WhiteKnight77 Posted February 4, 2003 Share Posted February 4, 2003 Don't do it. Wal-mart is selling cheap PCs yes, but they come with Lindows on it for an operating system. You can build a PC a lot cheaper than you can buy one lots of times. Take a look at what Rook posted. If you use some of the stuff you already have you can even bring the price down more. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RooK Posted February 4, 2003 Share Posted February 4, 2003 (edited) Use the old one... Surely you have seen those monitors HP includes with their products? They say 17" but they look like a 15" and have terrible quality imo. Get a ViewSonic, NEC or Mitsu if you really want a decent monitor, and those would cost extra either way. Wanted to also note, you can bring price down with smaller hdds and cheaper components. Mine are mainly good namebrands. 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 Don't do it. Wal-mart is selling cheap PCs yes, but they come with Lindows on it for an operating system. You can build a PC a lot cheaper than you can buy one lots of times. Take a look at what Rook posted. If you use some of the stuff you already have you can even bring the price down more. He said it was Windows XP not Lindows... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aggressor Posted February 4, 2003 Share Posted February 4, 2003 Ruin, don't get it if it doesn't have an AGP slot. I have an HP Pavilion 7935, it seemed pretty good when i first got it, mind you i knew nothing about video cards, pci, agp and all that stuff. But right now i wish i had bought a computer with an agp slot. I was on the phone with a tech two days ago and he showed me some bios tweaks to somewhat upgrade my on board video performance. It was a learning experience, but anyway i'm at 32mb "agp-on/board" versus 16mb pci. I asked the tech about upgrading my on board graphics to a real video card and when i told him that i had a pci slot and no agp, he told me that it would be like "taking a step backwards since the agp architecture is more efficient than that of the pci" Knowing what i know now...i would have just build my own computer i think that for $2000 CDN i could have gotten a better comp, well in terms of video anyway. did i mention that i only have two slots for SDRAM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crimson Posted February 4, 2003 Share Posted February 4, 2003 Use the old one... Surely you have seen those monitors HP includes with their products? They say 17" but they look like a 15" and have terrible quality imo. Get a ViewSonic, NEC or Mitsu if you really want a decent monitor, and those would cost extra either way. Wanted to also note, you can bring price down with smaller hdds and cheaper components. Mine are mainly good namebrands. LoL! My HP Pavilion came with a 17" moniter... it was about 14.5" viewable, not to mention it weighed about as much as the computer. As for XP, well, I had my pro's and con's. I have Windows 2000 Professional, argueably the best O/S out there. Stable a heck. (I have seen and used O/S X, but thats a whole new topic . ) When I had XP, it looked to cartooney for me, so I went back to the old Windows theme. Basically, any thing under Windows 2000, in my mind, is garbage. On a side note, DONT GO WITHOUT AN AGP SLOT!!! Have fun with your new machine, when ever you get it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ruin Posted February 4, 2003 Author Share Posted February 4, 2003 Thanks for all the replies guys, but don't forget... this is not just "a computer" It's a full fledged system. Monitor, Keyboard, Mouse, Printer, Speakers and Computer. Only $350 out of my pocket. I had to pay $250 out of pocket for this freaking mobo that I had to replace. And although I got a better processor, I'm not very please. It is running on XP which will be a nice upgrade. And I see no reason for it NOT to have an AGP slot; but I will look. I had always considered building my own, but I priced it closer to $1200 than $700. As of now; I see the flip side. But I'm so desperate for my own PC (And I've heard more positiv comments) I'm very keen on it right now. Let's face it, there's no PERFECT computer... they'll all have flaws. And after a few upgrades; it'll be perfect for me. Main thing for me to do is look for an AGP slot... other than that; I've got more support than I do negativitey. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
firefly2442 Posted February 4, 2003 Share Posted February 4, 2003 Get a flat screen monitor if possible. It works wonders for the glare and looks really nice. Whatever you do, DON"T get one of those skinny 2 inche monitors that take up just a little space. Those ones that you see in businesses a lot of time to save space. These monitors are horrible for gaming because they cannot refresh the screen fast enough so it looks choppy. GL with the system. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RooK Posted February 4, 2003 Share Posted February 4, 2003 Ruin, the fact is, if you hurry now, you'll regret it later. I'll right now garantee the mb on that HP is without an AGP slot. Why? Cause it comes with integrated graphics and thus they didn't have to go through the cost of putting one into the system. Plus, if you upgrade, you'll have to rip out a lot of the old components and probably get a new os, mainly cause the XP they include has all that 'HP crap' made into it for their systems. The system I listed prices for were taken directly off newegg.com. It's the fastest AMD mb chipset available and will let you overclock if you ever get to the point that you might want to. Besides that, it can also be upgraded all the way to the Barton XP cpu which is due out later this year at 3000XP speeds and more, operating on a 200fsb, with no modifications. An easy and cheap way to upgrade. Sure, it doesn't have a monitor (HP one is junk anyway) or things like speakers, mouse, and keyboard, but it is a great system with a clean upgrading path and no junk components. All I can say is, after messing with retail PCs and then building my own, I will never go back, not even for a system from Alienware, Falcon NW or Voodoo. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ruin Posted February 4, 2003 Author Share Posted February 4, 2003 I'm looking at a second alternative. As of now, there's no way I'll ever have the cash or time to build myself a really good system. Maybe by college... but for now; it'll have to be store bought and upgraded. I'm fearing the worst on the aGP slot, so now I'm totalling up the $$ I'll have andseeing what BestBuy.com can give me. I'll post my findings later. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
