Bullets 'n' Babes

... Ok... after another stressfull night where each and every fucking action I do in Illustrator or Photoshop takes about 10 minutes to process, I have decided I need a new computer.

I've already decided it's going to be an AMD Athlon, not sure what speed yet... although it will most likely be 3000+ or over...
Memory is going to be at least 1024

However, I also need a new videocard to go with that, and I have no clue what are the best around at the moment. I see a bunch of 256 mb, but do any of you have any idea which is/are the best? Cause all the radions and ati's and whatever kinda boggle the mind.

I'll be needing it for graphic programs like photoshop, illustrator, and also 3d max, vue d'esprit, etc etc...
Games might be an option, although I hardly ever play games on my pc...

Also, I'm kinda thinking of buying the new computer next week or something, cause I'll have a vacation the week after that, so I'll have sometime to install all the necessarry crap, but is it smart buying a system now, or is there something very very good and cheap coming in the near future, which would make me regret hasting!?

Anyway, hope anyone can help me a bit...

One thing you should learn about computers - there is never a right time to buy. There is always something new around the corner, so no matter when you buy, prices will drop soon after.

For a more future-proofed computer, have you thought about going Socket 939 instead and getting a 64-bit processor?

As for video card, that all completely depends on how much you want to spend - £50? £150? £350? There is a huge range of cards out there.

By the way, ATi & Radeon are the same thing - ATi produces Radeon chips and card specifications, then other companies such as Sapphire & Hercules add their own bells & whistles and repackage the cards.

Its the same with nVidia & GeForce cards - that's why you'll see the same companies selling cards from the two major different graphics developers.

I personally am an ATi man, but there are others that swear by nVidia. It just depends which camp you are in. I have had graphics cards from both manufacturers and in my experience I find ATi to be a lot more stable and produce a better image quality.

Are you going to build this PC yourself? Or buy a premade one? My advice would be to build it yourself (if possible) so that you know exactly what components are going into it, and then you don't end up spending a huge amount more on useless software you'll never use (like with most pre-built PCs).

If you let us know what sort of money you're thinking of spending on the card, we could all probably make some recommendations...

I personally am an ATi man, but there are others that swear by nVidia.

Personally, I swear "at" nVidia.
Stupid bastards whose cards are ten times slower than ATi cards and ten times more expensive.

With modern motherboards, you have to choose what kind of Gfx card you want:
AGP or PCI-Express.

AGP is cheaper, but PCI-Express is the way of the future.

an ATi X800 GT PCI-E or X850xt should do the trick IMVHO.

Thanks guys, very helpfull so far. Gonna try to get an Ati, PCI-Express card.

I'm kinda thinking about either building it myself (although the shop will have to do the building for me, cause I'm a bit of a bitch) when it comes to this stuff), but some of the packages seem pretty good value to me. Whenever I kinda 'build' it myself, on paper, I find that it soon turns out to be more expensive...

I'm not sure if I need the software that comes with it. On my current system I have windows XP, which came with it, and it's an OEM version. Can I use this version on another PC, or is it only usable on 1 PC (this one)?

Also, I'm kinda thinking about buying a cheap, decent one for just now (about 500-600 euro) (till the end of the year, leaving me with enough money to also buy a modded Xbox (400), or go all out and buy a huge PC with all thebells and whistles, for about 1000+ euro.

BTW, is DELL recommendable!? Sometimes their offers seem great, however they only use intel in their pc's, instead of AMD...

Intel are overpriced - I'm an AMD man, and so are all of my friends, except one. Whenever it comes round to upgrade time he always has to spend more than us just to keep up.

I personally wouldn't go for a Dell PC - I've seen the insides of some older models and they are pretty much upgrade hell! I'm not too sure what the newer ones are like though...

I'm not much of an upgrader myself: just buy a new PC, and take the bits from the old PC I can still use, and build those into the new one (on this PC, I can only take the extrenal HD and the 2nd internal HD with me, I guess, cause the 512 internal memory ispretty old, so would probably not work all that well in the new one

Ow, and I'm definately going for an AMD. As you said it's cheaper, and they're very good quality as well. (In my opinion better then Intel)

Just wanted to say that i agree with everything that has been said here. AMD over Intel, ATI over Nvidia. As for the dells, their new "XPS" models still seem to be the only case design that isn't upgrade/component replacement hell.

You can save so much money from just getting the case and core componets individually, and build up the rest using stuff from the old machine.

