recently i built my new comp. with an AMD 1.4ghz CPU on the asus a7a266 motherboard... it freeze A LOT... but concidering that it uses the DDR RAMs which are cheaper and better than the RDRAMs, i think AMD is still a good choice...

by the way the new matrox g550 came out recently... although i is a bit slow (360mhz of ramdac) it has nice randering and is great for animations... besides, this thing costs $150 (oem) and is a great deal.

I see I'm not the only one concerned by the concepts of this school box. I fully aggree with many of the points made in this computer concept, but the priorities are not very school oriented in my mind.

A 1.4GHz(266) AMD is a wonderful thing, but a $60 900MHz(200) T-bird would be more than enough for applications, only a few dollars more than it's Duron counterpart, and still quite adequate for gaming since the real issue in gaming is the videocard.

Despite the high accounts by benchmarkers running basic benchmarks, in most realworld instances I've seen, VIA chipsets are very prone to driver issues and unstable preformance. The fact that ATI refused to even have the words "AMD", "Athlon" or "VIA" on thier website because they were incapable of generating drivers that would make their own tv tuners run properly on them in all cases makes me wary to back the Radeon. I've spent too many hours of my life downloading "Special Purpose" drivers for the special purpose of running their video card on the most common chipset motherboards in the world. The fastest DDR chipset in the world is the VIA KT266A, which is probably closing in on the preformance of the future nForce. But it will take a very long time until I believe that a VIA is a good choice for stability. I would recommend the ECS K7S5A ($59) based on the SiS735 which even before it's production insued had garnered perfect marks from every major benchmarker I had seen as the most stable and solid chipset comparable only to the AMD761 yet faster. The unboard 10/100 network adapter and the AC97' audio cut out the worries of two more cards. I think AC97' leaves a little to be desired, but dorms hardly have room for surround speakers and mostly only two channels are used as is, not to mention that the CPU drain of a SBLive could easily be done without. Moreover upgrading is an option since the K7S5A is compatible with the AMD Palamino CPU's and will be able to run current and future CPU's with either SDRAM or DDR-SDRAM. Obviously the incredible preformance is only present with DDR, but with 512Meg PC133 SDRAM being $28, why not allow a slight loss till the DDR drops more by semester's end.

There is no question that the Radeon 64 All-in-wonder has the highest quality playback for the lowest resource need, but for those not using it as a video hub, a $130 GeForce2 64meg Pro is probably better on average proformance, and a Geforce2MX400 is more than adequate for mainstream gaming and 2D work. Chiefly I'm considering Nvidia because I've never known them to have the ever-flux driver issues, and their preformance is generally top-notch.

19" Trinitron montors are a gloreous thing, but that doesn't mean a .26 KDS 18"v for $240 is trash.

16x burners are often $100 if you catch the right sale at retail chain computer stores, and sometimes 12x's are $80, as much as a brand would be joyous, I've burned 780+ cd's on the cheapest LG i could find and have not a complaint in the world.

Natural Keyboards are like a foreign language, sure it's grand if you were born to it, but to a seasoned speaker, it's somewhere beyond the usefulness of Greek.

Optical Intellimouse is fine, accept it's the only one on the market that prides itself on having a red light on it's base bright enough to keep everyone in a room awake. Logitech can show you the way.

the case you found is impressive, but the effective value of a case is met by any number of $50 models.

I agree Visors are a wonderful thing, and they do work in conjunction with the computer. My music CD's also work well with the computer, but they aren't part of the computer budget.

oni403 (AIM and YahooIM)

Originally Posted by AdamLongWalker
Yeah, Dis\'es machine it is a bit too expensive (still a good build though), wait though,... just got my advance on building the Econobox for someone.

I\'ll give you the specs when I get finished.

Ahh a hobbie that I get payed to do....

ALW

Having built "cheap" boxes for myself several times (and then living with the result), I have to say that nothing beats putting together a system which actually works all the time, and doesn't nickel and dime you to death over the years it manages to live.

Sure, dissonance's box isn't cheap -- but it's a computer (a very nice one for now, and probably still an acceptable one in three years), plus a TV, plus a PDA. That's a helluva lot of functionality for the dollar.

I think he's right in spec'ing it the way he did -- it's more up-front cost, but less over the box's lifetime.

Kudos on the UPS reccomendation... I'm sure many would have paid the price of this entire system in a heartbeat if they could only have the hours of lost work back.

Spend on this.

Originally Posted by dissonance
Someone please tell me where I mentioned that this was a budget box, it\'s not, it\'s what I consider a reasonable, but ideal dorm room computer. If you want ghetto, I\'ll spec and name a box as such, and it will be good for both business and school use most likely... but this obviously wasn\'t a budget box.

Dissonance:

1) congratulations on the inebriation

2) BRING ON THE GHETTO BOX!

WOOOOOO!

