Thread: Need a New Computer

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i don't use a computer much except for the net and e-mail. when a computer has all these problems like Vista has, what are they. My old ME would lock up just for spite. sytem cleanup and recovery disks would fix it only for a short time.

Originally Posted by DennyW

The xp pro, I really like, because you can set it to do daily or weekly backups, plus, if it screws up, you can just go to a date earlier when everything was working like it was. It's that simple now with xp pro.

I clicked the wrong button when I ordered my goodies, which, by the way arrived yesterday , and ended up with XP Home Edition. It's going back for Pro. There are just too many problems and changes just for the sake of change with Vista. Someday it might be the show in town to go to - but for sure, not today. Between home and work, I've suffered thru DOS, Windows 1 thru 2000 plus ME now have XP. XP is has been so far the best!!

I've suffered thru DOS, Windows 1 thru 2000 plus ME now have XP. XP is has been so far the best!!

Well you have a couple more years to enjoy it. Microsoft has already announced the date for their discontinuance of XP support. Good news is that by that time Vista will be history and a new, better O//S will be available.

Hopefully by then I will have wised up and bought a Mac.

Originally Posted by mopar34

Well you have a couple more years to enjoy it. Microsoft has already announced the date for their discontinuance of XP support. Good news is that by that time Vista will be history and a new, better O//S will be available.

Hopefully by then I will have wised up and bought a Mac.

If I can get a couple of years out of XP I guess I can count myself lucky - and maybe the next "great" MS iteration after Vista will be better(it couldn't be much worse).

A MAC is always a possibility but there are still too many things that don't run right - regardless of the fact that they are now have Intel based innards.

I have my new 19" monitor hooked up on my oldie PC as well as a new Logitech mouse and keyboard. The jury is still out on the keyboard and the elongated screen will take some getting used to. I did not go with wireless as my experiences with them in the past have been less then stellar

Dave,

In the past I had used a number of wireless microsoft mice and all were hopeless failures. However, last year I purchased a new one that has the antenna built into a usb device. It is a Microsolt Wireless Notebook Optical Mouse 3000. Uses a single AA battery inside, and it has been great. Still using the same one I bought over a year ago. Nice thing is that I can move it from desktop to laptop or to any other pc just by pulling the usb device. Great little mouse for about $25 or less.

Liked it so much I bought 8 for the office (me and 7 of my mgmt staff). You should give one a try. As for a wireless keyboard, I have not gone that route yet. I prefer the Microsoft Natural Ergonomic keyboard which is raised in the center and split between the T and Y keys. Easier on the old wrists for typing long documents, which I still freguently do in my job. MS only makes a few of this style, and a lot of people don't like them. The learning curve is a little steep for some I guess.

Denny wrote:

My Viewsonic 15" has really been a good monitor.

I agree with you on Viewsonics. I used a 19" CRT in my office for about 10 years and one of my clerks still is using it. Exceptionally well built monitors. I initially had wanted to replace it with a Viewsonic 2235 but got a better deal on a Dell 22, so I went with the Dell. The company also has a contract with Dell, so buying the Dell was a lesser hassle. Hope you enjoy your niew Viewsonic!

Originally Posted by DennyW

The xp pro, I really like, because you can set it to do daily or weekly backups, plus, if it screws up, you can just go to a date earlier when everything was working like it was. It's that simple now with xp pro.

That feature was always there with Win NT and 2000 also, just it was hidden, you have to run code in the command prompt to run the protocol. win XP system restore is just a GUI, for the old protocol

I had a wirelesss mouse, was an off brand only Walmart sold, but had a charging
dock and a boatload of hotkeys on the side. it worked ok, I went thru 1 set of rechargables, then I let it go w/ my old laptop when I sold it. I'v used the same keyboard for the past 10 years. a IBM severe duty clicking keyboard, it was made in 1989 but still works great.

Originally Posted by Matt167

I had a wirelesss mouse, was an off brand only Walmart sold, but had a charging
dock and a boatload of hotkeys on the side. it worked ok, I went thru 1 set of rechargables, then I let it go w/ my old laptop when I sold it. I'v used the same keyboard for the past 10 years. a IBM severe duty clicking keyboard, it was made in 1989 but still works great.

