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 Post subject: Computer Frankenstiening...
PostPosted: Wed Sep 24, 2008 7:48 pm 
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Bush Hunter
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Well, I got this old computer sitting around, and I would like to start building it up, not that there is anything wrong with it, but it is old. I want it to become some sort of gaming/storage computer. We do not use it, Except to store songs, and other media on it, and my wife started to talk about doing something with it.
my question is, is it worth it?
What do I do first? I read about, and hear people say that they built their own computers. I do have basic knowledge, but I am lost when it comes to where to start.
Do any of you guys, or girls, have any suggestions?
I actually do not care about $$ because I plan on taking my time with this process.

Edit: By old I mean maybe 2004. and it is currently running XP.

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Sep 24, 2008 8:21 pm 
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It's not worth it for gaming - you can buy new 2x the performance 1/2 the price of fixing the old
- however for storage as a local node on a network it would be fine

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Sep 24, 2008 8:24 pm 
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If its older than 5 years no its not worth it you need an overhaul.. Shop tigerdirect.com they got great deals you can get a solid machine for 800$ put otgether for you, or do like me and build your own, in that case you will need the following

tower w power supply 500w+ 50-150$ i like thermaltake
motherboard gow ith an sli board combo with atleast a dual processor100-250$
2+gigs of ram twinx i prefer100-150$
a solid graphics card geforce or ati 100-500$
hard drive 200+gig 75-150$
dvd/cd burner 30-100$

total 450 low end but still game awesome, i built my wifes last christmas for about 300 after rebates or you can go all out for 1300 and build a monster

you can buy most of it with rebates or on sale and save off the total rebates take a while to get back but worth it, shop around you can do it cheap. and if you dont want to build it yourself you can find a family owned computer shop to do it for you for about 60$


hope that helps


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Sep 24, 2008 8:37 pm 
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Bush Hunter
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Drassis wrote:
If its older than 5 years no its not worth it you need an overhaul.. Shop tigerdirect.com they got great deals you can get a solid machine for 800$ put otgether for you, or do like me and build your own, in that case you will need the following

tower w power supply 500w+ 50-150$ i like thermaltake
motherboard gow ith an sli board combo with atleast a dual processor100-250$
2+gigs of ram twinx i prefer100-150$
a solid graphics card geforce or ati 100-500$
hard drive 200+gig 75-150$
dvd/cd burner 30-100$

total 450 low end but still game awesome, i built my wifes last christmas for about 300 after rebates or you can go all out for 1300 and build a monster

you can buy most of it with rebates or on sale and save off the total rebates take a while to get back but worth it, shop around you can do it cheap. and if you dont want to build it yourself you can find a family owned computer shop to do it for you for about 60$


hope that helps


That is what I was planning on. I really am only using the case...and speakers. Thanks.

_________________
-08 KK Bright Silver Met.
Mopar front tow hooks,
Mopar Skids
Curt class III/IV hitch, and wireing
O.K. Offroad steel reciever shackle
Zune 80 gig for the tunes,
(Do Jeep slush mats count?)
Life size Amstaff terrier bobble head in rear seat :)


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Sep 24, 2008 8:50 pm 
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Computing? Gaming? Money no object?....

Buy a Mac and a Wii. Life doesn't get any better. :D

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Sep 24, 2008 9:06 pm 
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Bush Hunter
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Location: Raleigh, NC
I want a wii, for my wife. Her B-day next month, and she has wanted one for a while. I won, I got a 360, and bought her Tomb Raider for it. But now I want a wii, and wii fit. Set it up in front of the couch, and sit and watch her play. :shock: :lol:

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-08 KK Bright Silver Met.
Mopar front tow hooks,
Mopar Skids
Curt class III/IV hitch, and wireing
O.K. Offroad steel reciever shackle
Zune 80 gig for the tunes,
(Do Jeep slush mats count?)
Life size Amstaff terrier bobble head in rear seat :)


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Sep 24, 2008 9:07 pm 
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Why don't you just buy PS3 or XBox 360? Seriously ...

No, seriously ...

Why bother building a gaming rig these days? It can be done, but is it really worth it after all? You build a monster gaming rig and it's loud and sucks up half a kilowatt, and what do you get in the end?

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Sep 24, 2008 11:29 pm 
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MNKK wrote:
Drassis wrote:
If its older than 5 years no its not worth it you need an overhaul.. Shop tigerdirect.com they got great deals you can get a solid machine for 800$ put otgether for you, or do like me and build your own, in that case you will need the following

tower w power supply 500w+ 50-150$ i like thermaltake
motherboard gow ith an sli board combo with atleast a dual processor100-250$
2+gigs of ram twinx i prefer100-150$
a solid graphics card geforce or ati 100-500$
hard drive 200+gig 75-150$
dvd/cd burner 30-100$

total 450 low end but still game awesome, i built my wifes last christmas for about 300 after rebates or you can go all out for 1300 and build a monster

you can buy most of it with rebates or on sale and save off the total rebates take a while to get back but worth it, shop around you can do it cheap. and if you dont want to build it yourself you can find a family owned computer shop to do it for you for about 60$


hope that helps


That is what I was planning on. I really am only using the case...and speakers. Thanks.



