Big Upgrades For Me

[SFDMALEX]

So finnaly I bought (notice the "I") my dad a computer. So he can have one of his own for his Orcad, and constant political debates on the Ukrainian forums against those damn russians :D Also got him a monitor, a super refurbished Compaq 17" . 1600x1200....is currently pulling of 100Hz at 1024x768!!! And it was dirt cheap...(well I do work at the store so :P ) I want one aswel. To bad there arent any left. Im stuck with the old AOC that is pulling 1440xsomething. At low frequencies.

So here is his system

Celeron 2.4GHz
1x256 2700 Kingstom DDR
Quantum Fireball 30gb(I had this in my system prior to this)
Plextor 12x CDRW(had that before I got the DVD-RW)
Motherboard Biostar 8668D lan/video/audio onboard Prescot ready, 8x AGP Slot, 3xPCI
350W Dual Fan PSU

The motherboard is on the cheap side. Its a good peace for what my dad needs. All onbard, does have an 8x AGP slot and three PCIs. Its good enough. VIA Chipset. Not a SiS.
http://www.biostar.com.tw/products/mainboard/socket_478/u8668/pic.jpg


So now me :D

Got my self a 120GB Serial ATA Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 with 8mb buffer. The thing runs hotter then my old 30gig but its not bad.
I partioned it into 2. Got an 80gb primary and 40gb secondary(for backup and gaming OS)

The performance gain is quite noticible. Especially when transfering files around. Takes about 40% less time then my old 7200rpm 30GB Quantum. :D

Also replaced my old 350W PSU with some no name 400W. I really needed this. 1 DVD-ROM, 1 DVD-RW, A big Video card, a big sound card, a nic card, that 120HD, and that 2.4 P4 needs it. I dont know how I managed with 350 before.

Also got a router since I have two internet worthy computers.
The Router I got is the D-Link DI-604 4 port BroadBand. Anywere I look it gets praises 5 Stars...Its a great router. Very fast, cheap, and it got LOADS of features. LOADS! I love it. And it looks very neat next to the modem.
http://www.dlink.com/images/products/DI-604/DI-604_main.gif

So now my system is this.

MSI 865PE Neo-2 800FSB
Pentium 2.4GHz HT 800FSB
2x256 3200 Samsung in Dual Channel
120Gb SATA Maxtor 8mb Buffer
16x Toshiba DVD
8x NEC 2500A -+ DVD RW
Albatron GeForce Ti4200 @310Mhz GPU 710 Mhz Memory basicly ti4200
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS 7.1
Speakers are Logitech 6.1 something

Controlers: Logitech MOMO Racing, Act-Labs Shifter, 3pedals, and a Microsoft Force Feedback 2 joystick.


Conclusion. I highly recomend a SATA harddrive. If you are like me and move DVD rips around a lot this saves a lot of time!

Ohh and that Router is sweet. Get one ASAP if you have or are planning on seting up a network.


Im off to continue the installations.......

[stracing]

are your speakers logitech z-680. im planning on getting a set.
its seems like a good & cheap alternative for a full blown sound system plus it will be just used in a small room.

please tell me how it goes if thats the one you got

[666fast]

So thats why it says you are busy reinstalling 3 systems and etting up a network on MSN! LOL

Anyway, sounds like fun (actually it doesn't, but new stuff is alway fun) I've got that same router. I had a D-link that I returned because it refused to let me forward ports and stuff. After dealing with the Tech people, I said fuck it and got a new one, the DI-604, and it has worked flawlessly since I turned it on.

While my PC is sufficiently quick, I wanna make it faster. Too bad I gots no money.
I wouldn't mind making use of the RAID functions.

[SFDMALEX]

are your speakers logitech z-680. im planning on getting a set.
its seems like a good & cheap alternative for a full blown sound system plus it will be just used in a small room.

please tell me how it goes if thats the one you got

The speakers you are talking about are not the ones I have but they are good speakers. I heard them at the store and they seem to be good. Very cheap also.

What I got are the x-620 they are 6.1 not 5.1. These are not Klipsh Promedia or anything like that but good solid speakers that are cheap. Well Altec lancing are cheap, these cost me something like 160$CDN thats about 120US.

