To all the computer builders
Sun Aug 03, 2003 12:44 pm
I just wanted to drop a note to say thank you to all of the guys on this forum that have posted messages regarding building your own computer. MmmmGood, Camel, Buli, Cpl. Bingham, RcGlider, Residue, Bladerunner, Tool and everyone else (sorry if I forgot a name). Also thanks to the guys at the BF42 site (I will post there also).
My old system was a Dell P3 866mhz, 512mb pc133 ram, MSI TI 4200 64mb and Windows ME. The performance system-wide was pissing me off (in all my programs not just BF) so (after mem turbo and powerdrive didn't seem to help) I started looking at prices from companies like Dell, Gateway, Micron, Falcon, Alienware etc. The prices seemed a little high for what I wanted and all of the posts on this forum got me thinking that I could do it myself.
Based upon your comments I decided to build my own instead of buying a new comp for my upgrade. It took me about a week of reading articles in my spare time re: building the computer and which components to buy; and one day of building and downloading (probably more like 6-8 hours total). It has been a great experience and it saved me a lot of money.
I just finished building my system and it has an Antec Sonate case, ASUS P4C800 Motherboard with 800 mhz FSB, P4 3.0ghz, 1 Gig DDR 400 mhz, 120mb 7200 rpm Western Digital HDD with 8 mb cache (only $79.00 at Fry's with rebate!), same old graphics card, I canabalized old cd-rw, dvd and floppy, and I now have XP home. I logged on last night and the performance was incredible in BF and everything else I ran. I know that the majority of my old problems were probably windows device management issues, etc. but I felt it was time to upgrade anyway and this was a great experience. I made this system for less than half of what the big companies wanted (although I haven't purchased a new grahics card yet) so now I can buy a better monitor and still come out ahead. Also, on a system I built myself it will be easier to do small upgrades in the future.
Anyway, thank you to all of you for your great posts. It gave me the knowledge and confidence to take it on and it's been great. Tommy Boy I know you've expressed some concern about building your own system but don't. You can do it. With the experience you have in doing some upgrades (per your previous posts we seem to have had about the same experience re: motherboards, mem etc. upgrades) making the next step to building your own system is not that hard.
Thanks Guys!
Here's to you
My old system was a Dell P3 866mhz, 512mb pc133 ram, MSI TI 4200 64mb and Windows ME. The performance system-wide was pissing me off (in all my programs not just BF) so (after mem turbo and powerdrive didn't seem to help) I started looking at prices from companies like Dell, Gateway, Micron, Falcon, Alienware etc. The prices seemed a little high for what I wanted and all of the posts on this forum got me thinking that I could do it myself.
Based upon your comments I decided to build my own instead of buying a new comp for my upgrade. It took me about a week of reading articles in my spare time re: building the computer and which components to buy; and one day of building and downloading (probably more like 6-8 hours total). It has been a great experience and it saved me a lot of money.
I just finished building my system and it has an Antec Sonate case, ASUS P4C800 Motherboard with 800 mhz FSB, P4 3.0ghz, 1 Gig DDR 400 mhz, 120mb 7200 rpm Western Digital HDD with 8 mb cache (only $79.00 at Fry's with rebate!), same old graphics card, I canabalized old cd-rw, dvd and floppy, and I now have XP home. I logged on last night and the performance was incredible in BF and everything else I ran. I know that the majority of my old problems were probably windows device management issues, etc. but I felt it was time to upgrade anyway and this was a great experience. I made this system for less than half of what the big companies wanted (although I haven't purchased a new grahics card yet) so now I can buy a better monitor and still come out ahead. Also, on a system I built myself it will be easier to do small upgrades in the future.
Anyway, thank you to all of you for your great posts. It gave me the knowledge and confidence to take it on and it's been great. Tommy Boy I know you've expressed some concern about building your own system but don't. You can do it. With the experience you have in doing some upgrades (per your previous posts we seem to have had about the same experience re: motherboards, mem etc. upgrades) making the next step to building your own system is not that hard.
Thanks Guys!
Here's to you
Sun Aug 03, 2003 12:47 pm
Very cool!!! congrats on your sweet new system!!
Sun Aug 03, 2003 1:33 pm
Awesome system, sorry i missed ur post regarding building ur comp... i wouldve posted. But looks like u had enough help without me Congrats.
Sun Aug 03, 2003 2:55 pm
cool. I wish I could do that but im too poor.lol
Sun Aug 03, 2003 3:02 pm
Nightstalker, actually I just did a forum search and read all the previous threads that involved building one or contained opinions re: hardware. I am sure that you posted in some of those threads so thanks.
