Pricewatch help...

[dwchang]

Can I get my endorsement check now?

LOL

I guess if you bought a Thoroughbred B or Barton since I worked on those a few months ago.

[SS5_Majin_Bebi]

I have an AMD Athlon XP 1800+ now and it works wonders. Very efficient and capable. Wish it was a 3000+ but...I dont have that kind of money, and I don't know if my motherboard could handle it

By the way, whats the "thoroughbred" tacked on to the end of it mean, if anything?

[dwchang]

I have an AMD Athlon XP 1800+ now and it works wonders. Very efficient and capable. Wish it was a 3000+ but...I dont have that kind of money, and I don't know if my motherboard could handle it

By the way, whats the "thoroughbred" tacked on to the end of it mean, if anything?

Well a model 3000+ is a Barton model. It has a larger cache and higher Front-side Bus, so you will *at least* need a BIOS upgrade. It really depends on what you have. Also, to maximize the performance, you'd need new RAM that runs at the equivalent FSB. I personally would rather just wait (if yours is sufficient) and go all out when you need to. That's what I did and I *hope* for it to last 3 - 5 years.

[SS5_Majin_Bebi]

yeah, I'm probably just gonna save up and get either a 2600+ or maybe a 2800+ when I have the money, i'm fairly sure my m'board can handle that. its not a top end board though, it was in a budget system. Its like a Shuttle M32KN or something like that. I'll look tonight and find out.

[TaranT]

I'm scared to build the computer myself. I have some people at work who are willing to help me, but I don't know. I feel bad having them help me. My father could help me but he has a habit of frying mother boards.

I would prefer to have the main pieces assembled. I know I can plug in a few drives, and the video card, but it's the whole mother board to case to fan thing and plugging in memory or what ever that freaks me....

That's the impression I was getting, so probably a lot of the above is useless information. The obvious option is to get a complete system from CompUSA, Best Buy, etc. The Compaqs and eMachines can be used for editing, and some of the Sony's are built for it. eMachines can be found at good prices. But be advised that the internals of the name brand machines can be different than the accepted standards.

Another option is to find a small to medium sized PC shop in your local area. Every urban area has several of these; the names and sizes will vary. The guys working in these places usually (not always!) know what they're talking about. They build their PCs on the premises and typically to order. If you can build a relationship at one of them, you can get more help and info than at the large stores. The warranties are shorter (90 days typical), but service and repair is onsite.

One of the larger chains is PC Club. A couple of these just opened up in the Seattle area and we've started to buy stuff from them. Prices are a bit higher than the e-tailers, but still...they're not bad.

I mention PC Club because their "locations" page lists a large number of stores in California. You might be able to find one close to you. They currently have a P4 2.4GHz system in your price range ($629 + upgrades).

[anneke]

Well I'm learning some stuff. I may be a computer programmer but when it comes to hardware I'm lost. I don't want to just buy a Dell or such off the shelf, because I did that last time, and didn't get my money's worth. The system was not as good as I needed or hoped. And why two years later I'm upgrading.

Anneke

[Zarxrax]

You need to upgrade every two years anyways ;p

[dwchang]

You need to upgrade every two years anyways ;p

Nah! I intend to use my dual athlons for a long time. I had a friend in college who had a dual PII 400 while I had a PII 400 with both of us coming in as a freshman. By my Junior year, I had to upgrade to a 1.2 Ghz, but his dual PII was still sufficient. I might add it was better in a lot of ways (it is two processors).

Then again, I shouldn't say "definitely" since I do work at AMD and getting free chips REALLY makes upgrades cheap. In theory, all I'd have to get is a new MB when the MP Athlon 64's really pick up. I'm guessing my two HDs, DVD+/-RW, soundcard, etc. could go into it. Then again, I could realistically see myself doing small upgrades like video cards (GeForce FX perhaps?) and RAM throughout the years, but almost everyone should do that to maximize the lifetime of their computer.

In conclusion...build a dual .

[klinky]

It's really not that hard to build a computer. So long as you atleast touch something metal before you go diving into building it. There really isn't anything you can hook up backwards or wrong that would make the computer blow up.


There should be some tutorials out there on how to do this easily enough.


It's not that hard

[TaranT]

It's really not that hard to build a computer. So long as you at least touch something metal before you go diving into building it.

Someone who has seen Serial Experiments Lain might get the idea that standing in a pool of water while building a PC is a good idea. It ain't. In fact, it's a really bad idea. And Lain's advice to work on hardware while in your underwear...that's just interesting. I'd pull the drapes before I did that, but everybody's different .

There really isn't anything you can hook up backwards or wrong that would make the computer blow up....

This is mostly true with the exception of IDE and floppy drive cables. Nowadays they are usually keyed (there's only one way to plug them in). But I have come across cables that were keyed the wrong way or which had no key at all. It pays to know where pin 1 is and that's not always obvious. Also, connecting the LED and switch wires from the case can be confusing w.r.t. polarity.