CALLING ALL COMPUTER HARDWARE GEEKS!

red_wall

red_wall

Whoosh! feel the onomatopoeia
Jun 15, 2008
964
0
0
SE Georgia
I'm fed up with my computer.
I've had it since 2001.
It was from walmart.
It was in the bargain bin.

If that doesn't explain to you how badly it sucks. Then I'm sorry.

I have a 31 gb hardrive.
I upgraded my video card to a ATI 1550.
And it has 760 mb of RAM.
PCI only

So, I'm about to stab my computer in the face, but, I'll hold back.
It can't run ANY, I mean ANY new games without extreme choppiness.
And, it overall just runs slow.

I went to cyberpower (pc building website) and I found a good build.



  • CASE: CoolerMaster Centurion 590 RC-590 Mid-Tower 420W Case
  • CASUPGRADE: NONE
  • CS_FAN: Default case fans
  • CPU: (Sckt775)Intel® Core™ 2 Duo E8400 CPU @ 3.0GHz 1333FSB 6MB L2 Cache 64-bit
  • CD: Sony 20X Double Layer Dual Format DVD+-R/+-RW + CD-R/RW Drive (BLACK COLOR)
  • CD2: NONE
  • CABLE: None
  • FLASHMEDIA: None
  • FAN: Thermaltake MaxOrb Enthusiast CPU Cooling Fan(Slient & Overclock Proof w/ Highest Efficiency Cooling)
  • FREEBIE_RM: None
  • FLOPPY: NONE
  • FREEBIE_OS: None
  • HDD: Single Hard Drive (500GB SATA-II 3.0Gb/s 16MB Cache 7200RPM HDD)
  • HDD2: NONE
  • IEEE_CARD: NONE
  • KEYBOARD: PS2 MULTIMEDIA INTERNET CONTROL KEYBOARD (BLACK COLOR)
  • MOUSE: Logitech Optical Wheel Mouse (BLACK COLOR)
  • MODEM: NONE
  • MULTIVIEW: Non-SLI/CrossFireX Mode Supports Multiple Monitors
  • MONITOR: NONE
  • MONITOR2: NONE
  • MOTHERBOARD: EVGA 750 SLI NVIDIA 750i SLI Chipset LGA775 Supports LGA775 FSB1333 DDR2/800 Mainboard w/GbLAN,USB2.0,&7.1Audio
  • MEMORY: 4GB (2GBx2) PC6400 DDR2/800 Dual Channel Memory (Corsair or Major Brand)
  • NETWORK: ONBOARD 10/100 NETWORK CARD
  • OS: Microsoft® Windows Vista™ Home Premium w/ Service Pack 1 (64-bit Edition)
  • PRO_WIRING: None
  • PRINTER: None
  • PRINTER_CABLE: None
  • POWERSUPPLY: 600 Watts Power Supplies [+117] (Thermaltake ToughPower 600 Watt Power Supply - Quad SLI Ready)
  • RUSH: NO; READY TO SHIP IN 5~10 BUSINESS DAYS
  • SERVICE: STANDARD WARRANTY: 3-YEAR LIMITED WARRANTY PLUS LIFE-TIME TECHNICAL SUPPORT
  • SOUND: HIGH DEFINITION ON-BOARD 7.1 AUDIO
  • SPEAKERS: 120 WATT STEREO SPEAKERS [-2] (BLACK COLOR)
  • TEMP: NONE
  • TVRC: None
  • USB: Built-in USB 2.0 Ports
  • USBHD: NONE
  • VIDEO: NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GTX 512MB 16X PCI Express [+75] (EVGA Powered by NVIDIA [+5]))

The price is $963, I think it's free shipping for right now. Probably won't be once I actually get all of the money haha.

Anyways, I found all of the parts on Newegg, and I'm pretty sure Itt'l be around 750 or 800 to get all of these. Would it be better to just build it myself? Or would I spend the extra 163 to have them build it for me? I would be foregoing the warranty, tech support, and pro wiring.

I checked my local computer shop and they charge $500-550! And that's just to build it! I was really surprised by that.

If you think Itt'l be better to build it myself, is there anyone who can guide me when I'm doing it?

Is there any upgrades to my current build I have planned out that you can see, that would make the PC even better? (Mother board, different brand of cpu/video card)

I really am tech savvy, but not hardware, I know the basics of the hardware, I'm just not amazing with it.
 
red_wall said:
Anyways, I found all of the parts on Newegg, and I'm pretty sure Itt'l be around 750 or 800 to get all of these. Would it be better to just build it myself? Or would I spend the extra 163 to have them build it for me? I would be foregoing the warranty, tech support, and pro wiring.
Click to expand...

Haha, thanks though.
I might just get the motherboard and power supply, so they can install it all, and then get video card/whatever a little cheaper.

Idk.


