Computer specs.

[craigwatanabe]

Re: Computer specs.

Your computer cannot kick my computer's ass because it aint got one!! FOOL

Nah I know it isn't the fastest but I'm armed with the knowledge of going the distance. Okay here we go:

What is the DREAM COMPUTER made of?

For starters it has to play DOOM 3 flawlessly! Next?

[craigwatanabe]

Re: Computer specs.

The fact of the matter is that everyone's computer will be superceded by someone else's computer that will be bigger, badder, flashier and faster.... and we all will continue to pour money down the drain into the endless upgrade train that computer makers and the software companies live on. Sigh... when is it time to stop?

NEVER STOP!!! MUST GO FASTER! MUST BE MORE POWERFUL!!! GOTTA HAVE THE BEST (but on sale).

Computer upgrading is like being addicted to drugs. You forfeit buying that replacement part for your car for more memory.

[adrian]

Re: Computer specs.

The fact of the matter is that everyone's computer will be superceded by someone else's computer that will be bigger, badder, flashier and faster.... and we all will continue to pour money down the drain into the endless upgrade train that computer makers and the software companies live on. Sigh... when is it time to stop?

That is why geeks Overclock their computer, squeezing every ounce of power/performace from the processor,memory, and video card.

There's a reason why people use liquid nitrogen and water cooling systems in their computers.

I'll probably upgrade mine next year, but at this rate, I may upgrade my keyboard/mouse or even monitor before any of the main components.

[808_m3]

Re: Computer specs.

Hehehe, this might be a fun thread. Adri, I think you're one up on me on your video card. Built this box a few months ago to replace my flakey 1.4 GHz Athlon box:

3.0 GHz Pentium 4
550W Antec Power supply
Antec PLUSVIEW1000AMG case
Asus P4C-800E motherboard
1 GB of Kingston PC3200 DDR RAM
ATI 9600XT video card
1 80 GB Maxtor SATA boot drive
2 160 GB Maxtor SATA data drives
1 120 GB Maxtor PATA data drive (migrated from old box)
NEC 8X DVD writer
Plextor 52X CD Burner
21" Mitsubishi CRT monitor

All the parts, except for the monitor, purchased online from newegg. Amazingly enough, all running under Windows XP SP2.

[craigwatanabe]

Re: Computer specs.

Now all you gotta do to have a kick ass computer is to upgrade da oparatah!!!

Sounds fast (yawn) but in a few months it'll be passe and something Dell will be bundling up to clear some inventory. When I was in the Air Force, I did TDY to Holloman AFB working in underground shops (I guess because the temperature environment is consistant day or night or so they say). We flew in at night and were driven for almost an hour by van to the hangers where our shops were beneath in service elevators that took forever to go one floor down.

Anyway while walking to the chow hall (in the hanger facility and also underground) I overheard a couple of Airmen talking about Base-5 level computing work in their classified shops. Mind you even our fastest computers run at Base-2, you know 1's and 0's? Well I can only imagine Base-5.

What was I doing there? I was involved in the Stealth project back in the late 70's and my work was in phase shifting amplification.

So 3 to 4Ghz processing speeds may seem fast but remember when a 486-DX running 66Mhz was considered a godsend over the nutless 486-SX running at 25Mhz? And even that was fast compared to Intel's 8086 processor. I'll bet by the end of this decade we'll be talking speeds of over 10Ghz and FSB in the range of 1Ghz or faster.

But with today's market-ready components, what is the fastest mobo, cpu, graphics card, memory, chipsets, drives and such? The real challenge is to see who can build it cheaper and more efficient than anyone else.

[808_m3]

Re: Computer specs.

Now all you gotta do to have a kick ass computer is to upgrade da oparatah!!!

But with today's market-ready components, what is the fastest mobo, cpu, graphics card, memory, chipsets, drives and such? The real challenge is to see who can build it cheaper and more efficient than anyone else.

Hehehehe, upgrading the user..now that's a concept.

Well, better hardware will always come out. Of course, some company is going to figure out how to build it cheaper and faster than last year's model. It's all about progress...

