Looking for a New PC. Need advice. [Archive]

evnp85

01-21-2006, 03:43 PM

I'll give you a brief little story of why I am building a new computer first. This morning, my pc was setup at home and working perfectly. I went back to school today and something must have got screwed up on the drive over. I plugged in my computer and nothing was showing up on the monitor when I pressed the power button. Oddly, I went to a different outlet and this wasn't an issue and the computer booted normaly. I figued I'd leave it there and get some groceries and then come back and check on it. When I came back, the computer was still running but the screen was blank. I rebooted and still got no display. At this point I figured maybe the monitor had a short in it. Thinking this, I plugged it into my suitemates laption and the display was fine (the monitor wasn't the problem). Dissapointed, because a new monitor would be much cheaper than a new pc, I tried a variety of other things. I plugged the pc into numerous different outlets and I completely rebuilt the entire thing twice. Every single time I would result in the same no display on the monitor issue. The strange thing is that the lights on the video card and motherboard are all on and the fans are all spinning. Everything is running but I get no display.

So I pretty much have concluded that something went wack on drive in the school. There is either a short in the video card or the motherboard is shot. Rather than replacing one and hoping it was the right choice, I think it is wise to just build a new pc.

This leads us to my real question: It has been a year and a half since I built my last PC. I'm not entirely sure what is the best bang for your buck on the market right now. The only game I play is CS:S which takes an enormous amount of CPU power. My computer that no longer works was an xp 2500+ overclocked to 3200+ speeds with a Geforce 6800 AGP. With that setup, I was getting some pretty low framerates at times. So I would like to upgrade from that without spending an enormous amount of money.

Does anyone have any advice on what I should buy? I am mainly looking for a cpu, motherboard, ram, and video card, and maybe a hard drive if it is cheap. The hard drive I have right now is a 40gb 7200 RPM that is probably about 8 years old. I wouldn't doubt if it dies soon.

Is it still cheaper to build instead of buy a pre-built system?

Thanks for any help.

Amadeus

01-21-2006, 06:42 PM

Epox 9NPA+ Ultra S939 mobo (http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?Product Code=246557) $101

AMD Athlon64 3200+ S939 CPU (http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?Product Code=80701-5) $160

BFG GeForce 7800GT OC 256MB DDR3 vid card (http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?Product Code=326028) $320 ($30 rebate)

Corsair TWINX2048-3200C2 XMS (2x1024MB) (http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?Product Code=80097-54) $196 ($40 rebate)

Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 250GB 7200RPM 8MB Cache SATA HDD (http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?Product Code=101571) $105

Subtotal: $882

That Epox mobo should be able to get the 3200+ from 2.0 GHz to 2.7-2.8, and the RAM will keep up. The vid card's OC'd out of the box.

Is that enough bang for the buck? :)


	TribalWar Forums > TribalWar Community > TW Tech > Looking for a New PC. Need advice. PDA Looking for a New PC. Need advice. evnp85 01-21-2006, 03:43 PM I'll give you a brief little story of why I am building a new computer first. This morning, my pc was setup at home and working perfectly. I went back to school today and something must have got screwed up on the drive over. I plugged in my computer and nothing was showing up on the monitor when I pressed the power button. Oddly, I went to a different outlet and this wasn't an issue and the computer booted normaly. I figued I'd leave it there and get some groceries and then come back and check on it. When I came back, the computer was still running but the screen was blank. I rebooted and still got no display. At this point I figured maybe the monitor had a short in it. Thinking this, I plugged it into my suitemates laption and the display was fine (the monitor wasn't the problem). Dissapointed, because a new monitor would be much cheaper than a new pc, I tried a variety of other things. I plugged the pc into numerous different outlets and I completely rebuilt the entire thing twice. Every single time I would result in the same no display on the monitor issue. The strange thing is that the lights on the video card and motherboard are all on and the fans are all spinning. Everything is running but I get no display. So I pretty much have concluded that something went wack on drive in the school. There is either a short in the video card or the motherboard is shot. Rather than replacing one and hoping it was the right choice, I think it is wise to just build a new pc. This leads us to my real question: It has been a year and a half since I built my last PC. I'm not entirely sure what is the best bang for your buck on the market right now. The only game I play is CS:S which takes an enormous amount of CPU power. My computer that no longer works was an xp 2500+ overclocked to 3200+ speeds with a Geforce 6800 AGP. With that setup, I was getting some pretty low framerates at times. So I would like to upgrade from that without spending an enormous amount of money. Does anyone have any advice on what I should buy? I am mainly looking for a cpu, motherboard, ram, and video card, and maybe a hard drive if it is cheap. The hard drive I have right now is a 40gb 7200 RPM that is probably about 8 years old. I wouldn't doubt if it dies soon. Is it still cheaper to build instead of buy a pre-built system? Thanks for any help. Amadeus 01-21-2006, 06:42 PM Epox 9NPA+ Ultra S939 mobo (http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?Product Code=246557) $101 AMD Athlon64 3200+ S939 CPU (http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?Product Code=80701-5) $160 BFG GeForce 7800GT OC 256MB DDR3 vid card (http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?Product Code=326028) $320 ($30 rebate) Corsair TWINX2048-3200C2 XMS (2x1024MB) (http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?Product Code=80097-54) $196 ($40 rebate) Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 250GB 7200RPM 8MB Cache SATA HDD (http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?Product Code=101571) $105 Subtotal: $882 That Epox mobo should be able to get the 3200+ from 2.0 GHz to 2.7-2.8, and the RAM will keep up. The vid card's OC'd out of the box. Is that enough bang for the buck? :) thedrummingfish 01-21-2006, 07:24 PM thats a pretty sweet setup for not much $ amadeus, i have the same mobo and its got alot of really nice oc'ing features.