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Jeo
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New Build for my mother

Mon Mar 06, 2006 2:38 am

to start off some of this might seem like overkill for a mother. But my mom is more tech savvy than most and she just bought a new Palm Pilot and it wont work on her old comp. so this is what I came up with so far.
She wants:
A fast computer
A big monitor
No need to upgrade for at least a little while
needs it now(ie no waiting for vista or anything else)

Motherboard: Asus A8V
Processor : AMD X2 4800+ (maybe 4400+)
Ram : Corsair valuselect 2x1GB
Case : Coolermaster Centurion
Monitor : Dell 2405FPW
GPU : 6600GT out of my box when I get a new 7900GT(x)
HD : WD 74G Raptor

Will prob be ordering this tomorrow morning so any replies quickly are the best. thank you. -Jeo
AMD 64 4800+, ECS NFORCE4-A939, 2GB OCZ Platinum, 120Gb Maxtor SATA, eVGA 7900GT OC, Western Digital 74GB Raptor, Acer 19" LCD and Dell 2405FPW
 
SNM
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Mon Mar 06, 2006 2:47 am

You've gotta be kidding. What's she gonna do with that kind of power, Photoshop and movie edit?
Unless she has specific strong needs, get a single core (My 3200+ does everything I need with aplomb) and a regular 7200rpm drive (depending on whether she games and keeps video, from 80 to 200+gigs).
Core i7 920, 3x2GB Corsair DDR3 1600, 80GB X25-M, 1TB WD Caviar Black, MSI X58 Pro-E, Radeon 4890, Cooler Master iGreen 600, Antec P183, opticals
 
Evil Engine Number Nine
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Mon Mar 06, 2006 3:09 am

Can I be your mom for awhile?
 
Jeo
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Mon Mar 06, 2006 3:11 am

You must remember, this is my moms money and she can do what she wants with it. Any comments on the parts themselves is welcome.
AMD 64 4800+, ECS NFORCE4-A939, 2GB OCZ Platinum, 120Gb Maxtor SATA, eVGA 7900GT OC, Western Digital 74GB Raptor, Acer 19" LCD and Dell 2405FPW
 
Evil Engine Number Nine
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Mon Mar 06, 2006 3:18 am

Okay, consider a more stable ram if you plan on overclocking, make sure your card can handle the widescreen skew for the 24FPW to maintain it's native rez, and conside a few options to quiet the system up a bit, your mom like watercooling? Plus mebbe an A8N ... you could always add another 6600 later for a cheap upgrade.
 
JustAnEngineer
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Mon Mar 06, 2006 6:17 am

Why a VIA chipset?
 
Flying Fox
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Mon Mar 06, 2006 5:25 pm

Jeo wrote:
You must remember, this is my moms money and she can do what she wants with it. Any comments on the parts themselves is welcome.

Did she give you a budget? It's easy to spend money that is not yours. Your statement is very irresponsible. Show her that you look at her requirements and not go overboard with this, and saving money in the process with the level of performance that satisfy her needs, and you should end up better in her book.

That said, you do have to define what she meant by "fast". Palm Pilot app does not tax the system. What apps does she run? How many at the same time? Etc, etc...

If I were to guess at a middle-range setup, assuming no overclocking and no FPS gaming, then:
- 6150 board (yeah, stay away from VIA)
- A64 3500+
- 2x512MB
- the Raptor may be tangible to her in terms of seeing the performance, especially if she reboots the computer often, or just get 2 small regular 7200rpm drives and put the swap on the other drive if you want a bit more responsiveness, but serious with 1 gig RAM there shouldn't be too much swapping
- choose a quiet case with a quality PSU, I would tend to think she will value a bit of quietness as well?
 
mattsteg
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Re: New Build for my mother

Mon Mar 06, 2006 5:31 pm

Jeo wrote:
But my mom is more tech savvy than most and she just bought a new Palm Pilot and it wont work on her old comp.
I'm curious why a "tech savvy" person would drop that kind of cash over palm pilot problems that aren't really related to the core capabilities of the current system unless it's absolutely jurassic.
...

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