Going to college and need to build a new computer...

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Hender

Senior member
Aug 10, 2000
647
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I have a 19" monitor in my dorm room, but it's one of the short depth models with a lighter, shorter pucture tube. That way, my 19" monitor is shorter and lighter than most 17" monitors, great for those cramped dorm desks. The trade-off is that the picture isn't as good as some high-end models, but really, all I do is websurfing, gaming, and paper-writing, and the quality is better than some of the monitors I use at school on lab computers. They aren't meant for graphic design, but anything else they're decent. Very few monitors have better picture quality than a Sony display with a Trinitron picture tube, but you'll pay through the nose for one. The model I have is a ViewSonic PS790, and I've had it for about 4 years with zero problems aside from a few strawberry daquiri splatters on it that I haven't gotten around to cleaning off yet. I've even shipped it across the country twice in the original box. There are several manufacturers that make short-depth monitors, but if you'd rather go for a regular tube, you'll max out at 17" to what will fit in a dorm room. I know a guy with a 20" monitor, and he had to put two desks side by side to fit the monitor and everything else on his desk. Luxury, but at what price? :)
 

amoralist

Member
Jul 7, 2001
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I don't think going with a Western Digital Drive is very smart.

Check the average seek time on that, seek time is a major bottleneck of a system. It should be minimized within reason.

Jason
 

NelsonMuntz

Golden Member
Jun 14, 2001
1,827
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IMO DDR is definitely the way to go and the Epox EP-8K7A is a great board at a great price for it. You can get the RAID version for $30 more and have the ability to RAID two hard drives. I have always been a firm believer in VIVO on the video card because it increases the versatility of your PC. While you could get an extremely feature packed card like the ATI All-in-Wonder Radeon, it might be better to get one with most of the features (VIVO) but better for gaming (GeForce 2 GTS) and cheaper. The ASUS V7700 Deluxe for $165 in Anand's most recent Weekly CPU & Video Card Price Guide. Although it won't be as good as a Pro, it will be sufficient for most games and there is a 64 Mb version for about $240 if you are willing to pay more. The cool thing about the VIVO is you could hook up an antennae to a VCR and hook the VCR to the card and watch TV without a TV turner card. Also allows one to watch video tapes and such. This can be a great benefit in a dorm room so you don't need a separate TV. If you are going to do this, I would definitely suggest a short neck 19" monitor so that the viewing size isn't too small.
 

haut

Member
Jul 16, 2001
82
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What hard drive should I go with then? I don't want it to cost too much and $80 for 30 GB isn't too bad. What's RAID? I've been out of computer stuff for a while and haven't heard of this. What benefits are there? Also, what are some good 19" short depth monitors. I also have my eye on a KDS 15" LCD for around $375 because it'd take up almost no space. Thanks all.
--Ryan
 

NelsonMuntz

Golden Member
Jun 14, 2001
1,827
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That hard drive sounds fine at a fine price. a fair priced monitor shipped is here. There is also an Hitachi on egghead.com for not much more with about the same dimensions and features if that one is still out of stock.
 

thraxes

Golden Member
Nov 4, 2000
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DDR sounds sweet since it is priced close to regular SDRAM. But no matter which system you get, get as much RAM as u can!! Some people will say 512 is overkill... just ignore them, especially if you want to be creative: if that sound card you want to get is something to go by you will be wanting to do audio editing and perhaps music composition? For creative stuff RAM is king!

Don't get a graphics board with VIVO! I did that mistake once and have to deal with crappy driver support (Elsa Erazor2 Pro VIVO) that ended with me using the standard Nvidia drivers (next to no W2K support from Elsa) that only support the VidOut part but not the VidIn. If Asus has better support I don't know - Elsa was recommended to me because of their good track record with driver support but they don't seem to care about the VIVO versions of their boards. Also when you upgrade to a new graphics board, do you really want to spend the expense of a VIVO piece AGAIN?? Make life easy and get a good seperate TV-tuner card.