I for one, take advantage of the cool sales on the "older" stuff that comes out just before the new stuff was released. Recently, Fry's Electronics had a motherboard combo sale for a 3.0E GHz 800FSB Pentium 4 (Retail, not OEM processor) with cheap motherboard for 199. I purchased the combo, and offloaded the cheap motherboard on eBay for $40. The following week, the combo dropped another $20, to 179. Fry's matched the price, so at the end, got the CPU for 199 - 40 - 20 for $139!!! It's all about the good deals as well..




It's not the latest and greatest, but it runs what I need.

[craigwatanabe]

Re: Computer specs.

What's Fry's Electronics website? With New Egg.com they have daily specials so it pays to check everyday, but on the so so days I go to TigerDirect or PCRightNow and window shop. Sometimes TigerDirect has some really great deals on barebone systems.

By the way New Egg had a special today (and only today 11/16/04) for Windows XP Pro for $49 but you "Must Purchase Hardware". What kind of hardware qualifies for this $49 pricing? They don't specify what qualifies as hardware.

I'm like you with anything electronic that sometimes it's better to wait at the tail end of technology to scoop up the bargains. I'll be happy with a P4 with HT socket 478 setup. There's enough peripherals out there to keep my wallet thin for a while. I'm actually thinking of scooping up 184-pin DDR400 PC3200 ram while the price is sooooo low because there's a lot of systems out there that utilize that memory configuration.

[adrian]

Re: Computer specs.

Hehehe, this might be a fun thread. Adri, I think you're one up on me on your video card.

Nah, my video card is old. I got it about a year when it came out (I forgot when) but here's how the ATI video cards go: 9700, 9800, 9600 , x800, x700... [or something like that]).

Anyway, all I know is that your video card is newer than mine.

[helen]

Re: Computer specs.

I picked up a Compaq Presario SR1215CL from Sam's Club over a week ago for about $620.

AMD Sempron 3000+ processor at 2GHz
512 Mbytes RAM
120 GByte hard drive
DVD reader/CD-RW burner
17" CRT monitor
flash card media bay
2 firewire ports
7 USB V2 ports
Windows XP Home

So far it's been working okay (I have a checked past with Compaq stuff but I think they have improved over time).

One of these days I will need to buy a DVD burner and maybe a LCD monitor but that is in the future.

[adrian]

Re: Computer specs.

I picked up a Compaq Presario SR1215CL from Sam's Club over a week ago for about $620.

AMD Sempron 3000+ processor at 2GHz
512 Mbytes RAM
120 GByte hard drive
DVD reader/CD-RW burner
17" CRT monitor
flash card media bay
2 firewire ports
7 USB V2 ports
Windows XP Home

So far it's been working okay (I have a checked past with Compaq stuff but I think they have improved over time).

One of these days I will need to buy a DVD burner and maybe a LCD monitor but that is in the future.

That's for $620?

I hope they have a bit more for my Mom, because she's looking to buy one for her home business. She asked me to build one, but with her using it for internet, word processing, etc, I don't think she'd like the shipping price from Newegg.com.

[helen]

Re: Computer specs.

Also comes with modem and Ethernet port as well as pair of speakers, ball and wheel mouse and keyboard.

My first choice would have been a Compaq from Wal-Mart that sold for $598, Celeron processor, 256 Mbyte RAM and 80 GByte disk drive with a burner that can write DVD and CD, but they didn't have it in Honolulu when I brought my PC. There was another Compaq at Wal-Mart for $498 (40 Gbyte disk drive, CD burner) and all the other Compaqs at Sam's Club didn't burn DVD.

This past weekend I checked Wal-Mart and they did have the $598 model in stock. And Costco is selling the SR1215 for roughly the same price.

[808_m3]

Re: Computer specs.

What's Fry's Electronics website? With New Egg.com they have daily specials so it pays to check everyday, but on the so so days I go to TigerDirect or PCRightNow and window shop. Sometimes TigerDirect has some really great deals on barebone systems.

By the way New Egg had a special today (and only today 11/16/04) for Windows XP Pro for $49 but you "Must Purchase Hardware". What kind of hardware qualifies for this $49 pricing? They don't specify what qualifies as hardware.

Interestingly enough, Fry's does not have a website for their stores. They do have this site , but it's geared only for their own ISP. Fry's actually has newspaper ads that they publish in the bay area newspapers. Here is a site that contains the print ad.

I think the "Must Purchase Hardware" clause requires you to buy a motherboard and CPU to qualify for the special. I've heard a few instances where it could be just a hard drive.