I'm thinking about buying this system:

Olidata Oxford 64 3200+

Luxe miditower model Oxford with silent 400W ...
Processor AMD Athlon 64 3200+
Memory 1024 DDR400 (2x512Mb)
ATI Radeon X700 PEG 256Mb DDR
250 gigabyte S-ATA hard disk 8Mb cache 7200RPM
S-ATA RAID controller 0,1,0+1 onboard (no idea what this is...)
16 speed DVD ReWriter dual layer + & - technology
DVD rom speler 16x/52x
Diskdrive 1,44Mb 3.5inch
TV-tuner kaart met PAL/Hyperband
10/100Mbit LAN onboard
Wireless netwerkadapter 54Mbit/s
1x Firewire, 4xUSB 2.0 poort en SP/DIF output
3x PCI slot en 1x pcie x16 slot vrij
Onboard 6 channel audio
6 in 1 cardreader voor het uitlezen geheugen kaarten
Stereo speakerset 2.1 met subwoofer
Keyboard met multi media funktie toetsen
Optische mouse met scrollwheel
Microsoft Windows XP home Nederlands met servicepack 2 (oem)
Norton Anti virus Nederlands (oem)
Microsoft Works 8.0 Nederlands (oem)
Nero Burning ROM Nederlands (oem)

Anyone know if Olidata is any good?
Also, it's priced 800 euro... good price!? Seems to me like a good price, I've been comparing around a bit and this seems to be the cheapest solution...

S-ATA RAID controller 0,1,0+1 onboard (no idea what this is...)

RAID is a system that allows you to run 2 hard drives at the same time.

RAID 0: Very fast but very dangerous. It allows you to write files on multiple hard-drives simultaneously.
For example: if you save a 10 mb file on 2 hard-drives in RAID 0:
The first 5mb will be saved on disk 1, the last 5mb on disk 2.
The problem is: if you lose one hard-drive, you lose everything.

RAID 1: Very safe but very slow. It will duplicate on disk 2 every file you save on disk 1. Kinda like an auto-backup feature.
If one hard-drive dies, your data is safe.

Tom2681 wrote:

S-ATA RAID controller 0,1,0+1 onboard (no idea what this is...)

RAID is a system that allows you to run 2 hard drives at the same time.

RAID 0: Very fast but very dangerous. It allows you to write files on multiple hard-drives simultaneously.
For example: if you save a 10 mb file on 2 hard-drives in RAID 0:
The first 5mb will be saved on disk 1, the last 5mb on disk 2.
The problem is: if you lose one hard-drive, you lose everything.

RAID 1: Very safe but very slow. It will duplicate on disk 2 every file you save on disk 1. Kinda like an auto-backup feature.
If one hard-drive dies, your data is safe.

Ah! ... ehm... so... ehm... is the above system any good then!?

Anyway, just ordered it, so too late to regret it now, although I'm sure I'll find another good deal as soon as this one arrives... which is the way it goes with PC's

Perhaps in a few months I'll add another 1024 MB memory to it, just to be safe...

Hopefully it will be here in a few days, although copying my current files on this computer, to my external HD, is gonna be a big task, as my current PC only has USB1.1
I bought a 2.0 USB card, but that doesnt really seem to work...
It recognizes the 2.0 ports, but when I attach the external HD to it, it doesnt recognize the HD, so I get no contact with it...

Ah well... I might work on it a bit tonight... perhaps get a way to get it working...

Anyway, new PC is on it's way, and hopefully it willl last me a couple of years again

ehm... so... ehm... is the above system any good then!?

Sure it's good, except that there seems to be only one Hard-Drive.
So you won't be able to use the RAID system at all.

Good luck with the USB 2 issue.

Quote:
My old monitor is showing some slight disturbance

1. Make sure the speakers are at least 30 centimeters away from the monitor.
2. Make sure the video cable doesn't touch any other cable. Video cables are quite sensitive.

Quote:
I can't get my sound to work.

1. Do you have the classic Windows XP speaker icon in the tray (bottom right) ?
2. Did you properly install the drivers ?

P.S: let's continue this discussion on your PC thread.

Alritey... here I am...

1: Yeah I have the classic speaker icon in the bottom right and I've also tried fucking around with it, but didnt help...
2: Everything came pre-installed , so SHOULD be fine, plus it's listen a bunch of different sound-thingies, and all seem to be doing OK.... so I'm kinda lost.

OK, we gotta check the usual suspects first.
Communication is going to be difficult because my XP is french and I suppose yours is dutch .

First double-click on the sound icon in the tray and make sure everything is at maximum.
Make sure that "mute" is not selected for any of the outputs.


Then right-click on the icon representing a computer on your desktop (maybe called "My computer" or "Workstation").
Select "Properties".
Go to "Hardware" (should be between "computer name" and "Advanced").
First option should be called "Peripheral Manager" or something like that.


Click on it and look at the list.
Make sure that there isn't a yellow "!" next to your soundcard.
If there is, it means that you need to reinstall your soundcard.

BTW: I know it's stupid, but are you sure you connected the speakers in the right hole ? Some soundcards don't use the same color code.

Thanks man. Yeah I checked everything you just wrote already and everything is on max, no mutes, no yellow (!) thingies in the hardware list, and I have cponnected every damn plug into every damn hole and none of the combinations gave a result

edit: I also have the newest drivers for the soundthingy

OK then I have absolutely no idea about what could be the problem.
Sorry mate.

No problem, I'll figure it out eventually. Perhaps it's just a faulty soundcard or something...I have no clue either. Better post my guarentee-card today (gotta mail it within 7 days to get guarentee).

Thanks man