As a graphics card i would recomend a GF2 Pro with TV out. Ultra makes no sense to me at all from a value for money perspective. Then again I am no die hard gamer that goes into spasms when my FPS count dips under 100... remember that Elsa Erazor 2 is a TNT2 and I still use it!
 

haut

Member
Jul 16, 2001
82
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OK, time to place my orders. This is what I'm planning on ordering:

NEWEGG.COM
AMD TBird 1.33GHz - $126
Epox 8K7A - $120
Plextor 12x10x32 - $143
Mitsumi FDD - $9
Netgear NIC - $13
Logitech Optical scroll mouse - $14
Microsoft Natural Pro KB - $35
Cooler Master Fan - $11

CRUCIAL.COM
2x 256MB PC2100 RAM - $90

BESTBUY.COM
WD 30 GB 7200RPM HDD - $80

MWAVE.COM
MSI GeForce2 Pro GTS 64MB TV-Out - $152
Pioneer 16X Slot load DVD - $65
Enlight 7237 - $47

AXIONTECH.COM
Turtle Beach Santa Cruz - $76

Total should be around $1050 shipped.
I'm still undecided as far as monitor and printer go. I want to check out some monitors locally before ordering one. Thanks for all the suggestions so far guys!
--Ryan
 

Hender

Senior member
Aug 10, 2000
647
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Monitors are definately something to check out locally, if you can. Case too, if your order hasn't already been placed, because they're both so heavy and will cost you an arm and a leg in shipping.
 

shathal

Golden Member
May 4, 2001
1,080
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Monitors I would recommend to go for IIYAMA (iiyama) - they make great monitors (with fantast refresh-rates & resolutions for their sizes) at very nice prices ... have a look for that :).

Hope this helps :).

The only sucker with 17" or 19" is that they weigh a ton ... definite downer for the LAN-party goer... :(
 

NelsonMuntz

Golden Member
Jun 14, 2001
1,827
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Don't know if it's too late, but all motherboards with the AMD 761 northbridge have issues with the Netgear FA311-313 NICs. If the netgear you listed from Newegg is one of these, then I would change the order if it is not too late.
 

haut

Member
Jul 16, 2001
82
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Its not too late. I haven't placed any orders yet, I'll probably do that today. Maybe I'll order that case from www.tcwo.com because shipping is only $6.95 on all orders. Thanks for the info on the NIC, I'll look into getting a different one. Any suggestions? I think I'll go on a monitor run today and check out as many as I can. I was in love with the Viewsonic I had at school in graphic design. I think it was a 19" and it worked great for Photoshop. I'm running a 15" Trinitron right now @ 1024x768 and everything's pretty clear. I made the Excel spreadsheet for this and maybe I'll run a few different companies in there to figure out the cheapest shipping. I already figured out a way to save about $40 or so by switching a couple companies around and stuff. Thanks for all the help you guys!
--Ryan
 

thraxes

Golden Member
Nov 4, 2000
1,974
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Now that's a nice piece of kit you're getting!

Have fun putting it together, I know I would.
 

haut

Member
Jul 16, 2001
82
0
0
I've ordered roughly half the parts I'll need. I don't want to do the newegg order yet becuase I don't want my account completely drained. I want some extra. I'm just going to wait for my next paycheck, which should be within the week. I can't wait to get it all here! I found a place locally to get the TB Santa Cruz and it was about the same price as the cheapest pricewatch (with tax/shipping). Thanks for the suggestions!
--Ryan
 

Hender

Senior member
Aug 10, 2000
647
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Sounds pretty good. Does the CoolerMaster fan you're buying cool the Thunderbird 1.33 GHz well? You might want to consider something different, like the ThermalTake Volcano II is you get it from NewEgg. Those are pretty nice, I hear, but not as good-looking as their Orb line of fans.

