Printable View
Well, it looks as though lack of knowledge or not, building the PCs is really going to be my only option. I spoke with Dell and a few other wholesalers I would be willing to work through and they don't carry ps/2 support anymore :( I could use the usb-ps/2 adapators...but am trying to stay away from adaptors if possible.
Not at all. I had a wierd lag problem in cities that magically went away when I upgraded to 2GB. A lot depends on how many mods you're running, whether you surf the web in the background on your main box and if you run stuff like GameCam/Fraps/Winamp/etc.Quote:
Originally Posted by Ohls
I'd highly recomend a CPU, and a hard drive. You won't get much done otherwise.Quote:
Originally Posted by Jezebel
lol.
Hahaha.
Hey Guys,
Glad to see more upcoming boxers. Grats on the green light from the wife. I know exactly how that goes, "you need HOW many computers?!" :)
I've done both. I've built my own, and I've bought bare bone systems. I'll tell you from many years of experience.
I learned that it’s not a good idea to buy the cheapest case out there, all of which come with a crappy power supply that goes the first year of use. My new main machine I just bought I spent a lot of my case and power supply. More then necessary but I did it because I don’t want to face any down time.
Building your systems today is pretty easy, no IRQ, DMA, COM, ETC jumpers to set. It’s just a matter of selecting the hardware you need. Which takes time. I spent a week speccing out my new machine, making sure the hardware I selected will work. Even posted the setup here, to see if anyone could find a flaw with it. The hard thing about building a new machine for me is, I work on old crap all the time but nothing this new, always old stuff. So when it comes to building one I've never worked stuff this current which raises a lot of questions, such as how RAID-0 configurations work, SLI linking, and other newer common configs. So I have do to a lot of research.
As a base you can look at existing bare bones systems out there (Motherboard CPU combos) to see what people are using. In my case, I wanted a new main machine, 3.0 GHz Core 2 Duo. I looked up what mother boards could handle that CPU, selected an ASUS mother board, then looked up those two components together to see if anyone else out there was using it. I found from my reading that they work great together with one exception. If the BIOS on the mother board was old it wouldn’t recognize the processor, to fix you just need to flash the BIOS. Mine came with the new BIOS on it already so I didn’t even have to deal with it. But I knew what to expect is what I’m getting at here.
Once you have your motherboard and CPU out of the way, it’s pretty much down hill from there. What’s great about the whole thing is, if you have the patience you can find answers to every hardware configuration out there. It’s just a matter of time. Plus you have forums like these to post your hardware setup for others to review and help out as well. Just expect to spend some time researching, it can take days before you feel your ready and know what to expect from your setup you have picked out. You just have to pace yourself sometimes, you can get lost a lot researching. It's to be expected you don't do this everyday!
If you do want to go with preexisting, If possible try to go with a local PC store. Just for the simplicity of troubleshooting and replacement. I recently purchased a premade computer from the Net; I spent a ton on it and its gone defective now 3 times. I haven’t seen that computer since June. Long story short it’s now in the hands of my attorney and I’m suing that company.
Trust me you don’t want to get something from a company you never heard of before because the deal sounds good on paper. I’m undergoing a lot of crap right now because I made that poor choice.
Perhaps there are a few places people can recommend that makes good barebones systems. I don’t know any, I don’t do it anymore.
Speaking of which this brings us to sites like EBay, Price watch, local computer show and other sites were you may also find a good deal on PC parts. I’ve used them all and something else I learned.
I’ve bought many things from all of them. These are small risks. I’ve had both good and bad experiences. Each company or store has there own return policy. Some of which are terrible. Under the normal circumstances for me it was a lot of grief and many many hours on the phone to try to get a part replaced that went defective. Also a lot of down time.
I purchase all my parts from newegg.com. This site is not the cheapest out there but I’m assured a few things by doing it. For the little extra cost compared to super cheap no ones heard of you store, I know the return policy and what I’m up against with newegg. They have excellent customer service and one phone number. I don’t have to dig in receipts to find the vendor I purchased the part from, because I already know who I used. Not only that they are damn fast with getting the part out to you (normally 2 days max for me).
Yeah you’ll pay $10-$30 more per part compared to Pricewatch.com in some cases but I honestly feel it’s worth it. I’ve done it all and I’ll gladly pay the little extra.
It boils down to how much down time can you afford? In my case with 5 boxing if one goes down, I’m screwed until that one PC is back up and running. Down time is not an option for me, so I paid the little extra and went with newegg.
