Computer price opinions wanted

1FASTSC

Registered User
--ECS k7s5a motherboard with AMD xp2000+ (clocked at 1.67Ghz)
--FP 208: Beige Future Power 400W Computer Case
--Crystal 4 Channel PNP PCI SOUND CARD W/MPU-401 port, Digital 3D
--Geforce4 MX440 64meg
--2 Case fans
--Samsung 5x DVD Drive 32x CD Combo CDROM/DVD w/DVD
--40 gig hard drive
--Floppy
--128 meg DDR pc2100 ram

--$399
shipping, and peripherals are extra...

I think I'm going to build this to sell it locally or possibly over the internet...just wondering if you all think the price is good. On another note, the parts are all on limited warranties.
 
Not bad at all from here. This is why my independent consulting business is really down. Why pay for the parts and labor to upgrade an older machine when you can buy a new one with warranty like that? I know of some swampland if anyone is interested!!! :)
 
I went through the same thing. Too many internet companies running on shoestring profits pushed all of the small guys out of business. People want to save that last penny and forget about support.

Aaron
 
Price...

Not to bad man. Just got one question...Why only 2 fans? Is there anyway you could put the max amount of case fans in it and still keep the price low? I know with the computer I built, I only had the 1 fan on the CPU with 2 case fans, and my computer kept shutting down...getting too hot. I have the Athlon XP 1900+. I had to keep one side of the case off, just to keep it cool. Even now with 4 case fans, CPU fan, Vid. card fan, PCI slot fan Hard drive coolling fans(not cooling hard drive, just to pull air in), and 2 power supply fans, Im still at the caution area for temp. in case, and my dorm room is at 60 degrees. I know Athlons are notorious for melting down, thats why Im asking. I guess you are building these for the people that use the computer for surfing 'net, and downloading MP3's, basic stuff correct?

How much would it cost for you to build me a computer that I could use for gaming? Im talking like the Tyan Motherboard with dual XP 2200+, 2 GB DDR ram, SCSI 200 GB hard drive, nVidia FX vid card, separate wireless NIC, DVD burner, CD Burner, Liquid Cooling, and an awesome case? If you can keep it under $2000, I would definately buy from you!:D
 
I can keep it under 2 grand easy.

but half of that stuff are you sure that you want for gaming? Dual processors isn't going to make much of a difference for gaming, your system memory and video card are really what will lag a gaming system down.


To answer your question though, I can build you a rig that would blow your mind for like 1500 bucks at the absolute most.

I'm talking liquid cooling, RAID HDD's, radeon 9800, 500W case with interior lights and a bad a$$ patern etched in it.


beejstarks@hotmail.com is my email.
 
hah well...after looking at some prices maybe I'm not exactly sure......

a 184gig scsi HDD is like almost 1000 bucks just by itself.

I can understand wanting to use SCSI...but 200gigs? I have a 40 gig a ton of games, and I've never even hit the half way point for it.
 
Prices

I know, I was kidding about the SCSI hdd...I have a 120GB right now, and I have about 50 left. Mostly movies, music, cartoons, and games...but its only a 7200rpm. Im just trying to get a bigger or 2 bigger hdd's cause once I get my Digital Camcorder, Im going to be doing a lot of video editing, hence the dual processors. I know Mac is awesome for that kinda stuff, but I want something that has large support base, and since Mac is a closed source system, only 1 company supports Mac....and that company is Mac. But if you could build something like I want for the masses cheap, you could make a lot of money. But make sure you put Linux on it...not Windows...windows is worthless. I use NT 4.0, 2k, XP, and 2k advanced server, and Ive had nothing but problems, I use Red Hat Linux 7.5, and Linux 8.2, and Unix, not a problem. If your into computers, and keep up on the info, Im sure youve heard of Lindows. I cant wait for them to work out the bugs in Wine....anyway...
 
Yeah, I'm a linux guy as well... I use XP pro and I love it, but I use linux to sniff my network (I used to play everquest and used SEQ and now I just tinker with it because I'm curious)



Lemme look into some of the parts that you want and I'll come up with a price for ya.

Have you considered a RAID set up?

so...really, you don't want a powerful gaming system, you want a powerful system that you can do graphics and video editing with. Lemme look into it, feel free to email me or post here with any questions though.
 
---motherboard 2000MP (dual processor)
---1 gig ram DDR
---ATI 9700 pro with tv out
---DVD - duplicator
---Mitsumi CD-R -- 54X32X54
---one bad *** case
---Iceburg liquid cooling system
---NEW FUJITSU SCSI 146gig HDD
---SCSI Card

Man...the parts for this bad boy were well over 2 grand....I could probably do it for like....2250.

