J
John R Weiss
hawk said:
Gateway has been going downhill for a couple years. Dell still appears OK
for low-end machines.
How about compromising, and get a "custom built" machine from a local shop?
Gateway has been going downhill for a couple years. Dell still appears OK
for low-end machines.
How about compromising, and get a "custom built" machine from a local shop?
H
hawk
Yes maybe. I have purchased from Multiwave before. They usually have a
few prebuilt systems available. I live in a small town, not much
choice locally and sales tax usually costs more than shipping.
hawk
few prebuilt systems available. I live in a small town, not much
choice locally and sales tax usually costs more than shipping.
hawk
T
ToolPackinMama
hawk said:
Not to mention the retail markup. I buy most of my stuff from
newegg.com, and I often get free shipping on many items.
There are some vendors that might be a bit cheaper than New Egg, but I
trust New Egg. They have always been very good to me.
D
David Besack
Maybe I'm weird, but I'd rather have a new PC.
Not only that, but *I* can use my girlfriend's new PC when I go over her
house.
I tried, but the razor dulled after only one leg.
Not only that, but *I* can use my girlfriend's new PC when I go over her
house.
I tried, but the razor dulled after only one leg.
B
Bob Fallona
I would go to Newegg or Mwave. With Mwave you can go to custom and pick your
parts. Basically a barebones which is the case, ps, motherboard and cpu
already put together. Or even try Ebay, they have a ton of barebones every
day with some pretty good sellers. Then pick a video card hard drive etc.
I would go with an AMD which is cheaper than p4. Something like a 2500 or
2800 cpu and a Ti4200 or Ti4600 card which is pretty fast and cheap. Good
for basic gaming and photo stuff. The slow web and I have a 1.5 dsl is just
the web at times and usually just certain sites.
parts. Basically a barebones which is the case, ps, motherboard and cpu
already put together. Or even try Ebay, they have a ton of barebones every
day with some pretty good sellers. Then pick a video card hard drive etc.
I would go with an AMD which is cheaper than p4. Something like a 2500 or
2800 cpu and a Ti4200 or Ti4600 card which is pretty fast and cheap. Good
for basic gaming and photo stuff. The slow web and I have a 1.5 dsl is just
the web at times and usually just certain sites.
L
Last Boy Scout
hawk said:
A good site for build recommendations is www.pcmech.com/
I recommend something like a build:
Antec SLK3700BQE Case w/350watt Power supply
Asus A7N8X Ultra 400 Motherboard
AMD XP2800
512Meg DDR3200 RAM
Floppy
CDRW/DVDROM drive Lite-On brand
80 Gig WD Hard Drive
Maybe a Flash Card Reader.
Sapphire 9600 Video Card.
L
Last Boy Scout
Anandtech has a nice guide for an entry level system.hawk said:
http://www.anandtech.com/guides/showdoc.aspx?i=2110
L
Last Boy Scout
Intel is trying very hard to make a better processor than AMD but they arehawk said:
having lots of trouble. Their Prescott processors are running Hot, so dont
get a Prescott core P4, get a top end 800Mhz FSB like 3.0 Gig P4C. I
disagree that the ATI video cards are not as good as Nvidia. ATI is making
the better video card. However if you have $450 buy a 6800 nvidia Card it
runs just as great. Get a 450watt power supply.
H
hawk
Hey Mama, you sound like my kind of gal.
hawk
hawk
T
ToolPackinMama
hawk said:
A
Alex Andra
you have 3 options:
1. go to a computer show and buy a bare bones or system there.
It will be less than the cost of the parts you can buy, and you'll
know it boots before you bring it home.
2. If you have to build it yourself to to pricewatch.com and look at
the barebones systems, and the mobo/cpu combos. Pick a price point
and buy the cheapest one.
3. Buy one from a screwdrive shop or a mass marketer. You get
what you pay for here, after a mark-up, of course.
As for the other parts, watch the Sunday papers and bite the bullet
with the rebates and get the parts where the best rebates are. It takes
a little longer but you that way you'll maximise what you get for what
you pay.
Sometimes I do it the otherway round, and buy the memory first.
