The (new) Official PC building thread!

pcusergod,

Now that's funny! LOL!! The salesman forgot to mention that as long as you didn't expect too much out of it to begin with, he was right! If you can get Fry's to take it back, do so!

A decent video card, capable of playing the good games costs almost as much as you paid for the whole computer. The salesman lied, and it was "Broken" before you even bought it! Let me guess! On-Board video, No PCI-e, 350 Watt power supply, 256 megs of 533 Ram, no Sata and Slow!! Good enough to do "homework" on, but not much else!

You might have noticed that no one here is bragging about their HP, Compaq or Dell computer. Now you know why!

Best Regards,
Russ

 

I don't know what you are asking?
i think this is what it has http://business2-cnet.com.com/desktops/compaq-presario-sr5210nx-c/4507-3118_7-32716537.html?tag=sub

 

You have to buy Compaqs, BUT you can make your own computer. NOT to seem rude but $249 for a computer is NOT a lot of money even if it's for the tower its self. PLEASE understand that you've stepped into an arena that will require a VERY large learning curve and we are ALL learning every day. Even the gurus. I'm NOT one so don't even ask. lol. NOW on ODD's I might have an opinion or two but building goes to the smarter than me.

Yes you can build a better one BUT you won't get much for $249. I think you'll have to spend somewhere around $550 or so just to build something that will play some of the games you're wanting to play. Your main "outflow" will be the cpu, mobo, RAM, p/s, and gpu. BUY quality components and you'll be happier in the end. TRUST me here... I've learned the hard way on that one.

good luck to you........

....gm

 

I don't know, 300 or 400 dollars.
my mom is going to be mad than my new computer isn't any good.
can she tell the difference opf the old one and another by looking at it?

 

pcusergod,

Why should she be mad at you? The Salesman lied to you! He knew it when he was doing it! Be grateful if Fry's will allow you to return it for a full refund! I haven't shopped Fry's since I returned a defective hard drive, only to see it repackaged and going out the door with another customer, about 1/2 hour later! The guy didn't even want to believe me until I showed him the paperwork and the Ser. # matched. Pretty good, 1/2 hour after I bring it back because it didn't work, they sell it again to some other "sucker"! I'll do my buying from reputable dealers like Newegg and Tiger Direct and be very happy for it!

As far as your budget goes, it's totally un-realistic, at least if you want to game with it! If it's for homework, keep the one you got but don't expect to play any decent games with it! Being a 1.6GHz Celeron, it just doesn't offer that much to begin with! You could build a decent computer console for about $800 that will run rings around any Compaq, HP or Dell you could afford! At least I see that they have improved in the last year or so. Yours has Sata, a PCI-e 16x slot and 1GB of memory (single stick of 1GB), so that's a marked improvement over what they used to offer. The only problem is that the rest of the computer doesn't come close to living up to the improvements they have made, as it's all pretty worthless with a 1.6GHz Celeron!

The big problem price wise is quality! Motherboard, Power Supply, Memory and video card are all places that will bite you if you buy cheap junk! Most of us have been there before! LOL!!

Best Regards,
Russ

 

Theone: A wise choice, the exact video card I'd recommend in that price range. As for Sapphire, i've certainly found them to be excellent in the past. HIS are supposed to be pretty good too, but apart from those two, I'm also apprehensive.
PCusergod: You have much to learn, my friend. First of all, gaming PCs that work properly cost a lot. $250 is not a lot for a PC, you are looking at a minimum of $500 to get a gaming PC< nearly $1000 for a really good one, and a really good one is what you'll need to play Crysis.
Next, Prebuilt PCs are almost always useless for gaming unless you spend LOADS. For this reason it's often better to build your own PC, but only if you're happy to do so.

 

pcusergod,
Originally quoted by sammorris:

Good point on Sam's part! building a modern computer is not difficult at all. It's very hard today to make a meaningful mistake where something can get hurt or go up in smoke. Today's active bios just don't allow that to happen. If you try to do something stupid, it just shuts down and re-sets the bios back to the default settings. If you think you might like to do that, you will have plenty of help here! besides which you will have learned something about computers that you wouldn't be able to learn any other way. nothing beats hands on! Besides, nothing beats hand selecting the components to give you the most bang for your bucks! You wind up with what you want, rather than what someone else thinks you might want, and you don't pay for extras that you don't need!

