New computer questions

[djh3]

Well my trusty ole home built bit the dust today. I know its been 7yr or more since I rebuilt it. I suspect the MOB it gone from the troubleshooting I have done. Its an AMD Athlon 64x2 Looked for a replacment MOB and heck they want $50 or more for one. I'm pretty sure thats the problem but do I want to bet $50 on it? Plus its old tech and has XP which is going to be unsupported here in a matter of weeks.

So toady I looked at different ready to go PC from tiger direct. Trouble for me is I have not kept up with the processors so I am not sure whats an Ok processor and whats going to be just about as antique as my current one. Plus the machine has XP on it now and support goes away for it in a few weeks. So I have been looking today at desktops with everything from a AMD a-6 series to the FX 4100 and FX 6100 CPU. Part of the problem is the power supplies are so dang small they dont leave you any room to add a decent video card. Maost come with like 220 maybe 300w psu. I have an nvidia GSO 9600 I would like to reuse. I would like to satay under $400 but it sure dont look like that is going to happen.

Edited March 6, 2014 by djh3

[Guest tx2sturgis]

I like the Zotac and Fit-PC line if your going to stay under $400-$600 or so.

 

You can get these with or without operating systems and hard drives/RAM modules.

 

I prefer the Intel i3,i5,i7 cpu's....they just handle video so much better than the AMD or Intel Atoms...

 

http://www.zotacusa.com/zbox-id88-id89

 

 

http://www.fit-pc.com

Edited March 6, 2014 by tx2sturgis

[syscrusher]

And $50 sounds pretty cheap to fix the PC if that'll work.

 

I'd use the Passmark website to gauge CPU and even built system performance in buying a new box. There's huge differences in the same series of CPUs and also big differences once a CPU is put into a system. That's if you want to be fast. You can handle fast, can't you? Try Newegg.

[LilBeaver]

A build for under $400 without having to replace a video card? Easy.

 

What you plan (and want) to do with your computer will allow the range to vary quite a bit. If you have a video card that you are happy with (I assume it is PCIe x 16), a case and likely a hard drive -- then all that is left is a motherboard, processor and some ram. Even if you need to update the PSU, $400 for a PSU, motherboard, CPU and ram is easily doable.

 

As for replace your current motherboard -- If it is over 2 years old, I would not even consider it. In your case 7+ years, Come on man, join this century!

 

You can find 'kits' that come with the motherboard, cpu and ram -- sometimes those are decent deals, sometimes they are not.

 

So if you can answer some basic questions about what you plan to do with it we can much better suggest or steer you in a decent direction -- be it a handly little Zbox-like machine, as Tx2Sturgis suggested (which is fine for standard stuff like surfing the web, looking at pictures, watching movies, checking email and lots of other normal day-to-day tasks) or something with a little more horse power if you have other needs.

 

####

For what it is worth, I do know my way around the inside of a computer as part of my job involves designing, building and utilizing fairly customized equipment for data acquisition and analysis. Unfortunately, none of what I need [as an end product] can be found at your local computer/electronics/hardware store...

[RandyR]

The intel I3's are relatively cheap these days. What you didn't mention was what O/S you are running?

 

7 years is long enough to worry about compatibility between hw & sw. and make sure the interface for disks and any other cards are supported. Card slots are mostly PCI.

 

Frys.com ships most stuff for free. I bought a complete new intel I3 system for my hamshack for $3xx including Windows v8.1. Frys comes out with a new 'sale' list every friday. When I need something, I watch their sale items until what I want is offered. It usually doesn't take too long. They frequently have blow-out prices on discontinued stuff if you want to buy components and build up your own system

Edited March 6, 2014 by RandyR

[GAWildKat]

Well my trusty ole home built bit the dust today. I know its been 7yr or more since I rebuilt it. I suspect the MOB it gone from the troubleshooting I have done. Its an AMD Athlon 64x2 Looked for a replacment MOB and heck they want $50 or more for one. I'm pretty sure thats the problem but do I want to bet $50 on it? Plus its old tech and has XP which is going to be unsupported here in a matter of weeks.

So toady I looked at different ready to go PC from tiger direct. Trouble for me is I have not kept up with the processors so I am not sure whats an Ok processor and whats going to be just about as antique as my current one. Plus the machine has XP on it now and support goes away for it in a few weeks. So I have been looking today at desktops with everything from a AMD a-6 series to the FX 4100 and FX 6100 CPU. Part of the problem is the power supplies are so dang small they dont leave you any room to add a decent video card. Maost come with like 220 maybe 300w psu. I have an nvidia GSO 9600 I would like to reuse. I would like to satay under $400 but it sure dont look like that is going to happen.

 

 

Could you PM me everything you want your new pc to do? I build them for a hobby/ side job I could show you a few builds you could do yourself if you want.

