INFO: Building/Buying a Desktop (PC or Mac)

[Jysin-DW]

Son of a ...

Well, just flaked on me again.. so here's the scoop:

Go to Network and Sharing Center. (See Pic1)

Then at the top right, click "View Full Map".


Then on the next screen, you should see similar to (Pic2).

Click the red X between gateway and internet and you will get the popup (Pic3).

Once it resets, it always comes up for me.

This problem is a fucking PITA and I have no idea what causes it.

[Elurin]

Finally got a power supply that works (gone through 3 before this one, first caught video card and motherboard on fire).

I'm having an issue with an external hard drive though. It's a 2.5 SATA in a Rosewill enclosure. It works fine on my old computer, but I get nothing at all on the new one. I've tried every USB port (and other USB devices are working on them), Add New Hardware shows nothing, and Computer Management gets nothing. Running XP SP3, so there shouldn't be any kind of driver issues.

Anyone got any ideas?

[Etruscus]

I am trying to identify an upgrade strategy, if one exists. It looks like for now I am going to need to replace everything, other than possibly the Vid card. This set up, while working great a few years ago is coming to the threshold of its usefulness. Lately I've been playing Vanguard, and it actually handles it fairly well, but it does hang occasionally. Do you all think I can squeeze some more life out of it, or should I be looking for an upgrade in the next couple months. I mostly play on line games, but I also like stand alones, like NWN, CivIV, really looking forward to Empire total war, and other stuff.

Current set up:

I still run XP (I don't see a need to upgrade to Vista yet)
AMD Athlon 64 Processor 3200+ ~2.0gig
3 Gig Ram
120 hard disk, 7200
Geforce 7950 GT, 256 onboard

Mother board-

Model
Brand ASUS
Model A8N-E
Supported CPU
CPU Socket Type 939
CPU Type Athlon 64 X2 / Athlon 64 FX / Athlon 64
FSB 1000MHz Hyper Transport (2000 MT/s)
Chipsets
North Bridge NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra
Memory
Number of Memory Slots 4×184pin
Memory Standard DDR 400
Maximum Memory Supported 4GB
Dual Channel Supported Yes
Expansion Slots
PCI Express x16 1
PCI Express x4 1
PCI Express x1 2
PCI Slots 3
Storage Devices
PATA 2 x ATA100 4 Dev. Max
PATA RAID NV RAID 0/1/0+1 JBOD
SATA 3Gb/s 4
SATA RAID NV RAID 0/1/0+1 JBOD
Onboard Video
Onboard Video Chipset None
Onboard Audio
Audio Chipset Realtek ALC850
Audio Channels 8 Channels
Onboard LAN
Max LAN Speed 10/100/1000Mbps
Rear Panel Ports
PS/2 2
LPT 1
USB 4 x USB 2.0
S/PDIF Out 1x Optical, 1x Coaxial
Audio Ports 6 Ports
Onboard USB
Onboard USB 3 x USB 2.0 connectors support 6 ports
Physical Spec
Form Factor ATX
Dimensions 12.0" x 9.6"
Power Pin 24 Pin

[Jysin-DW]

Your motherboard is an old AMD socket 939. It was releassed in 2004 and hit the end of the road in early 2006 when AM2 was released. There were no processor upgrades for it past the FX60 (2.6GHz dual core) as far as I can remember.

Basically, the only thing salvageable out of all of that is your vid card (which is quite ancient) and Hard Drive. You might possibly need a power supply upgrade, depending on what you have now. You will certainly need a new motherboard, CPU, and RAM. Good news is, the tech now will absolutely crush the performance of that machine and can be had fairly cheap.

Can you build yourself, or are you buying premade? Give a budget you want to work with and its easier to go from there.

[DMyst]

Just a quick question... is it worth buying the 4870x2 right now or should one hold back for a price drop? Is there anything new releasing anytime soon?

My girl's computer is having a hard time running warhammer properly in 1900x1200 on a 24inch screen using a 8800gts 512. She insists on playing on HIGH with AF and AA on.

[Jysin-DW]

I am suprised an 8800GTS 512 cant handle that. I certainly think the x2 is overkill, but it is quite new and nothing has been announced to replace it. I wouldnt expect anything for atleast ~6 months. What nVidia will do is a bit of a mystery though. There is talk of a die shrink for the 280 and 260 cards in a couple months, but your guess is as good as mine for the expected pricepoint.

[Etruscus]

Originally Posted by Jysin-DW

Can you build yourself, or are you buying premade? Give a budget you want to work with and its easier to go from there.

What you said is more or less what I figured. I've been assembling my own now for about eight years. I have the original 3.5" floppy drive still installed just to say it is the same computer I bought in late 1999. I think I'm on the third or fourth mo-bo, I've lost track. I've even swapped out the case, since I needed one with more room and better mounting.

I would like to keep my budget under 1K. My internal harddrive is going to get upgraded to that new 1T seagate here shortly. The price seems fairly reasonable. My guess is the power supply will need to replaced, or it will be due. I just replaced this one about a year ago and that seems to be how long they last before I smoke them.

Since this looks like a complete overhaul, I'll give you some more details about what I do with it.

