Hey, Im selling a computer, and im just wondering if the set is worth the price, look

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HowardHopkinso, thanks for the kind words. Im really upset that the for sale section is gone. In the end, it would have eventually been a section that would draw more people to this forum. Forums need help to pay for their costs and people who use the "for sale" section realize what a valuable resource it is and they tend to contribute more, financially and otherwise, to the whole forum.
I just see it as such a great opportunity in so many ways and i dont understand why others dont feel the same way.
I havent been buying and selling too much lately and so i wandered over to this forum. I like it but as soon as i start buying and selling again, i will be over at forums that have a "for sale" section. Its because i need such a thread. I dont like ebay and there are many others who dont. And those who use other forums for buying and selling find out that forums are best for this and are far, far better than ebay!
But at this point its gone so i am wasting my time. I realize that but.... aw, never mind, lol.

awsskater892, it seems to me, and i could be wrong, but i believe there is too great a discrepancy between what you could get selling the pc as a unit and what you have stated you can get by selling the parts piece by piece. In addition to that, of course, you have to consider the time involved in setting up a bunch of ebay postings, added cost too i think, and, likely more importantly, you will be spending more time packaging your parts and spending more money on shipping. In the end, one will always make more money selling the parts individually, and usually also end up keeping the case as an added bonus. Its just that i dont know if you will get the top dollar you are describing for your parts. I could be wrong though.

I am posting in this thread because there has been ongoing discussions of different things other than the original reason for this thread.
 
uhh, i shop on ebay for alot of stuff, and i consider myself a pretty experienced computer shopper.

p.s. I've bought alot of stuff on ebay considering i have 6 computers in my office.

1. eMachines T3882

2. eMachines T3985

3. Compaq Presario 6000 series

4. Custom Built AMD Athlon

5. HP Pavillion

6. Dell inspiron E1505

...AMD
 
But see, we are different.
I have 5 pc's at my place and I would never buy an HP, Compaq, emachines.
I build my own pc's.
Thing is, that watching online sales and getting good deals on forums, sales in my city, i can put a rig together a lot cheaper than buying one from a store or on ebay. Plus, of course, i have usually bought better parts than the cheaper ones they put in most pcs. For instance, you might get a bottom of the line tv setup where i get a much better one, things like that.
Plus they dont usually put Seagate hard drives in pcs where i buy Seagates with 5 yr warranties, things like that. TV is not the best example but im sure you get the drift of what i am trying to say, it goes for lots of other parts too.

So, we are totally different.
I can see by what you have listed that you can go on Ebay to buy these things but i bet i could even buy the whole system cheaper by shopping around on forums, lol. But, if you bought them brand new, well, again, thats a different story.
So, it all depends on why you are buying a certain item.
I just know i can find better deals on online sales and forums than i can on ebay. Plus, on ebay, i have to sit around and wait for days to see if i even bought anything if its an auction.
I just dont like ebay and i do like forums.
The bottom line is different strokes for different folks.
I certainly dont mean and didnt mean to offend you, so i apologize if i did offend you in any way. I guess i need to be a bit more careful.
And i see another difference. You dont have time to mess around doing pc builds and i do, im retired. That might be the biggest reason why we shop so differently.
But i see you built yourself a custom Athlon rig! And you probably have os licences for all your pcs too!

thanks
 
ohh no, you didnt offend me, i understand that alot of ppl like to custom build, but i just prefer to buy from factory, or ebay. And yes, its true, that i usually dont have the time to custom build, so i just choose prebuilt. And yes, i do have OS licenses for each of them, and they are completely legal. :)

...AMD
 
BTW, that AMD Athlon PC is probably the best PC i have. as soon as i get WinXP on it, it will be even better.

custom Athlon specs:

900MHz Athlon CPU
128MB samsung RAM/ soon to be 640MB
128MB ATI RAGE card on and AGP slot
80GB Western Digital 7200RPM
300W PSU
Antec Case
CD/DVD drive
3.5" floppy
Windows ME/soon to be WinXP

...AMD
 
Tell ya what, keep me and my email addy in mind and let me know when you want some parts!
 
nork said:
Tell ya what, keep me and my email addy in mind and let me know when you want some parts!

I will do that :)

Im thinkin next May, when Taxes come back after i collect a little $$$ im probably gonna build my next system. i feel like increasing the size 7 for some reason :)

...AMD
 
Hey, So Since i'm probably selling my current computer, whats the best I can build for $1000?? Like can you give me the main details (mobo, ram, cpu, vid card, soundcard, harddrives.......) thanks
 
well im not going to give prices, b/c im to lazy to look around the internet alot :) but i will give reccommendations on brands.

mobo: well it depends on whether its going to be an AMD or Intel rig.

