Computer nerds, step inside please....
 

ok, so I am going to be building/buying a new pc and i need some help. basically, currently i have an old Celeron 2.4 with 768mb ram Gatway PC. its done its job however, at this point its a lot slower than I want.


so this is what i am looking for.......

MOBO w/ a decent processor (something around 3.5ghz for a single core, or 1.6ghz for a dual core).
i am looking to keep the mobo/chip combo under $200 if possible
i would like to keep the OS as XP Pro



the mobo and chip i am looking at is a Biostar 945gc w/ an Intel e2140 dual core processor (1.6ghz) and i can pick up this combo locally w/ 1gig of ram for $180'ish.


just so you know, i do NOT play games on my computer, other than online poker, so an onboard video is just fine.


the real reason to upgrade is because of downloading/burning/converting movies. I was previously doing this on my laptop that has a dual core processor and it works great, however it has Vista and the software that I like doesnt work so well on vista and is kind of buggy.

i have thought about upgrading the ram on my current pc and i have found out that the max it will take is 512 per slot and there are only 2 slots. so the only upgrade is another 256mb of ram, which wont make a dent with how slow it is. so that is another big reason to upgrade





i do have a couple questions when putting together a computer like this......


does the bios usually come preinstalled along with applicable drivers?
is there anything special i need to consider/do when i install it?



any suggestions would be great.

thanks

Re: Computer nerds, step inside please....
 

Well, since all i do is build pc's, ill give you some input on what i know.

if you want to get a dual core intel for cheap, get the "Intel pentium D Dual Core"

make sure it actually says dual core. the d stands for dual, but if it says dual core, then it is the latest and i think last run of this processor. i currently run the 2.66 model of the pentium d and its currently clocked at close to 4 ghz. all this for under 90 bucks.
it shits on anything that i tell it to do without even making a sweat. the fan goes bonkers though, and im sure i need a new one by now. o well, i got a spare fan and processor.

1gig of ram should suit you fine. however, i dont recommend to get anything like on board video. get the least ammount of onboartd components.

bios usually when it comes out of the box, its ready to go. you should have to change anythng except a phew boot up otions and whatnot.

if you know how to install something properly, then you should be good to go.

ps, a good video card will be worth your while.

Re: Computer nerds, step inside please....
 

2nd on the video card. If it wasn't for my 6800GT back in the day, kains porn threads would've never loaded.

Re: Computer nerds, step inside please....
 

i understand the need for a good video card, however, no pc i have ever owned has had one and i have never had an issue doing anything with the onboard video.

but if i can find one cheap enough down the road, i might, but its not needed right now. but i will take your suggestion and ponder over it.



Kain.....

i wouldnt mind going for the faster 2.66 dual core, however, what mobo are you using with it, or i should say, what do you recomend for a decent board that wont cost to much. as i said, i would like to keep the mobo and processor under $200.

also, all components must be compatible with XP.



as for knowing how to install stuff, i have installed many sets of ram, changed cases, installed power supplies, changed cmos batterys, installed cd/dvd/floppy drives, installed many hard drives (master and slaves).

i have just never taken it upon myself to start with the mobo and processor from the box.

Re: Computer nerds, step inside please....
 

eh its not that hard bro. just gotta go do it. what you have to understand is that you gotta read everything. like when my computer came, i didnt realize that the motherboard supports hardware raid and has like two ide channels for this particular reason, yet only 1 regular ide channel. i was super hella pissed. but o well. thats what an ide controller card is for, also i use allot of scsi drives in a raid format, so i wasnt worried. i like viewing 10 mega pixel images faster than i know what to do with.

dont worry about compatibility with xp neither. its been out longer than hell and should support a wide array of products.

Re: Computer nerds, step inside please....
 

X2 with a DFI mobo for your budget. and get an older, higher end video card for cheap. movie watching / decoding sucks without a good card, and you can abso-------lutly forget watching any kind of modern HD type stream without one.
not to mention onboard sucks in general. the ramdacs are pitifully slow giving low quality video signals, poor refresh and resolution choices. that ---- burns your eyes out over time man...
Seriously even if you have to step back to an old school geforce4 ti4200 that's fine. They can be ebayed for $10-20 bucks now.

Re: Computer nerds, step inside please....
 

hit up newegg they got the new amd phenomenon chips for $299 and their like 2.8 (x4 so almost 12ghz)
and then you'll have a computer that will last 10 years easy

Re: Computer nerds, step inside please....
 

if you know computers then you know the pentium d blows a 2.8ghz pentium d is slower than a 2.8pentium 4 intel hasen't made teh pentium d for over a year and their still trying to unload them

Re: Computer nerds, step inside please....
 

that's why when you're doing cheap I've always liked x2's over D's.
D's have a very small edge in most video encoding while the x2's trounce them in audio (wav, mp3, mp4), almost every game engine of that era, and all office / general programs you're going to run into. (where brute force > trickeration)

so to me it seems like an x2 would be alot better.








it's not the end of the world if you go D tho...

