NationStates Jolt Archive

price range - cheap as possible without cutting overall ability

current: hp pavilian from 2002 with various replaced parts:
intel soem crap motherboard, 1.8ghz celeron processor, 382 mb in pc 2100 ram (have another 256 mb pc 2100 stick that my comp hates), geforce mx 440 64 meg card (PCI), 48x cd-r, floppy drive.


need: new mother board, new processor, new vid card (looking at ati radeon 9250 - 256 mb pci etc ~$120-140), new friggin tower. new floppy drive and one of those dvd-r/cd-rw drives if cant or dont want to port old drive. i dont think i should get a new monitor, this one doesnt bother me and they cost money -_-

*hands chess squares a hammer*

need: new mother board, new processor, new vid card (looking at ati radeon 9250 - 256 mb pci etc ~$120-140), new friggin tower. new floppy drive and one of those dvd-r/cd-rw drives if cant or dont want to port old drive.You only need 1 thing..... a Dell

You only need 1 thing..... a Dell
you people are no damn help

you people are no damn help
Really it all depends on what you are going to do with your comp and how much money you want to put for it.

Nobody can help you with this kind of choice.
If you are going to surf on NS, I'd say your config is more than ok as it is.

I'd recommend going with an AMD Athlon XP processor and one of the mid-range ATI Radeons (Forget PCI cards).

You can find cheap DVD writers with a little looking as well.

im looking at pc's fore veryone, looks good but ima have to buy my graphics card seperate
and i rather not have to have a harddrive because i already have a couple

price range - cheap as possible without cutting overall ability

current: hp pavilian from 2002 with various replaced parts:
intel soem crap motherboard, 1.8ghz celeron processor, 382 mb in pc 2100 ram (have another 256 mb pc 2100 stick that my comp hates), geforce mx 440 64 meg card (PCI), 48x cd-r, floppy drive.


need: new mother board, new processor, new vid card (looking at ati radeon 9250 - 256 mb pci etc ~$120-140), new friggin tower. new floppy drive and one of those dvd-r/cd-rw drives if cant or dont want to port old drive. i dont think i should get a new monitor, this one doesnt bother me and they cost money -_-

Your motherboard should be able to take a Pentium 4 processor by the speed of that Celeron - consult the computer dealer first. Or just bring the base unit in with the side open and the parts visible and say "have you got a processor that will fit this?"

A 1.8ghz celeron is still good for most general tasks - however if you want the edge with gaming or high-end applications (multimedia editing, graphics, etc), it could do with a boost.

Aim for 512MB of memory. If your computer will take it and the budget stretches that far, then go for DDR RAM of the correct frequency. Anything above 256MB will do, but these days having more is good for running multiple applications at once.

The ATI Radeon 9200-ish is OK. I know for certain that the Geforce FX5200, or just a GeForce4 Ti series card will run games like Unreal Tournament 2004, and contain hardware for playing DVDs without killing your processor. However the Geforce FX5900 or ATI Radeon 9600 or 9800 would provide a significant boost in polygon count for games like Doom3.

Floppy disk drives are cheap - I think you can spend a bit extra and gets drives that go at 2x the speed now. You could also contemplate getting a ZIP 750 drive as well or instead of the floppy if your budget stretches that far.

An internal card reader would be a nice idea - memory cards are coming down in price and the little cards with 256MB on could be easier to manage than a whole stack of floppies (if easier to lose). Again, dependant on budget...

Combi DVD/RW and CD/RW drives are available if you're stuck for bay space, and I'd recommend getting one that supports dual layer disks (up to 8.6GB storage instead of 4.7GB), and both the + and - formats. If you can get one pre-modded to be region-free, so much the better. Try www.overclockers.co.uk for that - I know they used to offer that service.

Another thing to contemplate is the motherboard. Getting a board with a better chipset (perhaps an 8x AGP slot for your graphics card) can boost your performance in every area, though you would need to check whether your current memory and processor will fit in the new board. That said, getting a new board may mean you can switch to the slightly cheaper AMD Athlon XP processors, or go for one of the new 64-bit processors that are out there. I'd recommend any board with an Nvidia Nforce or Nforce2 chipset.

