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02/23/2007 01:21:18 AM · #26 |
Ill post more when I get a chance, there is a write up in the March 2007 MaximumPC page 20. There doesnt seem to be any clear answer other than they didnt pay alot of bills for one reason or another...
-dave
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02/23/2007 02:16:41 AM · #27 |
Originally posted by Nikolai1024:
Originally posted by Olyuzi:
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You may want to stay away from Vista for at least a year to give them time to work the kinks out.
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no kinks.. I use it and love it .. still can't belive it |
Ditto, its sweet... I upgraded a few of my home pewters a couple weekends ago. (2) Vista Ultimates on XP Pro machines and (1) Home Premium on top of a WinXP MCE 2005 rig.
Code is clean, way faster than the betas. Amazingly with what is added mine are faster than with XP (no hardware upgrades, just slapped it on top)...
If you are doing a fresh build, I think it wise to go Vista if you can swing it... but also know it is not cheap... I dropped a little over $500 for my (3) upgrades |
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02/23/2007 07:36:01 AM · #28 |
the Intel E6600 2.13Ghz is the best bang for buck, with the right mobo (i use Asus) can easily overclock on stock cooling to 3.1Ghz
then you'll want 2GB RAM min..
500W PSU (no cheap pap)
HDD etc is up2 your budget really.. :) |
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02/23/2007 09:12:13 AM · #29 |
| I recommend getting an Asus brand motherboard. My experience of them is that they are rock solid performers. Don't skimp on the power supply either. Good wattage is a nice starting point, but make sure it puts out enough voltage, particularly on the 12V lines for those SLId PCI-E cards to draw on. The Enermax Liberty for example. |
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02/23/2007 09:23:04 AM · #30 |
| I usually have good things to say about Asus, but lately, I've been having nothing but trouble. Early versions of the P5B bios has buggy sleep code, and Vista workstations do all kinds of weird sleep-related things on them. The RAID controllers just don't work without a lot of fooling around. Recently, I obliterated a motherboard trying to flash the BIOS in the most mundane way. Even the "crash free" BIOS was wiped away. I've gone to Intel. |
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02/23/2007 03:57:42 PM · #31 |
Louis, thanks for the advice, most of the BB systems I've been looking at are ASUS based.
Anyone else having issues with them?
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02/23/2007 04:13:07 PM · #32 |
i've built three machines with ASUS boards. i'll say i personally am not a fan. last one built being a couple years ago - so... but i found them glitchy...
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02/23/2007 04:28:52 PM · #33 |
| They used to be top notch, but I think Asus got some dell contracts, and was forced to cut corners. I have had good luck with msi when I build AMD machines. |
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02/23/2007 05:30:41 PM · #34 |
Originally posted by fotomann_forever:
Louis, thanks for the advice, most of the BB systems I've been looking at are ASUS based.
Anyone else having issues with them? |
I've not had any issues with them on AMD platforms. Not much experience on the Intel side as I've mostly gone AMD since their XP+ cpu's. Core 2 Duo has me looking in Intel's direction, though.
Abit/MSI/Gigabyte all make fine boards as well.
Core 2 Duo is certainly leading the pack now. However, AMD 64 X2 is still a great value. That said, the Core 2 Duo E4300 would get you into that upgrade path without spending an arm and a leg. It may be low cpu on the core 2 duo totem pole, but, it's so much faster than what you have it'd probably have you grinning ear to ear. |
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02/23/2007 06:48:16 PM · #35 |
I used to buid my own pc's but the budget systems now are so upgradeable that thats the route I choose last time.
I got an emachine and at the time was almost emmbaressed to buy it, but after I added an ATI PCI-Express video card and another gig of ram, I couldnt have built a machine nearly as good from scratch for this price.
Check out this one for example--
820 Desktop
Add a nice video card, for under 200 bucks like something from ati's "X" series and throw in more ram and bam prolly 800 or so bucks for a very nice desktop.. |
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02/23/2007 07:09:01 PM · #36 |
I just bought an HP system with and AthlonX2 4200, 2GbRAM, and a 250Gb SATA drive pre-loaded with WinXP-MCE. It was on clearance at Walmart for $500. You might check them out, because they're switching out all the XP pc's for Vista stuff. Makes for some great clearance deals.
edit - No monitor, keyboard, or mouse, but I don't want a cheap piece-o-crap LCD anyways.
Message edited by author 2007-02-23 19:10:09. |
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02/24/2007 01:44:34 AM · #37 |
Ive been building with Asus boards for the past 5+ years unless I'm building a Xeon server then I use Supermicro and Ive been having good luck with Tyan for my Opteron servers but those two are prob way overkill for what you want...
I have prob built around 100+ machines since 1990 that Ive build and or configured for my self or other people/businesses, so heres a short list of what I tend to use as I hate dealing with warranties so I find the most reliable equipment I can.
PSU - Enermax or Antec
main boards - Asus (for normal desktops) or Supermicro (Intel)and Tyan (AMD) for Servers
Hard Drives - Western Digital only
Video - Nvidia chipsets only - usually eVGA video cards(eVGA is the Brand name ;)
Sound - sound blaster - but only if the onboard sound realy sucks
Cases - Coolermaster or Lian-Li
Ram - Corsair (or if your on a budget Micron or Mushkin are good)
Case fans - Coolermaster
CD\DVD - LG or LiteOn
These are of my own personal opinion and experiences, yes I will always recommend against mass produced PC's as I have yet to find one thats worth its price and keep in mind my PC's are built the way they are as I do a lot of graphic design, 3D animations and video editing so I tend to need more computing power than most people so thats why I choose the parts that I do...
-dave
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02/24/2007 02:04:03 AM · #38 |
I built my own box about three years or so ago and it's still clicking along just fine. I've been thinking about upgrading as well, and though I do get VERY tempted with the Dells, the HPs, etc, that are cheaper and easier than doing it myself, I think I'll probably go the New Egg route again. I'll keep the dual SATA HDs in RAID array (highly recommended, especially after I lost three months worth of pictures when my other drive crashed) and agree that the "C" drive need not be a monster - enough to hold the proggies you use.
I used an Asus board (happy with it but onboard sound requires powered speakers), an Intel chip (P4 2.8G), an ATI Radeon vid card, 1G of memory, and recycled CD and DVD burners from the box I had before. I probably don't really need to upgrade unless CS3 really needs more than a gig of memory, then I can just add memory to begin with.
The one huge advantage I see to building your own is getting a case that's big enough to actually work in. The store-boughts are generally good machines, but the cases are tight inside - tough to get in there and replace things.
Louis, appreciate the comments on the "quiet" stuff Alex put together - that's one thing I don't like about mine. ALL of the fans are noisy. The chip fan is a replacement and it's sort of a paperclip/baling wire kind of install, and it's quite noisy. I should order the proper one and install it, but as long as it's working I don't see a need to do that immediately. Case fans have been replaced but aren't any quieter than the ones I started with.
I do think I'll order a power supply, though. I think this one is fine, but it's gone from 110/60 HZ to 220/50 Hz and I suspect that may add wear and tear. |
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