| Author |
Message |
Eva
| | Posted on Friday, August 24, 2001 - 1:03 pm: | |
what I have now (or what the little computer icon tells me)
Purchased in 1996/7
Pentium, says NEC, 3.99 GB
200MHz
64mb ram
free space 495mb
Trust me its greek to me, color me foolish and in need of help. I am tax money
for a new computer
Amount I can spend 800-1k
What I want it to do
load pages faster online
handle battlenet (diablo and starcraft)
be able to buy and use a spreadsheet and graphics program
handle educational games
not get the dangerously low warning anymore
not have everything freeze up in the middle of a game
right now what I have is not cutting it, the faceplate has to stay off or it starts frizting out and the back end is elevated to help with (but not cure) the cyclic sound of death like a car you keep trying to turn over but the battery is dead you know what sound I mean? Speeds up then slows down, speeds up then slows down- weird. Its been thru 6 household moves maybe this last one did it in?
My questions are- what is the best option for me in light of what I use it for (online, games, documents), should I just get a cpu or get a “bundle”, what brands are better for newbies, what windows should I get (I use 95 now)
-are refurbished computers worth the money you save?
any response will be appreciated … I don’t think HAL can take a big search online right now to get info on how to replace him. |
win
| | Posted on Friday, August 24, 2001 - 11:16 pm: | |
LOL, funny you should mention HAL. i got him too, but i built him. um, you can get a cheap one that'll do it, for under 1K. i use a 550MHZ amd, but you may want something you don't want to toy with, get a pentium, maybe an equivalent type. give yourself plenty of memory, around 256 is nice, and is cheap these days. minimum, 128 megs. hard drive. if it had to be, i like fujitsu, very quiet and fast at 7200 rpm.maybe a 15 or 30 gig, if you need that much, atx case with at least a 300 watt power supply and if you get a screamer, then it should have a 400 watt power supply. you should be able to find a used one for around $650 with horsepower such as that. you may even be able to find one in a store someplace.
mind you, i have preferences, but as i said in the beginning, i like to put them together, not buy them. i am sure others will post what they feel is good. but it is up to you, in the end. take along someone, if there is, that knows a few things and can look with you, that's best.
good luck. |
V (Vera)
| | Posted on Saturday, August 25, 2001 - 2:17 pm: | |
hi
if you are up for the learning you can build your own. you'll know what's in it and understand it's upgrade-ability and get the know how to maintain your own.
at the same time you'll be able to recycle parts from the machine you have now. depending on what board you may decide to choose, you might use the same case. your floppy drive, cd drive, sound card
and hard drive, for off main-drive storage, are good candidates
you'll probably want to pick up a new video card with a good amount of memory
ram is really cheap right now so it doesn't cost much to get lots of it
and possibly another modem, depending on what you have now and what connection speeds are available to you. 56k isn't always going to get you a good connection speed
or you could go for an alterative to dial up
i have tyan and soyo boards
tyan had the better documentation of the two with soyo having a quick start manual and a full manual on the cd which is not always convenient
i also use amd chips and have had good luck there
if you decide to build you own just do your research and make sure your choices are compatible by visiting prospective manufacturers websites and look for "known issues" too. |
Ernie
| | Posted on Tuesday, March 26, 2002 - 1:10 pm: | |
I've built 5 computers now, and i'm sorry to say you can buy a brand new Dell For less than it cost to build one. I've built using three diff. CPU's sorry to say Intel is the most stable. |
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