Just two things to remember if you choose to build your own computer. Do not buy a cheap case or power supply. Cheap cases some times have bad grounding problems, such as the machine that now is my wife’s (this power supply has been replaced 4 times, in 4 years). Not because it a bad power supply brand, but because of this case. I’ve had a lot of power supply’s die on me in other computers, simple because they were cheap.
For clarification a good power supply isn’t much. $100 maybe a little less. As for case I’m not sure what you have to spend. Looking at Newegg reviews on cases you can get a feel for them doing a little searching.
You can build a PC to run wow fine for $380 Complete. Or you can spend more so they are compatible for future games. Mine cost $480 each, spent a little extra so I have the option of going back to EQ2 or playing the new War hammer.
Another option you have is spend 1.2k on a really nice computer, then $10 for Key clone. Less electric, heat, more room. The down side is your limited to windowed mode with 5 copies of wow running. But were talking financially a big price difference here. I had an idea, not sure if it would work. But if you got something like an 8800GTS video card that has duel video outputs on it. Wonder if you can put 3 wow windows on one mother and two on another. Or even run two video cards, you could then hook up 4 monitors. That would be pretty bad ass actually. Another down side is, future games, how many clients you could run. Anyway it’s just a cool suggestion =)
Hope that was helpful. 8)
Incredibly so, thanks :)Quote:
Hope that was helpful.
I spent a better part of today looking at setups and reading on newegg (I'm glad it fell in line with your suggestion, honestly I was only looking at their site because I could navigate much easier..heh). Here is my first draft of a system...please, thoughts, suggestions, criticisms.
ASUS Black SATA DVD-ROM Drive Model DVD-E616A3T OEM - OEM
Item #: N82E16827135151
($18.99 each)
CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model VS1GBKIT400 - Retail
Item #: N82E16820145440
($54.99 each)
already thinking of upping this to 2g(2x1gb)
EXCELSTOR Jupiter Series ESJ8080S 80GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
Item #: N82E16822210003
($36.99 each)
Hanns·G HW-173DBB Black 17" 8ms DVI Widescreen LCD Monitor - Retail
Item #: N82E16824254018
($149.99 each)
ECS RS482-M754 A 3200+ AMD Athlon 3200+ 754 ATI RS482 Micro ATX Motherboard/CPU Combo - Retail
Item #: N82E16813135058
($69.99 each)
Microsoft Windows XP Home With SP2B 1 Pack - OEM
Item #: N82E16832116056
($88.99 each)
Would it just be worth it to go to Vista??
EVGA 256-P2-N751-TR GeForce 8600GT 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 SLI Supported Video Card - Retail
Item #: N82E16814130085
($114.99 each)
COOLER MASTER eXtreme Power RP-550-PCAR ATX from factor 12V V2.01 550W Power Supply - Retail
Item #: N82E16817171016
Combo'ed with case listed below.
COOLER MASTER Centurion 541 RC-541-SKN1 Black Aluminumm bezel, SECC chassis MicroATX Mini Tower Computer Case - Retail
Item #: N82E16811119088
($99.98 each)
Sub Total: ~$655.91 (Does not include s/h, there are also a few parts that I can get as combos for less than they are listed..I think I posted the combo price here; but my wish-list does not list them as combos which is what I used for the sub-total :-P)[/quote]
Glad it was helpful. =) Here's my review.
Everyone has there own taste and brands. So I’ll list off if I think it’s ok. Then state my option about the selection. It’s totally up to you and most will have their own suggestions as well.
ASUS Black SATA DVD-ROM Drive Model DVD-E616A3T OEM - OEM
Item #: N82E16827135151
($18.99 each)
GOOD
CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model VS1GBKIT400 - Retail
Item #: N82E16820145440
($54.99 each)
already thinking of upping this to 2g(2x1gb)
VERYGOOD. I run a gig in mine, works perfect. Plenty for WOW.
EXCELSTOR Jupiter Series ESJ8080S 80GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
Item #: N82E16822210003
($36.99 each)
OK. I’ve not worked with this brand. IBM uses these but the ones I work on have Deskstars (excellent drives) in them. I like Western Digital myself. I hate Maxtor, no matter how many people out there love them.
Hanns•G HW-173DBB Black 17" 8ms DVI Widescreen LCD Monitor - Retail
Item #: N82E16824254018
($149.99 each)
OK. I leave this to someone else, I’m not the best one to ask on monitors. I am a brand loyal type of guy however. That’s why I use all Viewsonics. Never had one fail on me ever. Same price.
