The Official PC building thread -3rd Edition

Sam,
I use that motherboard for just about everything, because it has a very high Price/Performance ratio. I can upgrade an AM2 or AM2+, and then further down the road stick an AM3 Phenom II in it. I can also build an AM2+, again with the same upgrade path and options. A DDR3 board would limit me to AM3 only. I've only had one failure in 13 builds with that motherboard. It comes with HD4200 Graphics, which is a huge improvement over what most of the people I build for, had before. As you saw, comparing my 955BE on DDR2 and Will's 965BE on DDR3, both at 3.8GHz, the difference in memory performance is zilch! If someone did want to overclock one, all the bells and whistles are there to do it with. AM2, AM2+ CPUs are gradually being replaced with socket AM3 CPUs anyway, so the next one I build may well be on a DDR3 motherboard. I just hope that when the time comes, I can find as good a motherboard for DDR3 as what I use now!

Russ

 

sammorris : Drag it from where ? Got no idea what your trying to tell me.
If the Movie is playing on the TV IN THE VLC Player, but is a black screen on the Computer. What do I drag, and from where

 

Rick, he must mean drag the video window from the working monitor/tv to the secondary display. Whichever display is working, drag the window from it, to the other. If the other display is completely not working, well...than you've got something going on. E.g. Ati drivers haven't acknowledged the other screen. Or the settings for dual monitors aren't setup appropriately. On my windows 7 Rig, I've ran all sorts of odd display settings. Perhaps your monitor doesn't like the signal that's being sent? :S

 

Lol, not $900
$880 buys you an X6 1055T with an HD5770 graphics card, as well as 1TB hard drive in a Studio XPS 7100.
A $300 homebuild ain't gonna compete with a $900 shelf PC, but it isn't meant to

 

I beg to differ, the best the one your talking about, what might make it do things a second or two faster, and I paid a little more than half that price, I don't think so, no comparison especially if your looking for a good quality great running middle of the road PC.

 

Fred, you've missed the point there.
I'm well aware for $900 it's much better value to build a system yourself, no argument from me.
The reason I posted that was I was responding to what you said:

Implying that the system Russ built[/b[ is better than a $900 Prebuilt PC.
I mentioned the Dell system to show that this clearly isn't the case.
Home built systems are typically better value than prebuilt PCs, but they aren't so good that a $400 newegg order will outcompete a $900 Dell system. It just doesn't happen.

 

I won't argue your point because you are right, mostly, I guess if you wanna get into heavy gaming sure it's a better PC, but for better value it's another issue like we both say, but even if you were to shell out another 100 bucks maybe I would ask which is really the better PC.

 

No Fred, you're still missing the point.

You said a $400 Home build PC is better than a $900 shelf PC. It isn't. There's no situation which it is. The Dell in this example is plain better.
I did not say better value. I just said better. $900 of Dell still buys more PC than $400 of components.
Shelf PCs are bad, but not as bad as you're making out.

 

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Sammy I understand what you are saying, I see many PC's on shelves at many of our outlets, I played with several, I don't know about the particular one you are talking about the places I have been to don't carry Dells anymore, but the one's I played with I would not trade any of them for the one I built, unless your a gamer which I am not other than them having W7 there is nothing more on them that wets my whistle, unless you start looking at those $1200 pc's and over.

 

The Dell website does have decent deals, but yeah I'd agree that prebuilt systems are generally pretty overpriced, this gets worse the more you pay though, so at the bottom end of the market they're actually quite competitive, at the top end they're pretty awful

 

Sam and Fred,

Being a bit more realistic, I can put this together for $916.34, delivered!



With a WD 250GB drive for the boot drive. Candidly speaking, it will run rings around that Dell! Better quality too! Plus there's $35 in MIRs, here in the States, so the bottom line is $881.34! The motherboard should overclock it quite well!

Best Regards,
Russ

 

Sorry, double post

Question for Admin. Are they ever going to get AD working properly? Not trying to be funny or rude, but the problems have been going on for a month! I have to go through each thread manually, just to find new posts. The only time I do get email notifications is if I'm on AD when something new is posted!

Sincerely,
Russ

 

I have to say, the new page bug ticks me off, they are taking unusually long to sort it.
Your $900 system is pretty good russ, though as for quality, i really don't think dells are that bad

 

Well, they know the problem, no real point annoying them further, it's just disappointing they haven't managed to fix it yet.

 

ddp,
If I knew how, I would. I can't find a damn thing with this new software. Everything that was so simple before, has become a bit of a chore to do! Useless menu after useless menu pop up. I don't want the damn FAQ, I want help! Newer is better! HAH! It's like talking to machines on the phone when you really need to talk to a real live person, as they transfer you to yet another machine!

Best Regards,
Russ

 

I have been having problems also, I get around it by getting on the AD Newsletter in my e-mail, I click on the PC Thread and everything works great.

 

I'm surprised people stick up for Dell, after that low blow business tactic of theirs. Shipping countless defective units, knowing full well that their days are numbered, is shoddy business practice. They've forever stained their name in my book.

As for the coding on the site...I'm a patient guy. I guess I can comfortably say this, since my negative experience has been minimal Seriously though, they've got WAYYY more coding experience than I, so I ain't saying nothing LOL!