Topic: More New Projects!

[Simon]

 I now have no less than three new projects in the pipeline!  One is a definite, and I'm just waiting for the parts to be delivered, and another two are definite maybe's.

Now, one of these definite maybe's wants a higher spec machine.  He wants a 2Gb CPU (Athlon 2600XP), a good motherboard (Asus A7N8X Deluxe, with Nvidia chip), a 120Gb Hard Drive (Maxtor), a good Graphics Card (I thought the Nvidia 128MB XFX TI4200 8X AGP Turbo), TFT Monitor, and he has said he wants 2Gb of RAM.  

Now, in my opinion, 2Gb of RAM is a little excessive for a home computer, not to mention bloody expensive!  Would anyone like to advise?

[Robotochan]

If they want to play games 1GB of 400 DDR is more than enough, currently I'm playing all the newest games with my Inno 3D Ti4200 128Mb and 512Mb SDRAM. They should spend less on the ram and more on the TFT to get a faster delay time  

[Simon]

I was thinking of suggesting 2 sticks of 512Mb DDR PC3200, which seems cheaper than a 1Gb DDR, which is only PC2100, but then I don't really know what the difference is.

[Adept]

1GB is more than enough IMO. Even I manage with only 512

Tell them to spend the extra on a faster CPU or better TFT like Robo says. There is a hell of a difference between a good TFT and a cheapy one

[Dack]

Few points if you are after parts for a power machine

1. Athlon then the deal in PC world is very good at the moment. They are doing the retail 2800+ Barton core chip for just over £100 (its £150 elsewhere).

2. Worth getting the memory from Crucial as for the small difference in price you will be getting branded product. A lot of problems I've had on build have come from cheaper memory. 512 should be enough but may be worth going for 1G as two 512 strips as some of the latest boards support dual channel memory (Nforce 2 chipset).

3. Graphics card - depends what he intends to do with the card. Games? Probably better off going down the Radeon route at the moment - the 9600 Pro is about the £100 mark whereas a 4200 about £90. The Radeon is a much faster card and also Direct X 9 whereas the 4200 is only 8.1.
http://www.tech-report.com/reviews/2003q2/radeon-9600pro/index.x?pg=5

4. TFT - theres a few good ones around - depends on the size/response rate etc. Again the specific type will depend on the use the machine is intended for.

Just my opinions of course.

[Robotochan]

Just a thought but isn't a 2500XP barton better than a 2600XP 333MHz?

[Dack]

Yep - in that the Barton cores are eminently overclockable and the 2600 you mentioned would have been the Thoroughbred core. The 2800 at PC world is a Barton core and so also overclockable (if the need arises) but is higher rated for about £10-£15 more than the 2500.

edit:just re-read and guess you might be refering to the first post where a 2600 is mentioned.

[Simon]

Thanks for the comments, folks - keep 'em coming!  

Dack, what do you reckon of CTX TFTs?  I was looking at this one, or maybe seeing if he wanted to stretch to the one underneath.  I've seen some good reviews of CTX monitors.

[Sandra]

My original monitor was an old 14 inch CTX Simon it seemed ok for me and was about 8 years old I think when I had that strange colour problem earlier in the year if you remember that far back, where the red colour would disappear untill I bashed the side  
It was ok for a few hours then it got to the point where I had to bash it every few minutes untill no matter how hard or frequently I did it the colour never came back  
I got a "new" monitor to replace it and a few weeks later a friend found a dry joint and fixed it for me and its still working ok on my no.2 PC  


Oops I just noticed that you said TFT, mine was obviously a CRT I dont think bashing a TFT would help so thats another plus for CRT, you can always bash them to extend their working life a little longer then get them fixed much cheaper than repairing a TFT  

[Dack]

Worth checking out the reviews of the TFT over at ebuyer.

Executive summary  

Only three reviews mind you.

There is a con with TFTs in that some misquote the response time and give it as a rise time instead of a rise AND fall time - it may take 15ms to switch on but if it takes 25ms to switch off then you tend to end up with bluring in games. Another 'trick' is to speed up the display by only using 262,000 colours, if the image does not use one of thos colours then the TFT gets it by blending two of the ones it knows about effectively doubling the refresh rate (which is why some 25ms TFTs had less ghosting than 15ms ones in a recent test).

With TFTs I'd say go for the fastest true refresh you can, 3 year on site and check reviews out of people who have got them. (Recently we got a load in work that were pretty much unusable - it's bad when my home equipment is better than my works).

[Simon]

Well, it's the 'client's' choice if he wants a TFT!  

OK, here's a little game for those with time on their hands.    You have up to £1200 to build a Power PC.   What would be your choice for the following?  I've put in my ideas.

Motherboard:  Asus A7N8X Deluxe (Nvidia Chip)
CPU:  Taking advice from above, Athlon 2800 Barton
Memory:  2 x 512 DDR PC3200
Hard Drive:  Maxtor Diamond Max 9 120Gb 7200rpm
Graphics Card:  128Mb ATI Radeon 9600
Monitor (TFT):  Possibly a CTX?
Printer:  Epson C62

Obviously this doesn't include all the other bits like the case, modem, DVD / CD drives etc.

[Dack]

That graphics card should be the Pro varient though

I'll try and have a look tomorrow evening - I just put a machine together for someone - basic

Athlon 2500, 512 of 2700 Ram, 120G Hitachi drive (with 8m cache), 4x DVD writer, Case, Radeon 9200, floppy, keyboard, mouse and it came to £459.54

If you are looking at TFT (+£300), Better graphics card (+£60), More memory (+£100), better motherboard (+£30), better processor (+£30) it works out at about £1000.

Plus the OS and any software of course

[Robotochan]

Meh all these people spending so much money on TFT's these days, nothing wrong with a good old CRT?   Does the job splendidly  

[Simon]

Can I ask where you did your shopping, Dack?  Was it an online retailer?  Oh, and you didn't say which motherboard you got.   Don't want much do I!  

[Dack]

Let me try and remember

Processor and graphics card were approx £120 from
www.komplett.co.uk
DVD writer £101 from
www.121cdr.co.uk
Hard drive £79 from local computer supplier (JLT)
Network card, modem £12 from ebuyer

And from a local computer fair
Case £22 (including 375w supply)
Floppy £5
Memory £66
Motherboard Asrock A7V8x-E (?) £42
Keyboard £3.50
Mouse £2.50

Those prices included postage

EDIT:
looking around one of the best TFTs for the price at the moment is probably the AOC one LM720A and that costs £279 inc VAT from www.pcnextday.co.uk alternatively the GNR173 from Ebuyer is pretty good (that was the one at £199 in Staples the other week)