Carefull with the cases some of the older ones dont fit newer motherboards, check compatibilty and oo the new motherboards and accessories suck juice im pushing a 650w power supply so make sure you get a big enough one, thats why i recomended a tower w power supply combo as usually you can get the two together at a discount.... good luck

OOO and one more thing if you dont have a copy of windows just buy an OEM version from tigerdirect.com their fairly cheap


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Thu Sep 25, 2008 12:00 am 
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CrossBones wrote:
Computing? Gaming? Money no object?....

Buy a Mac and a Wii. Life doesn't get any better. :D


:lol:
Well said. No issues on my Mac and Rock band is pretty stinking fun.

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Thu Sep 25, 2008 11:58 am 
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dirtykj wrote:
Why don't you just buy PS3 or XBox 360? Seriously ...

No, seriously ...

Why bother building a gaming rig these days? It can be done, but is it really worth it after all? You build a monster gaming rig and it's loud and sucks up half a kilowatt, and what do you get in the end?


I just built a new home PC/Gaming rig a few months ago. Not only is it good for playing games like Crysis at full res., but it's awesome for video editing. The big plus is that it's so quiet, you have to look at the power LED to see if it's on. I've already had a couple of people ask me to build them one that's just as quiet. Oh, and it's air cooled too!

Not too cheap, though. About $1500, including a 22" monitor and a 19" monitor.

MNKK, as others have said, don't bother trying to turn it into a gaming rig. Get a game console, unless you're into PC games (which I think are better than consoles). If you do decide to build a PC, DON'T GO CHEAP ON YOUR POWER SUPPLY!. It's one of the biggest mistakes people make.

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Thu Sep 25, 2008 2:28 pm 
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Edvalencia wrote:
I just built a new home PC/Gaming rig a few months ago. Not only is it good for playing games like Crysis at full res., but it's awesome for video editing. The big plus is that it's so quiet, you have to look at the power LED to see if it's on.


I know it's possible and I've built a few myself that are fanless :-) The HTPC in the living room has no fan except for the one in the power supply (and that's because Antec stopped making the excellent Phantom line). The CPU heatsink/heatpipe combo is copper Silverstone NT01-E, the video card is MSI fanless N95GT, and I'm running XBMC port for Linux on it at the moment (switching back and forth between mythtv as XBMC/Linux is still an early port effort, but is showing great promise).

I also signed up for boxee pre-alpha and I'm excited on that front too.

The only remaining puzzle that won't be solved any time soon is the encrypted content on cable TV. If everything I paid for (would pay for) is available on cable in unencrypted QAM I'd be in heaven, but no ....

The one I use in the bedroom is EPIA MII 10000 from a few years ago. It's mini-ITX, heatpipe to honking heatsink on the bottom (the entire bottom of the case is actually the heatsink :-)) and it's got wifi connection to the file server (boots linux from flash<->IDE adapter) so there's no moving part in that case at all. Best part is it uses around 28 watts idle. Not a gaming box though ...

About the games though .. there are games that are exclusive to the consoles and if you happen to be fans of that genre then you have no choice really. The PS3 for example has Gundam Crossfire that aren't available on the PC ... and the PS2 has entire line of the Ultraman Fighting Evolution games ...

Image

Image

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Last edited by dirtykj on Thu Sep 25, 2008 2:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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 Post subject: Media storage
PostPosted: Thu Sep 25, 2008 2:33 pm 
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I'm going to build a media PC like what you're saying, but it'd be easier to build it from scratch.

Motherboards - Pick your chip, AMD or Intel (I prefer AMD), find a board that fits it. You'll also need to decide if you want a NVIDIA or ATI graphics card.

CPU - Get the fastest one you can afford after you've bought all your other parts.

RAM - 2GB -4GB, the more high end gaming you do, the more RAM you'll need.

GPU - I'd go with one that has an HDMI output to hook directly to an HDTV at 1080p, or higher. You can add a second GPU to increase performance.

Sound Card - One with an optical and/or digital coax output to hook up to a surround sound receiver.

Hard drive - Storage space is the issue here. I'd go with a 1TB hard drive, you can always add more later. You'll need them if you're backing DVD's or Blu-Ray's to the hard drive.

Optical drive - Blu-Ray.

That's probably overkill for what you're thinking.

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Thu Sep 25, 2008 2:50 pm 
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My suggestion:

Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H
Loads of USB2.0 connectors, eSATA, IEEE-1394 port, SPDIF out, HDMI out, DVI out, VGA out. = $82.99
Image

Case: Silverstone Sugo SG01B-F = $89.99

Heatsink: Silverstone NT06-LITE = $51.99
Image

Video card: MSI N9500GT 512MB = $79.99

HD: WD5000KSRTL 500GB 16MB cache = $99.99
These drives are tough. We have many of them in RAID-5 configuration running 24/7 for about two years and none of them have failed so far.

Monitor: Acer P244WBii 24-inch 1920x1080 = $349.99
This baby does native 1920x1080p without scaling, two HDMI inputs
Image

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Thu Sep 25, 2008 11:37 pm 
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incubusmike wrote:
CrossBones wrote:
Computing? Gaming? Money no object?....

Buy a Mac and a Wii. Life doesn't get any better. :D


:lol:
Well said. No issues on my Mac and Rock band is pretty stinking fun.


And here I thought you were just smart and cool because of your tips & suggestions regarding KJ's! :lol: :lol:

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