buying a new computer

[zweistein]

I am buying a new computer, and I was wondering if this would be OK for my needs (some Photoshop, Win2k, Office2k, a bit of programming, almost no games, Dreamweaver 4, you know... ):

CPU: Intel Celeron 1300MHz (+cooler)
MBO: Gigabyte GA-6RX
RAM: 256MB DDR/266
HDD: Maxtor D740X-6L 40/7200/133/2
VGA: InsideTNC Dream TNT2 32MB
(+case)

I already have a CD-ROM, floppy drive and a monitor, so there's no need to buy that at the moment.

Thanks!

[aspen]

get an AMD.

[redemption]

Originally posted by aspen
get an AMD.

ditto

and i never heard of InsideTNC Dream TNT2 32MB... you should get a GeForce MX... i think the price is comparable so there's no harm

[qslack]

Ditto about the AMD and GeForce MX. Also, why don't you double your RAM? 256 MB is on the low end for web development and graphic design.

[zweistein]

Originally posted by qslack
Ditto about the AMD and GeForce MX. Also, why don't you double your RAM? 256 MB is on the low end for web development and graphic design.

Believe me, I would, but I don't have the money, currently. I don't even know if my dad will let me to buy this one .

[Ingoal]

Low Budget would be:

Duron 1.2 GHz
Elitegroup Board (K75SA)
512MB SD-Ram
Geforce 4MX 440
IBM 40 GB AV, 7200rpm, UDMA100
Case

That would be something like 500 Euro (= 315GBP)

And that would give you a real "kick-****" system....

Cheers Ingoal

[zweistein]

I don't think that would be 500€ in Croatia... I have 3000 kunas (that's our currency).
Now, the processor is about 1000 (no matter which - AMD, Intel, it's all +/- 200kn). The motherboard is around 800kn. 512MB RAM is more than 1000kn. VGA is about 500kn, the case is around 500kn.

I'll try .

BTW, 1€ is around 7,5kn.

[Ingoal]

Originally posted by zweistein
I don't think that would be 500€ in Croatia... I have 3000 kunas (that's our currency).

Hmm, 3000 kunas are 421 Euro. I guess you won´t get the config i proposed for that. I guess you would have to stick with a Geforce2MX (= - 60 Euro), and with 256MB Ram (- 40 Euro)....

Hmmm, as i don´t know the actual prices over in Croatia, it´s really hard to suggest anything

[mjames]

Originally posted by qslack
Ditto about the AMD and GeForce MX. Also, why don't you double your RAM? 256 MB is on the low end for web development and graphic design.

Man, that makes me sad, I got 256 when I bought my computer almost a year ago and it was very adequate then. Times change so much in less than a year, it seems. It's like when you buy the newest, coolest computer and you find out they release the new version the next day.

[zweistein]

Hmmmmm...
1) I don't need 512MB RAM - it just seems too much (I read in a famous croatian computer magazine that for a pleasant work with Windows2000 you need 256MB RAM)
2) the prices in croatia are too high... I can give you the price list if you want

cya

[Ingoal]

Originally posted by zweistein
I can give you the price list if you want

cya

Hehe, would be cool to know some prices:

give us an inside look of a few prices from the following sections

1.) CPUs (AMD/Intel)
2.) Ram
3.) HDDs

Cheers Ingoal

[Hierophant]

Originally posted by mjames

Man, that makes me sad, I got 256 when I bought my computer almost a year ago and it was very adequate then. Times change so much in less than a year, it seems. It's like when you buy the newest, coolest computer and you find out they release the new version the next day.

I have 256 megs of DDR RAM in my two new PC's and it is very adequate for our needs.

[zweistein]

Here you go...

Processors:
AMD Athlon XP 1600+, 1400 MHz, 256 kb c., socket A, BUS 266 MHz 1.179,93
AMD Athlon XP 1700+, 1466 MHz, 256 kb c., socket A, BUS 266 MHz 1.287,60
AMD Athlon XP 1800+, 1533 MHz, 256 kb c., socket A, BUS 266 MHz 1.385,28
AMD Athlon XP 1900+, 1600 MHz, 256 kb c., socket A, BUS 266 MHz 1.787,10
AMD Athlon XP 2000+, 1666 MHz, 256 kb c., socket A, BUS 266 MHz 2.296,59
INTEL Celeron Tualatin 1000 MHz, 256 kb cache, FC PGA 2, BUS 100 MHz 763,68 688,00 -2 % 12
INTEL Celeron Tualatin 1100 MHz, 256 kb cache, FC PGA 2, BUS 100 MHz 812,52
INTEL Celeron Tualatin 1200 MHz, 256 kb cache, FC PGA 2, BUS 100 MHz 863,58
INTEL Celeron Tualatin 1300 MHz, 256 kb cache, FC PGA 2, BUS 100 MHz 967,92
(just a few)

RAM:
DIMM PC-133, 64 MB, 168 pins, SDRAM, brand name 210,90
DIMM PC-133, 128 MB, 168 pins, SDRAM, brand name 355,20
DIMM PC-133, 256 MB, 168 pins, SDRAM, brand name 718,17
DIMM PC-133, 512 MB, 168 pins, SDRAM, brand name 1.673,88
DIMM PC-2100, 128 MB, 184 pins, DDR RAM, 266 MHz, brand name 279,72
DIMM PC-2100, 256 MB, 184 pins, DDR RAM, 266 MHz, brand name 721,50
DIMM PC-2100, 512 MB, 184 pins, DDR RAM, 266 MHz, brand name 1.598,40
DIMM PC-2700, 256 MB, 184 pins, DDR RAM, 333 MHz, brand name 825,84
DIMM PC-2700, 512 MB, 184 pins, DDR RAM, 333 MHz, brand name 1.617,27
RIMM PC-800, 128 MB, RDRAM, brand name 489,51
RIMM PC-800, 256 MB, RDRAM, brand name 989,01