For the record, my PC specs (suitable for most general use, script development, and the occasional bout of Medal of Honour, UT2k4, etc...):
AMD 2000XP
512MB PC133 memory
Jetway v266b motherboard
40GB UDMA100 hard drive - Cache size unknown.
80GB UDMA133 hard drive w/2MB cache.
Geforce FX5200
Ati Rage II+ DVD (yes, I know, two graphics cards - hey, I have a spare monitor, so sue me!)
Soundblaster Live! Value
Seimens ID mouse (fingerprint logins are funky)
BTC RF Wireless mouse/keyboard combo
2x multiregion slot-loading DVD ROM
8x4x32 CD ROM
Logitech Wingman Force 3D joystick
bt848-based WinTV TV/Radio/Video capture card.

...I'll probably upgrade once the 64-bit stuff and PCI-E architecture becomes commonplace.

In all there's a wealth of options to choose from. I'd recommend shopping around, as different places will have different prices. And decide what you want to do with it. If it's just SoHo and Internet stuff with no games, you might not need that faster graphics card and the money saved could go on a nice fast SATA hard drive, for instance. If you really want to go for games, then leaving your hard drive as is, having a cheap, slow DVD+-RW drive, not bothering with a card reader and going for a Radeon 9800 or GF FX5900 Ultra with a motherboard equipped with an Nforce2 chipset and some kind of 3ghz or equivalent processor (AMD3000XP for instance) might be more your bag. Mix, match, have fun. Hope I've been of some help. ;)

im looking at pc's fore veryone, looks good but ima have to buy my graphics card seperate
and i rather not have to have a harddrive because i already have a couple
Not sure what that means. There are a few considerations when buildig a computer. If used for games then you really need some power, but if games are not it's primary focus (and in these days of X-Box that is acceptable) then you can save some serious jack.

If you want to save $ but get the longest life for your money, get a board that runs the cheapest p4 you can find. You can always upgrade later when the prices come down.

Also, often overlooked is the OS. If you already have XP then you saved about $100. If you don't, then spend the extra $50 and get XP Pro - it is substantially more stable.

How important is sound to you? Eye candy? For me I wouldn't put much weight on the sound, and I would aim for a middle of the road video card. Onboard sound is OK (unless you plan to use it for listening to music regularly) and video cards are upgradeable as they get cheaper.

The one thing to NOT skimp on is memory. In fact, you may even be able to see a remarkable improvement in your current system with a few good memory sticks.

Also, check your hard drives out. Look to see it spin at 7200 at least. Also look for a cache and access times. The hard drive is the choke point for most apps these days. An old hard drive can hold back an otherwise smokin machine. They are cheap, there is little reason to recycle them. (be sure to dispose of them carefully and wipe - not delete- the data)

Good luck. I envy you the fun you are going to have. Le me know if you need help 'shopping'.

http://secure.newegg.com/oldversion/app/WishHistoryReview.asp?position=HISTORY&submit=VIEW&ID=1046027
That's for the parts you listed. I included both an ATI Vid card that you asked for and a GForce card. You're better off with an AGP card vs a PCI. Also, floppys really aren't needed anymore, but it's there if you really want it. I have 5 PCs at home, all built by myself with no floppys. You can trim a few dollars on this rig, but I think I chose a lot of practical stuff. You might be able to get a LCD monitor cheaper elsewhere, look for used/refurbished LCDs. A lot of companies lease their equipment these days and when the leasee often cleans up the monitors and sells them pretty cheap. I bought a 21" CRT a couple years ago when they were still pretty expensive for $175.

thansk for the info everyone, my harddrives should be much of a problem, if jsut bought a brand new 160 gig western digital hd, if need be i can transfer everything from my primary hd to that one.

im not big on lcd, i think i can stick with the monitor i have, ive been looking at www.pcsforeveryone.com and they seem pretty good. what im lookgin at will run me ~900 + an extra vid card boguht sperately. would be cheaper if i could cut os, harddrive and network card which they dont like. or i could just leave out the wireless card and stick with my plain ol usb wireless thing

excellent suggestion also waynesburg, i could cut the monitor and replace it with some memory then change to a pci-express vid card for a cheaper pc