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Pastimes : Dream Machine ( Build your own PC ) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: wily who wrote (13298)	5/13/2002 7:46:27 AM
From: orkrious	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 14778

Can anyone recommend a good flat panel? I don't want the cheapest. I want a good one but don't want to pay for the absolute best. I need at least a 17". Also, some friends have told me that I shouldn't get a 19" because of the difficulty in seeing from different angles. In effect, there is too much screen to look at directly. I went to CompUSA yesterday and they didn't have any 19" to look at. TIA ork

To: wily who wrote (13298)	5/14/2002 3:26:35 PM
From: Leland Charon	Respond to of 14778

Anyone have any experience with these alienware computers? alienware.com They had one at the local Best Buy and I must say it was very impressive. Extremely quiet too... Leland

To: wily who wrote (13298)	5/28/2002 4:06:22 PM
From: Robert Graham	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 14778

I am a consultant who uses Powerbuilder and I am starting to use Microsoft .NET Visual Studio Professional. And I am processing several years worth of data from a client's system, with some files that contain several hundred thousand records. So I understand what a difference a good performing system can make. I also have recently upgraded my system. I have a couple observations to make. What you think you need and what you actually need are usually two separate things in this business. Look at where you need the performance or feature improvement. Then plan accordingly. There will always be something better to come along after your purchase. I decided that since I print out allot of material, I need a fast printer. This printer does not have to be color. But when I need to color print for presentations, I can always purchase a cheap Epson to do the job. So I ended up with a Brother laser printer that is close to twice as fast as the Epson printer, cost per page is about 20% of the Epson, and it has its own CPU and 32M memory which has its uses. Compared to my old HP 820Cse printer, it is at least five times faster. I am also downloading trial software and the accompanying manuals from the Internet. Some software is 32M or more. So I had a cable modem installed. My original modem was a 33.6 Sportster that connected at 28K. I am now running at 1 to well over 2 Mbps depending on the time of the day. So I have downloads that would normally take several hours that can now be done in minutes. I have measured the speed to be 80 times faster than my modem. In order to run Microsoft Visual Studio .NET, I needed to install Windows 2000 or Windows XP Pro. Since there are times that the trial software I install screws up the system, and I have had one driver recently require me to do a clean reinstall of Win98SE, I decided to go with WinXP Pro for its restore capability. I am finding the OS to run in some respects faster than Win98SE, and require significantly less resources than Win2000, at least from what I have seen documented. I also purchased a new 7200 rpm 40G WDC drive to dual-boot WinXP with my Win98SE until I get all the kinks worked out. This decision would minimize my down time. This drive will end up replacing my old 3G 5200 rpm drive, but still be used for quick backups. I also purchased a ZIP 250 USB drive to help move data between a portable that I rent for trips and the desktop PC. I found out there were incompatibilities with my motherboard and old CD drive. So I purchased a new CD-R/RW drive (for system backups), a new DVD/CD-ROM drive (since Visual Studio comes on DVD), and a new Intel chipset based motherboard. I also had to replace the CPU since my original CPU was Slot 1. So my 600 Mhz CPU was replaced with a 1G Coppermine. And for good measure, I replaced my old ATI Rage II+ video card with a NVidia GeForce4 MX 440. Please note that I only replaced what I needed to replace. I made decisions on a practical basis. I kept the original PC133 memory. And I purchased with price in mind. Technology and prices are changing rapidly. I decided to not go for the "latest" technology, a Pentium 4 upgrade. Prices will in the future be half of what it costs now. Motheboards in the future will be well-proven and support what is now considered very new technology. And I know I do not need that kind of performance improvement until the prices come down. So I saved at least $450 by not going to a Pentium 4 upgrade. Considering for the hardware and some software utilities I have ended up spending something like $1500, this decision has helped my pocketbook. Also when DVD burners get down to a more affordable price, I will be purchasing one. So now I have a system that is 6.5 times faster in disk I/O, over five times faster in memory, and over twice faster in CPU, and 20 times faster video graphics than my original system. Note that I am using the SAME memory. And I do not need anything more than 512M on my system. This system has more than adequate horsepower for my professional needs, and is rock solid. I have a CD drive that will permit me to make system backups when I find the right backup software. And I can access material on the Internet and print at blazing speeds, which does make a big difference. And when Pentium 4 setups come down half or more in price, I will upgrade my system's motherboard again. But the next time will only cost the normal $450 to $550 I spend every two to three years. This last time I waited too long (5 years). Always place a rock stable system at a premium in your decision. It is not worth purchasing motherboards that will offer you that edge in performance, just to spend much of your time getting it to run correctly with your existing hardware, and still have it crash on you from time to time. Your PC is your "bread and butter". Treat this purchase decision with care. I have had experience building systems with the following motherboards: FIC (VIA), DFI (VIA), Tyan (VIA), Chaintech (VIA), ABIT (Intel), and ASUS (Intel). Initially I had many problems getting a new system setup to work properly. There always involved a BIOS upgrade where it took the latest BIOS and some BIOS tweaks for the system to operate properly. Sometimes drivers would come out several months later that actually worked. Then I made a switch in the chipset of the board. Over 95% of my problems disappeared. And I still ended up with a good performing system. Guess what change did it? It is when I went from VIA chipset boards to Intel chipset boards. This made a huge difference! And the ASUS is one of the most rock stable and well-supported boards out there. So I chose their latest version that uses the latest version of the 815 chipset that replaced their old BX chipset. Later ABIT motherboards prove also to be well-performing and rock solid. I am sure there are other boards to choose from. Fully test the final configuration out with benchmarking and burn-in software for stability and performance concerns. Afterwards, make a complete system backup. Here when I measure performance, I am more interested is looking for driver compatibility issues that frequently show up in system benchmarking and burn-in tests. Also it is nice to objectively see what kind of improvement my purchase has provided me. I hope this helps. Bob Graham PS: I originally thought WinXP Pro is a "game boy" style OS that is a "downgrade" from Win2000. Boy, I was surprised how much this opinion is in error. But it is still a little "green" and not ready for general public consumption at least until its first maintenancec release.