Whatever is cheapest at bestbuy, staples, office max, circuit city,
etc., and then buy the cheapest mobo/cpu combo that runs that memory.
Any integrated video/audio/nic board is more than sufficient
these days for general computing. I think you can get a
80 gig hard drive at best buy for $40 after rebates this week.
A duron 1.1 gig cpu/mobo combo at pricewatch is going for $70.
So, $70 + $40 + opticals, + ram should do it. Oh yeah, and a
case.
Good luck
1. go to a computer show and buy a bare bones or system there.
It will be less than the cost of the parts you can buy, and you'll
know it boots before you bring it home.
2. If you have to build it yourself to to pricewatch.com and look at
the barebones systems, and the mobo/cpu combos. Pick a price point
and buy the cheapest one.
3. Buy one from a screwdrive shop or a mass marketer. You get
what you pay for here, after a mark-up, of course.
As for the other parts, watch the Sunday papers and bite the bullet
with the rebates and get the parts where the best rebates are. It takes
a little longer but you that way you'll maximise what you get for what
you pay.
Sometimes I do it the otherway round, and buy the memory first.
Whatever is cheapest at bestbuy, staples, office max, circuit city,
etc., and then buy the cheapest mobo/cpu combo that runs that memory.
Any integrated video/audio/nic board is more than sufficient
these days for general computing. I think you can get a
80 gig hard drive at best buy for $40 after rebates this week.
A duron 1.1 gig cpu/mobo combo at pricewatch is going for $70.
So, $70 + $40 + opticals, + ram should do it. Oh yeah, and a
case.
Good luck
O
Overlord
I was going to suggest overclocking her present system but since she's
running a laptop your options are severely limited.
In the mean time....
Add another stick of ram if you have the slot.
Download and run startup.cpl and murder all the crap that's sucking
resources whenever the system boots up.
Kill QTtask, loadQM (if it has it), all the utils that phone home looking
for version 2.01.008ß instead of 2.01.007 (and look for it all day every day!).
Kill off all the progs that update automatically.
Get her a faster browser.
Tweak the browser to give her a larger cache of saved web pages.
It'll let her browser load stuff without having to delete the earlier files
already on the HD.
Go to blackviper and disable all the stock M$ crap that are running in the
background like 2 helpers for smard cards, remote registry manipulation,
etc, that run as services.
Go into regedit, search for "menushowdelay" and change it from the default
of 400(ms?) to 10. Makes the submenus snap up really fast but it does
take a steady hand with the mouse. In any case it makes the system
Look Much faster.
Run all the utils that look for spyware; Adaware, Spybot, etc.
Kill off the spyware that also phones home telling where you've been,
what version of DX you're running and how many of those MP3s you
downloaded.
Run Regcleaner to get rid of all those dead end registry entries that point
to software you deleted long ago.
Run a version of regcompact.
Tweak her swapfile size.
If your laptop BIOS allows it, change the settings to something more
performance oriented. Cut back on her RAM latency if nothing else and
if it'll handle it.
Delete all those nasty cookies that M$ doesn't seem to do much for or to....
Run diskcleanup.
Defrag her drive.
If she has more than one drive, defrag 'em both and put her swapfile on the
second one.
Kill off that moronic Win option that searches for a new floppy
drive each time you start up.
That'll keep ya until you decide how to actually upgrade the hardware.
And the girlfriend will say, "Oh Hawk, you studly techno geek you!"
~~~~~~
Bait for spammers:
root@localhost
postmaster@localhost
admin@localhost
abuse@localhost
postmaster@[127.0.0.1]
(e-mail address removed)
~~~~~~
Remove "spamless" to email me.
running a laptop your options are severely limited.
In the mean time....
Add another stick of ram if you have the slot.
Download and run startup.cpl and murder all the crap that's sucking
resources whenever the system boots up.
Kill QTtask, loadQM (if it has it), all the utils that phone home looking
for version 2.01.008ß instead of 2.01.007 (and look for it all day every day!).
Kill off all the progs that update automatically.
Get her a faster browser.
Tweak the browser to give her a larger cache of saved web pages.
It'll let her browser load stuff without having to delete the earlier files
already on the HD.