Best Regards,
Russ

 

and here's the best bit:
A typical PC you'd buy from a shop for $1500 will perform as well as a PC you build yourself for c. $900...

 

pcusergod, I myself cannot offer you any tech help but I might be able to give you some basic advise.

You see I'm pretty much in the same boat as you are, I categorize myself as a computer dummy and not in the downgrading sense just adding a little humor, people like us can use as much of it as we can getting into this high tech game, I also use my computer knowledge by adding baseball terms, like I think I am finally out of the dugout and approching first base, and if I'm not mistaken you sound to me like your still wondering around in the parking lot, and again please don't take this as rude, I'm trying to add a little reality here.

I also want to add you could not be in better hands as far as computer advise, especially this thread, not only are these people extremly smart on this subject, I also found them to be very helpfull and most are very patient when it comes to dummies like myself, most also will gladly give you extra help by going to private messages or if you think you might be getting off topic a little bit whichever you always have that option by doing it yourself or another member will ask you to do so.

I know some people have mentioned to you about getting rid of your rig and just build your own, I know you have mentioned something about your Mom might be upset something or other, I know that might make things a little complicated for you, If I'm not mistaken I think your a very young man? if so I don't know if you will want to piss Mom off but giving a full explantion will help, hell you might even consider letting her read this thread about the advise your getting her about your problem, I think if it was my Mom I would want her to read it, she would probably understand more about the change you need to make by reading what the other members have to say than you just explalning things on your own, at least give it a shot.

I think the other members on this thread would also agree that you bieng a newbie to tech things about computers trying to build a computer in your stage probably is still out of your league, I myself will attempt to do so in the summer as my son will also be home from school and he knows more about this than I do and we will do it together, and most of all use this thread as advise in doing so, I would'nt even attempt on removing a screw unless I was on-line with these people here.

In the meantime, the rig you bought even though I'm no techie I know enough that the machine you bought and pardon the pun it's really a piece of crap, saying crap I mean for a kiddie doing homework etc. this thing is probably great especially for what you paid, but for the things you want to use it for beleive me it's crappola, you also got vista, yukkie, I still can't believe outlets sell vista machines with such low grade ram, graffics etc. when vista demands power, the people behind sellings pc's like that ought to be slapped.

It also sounds to me that you are limited on cash, and probably Mom is helping you with most of it, correct me if I'm wrong. You will not be able to build anything descent for under $600 anyway, besides trying to do it on your own which I would not recommend I would hire a person maybe a friend or a friend of a friend, or a good friend as as favor, no money exchange on one that knows about builds, and you guys can do it together.

I'll tell you what I did, and yes I did get friendly hollered at by most members on this thread on the route I took, and don't forget they were just looking out for me cause mostly they are right, I bought a refurbished rig from globalcomputer.com, same people as tigerdirect.com, it was a gateway the guys from here helped me pick out from several models that I had in mind, I got mine for $350 and $48 in shipping, I know it's a piece of crap compared to building your own, but the one I got not only looks brand new it runs like one and to my suprise it is really fast, not as fast as the rigs these guys build here but faster than anything I ever owned, also I wanted an xp, to much bull involed with vista, I also don't know if a refurbished one would run some of the games you are mentioning, but I would bet it would be a lot easier to upgrade and cheaper than the rig you got now.

And if and when you would be ready for your own build I would be willing to bet that you would be able to sell your refurbished rig for at least 3/4 of what you paid and keeping it in good shape don't forget helps. And don't just take my advise on all this I'm sure most guys here will add much more goodies to your brain on other idea's, just be carefull about the building your own part, first make sure your finacially ready and build savvy to do so before you make an attempt, like I said before, your in the best hands as far as getting started with what you will need and so on, these guys love doing this, it gets thier adrenalin going on helping people with a build.

And last, don't forget with any refurbished rig mostly you can make out ok, just make sure you are dealing with a good company, cause with refurbs sure you can get sent a lemon, the one I got which runs great but I can already hear my hardrive grinding, it sounds like a teletype machine e.g. especially when I defragment etc. but I did purchase an extra year replacement on parts if anything goes wrong, it was only 45 bucks.

