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Building my sister a computer....

L

Liken

Member
nothing special, dont want it outdoing my computer 😛

I promised my dad i could do it for under 400 (he's footing the bill)

so, i am almost decided.

im probably going to go to fry's and pick up one of those athlon XP 2200's with ECS mobo for 90 bucks deals. i mean, it's either that, or a asus a7n266 vm mobo, which is just a little expensive when it dont come with a processor... im just wondering about the stability of the ecs mobo's.

she has a cd/rw drive, a fairly nice, new one. it's just wasted in her current computer, a dell p2 300 mhz 😛

im thinking 512 mb ddr ram, probably pc2100. nice and cheap.

80 gig hard drive, whatever brand appeals to me, and is there and cheap at the time. gonna be maxtor or wd, though.

i'll probably just get her an SB live sound card. she doesnt game much, has crappy speakers, so it wouldnt make much difference.

here's where the crap hits the fan. i dont know what graphics card to get her, or what case to get... i want to get one that includes a power supply, though...


power supply has a big impact on stability, so i gotta get a good one. so, that means a decent quality case. what do you all reccommend?


and for the graphics card, i either want to get her a cheapo geforce 4, or a radeon 8500 LE. but what do you guys suggest?






i have never built a computer before, nor have i changed out components. i will be getting a super crappy computer free from my school to work on, though. i have theoretical knowledge, and know what to watch out for, but i've never built one before. so, what kinda odds ya give me?
 
Originally posted by: Xionide
Its easy, as long as you stay away from the dreaded "MILLENIUM EDITION" 😱

-Xionide
Click to expand...

haha

put some spy ware on there too, to monitor what she does, and so u can f with her later on, like put crazy stuff on her screen and she can;t do anything about it, i did it to my bro, freaks him out everytime, when i start this spider screensaver with out him knowing.

Dogg
 
Originally posted by: PunDogg
Originally posted by: Xionide
Its easy, as long as you stay away from the dreaded "MILLENIUM EDITION" 😱

-Xionide
Click to expand...

haha

put some spy ware on there too, to monitor what she does, and so u can f with her later on, like put crazy stuff on her screen and she can;t do anything about it, i did it to my bro, freaks him out everytime, when i start this spider screensaver with out him knowing.

Dogg
Click to expand...

E-SHEEP!!!!
 
any gfx will do. They all run well and game well also just not with max settings and anything higher then 1024x768.

Any case will do. The psu I get separate as the cases I get don't come with one. Anyone with 300 or 350w will do.
 
Originally posted by: Xionide
What is she gonna be doin, i got some parts I could possibly sell......

-Xionide
Click to expand...

nah, im only buying new. it's not a matter of trust... it's a matter of paranoia 😛
 
Depends if she's going to game a lot or not. I'd say a gF4 MX would be just fine though. 🙂

Edit - Or integrated video. Even an nForce 420D should be able to handle it, nF2 is better though.

- M4H
 
Well even though this is not the right place for this...

The proc and board deal is not bad. I would bet the board has on board sound...most do, so dont worry about a SB live, plus they can be a pain.

As for a good cheap case, I have had good luck with the Evercase tooles cases off newegg. I would not get a case with a powersuppy unless its a great deal, that way you can put in a nice Enermax or Antec powersupply. 300W - 350W should be enough. As far as video card goes I would stay away from the GeForce4 MX cards. I would look at the Radeon 9000 great budget card that will also proform pretty well plus is DX8 compatiable...unlike the Geforce MX (I could be wrong but I doubt it about the MX's not being DX 8 compatiable.) If you take your time and dont rush and be careful I say you have a decent chance, everyone had to start sometime. BTW be careful putting the HSF on that Athlon you can crush the core and its not all that hard.
 
Originally posted by: Liken
Originally posted by: PunDogg
Originally posted by: Xionide
Its easy, as long as you stay away from the dreaded "MILLENIUM EDITION" 😱

-Xionide
Click to expand...

haha

put some spy ware on there too, to monitor what she does, and so u can f with her later on, like put crazy stuff on her screen and she can;t do anything about it, i did it to my bro, freaks him out everytime, when i start this spider screensaver with out him knowing.

Dogg
Click to expand...

E-SHEEP!!!!
Click to expand...

naw dude the smiley faces. i love that. if anyone want it to put on their sisters computer jsut pm me i think i can find it.
 
Originally posted by: Koing
any gfx will do. They all run well and game well also just not with max settings and anything higher then 1024x768.

Any case will do. The psu I get separate as the cases I get don't come with one. Anyone with 300 or 350w will do.
Click to expand...

you mean geforce FX?

no, i dont want that god auful pos 😛

lol, jk. i just dont want to use the geforce fx series. i dont mind the geforce 4's, though.

she has a nec multisync 17" LCD monitor, one of those with a 16 ms response time. my parents, who dont know a thing about computers, seem to get lucky when buying us stuff, and give us the best stuff. 😀
 
Originally posted by: Liken
Originally posted by: Koing
any gfx will do. They all run well and game well also just not with max settings and anything higher then 1024x768.

