Forum Moderators: phranque
Does anyone recommend a dell or Sony Vaio. I believe it has come down to one of these two.
I dont feel like building my own....even though everyone tells me to.
Thanks for your input!
The one area where I'd disagree with your assessment is the graphics card.
We're actually in exact agreement, that's the kind of video card I used for the office pc I made, exactly that kind, but I didn't mention it since dual monitors are not always necessary, but I agree, it's great that you can now get reasonably cheap dual output cards, I didn't know about the adaptor, that's good news too, since most flat panels I've looked at don't have dvi connections (I wouldn't sit in front of 2 crt monitors personally, 1 is bad enough....)
Last time I built a computer, I used the anandtech.com reviews of motherboards and such. At that time they gave Abit boards the nod for speed, Asus for stability (I went for Asus).
I found a great place where I could "build" my computer, meaning I could select case, motherboard, processor, HD, etc etc etc and they just assemble it. Total price = sum of parts. The best thing about this, is you also get a REAL operating system disk instead of one of those stupid rescue disks you get with off the shelf computers.
RE off the shelf, my brother did some searching recently and found that HP and Compaq have terrible reliability. Sony and Dell are best. Of course, his Sony machine died.
His take: his machines branded both work fine because he has "tech friends". He's putting in new systems soon though, and I'm pretty sure he's NOT buying the munge....
Well, I'm getting to move ahead with a new computer, and I'm buying the parts isitreal recommended in this thread.
I've never built a computer myself before, so this will be a new experience for me. I'm sure I can handle putting the parts together, and I've installed operating systems before, so I don't forsee any real problems. But, I'd appreciate clarification on a few points:
Memory {check mobo manufactorers website for memory recommendations and follow them}:
256 x 2 Corsair VS256MB400C3 256MB DDR400 PC3200 CAS3 Value Select Memory
$88 (double this if you want 2 x 512 mB)
Would it hurt anything if I got just one 512MB chunk of memory, with the idea of upgrading later? I've heard that memory should always be run at least two pieces at a time, but frankly that source wasn't too reliable. Opinions welcome.
Make sure to update the BIOS and MOBO drivers with new ones from the Gigabyte website, gigabyte boards come with a windows utility to let you update the Bios in windows, no flashing the bios, very cool.
To be honest, I don't have the slightest idea how to update the BIOS and Mobo drivers or when to do it. Positive I can find the drivers online, but how do I go about updating? Any special instructions?
If you installed the raid drivers, you now have 2 SATA channels, a single Raid mirrored data IDE channel (recommended, hard to set that up after installing windows), plus two standard IDE channels. You will never use up the capacity of this box.
So you recommend setting up the raid drivers? What if I'm only buying one hard drive? And if the raid drivers are set up, am I locked into using a raid system?
As I said, I know I can handle putting this system together, but I want to make sure and do it right. Any details about these questions will be warmly appreciated!
Thanks,
Matthew
Would it hurt anything if I got just one 512MB chunk of memory, with the idea of upgrading later?
The old 2 peices at a time is required by RD-RAM and some really old motherboards. DDR doesn't require it, but if you are getting a motherboard that has can handle dual channel DDR then you have to have 2 sticks to run it in that mode.
But My Answer is to only get 1 stick of 512 now and plan on upgrading because ,most people don't realize, almost every motherbaord that is made will not run at full spead when you fill more then 2 memory slots. So if you have 2 sticks of 256 and want to upgrade it will slow down memory settings.
To be honest, I don't have the slightest idea how to update the BIOS and Mobo drivers or when to do it.
Gigabyte, excellent choice IMO. No special instructions. I would update the bios when you first get windows installed (Afterwards don't update it everytime you see a new bios, manufacturers suggest that you only update when there is a problem that that bios fixes). GB does have a utility that you can use from windows that will install and test the bios just click a button and watch it go. Another advantage of GB is that they are one of the only manufacturers that have dual bois, so even if it is messed up in the process you don't have to send the MB in to get fixed, it will just use the secondary one, and you can try to flash the bios again from windows.
So you recommend setting up the raid drivers? What if I'm only buying one hard drive? And if the raid drivers are set up, am I locked into using a raid system?
I would only set up the raid if you are using more then one hard drive, because it increase computer startup time by about a minute (I am very impatient).
But you can have raid set up and still have only one hardrive on it if you needed the extra ide cable for another peripheral or something. It doesn't lock you into using raid, it acts just like a normal sigle hd. (That is if you are not getting serial ata)