Good ol IBM keyboards - I love 'em. I have one as a spare when my $20 clunkers crap out. I'd keep it hooked up all the time, but my wife like the "silent" keys.

As a note, I'm putting my new bits and pieces together and will do a post shortly on what is going on.

A couple of 'gotchas' last night while putting it my PC together.

I ordered an NEC OEM $6.99 floppy disc drive (FDD) - no flat ribbon cable was supplied. Also. this drive has a 3.5 inch form factor rather then a 5" that the CD drives use - oops, now I need an adapter to fit the 5" hole as my card reader is filling the single 3.5 hole. Soooooo, my cheap FDD is now ~$17 with some pieces coming via EBay.

My home building PC learning curve is still steep but starting to level just a bit

IC2, what are you using for a case? I thought I could just use my old Compaq Pentium III case because it looks nice but I am not sure an ATX board will fit in there and I would need a new Power supply as well. When I started a search on places like Newegg for cases which offer reviews I find that there are literally hundreds of choices for cases and power supply combinations. So far I like the price range of

1. Broadway Com Corp 82-4HL Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 500W Power Supply ($46 + $16 shipping) (first choice but may have a problem with the front fan?)

2. LOGISYS Computer Area 51 CS51WBK Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 450W Power Supply ($35 + $16 shipping)

Still all these cases under $100 seem to have some flaw. I don't mind the Area-51 alien eyes on the LOGISYS box but basically I want something that works reliably in the $70 range. I like the kind of mother board which allows hotrodding/overclocking as in the

Gigabyte GA-M61P-33, AM2 socket, full size ATX (award winner!), $75

My plan is to build a fairly fast central PC based on an AMD 6400 X2 5200+ overclocked or a higher chip in that series because the 5200+ is the lowest in the series with a 1 GB cache. I would try to have 4 GB to 8 GB of memory on this board and a 250-300 GB SATA hard drive. If/when this rig checks out I will add a 8-port Gigabyte Ethernet switch and then add three very cheap boxes with AMD 6400 X2 4000+ which have no drives just 1 GB or 2 GB of memory each. The Prof. at Calvin College avoided cases altogether but my grandson visits and he is at the "fingerpoken" age so I need cases around this stuff. I have measured my present "Computer Caddy" and the three extra boxes will fit underneath with the "Master Box" in place of my old Compaq pentium III. I realize this is a distraction from finishing my roadster but I hope to do this during the cold months when I would not be able to do much on the car anyway. So what about this PC case problem?

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

Originally Posted by Don Shillady

IC2, what are you using for a case? I thought I could just use my old Compaq Pentium III case because it looks nice but I am not sure an ATX board will fit in there and I would need a new Power supply as well. When I started a search on places like Newegg for cases which offer reviews I find that there are literally hundreds of choices for cases and power supply combinations. So far I like the price range of

1. Broadway Com Corp 82-4HL Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 500W Power Supply ($46 + $16 shipping) (first choice but may have a problem with the front fan?)

2. LOGISYS Computer Area 51 CS51WBK Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 450W Power Supply ($35 + $16 shipping)

Still all these cases under $100 seem to have some flaw. I don't mind the Area-51 alien eyes on the LOGISYS box but basically I want something that works reliably in the $70 range. I like the kind of mother board which allows hotrodding/overclocking as in the

Gigabyte GA-M61P-33, AM2 socket, full size ATX (award winner!), $75

My plan is to build a fairly fast central PC based on an AMD 6400 X2 5200+ overclocked or a higher chip in that series because the 5200+ is the lowest in the series with a 1 GB cache. I would try to have 4 GB to 8 GB of memory on this board and a 250-300 GB SATA hard drive. If/when this rig checks out I will add a 8-port Gigabyte Ethernet switch and then add three very cheap boxes with AMD 6400 X2 4000+ which have no drives just 1 GB or 2 GB of memory each. The Prof. at Calvin College avoided cases altogether but my grandson visits and he is at the "fingerpoken" age so I need cases around this stuff. I have measured my present "Computer Caddy" and the three extra boxes will fit underneath with the "Master Box" in place of my old Compaq pentium III. I realize this is a distraction from finishing my roadster but I hope to do this during the cold months when I would not be able to do much on the car anyway. So what about this PC case problem?

