Buying A Pc

[nickspoon]

Woop.

Finally got the last bits, and I'd say it's a bit unstable. It spontaneously shuts down sometimes. Not sure if that's my fault or just a defective part. Running Ubuntu 32-bit SMP, and everything runs great

And the Antec Basiq PSU is SO GODDAMN NOISY. Maybe that's the defective bit. I wouldn't know, because Linux has no drivers for the sensors on my nForce 550 motherboard.

 

[Aninhumer]

What parts did you get in the end?

I was considering building a PC, but then my Dad said he was going buy my brother a computer for his "Fantastic SATs results" so I got one parentally subsidised
£300 (+£144 from my Dad) for:

• AMD 64 3500+
• 1GB Memory
• nVidia GeForce 6200 TC 256MB
• 19" LCD Monitor B)
• DVD Writer
• 200GB HDD

Without the monitor that would have been £314 in total

EDIT: And I can run Compiz/XGL on this , but don't because it gets old fast.

EDIT2: I did have some issues with some components, but their repairs people turned it round in 72 hours

 

[Vollgasasi]

if you wanna run games with this setup, yor very limited because of the 6200 turbo cache. but if not, your fine.

 

[fluffyhamster]

What graphics did you end up going with? Because i got a 7600GS 512 meg and it works quite dandy.

 

[Epicenter]

Woop.

Finally got the last bits, and I'd say it's a bit unstable. It spontaneously shuts down sometimes. Not sure if that's my fault or just a defective part. Running Ubuntu 32-bit SMP, and everything runs great

And the Antec Basiq PSU is SO GODDAMN NOISY. Maybe that's the defective bit. I wouldn't know, because Linux has no drivers for the sensors on my nForce 550 motherboard.

Download SpeedFan and post your voltages for +12v, +5v, +3.3v, CPU VCore, and your negative voltages, and I'll take a look. Do that at idle, and do it with CPU load at 100% .. and hopefully GPU at 100%. Like run a game in a window, and an emulator that maxes out a core, and then take your measurement.

Also, post your temperatures. Athlon 64s have a safety mechanism that will cut power to the machine if it overheats-- you might also have poor contact between the CPU/Heatsink, not enough, too much, or misapplied thermal compound, a failing fan, etc.

 

[nickspoon]

What parts did you get in the end?

I was considering building a PC, but then my Dad said he was going buy my brother a computer for his "Fantastic SATs results" so I got one parentally subsidised
£300 (+£144 from my Dad) for:

• AMD 64 3500+
• 1GB Memory
• nVidia GeForce 6200 TC 256MB
• 19" LCD Monitor B)
• DVD Writer
• 200GB HDD

Without the monitor that would have been £314 in total

EDIT: And I can run Compiz/XGL on this , but don't because it gets old fast.

EDIT2: I did have some issues with some components, but their repairs people turned it round in 72 hours

AMD 64 X2 4200+
1GB Memory (2 512 sticks)
160GB HDD
nVidia GeForce 7600GS
DVD Writer
Free CRT

Total £497, but then I bought a different Antec PSU and a new fan (these ones run much too noisily). Going to return the current one, under either DSR or pretend RMA

 

[fluffyhamster]

What parts did you get in the end?

I was considering building a PC, but then my Dad said he was going buy my brother a computer for his "Fantastic SATs results" so I got one parentally subsidised
£300 (+£144 from my Dad) for:

• AMD 64 3500+
• 1GB Memory
• nVidia GeForce 6200 TC 256MB
• 19" LCD Monitor B)
• DVD Writer
• 200GB HDD

Without the monitor that would have been £314 in total

EDIT: And I can run Compiz/XGL on this , but don't because it gets old fast.

EDIT2: I did have some issues with some components, but their repairs people turned it round in 72 hours

AMD 64 X2 4200+
1GB Memory (2 512 sticks)
160GB HDD
nVidia GeForce 7600GS
DVD Writer
Free CRT

Total £497, but then I bought a different Antec PSU and a new fan (these ones run much too noisily). Going to return the current one, under either DSR or pretend RMA

specificaly what card?

 

[nickspoon]

MSI NX7600GS-T2D.

As for SpeedFan, I haven't even installed Windows yet!

 

[Epicenter]

Well you should really get around to that .. in the meantime check your temperatures and voltages from the PC Health or similar menu option in your BIOS' CMOS setup for the same relevant info. If your temps are high reseat the CPU cooler. (I would call >35C 'high' if all you're doing is sit in the BIOS, with that processor.) If it had a thermal pad on it already, remove it with some alcohol and clean the CPU heatspreader with the same. Dry both surfaces, apply a THIN layer of thermal compound to the spreader and reapply the sink.

 

[Aninhumer]

if you wanna run games with this setup, yor very limited because of the 6200 turbo cache. but if not, your fine.

It runs my favourite FPS, Tremulous, fine and Quake 4 RUNS!
Then again my friend can run Tremulous on his 10 year old iMac at a playable (to him) speed.

I was going to get a nVidia GeForce 7600 GT for my birthday (Wednesday, WEWT), but then I realised it would only be to play Quake 4.
So I'm getting a DSlite + games.

Plus nickspoon's machine is definately way better than mine, but...
I think I could have got something with ~that spec for £550, but it would have a 19" TFT monitor, and a 7600 GT.
Actually at the time I bought mine it would of cost more, but not now.

 

[Epicenter]

I was going to get a nVidia GeForce 7600 GT for my birthday (Wednesday, WEWT), but then I realised it would only be to play Quake 4.
So I'm getting a DSlite + games.

Buy Gunstar Super Heroes, too. It's a GBA game but you'll be glad you did.

 

[nickspoon]

Anyway, I got Windows on this thing, and it promptly ate my MBR, leading to me spending hours getting GRUB back. Now everything works again, and I have results.

It idles at 37 degrees. Full load on one core brings that to 45, and full load on both cores to 50. (Using CPU Burn-in as a load generator).

 

[Aninhumer]

Ironically, I believe I explained how to fix GRUB to Shikaku in this very forum section.

The actual process should take minutes, and looking it up shouldn't take too long...
...or is ubuntuforums.org too n00b for ya?

(Actually their search function was boned last time I went on there :blink: )

 

[nickspoon]

No, the fact was the LiveCD didn't actually work with installing Grub, but thankfully the Super Grub CD fixed that. Unfortunately I then somehow ended up with a broken menu.lst and so couldn't boot at all.

Blah.

 

[Epicenter]

So is it still shutting down for no reason?

 

[nickspoon]

It hasn't so far.

 

[Aninhumer]

Did you remember to mount --bind your /dev? If you don't grub-install won't work...

Anyhow, my computer does crazy stuff sometimes, if it ever just plain breaks, I'll send it back.

My brother's GFX card burned out on arrival but they fixed it quick. (72 hour turn-around)

The company basically seems to provide, good value, ghetto build quality, computers.
Then when they break they get the skilled people in...