Well guys i am running a PIII 450 with 384 megs of ram, etc, overall not a bad system, but i need more, I do some video editing with via a 1394 firewire card off my digital cam quarter and this setup is just too slow and not enough hard drive space, rather then upgrading ive decided to just give this one to my parents and build new.

Although I am pretty good at computers, have done upgrades such as more ram changing video cards, put in cd burners and rom drives, but have never built a complete system, is this hard to do for a person at my level?

I have about $1,600 to spend on a new setup, in need a printer, monitor and everything, I also need a network card as well as a standard dialup modem, is this going to be enough $$$ to put a good system together. I know I want at least a 19 inch monitor and need to have a very good photo quality printer, also a scanner would be nice, I already have a cd burner I can take out of my old system. What do you guys suggest for a cpu? amd? PIIII? what about video cards?? What kind of ram am i going to need with what processor? any information and suggestions are extremely helpful

Thanks very much



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Thomas (AKA Hot66ss)
66 Super Sport (http://chevelles.com/showroom/myss.jpg) Now striped frame off Project
67 Malibu (http://chevelles.com/showroom/hot66ss4) Getting there.
69 El camino Beater (http://www.chevelles.com/showroom/hotselco) Mild 355, M21 4 speed (Daily Driver)
Video of me in the Elco smoking the tires (http://members.aol.com/chevelleparts/mvc-059w.mpg)
Aces Member 2380
Team Chevelle member #262

I've been pleased with my 1200 AMD Athlon. (Won't buy from Gateway again, though.) It was quite a jump from the previous 133 Pentium.

Get the DDR memory, that is supposed to be much faster than "standard" memory.

Does anyone have a suggestion for a monitor and printer, I am looking for the best bang for the buck. What is the gotta have printers and monitors?

thanks

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Thomas (AKA Hot66ss)
66 Super Sport (http://chevelles.com/showroom/myss.jpg) Now striped frame off Project
67 Malibu (http://chevelles.com/showroom/hot66ss4) Getting there.
69 El camino Beater (http://www.chevelles.com/showroom/hotselco) Mild 355, M21 4 speed (Daily Driver)
Video of me in the Elco smoking the tires (http://members.aol.com/chevelleparts/mvc-059w.mpg)
Aces Member 2380
Team Chevelle member #262

I have had good luck with Dell. Go to http://www.dell.com/us/en/gen/default.htm and put together the most you can for what you're willing to spend. You should be able to get a 1Ghz machine with a 17" monitor, 128 MB RAM, and the other things you mentioned for about $1600. Have fun putting it together and good luck.

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Bob McCormick
69 Malibu project

Thanks for the impute guys, I am pretty set on putting something together myself and the help of a buddy. I basically need to know part by part what is the best bang for my buck. Any computer experts out there?

Thanks

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Thomas (AKA Hot66ss)
66 Super Sport (http://chevelles.com/showroom/myss.jpg) Now striped frame off Project
67 Malibu (http://chevelles.com/showroom/hot66ss4) Getting there.
69 El camino Beater (http://www.chevelles.com/showroom/hotselco) Mild 355, M21 4 speed (Daily Driver)
Video of me in the Elco smoking the tires (http://members.aol.com/chevelleparts/mvc-059w.mpg)
Aces Member 2380
Team Chevelle member #262

Well, I can tell you that the Sony Trinitron 21" is an excellent monitor, however it will shoot you over your budget. It'll consume a lot of your $1600 (about $900 or so). If you went with the 19" Trinitron, it would set you back about $650 while the 17" one will go for about $400.

One of the HP ink jet printers, such as the 970cxi at less than $200, will satisfy almost all your needs.

Have you determined that you need 384 Megs of RAM ?? If you really don't, then you can save some money by stripping some off before you pass the computer on, and then buy a motherboard that's compatible with that memory.

It's not difficult to "build your own" computer, but with what you described, $1600 probably will not get you what you want.

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Bob McCormick
69 Malibu project

You should be able to handle building it, the only "tough" part is the software setup.

I just built a computer for a friend and did some pricing tonight for my cousin. I also recently bought a system for doing DV editing at work. You should be able to do it but it's going to be tight.

Bob is right, that Sony 21" is nice but if you're seriously into the video editing, you'd be better off with two 17" instead. Check www.cnet.com (http://www.cnet.com) for monitor reviews. I just bought a Samsung 17" (755DF) and it's SWEET (I was pleasantly surprised).

The biggest thing you can do to increase youre performance is with a fast hard drive. RAID 0 is the best way to go. You can get a motherboard with RAID built in. (RAID 0 uses two hard drives and makes it look like one...sends the data to both drives at the same time, almost doubling your throughput).

