New computer!

[IBBoard]

After much fighting and arguing with my new computer (built from parts, but keeping some of the old parts) I'm back and running on my new computer I even have wireless Net access on it now!

It would have been finished yesterday, but Windows wasn't wanting to be cloned from my old disk to a new disk and run from the new disk. Eventually I came up with a great idea today - just clone my data and game drives to the new faster, bigger disk and leave Windows installed where it was on the old disk

And for the people who want to know, here is the spec:

Athlon 64 3500+ Venice core (I wouldn't have bothered with 64bit but the 3500+ was what came in the £800+ pre-builts I was looking at)
768MB RAM (old stuff, 256MB of which is unbranded. Could do with replacing it with DDR400 braded)
256MB ATi X800XL graphics card
200GB SATA hard drive (faster transfer rate than IDE)
40GB original IDE hard drive

and then a load of extras, Soundblaster audio, wireless card, CD-RW/DVD combo, CD drive, yada yada yada

[MadMaffMan]

Hmm very nice indeed. Bet that set you back a bit?
I think i need a new hard drive soon i've nearly filled my 120GB up, never thought that would happen.
What anti - virus software do you run, i have AVG 7 Pro but i'm not to sure about it after having a few probs lately.

[IBBoard]

I just have the free AVG.

As for setting me back, not huge amounts. I forgot about the 17" digital input TFT (Samsung SyncMaster710T) that I bought as well All in all it was a little over £700 plus £30 for the case, but when that's approx £200 for the graphics, £175 for the processor, £175-£200 for the monitor and £80 for just the new motherboard then it isn't bad

[MadMaffMan]

Thats not bad at all. Sounds like the way to make a good PC rather than one of those pre-built jobs from PC World.
I've not had much joy with that particular store.

Maybe i should ask my boss if i can have my Xmas bonus in PC parts bought through the firm.

[IBBoard]

PC World? I'd never touch any of their pre-built machines The only thing I'd trust them with is single branded parts (like a boxed ATi graphics card) or software and consumables. The occasional printer might sneak in there too, but just about all of that is only if they have it on offer instead of being overpriced compared to other places.

Evesham are good, and the Carrera (or Carerra, I can't remember!) machines that are now sold through Watford Electronic's Savastore.com had very good specs for their price, but all of the £800+ PCs I looked at had either 256MB X700 or 128MB X800, none came close to a 256MB X800XL

If you know what you're doing, there has only been a small part of the last decade or so where it hasn't been cheaper to buy parts than buy pre-built - or if it is the same/more expensive for parts then you're usually getting better (like if I'd included the price of the bits I kept, it'd have been more inline, but more memory, better graphics card, better monitor, better HDD etc)

[IBBoard]

Finally beaten the thing into submission Windows was a little unhappy about running on an almost completely new system at first and had some confusion about drivers (and several Blue Screens of Death in XP!) but it now seems to be fixed

As is typical for computers, though, the fix for it crashing when it did a disk check on my G drive (it insisted on trying each time before getting near the end and BSoDing) was to delete and recreate the partition and the copy all of my data over again!

Hey ho, at least the specs are good XP boot up in a few seconds, the scrolling bar thing only made it accross once