posted
good god! that would cost like $500 bucks in the states from a place like newegg.com or mwave.com (neither of which ships internationally, unfortunately). if you can get it, i would suggest a readeon 7500 over the geforce2 Ultra. the 7500 radeon is about as fast, has better image quality, and is cheaper to boot (at least in north america).
Saltah'na
Chinese Canadian, or 75% Commie Bastard.
Member # 33
posted
quote:Originally posted by akb1979: One quote:
1 K7S5A 1 Athlon 1600 XP 1 Athlon XP Fan 2 256Mb PC133 System Memory 1 64Mb Hercules Geforce Ultra 1 soundblaster live 5.1 oem 1 Invoice & Warranty Terms Total Price (inc. VAT & Delivery to mainland �673.64
The K7S5A is perhaps the best budget board out there. The chipset that it has is one of the fastest out there. This board allows for the use of both SDRAM and DDR SDRAM. Invest in perhaps just 256 MB of DDR SDRAM instead of 512 of regular SDRAM as your motherboard supports both, but not simultaneously. DDR SDRAM is twice as fast so therefore, it is better. The Video card is a good choice, that is if you are an avid gamer. Otherwise go for a 32MB with a cheaper GPU (but not too cheap) which would probably suit you just fine. As for sound, your board comes integrated with it, so unless you are a sound maniac, a sound card isn't that necessary. Your motherboard should have an AMR card included which will act as your modem. You also don't need an extra LAN card as the mobo again comes integrated with it.
-------------------- "And slowly, you come to realize, it's all as it should be, you can only do so much. If you're game enough, you could place your trust in me. For the love of life, there's a tradeoff, we could lose it all but we'll go down fighting...." - David Sylvian FreeSpace 2, the greatest space sim of all time, now remastered!
Registered: Mar 1999
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So should I keep my existing sound card and just plug it onto my new motherboard? Which memory type should I go for? HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELP!
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Registered: Apr 2001
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Saltah'na
Chinese Canadian, or 75% Commie Bastard.
Member # 33
posted
Personally?
Toss the sound card. Useless, unless you want ultra-surround-sound which is what most sound cards are designed for. But be sure to ask the computer guy to make sure that the mobo already has sound, some versions of a particular mobo come without it. Use DDR SDRAM. Even 128 MB will do the trick. Downgrade your video card, unless you plan to play a lot of games with it.
That's about it.
[ January 15, 2002: Message edited by: Tahna Los ]
-------------------- "And slowly, you come to realize, it's all as it should be, you can only do so much. If you're game enough, you could place your trust in me. For the love of life, there's a tradeoff, we could lose it all but we'll go down fighting...." - David Sylvian FreeSpace 2, the greatest space sim of all time, now remastered!
Registered: Mar 1999
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posted
I went from ob sound to a soundblaster live value, I found that this freed up my processor for some games but on the whole did not change that much except the programmes that came with it allowed me to have better control of my speakers. Definately go with the ddrram if you can. Do it quickly cause ram is going up again, it's been at a great low price but this has caused consolidation in the market forcing the price up. Oh, one other thing Sound Blaster does not support Windows ME, so depending on your system the programmes that came with it won't work. XP, 98SE are ok though.
-------------------- "and none of your usual boobery." M. Burns
Registered: Oct 2001
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Upgrade to a P4 1800MHz Soltek DDR P4 Board ATX Tower Case 256MB DDR Ram 64MB Ge Force Video Card
All fitted and configured
Price �546 + vat. Less 10% �491.40 + vat (until 31st Jan when sale ends)
= �577.39 inc vat
PS unless you have at least a 10 GB Hard Drive then I would recommend upgrading that, we could always take your parts as part exchange towards the price of a hard drive.
Considering the other quote was for a P3 equivalent, I think that I'll go for this as it's nearer to home. Plus is I go for the bigger HDD, it'll only cost me about �60 more which ain't bad. But I was hoping to keep my 6.4 GB HDD as nothing is wrong with it.