Any case will do. The psu I get separate as the cases I get don't come with one. Anyone with 300 or 350w will do.
Click to expand...

you mean geforce FX?

no, i dont want that god auful pos 😛

lol, jk. i just dont want to use the geforce fx series. i dont mind the geforce 4's, though.

she has a nec multisync 17" LCD monitor, one of those with a 16 ms response time. my parents, who dont know a thing about computers, seem to get lucky when buying us stuff, and give us the best stuff. 😀
Click to expand...

gfx = graphics.

wtf is afaik or ymmv tho?
 
Originally posted by: jonmullen
Well even though this is not the right place for this...

The proc and board deal is not bad. I would bet the board has on board sound...most do, so dont worry about a SB live, plus they can be a pain.

As for a good cheap case, I have had good luck with the Evercase tooles cases off newegg. I would not get a case with a powersuppy unless its a great deal, that way you can put in a nice Enermax or Antec powersupply. 300W - 350W should be enough. As far as video card goes I would stay away from the GeForce4 MX cards. I would look at the Radeon 9000 great budget card that will also proform pretty well plus is DX8 compatiable...unlike the Geforce MX (I could be wrong but I doubt it about the MX's not being DX 8 compatiable.) If you take your time and dont rush and be careful I say you have a decent chance, everyone had to start sometime. BTW be careful putting the HSF on that Athlon you can crush the core and its not all that hard.
Click to expand...

as i heard it, the 8500 cards are better than the 9000 cards. i am fairly sure most cards out there now are at least direct x 8.1 compatible.


the sound card is to take sound processing away from the CPU, and increase performance of it. maybe one of those non- Creative Labs cards would work well too...

 
Originally posted by: Xionide
Originally posted by: Liken
Originally posted by: Koing
any gfx will do. They all run well and game well also just not with max settings and anything higher then 1024x768.

Any case will do. The psu I get separate as the cases I get don't come with one. Anyone with 300 or 350w will do.
Click to expand...

you mean geforce FX?

no, i dont want that god auful pos 😛

lol, jk. i just dont want to use the geforce fx series. i dont mind the geforce 4's, though.

she has a nec multisync 17" LCD monitor, one of those with a 16 ms response time. my parents, who dont know a thing about computers, seem to get lucky when buying us stuff, and give us the best stuff. 😀
Click to expand...

gfx = graphics.

wtf is afaik or ymmv tho?
Click to expand...

roflwtfnfikthxsrybye

 
don't get her 512 ram, get her 128. Don't buy her an sb live, let her use onboard sound. Get her a cheap 40 dollar case. Get her a geforce 2. Why go cheap on her? So u can save the money and spend some of it on urself. If she just emails and stuff that should be fine.
 
Ok onboard sound is not going to make a noticable difference on your CPU cycles. I said take a look at the 9000 b/c it is better than the MX cards, and since the MX cards are based on the same technology as the GeForce2's I am pretty sure they are only Hardware complient with DX 7.x. THe 9000 has a much smaller die than the 8500 thus making it a better OC, and in some cases beats the 8500 in test even though in the test it had half the memory so when it really did get beat was at the higher resolutions. So I personally would put a Radeon 9000 in the machine, or if your that worried about gfx proformance than bump up to a Ti4200 and put both cards to shame.
 
Originally posted by: touchmyichi
don't get her 512 ram, get her 128. Don't buy her an sb live, let her use onboard sound. Get her a cheap 40 dollar case. Get her a geforce 2. Why go cheap on her? So u can save the money and spend some of it on urself. If she just emails and stuff that should be fine.
Click to expand...

no, she needs the extra memory because she just got a digital camera as a birthday gift. im not an arsehole, and im not going too cheap on her. she plays some games, so i dont want to get a VERY crappy system.


besides, there's no benifit to me not getting her a good system. since my dad's footing the bill, i dont get any kickback for not going over budget, so... oh well.

im being such a nice person because i dont want to screw up on my own computer, when i decide to put forth the money and get a second computer. because i will be soon. so i want to learn on this machine. eventually, i'll be making my own based off the XP 2500+ barton, asus a7n8x deluxe, and 9800 pro. and i'll be overclocking that to hell. but that's down the line.


the fairly nice case is for my ease of working on it, not for aesthetics. anything would be better than the POS beige box that she has now. i mean right now she's using a dimension v350. ANYTHING will be better 😛
 
Well the Evercase is actually a very nice case to work in. I like the fact that all the drive bays are tooless in that I can take a drive in and out with out ever touching a screw or screw driver. You can get the case here and that powersuppy of Xionid looks good.
 
Nforce or Nforce 2 is the way to go
I know very few females on the planet that actually play FPS's, my wife is one of them and P0wnz me @ any UT based game.
A GF2MX should do her fine.
512 mb's? What's she doing with this digital camera that needs that much ram on her system?
Onboard sound is going to be fine.
List what your sister is going to do to prove the people wrong that think she needs a granny box(yes I'm one of them).
There's nothing wrong with building her a nice setup but c'mon it's a waste of your dad's money if all she's going to do is play solitare and check her email.
 
a granny computer would do decently, but she does play some games, so i want her to have some gaming options. stuff to run like warcraft 3, and that kind of stuff, admirably. not like my machine, but decent.


this is my project computer, and i'm gonna be stealing her old computer to use it as a car pc. so that means replacing the Power supply, and that kind of stuff... well, i hope i can swing a p2 on a car power supply..... hmm....
 
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