Here's what I'd do with $1600:
Two 17" Samsung 755DF - $400 (2x $200)
ABIT KG7 RAID Motherboard - $190 (available in Sept.)
Athlon 1.4GHz - $160
256MB PC2100 DDR SDRAM - $40
Two IBM 30GB 7200rpm ATA 100 Hard Drives - $260 (2x $130)
CD-RW - free http://www.chevelles.com/forum/smile.gif
56K modem - $10
10/100 PCI Network Card - $20
32MB GeForce 2 MX Video Card - $80
Sound Blaster Live 5.1 Value - $50
Intellimouse Explorer $35
Keyboard - $10
Floppy Drive - $5
Epson 777 Printer - $70
Speakers - $100
Case with Athlon approved power supply - $70
Shipping, tax, etc - $100

This assumes that you have the software you need, if not, you'll have to cut back on a few things to stay in budget.

EDIT: Oops, just realized you'll need a video card with dual monitor support for that to work. I think the GeForce 2 MX with duals is $100 - $130. I'd cut back the CPU to 1 GHz. It also assumes you will be moving the firewire card from the old computer to the new one.

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Rick Sutter
Member #383
'67 Chevelle Super Sport
67SS.com (http://67SS.com)

[This message has been edited by RickS (edited 08-06-2001).]

The FIRST THING you should do is go out and buy Upgrading and Repairing PC's, 12th Edition by Scott Mueller. This book is big and expensive ($40), but has so many resources that it's worth it http://www.chevelles.com/forum/smile.gif

Im with Bob on this one,

I got a dell with 60 gb drive, 128 megs ram (expandable to 512 mb) 1 Ghz PIIII, CDRW, Turtle Beach audio, preloaded with Win98 (which didnt matter cause I blew it off for Win2k) but you can get one pre-loaded with Win ME for the same price, which might suit you better if you are using it for multimedia apps. Comes less the video card, which is best anyhow, so you can choose what you want to run.

$700 bucks on the nose, free delivery. Still have to get a monitor but even after that it will come out less than what you said you are willing to spend. And you dont have to deal with the set-up with the exception of video card or any peripherals like printers and monitors.

BTW, I have built (literally) thousands and thousands of PC's from Compaqs, gateways, dells, ibm, all makes and brands and Dell has , by far, been the most solid. Have had the least amount of problems with dell machines.

You can go to their site and do a search on their re-furbished systems and find killer deals. People question the "re-furbished" but they are great systems. Basically they go out to companys on lease and they are built and tested before they leave dell. Then they are ran for a year in the field, so basically tested again, and then sent back to dell, rebuilt and tested again. So they are tested and tested and tested. Still carry warranty and support.

Firm beliver in their product and their engineering (one of my buddys is an engineer at dell, so I get to see the inner workings of the company). I would check it out before buying piece by piece and having to pay extra for software on top of that.

For what you are willing to spend I think you will FAR exceed that when software and peripherals are considered.

later.

Beaux

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'70 SS 396 4spd
TC# 1341

God was my co-pilot but we crashed in the mountains and I had to eat him.

[This message has been edited by Midnight Marauder (edited 08-07-2001).]

You can easily do it yourself.. PC's have become idiot proof (even I can do it).. I would suggest finding a reputable component sales company on the net. THEN go to www.pricewatch.com (http://www.pricewatch.com) and www.pricescan.com (http://www.pricescan.com) to find the cheapest prices on the items you want.. Then CALL the on-line distributor and see what they will do pricewise if you order from them.. I have used many of the on-line stores and found one to be top notch in working with you and overall satisfaction.. it's www.tccomputers.com (http://www.tccomputers.com) (a subsidiary of insight) They test all combos that leave the warehouse so you and they know the products are in good working order when they leave the factory.. Good Luck.. and BTW I don't work for or get any kickbacks from any site listed... just trying to assist. good luck

www.pricewatch.com (http://www.pricewatch.com) is the place to go to find cheap stuff. thats where I order all my PC parts from.

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350 TBI EFI 4speed 12bolt 3.73's
Bench Blue w/black inter. 14.5@90mph
"UNACCEPTABLE!!!!!" Beldar

My 69 Chevelle (http://www.chevelles.com/showroom/Chevelle1.jpg)

I have all but quit building computers these days. You can get almost as much pre-assembled, if not more from Dell and some of the others and they are pre-loaded with the OS and a host of other software products. Even if you find a combination of parts for less it won't be from the same vendor and if something fails you need to know what you got from who and 9 months from now that may not be so easy if you're like me.

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...Dennis
www.camaroslimited.com (http://www.camaroslimited.com)