Thanks Camel, now maybe I'll learn how to shoot you down
Thanks Camel, now maybe I'll learn how to shoot you down
Sun Aug 03, 2003 5:14 pm
Congrats, man. Glad to see you didn't encounter any problems. When I built mine, I had a devil of a time getting everything to work... but I still wouldn't do it any other way... and since then have built two machines for work...
Sweet system, by the way (you bastard
)
Sweet system, by the way (you bastard
)
Sun Aug 03, 2003 5:51 pm
Originally posted by JAG
Thanks Camel, now maybe I'll learn how to shoot you down
only if I ever get broadband at the new house...
Sun Aug 03, 2003 7:08 pm
Congratulations JAG!
I always build my own boxes. It is the only way to make sure you get EXACTLY what u want. 
I always build my own boxes. It is the only way to make sure you get EXACTLY what u want.
Wed Aug 06, 2003 10:49 pm
congrats Jag. Custom built is really the only way to go. I bet you will never go back to a prebuilt system. I bet you felt a real sense of accomplishment after building your first pc. I know I did.
Custom built is really the only way to go. I bet you will never go back to a prebuilt system. I bet you felt a real sense of accomplishment after building your first pc. I know I did.
Wed Aug 06, 2003 10:52 pm
Nice new system JAG wish I had it
Thu Aug 07, 2003 12:13 am
Yeah man that sounds kick ass JAG, video card is a big part too, so just think, you're getting this performance you love with an older card. Just wait til you get a 128mb or 256mb card in there, you'll freak out at its performance. I hope my posts helped you alot, and it took me months of research cause I had a very tight budget but after all my studying i could get name brand parts for pretty cheap. 900 bucks built my system, which at the time gateway would have charged me 1600 for a compliant speed. not to mention I have 8 fans and one great looking case. Great news man, you know what else, you'll probabily take better care of it then your old PC too, cause now its not you're PC its your baby.
Thu Aug 07, 2003 12:19 am
very nice! good work on building your own PC. I built mine, and I was freaking out when I had no idea where to connect which cords and which leds and blah blah blah. but, i just took it slow, read the manuals, bought what I wanted, and voila! I was so excited and proud when I first fired up the PC and everything actually worked.
anyone who thinks they can't do it CAN do it. It's very easy to do, it just takes some time. I ONLY upgraded to play this game, so I can only image how pumped up JAG feels about now
anyone who thinks they can't do it CAN do it. It's very easy to do, it just takes some time. I ONLY upgraded to play this game, so I can only image how pumped up JAG feels about now
Thu Aug 07, 2003 1:43 am
Thanks for all the support guys. Yeah, building it has been great, it feels good to have accomplished it. You guys were a lot of help. The system is running sweet. BF is a totally different experience and I've learned a lot in the process.
Here's to you guys:beer:
Here's to you guys:beer:
Thu Aug 07, 2003 5:00 am
JAG, That's a sweet system:cool: I do that for a living so I always build my own and tweak it for pure performance. Now look at over clocking that puppy to like 4.0Ghz. With the right cooling that thing will be smoking fast. Another thing... Tweak the OS on it. Go here http://www.winguides.com for lot's of tweaks. The OS is very generic so it will work on a wide range of systems so you have to tell it what environment it's in. Things like moving the pagefile off the system partition and editing the registry to tell it to use the 512mb cache. It is set to 256 by default, Etc...
Then of course there are Cable/DSL tweaks that will enhance network performance. The list goes on. Remember, half the equasion is configuring the software as well as the hardware. Pure performance is what it's all about:D
Then of course there are Cable/DSL tweaks that will enhance network performance. The list goes on. Remember, half the equasion is configuring the software as well as the hardware. Pure performance is what it's all about:D
Thu Aug 07, 2003 8:13 am
It will be unlikely to get that to 4 Gig without a vapochill unit, but 3.6 should be easy. Just set the ram to 5:4 setting in your BIOS. Be sure to lock the AGP/PCI and up the Vcore just a tad.
Also, if you have good memory, you cna boost the power tot he ram and might get a decent OC out of them.
be sure that you have your ram in the correct position. I take it you have 2 sticks of 512 MB? Be sure they are int he SAME COLOR slots, which are not the slots right next to each other.
Also, if you have good memory, you cna boost the power tot he ram and might get a decent OC out of them.
be sure that you have your ram in the correct position. I take it you have 2 sticks of 512 MB? Be sure they are int he SAME COLOR slots, which are not the slots right next to each other.