 

Tricia

[djh3]

Well kind of in a jam and need PC back up and running. I have a buddy that build them for alot of our online racing group. Current machine was an AMD 64x2 dont know series. Had ddr2 ram. I have a 500w PSU in it and a nvidia gso9600 pci express card I would like to keep. It has worked well and I think its new enough to do a decent job. I'm kind of an AMD fan. The last 6 PC I have built ground up ahve been AMD. Well 2 ground up, new case etc. Everything elses has been more of a refurb kind of gig like this is. MOB goes out and replace what you ahve to to get running. Sometimes is MOB and CPU sometimes its alot of stuff but the case and drives.

I have 1 SATA HDD and one IDE HDD. The optical drives probably need to go as they are IDE or whatever ribbion connections and have adapters on them to work. Probably best to just s#i* can them and get one good new dvd/cd write drive. Current case is a mid tower atx I think aprox 18x7.5x18 MOB is 10x8.5 aprox so mini atx? I dont know been a long time since I built it. OS is XP so Its out of service here in a couple weeks. But not sure I want the hassel of learnig the windows 8 managery. But Dont want to buy win 7 and it goes out of date here in about 2 yrs as far as support.

Kind of been researching CPU today. The Phenom 2 x4 look good but pricey as are the FX 6 CPU. I do some online racing on Nascar 2003 (old game I know but its a good group of fellows) some paint and graphics use with photo shop CS and anothe rolder version of a photo shop. Other than that mostly e-mails etc. No war craft, Call of duty or that stuff.

[GAWildKat]

Well kind of in a jam and need PC back up and running. I have a buddy that build them for alot of our online racing group. Current machine was an AMD 64x2 dont know series. Had ddr2 ram. I have a 500w PSU in it and a nvidia gso9600 pci express card I would like to keep. It has worked well and I think its new enough to do a decent job. I'm kind of an AMD fan. The last 6 PC I have built ground up ahve been AMD. Well 2 ground up, new case etc. Everything elses has been more of a refurb kind of gig like this is. MOB goes out and replace what you ahve to to get running. Sometimes is MOB and CPU sometimes its alot of stuff but the case and drives.

I have 1 SATA HDD and one IDE HDD. The optical drives probably need to go as they are IDE or whatever ribbion connections and have adapters on them to work. Probably best to just s#i* can them and get one good new dvd/cd write drive. Current case is a mid tower atx I think aprox 18x7.5x18 MOB is 10x8.5 aprox so mini atx? I dont know been a long time since I built it. OS is XP so Its out of service here in a couple weeks. But not sure I want the hassel of learnig the windows 8 managery. But Dont want to buy win 7 and it goes out of date here in about 2 yrs as far as support.

Kind of been researching CPU today. The Phenom 2 x4 look good but pricey as are the FX 6 CPU. I do some online racing on Nascar 2003 (old game I know but its a good group of fellows) some paint and graphics use with photo shop CS and anothe rolder version of a photo shop. Other than that mostly e-mails etc. No war craft, Call of duty or that stuff.

 

 

I am an AMD fan as well, I have an AM2 2.1 Dual core proc that runs my media server that I bought new in 2007, still runs great. However for the last yr AMD hasn't been strong in the processor market. When my husband asked me to build him a new system that fit his needs for both school and work I went intel i7. His entire system was an upgrade, $1800. But as a computer programmer who also games he had very specific needs.

 

Although he reused his power supply I never recommend it after a hardware system failure.

 

I built a system on newegg for anyone wanting to build a system. If you cant find the venturerider build in the public wish lists, let me know and I'll email the link.

[RandyR]

http://www.frys.com/product/8020854?site=frysecampaign1+date:030714+disc:LENOVO+H530-57323783+Desktop+PC

 

complete new Intel I3 with everything inc Win 8.1 $398 shipped.

 

btw, I'm able to run 90% of old dos & windows x programs under Win 8.1

 

I bought a Lenovo I7 18 months ago from Frys. Thats what I'm using now.

[djh3]

Well spent less than buying a complete system. I ended up buying Win 7 64 bit (whatever that means) I would list it all here but its out in the other room and I'm being lazy rite now. AMD fx 4300 cpu, asus MOB, 8gb ram, 1tb hdd and a cd/dvd-rw optical drive. Now to get it up and running in next couple days.

[djh3]

OH my and the hits just keep on comming. Got everything assymebled tonight. Turn power on and go to set up BIOS for boot sequence etc. NOTHING Black screen no bios, no writing no nothing. REset CMOS I even pulled the battery out. RAM in and out swapped arround one stick in changed slots all that. Still nothing. It beeps once, then a pause then 2 quick beeps. So far the best I can find out from the internet this is indicationg bad RAM. Its brand new 2 sticks of good quality Kingston. I find it hard to belive you would get 2 bad pieces. To add to the misery tech support comes up with a message about "due to severe weather" they are closed. To go to the store to swap is 2hr one way, even onthe RSV this could get expensive now.