Think this computer would work for what you need it for? Of course the operating system that you wanted, you would have to tell me what flavor of linux you want.
 
The real gaming machine would be:

Pentium 4, 3.0GHz at 800MHz FSB
Asus P4C800 Dual Channel DDR at 400MHz running identical twin 512 Sticks of Corsair XMS DDR400MHz ram
ATI 9800 Pro
Antec Case with 4 fans and optional hard drive cooler.
A western digital 7200 rpm 120JB HD with 8MB cache.

This would be a top of the line system. Others would be cheaper. Like say and Athlon XP 2400 ($100)
52x LG CD Burner($50)
512MB Ram Lifetime Warranty ($60)
Antec Case with 550watt true power supply ($100)
Round Cables ($12)
Seagate Barracuda 7200 RPM 80GB Hard Drive ($75)
LG 16X DVD Drive ($32)
Your choice of monitor. and graphics card.

I also build computers.

This set was able to pull 415 fps in Quake III. A little overkill considering the human eye can only see 60fps. But the important aspect of this is that it is able to pull 306fps at 1280x1024 in 32bit res.
 
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In refference to the SCSI, the Western Digtal 120JB 8MB Cache has been benchmarked and it is faster than some of the SCSI dirves. I will try to find the results here somewhere. And the best part is you don't have all the noise.


Oh, 1FastSC, try to stay clear of the ECS boards, they are about as generic as it gets and have very limited bios tuning, and reliability issues. Go with Abit or Asus for a cheap reliable board. You can find the low ends of both for 50 bucks to 80 bucks and a lifetime Warranty, and good tech support. Not to mention a much faster system. If overclocking is something the customer wants you can get one of these boards with the pci bus locked in at 33MHz that way pci and AGP cards do not become a limiting factor for overclocking the FSB.
 
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Hey, where can I find out about the liquid cooling stuff. I was planning on building a computer this summer. I don't play much games but I do make a lot of dvds, some drafting programs.
 
T-bird4vr

If you want the ultimate cooling then i suggest going with the Vapo Chill set up here.

http://www.misrcorps.com/vapo_chill.htm


For water cooling

www.koolance.com

Hope this helps.

I would also say that if you really wanted to do some dvd, and digital video editing then you should get a MAC. I was mad into windows until i used my first Mac for video editing over a year ago. Haven't looked back since. There iMove kills anything I have seen for windows, and Final Cut Express is only a few ticks off the more expensive Final Cut Pro which is what a lot of Hollywood studios use. The best part is the ease of use, the editing options, and teh speed.


Here is a video that took less than 3 min to edit and add in the smoke and music and cut frames out. Try finding a windows program that is this easy to use and with as many options to make a quality product.

http://homepage.mac.com/sccrvettel82/iMovieTheater1.html
 
Oh, btw 1badsc, the gentleman that asked me to look into the prices for a "good gaming" computer, had a budget. I want to see you build a 3Ghz p4 rig with a 9800 pro, 1 gig of memory, water cooling, etc etc and keep it under 2 grand....

Keep in mind, he wanted SCSI hard drives, and wanted 200 gig.

MAC are great for video editing and internet surfing etc....but if you want a fully functional (using for games, etc etc) you need to run a PC.
 
Then if I was you I would educate your friend on dual processor boards. Because the majority of games cannot make use of them, so it is pointless to have them. Unless he needs them for something esle.

Sorry man didn't mean to undercut you, i edited the post as well.

I still think can build the ultimate gaming rig for under 2 grand using the above mentioned products. I would also gaurantee that the new P4 Dual channel would run faster than a dual processor board. But anyhow if you want some more good places to buy things let me know.
 
1BADSC, Thanks for the links. You're video does look very nice espicially for 3 minutes of editing. I know that macs are the best for that stuff, but I have too many other programs that I would have to give up. Maybe after I graduate and can afford two, ahh big paychecks instead of big bills. Anyway I wanted to do the dual HD raid setup, is it type 0 I think (splits the data to both for higher speed) and probably the 3Ghz XP processor, Asus board. Is this a good combo, looks like I might be able to get it done just over 1k maybe. Depending on how much other stuff I trhow at it.
Thanks in advance.
Julian

BTW, your car looks dang close to mine, nice choice!
 
Well there is a program for the Macs that let you run all windows programs and even windows itself. I will check on your prices for your raid set up in a few and get back to you.
 
Dude, don't trouble yourself. I wanted to do it myself, (sounds like fun) and I won't get to it for a couple months or so. If you know a great place to buy the stuff than that would be nice, but you don't need to bother now. I might ask later. I will consider the mac but I really don't do a whole lot of editing with the dvds. One of my roomates has a mac and the graphics are awesome, but he also has a lot of troubles with it. I will give it a second look although.
 
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