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What do you all think of this...
- Thread starter diorio
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Build yourself comps are great expect watch out for malious stuff, anything that could damage your comp.
Since you got no real Tech support (sorry brother of yours
) watch out, especially because a M$ OS is coming to this computer.
P.S get all of there updates *before* they come out (look for new ones everyday, and trust me there WILL be updates everyday).
Good luck with your new system.
Since you got no real Tech support (sorry brother of yours
) watch out, especially because a M$ OS is coming to this computer.P.S get all of there updates *before* they come out (look for new ones everyday, and trust me there WILL be updates everyday).
Good luck with your new system.
Man, NewEgg.com is cheap! I just put in an order for an EverCase case with 300W power supply for $36, an ECS mobo for $57 (I know, you warned me LOL - I'll tell your how it goes....), and an AMD Athlon XP 1700+ for $72. All 3 items are retail box, and the total cost with $10 shipping is only $175! I'm going to recycle the 384MB SDRAM and the drives (hard disk and CD-RW) from my old 466MHz Compaq. And I have a friend who offered me his old GeForce2 MX since he upgraded to the GeForce4 some time ago.
Never thought I'd be able to build a decent gaming machine for only $175. And the great thing is I can upgrade it very cheaply over time by buying "trailing edge" parts. For example NewEgg has a 7200RPM 80GB drive for $109, and they're only going to get cheaper. And my new mobo has two SDRAM slots AND two DDR RAM slots (have to use one or the other, though), so I can upgrade to up to 1GB DDR RAM when memory prices crash this year as predicted. And video card prices always fall very rapidly as the next generations are introduced.
Good luck, and please do let us know. ECS isn't bad, just not that great. Maybe I just had a bad board.
Ok, after my experience getting my pc back in working order over the past 2 days I'm going to recommend that you think really hard about it before getting this cheap pc.
As I said, my old mobo took a dump (or so I thought) and since I was thinking about upgrading anyway I went ahead and bought a new mobo, a 2.5G P4, and Ati 9700 video card. Anyway to make a long story short after spending 20 hours methodically troubleshooting and still not having a working computer I got so frustrated that I went and bought a sony 2.4G P4 for $950 and it works just fine. Stuck the new cpu and vid card in there and everything's great.
Building a white box pc comparable to the sony would cost around $1200, my cost for the sony + video upgrade is around $1400, I believe you can find an compaq with similar specs as your $550 for about $650-$750. So if you don't mind doing some tweaking and your brother's friend is able and willing to help when things don't work, then yes a white box pc is the cheapest way to go. If you want a cheap reliable computer with a minimum of hassle look into a name brand pc. If you want a reliable frustration free computer period, get a mac.
I know this has been more of a sleep deprived/broken pc induced rant but I hope you find it helpful.
As I said, my old mobo took a dump (or so I thought) and since I was thinking about upgrading anyway I went ahead and bought a new mobo, a 2.5G P4, and Ati 9700 video card. Anyway to make a long story short after spending 20 hours methodically troubleshooting and still not having a working computer I got so frustrated that I went and bought a sony 2.4G P4 for $950 and it works just fine. Stuck the new cpu and vid card in there and everything's great.
Building a white box pc comparable to the sony would cost around $1200, my cost for the sony + video upgrade is around $1400, I believe you can find an compaq with similar specs as your $550 for about $650-$750. So if you don't mind doing some tweaking and your brother's friend is able and willing to help when things don't work, then yes a white box pc is the cheapest way to go. If you want a cheap reliable computer with a minimum of hassle look into a name brand pc. If you want a reliable frustration free computer period, get a mac.
I know this has been more of a sleep deprived/broken pc induced rant but I hope you find it helpful.
it is a gamble when you build a pc. the thing with a mac is it is already built and there is only one company to call when it breaks. when building a pc you just gotta know what you are doing. i built mine, knowing what i was doing, and it works so great and i love it. the sucky thing is when a built pc stops working, you dont know what part to start troubleshooting first.Originally posted by rundevilrun
Ok, after my experience getting my pc back in working order over the past 2 days I'm going to recommend that you think really hard about it before getting this cheap pc.