:)
ER

Originally Posted by jmward
This is absolutely ludicrous. Sorry, but it is.

A back to school system, for the poor college student, should focus on two things. SCHOOL, and MONEY.

How about an 800 Duron instead of a top of the line TBird? Save $100.

Forgo the 19\" monitor. Get a decent 17\". Save $100-$200.

Cheap generic keyboard means you can spill beer and coffee all over it and it won\'t matter.

Optical mice are pretty nice, though.

What\'s with that case? How about a $20 generic POS case, and I guess another $35 for a real power supply. Let\'s face it. The case has NO IMPACT on performance. It\'s nice to work in a good case. But if that\'s what you want, go buy an SGI or a Sun. Or even an Apple. Apple puts Antec / AOpen / whatever cases to shame. SGI and Sun (and probably others, these are just the ones I\'ve worked with) make Apple cases look kludgy and difficult.

RAM\'s dirt cheap. At least you didn\'t bung that one up.

Seriously though. This reads more like a performance system than a back to school system.

Originally Posted by dissonance
I\'m drunk and just stumbled out of a bar full of inebriated college girls... I can tell you for sure that if you refer to it as a \'pipeline\', or \'geek hardware\', you\'re going nowhere ;)

[q]Ryu, it's the pipeline..... :-P[/q]

It's not how long it is, it's how you used it.

Ryu, it's the pipeline..... :-P

[q]I heard da college chicks like to watch movies on your pc also.....[/q]

If I have a woman in my dorm room, I'm going to have to assume she's not there for the view. She's probably there to view my geek hardware, and I'm not talking about the PC

I heard da college chicks like to watch movies on your pc also.....

Originally Posted by dissonance
Let\'s not forget the fact that the Matrox card will crawl in 3D apps compared to the AIW.

A Ghetto box will come your way soon enough folks, be patient, and stuff.

[q]I would recommend the Matrox G450 eTV rather than the
ATI card. Same price range and has some nice features.[/q]

The G450 eTV doesn't do full DVD hardware acceleration. It only does HW sub-picture blending and leaves the rest for your CPU. I also believe it's screen capture function doesn't have as high a resolution. The Radeon All-In-Wonder can capture up to 720x480, Matrox in their documentation won't state what the screen capture resolution is, so it' probably 320x240. I also feel that the Radeon's 3D features and performance are superior to the Matrox G450 series. Really the Radeon All-In-Wonder continues to be the most feature rich and complete video solution.

I would recommend the Matrox G450 eTV rather than the
ATI card. Same price range and has some nice features.

I guess when most people see "college system" they think "inexpensive system for writing papers and downloading warez." Maybe this article should be called the "not enough space in my 10x8 room unless I hang stuff out the window system," and then people would understand things like the TV tuner inclusion (popular in Taiwan schools too I hear).

I'd prefer a regular CRT but for serious space purposes you could argue for a flat-panel display, since depth is also a crucial dimension lacking in many dorms. Hell many students just buy a laptop -- less space, travels to the library or home for break, easier to move at the end of the year.

ER: Agreed. A laser printer nearby is a Godsend. My roommate had one, and I had a CD-R. I'd burn CD's for him and provide paper, and I get to use his printer whenever I wanted (unless he was dong the same). Came in handy many times.

TT #64: As a fellow ex-grad-student myself, I must counter that with the addition of the following items:

$100 - various black-light posters
$40 black light
-------------------------------------------
$140 for mood stuff to have the $1600-worth of beer in

Originally Posted by Trident Troll
I was just gonna leave my last post alone, but this ongoing thread has inspired me to contribute a more worthwhile post to the argument.
Having successfully navigated both undergraduate and graduate schools, I believe I can put this issue to rest with a recommendation. The breakdown for the alotment of the $1,700 should be as follows:

$100 - Gameboy Advance
+$1,600 - Beer
¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨¨
$1,700 - Total

I think you\'ll find that this spending plan will lead to a much happier collegiate experience. For the first semester, anyway...
---

LONG LIVE TRIDENT!!!

Woohoo we wore down Dissonance!

By the way, were all the prices perchance in Canadian dollars? :)

The specs do make more sense when it's targetd as the "Ultimate Dorm System". Then again, I'm not going to spend $1700 bucks on a computer NOW, and I'm gainfully employed and everything.

But I think a more interesting and fun story would be about making a Ghetto skool computer. Things I'd do:

- slower cpu
- ram to 256 (but not less)
- cheaper case
- cheaper CD-R and DVD
- smaller 17" monitor (mainly for desk space).
- totally lame sound (integrated + kmart speakers). (depends on listening habits).
- No PDA (college kids don't need to be organized)

I'll back you up on the Radeon (unless they just don't care about DVD's) and the cheap network card. DLink and Linksys are my heroes.

