Want to buy a new PC.

[Malsua 1,422]

Well now that we got the hard drive nailed down we only have to figure out the proccessor, motherboard, power supply, RAM, video card, the CD/DVD/Blue-Ray burner(s) and case

 

Seriously though, I dont think a SSD is going to be in his budget anyway. I wouldn't use anything less than 160GB for a boot drive, so with up to 2K to spend a $300-$400 SSD eats up to much of the budget IMO. For budget reasons I would buy a Velociraptor instead.

 

The only thing I have to say about Velociraptors is that they are noisy. I had a pair of them and after a month, I couldn't take it. They "thumped". The whirring was normal but if you did anything they sounded like someone was bowling inside of the hard drive. I sold both of them on Ebay, got back nearly as much as I had in them.

 

I'm in IT, I've had 15k drives in my media servers that weren't as loud.

 

Maybe I got a bad batch but they really annoyed me.

[Drew 4]

The only thing I have to say about Velociraptors is that they are noisy. I had a pair of them and after a month, I couldn't take it. They "thumped". The whirring was normal but if you did anything they sounded like someone was bowling inside of the hard drive. I sold both of them on Ebay, got back nearly as much as I had in them.

 

I'm in IT, I've had 15k drives in my media servers that weren't as loud.

 

Maybe I got a bad batch but they really annoyed me.

 

I cant hear mine over my 3 case fans going full speed I have had my raptor drive for about 2 years now and I guess pc noise is just something

I have gotten use to.

[BRN169 6]

The 8 year old P4 I just replaced had two 35GB 10k rpm Raptors (Raid0) spining since I built it in April '03. They are good drives, I'll give you they do sound like an F16 spooling up though...

 

Yes Raid0, I am as brave as my backups are good...

[Anselmo 87]

And you can unlock the other cores. My main pc is still and Anthony 2500 barton core oc;ed to 3200. Years and years of stability.

 

First amd was an amd k6-3 with the first level 3 cache. That was a beast back then, right before athlon came out in the slotted versions.

 

 

I have one of the dual cores that is supposed to able to unlock to quad cores but it wont work for me. Some cores OC better than others. Those Bartons did overclock real easy.

 

 

Surprised how many computer geeks we have here.

[tuktuk 16]

Lol ima retired computer geek. I used to spend all of my money on fast cars, fast computers and guns then I got married.... She made me keep one ( how many of you thought "whipped" rite now haha) , guess which one I kept however still got 2 desktops ( top of the line in their glory days), media center, server, 2 ps3z and 2 laptops in my home network. The next time I'm gonna upgrade when intel makes a chip with security build in

And I think SSD got their bad rap because of cheap 1gens back in the days. I don't have one cause they were way to expensive at the time I built my last rig but all of my friends that have one >>> love'em

[Dan 177]

I agree, the 1st gen SSD's were utter crap, and the OS wasn't designed for them either. Saw a poster said that his failed, thats a bummer, but could happen with any drive. I had a 2 month old 1TB Samsung HD completely sink on me. Backups are always important for your critical files!

 

As for 300-400$, noway. You can get an Agility 2 120GB (same as my boot/app drive I have in my main pc) for $185 after rebatie and free shipping from newegg. 120GB is plenty big enough for Windows and your basic desktop productivity apps. Once you start going to 160GB, thats when things hit the $300 mark.

 

I'm all about quiet PC's now. After years of dealing with screaming fans and jet engine WD velociraptor RAIDed drives... I've gone a complete 180. SSD, FDB 120mm fans, all on adjustable fan controllers for the case, power supply with temp/speed sensitive fan, and importantly a CPU heatsink with a PWM adjustable fan connected to the mobo (all of the good ones support PWM fan speed control now). My PC now has a nice slight whirr. When playing games or doing intensive computing... she'll wake up and the CPU and GPU come to life full speed to pull heat away. She'll get noisy then, but what are you going to do... needs to get that heat pulled out.

[BullzeyeNJ 104]

Man, you computer guys have my head spinning with all this tech talk. Is there a place in northern NJ that is reasonably priced and provides good service who will assemble a computer for you if you supply them with all the parts needed? Like a "computersmith" of sorts??

