I just bought a computer any input on this

[Trinity]

I just bought another computer from a guy who had it custom built about 3 years ago, tell me did I get a good deal? here's the specs atleast the ones I can remember haven't got it set up yet guess I'll be working on that today.


Made by Americomp Inc.
1.1 GHZ
40GB Hard Drive
DVD
CDR-RW
3.5 Floppy
256 MB Memory
3D Blaster niviaTNT2 Ultra
Sound Blaster PCI 128


and Before you say anything keep in mind I am using a emachine that I bought new about 4 and half years ago that is

633MHZ
14GB Hard Drive
DVD
3.5 Floppy
196 MB Memory (Upgraded myself) originally came with 64MB
GE FORCE 4400 Video Card (Upgraded myself)

Hard Drive on the new one has already been reformatted, Thank God, one less thing I have to do, However I do have to reinstall all of the drivers. Guess I know what I'll be doing today. WWOOOOOHHHOOOO I have more than enough system requirements for the SIMS 2!!!



Oh I guess you want to know what I paid for it $125.00. Cheaper then upgrading mine or even buying a new one.

 

[DKSuddeth]

$125 isn't bad, although the 1.1 Ghz processer seems sort of old now. Overall I wouldn't bitch alot, especially if you still have the old one. Need any RAM? I've got loads of it.

 

[Trinity]

$125 isn't bad, although the 1.1 Ghz processer seems sort of old now. Overall I wouldn't bitch alot, especially if you still have the old one. Need any RAM? I've got loads of it.

Compared to the 633MHZ I figure it's somewhat faster then what I have now.
As for the Ram, yes I may be interested. I have been wanting to add more memory to the old computer can't remeber the specs on it right off hand and may want to add more to this new one as well. My husband seems to think that the more memory we have the faster he'll be in his Delta Force game online, I keep trying to tell him as long as we have dial up you will always LAG.
He just doesn't get it!

 

[drac]

Looks good for the money. The best way to check if price is ok is to visit some auction sites (ubid.com) or computer "building" shops around your area .
What do you use your machine for? You probably want more memory if you run xp, but it might work fine depending on your usage.
In general if you want to upgrade the memory it might be cheaper to get a better machine all together (same reasons you did not want to upgrade your old one)

just my 2c

 

[wade]

Seems like a good deal for the money.

You might be able to overclock it a fair bit too, it depends on exactly what CPU and Motherboard it has. ??? If you do, consider adding a fan or two to the case.

I also make a fan out of the cardbord box for the fan, a case fan, and a plastic cup with the bottom cut off, stacked in that order, held together with plastic packing tape, which I can set on the floor of the case aiming up at the graphics card and memory area. If your up to it, this is a cheap way to greatly improve cooling flow.

256mb is enough for Win98 or WinME, but really not enough for XP. Since you're obviously on a budget, Win98SE should be fine, but more ram is still a good thing if you can get it cheap.

You will want to swap that 3D Blaster (Riva) Nvidia TNT2 Ultra for your GE FORCE 4400, that GeForce is a much much better card. The TNT2 is a good 3 or 4 generations behind that GF card.

Good Luck,

Wade.

 

[eric]

First of all do yourself a favor and leave the processor alone. Overclocking is a hobby, nothing more, basically a sub-culture at best. I have been in this industry for 21 years and have yet to see any serious engineers I work with overclock anything. The slight performance increase will be greatly offset by heat problems, shortened processor life, and a host of other possible problems. As far as memory, 256 meg will be fine for most purposes, and you don't have to run windows 98SE either. Windows 2000 pro is currently the best choice and runs very well with 256 meg. Even windows XP will be just fine with that amount of memory, especially if you change the performance setting to adjust for best performance, and/or tweak the disk cache. Of course the more memory the better, until a point of diminishing returns, but you will be just fine.

 

[Trinity]

Thanks for all the input guys! I am actually running Windows ME on it, and it seems to be running just fine. My biggest bitch is the lagging I get in my Sims 2 game, which I am figuring it has to do with the memory, if I bump it up to 512 Mb I am hoping that will improve game play. Please say it's so!!!

 

[dmp]

Thanks for all the input guys! I am actually running Windows ME on it, and it seems to be running just fine. My biggest bitch is the lagging I get in my Sims 2 game, which I am figuring it has to do with the memory, if I bump it up to 512 Mb I am hoping that will improve game play. Please say it's so!!!

Your best bet would be to improve the memory on your video card. I would have a card with less than 128MB RAM, much less the 32?MB on your current card.

 

[drac]

Thanks for all the input guys! I am actually running Windows ME on it, and it seems to be running just fine. My biggest bitch is the lagging I get in my Sims 2 game, which I am figuring it has to do with the memory, if I bump it up to 512 Mb I am hoping that will improve game play. Please say it's so!!!

