Acmlm's Board - I2 Archive - Hardware/Software - What should I get?
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HyperLamer
Posts: 1969/8210 |
Yeah, I'm thinking about just getting a new HD and saving up for a new everything else. I might have to go for 200GB, I've already got 37GB of downloads lined up.  (Anim |
Jizuko
Posts: 823/1191 |
Maxtor and Caviar are good through experience, but harddrives are the easy part, not much that can go wrong. Samsung and Seagate are also good.
You can get a 200gb hd for about 150USD, that's probably a bit much on your budget and given your current comp I doubt you'd ever use that much anyway, but that gives you an idea of the price.
I would not take a graphicscard, all PCI graphics card are shit, except voodoo 2 of course. If I were you I'd save up money for a new motherboard and cpu + ram, they usually sell packages of that for not much at all. Example from a swedish harddware store on the net;
for 467,46 USD you get;
Intel Pentium 4 3.0 GHz Boxed PC800 Socket PGA478, 1MB cache, Prescott
TwinMOS PC3200 DDR-DIMM 512MB CL2.5 Minne 184-P (for DDR-PC400MHz) (AMD OK)
Abit IS7-E2G Motherboard for S478/800mhz I865PE, SATA, ATX, Dual-DDR, GbLAN
NN Antishock Armlink 1.8 meter BW-106BL-L4 <-- Only for pussies >)
Now that's just an example, I'd change the p4 to athlon. So, saving up will do you good. |
Prier
Posts: 4029/8392 |
Hard drive, Video Card, New Comp in order of preference...reason I say new comp is to boost the CPU that you have.
But considering a lower end Celery vs my PIII with more RAM than I have, I'd probably go hard drive first, at least a 60 or 80. Maybe at the same time get a relatively decent vid card (if your comp's mobo doesn't support AGP, there probably isn't 'decent' in the picture, hence second pref since you'd probably be getting yourself a PCI card).
As for hard drive, Maxtor. Seriously. I put a 30 gig in a friend's comp several years ago and it's still ticking, I put a 60 in this one about a year and a half ago and it's still ticking. The Western Digital 60 that I had lasted maybe 2...but then it was a first model type of 60 gig...
But Maxtor has stayed solid with me at least. I want to say the exact name is something like DiamondMax 9, 7200 RPMs, and I'm pretty sure that 10 is out now if I've been reading right (mags). |
HyperLamer
Posts: 1962/8210 |
Yeah, I need a new computer, but I can't afford it. For now, I'm just gonna work on this one a bit.
So it looks like the votes are mainly for a hard drive and TV card. So on to the next step, what are good brands of each? (Keeping price range and my crappy system specs in mind.  ) |
Ran-chan
Posts: 4660/12781 |
Well, I think that you should get a brand new computer. I |
HyperLamer
Posts: 1922/8210 |
Good point. I generally use it for web browsing, some low-end games (ROMs mostly), and software development. I use Photoshop a lot though, and often like to mess around with N64 games on it (which barely works - graphic glitches, and forget having sound on). Plus I tend to have a lot of programs open at once (I've managed to fill up the taskbar a few times, vertically at 1280x1024), and a lot of mine use a good bit of graphic memory. (Map editors and the like.) On Win98 they won't even work with a 4MB card, but XP's able to manage the memory well enough to work around it. (BTW, I have Linux, Mandrake 9.1 to be specific, but I rarely use it because of hardware conflicts (or I just don't know how to get it online ). I usually use WinXP.)
Originally posted by ErkDog
multi vote enabled....
Thanks.  |
Xeolord
Posts: 583/3418 |
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't see you mentioning anywhere exactly what you do and want to do with your computer? 
So I'm going to also say definently get a bigger HD. |
ErkDog
Posts: 865/982 |
multi vote enabled.... |
Zem
Posts: 273/1107 |
They do make PCI cards still. I am sure of that much. I guess they won't be as good as the AGP ones of the same grade, but they are available. |
Ailure
Posts: 5665/11162 |
Get a new computer.
Eh, honestly your computer is decent. It just needs more space. Get a HD. I call anything above 500 mhz, 128 mb ram decent. 
And well, if you get more ram you should better get a better OS too with good memory managment. You have Linux which have better memory managment that Windows me/98/95. But if I was you I would try to find Windows 2000/XP and install that too. Belive me you computer will probably be faster with that OS... 
I can't decide if you should take a new video card or RAM. But good luck finding a PCI one... do they still exist? |
Zem
Posts: 261/1107 |
True, if he has to replace the CPU and RAM... but even if that's the case, a socket A motherboard (with an AGP slot), a decent (by today's standards) CPU, and enough RAM to equal what he probably has already could be found for under $200. That alone would be a big improvement, and it opens the path later if he wants a good AGP video card or anything else.
