Well my dad always moans about his computer because its buggy etc. And he says he wants a new one, but realistically he isn't going to get one. So I'm thinking about building him a system for a Christmas present. His current computer (as far as dxdiag tells me) is this: Unknown mobo AMD Athlon mmx, 3D-Now 1GHz CPU 192mb ram 20GB Hdd NVidia GeForce2 MX 100/200 Cd-rw CD-rom Floppy. Now then this is an old computer which he had upgraded 2 times, last time was 2 years ago. I'm thinking of spending around £200, then reusing some bits. What I intend to build him is: A budget premod case (I'll mod it a bit more) Cheap MOBO 2 gigish ADM cpu 256-512 mb ram Graphis card? Hard drive? DVD-rom I think this is possible, using second hand parts. And reusing some of his old parts. I Want you to help me to: Choose the parts Offer opinions give feedback give advise Help me.
why not go for a shuttle pc, put a cheapish cpu, hdd, dvd drive and memory in it and hey presto, ebay is your friend
I'd say, unless he's a gamer, something along the lines of an all-in-one mATX solution would be great. Say, an ASUS A7N266-VM, with a XP 1700+. When you get the mobo, do the JEN jumper mod [ google it, adds 3rd jumper set to allow setting custom FSB, set this to 150 ], then do the pin mod and set the multiplier to 14. It's now running at 2100MHz, with a 150 FSB. For a little more than 100 bones too. Ok, then for the PSU, a mATX case oughta come with one or a full ATX case.. well, yeh. The bonus about the mobo is that it has onboard sound, video, and LAN. Also has a passive NB heatsink, and the overclocked 1700 can be cooled rather silently by an Alpha 8045 with a 7v Coolermaster LED fan on top, for that extra touch.
And to Hardware we go. I would lean toward 512 generic RAM, MSI KT3 or similar motherboard, 1800+ or 2000+, 80Gb HDD, GF4 Ti4200... *n
I see absolutely nothing wrong with his current system, plenty of power and storage for all but the power obssesed gamers and MP4 hounds. The buggy crud is unfortunately unavoidable with current OSes and apps. Every mouse click, and app will modify your system EVERY time you run them. The restore feature of Windows will continue to bloat, cookies, spyware and viruses will inevitable infect and propogate. Every app will continuously modify how it operates. Why? Because the industry is WRONG! WRONG THINKING!! For $150 U.S. I suggest a Core Restore IDE Bridge Card. No matter how hard you try to make a stable and bug free system for your dad, Microsoft and every other app will screw it up within a month. Core Restore is a hardware card that installs on the back of your hard drive. It intercepts read/writes to all your apps, OS and config files and seamlessly directs volatile data writes to a separate partition. That partition can be backed up and protected or wiped clean at any time. I bought one of the very first models available and I used this on my parents PC. In six months it has saved them 3 times, once just yesterday. It is like having a ROM backup always available that can be applied within seconds. It is pure insanity that every friggin mouse click will modify your critical files. The industry doesn't see the wrong thinking of their approach and how it makes systems vulnerable and buggy. Over time there is normally only one solution, format and reinstall, and let the crap start screwing itself all over again. I use one on my machine and now go to warez and porn sites without worry of spyware, malware and viruses. My Core Restore is set to a maximum safety, a Kiosk type setting, every reboot clears out the volatile partition. NOTHIN in my system can EVER change without me specifically configuring the Restore board to allow it. PERIOD. I spent two weeks straight, toatlly screwing Windows up - rebooting - and giggling when everything I destroyed was set back to my locked down, bullet proof config. My fav was doing a search for ALL .exe files. Select all - delete all - muahahahah. No longer do I walk on eggshells when working on my PC. It is SO liberating. That alone is worth the $150! www.coreprotect.com ** partition size is totally up to you. Default is a 50/50 split. The process of installation requires you dump all the data, clean drive or it will clean it for you. **
Zeke, how big does the partition get? I have a 200 gig hard drive and ~10-15 gigs free. Easy install, etc, or does it require deep knowledge? I just might pick that up. It sounds better than using SystemWorks 2003, Diskeeper, and Norton AntiVirus (my current daily regimine, completed every day at 4 am )
ebuyer generic ram is very very cheap but dont let this tempt you it is utter tripe you will end up spending more sending it back 3 times and eventually getting a refund and getting something that is better
Hmm, I say go with samsung or cheap corsair ram. just to be safe. Got with a 1800 maybe and a nf7 or a that older asus.
this is a mini pc i just built. www.komplett.co.uk xp2000 £45 epox 8rgmi+ £68 (matx onboard sound+GF4mx) 512mb pc3200 £65 (2x256mb twinmos) hard drive 40gb £40 www.pcnextday.co.uk yy a102b matx case £23 matx psu £22 Total £280 inc delivery the case has just enough room to put all that in, its about the same size as a VCR and will take a radeon 9700pro if you wish to upgrade in the future. looks nice too.
All your dad needs is a bit more ram and a new video card tbh. Imo: Shuttle SK41G with a Radeon 9000 or something, it even has onboard video which is good enough for 2D! SK41G ive just seen is £100 at microdirect (instore price, dunno web price). Whack in the 1gig Tbird in there and a 512meg stick of PC2100 and he'll be more than happy. Loose the CDrom drive and just use the CDRW. The mobo is all in one AMD, sound, video, lan etc.
Ooo, been there, done that. I'm having trouble with my system right now, it's either the motherboard (which i got from another place) or the corsair Ram that i got from Ebuyer. If it is the corsair, then every stick of ram (except a crucial laptop sodimm) that i got from ebuyer will have gone wrong.
Ive been buying a lot of kingston valueram from dabs. its nice and cheap but seems very good. I haven't had one problem and ive sold quite a lot to different people. recommended!!
I suspect your dad has some hardware/software problems and that's why he is complaining otherwise there is no reason for replacement. First you must be sure that you don't have a hardware problem, then consider replacing the mobo, add more RAM and get another HD; around 30GB is ok for current prices. Then install the new disk as D: and put all the data from C: into it. Then reformat your C disk and reinstall the OS and applications. If your dad don't have too much data but games and stuff like that, then install the larger disk as C and the smaller as D. Caveat: Some faulty disks, that seems to be working, results dead when a new disk is added AND some faulty mobo's kill new disks, even when an old one seems to be working too.