[greg_in_london]

It's all hard to say. I may not be the person to comment as a friend twisted my arm into changing the fan/cooler on a netbook and now that won't boot (maybe another thread coming...), but if you can post the motherboard spec/part number we could check that the RAM is compatible - Kingston is usually pretty reliable (did it come unopened in the plastic packaging ?) though where a MOB has more than one spec, sometimes they guess the wrong one. (I had this with Crucial a few months back). And post the spec of the RAM too.

 

I'm presuming that you're posting on a phone or something now, so searching for yourself is a bit of a pain.

[LilBeaver]

OH my and the hits just keep on comming. Got everything assymebled tonight. Turn power on and go to set up BIOS for boot sequence etc. NOTHING Black screen no bios, no writing no nothing. REset CMOS I even pulled the battery out. RAM in and out swapped arround one stick in changed slots all that. Still nothing. It beeps once, then a pause then 2 quick beeps. So far the best I can find out from the internet this is indicationg bad RAM. Its brand new 2 sticks of good quality Kingston. I find it hard to belive you would get 2 bad pieces. To add to the misery tech support comes up with a message about "due to severe weather" they are closed. To go to the store to swap is 2hr one way, even onthe RSV this could get expensive now.

 

Are you trying to use the on board video or your dedicated card?

If you have your card in, I would say pull it out and do your initial setup with the onboard video -- although there really should not be much, if anything, in the bios you need to change.

As for the ram -- as the beep codes usually are pretty informative, I would say triple check the fine print in the manual to make sure you have the ram installed in the correct slots for the proper mode (i.e. dual channel, etc etc).

On the newer ASUS boards, there is a button on the motherboard that says something like "Ram OK!" or something like that -- find that, press and hold for a few seconds -- the lights will flash and it fires up the bios long enough to check and set the proper timing and specs for the ram.

Again, consult your manual for the specifics, but these are some thoughts off the top of my head for your no POST and beep code issues on an ASUS motherboard.

 

Do not be too discouraged yet, new hardware can be a little frustrating but the manuals are there for a reason, take your time, the details DO count here and with computer hardware, typically 'close enough' does not count.

 

[djh3]

Well sure enough the MOB was DOA. Called ASUS and the guy confimed it. Sometimes I hate it when I'm rite. So hop on the bike 2hr up to the nearest tiger direct, swap board back on bike to come home. I sure have spent alot of time doing nothing on this thing.

When I got home put it all together and slowly plug things in and got up and running. One problem I have is my HDD from the old PC is an IDE drive. The drive has all my pics, internet favorites stuff like that on it. I have a couple of those plug in the IDE slot adapters but the computer will not boot up if that drive is installed. I have the jumper set on it so it is suposed to be a slave drive now. Dont know how I'm going to acces this drive so I can salvage this stuff. Any ideas folks?

[GAWildKat]

Did you set the jumper on both the drive and the board to slave? I'm going to make the assumption you know to not use the cable select jumper setting on the drive. If I had a working spare IDE drive to send to you, I'd see if it was the IDE port on the board was bad. I personally stopped using Tigerdirect about 4 yrs ago, their prices are often higher than other online retailers, and after they merged with CompUSA a few yrs ago, service went down hill. I prefer newegg.com and I usually have my parts within 3 days of order, never had a part DOA from newegg. I think my nearest Tigerdirect retail location is in FL, and when I've made calls to customer service I've gotten someone spanish speaking that has to swap to english to speak to me. If you were closer, I'd say bring the system over and I'd test it for you. Good luck.

[jonesy]

On that old HD, there is a adapter you can buy that enables you to connect a HD to a usb port and access it as a external HD, then drag photos, docs, music and such to the pc c: drive. thus saving important stuff. about $15.

[LilBeaver]

Something like this will do what you are looking to do:

 

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Rosewill-RX35-AT-IU-BLK-Aluminum-Enclosure/dp/B004BU6ITW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1394456333&sr=8-1&keywords=ide+enclosure]Amazon.com: Rosewill RX35-AT-IU BLK Aluminum 3.5-Inch IDE to USB 2.0 External Enclosure (Black): Computers & Accessories@@AMEPARAM@@http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41lkWns6KsL.@@AMEPARAM@@41lkWns6KsL[/ame]

 

If you are looking for something to use more than a few times I would suggest a reputable company such as Vantec.

 

 

Here is a setup to connect the drive only, without the enclosure:

[ame=http://www.amazon.com/Vantec-CB-ISATAU2-Supports-2-5-Inch-5-25-Inch/dp/B000J01I1G/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1394456446&sr=8-10&keywords=ide+enclosure]Amazon.com : Vantec CB-ISATAU2 SATA/IDE to USB 2.0 Adapter Supports 2.5-Inch, 3.5-Inch, 5.25-Inch Hard Disk Drives (Black) : Electronics Cable Adapters : Electronics@@AMEPARAM@@http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41YdcnUvX7L.@@AMEPARAM@@41YdcnUvX7L[/ame]