The Official PC building thread -3rd Edition

ddp,
I had one blow up in one of my burners. It was a CD, and it made a very loud bang, and then silence! Unfortunately for me it took out the laser with it! LOL!! Newegg took it back, so no harm, no foul! I was sort of honest, and told them I put a CD in the drive and it went bang and stopped. I even sent it back with the broken CD inside of it! LOL!! They sent me another right away!

Russ

 

Well...it looks like the PC case charmed her LOL! I showed here the pictures of 4 different cases. At first she was saying she didn't care, but I insisted she choose one. She chose the "RC-330-KKN1-GP". It is a sharp looking tower! And more then enough for her to accomplish her tasks And I kept it well within her price bracket. The reason im now choosing the FALS 1Tb drive, is because its proven itself to me twice now. And its not much more costly than the 500Gb AALS, to double her storage. Im pretty confident that she'll be on cloud 9. Given the board its going into, I should be able to sqeeze a little more out of the CPU without a voltage bump We'll see...

So were looking at:
Athlon II X 4 620 Propus 2.6Ghz. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103706

Gigabyte motherboard http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128397

Gskill 4Gb (2 X 2Gb) DDR3 1333(PC3 10600) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231180

Coolermaster Case http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119115

Western Digital WD1001FALS 1Tb drive http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136284

Corsair 400Cx PSU http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139008

= $453.95

 

Good list I see no problems with it. But why the 1TB HDD? Unless your mom is a heavy downloader and gamer, even a solid 250GB will be more than enough.

Also if I may comment on the onboard video, the new integrated Radeons are sweet. They are full power cards integrated right into the mobo. I've gotten the integrated HD3300 on my 780G mobo to play a lot of games. It even does Half Life 2 maxed. The HD4200 should be overkill for her

 

As I said, not much more money, for more storage space. Besides, this sucker REALLY boots quick. The sucker really has spunk LOL! It tries pretty hard to keep up with the Veloci. My brother has the 500Gb AALS. I don't think it feels much different then my 5000AAKS. The cache's are the same, so im uncertain why they don't respond the same. I would think that the 5000AALS is simply a knock off of the WD1001FALS.

 

I'm just glad she didn't want the Mystique. While it looks nice, it's not the best case for cooling! Your choice of case is similar to mine. The biggest difference is the front to rear HDD bays vs the sideways ones in mine. 13C to 17C cooler than when they were installed front to rear! both cases had the same fan blowing air over the HDDs, but the sideways drive mounts simply cools the drives much better!
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119106

Best Regards,
Russ

 

Thats a good looking tower too russ. In fact, it looks like MY kind of style LOL! Although its not quite large enough. I'm a sucker for a large tower...

Large towers are sexy, eh Estuansis LOL!

I'm still pretty green when it comes to LCD monitors. I understand the TN, IPS differences for the most part, but im still uncertain which one to by for my mother. I BELIEVE a 20" monitor with 1680X1050 res will do her nicely. If a GOOD 22" could be had for say 200$ though...I think she'd be into that.

 

Oman7,
It's actually a pretty decent spec Mid-Tower case. 5, 5.25" Bays. 3, sidways 3.50" bays, 2 front to Rear 3.50" bays. 5 HDDs, or 4 if you use a Floppy like I do! not bad for a case only 17.25" tall. At 19" deep, there's enough room for the newest nVidia cards! It also cools very well! I really wanted the Nzxt Redline, but settled for this one. It's been a happy choice. All the plugs are there and just plug into the motherboard. Front USB, Firewire, and mike and headphone plugs. They even split the front panel for AC97 or HD audio, with two plugs on the audio wire! Piece of cake to install a motherboard in!

Russ

 

I edited my post.

 

How bout one of these two....

LG LCD monitors at the EGG

 

I'm quite lucky, I've not had a CD blow up in a drive, but then with old discs I usually check before cracks before I put them in
Omega: The reason why I tend not to advise that case is because it has no means for front ventilation that I can see, which is a problem if you put multiple drives in it, or if the PC puts out much heat at all. Fortunately cheap PCs tend not to contain stuff like Pentium Ds or original Phenoms any more, so I'm hoping the trend of low budget = low heat has returned.
I agree entirely with the choice of the 1TB drive. The other drives are so much more cost per Gigabyte, it's not a lot extra to spend, unless you've got an absolute budget to stick to, 1TB and 1.5TB drives are actually the current value sweet spot.
Jeff: Well, by full power, you mean HD2400 As far as I'm aware there's little difference between the HD4200 and HD3300. What did you play HL2 maxed at though, 800x600? lol To be fair, I reckon up to 1280x1024 on high, as long as without AA should be reasonable on them because HL2 (just not the episodes) were maxable at 2560x1600 on X1800XTs.
To be honest, unless you're an image fanatic, TN will be fine, and TN's about all you get for $200 anyway. The image quality difference is night and day to us, but to the average user I'm sure they'll survive.