It's always pretty nice setting up a computer from scratch, particularly one you've waited for. I've been waiting two years to upgrade my computer, and I'm finally doing it this summer and I'm going nuts waiting for the parts I ordered to arrive and moreso waiting for my next paycheck to pay for the rest. So close...and yet, so far.
 

haut

Member
Jul 16, 2001
82
0
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The cooler master fan on newegg was recommended by AMD (according to newegg) and said it supported up to 1.4+ GHz. Is the volcano II a lot better? Will I have any clearance problems with a big fan? I don't think I'll try overclocking right now but later on maybe. Out of curiosity, what are you building, Hender?
--Ryan
 

Hender

Senior member
Aug 10, 2000
647
0
0
Specs for my new system:

750 MHz Duron (I'm going to try it @ 1 GHz, first OC job I've done)
Shuttle AK31 revision2 MB
512 MB PC2100 Crucial DDR-SDRAM
Antec SX1030 chassis
Geforce2 Pro AGP video card
Turtle Beach Santa Cruz
Boston Acoustics BA4800 speakers
A bunch of rounded cables

That's all the new stuff I'm getting. I picked up a Duron 750 and not a Thunderbird 1.4 because I'm waiting for the Palaminos to come out for the desktop. I really want a 1.5 GHz chip. My Dad told me last Christmas he'd pay for my CPU upgrade in 2001 because he knew I'd be doing this, so I'll wait and take him up on that offer. My roommate is building a Duron system this fall to play TFC and CS (he's a Mac man), so I'll just sell him the Duron when I'm done with it and pop in a Palamino, no sweat. I'm keeping everything I'm not replacing, and I don't feel like writing all that stuff out, but you can look at my System Spec in my sig to see the rest of the stuff I have. SCSI subsystem...I'm proud of that. I'm not getting a Geforce3 because I can't afford one right now, and I'm waiting to see what ATI is offering with the Radeon2. That way the Geforce3 price will drop, and I can either get a Radeon2 or the next iteration of the Geforce3 when it's released this fall after saving up.

I've heard good things about the Volcano, but you may want to shop around for a better cooler. The ones on the AMD-approved list are notoriously bad--not necessarily in quality, but amount they cool. The Thunderbird is an intensely hot chip (another reason I'm waiting for the Palamino...slight temp drop), and while it can tolerate high temperatures by cooling not working up to snuff, the lower the better, even if you're not OC'ing. I found some good reviews at Club OC, AMDMB, and of course there are some good ones here at AnandTech. Those are just the ones I can remember off the top of my head. The Anandtech ones aren't very recent, but if you look around at some of those places you'll read some good reviews. The Swiftech top-of-the-line model is a killer cooler, but it costs $80. There are plenty of ones lower-priced. If you're set with the CoolerMaster, look around at some of those places and see if they review that particular cooler so you know what you're getting into, and you might find a suitable replacement should it not be up to snuff.
 

Flat

Banned
Jan 18, 2001
929
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<< I haven't read any reviews contending the DDR platforms are as STABLE as the most stable SDRAM platforms. Here at anandtech, the Asus, MSI, and Iwill motherboards ran for 48 hours without crashing. I don't think you'll find that in today's DDR platform.

Regarding the GEForce2 Pro comment, the lowest pricewatch is always something which should be tossed so you are not even arguing like an intelligent human being. Further, the Asus Deluxe comes with TV In, something very cool and likely not found on that card that you quoted. With TV In, one can burn their VHS tapes and cable programs/movies onto their computer no problem.

I'm less into excessively priced performance, and more into features and stability. Everyone knows that you'll pay premium for the state of the art... There is a sweet price point, and I think the GEForce2 cards and other components I mentioned are right there. This is important for a cash strapped student...

Jason
>>



Is it just me or is the guy an idiotici? Hmmm, Jason, become a senior member or atleast a member before we start making claims bout stability, etc. GF2 Pro is not state of the art, it is in the &quot;sweet price point&quot; it offers near Gf2 Ultra speed at a much lower price. Focker off, Jason