Maybe he spent most of his time in the political and news forum? Good question though. I too, would like to know the answer to that.
- Feb 8, 2001
- 29,033
- 6
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OT it is...Originally posted by: Gurck
No, he'd be battle-scarred and offensively cynical, I'm thinking OT
Actually I have a fair amount of building experience, having built 2 boxes both of which have gone through several upgrades. It's just my current PC has been problematic from the start and none of the troubleshooting has been easy. I may just end up betting a Mobo, CPU, RAM bundle and cross my fingers...
Another complication is in my personal life. I am in the midst of a move and a number of home renovation projects. I just don't have the space or time to spread out and build a box...
Specs? Specifically, motherboard & psu?
People will say Dell can match/beat DIY prices, and while it's semi-true for an email & internet rig (though the parts are lower quality and expandability is nonexistent), they're way overpriced for gaming rigs. Their markups on ram & video cards are ridiculous, and the Intel chips they use are more expensive and slower in gaming than their AMD counterparts. If you must buy a prebuilt, I'll reiterate that ABS & Monarch are probably your two best bets. Really though, what's ~2 hours to assemble ~8 parts, in the scheme of things?
What about this site?
http://www.cyberpowersystem.com/
I've never bought form them, but I have heard good things. And the prices are very reasonable too. I priced an exact PC, part for part from Newegg, and this place was slightly cheaper.
Anyone have any experience with them?
http://www.cyberpowersystem.com/
I've never bought form them, but I have heard good things. And the prices are very reasonable too. I priced an exact PC, part for part from Newegg, and this place was slightly cheaper.
Anyone have any experience with them?
Gamingphreek
Lifer
- Mar 31, 2003
- 11,679
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That is the big dilemma, if you build it and have problems, you will never hear the end of it from the wife. I didn't build my first computer until after I got kicked out of house - my first home built PC worked reliably and is still working 4 years later with an upgraded motherboard/CPU. I have had issues with a newer PC with video card going bad every few months.
Anyway, if you buy a prebuilt, then your wife bitches at the company, not you. It's your call!
BTW, I just bought a Dell because I had been having issues with my home built PC - built in Sept 2003 - in one years time the video card has failed 4 times, I've lost one memory stick and the computer has shut down randomly on a number of occasions spontaneously. I received a gift of $$ from my mother suggesting I go buy a "reliable" computer. Since the money was given with a stipulation - and her perception is Dell or other supposed quality factory built, I bought the following:
Dell Dimension 8400 P4 3.2 Ghz, 1 Gb DDR2, 160 SATA HD, 16X DVD-RW, 19" Flat LCD, Radeon X800SE for $1048 shipped. That should handle HL2 nicely since the video card is a bit faster than a Radeon 9800XT and I couldn't have built a PC with those specs etc for that price.
It sure is true when you get a HOT deal!
That's a SFF? I have one (Shuttle fx41 - see sig) hooked up to my TV downstairs, while they perform their specific purpose well, heat, noise and expandability can be problems due to their size. Unless you specifically need a SFF pc, I'd go with a standard ATX rig.
As far as problems with your current rig, it's hard to say. It could just be simple bad luck (bad hard drives), or it could be a heat problem with your case, or possibly a problem with your PSU's voltage, which caused your drives to fail... Don't know what to say, but whatever it is, it's bad luck and it's not commonplace with DIY rigs. DIY was actually rated the most satisfying option in a recent poll which put it up against some of the major manufacturers.
Aren't biostar motherboards unstable and unreliable to begin with? And stay away from Cyberpower PC, I've bought from them in the past and it was a nightmare that I do not wish upon my worst enemy.
I've worked with a fair number of Biostar motherboards - a good many of the computers at my office were generic clones with Biostar motherboards. They were all stable and solid. Not the motherboard I'd buy for a custom built PC, but sufficient for basic and office users.
There's no way I'd buy a barebones rig when I could build my own - cant understand why anyone would want to buy an XP2700 when there are far better CPUs to choose from, from AMDs own lineup.
At what price point? Probably the Barton core CPU's are the best value for a budget machine, then jump up to the AMD64 CPU's.
PingSpike
Lifer
- Feb 25, 2004
- 21,758
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Originally posted by: Mwilding
I have had 2 hard drives fry and numerous corruption issues in the past year and I am fairly certain is is one of three things:
FuB4red cables (least likely)
bad memory (most likely)
bad power supply (also likely)
I don't want to spend hours and hours troubleshooting and getting frustrated anymore...
You should probably just buy an Xbox then. Troubleshooting/driver nightmares go hand in hand with PC Gaming.
Have you run any stability tests on your current rig? I'd run memtest-86 for at least a few hours, and then prime 95 to see what they have to say. Could be a hosed stick of ram (which tends to cause all kinds of fun problems!) or maybe the cpu is overheating or something. Dirty/weak power from the PSU could also cause issues, particularly if you overclock.
It seems like the gf3 ti is really going to be pushing it regardling HL2...but I haven't tried running that yet so I don't know how much of a hog it is. I know my ti4600 is holding its own in doom3 at medium settings and low res. HL2 is a slightly different animal though.
I'm still taking a wait and see (or rather, wait and get cheaper) approach on A64 stuff. Some one else should probably help you pick out those.
If you want to stick with the old A-XP I can make a few suggestions. I've got a shuttle AN35N-ultra thats served me very well and costs almost nothing. It doesn't have any bells and whistles, but its cheap and has solid overclocking features. You'll likely want to setup dual channel ram, the performance increase isn't massive or anything but 2 sticks do not cost signifigantly more than 1. That kingston hyperX seems to be on sale lately for a good price. The XP mobiles are easy overclockers, I just picked one up myself...if you stick with XP those are really the way to go it seems.
I wouldn't get anything less than a 9800pro for graphics if you're buying new. I'm holding out for a bit more to snag one of those 6600 series cards probably.
PingSpike
Lifer
- Feb 25, 2004
- 21,758
- 602
- 126
Most reviews I've seen say good things about biostar on the reliability front. I'm planning to purchase one this christmas. I was concerned about that too, because they're so cheap. But newegg reviews have the boards fairing well after a ton of reviews, and the newer revisions even include a pretty robust set of bios options.
Dual G5 Power Mac. Talk about overpower, simplicity, elegane, total lower cost of ownership and maximum compatibility.
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