was this a good buy???

JD · Post by JD » Wed Aug 07, 2002 1:35 pm

I recently ordered a new pc and I was wondering if it was a good buy or not. I usually build them, but between my work and my home life I have absolutely no time. I was willing to pay a little extra for the convienience.

Anyways, here are some of the specs:

Athlon XP 2200+
MSI mobo(not sure which model)
350 watt ps
512 Megs pc2100 DDR
80 gig 7200 rpm HD
16x toshiba dvd
24x10x40 burner
32 meg agp video(I believe it is an ATI card, not sure though)

I paid slightly over $1000 shipped. Is that a bad deal? Oh, and please no price watch prices. 90% of the prices listed on there aren't the real prices those places charge.

Fu Manchu · Post by **Fu Manchu** » Wed Aug 07, 2002 1:38 pm

video card and powersupply are a bit cheezy .. but for you having some one build that for you .. i would say thats a decent price

Hipnotic_Tranz · Post by **Hipnotic_Tranz** » Wed Aug 07, 2002 1:57 pm

eh, that power supply is fine joe. I have a 300w out of my old addtronics case and I'm running a 1600+ XP, 3 hard drives, 2 optical drives, 3 80mm fans, a Radeon 8500, etc. As for the video card, if you don't plan on doing any major gaming it will probably do fine.

blade · Post by **blade** » Wed Aug 07, 2002 2:35 pm

350w is more than good enough if it is a decent power supply. I have an antec 350w in my main system and all is well, I have an addtronics 300w in my other system and it never hiccups. Well, except when I try some heavy oc'ing.

So basically me thinks it depends who makes that power supply, video card, ram and hard drive. If they are all decent makers then a grand isn't bad for all of that with someone else building it, plus you probably have a year warranty so that helps some too.

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Wed Aug 07, 2002 4:00 pm

350 watt PSU is fine as long as it's AMD certified and you're not installing a 4 drive array plus a burner.

The wattage spec doesn't mean anything anymore - it's the current output of the 5 and 12 volt bus that's important. If you compare a 3 year old 350watt PSU to a modern 350watter, you'll find that the 5 and 12 volt bus are nearly twice the amperage of the older PSU.

The other important thing is voltage stability. AMD systems are very finicky about this (thus the AMD certification). The better PSUs have two fans (intake and exhaust) to keep the transistors in the PSU cool. Cool transistors = better voltage stability.

2 fans aren't strictly necessary, but the better PSUs do have them. If you only have one fan on your PSU I'd consider upgrading the PSU or adding intake fan(s) on the front of the case.

If you plan on overclocking you should install front case intake fans anyway.

nexus_7 · Post by **nexus_7** » Wed Aug 07, 2002 7:15 pm

every thing is jsut fine but the Shit box video. the minimum is 64 meg and a R8500 or gf3 ti200 anythign else is just a waist of $$.

Greg

Post by **FlyingPenguin** » Wed Aug 07, 2002 11:01 pm

No Greg, tell us how you REALLY feel about his video card....

dadx2mj · Post by **dadx2mj** » Wed Aug 07, 2002 11:37 pm

Greg dis'ing an ATI vides card my god what has this world come to:B

EvilHorace · Post by **EvilHorace** » Thu Aug 08, 2002 5:50 am

Unless a person does some serious gaming and requires the "best" video card (always debateable), THAT video card is probably just fine and dandy. I'd also gather that if it were an issue, a better card would have been ordered but either way, upgrading is no big deal if needed someday.

As for building your own vs buying one built by someone else, todays pre-built prices are low enough to the point where I'd say it's almost not worth the hassle of doing it yourself for most people UNLESS you're very demanding about the parts as many here are.

I'm sure that some of us remember what they paid for their first store bought PC back when it was also a very primative box as well, downright embarising. Today when I see some of the TV ads for new PCs, I think "damn, you can all that for only that much $$?" and it'll probably be a good PC for most too IMO (but maybe not for a serious gamer).

nexus_7 · Post by **nexus_7** » Thu Aug 08, 2002 9:29 am

I dont know...the mx 420 I got SUCKS ass and soed does the Radeon 7000. and they both have 64 megs...Granted ram doesnt mean Everything...but it just sounds like a Cheap card.

Greg

JD · Post by JD » Thu Aug 08, 2002 9:47 am

Well, to tell you the truth, the video card will probably be overkill for me anyways. I have been happy with my 8 meg card to tell you the truth, so that doesn't really matter anyway. And yes, the PS is amd certified....