As I said, my old mobo took a dump (or so I thought) and since I was thinking about upgrading anyway I went ahead and bought a new mobo, a 2.5G P4, and Ati 9700 video card. Anyway to make a long story short after spending 20 hours methodically troubleshooting and still not having a working computer I got so frustrated that I went and bought a sony 2.4G P4 for $950 and it works just fine. Stuck the new cpu and vid card in there and everything's great.
Building a white box pc comparable to the sony would cost around $1200, my cost for the sony + video upgrade is around $1400, I believe you can find an compaq with similar specs as your $550 for about $650-$750. So if you don't mind doing some tweaking and your brother's friend is able and willing to help when things don't work, then yes a white box pc is the cheapest way to go. If you want a cheap reliable computer with a minimum of hassle look into a name brand pc. If you want a reliable frustration free computer period, get a mac.
I know this has been more of a sleep deprived/broken pc induced rant but I hope you find it helpful.
iJon
Re: What do you all think of this...
Does it have a sound board? What speed is the bus? What kind of RAM? What brand and speed of hard drive? Etc. etc. etc. etc......
Does it have a sound board? What speed is the bus? What kind of RAM? What brand and speed of hard drive? Etc. etc. etc. etc......
This is the first one in 10 years that has been troublesome. And I'm lucky enough to have access to enough known good components that I can test each component. I guess I've just reached the point where I want my computers to be tools that I can use instead of projects that have to be built.
Okay, earlier today I had my brother's friend order the components. I had a list of them, but didn't bring it home with me. Here is what I remember. 1.33 ghz athalon processor, 512 ram, 64 nvidia video card, box with power supply (300w). 40 gb hard drive, cd rw/dvd drive. And some good motherboard. Sorry I don't have a list of the brands, but all of them were reliable. I made sure to ask if everything was good, and he pointed to his machine and said, there it is. He is going to build it, load xp pro, photoshop, unreal tournament, and quake 3 on it.
All of this for $536 + $40 tip.
All of this for $536 + $40 tip.
Re: haha
A good example of a person helping the software/media companies in there fight for tougher anti-piracy by giving them an excuse. This makes harder for the rest of us. I would like to take these people out back and be rid of them.
A good example of a person helping the software/media companies in there fight for tougher anti-piracy by giving them an excuse. This makes harder for the rest of us. I would like to take these people out back and be rid of them.
Some people are just whores. Waive a low price or a few bills in there face and you can have anything.
Originally posted by MacBandit
Some people are just whores. Waive a low price or a few bills in there face and you can have anything.
Yeah, and some are whiny bitches who can't put themselves in others shoes. I don't burn CD's, I buy them, but a program costing $200-500 is probably not worth my money. While I could empty every penny in my bank account and buy these programs, and do the "right" thing, I'm not going to. Ask everyone on macrumors if they use any burnt software, I have a feeling most will say yes.
Notice the wink and the tongue. It was joke and a jab at ya. You didn't have to take it so personal. I was just trying to stir you up and it obviously worked. Same thing most of us do to pain in the butt newbies.
Now if Apple would let us build or even.........."shudder"...............upgrade our own machines!I would happily stick an Apple MOBO and CPU in a white box,add my own components,and save $1500+!
Apple's included 3'rd party components are insanely overpriced!How much do they charge for RAM?.....Sheesh.Uh yeah,the hard drives are twice as much cause they have a little Apple logo on them!
etc.etc.
The reason it is so cheap to build your own PC is that you aren't paying for the brand name logo.Same pile of parts,minus expensive logo box.
Just use your brains and research components before you buy.
Wish I had that option for some of the unnecessary junk that came with my Mac!
((btw,my cheapo white box PC works great!)
((so does my Quicksilver G4!.....(far from perfectly from factory though).........))
Apple's included 3'rd party components are insanely overpriced!How much do they charge for RAM?.....Sheesh.Uh yeah,the hard drives are twice as much cause they have a little Apple logo on them!
etc.etc.
The reason it is so cheap to build your own PC is that you aren't paying for the brand name logo.Same pile of parts,minus expensive logo box.
Just use your brains and research components before you buy.
Wish I had that option for some of the unnecessary junk that came with my Mac!
((btw,my cheapo white box PC works great!)
((so does my Quicksilver G4!.....(far from perfectly from factory though).........))