RAM: i find Corsair to work nicely i would say at least 512MB preferably 1GB or more

CPU: well again that depends on whether your going on my side and getting an AMD :), or getting an intel.

AMD: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+
Intel: Pentium D 940

Video Card: Nvidia SLI solution with about 256, preferably 512MB DDR3 RAM, that should handle Vista nicley

SoundCard: Soundblaster Live! 24Bit audio solution

Hard Drive: either a 250GB seagate, or dual 200GB seagates, in a striped RAID array. (unless, you like having the computer recognize it as 2 separate drives, i personally like it when the computer shows them as 1 larger drive)

OS: Windows XP Pro OEM CD

extras: media card reader, floppy drive, DVD-R/W DL drive

PSU: 500W at least

Case: this pretty much depends on you personal preferences, and location of USB, FireWire Etc.

Please remember, feel free to get advice from other ppl on the forums, these are just the parts mentioned, not neccisarily the parts you have to get.

...AMD
 
Hi, thanks, im def. an AMD guy. lol. and I dont really need a floppy drive, but do you think I can build a very decent computer for $1000? also, what mobo should I get to go with the amd processor you reccomended?
 
Also, I want at least 1gb ram, and Im going to use this for video editing, if that helps at all. how come that processor is 450$ but is only 2.2GHz? is it still as fast as like a 2.4ghz? or faster? or slower?
 
ok, after about an hour or two of searching and checking compatibility, and attempting to stick to my budget (which was 1100, and i finished at 1170, so not bad) I found all the parts, and I think this rig is gonna be pretty fast. so give some opinions on it please:

Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ Toledo 2000MHz HT 2 x 1MB L2 Cache Socket 939 Dual Core Processor - Retail

Motherboard: ASUS A8N5X Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 ATX AMD - Retail

Hard drive: Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3320620AS (Perpendicular Recording Technology) 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

Disc drives:(two of these) NEC Black 16X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 16X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2M Cache IDE/ATAPI DVD Burner - OEM

Memory: CORSAIR XMS 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Unbuffered DDR 400 (PC 3200) Dual Channel Kit System Memory - Retail


Videocard: SAPPHIRE 100153L Radeon X1800GTO2 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 VIVO PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail

Soundcard: soundblaster 24bit live

Firewire: have a firewire card

Case: ASPIRE X-DISCOVERY-BK Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail

Windows: Microsoft Windows XP Professional With SP2 - OEM
 
That looks like a very nice system indeed. Im kind of jealous now,:) lol

as far as your question goes on the CPU speed. The reason that AMD CPUs are almost always slower than say Intel, is that AMD focuses more on operations per secong, rather than clock speed. But in reality, your X2 CPU will technically run at 4.4GHz, combining the power b/t the two cores.

Have fun building her, and when you do get her built, tell us how she runs

...AMD
 
BTW, if this rig is for video editing, i highly reccommend upgrading to 2GB of RAM, you may spend some more money upfront, but you will thank yourself in the long run. plus if you have 2GB now, that will make Windows Vista run even faster.

...AMD
 
A few things come to mind here:

1 power supply, you didnt mention that. If you are getting a generic power supply from a lower priced case, then you need to buy your own power supply. You can go to directron.com and newegg.com to see power supplies. You dont have to spend a fortune but for the rig you are talking about a $50 power supply is not out of the question. The power supply is the single most important part of your rig. Its often neglected. But a good power supply will prevent motherboard damage and damage to your hard drive, vid card, etc, when a power issue happens at the wall. I havent checked out your case, it may very well have a good power supply in it?

2 Most motherboards come with fairly decent sound onboard. If the mobo you have chosen already has onboard sound, you could do without the extra sound card, put it toward a better power supply.

3 UPS. Some people have never heard of them and consider them an extra. I dont. To me, a UPS is a must have item. I could fill a page on why and i dont think any town or city can say that their power is so clean that its not needed in their area. These days you can get one for $50 or less. And just a surge suppressor alone doesnt cut it.

Great rig, im jealous too, lol.
 
haha thanks guys, and yea I was gonna just use the psu from the case, but yea Ill get a better one any suggestions, around 50?

and for the ram, Im still debating on weather I should spend the extra 100 on it or not, but I probablyy wont buy it for a week or two so i have time to think.