 

It does actually... I have a 120mm fan installed in the front mount and the front of the case in vented with mesh or whatever it is. Moves plenty of air and with the added side vent you can install another fan for intake or exhaust..

@Oman7... the case Russ linked too is pretty good too... I think you'd like either one.

 

Then I stand corrected. Looking at all the pictures and specs, nowhere is that mentioned. That would have earned them a few lost sales no doubt!

 

Omeg_ couple of pages back you gave me a link about my bluescreen problem Microsoft Self Help, I checked on that before it's pretty much the same advise, you need to track down whatever driver is causing the problem on your own, thanks anyway but this problem happens about every 2 months than goes away, I'll wait till it totally crashes and will take it to some shop.

The case Russ was talking about if I'm not mistaken I have the same one, it is a great case for the bucks, it's not that small either, I was shocked when it came in, it was roomy also, it distributes air really nice, Russ guided me with that build, I added a couple of fans and it always stays cool and quite, of course nobody in my family are gamers, but the kids use it always, if it's not one it's the other using it, always on, I'd like to steal it back from them and give them my crappy HP.

But than again don't you have a budget of 800 smakers, you still have a lot to play with if you do, it's funny how this works on this thread, were like a bunch of woman trying to help thier friend that's expecting, we all have opinions but all want whats best for you, it's like were expecting also and are just as excited.

 

She said she'd be WILLING/ABLE to spend 800. I told her I was sure I could do it for considerably less. But I also want it to last 8yrs like the last one did. Yah...heh heh. We'll see about that. I hope component quality is like that still Money is pretty tight for her right now. But she really needs this new build. Her computer is nothing more than a joke to this day in age.

Fred, you do have a second rig don't you. When yo receive the stop error, plug that exact error into google(any Search engine), you gotta get at least several hits. I'd hate to see you take your computer into the shop for something simple... The microsoft link was simply a small effort from me. I apologize that it led nowhere.

Thanks for the link GM. Those are looking pretty sharp And very likely candidates.

 

Oman7,
IMO, I don't think there is such a thing as a "good" 22" lcd monitor! 1680x1050 on a 20" like mine is fine, 1680x1050 with a .043 pixel pitch, makes a great picture. The same resolution on a 22" with a .082 pixel pitch just plain sucks! To my eyes, almost every 22" I ever saw gave me a headache. There's just a bit too much real estate that doesn't light up. You never get a really sharp picture compared to a good 20" at 1680x1050. Frankly, your better bet is a 1920x1680 21.5"! This one from Asus is the best 21.5" I've ever seen!

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236067

Much better than any 22" I've ever laid eyes on. Full 1080P, 16x9 aspect ratio, HDMI, with a .048 pixel pitch, 1920x1680. You couldn't ask for more. I think bigwill has one, and the last I heard, he loves it. I know I've been wanting one for a while now myself! I tried a 24" NEC a while back, and while it was great for movies, games and so on, but for an everyday desktop, it's a bit overwnelming! It's hard to find a comfortable distance and still be able to see the print on the screen. Take a look at the Asus, and talk to bigwill about it!

Best Regards,
Russ

 

I don't know. It does look good, and is one to consider, but the 16:9 resolution is something you look for in a television, not a monitor(in my opinion). Im more interested in the 16:10 resolutions, because its a more familiar aspect ratio for her. She sure likes my monitor. I think like the tower though, Im gonna have her choose one based on looks. Once i've narrowed down a few based on their technology. Appreciate your help russ

 

If you remember right Russ you did suggest this monitor and I do Love it to bad newegg don't have my model anymore right now I'm running it's Resolution is 1680 by 1050 pixels and looking sweet
my Model # is VH226H and been Deactivated... back then..

Mine Deactivated
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236051

Old Pic Things have been moved around



I payed $189.99 free shipping..I've been having alittle over 5 months now with No Problems and it stay Cool all the time it has Top vents for Heat ecape


I recommend this 1 all the way Like Russ if,I had the Extra Money
I would buy it...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236067

they got a open Box of my Model but..I would'en trust it
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236051R

 

NIce bigwilly!!!

Just went to me local OfficeMax and they had a couple of monitors on sale for CHEAP!!

Oman7 you might check out ye local store and see what you can find.. IIRC they had a 23" for $149 I think... give it a look mate!!

 

ok i know this is the pc building thread but its where i believe i will get the best help.


i have a friend with this Pc a Compaq Presario SR5130NX and its running vista with 1gb of memory. now they want to upgrade to 2gb( it would seem to be that i will have to go with another 1gb stick). i have found the following link http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?lc=en&cc=us〈=en&docname=c01048297&dlc=en
in this link it has maximum allowed 4 GB* (2 x 2 GB). so from the looks of it this computer only has 2 memory slots that can support 2x2gb sticks each. Would this be correct?

 

I believe you are correct sir.