Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Common Interests I think I might build a computer ...

No offense auiotour but some of those vendors have pretty low ratings according to Resellerratings.com. Stick with a place like Newegg. They have very good prices and great service.

PA go for it! It's a great learning experience! Even if it turns out to be a mistake atleast you learned not to do that again! j/k

PA 3L SVT,

I have nearly the exact same setup. Barton 2500, 512mb RAM, and a Asus A7N8X-X, with an Geforce FX 128mb 8x video card.

My cooling is basic, came discounted with the case I have. It's one of those flashy ones with a window. Came with a 500 watt power supply, and has about 6 fans inside.

I would recommend this setup if you aren't looking to spend too much money. It has a lot of bang for the buck, and will be a kick in the pants compaired to your 366.

I have mine overclocked to just about 2 ghz right now, with no extra cooling. That was the max it would allow without adding anymore cooling.

So far I haven't had any problems with the hardware. I would recommend getting more RAM however, you can never go wrong, especially when it's so cheap - I use Shikaram, comes with a lifetime warranty.

So if you're in the market, I would suggest this setup - but feel free to look around, because CPU's are going for real cheap, so you might just get a deal.

As for monitors, it all depends on what you will be using the system for. If you're using it for multimedia/imaging/etc I wouldn't suggest a flatscreen, even though they are nice to look at. They don't display on-screen colours properly, which can be confusing for printing/image editing purposes. They are also known for burning out pixels from time to time, which can be a major annoyance. This is just my opinion however, I work in the Graphic Design field - so colour and function are more important to me. But, it all depends however on what you need the system for.


I get all my hardware from Deals Direct. I live in Canada, and from my research they seem to have the best prices in my city (Ottawa). They apparently have a US store, you may want to check them out, however I can't guarantee their prices - never checked out the US one.

Deals Direct US Store - Edit: Apparently they don't ship outside of Canada anymore.

Good luck, if you have any other questions feel free to PM me.


- Alex

Looks like a pretty good setup so far. I have the Asus A7N8X-deluxe and it's an awesome board, but I don't have much bad to say about abit either.

Newegg.com seems to be one of the best online retailers for this stuff and their prices always fall within a few bucks of the cheapest retailers on priceline.

Last year I bought an Antec case after buying brand-x cases for years, and I will never look back. Not only is the power supply infinetely better (won't die in 6 months despite being 500 watts ) the materials and the engineering are so much better.

I personally would avoid an LCD unless you have severe space issues (like you live in a dorm). CompUSA has a 19" flat CRT ViewSonic on "sale" this week for $229, looks like a good unit.

HTH,
Pete

JAson, you can also wait for the next Dell SB deal. The one I got in on was for a P4-2.26/128mb RAM(I bought 1GB more)/40GB-7200 WD/integrated SC/PCI Vid/Intel NIC all for the low price of $400, then I have a $100 MIR. Free shipping too! The memory cost me another $150 for ECC 333Mhz 2x512MB sticks from Crucial. Check out www.fatwallet.com for more deals.

Most of those people I have done business with before, the people with the hard drive are extremely fast, the dvd-rw people I have not done business with, the floppy, never done business with. but the rest, I have done and are very fast on shipping regrardless of what resellerratings.com says

I've got a A7N8X-Deluxe and I love it! The onboard sound is great quallity, built in firewire, Dual Lan, SATA on board,Raid...everything you could ask for. It's also very, very flexable for overclocking(if you decide to go that route).

Also, get good ram. I've been fighting [censored] ram and believe me, it's not worth the few dollard I saved .

Quote:

---

I have not done business with, the floppy, never done business with. but the rest, I have done and are very fast on shipping regrardless of what resellerratings.com says

---

Sorry but the last thing you want to deal with when building your first system is shoddy vendors. Your experience may be the exception and not the rule. Resellerratings is there for a reason.

Jason, the parts you listed are all fine and would work, but there are probably better values out there.

I built my computer 2 years ago, but probably won't do it again. Some of the Dell deals just make the time invested not worth what unpercieved performance benefits I would get. If I were a gamer, I may consider building again, though.

Take a serious look at Fatwallet Hot Deals forum, if not for a complete Dell system, then for deals on components. Your prices are fine if you want everything right now. If you can buy parts over a month period, you can save 25-50% on many of the components.

To best leverage the Dell deals, you often take their system and minimize the upgrades. Take the lowest memory and buy extra on your own, same with HDD and take no monitor. Then purchase the monitor separately through the Software and Peripherals on another Dell hot deal.

For $1000, you should be able to get a 19" LCD and a plenty powerful system for typical household/school use.

I agree with APT. You should check out Dell. Your not gaming with it so you may be better off getting a prebuilt. And unless you have all the software already (OS, an office program, antivirus) you will have to get that too. Which would put your computer right around a basic-midrange Dell. Plus you get a warranty and tech support.