• Some users have recently had their accounts hijacked. It seems that the now defunct EVGA forums might have compromised your password there and seems many are using the same PW here. We would suggest you UPDATE YOUR PASSWORD and TURN ON 2FA for your account here to further secure it. None of the compromised accounts had 2FA turned on.
    Once you have enabled 2FA, your account will be updated soon to show a badge, letting other members know that you use 2FA to protect your account. This should be beneficial for everyone that uses FSFT.

Would like advice on a new computer

F

farscapesg1

2[H]4U
2FA
Joined
Aug 4, 2004
Messages
2,658
OK, it looks like my trustworthy friend has finally bitten the dust. Apparently by coincidence, after applying the latest Microsoft patch and restarting the system, some hardware component encountered problems and now the system will no longer boot. It automatically reboots as soon as I should get the Windows 2000 splash screen. Thinking the OS had been corrupted, I tried to run the windows setup disk to repair, but it reboots while trying to load. Hmm, okay, so I put a brand new hard drive in (I had one sitting around waiting on a new system for a home) and the same thing happens. So I disconnected everything except for one cdrom, one hard drive (brand new), and the video card. I start the system, it starts booting from the Win2000 disk and reboots again!!

System stats:
Celeron 1 Ghz
Abit BE6 motherboard
512 MB ram

OK, so now for the advice part (unless you have any advice on getting this system working again).

I am thinking about building a new system, but I want something that will last me like this one has (about 5 years) but I can't afford bleeding edge technology. I use the system mostly for gaming, programming (Visual Basic, Visual C++, HTML), and I would like to throw a TV Tuner card in to record TV shows digitally. Obviously, games and PVR functions will be the biggest hit on the system.

Considering the old system is pretty ancient, everything will need to be replaced, so basically I need to know what's the best "bang for my buck" that I can get.
 
Lessee - First try swapping out the RAM if possible that could be the problem

but bang for the buck try:

Proc: P4 2.8 or an Athlon 64 3000+ or higher for futureproofness (EVENTUALLY Windows and other software will be 64bit and thus will not work on a p4 but this is way in the future so who knoww)
HD: 120+ GB 8mb Cache IDE or SATA
vid card: 9600xt, 9800pro
Optical Drive: Plextor Dual Layer (burns all current formats and the newer dual layer dvds and its about $80 on newegg)
Motherboard: anything with good reviews from a reputable manufacturer (abit, asus, dfi, intel) try to get one with intgrated ethernet and maybe surround sound
RAM: at least 512mb of name brand stuff (crucial, corsair, mushkin, kingston)
Case/Power supply: try to get a powersuppy with connectors for SATA drives and/or PCI-express video cards if you plan the keep the powersupply for a while

thats all I can think of for now
 
Tried the RAM, no luck there :(

So, is there any reason to even consider the newest Intel processors and chipset (Grantsdale?).

I haven't been a big fan of Plextor (I tend to gravitate towards Lite-On more). So, the new DVD drive writes to double layer disks? Does that increase the storage capacity? How much more expensive are these disks and how hard are they to locate? I haven't even seen disks for sale at local retailers that go over 4X (though I haven't really been looking). Also, how is the Plextor drive on making backups of original disks? I already have a Lite-On DVDRW 4X and the hard drives I would need for the system. The Lite-On will backup anything I have thrown at it so far.
 
did you look to your BIOS for possible solutions? write all the settings down before trying the safe or default settings.
 
Right a dual layer burner can write to dual layer discs which are 8.5gb instead of the standard 4.7gb, the discs are hard to find and $$ now, i've seen 8x discs at bestbuy from memorex
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top