Decent Computer for Price?

thedog789 · Post by **thedog789** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 12:57 am

I am in need for a new computer as my current one keeps crashing if I leave it on for an extended period of time (screwing with my ratio - in a short period of time I can download a lot but not upload much at all - currently suspended all my downloading )

On ebay I found this system and I was wondering what people thought about it. For the price, it seems decent enough.

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-AMD-Athlon-64-4 ... dZViewItem

Individually bought retail, I estimate the system to be around $1400+. For the price, it seems very decent but I want to see what other people think before buying.

Also, for the monitor, I was thinking about either the Dell 1907FP
http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/prod ... ry_id=2999

Using a coupon I can bring it down to $236 + tax on $271.20 w/ free shipping.

Another monitor that I am considernig is the Tyrius T1901D8
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6824224008

Obviously the Tyrius is a bit cheaper with similar specs, but no point in getting a decent computer if I'm going to get a budget monitor.

Which monitor should I buy? Or should I consider a widescreen, maybe 20.1 inch?

In total I want to keep everything under 1500, the lower the better. But this will have to last a while.

Any advice at all will be appreciated.
Thank you!

Joe88 · Post by **Joe88** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 1:25 am

You can still salvage your comp.
It might be infected with tons of spyware/adware and virus causeing it to crash or slowdown almost to a complete stop.
So if you have a scanner update and scan your comp.
Or another option is to do a fresh install. Turn off your comp. Pop in the win xp disk upon startup and let it boot the cd. You can then chosse to do a fresh install.

If you really want to buy a new one, then you can build you own, better then that model for about $850, around that price range.

Its up to you though.

thedog789 · Post by **thedog789** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 2:37 am

Well I did reformat and reinstall a clean Windows, but the dreaded BSOD still comes up on a regular basis.
Seeing as how I'm on a Pentium 4 1.4 GHzw/ 256 MB RAM and a Geforce 2 MX 400, a new system is the clear way to go.

Would considering waiting for Conroe but a computer is needed for school since the crashes are messing me up.

$349.10 AMD Opteron 165
$165.94 ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe

thedog789 · Post by **thedog789** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 3:04 am

$187.26 for both Antec Solution SLK3000-B Black Steel ATX Mid Tower and Antec TruePower 2.0 TRUECONTROL II-550 ATX12V 550W

$159.35 OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered Dual Channel Platinum System Memory Model OCZ4002048ELDCPE-K - Retail

$190.85 XFX GF 7600GT Extreme 256MB PCIe

Everything else I guess I can gut from my old computer.
PATA Hard drives
Keyboard/mouse
network card

etc

Am I lacking anything? Any cheaper suggestions? I want something cheap, but also that will last me for many, many years.

The Opteron I will prob try to OC to 2.4GHz ish.
Is the RAM any good for OCling?

ANY help at all would be very much appreciated. Thanks!

thedog789 · Post by **thedog789** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 3:07 am

Posting in sections because computer crashed during my second, long post with links -_-.

Total - 1136.65

I guess I could reuse my old computer case.

Basically this is all just a very very rough build.

Help! lol

Willen · Post by **Willen** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 3:42 am

Depending on what happens when it crashes, it may be a bad power supply or bad airflow/dirty or dead fans. Especially if it is as old as it seems.

Why are you looking at the AMD Opteron 165? For a little more, you could get the AMD X2 4200+ for $355. It's got a faster clock 2.2GHz, compared to 1.8GHz. And the L2 Cache difference isn't significant for desktop use. Unless you are intending to overclock much higher than 2.2GHz.

Kariudo · Post by **Kariudo** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 9:12 am

You could save a bit of money on the graphics card.
the card you are looking at is more aimed twords gamers on a budget.

although I haven't been able to test my system (yet) it seems that my eVGA GeForce 6600 is more than enough

I'd also reccomend the dual-core processor (performanace increases drop off significantly after the x2 4200 and x2 4400)

LunaAislin · Post by **LunaAislin** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 11:41 am

I agree built you own you can use your old network card, monitor, case, keyboard, harddrive, sound card and get a bumch of pimp parts for 700-800 dollars.

thedog789 · Post by **thedog789** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 11:53 am

I was looking at the Opteron 165 simply because it is relatively cheap and supposedly can overclock to 2.7GHz and higher on the stock fan. For my purposes, since I'm a complete noob, I was planning to OC to around 2.4GHz, which would make it equivalent to a 4800+ (roughly).

The family of Intel Conroe processors will initially consist of four models: E6700, E6600, E6400 and E6300 that will operate 2.67GHz, 2.40GHz, 2.13GHz and 1.86GHz, respectively. The E6700 and E6600 models will sport 4MB unified L2 cache, whereas the E6400 and E6300 will have 2MB unified level-two cache. Pricing of the parts is expected to be quite aggressive: $529, $315, $240 and $210, according to some sources. In the Q4 2006 the maker will also add the model E6800 that works at 2.93GHz and features 1066MHz bus along with 4MB cache.

lol makes me want to wait a bit longer......

And all the prices I mentioned were AFTER shipping charges and tax.

gangstaj8 · Post by **gangstaj8** » Thu Apr 13, 2006 2:16 pm

What if it's your HDD that's failing? Have you run any diagnostics?