Nork, you said you could get stuff cheaper then ebay, and other sites, do you think you could find any of this stuff anywhere?
 
Yes, I forgot to mention the UPS as well, they can prove to be an invaluable invetsment. Get one with at least 3000 joules. i'll tell ya a little story.

One evening i was reinstalling windows, and was about only 40% throught, when i turned my head to the television and noticed that our city had a tornado warning! Frantically i watched the skies, and hoped that the power wouldnt go out since i was right in the middle of the process. I have never experineced a power putage when i was right in the middle reinstallling windows, and it didnt know if it would hurt the PC or not. anyway, the power did go out, but i had my UPS batteries charged and ready to go:) my UPS provides electricity for 45min. and windows was finished by that time, and no harm was done. The End

so go ahead and splurge that extra $150.00 for a good, dependable UPS. I use a GeekSquad brand, but i've also heard that APC makes a good one as well.

...AMD
 
The power supply, all you have to do is go to, say, newegg, go to power supplies, and punch in the dollar numbers. I did that for power supplies from $50 to $75. Under that just isnt good enough for the rig you have. There are some under $50 that might very well do, but why worry about $10 when you have $1,200 at stake! This is the engine of your car, so to speak, and its a lot more important than most people think. There is special circuitry in better quality power supplies that protect your system and that is the biggest reason to go for better.

Heres newegg.com.s power supplies from $50 to $75
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?N=2010320058+4026&Submit=ENE&SubCategory=58

Antec, thermaltake, Fortron, sparkle, and more. But some I see for sale at newegg i wouldnt want. As much as i like Antec and Thermaltake, to be fair, there have been the odd version that arent quite up to their standards, but they all beat generic power supplies by a wide wide margin!

Heres some info and lists on good and bad power supplies for your reading:

http://forums.nvidia.com/index.php?showtopic=4146 from Apr 22 2005

http://club.cdfreaks.com/showthread.php?t=142753
http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?t=98650
http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?t=131195
http://www.hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=792566

This is just for your info:

troubleshoot power supply with multimeter:
http://techrepublic.com.com/5100-10...g=feed&subj=tr#

atx format:
http://www.formfactors.org/



The UPS, you dont have to buy the best. I even suggest the cheapest one that has protection for your pc, internet and phone. A main source of pricing is how long you have before the UPS's power gives out and you have to shut your system down. If you are home you will hear the beeps, trust me, and so even only 10 minutes is fine. If you arent home it may not matter if its a 10 minute warning or 30 minutes as most of the time when we go out its usually over 30 minutes anyway. So, unless you want the very best, heres a place where you can get the lower price and not suffer the consequences. What a UPS is best for is protecting your pc from "brown=outs and power surges, and they all do that well, the extra time, to me, isnt worth paying for.

Your other question i will answer in the next post.
 
I will pm you, but, just so someone doesnt think i am full of hot air, lol, i will point out that forums like this are an excellent source of NEW, slightly used, and plain old used pc parts.
As for forums, here they are. I was so happy to see we were starting our own "for sale" section, but since its been taken out, then i feel its ok to point these forums out to you:
Here you go:

http://www.techimo.com/forum/index.html this one is my favorite

http://forums.anandtech.com/categories.cfm?catid=45&zb=1701759 another favorite

http://episteme.arstechnica.com/eve/forums/a/frm/f/57909216 first one i ever tried

http://www.pcabusers.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=2 another good one.
There are another half dozen i know that are just as good as well.

There is also pricewatch.com and reselleratings.com. At pricewatch you can just punch in what part you are looking for and you will find a great deal. And there are others like pricewatch, i am just used to pricewatch.

Forums are still better but sometimes new, new is the way to go, of course.
And, as stated, you can get new, new at forums. I have many times!
 
haha thanks nork! but the problem is Im about 200 short of the price, I know I can make 100, but if you can help me find items that are compatible (so I dont have to change evrything, a little cheaper, and same performance. That way I can forfill my dream of building this computer. thanks
 
Okay, i will try, but im not always the best at that part, putting the best mobo together.
First, though, i need to know where you are spending the money.
Can you give me the list you have, as above, although its possibly changed a bit from that, but write your list out again, please, and put the price and where you are getting each part from, i can likely help you better.

Are there any parts from your old rig you can use, like the case, etc? Not necessarily the power supply as you do need a decent power supply if you are getting that type video, pci-e, along with that cpu, you will need a decent power supply.
 
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