Go to blackviper and disable all the stock M$ crap that are running in the
background like 2 helpers for smard cards, remote registry manipulation,
etc, that run as services.
Go into regedit, search for "menushowdelay" and change it from the default
of 400(ms?) to 10. Makes the submenus snap up really fast but it does
take a steady hand with the mouse. In any case it makes the system
Look Much faster.
Run all the utils that look for spyware; Adaware, Spybot, etc.
Kill off the spyware that also phones home telling where you've been,
what version of DX you're running and how many of those MP3s you
downloaded.
Run Regcleaner to get rid of all those dead end registry entries that point
to software you deleted long ago.
Run a version of regcompact.
Tweak her swapfile size.
If your laptop BIOS allows it, change the settings to something more
performance oriented. Cut back on her RAM latency if nothing else and
if it'll handle it.
Delete all those nasty cookies that M$ doesn't seem to do much for or to....
Run diskcleanup.
Defrag her drive.
If she has more than one drive, defrag 'em both and put her swapfile on the
second one.
Kill off that moronic Win option that searches for a new floppy
drive each time you start up.
That'll keep ya until you decide how to actually upgrade the hardware.
And the girlfriend will say, "Oh Hawk, you studly techno geek you!"
~~~~~~
Bait for spammers:
root@localhost
postmaster@localhost
admin@localhost
abuse@localhost
postmaster@[127.0.0.1]
(e-mail address removed)
~~~~~~
Remove "spamless" to email me.
H
hawk
Hey Overlord, thanks for the suggestions. I had already done a couple,
blackviper, Spybot, Adaware, defrag. But I will look into the others.
What do you suggest for a faster browser?
hawk
blackviper, Spybot, Adaware, defrag. But I will look into the others.
What do you suggest for a faster browser?
hawk
O
Overlord
Don't know offhand. I've never really compared speeds.
I almost exclusively run Netscape to avoid IE security holes.
That and my NS bookmarks file is like 630k.....
I've got like 5 browsers on here. Opera claims to be "The fastest
browser on Earth". Don't know if it is but it does move pretty fast.
I've never liked IE's progress bar which shows "progress" loading
Internet pages even if I shut off the modem. Don't like being lied to...
I seem to recall somewhere some sort of plugins or something that
would backchannel dl pages from links on the off chance you would
click 'em. I suppose it would be something like cache hits or readahead
buffers on your hard drive; if it guesses right it would simply display
the link without having to wait for it to dl, but if you jump somewhere else
it would still have to dl a new page. Overall it would be faster but
dependant on your browing habits. That's only a vague recollection
I have tho....
~~~~~~
Bait for spammers:
root@localhost
postmaster@localhost
admin@localhost
abuse@localhost
postmaster@[127.0.0.1]
(e-mail address removed)
~~~~~~
Remove "spamless" to email me.
I almost exclusively run Netscape to avoid IE security holes.
That and my NS bookmarks file is like 630k.....
I've got like 5 browsers on here. Opera claims to be "The fastest
browser on Earth". Don't know if it is but it does move pretty fast.
I've never liked IE's progress bar which shows "progress" loading
Internet pages even if I shut off the modem. Don't like being lied to...
I seem to recall somewhere some sort of plugins or something that
would backchannel dl pages from links on the off chance you would
click 'em. I suppose it would be something like cache hits or readahead
buffers on your hard drive; if it guesses right it would simply display
the link without having to wait for it to dl, but if you jump somewhere else
it would still have to dl a new page. Overall it would be faster but
dependant on your browing habits. That's only a vague recollection
I have tho....
~~~~~~
Bait for spammers:
root@localhost
postmaster@localhost
admin@localhost
abuse@localhost
postmaster@[127.0.0.1]
(e-mail address removed)
~~~~~~
Remove "spamless" to email me.
H
hawk
Well, she uses Netscape and I have been using Mozilla for a long time.
When we travel, we use a laptop that has Netscape, and I don't see
much difference between Netscape and Mozilla. I have never cared for
IE and I have never used it except for some casual experimentation.
hawk
When we travel, we use a laptop that has Netscape, and I don't see
much difference between Netscape and Mozilla. I have never cared for
IE and I have never used it except for some casual experimentation.
hawk