts and everything arrives, it only takes maybe 3 or 4 hours of work to get it up and running. Most of the assembly requires only common sense and little knowledge of how everything works behind-the-scenes. I'd be glad to help you choose parts if this is an option for you!

All that said, prices on pre-built PC's are not nearly as high as they were several years ago, so the money-saving factor isn't so big anymore when it comes to doing it yourself. Hope you enjoy your new system regardless of how it comes packaged! :)
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Anonymous

#24 Postby Anonymous » Sun Mar 07, 2004 9:01 pm

Forgot to mention my recommendation for system components/specs...

CPU: Pentium 4 w/ HyperThreading OR AMD Athlon 64 are the best available right now. Either will handle every piece of new software you can throw at it now, and probably still be decent 2-3 years from now. If you go with Pentium 4 look for clock speeds of at least 2.4GHz and be sure it has the "800MHz FSB" label. If you go the AMD route, any Athlon64 is quite nice, but there is also the older Athlon XP which is significantly cheaper... look for a rating of at least 2500+ with these.

RAM: Look for at least 512MB if you plan on running Windows XP. Anything less and you'll experience annoying delays with too many programs open at once. I upgraded from 512MB to 1GB and didn't notice a huge difference, so don't worry about getting more than 512 unless you find a good deal.

Hard Drive: Pretty much all new hard drives are more than large enough to accomidate the average user's needs... whether it's 80GB or 200GB isn't much of a factor since the only people who need more than about 30-40GB are those with tons of software (especially games) installed. I'd look for speed... go with 7200RPM at least, and preferably SATA (Serial ATA).

Video: Unless you watch DVD's and/or play games, not of much concern. For simple DVD-watching, make sure it's at least a 32MB AGP card (rather than the crappy integrated graphics chips on some motherboards).

Operating System: Windows XP or Windows 2000. I love XP and see no reason not to use it... it is essentially a more user-friendly version of Win2000 with all the stability and security.
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ColdFront77

#25 Postby ColdFront77 » Mon Mar 08, 2004 4:32 am

Rainband wrote:I think it's because the sound and video are intergrated to the motherboard on the 2400 and therefore there is no sound card to adapt to?

ColdFront77 wrote:My Windows XP only was very slow/freezing up in the first 36 hours I had it, very late on December 17th and the first
two-third of December 18th and I have 512 MB of RAM.

That may be the problem. Hopefully they work soon.

(Note: If anyone cares, I edited my post on the bottom of Page 1 of this thread; it is indicated in my quote being responded to above.) :)
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