Ruin Posted February 4, 2003 Share Posted February 4, 2003 Okay guys, I need some advice. As of now this has only been discussed with my parents, but if I can convince them a good deal I'll get this $700 Computer/Printer Combo for only $350. Here are the Basic Specs: -Intel Celeron Processor: 2GHz -60G Hard Drive -256 DDR SDRAM (up to 64M for Vid card) -CD-Writer/DVD-ROM Combo Drive (16x8x8x40x) -Integrated Intel Extreme Graphics (64M of Shared Vid Mem) <-What I'm running now) -Win XP Home Edition -17" Monitor (I have MORE details if needed) I'm thinking this is a great buy for my share of $350. I'd eventually save up the $$ for a Nvidia GeForce4 Ti 4200. I already have some RAM laying around giving me a total of 512Meg. And it's a faster Processor that I'm running now, with a virus free hard drive! I'm hoping your opinions will help me sway my opinions. BTW, for those of you who are curious, I'd be getting this from Wal-Mart (so if you live in the states, it may be nation wide). Thoughts? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark Sniper Posted February 4, 2003 Share Posted February 4, 2003 It sounds pretty much good for me and i think it would need more, but then again you really wouldn't need it. probably too expensive too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stinger Posted February 4, 2003 Share Posted February 4, 2003 Okay guys, I need some advice. As of now this has only been discussed with my parents, but if I can convince them a good deal I'll get this $700 Computer/Printer Combo for only $350. Here are the Basic Specs: -Intel Celeron Processor: 2GHz -60G Hard Drive -256 DDR SDRAM (up to 64M for Vid card) -CD-Writer/DVD-ROM Combo Drive (16x8x8x40x) -Integrated Intel Extreme Graphics (64M of Shared Vid Mem) <-What I'm running now) -Win XP Home Edition -17" Monitor (I have MORE details if needed) I'm thinking this is a great buy for my share of $350. I'd eventually save up the $$ for a Nvidia GeForce4 Ti 4200. I already have some RAM laying around giving me a total of 512Meg. And it's a faster Processor that I'm running now, with a virus free hard drive! I'm hoping your opinions will help me sway my opinions. BTW, for those of you who are curious, I'd be getting this from Wal-Mart (so if you live in the states, it may be nation wide). Thoughts? The GFX blow, but yeha you can always upgrade them, I started out with them. PC number of RAM? Hard Drive RPM and Cache? Mobo? That is all for now So far sounds good though Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NightCrawler Posted February 4, 2003 Share Posted February 4, 2003 Ruin?? I always thought that you would end up building your own. With the wealth of recources that you have here, why would you buy something from Wal-mart? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ruin Posted February 4, 2003 Author Share Posted February 4, 2003 PC number of RAM? You mean slots? type? what? Not much detail on the Hard drive. Just says 60Gb Ultra DMA Mobo doesn't say either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XRW_Hotdog Posted February 4, 2003 Share Posted February 4, 2003 as long as it has an agp slot so you can upgrade the video card. i would say that not a bad deal for being on a limited budget. Intel Celeron Processor: 2GHz (that should do you for awhile) 60gig HD ( thats all i have right now and i am happy) 256 ram is a good start and you have more so even better CD-Writer/DVD-ROM Combo Drive (16x8x8x40x) (heck i don't even have a dvd rom lol) Integrated Intel Extreme Graphics (as stated above) Win XP Home Edition (can't beat Xp) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stinger Posted February 4, 2003 Share Posted February 4, 2003 (edited) PC number of RAM? You mean slots? type? what? Not much detail on the Hard drive. Just says 60Gb Ultra DMA Mobo doesn't say either. Okay PC number likde 2100, 2700, 3000, 3500 etc. Or the MHz of the RAM, it isnt super important but would be nice to know. Are you sure the mobo has AGP for upgrade to GF4? You got linkage? Win XP Home Edition (can't beat Xp) True man true Edited February 4, 2003 by Stinger Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ruin Posted February 4, 2003 Author Share Posted February 4, 2003 Ruin?? I always thought that you would end up building your own. With the wealth of recources that you have here, why would you buy something from Wal-mart? LMAO! Ohh... ohh how I wish this were true. I wrote the book and built the website on being a broke teen. I'm constantly in debt. I'll never (based on my personality) be able to save enough (or wait long enough) to buy a REALLY good computer. I prefer upgrades. Keeps things interesting. Lol. -EDIT: I don't mean to sound like a jerk here NC. And I'm sorry if I do... @Hotdog. Thanks. That's what I need to know. @Stinger, HP Pavillion 533w. The rest is unknown. I'll double check the slots. On the sheet I have it only mentions PCI slots, so I'm not sure on AGP. I don't see any reason for it NOT to have an AGP slot though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XRW_Hotdog Posted February 4, 2003 Share Posted February 4, 2003 I'm constantly in debt. I'll never (based on my personality) be able to save enough (or wait long enough) to buy a REALLY good computer. I prefer upgrades. Keeps things interesting. Lol. it never gets better lmol... but it is always interesting. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NightCrawler Posted February 4, 2003 Share Posted February 4, 2003 I don't mean to sound like a jerk here NC. And I'm sorry if I do... Â Naa, I was just pokin' the cat anyway. LOL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stinger Posted February 4, 2003 Share Posted February 4, 2003 Ruin?? I always thought that you would end up building your own. With the wealth of recources that you have here, why would you buy something from Wal-mart? LMAO! Ohh... ohh how I wish this were true. I wrote the book and built the website on being a broke teen. I'm constantly in debt. I'll never (based on my personality) be able to save enough (or wait long enough) to buy a REALLY good computer. I prefer upgrades. Keeps things interesting. Lol. -EDIT: I don't mean to sound like a jerk here NC. And I'm sorry if I do... @Hotdog. Thanks. That's what I need to know. @Stinger, HP Pavillion 533w. The rest is unknown. I'll double check the slots. On the sheet I have it only mentions PCI slots, so I'm not sure on AGP. I don't see any reason for it NOT to have an AGP slot though. Well, my puter didn't have an AGP slot and I would have expected it to have at least something. B4 you buy it you will wanna know that. Or else you get stuck like me with l33t PCI Gfx. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XRW_Hotdog Posted February 4, 2003 Share Posted February 4, 2003 Well, my puter didn't have an AGP slot and I would have expected it to have at least something. B4 you buy it you will wanna know that. Or else you get stuck like me with l33t PCI Gfx.yup a friend of mine got stuck with a pc and only had pci slots, i could't give him my GF2 Ti. he wasn't happy about that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ruin Posted February 4, 2003 Author Share Posted February 4, 2003 Why is a PCI vid card so much 'worse' or 'different' than an AGP one? As long as they have the same effects I really don't care. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
firefly2442 Posted February 4, 2003 Share Posted February 4, 2003 I would suggest upgrading the graphics card right away. I have a Geforce2 Ultra 64MB and it's starting to seem slow. Up the RAM too and you should be fine. Looks like some nice specs. Who knows, when you get a job working for UBI making games after all the cool mods you've done... then you can buy a 10 grand computer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ruin Posted February 4, 2003 Author Share Posted February 4, 2003 Also, me being a modder... how much 'power' is this going to give me? Things that I can use in Photoshop, 3DSM etc etc... or will this be where the Vid Card comes into play? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stinger Posted February 4, 2003 Share Posted February 4, 2003 Diff of AGP and PCI is bandwidth. How much info can go from it and how fast it can interact with the rest of your PC. PCI is a lot less and is shared also I found out the otherday. Basically PCI bottlenecks gfx cards. You can stil use PS and 3DSM. They will be fine. I know my old intergrated GFX was fine with em. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
firefly2442 Posted February 4, 2003 Share Posted February 4, 2003 You should be fine. Your computer is slightly higher and lower in different parts to my computer. I run windows XP.... so I think it will run fine. I would suggest checking out the different Tweak guides for Windows XP so that you can turn off certain features you don't need or don't use to eeek out a little more power. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ruin Posted February 4, 2003 Author Share Posted February 4, 2003 Holy Cow! Two pages in a little over an hour! This has to be a record. I'm assuming, based on the little I know, that upping the RAM and Processing speed will make for better Graphics performance on an integrated chip as well. @Stinger, thanks for the explination mate. But how much difference is there in the bandwiths? Tremeandous amounts? Or only slight differences? @Firefly.. I've never even touched XP before... this will be a whole new experience. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snakebite1967 Posted February 4, 2003 Share Posted February 4, 2003 (edited) that should do you fine bud but i wouldnt buy without an agp slot, for a gamer and modder such as youself youl regret buying a system without one the rest seems good tho. no matter what you buy if its a pci card it will never give you the performance or bang for the buck than an agp card will Edited February 4, 2003 by snakebite1967 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XRW_Hotdog Posted February 4, 2003 Share Posted February 4, 2003 Why is a PCI vid card so much 'worse' or 'different' than an AGP one? As long as they have the same effects I really don't care. with an agp slot you have a vast variety of cards to choose from and pci is very limited. i am not even sure if there is a GF4 4200 in pci. but the main thing between pci and agp is what stinger stated above Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XRW_Hotdog Posted February 4, 2003 Share Posted February 4, 2003 @Firefly.. I've never even touched XP before... this will be a whole new experience. once you get used to Xp you will wonder how you lived without it. i am running 16 months on this pc with Xp home and it hasn't crashed once or needed to be reformated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ruin Posted February 4, 2003 Author Share Posted February 4, 2003 i am running 16 months on this pc with Xp home and it hasn't crashed once or needed to be reformated. That's it.. sign me up... er soemthing to that effect. This hunk-o-junk crashes everytime I go to turn it off. I ALWAYS have to restart and then turn it off... grr. It get's irritating. So do the random lockups. I think this poor thing has seen better days. Now, to get a flashy new keyboard and mouse! (hint hint... yeah, you know if this hint is aimed at you or not... ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stinger Posted February 4, 2003 Share Posted February 4, 2003 @Stinger, thanks for the explination mate. Â But how much difference is there in the bandwiths? Tremeandous amounts? Or only slight differences? Depending on the card and Speed of the AGP slot i.e. 8x, 4x etc. It can be gigantic and make over 100FPS in difference or more easily. I have one of the best PCI cards available, only some would consider it second and that would be to the Radeon 9000. They are both good cards but they wont last you long. I still like my GF4 though. am not even sure if there is a GF4 4200 in pci Nope there is not. Only GF4's are MX series. once you get used to Xp you will wonder how you lived without it. Â i am running 16 months on this pc with Xp home and it hasn't crashed once or needed to be reformated. With all my screwing around it has only happened 8 times now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RooK Posted February 4, 2003 Share Posted February 4, 2003 (edited) The most powerful card on a pci slot is the GF4MX440. Nowhere near as good as a ti4200 or R8500 and it can't even compete with an agp version of itself. Not to mention, agp slots run at double the speed of the pci slots and have a direct path to the northbridge chipset and thus the cpu. Pci on the other hand have to go through the southbridge, which controls all your pci, hdds, usb, and firewire addons (thus haveing to compete for bandwidth), then head to the northbridge. In short PCI = BAD! Now, on the HP Pav... hate em. My old 700 celeron was an HP Pav. It crashed more times then I can count and I'm glad I built my own pc. Never seen such stability compared to it or any other past systems. Now... here's what I'd get on newegg Case: Antec Solution w/ 350w Antec PSU - $73 MB: Epox 8RDA Nf2 - $88 CPU: AMD 2000XP Retail w/HSF - $93 Ram: Kingston PC-2700 512mb - $92 HDD: Maxtor 60gb 7200rpm - $87 Video: Ti4200 128mb - $140 Floppy: $16 DVD: Lite-On 16x DVD - $40 CD-RW: 48x24x48 - $53 OS: WinXP Home OEM Full Ed. - $93 Total: $775 I think that is everything. Besides being custom built, it uses top performing parts in basicly every area. Plus, things like cdrw and dvds you can take off your old system. Only $75 more Edited February 4, 2003 by RooK Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stinger Posted February 4, 2003 Share Posted February 4, 2003 The most powerful card on a pci slot is the GF4MX440. Nowhere near as good as a ti4200 or R8500 and it can't even compete with an agp version of itself. Not to mention, agp slots run at double the speed of the pci slots and have a direct path to the northbridge chipset and thus the cpu. Pci on the other hand have to go through the southbridge, which controls all your pci, hdds, usb, and firewire addons (thus haveing to compete for bandwidth), then head to the northbridge. In short PCI = BAD! Now, on the HP Pav... hate em. My old 700 celeron was an HP Pav. It crashed more times then I can count and I'm glad I built my own pc. Never seen such stability compared to it or any other past systems. Now... here's what I'd get on newegg Case: Antec Solution w/ 350w Antec PSU - $73 MB: Epox 8RDA Nf2 - $88 CPU: AMD 2000XP Retail w/HSF - $93 Ram: Kingston PC-2700 512mb - $92 HDD: Maxtor 60gb 7200rpm - $87 Video: Ti4200 128mb - $140 Floppy: $16 DVD: Lite-On 16x DVD - $40 CD-RW: 48x24x48 - $53 OS: WinXP Home OEM Full Ed. - $93 Total: $775 I think that is everything. Besides being custom built, it uses top performing parts in basicly every area. Plus, things like cdrw and dvds you can take off your old system. Only $75 more Well Well...my PCI card is good. And RooK, what about the monitor Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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