HDDs:
HDD IBM 40 GB, UDMA 100, 7.200 o/min., 2 MB cache 932,40
HDD IBM 60 GB, UDMA 100, 7.200 o/min., 2 MB cache 1.124,43
HDD WD Caviar 40 GB, UDMA 100, 5.400 o/min., 2 MB cache 761,46
HDD WD Caviar 40 GB, UDMA 100, 7.200 o/min., 2 MB cache 885,78
HDD WD Caviar 60 GB, UDMA 100, 5.400 o/min., 2 MB cache 1.066,71

this is just a portion of the whole offer. details: http://www.hgspot.hr/table_kom.html

cya

BTW, all prices are in kunas.

[Hierophant]

What kind of hard drive do you have currently? Would you be able to reuse it in your new computer and upgrade later? Would save a few kuna's that you can redirect elsewhere right now.

[zweistein]

I have 2 drives - one Samsung 3.5GB and one WD 2.0GB, so I was thinking about saving money on the HDD because this space is enough for me (altough I could use a few extra GBs ).

[Ingoal]

Originally posted by zweistein
(altough I could use a few extra GBs ).

Hehe,

who couldn´t...

/me smells someone needing space for dls

[zweistein]

Originally posted by Ingoal


Hehe,

who couldn´t...

/me smells someone needing space for dls

Well, I do need it for dls, but I have a 56k connection, so that isn't the main reason.

I was thinking about the following configuration at the end:
AMD Duron 1200MHz
Shuttle AK31 v2.0 VIA KT266 MBO (incl. sound, what do you think about this one?)
128MB DDR/266 RAM (Will upgrade to 256MB later)
InsideTNC RivaTNT2 32MB SDRAM VGA (I don't play games, so I really don't need more than this)
A real good cooler for AMD
some min. 300W case

I am planning on adding additional 128MB DDR later, and a 40GB disk. All this costs only 2578kn, and even my dad agrees with the price .

[Ingoal]

Originally posted by zweistein


Shuttle AK31 v2.0 VIA KT266 MBO (incl. sound, what do you think about this one?)

Ah well, i use the onboard sound in all of my comps, besides i got a 5.1 sound card onboard on my new mobo (MSI KT333Ultra).

If you don´t wanna do some "professional" sound recording / editing, the onboard sound should do fine for you (besides you should get yourself some active-speaker, cause most onboard-soundcards don´t have all that much of an output = extremely quiet)....

[zweistein]

I was thinking about the motherboard itself, not the integrated soundcard.

Thanks

[Ingoal]

Originally posted by zweistein
I was thinking about the motherboard itself, not the integrated soundcard.

Thanks

Hehe, sorry, got the point wrong then...

About the mobo: in a test of 13 kt266(a) boards it was almost on the last place performance wise, why don´t you check out the EPOX EP-8KHA+

This mobo was on first place in almost every section and i a real "budget"-mobo, too...

Cheers Ingoal

[zweistein]

Never heard of that, EPOX... couldn't find it in any price list. Does it have integrated sound?

[c3r3br0]

What type of computer do you have now? And are you changing the amount or workload? I would start here first. What performance problems are you having with your current machine? The next one you buy only has to be an improvement from what you have. I would also recommend buying one from a known vendor in your area, because you have to consider support in case the machine craps out on you. You might think well, I'll fix everything myself but you don't want to pay for new parts do you?

Go with whatever is standard now. Look at what the offerings are for Dell, Compaq, HP, and IBM to see what the standard config is and the price ranges.

[zweistein]

Well, as I said, I want a computer strong enough for Win2k and Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Office2k and Python .
I already have a monitor (it is a 15", but it can do for now), HDDs (one 3.5GB and one 2GB), CD-ROM drive and the floppy drive; I even have 128 megs of RAM, so all I need is additional 128 megs of RAM, a processor (I think it'll be Duron 1000 or 850MHz, I'm not really sure now), a motherboard (MSI) and a graphics card (I don't play any games except a few ones that are pleased with my current 4MB S3Virge).

My current config.:
CyrixInstead 233MHz MX
128MB RAM
some Chaintech MBO
3.5GB (Samsung) and 2.0GB (WD) HDD
TEAC CD-ROM
15" monitor & 4MB S3Virge VGA
mouse, kbd, sound card...

cya

[c3r3br0]

Go to each of the vendors site of the software and see what the recommendations are. What ever they are double it. If you want a system that will be able to run all the apps at once then add them all up and there is your box. Chances are however you will only be running one of the apps + windows 2000. So add the most resource intensive app specs with the win2k recommended system specs plus an extra 20GB for storage and there's the minimum requirements for your machine. Probably a Pentium 3 500Mhz with 512MB of RAM and a 30GB hard drive will do, but we know the "tool man" in us won't settle for anything less than the most powerful we can afford.

[Majglow]

AMD is good if you have a budget problem... otherwise Intel beats AMD hands down for any real processing applicationg (don't give me all this benchmark crap, they mean nothing. I personally use both, and there is no way AMD out beats Intel. On top of everything, if you analyze the actual internal workings of both processors, you'll understand why Intel is better. People just don't like Intel because it's a successful company).

Anyway... don't get a Celeron or Duron. They cut the cache size, which is very important for high processing tasks. Get an Athlon before you get a Celeron. Actually, you would be better with a P3 500 than with a celeron / duron. For RAM... you can get by fine with 256 MB, however, for the price of RAM, go for 512.