Of course, I don't really know what I'm talking about, so if I'm entirely mistaken feel free to ignore me. |
Tarale
Posts: 693/2720 |
I'm guessing the price of a motherboard is prohibitively expensive. Most likely anyways... and if you get a new mobo, you may as well get a new CPU and RAM.... quite possibly will have to anyways... which is why it becomes prohibitively expensive. |
Zem
Posts: 259/1107 |
Is there any reason you can't get a new motherboard? That seems to be inhibiting a lot of your options. =( |
HyperLamer
Posts: 1909/8210 |
Originally posted by Tarale
It says select 2, but it only lets me pick one...
I voted for Hard Drive. It's one item you can transfer to a new PC if you get one too, and you can never have too much storage 
Shit, I forgot to enable multiple voting.  Any admins that could change that? (Plus maybe add colours. ) |
Pegasus
Posts: 195/251 |
I vote for HD.
I would get an internal Hard Drive, you definitely need more storage space. Here in CT in the US (which I know you don't live here) you can get a "Maxtor 40GB 7200 RPM IDE Internal Hard Drive" for $69.98 US dollars. Even then, a 40GB Hard Drive may not be enough, a bit off topic, but I use Connectix Virtual PC 4.1 with alot of virtual hard drives (.vhd) on it. So I would probably get a HD much bigger than that if you can, unless you really don't use up that much space, but I would get a bigger HD just in case, you never know how big of a file you might get. 
Hope this helped! |
Smallhacker
Posts: 801/2273 |
I would choose a TV-In Card and an USB HD. |
Jizuko
Posts: 805/1191 |
Woa, where's the "Go to town and whore to get more cash"? I'd say everything. But you definately need to upgrade atleast the HD, although I don't know if you'll have much use for it since you can't run new games (which take alot of hd space) and I doubt you keep alot of video files on the comp anyway.
You have my pity. |
Tarale
Posts: 688/2720 |
It says select 2, but it only lets me pick one...
I voted for Hard Drive. It's one item you can transfer to a new PC if you get one too, and you can never have too much storage |
HyperLamer
Posts: 1887/8210 |
So, as you all know Christmas is coming. My dad's willing to spend around 100 bucks (Canadian of course) on a gift. (I'd ask for a video game or two, but those are both fun and Japanese. That's two strikes against them, as far as he's concerned.  So I figure I'll get new computer stuff instead.) I also usually get around $80-$150 (usuall $100) from various cards. Since most of these items cost around $100, I ask that you select TWO unless it's particularly expensive.
As for a breakdown of each:
Hard Drive
Currently at 15GB total (plus 3.6 Linux), 3 free, with compression, plus an old 3GB drive. Looking for at least 150GB, preferrably 200+.
RAM
192MB at the moment. I have more but it's the wrong speed, not sure what speed it takes but probably slow.
Video Card
Incredibly sucky onboard Intel 4MB. Looking for around 128MB with decent 3D. (Some of my own programs are starting to exceed my video capabilities. Lucky WinXP does a pretty good job of making up for it, but that's pretty slow.) I'd also like an AV Out function so that I could use a TV as a second monitor for watching movies and such. (In addition to connecting a second monitor to the onboard card. )
Note: I DO NOT HAVE AN AGP PORT.
Sound Card
Mine's fine except that when I record from anything, it's horribly fuzzy. Even if I just use Sound Recorder to record the sound being played (as in no hardware connections at all) it comes out at a hideous quality even when the sound being played sounds fine. I'd like to fix that and possibly get one of those 3D Sound things.
TV-In Card
I'd really like to have one of these. Right now I have my TV next to my monitor but I don't think that's good for them and I'd like to free up the space. Plus being able to do things like have a TV window on the screen, and of course doing things that my TV can't do. (Who wouldn't want their "TV" to automatically turn the volume way up and put on the morning news at 8:00 AM, but only on the days they have to get up? )
USB Hard Drive
Around 5GB or so, something I could install some programs (including Visual Studio Enterprise, if possible) and copy some files to and use them elsewhere. Needs to be fast of course.
CPU
I'd love to replace this piece of crap 800Mhz Celery with something that doesn't suck, but my motherboard probably won't support much in the way of new CPUs. (Anyone know how to make a Z80 run at 3Ghz, have 32 bit address and data buses, and wire it into a CPU slot? The hell with porting, I'd write my own damn BIOS and OS if it meant running them on a Z80. )
For reference, my incredibly shitty computer is am HP Pavillion XG843. (And just to add to the pain, it comes with WinME installed. Formatted that pretty quick. ) Yes, I know I should just get a new computer altogether, but that's more in the range of $1000 Canadian, a bit too much for Christmas. It has 3 PCI slots (one free), no AGP port, and some weird-ass proprietary floppy drive. (It uses a different cable. I can't hook up a different one, which sucks a lot because this one's slow, loud, and hogs CPU power.  ) I live in Ontario so I'm looking at a very painful 15% tax, but my dad lives in Alberta with only 8%. He's not exactly computer-literate though, so he's likely to get the wrong thing...
So, suggestions? Free money for me to buy a new computer? Pity? |
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