[BRN169 6]

Man, you computer guys have my head spinning with all this tech talk. Is there a place in northern NJ that is reasonably priced and provides good service who will assemble a computer for you if you supply them with all the parts needed? Like a "computersmith" of sorts??

All the places I knew are long gone, killed by the Neweggs and Best Buys... Tough niche market. Most that are tech savvy build themselves with parts from Newegg or Tiger and those that are not can't understand the cost of quality components and wind up at Best Buy or Dell.com.

[Malsua 1,422]

Man, you computer guys have my head spinning with all this tech talk. Is there a place in northern NJ that is reasonably priced and provides good service who will assemble a computer for you if you supply them with all the parts needed? Like a "computersmith" of sorts??

 

I do that for people all the time. I used to own my own computer business back in the early 90s but gave it up when I moved to NJ 15 years ago. Now it's just something I do for people on the side. PM me if you need something. I work for Ammo

[Dan 177]

Yup most local computer boutiques have dried up due to online retailers.

 

There are plenty of niche players out there who will custom build you a PC with select chosen parts, make it nice and neat, and provide excellent support. The thing is you will pay 50% the cost of building it yourself with the same parts. You'll get a custom build, with someone you can call if it goes bad, and a nice neat and clean build job for that markup. Up to you to decide if that's right for you.

 

Here's a good example at a highly rated custom build company : http://www.pugetsystems.com/

 

I do that for people all the time. I used to own my own computer business back in the early 90s but gave it up when I moved to NJ 15 years ago. Now it's just something I do for people on the side. PM me if you need something. I work for Ammo

 

Malsua's offer may be the best bet!

[Cylinder Head 22]

I do that for people all the time. I used to own my own computer business back in the early 90s but gave it up when I moved to NJ 15 years ago. Now it's just something I do for people on the side. PM me if you need something. I work for Ammo

 

I might be giving you a call when the time comes man. I have plenty of Fiocchi 9mm and I'll even let you run a few mags through the SR-15.

[Malsua 1,422]

I might be giving you a call when the time comes man. I have plenty of Fiocchi 9mm and I'll even let you run a few mags through the SR-15.

 

Sure, no problem. The offer never expires. I've been in the computer field over 25 years now, I don't suspect that will ever change.

[Krdshrk 3,877]

Yeah - I can help you build it as well, if you're closer to me. I've built PC's for over 10 years.

[JackDaWack 2,895]

Man, you computer guys have my head spinning with all this tech talk. Is there a place in northern NJ that is reasonably priced and provides good service who will assemble a computer for you if you supply them with all the parts needed? Like a "computersmith" of sorts??

Microcenter on rt 20 is pretty good. You can walk around pick out what ever you want and they will put it together. There prices are pretty good almost comparable to newegg.

I would however, find a reliable person to do it for you, you have no idea how many contractors are in the computer business. I build comps for friends, configure networks, fix them, u name it. On there end they get someone who knows what there doing, and is relatively available, and i can make a few bucks and keep my friends happy. Now at the same time, some of it is soo easy and basic. I mean all you need to do is plug this and that in, boot and install. The real issue comes up when you use componets that arent configured to work together, and it can be a hassle. I know it took me about 2 hours to figure out why my SATA drive wouldn't read when i did a build a few years ago, the bios wasn't set to read SATA, and you needed a bios program to read it, which would only read from a floppy disk . this was one of those boards that still had a Ribbon on it!man times are changing fast. I also had a friend buy a new router and xbox live kept dropping every 10mins and denying service, a few clicks of a button later and it was fixed.

 

Best way to reduce sound is to remove the mesh on the case that protects the fan, better airflow at reduced speeds. I think i have 7 fans in my computer total including the VGA and processor. I have two dedicated fans improve airflow over the pci-e area, but there smaller and run slow.. I burnt my last video card up playing crisis, that wont happen again!

[tuktuk 16]

I hear you I actually had to install window ac in my office / computer room cause all my hardware can provide heat to small Siberian town. Also have liquid cooling in the main rig for my QX9650 and crossfire. I'm pretty disappointed with it thou. Will have to find a better solution for heat issue.

