Planning for a new PC

[Galland]

My P3-600mhz isn't quite cutting the mustard with the latest games. I would like to buy a new PC some time after Christmas- probably around February or a few months after that. Here is my rough draft so far:

Mid-tower case w/ 350w PS
P4 3.5ghz Hyper-Threaded CPU
motherboard w/ USB 2.0 and built-in LAN
200gb Serial-ATA 7200rpm HDD
512mb RDRAM or DDR RAM
Soundblaster Live! 5.1 OEM (?) sound
128mb 8xAGP nVidia GeForceFX video
40x CD-RW

Hopefully some of this stuff will be on the marked by the time I have enough cash to buy it. I know for sure that the Serial-ATA HDDs and GeForceFX are due out next year.

Galland

[Keith Heitmann]

Check out the new Yamaha CD-R drives that allow you to tatoo the contents onto the disc with the drive.

I was considering getting an external drive version myself:

www.yamahashoponline.com/searchresults.asp?dept_id=1

It has some decent reviews.

I was a longtime SoundBlaster advocate ever since the days of it major competitor Adlib. But when I got my this machine 4 years ago it came with a Turtle Beach Sound card and it has been excellent and I've had no problems with SB compatability. It also came with a nice Voyetra AudioStation32 program that plays CDs, MP3s, records live or direct input, and has a frequency equalizer. The newer cards have a similar program with even more capabilities. I have no reservations recommending Turtle Beach sound cards if you don't mind switching brands.

www.turtlebeach.com
www.voyetra.com

Mine came with a Altec-Lansing ACS-495 set of two surround sound speakers and subwoofer capable of stereo or Pro-Logic sound, plus a audio control panel program. I run my speakers in the Pro-Logic mode as they sound so much better than in the simple stereo mode.

My sound card is the OEM Dell version.

[Galland]

Keith said:

I was considering getting an external drive version myself:

www.yamahashoponline.com/searchresults.asp?dept_id=1

It has some decent reviews.

I was a longtime SoundBlaster advocate ever since the days of it major competitor Adlib. But when I got my this machine 4 years ago it came with a Turtle Beach Sound card and it has been excellent and I've had no problems with SB compatability.

I have an HP CD-Writer Plus 8200 external USB and IMHO it's a total hunk of junk. It's supposed to burn at 8x but I have to burn at 2x to avoid errors. Of course this is based on USB 1.1. The newer USB 2.0 products might be better and might actually live up to their speed specifications.


You are correct about the Turtle Beach sound cards. I have a Montego II in my PC. It's never given me trouble and I should probably look to see what TB is up to these days before I buy a SB card. I don't know if the new machine in question will come from a big manufacturer. I might just find a smaller business via www.resellerratings.com

I had a bad experience with small vendors before I bought my Dell, so I'm still undecided on that.


Galland

[Keith Heitmann]

I believe their current sound card is called the Santa Cruz. The Montego II is no longer made. AudioStation is still available from them as a stand alone product. I'm not sure if thenew cards still come with the program or if that was just a Dell Computer "perk" on their OEM supplied versions of the MII card.

They've got some fancy audio control hardware that lets you hook your computer up to your stereo through a wireless network, I believe.

When I buy another computer I'll just probably go through Dell again.

[[Nataliia]]

motherboard w/ USB 2.0 and built-in LAN

"A few notes on motherboards from a friend who's considered the local PC guru:

Avoid like the plague: Abit, MSI, and VIA motherboard chipsets.

You want 100% stable, never let ya down? Get Intel.
You want 100% stable, never let ya down and you can futz about with stuff you really ought to leave alone? ASUS!

Now, as far as AMD vs Intel is concerned, AMD had their chance if you ask me. They built up a head of steam five or six years ago with chips that were cheaper, arguably faster and definitely cooler and fun to O/C.

Now they've kinda blown their lead. With P4, Intel are back in front in terms of performance and they've got other nice advantages too. Break your CPU fan on an Athlon system and your shiny new processor (and possiblly your motherboard) is toast. Break a P4 fan and the thermal sensors throttle the chip down so it uses less heat. Try it at home, P4 owners: unplug your CPU fan and watch the system still run. AMD h4x0rs please don't do this experiment. Plus P4 cooling units are much quieter than Athlons. Hurrah! Doesn't sound like a bonus but it is."

As for vid cards, I always prefer nVidia over ATI due to ATI's crap support and drivers, however the FX is so overdue one must wonder if there are issues in development that make it so. And if so, what are those issues?

And Keith, I'd strongly suggest building a computer rather than purchasing through a major company like Dell only because they tend to be very proprietary on their machines which makes them hard to upgrade. Plus, they love to install a bunch of crap that you don't need. I hated my Compaq, and ditto for the HP, due to the tons of worthless and useless software they thought they had to install on the machine. Plus, they usually only include a "restore" disk and not the actual Windows, so that you can't get rid of that junk without purchasing Windows again. Most of it tends to sit and chew up memory.
I'm not that familiar with Dell in particular, but a lot of the premade systems place some real crap components with a good CPU to get the price low on a fast machine. I've seen P4 2.6 gig machines come packaged with Riva TNT2 video cards....which was made in 1999! Or they have integrated sound/video chips which are subpar, for the most part. Unless you can tell them exactly which parts you want, I'd check into a local computer shop and have a system built if you weren't comfortable with building your own. But that's just me ;D

[Keith Heitmann]

I never trusted AMD processors. They had some early compatability issues that turned me off initially. They always seemd like the "me too company" in my mind. Intel has always been my primary pick.

