ha ha, unfortunately for me when I built it it was`nt 500 ...I`ll never learn.

 

I just saw a compaq presario with a monitor at Wally world for $449

 

Well, I've got my old case emptied out. The power supply will have to be replaced, as it's only rated at 250W. I imagine you get what you pay for with power supplies. I saw a few around 450W anywhere from 25-75 bucks. My hard drive is an IBM. 7200 rpm, but I can't find the cache rating...Still, it seems like an acceptable unit. I've got some peripherals, but am looking into a better monitor. I know that'll push be over the 500 dollar budget, but it doesn't have to happen right away, either.

 

If you want stability stay away from the SiS chipsets. The Via chipsets have gotten better. My favorite MB manufacturer right now is MSI. They make a good MB that is stable and compatible with most hardware. Tiger has a pretty sweet deal right now. They have a 2.93 ghz celeron with a mach speed via based MB, 400watt case/power supply,512 mb pc3200 ddr memory, 478 cooling fan,keyboard and optical wheel mouse barebone kit for $239 with a $70 rebate the final cost is about $170. They have better kits too but the price goes up. I've had pretty decent luck with their stuff. The computer I'm running now was built with their components and it's been running great for 3 years ( almost time for an upgrade). Don't bother with a power supply for your old case. You can get a whole new case fairly cheap.

 

One more note: You mentioned that you didn't like the onboard stuff. I like the onboard sound and LAN and most of the time if you have onboard video you can still disable it and install an AGP card. I didn't used to like the onboard stuff either but most of it can be disabled if you wish. Just make sure not to use the onboard video... it really sucks your resources down.

 

YES! Thats what makes a compaq a compaq and an emachine an emachine. The best bang for buck is the Antec brand power supplies.

I myself chose a Seasonic S12. The part that supplies power to everything has the ability to destroy everything. Not worth risking on a cheap part.

 

Those big brand machines are made with the cheapest components possible. They aren't worth it.

 

''Tiger has a pretty sweet deal right now''

Who, what, where? Sounds like a pretty good deal. I guess I'm pre-judging the onboard stuff. Last time I put a system together was when a voodoo3-2000 was considered a pretty smokin vid card

thanks again for all the help--this is pretty fun already and I haven't even spent any money

 

www.tigerdirect.com

 

Is there any advantage to a serial HDD vs IDE?

 

Serial is faster, and IDE is old technology

 

Serial is a little bit faster but for your purposes unless you are doing rendering or are a gaming nut an IDE hard drive should be fine for you.
The difference in speed is like 1 millisecond or something ridiculous. At least that is my understanding by reading the specs. I decided to stay with my IDE's for now. If I'm wrong I'm sure that someone will chime in.

 

''Serial is a little bit faster but for your purposes unless you are doing rendering or are a gaming nut an IDE hard drive should be fine for you''

Thanks, that's what I was hoping.



''I like Windows 2000 Professional over XP Professional anytime.''

Everything I've read this afternoon is pointing to win. 2003 server, or XP. Is 2000 still available? I don't own any OS software so I suppose it's my turn to contribute to Bill Gates' retirement...thoughts?

 

Serial cable is a lot easier to fold out of the way in order to get better airflow.


I remember when they came out a couple years ago... I got to say good bye to the ribbon.

 

I tested it back to back on my machine, maxtor diamond max 9 160gb 7200rpm VS WD SATA 3g 7200rpm.

Battlefield 2, the game, maps loaded about 40 seconds faster. So 1 minute 40 seconds versus nearly 2-1/2 minutes to load.

DEFINETLY worth the money. And (depending on how my dead truck situation goes), ill be buying at least one more to do a Raid 0 setup for even more speed.. mmm!