[BRN169 6]

Looks like today is Newegg's day to piss me off... Started yesterday when I ordered the Venlociraptor drive at 4:30PM. Checked on-line this morning status was still "charged", WTF? So as the day progressed I get my first Newegg preferred account bill which is over $5,700! I called them up, apparently they double billed me. Then I notice that my billing date is the 24th, I requested a billing date between the 1st and 7th as I get paid once a month on the 26th. Add insult to injury I just checked the status of the drive and it still says "charged"! 28 hours after I placed the order and they still have not picked the order or shipped it!!! If that drive is not here by Friday I'm going to lose it.

[Malsua 1,422]

Looks like today is Newegg's day to piss me off... Started yesterday when I ordered the Venlociraptor drive at 4:30PM. Checked on-line this morning status was still "charged", WTF? So as the day progressed I get my first Newegg preferred account bill which is over $5,700! I called them up, apparently they double billed me. Then I notice that my billing date is the 24th, I requested a billing date between the 1st and 7th as I get paid once a month on the 26th. Add insult to injury I just checked the status of the drive and it still says "charged"! 28 hours after I placed the order and they still have not picked the order or shipped it!!! If that drive is not here by Friday I'm going to lose it.

 

If you don't get the order in and billed by 3pm Eastern, it doesn't ship until the following day, the status doesn't update until later in the evening most of the time.

 

I wish there was a way to get my total purchases from Newegg. My order history is 40 pages long.

[Dan 177]

I actually stopped using Newegg for major purchases.

 

"Newegg charges the appropriate state and/or local sales tax for any order shipping to California, New Jersey, and Tennessee. Sales tax for cell phone orders shipping to California and Tennessee are calculated before any instant savings are applied.

 

Tennessee and New Jersey residents are charged according to their state and/or local tax rate. Please note that the sales tax for New Jersey and Tennessee orders is calculated based upon the total price of the order, including shipping and handling."

[JackDaWack 2,895]

That's right i believe they have a wharehouse in edison, however, they will still ship u items from cali..

[Anselmo 87]

Sometimes my Newegg package is at my door before I even get the tracking number from them.

 

Chiefvalue.com is also Newegg. Why they have this other site is a mystery to me but sometimes chief has free shipping when Newegg doesn't.

 

Sometimes things get shipped from Cali and then it takes a week to arrive. It's only happened to me a few times.

 

My first build was a Celeron 266mhz Slot 1 chip. It looked like a video card, not the square chips with all the pins we use today.

 

Best Buy has the Corsair Hydro cooler on sale for $60. My case is set up for this thing. http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Corsair+-+Hydro+Series+H50+CPU+Cooler/9503771.p?id=1218115623560&skuId=9503771

[Drew 4]

I agree, the 1st gen SSD's were utter crap, and the OS wasn't designed for them either. Saw a poster said that his failed, thats a bummer, but could happen with any drive. I had a 2 month old 1TB Samsung HD completely sink on me. Backups are always important for your critical files!

 

As for 300-400$, noway. You can get an Agility 2 120GB (same as my boot/app drive I have in my main pc) for $185 after rebatie and free shipping from newegg. 120GB is plenty big enough for Windows and your basic desktop productivity apps. Once you start going to 160GB, thats when things hit the $300 mark.

 

I'm all about quiet PC's now. After years of dealing with screaming fans and jet engine WD velociraptor RAIDed drives... I've gone a complete 180. SSD, FDB 120mm fans, all on adjustable fan controllers for the case, power supply with temp/speed sensitive fan, and importantly a CPU heatsink with a PWM adjustable fan connected to the mobo (all of the good ones support PWM fan speed control now). My PC now has a nice slight whirr. When playing games or doing intensive computing... she'll wake up and the CPU and GPU come to life full speed to pull heat away. She'll get noisy then, but what are you going to do... needs to get that heat pulled out.

 

I factored $300 for a 160GB. Like I said I wouldn't go lower than 160GB for convenience reasons. If you think about it a 120gb drive will probably get formatted down to 110ish, then Win 7 is an average of 10gb plus office and any other programs you might want (nero, photoshop, etc.). Before you know it your down to 50GB of free space and the average FPS is around 7-10gb installed, so it limits how many games you can have installed at any one time. That's my gripe with that small of a drive.