Forum Moderators: phranque
What is the minimum configuration for a decent performing machine,
AMD based?
I'm adviced on the following configuration:
CPU: AMD XP2200+
Motherboard: MSI A7N8x (nForce2)
RAM: 2 X 256DDR (PC2100)
Graphics card: ATI Radeon VE 64MB
HDD: 80Gb HDD
Fan: Coolermaster HAC
Thanks for any advice!
Cheers!
there's no way to reconvert NTFS back to FAT32
Try the NTFS Reader for DOS [ntfs.com] - its freeware, and runs off a floppy, or in Windows 95/98 etc.
On choosing parts for a system, I have just this nugget to contribute: Get a price list for all the components you're considering, and look at them in price order. There's always a gap somewhere between the top-of-the-line and the run-of-the-mill, at which point the Wow! It's New! factor causes a price jump.
I always buy the one just under the price jump. Just a general policy
:-)
Can anyone advise me, by the way, on how to recover an accidentally-deleted file on a damaged NTFS hard disk? I was trying to drag my old Outlook inbox file to replace my newly reinstalled one, and I accidentally dragged the new one to the old one in my sleep-deprived, stressed-out stupor. I stopped the file transfer and undid the move but it was too late: the old one was gone. I haven't used the old hard drive since, in some forlorn hope that some kind of disk utility could help me recover my thousands of emails and addresses... But nothing I've tried could even read the old damaged disk, much less find my deleted files. I feel so dumb... Any advice, or can anyone point me to a forum that would be more suitable? Thanks.
I'm afraid this has been a rather worthless post but my brain is fried and I can't wait for the prices on iMacs to drop so I can make my damn switch already. I just want my life back... So good luck to you all with your new systems and experiments. It all sounds very exciting. :-) Nicer to think about than reconstructing...
MSI MoBo BLAHHHHHHH...
Trust me do some research, here is a few sites that have good reviews, and consumer feedback
www.ncix.com
www.tomshardware.com
I forget the other one... something like antech or amntech... I'm at work right now and don't have the url
Anyway, you obviously are thinking good with your first thought of an AMD machine(I am an AMD man).
Right now you can look at getting good bang for your buck with a setup like this
AMD 2400 or 2600
Soltek board(fairly cheap but still has good reviews) I would recommend 75-FRN-L(something like that anyway)
go with 512 DDR RAM, you can go 1GB if your going to game with it as well. But 512 is good to run multiple programs(usually what I have running is about 6 when development web pages/programs... music app, few windows, web page references, messenger for when I'm bored, you get the idea).
Good vid card would be a GForce4 Ti 4200 or higher, I like the 4200 because it's cheap now, and has good quality graphics... not that you need this high for just a web developement computer.
That's the heart of the system, other things you might go with is
a vid card with dual VGA, set up a second low resolution monitor, extend your desktop on that, to check how your web pages look on lower end computers(your choice on how far back your going to go, I usually check to 16 bit color, on 800x600)
Burner is good for backing up files, and keeping your HDD clean, cheap and very reliable is a LiteOn.
HDD, go with anything that has a good review and is cheap hehe.
Sound, unless your doing streaming audio on your sites, I wouldn't worry about anything really good, something like SBLive is good.
Well, that's my 2 cents, of course there is alot better parts out there, but this system I kinda outlined wouldn't cost all that much.(this is actually similar to my system)
Probably run you about 800-1000 bucks not including the monitor(canadian.... guess where I live).
As a hardware expert myself I agree with most of the comments including XP's obvious advantages, 7200 rpm being faster (I've written some articles on fine tuning hard disk speeds - if you are interested in the URLs) and dragonlady7's excellent tip on what's called the "Vanity Premium".
Abit and Asus are the top makes for mobos. MSI isn't bad. I'd dump the old Radeon VE. Ti4200 does sound better. In real life you won't notice the difference between the XP2000+ and the XP 1800+. The Sony 52x CDRW is only 5% more $ than the Liteon and would be my choice. An Asus mobo is only marginally more than Soltek/MSI. Again that would be my choice but I'm biased towards the expensive stuff. One good suggestion would be to have the entire system supplied from one source (on the only-one-butt-to-kick principle).
2nd monitors are great, do check that your graphics card supports dual outputs and check if they are dsub/DVI. If one output is DVI make sure you get the DVI to dsub (analogue) adapter.
mikejson, was it anandtech you were looking for? I agree, they have an excellent site, as does ol' Dr Tom. They are both more designed for the techies though. PC magazines tend to review products in English for more normal people :-) They may be worth checking out. Good luck.
Also if you have extra users on WinXP it slows it down as well. As well as keeping users "switched" to another account instead of "Logged Off".
I've been using XP for a while. XP is much better and more stable that 98.
PS Right now my XP uptime is almost 2 weeks. And that's beside me doing all kinds of things on the computer the whole day.
It's all about optimization!
Anyway, ASUS is a top of the line board. Personally I would go for it myself if your not worried about 20-50 bucks more. I just said Soltek cause it's cheap, and reliable.
But, like it was stated before, all these tips are great ones. Take a combination of them all and your set :)
Good luck
Also I would seriously consider using an IDE RADE device. A two channel RAID cart is not very expensive, and it will allow you to have a complete mirror of your hard drive. That way if the hard drive fails you will not lose data (or have downtime). It is pretty darn inexpensive insurance.
If you do have the discipline to do manual backups regularly you can go for my preference of having a removable hard disk via a caddy. That way you can take your backup with you, carry it around, keep it under your pillow, wrap it in cling film so you can take it into the bath....
Maybe I'm just paranoid :-)