It is so
a good video card is a plus (64-128 mb at least)

 

[wade]

First of all do yourself a favor and leave the processor alone. Overclocking is a hobby, nothing more, basically a sub-culture at best. I have been in this industry for 21 years and have yet to see any serious engineers I work with overclock anything. The slight performance increase will be greatly offset by heat problems, shortened processor life, and a host of other possible problems. As far as memory, 256 meg will be fine for most purposes, and you don't have to run windows 98SE either. Windows 2000 pro is currently the best choice and runs very well with 256 meg. Even windows XP will be just fine with that amount of memory, especially if you change the performance setting to adjust for best performance, and/or tweak the disk cache. Of course the more memory the better, until a point of diminishing returns, but you will be just fine.

I've also been "in the industry" for about the same amount of time (depends on when you want to count the start date). And I agree, overclocking is generally not done by pros - but we spend whatever $ it costs to get top of the line performance. However, some systems, in particular Celeron's, can be overclocked significantly without problems. In my experiance, most AMD's can be oc'd a fair bit (15%) without too much problems. I agree if you overclock you need to pay attention to heat issues - but I covered that by suggesting extra cooling. Since khafley didn't specify which cpu he had, and 1.1 ghz is about half or less the current typical processor speed, I suggested he might want to check to see if his setup is one that is suited for overclocking.

Just to be clear, I'd not overclock any Intel part other than a celeron, which I would oc if recommended by an oc site, as often the clock speed listed on the part is only a pricing tool - the part itself may be identical to a part that is clocked at 50% higher speed. There are websites which go into detail on which parts can be oc'd successfully and how much.

For AMD parts, espeically the earlier Athlons, oc'ing can be done IFF the user pays careful attention to heat. Typically gains of 20% can be had without too much risk, but there is definitely some risk any time you oc one.

So in general, I'd agree - don't overclock. But if the choice is between oc'ing and scrapping the box - they give it a try. Just make sure to watch for heat and to test the system for stability (there are free tools for this).

Finally, you say no one in the "industry" oc's. Well, that depends which industry. In the software development industry that is a given. But, in other related industries, it is not. As an example, I worked for a company which did a lot of 3D rendering, and we did oc systems for this purpose, often by as much as +33%. If the box is going to take 36 hours w/o oc'ing, and only 24 if you do oc, and there is a good chance the whole job will have to be redone again after the results are views, probably several times, it makes sense to oc. Of course, we had external wall mounted fans sucking cooled filtered air through those systems, and heatsinks added to almost every chip, something your typical home user is not going to do.

Wade.

 

[wade]

Thanks for all the input guys! I am actually running Windows ME on it, and it seems to be running just fine. My biggest bitch is the lagging I get in my Sims 2 game, which I am figuring it has to do with the memory, if I bump it up to 512 Mb I am hoping that will improve game play. Please say it's so!!!

If you game, do the following: (trying to remember this for ME, bear with me if it's not quite perfect)

1) right click on "my computer" and select properties from the drop down. Select the "performance" tab, and hit the "advanced" button.

2) goto the "virtual memory" section, and bullet the button that lets you specify your own settings. Set the min and the max virtual memory settings to 512 mb.

3) defrag your drive.

This will speed swap file accesses, and it will greatly reduce disk fragmentation over time. The downside is, if you run certain very uncommon applications, such as AutoCad, 3D Studio Max or Maya (several thousand $ programs), or if you run a lot of smaller apps at the same time, you may not have enough virtual memory to run them, and you'll get an error. But very few apps will not run within 512 megs.

This should help some with the pauses, but another 256 megs of ram would be a good idea!

Please note: I don't have ME running right now, so I cannot confirm the steps above, but I think that is pretty close to correct. Sorry if it is not perfect.

Good luck,

Wade.

 

[nycflasher]

For a buck twenty-five, you got a good deal.
Tigerdirect would be a good place for price comparisons.

 

[eric]

So in general, I'd agree - don't overclock. But if the choice is between oc'ing and scrapping the box - they give it a try. Just make sure to watch for heat and to test the system for stability (there are free tools for this).

While in principle I agree with this statement, I still see very limited uses for oc. If we are talking about a new system, the price difference today between processor speeds does not justify the risks and headaches of oc.

Also lets keep in mind that the processor is NORMALLY not the primary bottleneck in older systems. Therefore cranking it up has very limited impact on perceived performance, which ultimately the user will experience. A few good examples would be the storage sub-system (ATA 33,66), memory latency and settlement, chipset limitations, inefficient or outdated drivers, as well as a host of other factors.

As far as which industries I was eluding to in my prior post; mostly Hardware and Software, support and development. By trade I am a Software Engineer, but have extensively studied Electrical and Digital Engineering as well.

 

[wade]

I've done a lot of firmware systems engineering in the past.

I agree, but it does depend a lot on the system. I've seen some celeron based systems on the right motherboard (Abit in this case) that could gain an honest 15% in gaming type performance (i.e. not counting drive performance) through overclocking. Some celeron parts and some AMD athlons (first generation) seem to be clocked to a given speed simply to provide price differentiation. Other than the clock, they are the same cpu in every respect as the faster models in the same line. I've also seen this with RAM, as I'm sure you have - except there it seems that testing is also often limited to the lower clock.