Like I said, I play mostly MMO's. I have Vanguard, EQ2, and two copies of EVE installed for now. I like to play games like Oblivion, NWN2, and other such games. I am not an FPSer, so having the latest and greatest vid card is not of the highest priority. I don't see myself playing WAR. I am looking forward to the Bioware KOTOR MMO. I use voice coms. I tend also to play a lot of strategy games that are CPU intensive (Civ IV, Gal Civ, etc). I am really looking forward to Empire total war. I think that's about it.

[Jysin-DW]

1k is a pretty big budget. There is a lot of cheap hardware around right now.

Off the top of my head:

Newegg.com - ASUS P5Q Pro LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard - Intel Motherboards $140

Newegg.com - Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 Wolfdale 3.16GHz 6MB L2 Cache LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor - Processors - Desktops $190

Newegg.com - G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1000 (PC2 8000) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Desktop Memory $68

Newegg.com - PC Power & Cooling S75QB 750W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI NVIDIA SLI Certified (Dual 8800 GTX and below) CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply - Power Supplies $155 (Slight overkill, but lots of room to grow)

Newegg.com - SAPPHIRE 100243-1GL Radeon HD 4870 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards $290

Newegg.com - Seagate Barracuda ES.2 ST31000340NS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - Internal Hard Drives $220

This build should be plenty for any of those games you listed and it only comes to about $850. Throw in your Seagate 1 Terabyte drive and its still only $1063. If you can bother with mail in rebates on the Motherboard (-$20) and the Power Supply (-$45), you can get the total down to $1018.

Thats a pretty badass system for the price.

[Etruscus]

Very much appreciate the feedback!

[Craelin]

Etruscus, I would recommend grabbing the E8400 rather than the E8500 as you can easily OC it and the upgrade simply isn't worth the $20 saved.

(Dmyst, this is for you too) Best Buy is running a sale on its VisionTek ATI 48** cards:
4870x2 - $412
4870 512mb - $225
4850 - $150
Unfortunately, Visiontek doesn't make a 4870 1gig card, but if you're looking to save some cash the 512mb or 4850 are options. (Visiontek is definitely the best brand to buy from, as they offer a lifetime warranty.)

If you go with the Motherboard mentioned above from Newegg, enter EMCBAACBG as a promo code. The Mb will come out to $99 after rebate.

Do you really need the 1T hard drive? I've had this 640gig HDD recommended to me (it's in the mail as we speak) and it will save you $140.
EDIT: (Thanks SlickDeals) here's a 1TB Barracude internal HDD for $150. Enter code NZPQQQ0B340T9Z to get it down to around $115. I've heard that some people have problems going through Dell, but YMMV.

Finally, here's a Corsair 750W PSU that I hear is one of the best (I also purchased this). Its priced at $100 before a $20 MiR and has free shipping. Never buy PSUs from Newegg - they always overcharge.

Hope this helps!

[ChewieTobbacca]

BTW if anyone is looking to get a Vista Ultimate SP1 RETAIL copy (full version, x64 and x86 both) for ebay prices or lower, PM me

[Draegan]

I've never had this issue before but I've heard of others having it as well. I just wanted to get my own confirmations on it.

My computer was working fine in the AM yesterday and when I got home from work yesterday it wouldn't come out of idle. Tried turning it on and it wouldn't so I tried to check out what was going on.

Here's what happens:
PSu fan, CPU fan spin for a half second then stop and wind down.
I get flashing lights (a few greens and a yellow) near the RAM.
The front LEDs turn on then off then continue to blink every 5 seconds or so.

My parts:
CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W ATX12V / EPS12V
GIGABYTE GA-X48-DS5 LGA 775 Intel X48 ATX Intel Motherboard
With an Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz

I checked the power connections, I took the whole thing apart and reassembled it. I tried starting it up without my two graphic cards in there, tried with one. Tried with each of the RAM modules in. I even tried a 450W PS unit (an old one) and it didn't work. When I start it up I hear a brief whirling and then it stops.

Ok I suspect a dead PS. Also I understand clearing your CMOS could also work. I hope it's not my CPU or MOBO that's broken. When I get home tonight I'll try the CMOS, if that doesn't work I'll have to run out and buy a new PS and try that.

Am I on the right track here? I'd hate wasting time.

[Taivek]

Had a similar prob. about 2 months ago. Swapped PSU, ram, and graphics and that wasn't the problem so I figured it was my motherboard. Switched motherboard and that wasn't the problem. Then switched my e8400 out with an e2160 and my computer started right now. Would have saved me a lot of time if I had done that before switching out mobo. Intel's costumer support was, to my suprise, very fast with sending me a replacement.

[Draegan]

My problem:

CMOS was fucked up. I reset the battery and it fixed things.

Also Vista doesn't like two HD's when trying to do a system restore. Meh.

[Voyce]

I've seen a lot of posts regarding a catch-all "atikmdag" driver error that seems to be a catalyst driver or Vista related problem. Have any of you been having issues with the catalyst drivers 7.3+? I was thinking about a setup with 4850x2 in crossfire ala Tom's suggestion but now I dunno.