So don't forget, you got several options here, my advise to you if it means anything, is first see if you can get rid of what you got cause its a dog, if not the people here will help you in what you can do with it to get you going with what you want to do, and most important, as I learned, I do not purchase a damn thing as far as anything to do with computers without talking to these guys first, I would'nt buy a screw unless asking for advise on what kind from where etc. it will save you time, money, and aggrevation believe me. Hope I helped a little, if I did it will be the first time I helped with anything on this thread. Good luck.

 

Hey there Fred,

Don't go counting me in that one! LOL!! I supported your choice for the reasons you gave! After all, it was your needs that counted, and you had very good reasons to take the route you did! We'll just have to wait till this summer to get even! ROFLMAO!!

Good to see you are still around!

Best Regards,
Russ

 

Good to see you again Fred, a very thoughtful post, congrats on that one. Hopefully we've given pcusergod something to mull over.

 

I just hope I helped him a little, I wanna be clear that he knows you guys are my hero's when it comes to anything on pc's.

 

Haha, well, we do our best...
It's always pleasing to have some notable feedback rather than just the "ok thanks" and we never find out how the build went...

 

oh no russ, I know you didn't lol, like I said, you guys were looking out for my best interest, I didn't take any of it as an insult of any kind, don't forget, you guys are right about it in the first place, I just fell under an unusuall circumstance, and besides, sometimes you need to be a little harsh to make sure people make the right decesion especially when your looking out for them.

 

Fredbun,

Damn straight! ROFL!! Good to hear from you, Fred. Everything going OK? Hey, before you know it, it will be summer and you and your Son will be able to build that new computer. That alone is worth it all! Something rarely seen today, a Father/Son project. I believe that qualifies as "Quality" time!

We already have a new King of the hill with the Dual Cores in the E8400. It overclocks like a dream, runs cooler than the older Dual Cores (45nm) and has a 6MB Cache on the chip! By the time you are ready, you'll be in a better position, component wise than you would have been before. Lots of intelligent choices, with more coming!

BTW, I echo Sam about your post to pcusergod! Thank you for your recommendation!

Warmest Regards,
Russ

 

Everything is ok russ, yes I think I did come across some of that dualcore info you have have mentioned, I get that funny feeling all kinds of new stuff will be out by summer time, I'm not worried, as long as you guys are around I know I will be kept up to date on whatever is out there.

Now that I have a little time, let me up date things a little, yes that gateway did come in 2 days after I ordered it, and no I didnt pay for any faster shipping, I ordered from global before they are pretty fast even though I didn't expect it that fast.

When it came in the packaging was nice and tight, nothing was missing everything was in order, the pc looked like it was brand new, didn't even have a minor scratch on it, the keyboard, mouse, was brand new as so were the little speakers, and so to my suprise, I also got the tuner, remote, and all acces. for the media center thing, I say suprised cause most people on customer reviews on this thing all said they never got the remote etc. oh well, whatever.

And of course as I mentioned before, my main bitch is the hardrive, is definatly gonna go soon I would think, I mean it is very loud, just like a teletype when it runs especially when things like defrag would run and others when it really goes to town on noise. I'm gonna call then on it cause even though I did purchase the extra year I did learn that before the 30 day mark it is easier to get a replacemant, if you recall when I got one for the nieghbor last year from the same people we thought the optical drive was bad, they were ready to send out a new one but didnt have to cause it was we were making some mistakes on it is why a problem, so I'll se what happins when I call.

There are some add ons also I need some advise on but I will get to that in a moment, after I set up the gateway, and I did forget how much of a pain in the ass it was to set up a new pc, all that crap like norton it had, macafee and so much other crap, and macafee was so damn hard to get rid of for some reason but finally did, I thought I was gonna have trouble getting rid of norton but I lucked out, and of course a lot of other crap and got rid of it all, updated everthing windows, added all the avg's, cleaners etc.

And of course after cleaning it up and going into system config utility and got rid of many start-ups, it was like off to the races with that baby, wow, suprised the hell out of me, you guys did say the ddr2 was gonna be faster, and I will want to add another gig.

This gateway which will be our second pc, my hp is the first, I dont let anybody touch it, its not as fast as this gateway but its a really nice machine, I had it a year, I yike it, lol.