I race sims and play a few shooters rarely and these do the job. My computer is not an entertainment system, I got an amp and big Jamo studio monitors right behind me so this is just for gaming purposes.

I like these speakers. They sound good, they are cheap, and they got small sattelites! Ohh and there is plenty of low end from this woofer. Plenty :wink:

[stracing]

oops miss the 6.1 bit :oops:

man i should start buying pc stuff from canada, but shipping costs might just put it back on even. parts are so cheap there, even cheaper than hong kong for most stuff.

[SFDMALEX]

oops miss the 6.1 bit :oops:

man i should start buying pc stuff from canada, but shipping costs might just put it back on even. parts are so cheap there, even cheaper than hong kong for most stuff.

Yeah Canada is the cheapest for computer parts. In toronto in Chinatown you can find stuff dirt cheap. I mean so cheap that that stuff got to be hot. Asian population is quite big in Toronto. All of the suppliers of the store that I work at are Chinese. So this stuff is directly from Hong Kong(probably).

A good Canadian site is www.ncix.com
I buy most of the "special" parts there. ie oc'ing memory etc.

[stracing]

So youre saying asians are dodgy?
haha

dont blame ya. somehow weve got a reputation for that :lol:

[crazidude]

My god that 17" monitor is godly. Such a high refresh rate at that resolution.

[SFDMALEX]

My god that 17" monitor is godly. Such a high refresh rate at that resolution.

Wanna know the price? 110CDN!

[SFDMALEX]

So youre saying asians are dodgy?
haha

dont blame ya. somehow weve got a reputation for that :lol:

Dodgy? Nahhh man. To be honest the Chinese suppliers we work with are very nice people but are hard to communicate with. Never got riped off by an Asian in my life...and I got ripped of by others plenty of times.

[crazidude]

110 bucks?? My god thats a good deal.

[SFDMALEX]

Update. I got a new case for my PC. Its an antec SX1000II.

Its BIG. Just orderd it.


http://209.52.147.146/images/9033-l.gif
http://209.52.147.146/images/9033_back.gif
http://209.52.147.146/images/9033_Inside.gif

[SFDMALEX]

Update.

Just ordered a Coolmaster AeroGate 2 fan control, and system temp monitoring unit.

http://www.pc-look.com/boutik/images/Big/600015-003_800x640.jpg

[TVR_Fan]

Did you know on overclockers.co.uk you can buy a 128MB ATI 9800 Pro for under £150, replace your NVidia GF4 TI4200 with that card.

Also the 128MB ATI 9800 pro would of costest over £300 2 years back, in other words 2 years ago it was the best VGA money can buy.

And now it is a bargin at budget price.

[SFDMALEX]

Did you know on overclockers.co.uk you can buy a 128MB ATI 9800 Pro for under £150, replace your NVidia GF4 TI4200 with that card.

Also the 128MB ATI 9800 pro would of costest over £300 2 years back, in other words 2 years ago it was the best VGA money can buy.

And now it is a bargin at budget price.

150pounds is about 300CDN. I can find it here for a bit more aswel. But I dont really "need" one at the moment because my current ti is pretty fast. By the end of the summer Ill be considering it. :)

[whskynwmn]

Also the 128MB ATI 9800 pro would of costest over £300 2 years back, in other words 2 years ago it was the best VGA money can buy.

Did you know they weren't even available 2 years ago ?... no I guess not :P

[TVR_Fan]

They were last years top of the range card was a 9800 XT, this years top of the range card from ATI Radeon X800 XT. 2 Years back top of the range 9800 Pro also HL2 and Doom 3 will be out in the UK by Sept or Nov 2004.

[Mme Pompardour]

the 9800pro was released in 2003, see the official ATI press release http://www.ati.com/companyinfo/press/2003/4632.html

so.. 9800pro has only been available 15 months.. not quite 2 years is it :mrgreen:

and the 9800xt model was released in august last year.. a mere 11 months ago http://www.ati.com/companyinfo/press/2003/4690.html