firefly2442 Posted February 4, 2003 Share Posted February 4, 2003 Good Deals If you decide to go with building your own. Great deals here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ruin Posted February 4, 2003 Author Share Posted February 4, 2003 Yeah... but my parents wont let me order anything online. I've tried... oh have I tried. Here's my contingancy plan: Computer $616.99 Monitor $180 Keyboard and mouse included... okay for now. Added: Vid Card $180 as listed, but comes with rebate making it $130 ----------------------------Wanted Accessories---------------------------- Keyboard $40 <-Gift... I hope. Mouse $60 <- Gift... I hope... Total: $896 Cash in my pocket as of the end of February: $862... maybe I need to work with the parents some more. Before I forget... what Sound cards do you recommend? The most expensive I see is $200... what say you all? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stinger Posted February 4, 2003 Share Posted February 4, 2003 (edited) Get Santa Cruz Turtle Beach sound. Not too expensive and not a pos either. Most canty tell the diff from an $50 card to a $200 card. Nice specs, still dont know the AGP slots speeds though. And 8x is the future. So yeah 4x is good but if 8x is avail you want it. Edited February 4, 2003 by Stinger Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NightCrawler Posted February 4, 2003 Share Posted February 4, 2003 Ghost Recon can tell a $50 card from a $200 card though, you can't go wrong with the Audigy series of SB cards. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stinger Posted February 4, 2003 Share Posted February 4, 2003 I would bet money that you couldn't tell the diff between my sound and a audigy card. Not to be insulting, I cant and dont know anybody who honestly can. I could be wrong though Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NightCrawler Posted February 4, 2003 Share Posted February 4, 2003 I never said that I could tell the difference, I said that GR could tell the difference. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stinger Posted February 4, 2003 Share Posted February 4, 2003 I never said that I could tell the difference, I said that GR could tell the difference. lol an inanimate object? If only the game can then its a waste of $$$. I will stop here b4 I get ganged up on Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NightCrawler Posted February 4, 2003 Share Posted February 4, 2003 (edited) It is a known fact that the sound card can help the performance of your games, thus the better card (Audigy) would help the performance of most if not all of the games one plays. No?? edit: We all know that you know more about this stuff the we do...so I will concede to you the victory...<--running out to buy a PC just like Stingers. Edited February 4, 2003 by NightCrawler Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Killa_N_Manila Posted February 4, 2003 Share Posted February 4, 2003 Get an audigy pci card...They're under 50 at websites, I'm sure if there is a local pc store, they'd carry it or order it for ya...I have an audigy gamer, but the new mobo I have has an integrated sound chip I may use to free up a pci slot... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
firefly2442 Posted February 4, 2003 Share Posted February 4, 2003 If you can, get a subwoofer if possible. I don't know much about sound but my subwoofer sucks. It's really lame, no sound at all. Oh well, the other speakers make up for it. So what are you going to do with the current computer? Will your parents use it and you get the new one? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stinger Posted February 4, 2003 Share Posted February 4, 2003 (edited) It is a known fact that the sound card can help the performance of your games, thus the better card (Audigy) would help the performance of most if not all of the games one plays. No?? edit: We all know that you know more about this stuff the we do...so I will concede to you the victory...<--running out to buy a PC just like Stingers. Well in ways yeah, if you turn down the settings though you are fine. The Cruz and Audigy will both perform relatively same in gr and you shouldnt notice a diff between those 2 cards but others yeah I can see that slowing down. Hey theres one guy who likes my puter Good B-Day present Santa Cruz Sound Card, this is at Compusa though so the price is jacked up This is my speaker set, I got the Santa and these for $99 at compusa on a special promotion but they do me real nice. Edited February 4, 2003 by Stinger Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crimson Posted February 4, 2003 Share Posted February 4, 2003 I had an SB Live 5.1 and now I have an Audigy Gamer. Could I tell the difference? Only by a little. Just spend $50ish on the sound card... thats what I would do. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ruin Posted February 5, 2003 Author Share Posted February 5, 2003 So what are you going to do with the current computer? Will your parents use it and you get the new one? Soemthing along those lines. This would be a family internet computer, used for typing docs etc etc. I'd probably look into getting a second cable modem and a splitter for my bedroom. (although I had heard the company I used stopped doing this for Ethical reasons. Hmmn, need to double check that). This one is so buggy it can't be used for much more than internet and documents. It crashes while powering off... ukh. Anyway, as for sound cards. I may look into that also. The mroe I plan on putting into this, the longer I have to wait to get it. I'd like to have it aroudn the end of February, not the end of March. We'll see what happens. Maybe I can sell off this card collection. lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XRW_Hotdog Posted February 5, 2003 Share Posted February 5, 2003 I had an SB Live 5.1 and now I have an Audigy Gamer. Could I tell the difference? Only by a little. Just spend $50ish on the sound card... thats what I would do. i have an audigy gamer and i am more then happy with it. mind you i didn't really notice any difference then the intergrated audio before the upgrade. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snakebite1967 Posted February 5, 2003 Share Posted February 5, 2003 i went from onboard POS to sb 16 pci then sb live 5.1 now an audigy and believe me i noticed the diference with every change i made, music movies and specialy games i guess it also depends on the sound system you hook it into Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RooK Posted February 5, 2003 Share Posted February 5, 2003 Ruin, ever considered a pre-paid credit card? That would probably be your best route. You put money on the card, spend it all on a site and no credit card number to steal (if that's your parent's fear). I'm telling you, CompUSA, BestBuy, WalMart and basicly any retail chain will gut you. CompUSA was trying to sell me a retail 1800xp for $160 when they were on newegg for $80 or less. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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