Re: Computer nerds, step inside please....
 

ok, so i picked up,,,,,

Pentium Dual Core E4500 (2.2ghz, 2mb l2 Cache, 800mhz FSB) info here... http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...=intel%2be4500
Gigabyte S-Series mobo (model ga-945gcm-s2c) info here... http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128076
2gb of Corsair DDR2 XMS2 ram (2x1gb) info here... http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145034


i bought it all locally at a store here, and paid $200 out the door, which was about a $25 savings over what newegg would have cost.








so i know have everything together in the case, but i have one question....

dont you have to put some sort of paste on the processor before you install it? in all of the directions that were provided, NOTHING was mentioned about doing this.

Re: Computer nerds, step inside please....
 

Thermal compound, yes. And the LESS you use the BETTER it is. use a tiny amount and scrape it all off with a credit card so that it's a small film.



btw really hate to tell you this but XP has memory leak issues past 1g. I've never seen one in person with 2g that didn't have some level of problems. If you want to use more than 1g reliably on windows youll need a shitty 64bit xp, 2k3 server, or Vista

Re: Computer nerds, step inside please....
 

if you use such a small film of thermal compound, why use it in the first place? especially the less i use the better as you say.

i have read the reviews on the memory, and many times, the issues people were having were due to overclocking it.

i do not plan on doing that, so we shall see.

Re: Computer nerds, step inside please....
 

i will have it dual booting with xp and vista, so the memory will be needed.

plus with the movie convertering and downloading, 2g's will be needed.

Re: Computer nerds, step inside please....
 

i am a ------- dork....


for some reason, i thought the thermal compound went between the mobo and processor.

now that i have looked at some more pictures, its between the backside of the processor and the bottom of the heatsink/fan. :1



and the heatsink came with some ---- allready installed on it, so i am thinking i am good to power up this bitch....

Re: Computer nerds, step inside please....
 

you didnt put some down in the pinholes did you?

Re: Computer nerds, step inside please....
 

pin holes?

thermal paste is conductive. its like conductive paste made for electrical connections. simply touching isn't going to do a good job. you need as much surface area in between the two mating surfaces..if you got thermal compound on the contacts of the cpu, then you didn't get allot cus i hope to god you didn't waste any money on this ----. and if you did, put it all back together as neatly as you can, and return it and say it was defectoid.

Re: Computer nerds, step inside please....
 

of course i did not put anything on the pins on the processor. like i said, i have never done this before, so i waited till i did some more research before i decided i was good to go.


i am actually posting from the new PC right now.

it took a whole 15mins to load XP Pro on it, took 3 mins to load SP2 on it, and its currently updating through Windows.

it took me longer to get the wireless card working because xp didnt recognize it, so i had to start the old pc back up, find the drivers and software, and download it to my flash drive and now its working great.


at this point, i am extremely impressed with the mobo and processor combo i picked up. the only shitty thing about the mobo is that it only has 1 IDE slot (which you can put 2 devices onto). So i have my dvd burner hooked up to that, but for the extra HD i have, the IDE cable isnt long enough to go from the mobo to the dvd burner to the 2nd HD. oh well, not a big deal, my main HD is a 320gb SATA, and the extra is a 40gb IDE.


for my first "ground up" computer build, i am quite happy and very pleased with the results.

Re: Computer nerds, step inside please....
 

yeah. i had to find out the hard way as to why it took more than 12 minutes to burn a full cd.

cd roms and hard drives should never share and ide channel.

Re: Computer nerds, step inside please....
 

if your not using thremal compund the first time that pos pentium d goes over 40degrees it'll fry itself.
i know this because i build computers

also setup the ram so 1gb runs the os and annother 1gb stick runs whatever you are doing , internet gaming whatever.
it runs smoother and cooler that way.
that is what im doing (but im running 3gb so 1 is on the os and 2 on the system)



my current setup
amd 5600+X2 2.8 (oc'd to 3.1ghz)
3gb of kingston 1033mhz memmory
4 74gb 10k rpm raptor hdds and a 500gb hitachi 7200rpm
and 2 nvidia geforce 8800gt in sli
running through a 36" panasonic 1080p hd tv as a monitor

Re: Computer nerds, step inside please....
 

cornfuzed...

i did not get a pentium d, i got an Intel Core 2 Duo E4500

the Intel fan/heatsink that came with the processor already had thermal compound on it, so i did not need to put any on.


as for running the ram seperately, well, it runs just fine and i do not do any gaming other than online poker. but if at anytime i need to designate my ram to certain process' , i will keep your suggestion in mind, thanks.

Re: Computer nerds, step inside please....
 

you said you got a pentium dual core (witch is a pentium d)

Re: Computer nerds, step inside please....
 

ahhh, i see that now.

its the Intel Core 2 Duo E4500

Re: Computer nerds, step inside please....
 

no, its not a pentium at all... its a "Core 2"-duo... its a core 2 not a pentium... and its never refered to as a "Core2D" its a "duo" dont know if they still have em, but when it was just the "intel core" they were offered as "solo" and "duo"

Re: Computer nerds, step inside please....
 

either way, it doesnt really matter what words are use to describe the processor.


now back on topic here....


i have just converted the first video and burned it to a dvd.

on the old 2.4 celeron pc, this would have taken about 1.5 hours to complete.

the new pc, took a whole 35 minutes. :o

Re: Computer nerds, step inside please....
 

a pentium D is a pair of 64bit PIV's on one chip.

it has nothing to do with a core, core duo, core 2, core 2 duo, or core 2 quad processors.