Harkhof said:
I highly recommend it. I have been building my own systems since '95 and
would never consider doing otherwise. However, it's not necessarily cheaper
than buying a new system, although you can expect much greater quality by
building it yourself (given that you buy quality parts, which pays off in
the long run).
Just be aware that the cost of building your machine snowballs. You'll
discover that one hardware purchase necessitates another HW or SW purchase.
I'd be surprised if you could do it for that amount. In replacing the system
you have, You can count on buying a new case, mother board, cpu, RAM, power
supply, video card, possibly a new copy of windows (if your XP disk
[assuming you have XP] came with your system, it is most likely OEM and will
not install on any other machine) and probably more.
I'm no expert by any means, but I would have to believe that your onboard
video is an issue. Although OBV is better today (Actually, I would not
choose a motherboard even today with OBV), certainly back in 2001, it was
amongst the poorest of video solutions. Perhaps someone could chime in with
the comparison of video quality between your onboard video and PCI regarding
LCD.
Hark and anyone else who's been able to stand this saga this
long:
Over the last year the aggravation (to the eyes;
troubleshooting; the crashes; the backing up of files and
reformatting etc.) has been so great and so unassignable (at
least to me, a computer peon) that I decided this morning a
massive upgrade, one way or another, was in order. I tried
shops in the past but never got good results. Gookin of the
PCs for Dummies books also casts aspersions on them: They
reformat and reinstall, period.
After checking prices online and in person for motherboards,
cpus, cases, and power supplies; talking it over with an
offline friend; then checking out the cost of assembly at a
PCClub shop, I did indeed quickly come to the conclusion
(like you noted, Hark) that it was more cost efficient to
buy some kind of package. Still, for the first time in some
14 years of owning computers, tomorrow I will have a
computer case and power supply; CPU; and motherboard without
a big name on it. (Screw the bastards at HP and definitely
at Gateway.) I get some basic peripherals (hard drive, CD
rom) too. My SDRAM will be doubled tomorrow to 256 Megabye,
though the technician was urging me to pay $35 for another
256 Mb. She too said I would notice the difference. (I have
been hearing this from others for years but had doubts for
various reasons. I simply don't use intensive
applications... yada yada. I hope I am pleasantly surprised
to learn I was wrong.)
I'll take my current hard drive and turn it into a slave, I
think, or make my current computer into a backup computer,
for word processing and spreadsheeting. My power supply will
double. I will have Windows XP (versus my old computer's
Windows ME).
I suspect Windows ME is not the greatest version and may be
the cause of other problems. I was also having simple
power-up problems at first startup. And even my fairly new
power supply makes odd noises under changing loads at times.
All of these I have troubleshot with the aid of manuals and
internet resources. Kony, I see now that my old Windows CDs
are system restore CDs. The technician today made a
distinction between these, too, informing me my new computer
would come with the OEM Windows XP discs, licensing info,
etc.
The tech also said that modern onboard video adapters had
come a long way in the last few years. Still, my new mobo
has an AGP slot. (And not that the tech knows more than any
of you. Talk seems a little cheap in this business... )
I was disappointed I wouldn't be building this all myself,
but at least I will set up the slave-master hard drive
configuration on my own, and so keep building on this skimpy
knowledge base of mine. I'm paying $300 (before taxes, and
with one of those doggone nuisance rebates thrown in) for
all this. That is less than what I felt I was looking at for
buying the parts individually.
Parts quality will be something I will learn. I didn't buy
top of the line, obviously. If I get four years out of this
next computer, with a lot less aggravation, I think I'll
ultimately be pleased. Or else resigned that "quality" is
not what the computer industry has in mind for much of its
business right now.
The first step is admission. I know I've been one cynical
customer here. You all who post here to help others: Great
community service. I did learn more about computer design
from this thread. Forward.