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&objectID=c00587142

The gateway will be for my kids, and for my kids only, the compaq which was our second pc, over the holiday both son and daughter were home with all the school friends, after the holiday I checked out our compaq it was loaded with viruses, oh man was I pissed, and I mean the kind you could not get rid off, the only option was to completely reformat, I havent had a virus on pc's since 2002 when we first started using computers, man was I pissed, my kids were back in school when I cought it, I e-mailed them both and said both of you twits are lucky you are not here now, maybe an ass wopping was in order lol, and of course I got, Dad we didnt do it, I must say my kids are good about not catching viruses, they learned how and why not long ago, and I wrote back said I don't give a shit, it was your friends and your responsibility, same as you did it youself so to speek, if you can't control your friends than don't invite them over, lol, its been a long time since I jumped on my bandits, but it was nessesary.

I was kinda scared to re-format the compaq, I did apply windows on it once back a year ago when we had to install a new hardrive, the old one died, but I never did a re-format on an exsisting hd, my son use to do all those things and of course he's not home, so Poppy had to do it, and poppy was scared shitless, I read all kinds of adds about it on google and some of the read was scarry, some reads were pretty complicated, actually after I did it, it really just sounded complicated, I had to reformat it 3 times cause the first two times I screwed up like started with the wrong disc's first, my son never marked which ones were suppose to go in first he just knew by sight, it was four disc's actually, I started with the second disc first, it worked, well kinda did, at the end you find out things werent right lol, than you learn the last two disc's you don't even need cause they were just crap stuff, all those stupid add ons you dont need and wind up have to uninstall anyway, but thats how we dummies learn, plus I marked the disc's this time for future remember me by lol.

But after I got it right, wow, did that baby run smooth, and I was really proud of myself, rewarded thyself with a couple of cold ones, and told both of my twits that the compaq is for friends that come over but still with supervision, and the gateway and my hp is way off limits period or ass whoppin time.

Now here is where I need some advise, first on the gateway, here is info on it,

http://assets.gateway.com/s/PC/R/1013953/1013953nv.shtml

I want to install another gig of ram, I did one before some years back on the compaq, it was easy, but I got confused a little on this one, here's why.
I went on newegg, and of course for this gateway it takes a DDR2 533 MHz PC4200 SDRAM or so it says, newegg asks what model etc and it will find you the ram you need or so they say, after giving them the model, I thought all the rams would say the same DDR2 533 MHz PC4200 SDRAM, but no, they said all different kinds which confused me, here is the page,

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...r=MemoryConfigurator&CFG=CFG003GT5268E&DEPA=0

as you can see there are different mhz, not all are 4200, some say 5400 some say 6400 etc, does this mean a 5400 or a 6400 is better or faster than a 4200 that my gateway has, and if it is and is it compatible with mine, does it mean e.g. a 6400 will not go together with my 4200 so to speek, will both sticks need to be the same number, am I making sense here? also, it looks like I have two 512's in, is it better to install another two 512 and fill up all four slots, or is it ok to get just another 1 gig plus my exsisting two 512's and fill 3 slots.

Anyway, please you guys tell me which way is best to go, also which ram should I pick, myself and the kids are not gamers, not big ones anyway but we do like speed, I don't need the most expensive but don't want to spend money on crap either, if something descent cost more well so be it.

So, should I get another gig with 4200, or would it be better to replace the 4200's and use two 6400 etc, you guys tell me and I'll follow.

And here is the page for the hp cause I want to do the ame with that also.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...rator&CFG=CFG003Media Center TV m7330n&DEPA=0

The hp is the same as the gateway, it has four slots of ddr, and its not ddr2, and it has two slots filled with 512's, and I'll tell ya whats odd, the ddr2's are suppose to be newer and faster, but when you look the ddr's are more expensive, isn't that odd?

And last, later I want to ask you guys about adding a optical rom to the gateway, want to do that later after I take care of the ram sitch first, phew, my hands are cramping up, getting old sucks, and thanks everybody and sorry for the long post.

 

http://img254.imageshack.us/img254/5660/first38703dmarkrg2.png
Sam is happy.... lol
This is at clock speeds
Ignore 3dmark believing my CPU is 3.55, it's at 3.16, I changed the multiplier to 8x, but most programs don't seem to have noticed.
I need a new version of Everest that works with my GPU... and indeed I need a means of messing with the fan speeds. ATitool 0.27b can't do it on this card.

 

thanks for your help guys, I don't think I can spend that much on a computor. Mom already says we spent too much.

Can I maybe add betor parts to mine?