Dells are extremely good. No restore disc, but you do get discs for all the programs they preinstall on the system including one for Windows.

They typically install OEM version of major component makers, i.e. my Turtle Beach sound card, and you have to get your updates for them from Dell.

My current machine has been not suffered any major faults, save ffor a few corrupt drivers for my HP scanner.

I've had no trouble adding components to my computer to date. But I usually order everything I need for the computer right up front instead of upgrading it piecemeal.

Most computers they sell come with some sort of software package, which can simply be uninstalled if you don't need them.

I believe you can have them custom build a computer for you if you want but it costs more.

About a year ago I was having trouble with my parallel port Iomega Zip Drive. The system would not recognize it. I was still under the 3 year warranty and had home service rights. The serviceman arrived and replaced my entire mother board for me. Unfortunately it didn't fix my problem. Iomege sent aother driver in a repair exchange deal, but that became unnecessary when I tried my wife's Zip Drive power supply on my own drive and it suddenly sprang to life.

So if nothing else I got a new motherboard out of the deal. And my problem was solved by ordering a new $10 DC power supply for my Zip drive.

The only time I was a bit let down by Dell was when I needed tech support. For some reason my browsers would not connect to the internet. I called Dell, and got some guy with a heavy Indian accent that I could barely understand. He wanted to uninstall and reinstall windows. I decided to give Microsoft support a try first and spent 4 hours Xmas eve morning on the phone with a guy trying one thing or another. Turned out a number of VXD files had become corrupted and he finally talked me through the process that installed fresh copies. I got my $35 worth that day.

To be fair, the problem I was having really wasn't one that Dell was probably setup to handle. It's the only time I've had to call Dell tech support so far. Dell's tech support gets top rating by readers of Consumer Reports magazine.

[Galland]

[quote author=[Nataliia] link=board=general&thread=1040221100&start=4#0 date=1040444758]

"A few notes on motherboards from a friend who's considered the local PC guru:

Avoid like the plague: Abit, MSI, and VIA motherboard chipsets.

You want 100% stable, never let ya down? Get Intel.
You want 100% stable, never let ya down and you can futz about with stuff you really ought to leave alone? ASUS! [/quote]

The Gigabyte and Soyo motherboards seem nice. DDR ram wins over RDRAM financially, but I'm not sure what chipset I want to use. SiS is known for crappy stuff but apparently their latest P4 645DX set isn't all bad.

Galland

[Keith Heitmann]

I think I'd rather go with a chipset from a company that showed some consistency rather than a company that just happened to get it right this time around.

I'm not a big fan of "on-the-edge-technology" hardware that espouses it's the latest and greatest. I would rather have the security of some proven technology than getting something that may be problematic and is unproven in the field. Bench tests are one thing, but the everday user experiences are the acid test.

I see so many technical support posts on the Sierra forums from people that have the top-of-the-line bit of hardware and it won't work properly, such as GeForce vased video cards, while I, with my lowly 4-year old 8MB graphics card, am just cruising along without any problems.

There will come a day when I'll have to move on to a newer level technology, that's a given, but I won't be buying something that runs on the ragged edge.

[[Nataliia]]

Keith said:

I see so many technical support posts on the Sierra forums from people that have the top-of-the-line bit of hardware and it won't work properly, such as GeForce vased video cards, while I, with my lowly 4-year old 8MB graphics card, am just cruising along without any problems.

Yes, but a lot of that comes with people who think that if there's a newer driver out, you must rush out and get it even though it's the first stage of a beta. I hung onto my 30.82 drivers for my GF2 until the 41.09s came out. I don't even test for benchmarks or anything, I go with "will it work with this program or not?"
ATIs reputation is forever stained for me due to their crappy drivers and poor reputation in the support sector. I will stay an nvidia fan until proven differently. I am investigating the Matrox Parahelia, but doubt it will come to anything.

[Keith Heitmann]

I've used nothing but ATI video cards since my 286. I've got no major complaints. The only program I have a problem with is SWAT 3, the internal building ceilings are black rectangles across the screen. It's the only game I have a problem with and I've got close to a couple hundred games.

[[Nataliia]]

That's odd...Swat is my stomping grounds and it doesn't work properly?

Hehe, otherwise...ATI vs nVidia fight! Tonight at 11:00. ;D

[Keith Heitmann]

I was the SWAT 3 moderator in my last stint as moderator for Sierra. I even have a copy of the CD of the E3 demo the developers sent me. It was in it's early stages back then and nothing too spectacular. You'll also find my name mentioned in the original SWAT 3 credits. ;D

The problem with the graphics only occurs using the hardware drivers and when there is a second level in the building, such as the LA Expo Center missions. The upper level is all blacked out from view from the lower level.

Other than that I have no problem at all with SWAT 3.