Really, going for a skool computer, there's only a few things I'd stand firm on from the quality standpoint:

- keyboard and mouse
- monitor (quality not size)

And you know, maybe a printer. Back in my school days I bought a moderate priced small laser printer. It was KILER for doing last minute papers, and really really handy during resume time. Sure I couldn't print out full color pr0n, but I coped.

:)
ER

Originally Posted by dissonance
[q]and what were a $200 video card and $350 monitor doing in this box?[/q]
Replacing your TV and VCR, and giving you lovely DVD playback. Read the spec and the rationale for each and perhaps it will become more clear to you.

I\'m too tired to deal with the rest, I\'ll respond to the other statements in the morning, but that one was just too obvious.

<<Size is a tricky pick here. Looking at prices, 40GB seems to be the sweet spot. Value trails off when you go smaller or larger...>>

i don't understand what this is based on. here's what i came up with in 7200rpm drives:

40GB = $100, 60GB = $150, 80GB = $200.

it looks like a linear relationship to me. not a question of value (GB/$) at all, but a simple personal preference.

why not just say that instead of things like "value trails off"?

and with regard to the noise level ("the fact that the 60GXPs are nice and quiet is certainly a bonus."), i submit the following from StorageReview's 60GXP article:

"The Deskstar series of drives can no longer claim to be among the quietest drives around. Offerings from Maxtor and Western Digital are distinctly quieter when seeking… as should be expected, given the competitions higher access times."

if your point is about the speed and reliability, why not just stick to it?

overall, i don't see any exceptional values mentioned in this article except the core (mb, cpu, ram). anyone who reads this site and has been alive for the past 6 months knows that the athlon with DDR is the only choice. so tell us something we haven't heard. none of the components listed are far and away cheaper than the next similar competition. none of them offer something at a low price that can only be gotten at a much higher price in other brands.

i was hoping for the identification of some bargains like "try this XXXX sound card for $9 that sounds nearly as good as the $30-40 Creative card and has a decent driver set" or "this $50 motherboard lacks some features, but it's as stable as the $90 competition."

and what were a $200 video card and $350 monitor doing in this box?

Originally Posted by LocalYokel
I accidentally did some forward-back movements with my mouse, and I\'m not going to rewrite them, so here\'s just a summary:

* I have a decent shadow mask -- the Samsung 900IFT. The IFT\'s are within the same family as the DF\'s. Good monitors, but to its left, I have a Sony CPD-G400. The Samsung gets put to shame.

* If you\'re going to have a computer for several years, you\'re insane to try scrimping on it. I thought my friend Kyle was crazy for getting a PII just after they came out about 4 years ago. Today, his PII-233 is still pretty decent. If he cut a few bucks out of the deal and got a Pentium 233 MMX instead, the story would be much different.

* May I suggest that you \"power users\" of Win9x with 256+ megs of RAM use an OS worthy of your system? There\'s this awesome thing called a dual boot you can do if you can\'t get your games to work on something else.

everyone:

get serious...the only kids at college who's parents are willing to dish out 2K+ for a computer are the same kids who are most likely going to go the dell/gateway/bullshit-crap-prebuilt computer route....everyone else is on a budget....that's what school is about -- learning to live poor...

Glutzie (#42):

Try going into the virtual memory section of the System control panel applet and setting both minimum and maximum virtual memory to between 1.5 and 2.5 times your physical RAM. No need for paying for wierd software from sketchy companies to do it for you...

Anytime. Nothing like the right device drivers to help things along.

re #35 (slow disk io)

The Via 4-in-1 drivers worked wonders! Can't thank you enough!

My specs for starving student computer:
Duron 950 w/motherboard,fan - $112.00
256MB PC133 Ram - $ 34.19
Geforce MX400 w64MB Ram - $ 60.00
Generic 300Watt ATX Case - $ 25.00
TDK VeloCD 24X10X40 - $134.99
Sylvania 17" Square Flat Tube CRT - $159.99
Soundblaster Live Value Ed. - $ 30.00
Keyboard Generic- $ 15.00
Mouse Generic- $ 10.00
10/100 Ethernet card - $ 10.00
Benwin Flat Panel Speakers 3PC - $ 20.00
Epson 777 Printer $ 69.99
USB Cable $ 5.99

TOTAL: $687.15
PS I acknowledge that shipping and handling is required for everything not having a .99 in their price, so that is to be considered. Usually though you can find single online sites that have multiple items on list to cut down on cost as well as buying from states that don't charge tax.

Just thought I'd post a quick comment relating to the Plexwriter CD burner. Right now at any local Costco (cept one, but I don't think it had any anyways), TDK VeloCD 24X10X40 cd burners are 134.99. No apparently this isn't a mistake. I work at Costco and went around and around with them and this is the price they sell them for. They are brand new units! If you are interested and are near a Costco, I suggest you give them a call and see if they can put one on hold for an hour until you can get there. If you check at the TDK store, they are 279.99. Good luck and may the force be with you.