Anyone else have an opinion?
 
red_wall said:
Anyways, I found all of the parts on Newegg, and I'm pretty sure Itt'l be around 750 or 800 to get all of these. Would it be better to just build it myself? Or would I spend the extra 163 to have them build it for me? I would be foregoing the warranty, tech support, and pro wiring.
Click to expand...
I priced everything on Newegg and it was little over 1K for everything. So that is one heck of a deal and with 3 year warranty even better.

red_wall said:
I checked my local computer shop and they charge $500-550! And that's just to build it! I was really surprised by that.
Click to expand...
Now $500 to build a PC WOW!!! I charge $150 and the built takes about 2-3 hours from start to fully loading Windows but I am not here to make living on building computer I got full time job.


red_wall said:
Is there any upgrades to my current build I have planned out that you can see, that would make the PC even better? (Mother board, different brand of cpu/video card)
Click to expand...
Right now there is nothing you could do to make your current PC faster.

red_wall said:
I really am tech savvy, but not hardware, I know the basics of the hardware, I'm just not amazing with it.
Click to expand...

As for installing yourself if one does not know the basics in installing then I would not temp it. You might need some skills adjusting Voltage rate for the DDR memory along with the timings in Bios. Most motherboards are good with default but I have ran across a couple that even though it says DDR2 1066 memory can work in this board does not mean it can support 2.2 volts and in turn the pc starts to boot and then BSOD. So it can be tricky getting the correct equipment to work together.


I built my 1st PC in mid year of 2000 AMD Thunderbird 1400 man I loved that thing with FIC motherboard and 512MB RAM and that cost me a ton of cash. I even had the 3dfx VooDoo 5500 if anyone remembers that video card then hats off you know your stuff.
 
CONDUCT said:
I priced everything on Newegg and it was little over 1K for everything. So that is one heck of a deal and with 3 year warranty even better.


Now $500 to build a PC WOW!!! I charge $150 and the built takes about 2-3 hours from start to fully loading Windows but I am not here to make living on building computer I got full time job.



Right now there is nothing you could do to make your current PC faster.



As for installing yourself if one does not know the basics in installing then I would not temp it. You might need some skills adjusting Voltage rate for the DDR memory along with the timings in Bios. Most motherboards are good with default but I have ran across a couple that even though it says DDR2 1066 memory can work in this board does not mean it can support 2.2 volts and in turn the pc starts to boot and then BSOD. So it can be tricky getting the correct equipment to work together.


I built my 1st PC in mid year of 2000 AMD Thunderbird 1400 man I loved that thing with FIC motherboard and 512MB RAM and that cost me a ton of cash. I even had the 3dfx VooDoo 5500 if anyone remembers that video card then hats off you know your stuff.
Click to expand...

Thanks a lot Conduct. I really appreciate your help
I'll go ahead and just get it off of cyberpower.
Thanks again.

Mgamer20o0 said:
maybe cut out all the things your not getting making it easy to read. if you dont know know what your doing as far as building maybe just buy one pre made. check out the deal sites.
Click to expand...

Everything there was what I was getting, just the important things were bolded. The site automatically sets up what is compatible with the options you have chosen - idiot proof. And since I was giving a rough estimate of what I THOUGHT I looked up, I guess it's cheaper than buying all the parts myself.
 
Hardware today is pretty easy to build and configure - most of the settings are automatically recognized too. Pretty hard to put wrong things at wrong places. You probably have 90% chance that it will work as is. But as someone mentioned already, the problem is if something doesn't work as expected. Do you know anyone who knows a bit more about putting a PC together? If you do, I would probably go ahead and buy components and try it out yourself.

In the worst case, you can post your questions here. :D (So don't through away your old PC connected to internet!).

Once you know how to do this, you are gonna be able to do it again in the future.
 
im not a computer genus, my hubby has many years in computers, hes built all of ours except our laptop....

IF you know what you are doing, its okay to build one yourself. BUT you say you dont know how and it is very easy to ruin computer parts...touching wrong spots, static electricity. and many other things.

IF you dont know what you are doing, i think you should have someone else build it for you...your computer as it stands is old and cant run anything....our laptop is a year old and runs alot of newer newer games alittle choppy. with everything cranked....new games have alot of requirments to run them.

to save you money (and you might know this) on each game you buy there is a requirment box, it tells you what you need to run the game.

if you have a small hard-drive....31 gb is small.....it mustve been a 40 when you got it but the operating system takes up alot of space so it makes it smaller....

also the smaller hard-drive makes it difficult for the memory to load anything because of lacking space...memory takes up hard-drive space....you might often find yourself having to shut programs down and restart due to low memory problems...

also i didnt see any hard-drive size up there?? am i missing it or is there not one in the list......you need a bigger hard-drive if you want to play games....they tend to take up alot of space and memory...

tomorrow , or later tonight, ill have my hubby read your specs and tell you what he thinks...like i said hes been working with computers for about 12 years now...
 
beabroca said:
also i didnt see any hard-drive size up there?? am i missing it or is there not one in the list......you need a bigger hard-drive if you want to play games....they tend to take up alot of space and memory...

tomorrow , or later tonight, ill have my hubby read your specs and tell you what he thinks...like i said hes been working with computers for about 12 years now...
Click to expand...


My hardrive is 31 GB. That's total space. Haha.
And thank you for letting your husband look. It's appreciated.
 
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