For example: they will produce X number of PC133 simms by simply testing until they find that number that pass the 133mhz test, they will then start again with whatever is left plus those that failed at 133 and test them to see if they can do PC100. Often, expecially by the 2nd or 3rd yeild, all the parts either make PC133 or fail all tests.

The main thing is, if you do OC, you should understand that you may break parts, and the system must be tested for stability (benchmarks and such are usually good for this). AND YOU MUST MAKE SURE THERE IS SUFFICIENT COOLING!

BTW: I'm currently running an AMD 2600XP (barton chipset with the large cache) and I do not overclock - no need so far. But I did install the cooling I'd install if I were going to overclock - can never have enough fans! I have 9 fans in this box (including the CPU fan but not the 2 fans inside the PS).

Wade.

 

[drac]

For a buck twenty-five, you got a good deal.
Tigerdirect would be a good place for price comparisons.

o no, not tigerdirect, at your own risk, http://www.resellerratings.com/seller1983.html

 

[eric]

can never have enough fans

Amen !

 

[jimnyc]

Just placed an order myself. What would you guys pay for this?

AMD ATHLON XP 3000 CPU & SUPER COOLING BALL BEARING FAN
XP DELUXE 8X AGP MOTHERBOARD / 2GB SUPPORT / DUAL ULTRA 133 CONTROLLERS (ASUS)
512MB DDR PREMIUM GRADE RAM
8X AGP / 6 USB (2.0) / SERIAL AND PARALELL PORTS
128MB 256E 3D VIDEO CHIPSET GRAPHICS ACCELERATOR
80G ULTRA DMA FAST HARD DRIVE
52X CDRW DRIVE, AND SOFTWARE
1.44MB B FLOPPY DISK DRIVE
AC'97 5.1 FULL DUPLEX 3D SOUND SYSTEM
10/100 LAN / ETHERNET CONNECTION / DSL, CABLE, NETWORK READY
ATX BLACK / SILVER DELUXE MID TOWER CASE W/ FRONT USB PORTS
(4) 5 1/4 BAYS (6) 3 1/2 BAYS, 350WATT PS, BLUE NEON LIGHT

 

[nycflasher]

o no, not tigerdirect, at your own risk, http://www.resellerratings.com/seller1983.html

Never bought anything from them but I have checked their prices and always heard good things from friends who have built computers through tigerdirect.

DO you have horror stories?

 

[wade]

Just placed an order myself. What would you guys pay for this?

AMD ATHLON XP 3000 CPU & SUPER COOLING BALL BEARING FAN
XP DELUXE 8X AGP MOTHERBOARD / 2GB SUPPORT / DUAL ULTRA 133 CONTROLLERS (ASUS)
512MB DDR PREMIUM GRADE RAM
8X AGP / 6 USB (2.0) / SERIAL AND PARALELL PORTS
128MB 256E 3D VIDEO CHIPSET GRAPHICS ACCELERATOR
80G ULTRA DMA FAST HARD DRIVE
52X CDRW DRIVE, AND SOFTWARE
1.44MB B FLOPPY DISK DRIVE
AC'97 5.1 FULL DUPLEX 3D SOUND SYSTEM
10/100 LAN / ETHERNET CONNECTION / DSL, CABLE, NETWORK READY
ATX BLACK / SILVER DELUXE MID TOWER CASE W/ FRONT USB PORTS
(4) 5 1/4 BAYS (6) 3 1/2 BAYS, 350WATT PS, BLUE NEON LIGHT

Hmmm, I almost always build my own box. I almost always (for the last few years) use ASUS motherboards (which it appears that you are using here - which one? I really like the A7N8X deluxe I'm running, but there may be something better out now). That 3000 XP is the new one with the 512mb cache (barton chipset)?

I'm not a big fan of the integrated graphics cards, except as a backup. I don't know about this one, but so far I've never seen one that was competitive with current sub-$200 cards. Right now, I think the ATI 9800 pro card is the best bang for the buck (or the SE version which can be soft-moded to near Pro performance using 3rd party Omega drivers - which I use anyway as they are excellent). However, unless you are going to use the box for 3D gaming, it won't matter.

I'd guess around $550-$600 w/o OS? Maybe a little less. It's hard to say w/o knowing exactly which m/b and the brand/model of ram and hard drive.

The one thing that concerns me in this system spec is the powersupply. In todays world i would not consider anything less than 450 watts, and 550 watts is a better minimum.

Good luck Jimmy!

Wade.

 

[wade]

Your best bet would be to improve the memory on your video card. I would have a card with less than 128MB RAM, much less the 32?MB on your current card.

If I'm not mistaken he said he had a GF4 card on his old box, and a TNT2 card on the new one. Why not just swap them?

GeForce 4 Ti4400 - NV25 275 MHz core, 128 MBytes 275(550) MHz 128-bit DDR memory, NV25 chipset with pixel and vertex shading, yada yada yada...

My guess is the system has a 4x AGP slot so it cannot take a much better card anyway. And since khafley is clearly on a budget here, he/she should be spending precious dough on another 256 mb of ram!

Just my opinion.

Wade.