Don Shillady
Retired Scientist/teen rodder

It looks like you have gone up in computer expectations!!! Do you really need all that, or just want something to do your 3-D experimentation (games??)

I narrowed my computer cases down to one of the Antac's or a Cooler Master 534 and ended up with the Cooler Master along with the Cooler Master Extreme Power 500 watt power supply. I did a bunch of review reading both in Newegg and wherever I could find someone talking about them and both of these manufacturers seemed to have excellant ratings by the "geeks".

As far as trying to use an old case - new ones along with a good power supply are just too inexpensive to consider.

Probably since your old Pentium was built, there was a change in the way mother board are mounted - and HP, in their infinite wisdom, use a proprietary bolt in pattern according to my reading. All new non OEM cases use a system wide pattern, depending on size - mine will bolt in all versions of mother boards.

The Cooler Master case has 2x120mm fans, one in the back, the other on the side with provisions for a third in the front panel. The CPU adds another ~70mm fan.

I do have significant space to add more hard drives, video cards, graphics and so on. The Western Digital 320 Gig hard drive is ~3.5 x 5" and I have room for 2-3 more. The 500 watt power supply will also handle anything I can throw at it (it was on special $50, less a $10 instant rebate then a $30 mail in so it only will cost me $10)

A couple of things that in my naivete that I overlooked was the number of 3.5" form factor bays I needed for front mounted components - I need 2 but got one as seen above so I'll be a few days behind finishing up. I have a built in flash card reader that is fit there now.

My biggest complaint - the manual for the Cooler Master case is crap for no better choice of words but the power supply, from the same mfr. isn't bad, so between that and the mother board manual, I'm about done with my wiring - with one final check before I put the power to it for the "smoke test".

As far as "breadboard" computers - I'm guessing that they might have some cooling problems with the heat that CPU's make now and you really need a good directed flow of cooling air.

This entire exercise has been fun with a lot of new terminology and skills being learned - and relatively inexpensive for a computer that will outperform almost any off the shelf unit from the OEMs

if the lights don't work on the front, flip them around the other way on the connector, and they will.. they don't mark P and - normally.

I fired a computer up and it smoked once.. I had plugged a power connector into the sound card, thinking it was the cd rom cable that allows cd's to play. still worked after that.. it was an old ISA soundblaster 16 compatible card, a cheap knockoff.

Originally Posted by Matt167

if the lights don't work on the front, flip them around the other way on the connector, and they will.. they don't mark P and - normally.

I fired a computer up and it smoked once.. I had plugged a power connector into the sound card, thinking it was the cd rom cable that allows cd's to play. still worked after that.. it was an old ISA soundblaster 16 compatible card, a cheap knockoff.

The only wires that I'm concerned with(so far) are the fan wiring - I have them jumpered together as it appears to be the only way to make 'em both work then connected to the front panel via a pair of green and white wires that disappear into the on-off/USB/light panel. I'm assuming that white is ground thru out the computer and for sure will check it out before the first 'smoke test'. I do need to make one last complete wiring check yet.

you can't jumper them togther.. you should have a 3 pin CPU fan plug and a 3 pin chassie fan plug on the mobo.. if you don't have the chassie fan plug, you need to get a fan that uses a molex conector ( 4 pin power supply )

PCs are like cars- everybody will tell you what YOU ought to buy because that's what THEY have. The rule since the 1980s has always been get the most power and memory you can afford.

The question what are YOU going to do with the PC not what Leadfoot Louey is going to do with it. Trust me you aren't going to sit and watch movies on it- maybe once for the novelty. You got your $40 WalMart DVD player in the living room where you can put your feet up and drink beer so why would you sit in an office chair and watch?

Forget about Uber video cards and massive RAM. I got 512MB card and 2.5gig of RAM only for gaming.

The fact is that none of my other software like Windows, several word processing programs, 2 different image manipulation programs, Google Earth, Adobe Acrobat, etc.- none- load or function any faster than my old PC with puny by comparison specs.

You can run most stuff with a basic 1.8 gig CPU, 1 gig RAM and a 128MB video card. Buying a Ford GT to drive in traffic to work at 22MPH doesn't make sense.