Computer Upgrades

[ram]

...or Ram gets new RAM and other bits...

So, I began buying parts for my new computer back in December. I was operating on a modest budget, so my mission was to build an inexpensive system that could still comfortably run games and multimedia. This is what I ended up with:

Motherboard: Asus M2A-VM (AMD 690G chipset)
Bought it because it was dirt cheap but still an Asus, which is a brand I more or less trust. This is an unassuming Socket AM2 mobo that has all the basic stuff I need on a modern board without being crammed with features I'd likely never use. I thought about going to an Intel platform, but ultimately I was comfortable with AMD and saw no urgent reason to switch.

CPU: AMD Athlon64 X2 6000+ dual core (3.0 GHz)
Now that Intel is once more ruling the roost as CPU speed champions, it's become easy for people to ignore AMD's offerings. But for me, the X2 6000+ is a lot of processor for little moolah, and that's more important to me than paying extra for the privilege of having "Intel Inside."

Memory: OCZ 1 GB DDR2-800 dual channel RAM
I actually wanted the 2 GB memory kit, but it was sold out at the time, so I got the 1 GB instead. Which is fine for now, since I'm not running Vista.

Hard Drive: Seagate 250 GB SATA 7200 RPM
This size seems quaint now, what with 500 GB beasts being readily available. I might get one of those myself. Or maybe I'll wait for a good sale on a 1 TB monster - the Godzilla of hard drives. Mainly, I'm just happy to be on the Serial ATA bandwagon at last. No more fiddling around with cumbersome Parallel ATA cables.

Optical Drive: LG Lightscribe SATA CD/DVD Burner
I may never ever burn discs using Lightscribe, but it's nice to have the feature just in case.

Graphics: XFX Geforce 8800 GT 512 MB PCI-E
I had to splurge somewhere, and this is where. I bought this behemoth of a videocard with the intention that it should last me a long time. I didn't realize how BIG this card was until I took it out of its box.

Sound: Onboard Realtek "High Definition" 6-channel audio. I may upgrade to an Audigy card at some point, but for now I'm content with the onboard sound.

Case: Coolermaster Elite w/ 120mm intake/exhaust fans

CPU Cooler: Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro w/ 92mm fan

Power supply: Raidmax 530 watt w/ 135mm fan

Speakers: Altec Lansing 5.1 - I've had this for a number of years now, and they still work fine.

Monitor: Viewsonic VX922 19" LCD

Input: Microsoft wireless keyboard/optical mouse combo


Case interior before installing CPU cooler

The said big-ass cooler

Everything installed and running. Note the blue LED light from the PSU. Honestly, I just chose that model for its large fan, not for its pretty lights.

I had never installed such a big CPU cooler before, so I spent long minutes worrying about the pressure I was applying in order to clamp the cooler into place. I really, really did not want a crushed CPU on my hands. Luckily, aside from some very sore fingers, everything was fine. There was nothing wrong with the stock AMD HSF that came with Athlon CPU; I just elected to buy an after-market cooler, and I read good reviews about Arctic Cooling. This cooler uses the heatpipe tower design, which supposedly maximizes the transfer of heat away from the CPU. In any case, it moves a lot of air and and runs quiet, so I'm pleased.

The funny thing is that, after this big upgrade, the only "gaming" I've done so far is play an Unreal Tournament 3 demo. It looks pretty sweet, though.

[thomasallencummins]

ram,

The whole rig is pretty cool. Asus is one of my favorite moboards. I've never had a problem buying an AMD chip (though it's always been my wallet that has decided against buying intel).
You can probably get buy on 1 gig of ram without many issues. I run Autocad on my machine and it's definitely a memory hog.
250 gig hd isn't the gold standard but unless you've gone completely nuts with the mp3s I would expect you got enough real estate to be comfortable.
Your OD seems just fine. I've had a few intermittent problems with LG but nothing that would put me off a new purchase at a good price.
Well freaking done on the graphics card. I'm jolly green with envy!
When I'm playing Half Life 2 deathmatch a vid card with lots of horsepower is a beautiful thing.

Very nice job all around, bub. You should be proud. ;D
Cadzombie will want to take a look at this for sure. He's hopelessly addicted to PC building as am I.

[Cad Zombie]

A very respectable design you have there, I am an ASUS man myself, first thing I do on a design from scratch is select an ASUS board and ASUS video card for overall stability.

The Dual core Proc is very nice as well and as Atomic and I can both attest to, is pretty much a necessity when running any autocad version higher than 2004, or civil 3D for that matter.

Very nice indeed Ram,...I hope you don't mind my asking but how much you figure you have invested in this unit? just for comparative reference.

