Thinking of having a PC built: Seeking help, advice and suggestions

Luis Antonio · Post by **Luis Antonio** » Thu Dec 30, 2004 3:19 pm

Maybe he likes optical mouses instead

Well, one of my gaming friends of old always curses the mouse when he attemtps to play on the pc, so I guess it is because of his love for the PS2 and Xbox.

araknid70 · Post by **araknid70** » Fri Dec 31, 2004 12:34 am

Won't a trackball have a lower range of movement than a mouse? Well, I've not used a trackmouse before (apart from the ones in public internet stations in the library or something). Then again, I suppose sensitivity can be changed. I'd rather not occupy one finger with movement, however, though a finger probably is more accurate the whole hand (wrt to movement). I generally adjust sensitivity to the point where I can turn 180 degrees without having to lift my mouse off the table.

Magrus · Post by **Magrus** » Fri Dec 31, 2004 2:52 am

Just a little advice about computers.

Compaqs, avoid, unless your going for a disposable computer. I had a power supply problem, the replacement for my system through compaq was $119.99, and a standard one was $39.99, I had a friend do surgery on my system to fit a standard one. Replacements are horribly expensive.

Also, I've had friends work on my system to save money, and well, they truly have messed up in some rather unique ways. I.E. losing the head of a magnetic screwdriver in my power supply fan resulting in frying the power supply and motherboard when they claimed there was no way it was still in there, or claiming they repaired a broken power pin on a hard drive only to have it break off again by moving it. If you order the parts yourself, be sure of who's working on it and that they know what they happen to be doing with your system. It's cost me close to 3x the original price I paid for my system (bought it second hand for cheap) to be fixed from the things my friends have done to it.

Rookierookie · Post by **Rookierookie** » Fri Dec 31, 2004 8:43 am

When I use a trackball, I feel that I'm using one object to move the cursor, and another to click. Kind of annoying, especially since I play a lot of RTS and do much click & drag.

dragon wench · Post by **dragon wench** » Sat Jan 01, 2005 3:50 pm

Hmm.. I'm, just playing with some possibilities here at http://www.a-link.ca

CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3000 +
Motherboard: MSI K8N NEO Platinum
Memory: 512 MB DDR400 PC-3200 Kingston ( times two ?)
Floppy: Panasonic 1.44
Hard Drive: Maxtor 200G 7200RPM ATA 133
DVD/RW: Sony DVD/D22A (????)
Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Pro
Video Card: ASUS Radeon X800 XT (I'm having trouble locating the Geforce 6800GT, though I guess the shop might be willing to order parts in?)
Speakers: Creative SBS 5.1 560 (not a huge priority for me, and they can be easily upgraded at some point if I want)
Networking: 3COM 10/100 905C
Case: Antec Sonata Black w/380W
Software: Windows XP Professional

Total: $2121. 00 Cdn

Thoughts?

@Magrus,
no worries, I have no intention of going anywhere near a Compaq or any other premade box, this is why I began a thread asking for advice on how to have a really good machine built

Luis Antonio · Post by **Luis Antonio** » Sat Jan 01, 2005 6:49 pm

1 gb of ram or you'll have to upgrade it asap. with that video card you want to buy you can make a real mess, very good... so the only advice I give you is 1gb or ram, and your machine is kicking.

And I'd buy an Asus motherboard, but if you want to check out the recommended boards, the AMD site has many info regarding the mobo's in the market.

Rookierookie · Post by **Rookierookie** » Sun Jan 02, 2005 3:53 am

Several advice:
1. I recommend you choose the socket 939 version of the A64 3000+, and buy the K8N Neo 2 Platinum. Socket 939 gives more upgrade capacity in the future, and also offers dual-channel memory.

2. 1GB of RAM.

3. The video card looks good - but Asus? Isn't Asus' X800XT like 50% more expensive than normal X800XTs?

4. Get an independent PSU with at least 450W power. In fact, you'd want 450W sustained power and not just maximum.

Ekental · Post by **Ekental** » Sun Jan 02, 2005 4:10 pm

[QUOTE=Rookierookie]
Several advice:
3. The video card looks good - but Asus? Isn't Asus' X800XT like 50% more expensive than normal X800XTs?
[/QUOTE]

It is more expensive... but it does more too... (though its prolly not needed)
The newest Geforce is a bit better than the newest ATI Graphics card but not by much and not really enough to justify the price.

If you play CS or some such you might want a 1600 dpi mouse.

Rookierookie · Post by **Rookierookie** » Sun Jan 02, 2005 10:42 pm

As far as I know, the only advantage that Asus graphics cards have over others is that it has a unique software allowing you to see other players, the ATI rage theatre chip, and comes with webcams. None are really enough to justify their expense, since they are rarely used.

Of course, I live in a different country from DW, so Asus may follow a different policy there.

Malta Soron · Post by **Malta Soron** » Mon Jan 03, 2005 4:18 am

[QUOTE=dragon wench]Software: Windows XP Professional
[/QUOTE]

Hmm... I've heard games don't run to well on Professional. Anyone?

Rookierookie · Post by **Rookierookie** » Mon Jan 03, 2005 4:29 am

It's just supposed to be Home with some more specialised functions...

Yeltsu · Post by **Yeltsu** » Mon Jan 03, 2005 5:47 am

A friend of mine has winxp pro and he has no problems running games.

dragon wench · Post by **dragon wench** » Mon Jan 03, 2005 10:22 am

I have used Win XP Pro for several years without incident. Morrowind crashes routinely, but I attribute that to Morrowind (which is renowned for instability even on new systems) and my old system, since all my other games run fine.

Hmm.. I'll need to look into the stuff about the graphics card, thanks guys. I'm not really into OL playing, so if that is the biggest advantage with the ASUS, it would be pretty unnecessary.