What do you think? I ask beacuse you all appear to know more about this sort of stuff than I do, and I value your expert and informed opinions.
-------------------- If you cant convince them, confuse them.
Registered: Apr 2001
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posted
an AthlonXP system is not a "P3 equivalent". the AthlonXP is much faster than a PentiumIV, clock for clock. for instance: a 1.667 gHz AthlonXP is the approximate equal of a 2.2 gHz Northwood core PentiumIV, and soundly beat a 2.0 gHz Northwood core PentiumIV. however, as the PentiumIV system is considerably cheaper and offers very good performance, i would get that.
posted
If you go to the athlon make sure you have a good heat sink though, cause those things fry in a second.
-------------------- "and none of your usual boobery." M. Burns
Registered: Oct 2001
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Saltah'na
Chinese Canadian, or 75% Commie Bastard.
Member # 33
posted
The core of the newer Athlons are designed in silicon, compared to the older ones which had a ceramic composition. It is supposed to be a lot less cooler compared to the predecessors. With a good heatsink, it should keep the core temperature to a more manageable 46 degrees celsius.
As for the Socket 478 Pentium 4s, if you look at the bracket that is around the processor, that is how BIG the heatsink for the Pentium 4 is.
-------------------- "And slowly, you come to realize, it's all as it should be, you can only do so much. If you're game enough, you could place your trust in me. For the love of life, there's a tradeoff, we could lose it all but we'll go down fighting...." - David Sylvian FreeSpace 2, the greatest space sim of all time, now remastered!
Registered: Mar 1999
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Well it cost me �758.23, but it was well worth it. I am now the owner of a Intel P4 1800Mhz PC with 256MB PC2100 DDR Ram, 64MB GeForce 2MX graphics card, 40Gig hard drive, and Windows Millenium operating system. I also have a new internet keyboard and a few free DVD movies converted to MPEGS.
I am well happy. The machine is sooooooooooo fast! It's like someone has led me into the light! HEHE!
-------------------- If you cant convince them, confuse them.
Registered: Apr 2001
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quote:A bad EBay auction experience spurs an ad hoc Internet manhunt by ordinary folk, who, like frontier vigilantes, find themselves skirting the law in their quest for justice.
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Registered: Mar 1999
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I go and install my CDRW drivers and put all my backed up files onto the HDD and now it won't shutdown properly! The guy tells me that I'll have to take my PC in for a replacement HDD - more hastle!!!! I only just got my Internet stuff back up and running - this isn't fair!
-------------------- If you cant convince them, confuse them.
Registered: Apr 2001
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posted
Ahh, my computer wouldn't shut down for a month. It went to a black screen, but never turned off. After a while, it started again. And since I fiddle with stuff all the time, I have no idea what I did.
If it works, don't worry about it.
-------------------- Yes, you're despicable, and... and picable... and... and you're definitely, definitely despicable. How a person can get so despicable in one lifetime is beyond me. It isn't as though I haven't met a lot of people. Goodness knows it isn't that. It isn't just that... it isn't... it's... it's despicable.
Registered: Mar 1999
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quote:Originally posted by PsyLiam: If it works, don't worry about it.
But I do worry about it as it is wrong and shouldn't do that.
I took it to the place where I bought it and had the technician check it out. He said that AOL IM could be interfering with the shut down sequence as well as a number of other things on my taskbar. He stopped them from coming up which means that I need to access them from the startbar (no big hastle). I actually saw the PC shut down properly with my own eyes at the shop. But when I'd got it home and plugged in - it didn't shut down properly!!!!
My Dad and I think that it may be a conflicting cable (sound silly? We don't know or care, we're looking at all angles).
So guys and gals I'd really like your help on this one. I'm thinking of buying Norton System Works 2002 - I had Norton System Works 2.0 on my old system and it kept it runnung smoothly - would that solve the problem?
HELP!!!
-------------------- If you cant convince them, confuse them.
Registered: Apr 2001
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