[ram]

Thanks, guys! I don't have the receipts in front of me, but roughly adding it all up gives me a figure of around $960 (CAN) before taxes. That's excluding the monitor and speakers, which I already had. With the monitor and speakers, it works out to $1,275.

Regarding the video card, I did look at an Asus Geforce card, but ultimately got a better deal on the XFX.

[thomasallencummins]

Apr 26, 2008 18:19:56 GMT -5 ram said:

Thanks, guys! I don't have the receipts in front of me, but roughly adding it all up gives me a figure of around $960 (CAN) before taxes. That's excluding the monitor and speakers, which I already had. With the monitor and speakers, it works out to $1,275.

Regarding the video card, I did look at an Asus Geforce card, but ultimately got a better deal on the XFX.

I think you got a heck of a machine for the money, ram. What really counts is if it performs as you intended and lasts until you decide you want another upgrade.

[thomasallencummins]

Apr 26, 2008 11:37:43 GMT -5 Cad Zombie said:

A very respectable design you have there, I am an ASUS man myself, first thing I do on a design from scratch is select an ASUS board and ASUS video card for overall stability.

I knew that about you CZ, that's why I thought you'd find this interesting. I've had a very very good track record with ASUS.

[ram]

I was looking through some old documents today, and stumbled upon the system quote for the very first computer I bought back in 1998. It was built-to-order by a local company. At the time, I was still a n00b about PCs and that thing called the internet.

Anyway, this was my initial system 10 years ago:

AMD K6-2 300 MMX Processor
Microstar 5169 Socket 7 Motherboard
5 Bay ATX Midtower case w/ 235 watt power supply
64 MB PC100 SDRAM
1.44 MB Floppy Disk Drive
4.3 GB Ultra DMA-33 5400 RPM Hard Drive
ATI Rage 8 MB AGP w/ video-out
Soundblaster 16 Soundcard
32x CD-ROM Drive
Lucent 56K v.90 PCI Modem
TTX 17" 0.26dp 1600 x 1200 CRT Monitor
2-button mouse
Windows certified 104-key keyboard
Microsoft Windows 98 w/ media
Microsoft Internet Explorer v4.01
One month (100 hrs) internet access

Price: $1,908.39
Including taxes: $2,175.56

That's what two grand got me in '98. That system quote didn't include speakers because I had bought a set prior to the system.

The system served me well enough. I remember that ATI card being a capable performer. The only component that looks downright laughable now is the 4 GB hard drive. That's the storage space of one measly DVD-R today.

[thomasallencummins]

Aug 20, 2008 18:49:44 GMT -5 ram said:

I was looking through some old documents today, and stumbled upon the system quote for the very first computer I bought back in 1998. It was built-to-order by a local company. At the time, I was still a n00b about PCs and that thing called the internet.

Anyway, this was my initial system 10 years ago:

AMD K6-2 300 MMX Processor
Microstar 5169 Socket 7 Motherboard
5 Bay ATX Midtower case w/ 235 watt power supply
64 MB PC100 SDRAM
1.44 MB Floppy Disk Drive
4.3 GB Ultra DMA-33 5400 RPM Hard Drive
ATI Rage 8 MB AGP w/ video-out
Soundblaster 16 Soundcard
32x CD-ROM Drive
Lucent 56K v.90 PCI Modem
TTX 17" 0.26dp 1600 x 1200 CRT Monitor
2-button mouse
Windows certified 104-key keyboard
Microsoft Windows 98 w/ media
Microsoft Internet Explorer v4.01
One month (100 hrs) internet access

Price: $1,908.39
Including taxes: $2,175.56

That's what two grand got me in '98. That system quote didn't include speakers because I had bought a set prior to the system.

The system served me well enough. I remember that ATI card being a capable performer. The only component that looks downright laughable now is the 4 GB hard drive. That's the storage space of one measly DVD-R today.

ram, that is one smoking system.
During the late 90's I believe I worked on the most computers ever, building machines of that type for family, friends and of course as part of my job. Most of the AMD processors I used at that time were personal since they were so cheap. The company I worked for bought Intel exclusively. For 1998 your system wasn't mind blowing but it was decent. Most of the vid cards I worked with back then were gifted with at least 16mb and most of them (with the exception of a few Matrox cards) were ATI.
All in all your system was fairly typical.

Thanks for the nostalgic look back 10 years. ;D

[Avatar]

LOL My first PC was a 086 AT. No hard drive...640kb RAM, double floppies, monochrome monitor (greenscreen), and it's OS was DOS 2.3. Had to boot up off a floppy. No mouse...a mouse was a thing that ate cheese.