ECS RS482-M754 A 3200+ AMD Athlon 3200+ 754 ATI RS482 Micro ATX Motherboard/CPU Combo - Retail
Item #: N82E16813135058
($69.99 each)
POOR. Looking at the reviews on newegg, I wouldn’t feel safe about this purchase. Not enough feedback. The feedback is your arsenal and personal assurance for building this PC. That said after looking at it, looks too scary to me. The Motherboard and Cpu IS the computer. I’ve not worked with ECS. After trying a few brands out there I’ve gone with ASUS for everything anymore. Only reason again is flawless experiences. An ASUS is a higher value board and as such it costs a little more. Many will tell you to go with a decent motherboard it’s worth it’s weight in gold. I have some pretty cheap no named mother boards in my Alt computers that I bought (barebone systems) that so far have had no problems. But from now on I’m sticking with ASUS reguardless. If I was going to do it again, with the processor you picked out here is what I personally would get
Asus mother board ASUS A8V-VM SE 939 VIA K8M890
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131069
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Orleans 2.0GHz
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103031
More research required for suggested hardware. Take a look on the net to see if you can find “personal” reviews on this combo. Many companies offer it, that doesn’t mean it’s a good hardware configuration. I like to find things on tech forums about performance, and ease of setup if possible.
Microsoft Windows XP Home With SP2B 1 Pack - OEM
Item #: N82E16832116056
($88.99 each)
Would it just be worth it to go to Vista??
There are a couple solutions to this cost. If you are a college student taking any computer science classes you can get this free from the Microsoft Software Alliance program. There is also a Linux solution which is free, however setup and rollout I wouldn’t wish on anyone. There is also another way, which I shouldn’t suggest here on the forums but all of you know what I’m talking about. I’ll send you a PM.
EVGA 256-P2-N751-TR GeForce 8600GT 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 SLI Supported Video Card - Retail
Item #: N82E16814130085
($114.99 each)
Excellent! You could go a little cheaper if you wish (for wow only). But this is a soild choice.
COOLER MASTER eXtreme Power RP-550-PCAR ATX from factor 12V V2.01 550W Power Supply - Retail
Item #: N82E16817171016
Combo'ed with case listed below.
Good. Cooler Master makes some soild stuff. Looking at specs, and user reviews it looks like a good buy. There are a couple brands out there that people will suggest, but I feel safe this choice. Also that fact it’s included with the case at that price is great!
COOLER MASTER Centurion 541 RC-541-SKN1 Black Aluminumm bezel, SECC chassis MicroATX Mini Tower Computer Case - Retail
Item #: N82E16811119088
($99.98 each)
Looks Good, I like to spend more on a case but high user reviews. You will need to purchase Cooling fans for the case. Depending on how much noise you want to deal with you may want to invest in some decent ones. I’ve had a bad experience with a Cooler Master CPU fan. The bearings worn out after a few months of use and it sounded like an aircraft. I haven’t bought enough fans and CPU coolers to make experience based suggestions but these Zalman fans I have in my Zalman case are super quite. Too soon to tell if it’s a good buy as I’ve only built the PC two weeks ago. For the record my alt computer cases are cheaper then hell. I didn't make the buy a nice case rule from now on until I received my new computer case.
Something kinda on the same page I'd like to bring up. I've always used the stock sound card that's built in to ASUS mother boards. Or for any other mother board for that matter.
When I built my main machine I decided to give a new Creative card a try.
Creative X-FI Xtremegamer
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16829102005
It would be a waste to put this in "Alt" computers. But for your main computer if you have extra money to burn all I can say is THIS THING ROCKS. Every day when I sign on I can't beleave what this card does to wow and how it makes it sound. The added effects, noises it just amazes me.
Okay, silly question time. The new mobo you suggested has different dimensions, 9.6x8.0 while my case is listed as 9.6x9.6. Now my impulse would be to believe that because my case dimension spec is higher I should be able to use it with the different mobo. But I don't wanna go on that alone. Would someone be able to explain to me how the mobo dimensions and the case dimensions work with each other? Do they have to be exactly the same or can they be different, if they can be different what are the rules governing acceptable differences?
**Edited for typos...
That particular motherboard is a MicroATX form factor and so is the case you have listed in your post so it should fit like a glove. I personally dislike microATX because it's a bit small for my taste.Quote:
Originally Posted by Tiuz