--A

[ram]

Aug 21, 2008 11:26:30 GMT -5 Avatar said:

LOL My first PC was a 086 AT. No hard drive...640kb RAM, double floppies, monochrome monitor (greenscreen), and it's OS was DOS 2.3. Had to boot up off a floppy. No mouse...a mouse was a thing that ate cheese.

--A

Scary stuff. I'd be in a cold panic if you sat me in front of a machine that ran only DOS and had no mouse.

I'm just going off memory (which may or may not be as reliable as my computer's memory), but at some point I did upgrade the K6-2 300 to a K6-2 400. That was the first time I installed a CPU on my own. I also increased the RAM to 128 MB. But the real major upgrades were 1) getting broadband internet service and 2) getting a Voodoo2 12MB graphics card. That was a nice piece of hardware.

Why did I get a Voodoo2 when I already had a decent ATI card? One game: Quake II. ;D

[thomasallencummins]

Aug 21, 2008 14:02:19 GMT -5 ram said:

Aug 21, 2008 11:26:30 GMT -5 Avatar said:

LOL My first PC was a 086 AT. No hard drive...640kb RAM, double floppies, monochrome monitor (greenscreen), and it's OS was DOS 2.3. Had to boot up off a floppy. No mouse...a mouse was a thing that ate cheese.

--A

Scary stuff. I'd be in a cold panic if you sat me in front of a machine that ran only DOS and had no mouse.

I'm just going off memory (which may or may not be as reliable as my computer's memory), but at some point I did upgrade the K6-2 300 to a K6-2 400. That was the first time I installed a CPU on my own. I also increased the RAM to 128 MB. But the real major upgrades were 1) getting broadband internet service and 2) getting a Voodoo2 12MB graphics card. That was a nice piece of hardware.

Why did I get a Voodoo2 when I already had a decent ATI card? One game: Quake II. ;D

I believe I could still navigate a dos only pc without a mouse. It sucks, but I could do it. ;D

Quake II, eh? Well that's justification enough for the change in card though I haven't seen many 12mb cards. On the other hand I've only had to deal with perhaps 2 voodoo cards in 20 years.
Thing I always heard about Voodoo is that either you loved 'em or you hated them. I couldn't say one way or another.

Though I own a copy of Quake II I never really played the game. I jumped directly from Quake to Quake III and only picked up Q2 as an afterthought because some guy was selling it still in the wrapper on Ebay and I was curious what all the fuss had been about. I haven't played it much because it looked and felt a lot like Q1 and I'd already been spoiled by QIII.

[ram]

Aug 22, 2008 8:41:13 GMT -5 thomasallencummins said:

Quake II, eh? Well that's justification enough for the change in card though I haven't seen many 12mb cards. On the other hand I've only had to deal with perhaps 2 voodoo cards in 20 years.
Thing I always heard about Voodoo is that either you loved 'em or you hated them. I couldn't say one way or another.

I would say I'm very fond of the time I had with Voodoo - I got a lot of mileage out of that series. The ATI card ran Quake II not too shabbily, but my craving for higher framerates got the better of me.

Though I own a copy of Quake II I never really played the game. I jumped directly from Quake to Quake III and only picked up Q2 as an afterthought because some guy was selling it still in the wrapper on Ebay and I was curious what all the fuss had been about. I haven't played it much because it looked and felt a lot like Q1 and I'd already been spoiled by QIII.

My quick take on Quake:

Quake - for sinister atmosphere, still the best
Quake II - favorite weapons, good single-player game
Quake III - good-looking, but Unreal Tournament stole my attention
Quake IV - haven't tried it yet

[Avatar]

If you run Q2, look for a deathmatch level called 2am. That level with Railguns..Rocked! I actually tried to duplicate it with the Unreal level editor...it worked, but we never played it much...wasn't as good.

Did a lot of network playing Q1. Tried lots of mods, but the best for DM's was the standard with only the grappling hook mod added. Reckon we ended with over 1,000 levels. Those were the days.

--A

[ram]

Rail guns in UT...that would be awesome...

I tried downloading the demo for Quake IV a couple of times, but it keeps stopping about halfway. Aargh. Will try again later.

[thomasallencummins]

Aug 25, 2008 13:10:04 GMT -5 ram said:

Rail guns in UT...that would be awesome...

I tried downloading the demo for Quake IV a couple of times, but it keeps stopping about halfway. Aargh. Will try again later.

Dang it. I've had the same problem. Being a Quake fan I curious as to what IV has to offer by the way of improvements. I expect the game is probably fairly affordable now that it's been out a while. I suppose I'll have to break down and buy it. Now where to get the money.....