Help on parts for new PC

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

Have just decided to build another PC, for gamming for the kids, so trying
to keep the cost down, but still get them a good performance Pc to run all
the games they want to play.

the list I have is below:

Part Quantity Price Total
AMD Sempron 2400+ CPU, (SDA2400DUT3D) 1 £34.75 £34.75
Abit NF7 V2.0 nForce2 Socket A MB 1 £41.87 £41.87
Radeon 9250 256MB AGP 1 £46.61 £46.61
Deluxworld M9512 4-1 Case kit 1 £37.59 £37.59
Viking 256mb DDR 400MHz Ram 1 £24.48 £24.48
Lieon 4x DVD +R/RW 1 £23.49 £23.49


Please give nay recommendations on any of the above components, especially
compatibility, and reliability if possible.

Will probably be using win 2000, I know this is soon going out of MS favour,
but can I use XP with my other Win 98/2K PCs, on a network?

many thanks in advice for any help you can all give.

Vaughn in UK

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

SteveH wrote:
> "Vaughn" <vaughn.lucock@ntlworld.com> wrote in message
> news:utOId.799$Kh.364@newsfe3-gui.ntli.net...
>
>>Have just decided to build another PC, for gamming for the kids, so trying
>>to keep the cost down, but still get them a good performance Pc to run all
>>the games they want to play.
>>
>>the list I have is below:
>>
>> Part Quantity Price Total
>> AMD Sempron 2400+ CPU, (SDA2400DUT3D) 1 £34.75 £34.75
>> Abit NF7 V2.0 nForce2 Socket A MB 1 £41.87 £41.87
>> Radeon 9250 256MB AGP 1 £46.61 £46.61
>> Deluxworld M9512 4-1 Case kit 1 £37.59 £37.59
>> Viking 256mb DDR 400MHz Ram 1 £24.48 £24.48
>> Lieon 4x DVD +R/RW 1 £23.49 £23.49
>>
>>
>>Please give nay recommendations on any of the above components, especially
>>compatibility, and reliability if possible.
>>
>>Will probably be using win 2000, I know this is soon going out of MS
>>favour,
>>but can I use XP with my other Win 98/2K PCs, on a network?
>>
>>many thanks in advice for any help you can all give.
>>
>>Vaughn in UK
>>
>
> If you are thinking of running XP on this spec, bear in mind that 256Mb is
> the bare minimum memory to run XP on. It runs better on 512Mb. Personally I
> would go for Crucial memory, for the guarantees etc.
> You shouldn't have any real problems getting XP to talk on your existing
> network.
> When you say 'gaming machine', you don't say what sort of games, but if you
> are talking about any of the major 3d games, like FarCry, HL2 or Doom3, then
> this PC is going to be towards the bottom end of the spec required to run
> them well.
>

Agreed, for a gaming machine I'd seriously consider going with 512Mb
memory and getting perhaps a 9600 Pro video card instead of the 9250.

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

"Vaughn" <vaughn.lucock@ntlworld.com> wrote:

>Have just decided to build another PC, for gamming for the kids, so
>trying to keep the cost down, but still get them a good performance
>Pc to run all the games they want to play.
>
>the list I have is below:
>
> Part Quantity Price Total
> AMD Sempron 2400+ CPU, (SDA2400DUT3D) 1 £34.75 £34.75
> Abit NF7 V2.0 nForce2 Socket A MB 1 £41.87 £41.87
> Radeon 9250 256MB AGP 1 £46.61 £46.61
> Deluxworld M9512 4-1 Case kit 1 £37.59 £37.59
> Viking 256mb DDR 400MHz Ram 1 £24.48 £24.48
> Lieon 4x DVD +R/RW 1 £23.49 £23.49
> [Windows 2000]
>
>Please give nay recommendations on any of the above components,

I would recommend 512MB of RAM and Windows XP.

Also. Get a disk manager and learn how to use it. Make incremental
backup copies of your Windows XP installation. It will make life
easier. I have heard, not confirmed, that a Maxtor utility called
MaxBlast will make backup copies of Windows XP partitions.
Successfully restoring the OS partition would be neat trick with
Windows XP. Doing that makes a world of difference using a personal
computer.

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

"BarryNL" <notall@coffeeshops.nl> wrote in message
news:41f3cbe9$0$154$e4fe514c@news.xs4all.nl...
> SteveH wrote:
> > "Vaughn" <vaughn.lucock@ntlworld.com> wrote in message
> > news:utOId.799$Kh.364@newsfe3-gui.ntli.net...
> >
> >>Have just decided to build another PC, for gamming for the kids, so
trying
> >>to keep the cost down, but still get them a good performance Pc to run
all
> >>the games they want to play.
> >>
> >>the list I have is below:
> >>
> >> Part Quantity Price Total
> >> AMD Sempron 2400+ CPU, (SDA2400DUT3D) 1 £34.75 £34.75
> >> Abit NF7 V2.0 nForce2 Socket A MB 1 £41.87 £41.87
> >> Radeon 9250 256MB AGP 1 £46.61 £46.61
> >> Deluxworld M9512 4-1 Case kit 1 £37.59 £37.59
> >> Viking 256mb DDR 400MHz Ram 1 £24.48 £24.48
> >> Lieon 4x DVD +R/RW 1 £23.49 £23.49
> >>
> >>
> >>Please give nay recommendations on any of the above components,
especially
> >>compatibility, and reliability if possible.
> >>
> >>Will probably be using win 2000, I know this is soon going out of MS
> >>favour,
> >>but can I use XP with my other Win 98/2K PCs, on a network?
> >>
> >>many thanks in advice for any help you can all give.
> >>
> >>Vaughn in UK
> >>
> >
> > If you are thinking of running XP on this spec, bear in mind that 256Mb
is
> > the bare minimum memory to run XP on. It runs better on 512Mb.
Personally I
> > would go for Crucial memory, for the guarantees etc.
> > You shouldn't have any real problems getting XP to talk on your existing
> > network.
> > When you say 'gaming machine', you don't say what sort of games, but if
you
> > are talking about any of the major 3d games, like FarCry, HL2 or Doom3,
then
> > this PC is going to be towards the bottom end of the spec required to
run
> > them well.
> >
>
> Agreed, for a gaming machine I'd seriously consider going with 512Mb
> memory and getting perhaps a 9600 Pro video card instead of the 9250.

Last comment on cost really applies here as with post above.

Again many thanks for the speedy reply

Vaughn

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

"John Doe" <jdoe@usenet.is.the.real.thing> wrote in message
news:Xns95E77F2BD2145wisdomfolly@151.164.30.44...
> "Vaughn" <vaughn.lucock@ntlworld.com> wrote:
>
> >Have just decided to build another PC, for gamming for the kids, so
> >trying to keep the cost down, but still get them a good performance
> >Pc to run all the games they want to play.
> >
> >the list I have is below:
> >
> > Part Quantity Price Total
> > AMD Sempron 2400+ CPU, (SDA2400DUT3D) 1 £34.75 £34.75
> > Abit NF7 V2.0 nForce2 Socket A MB 1 £41.87 £41.87
> > Radeon 9250 256MB AGP 1 £46.61 £46.61
> > Deluxworld M9512 4-1 Case kit 1 £37.59 £37.59
> > Viking 256mb DDR 400MHz Ram 1 £24.48 £24.48
> > Lieon 4x DVD +R/RW 1 £23.49 £23.49
> > [Windows 2000]
> >
> >Please give nay recommendations on any of the above components,
>
> I would recommend 512MB of RAM and Windows XP.
>
> Also. Get a disk manager and learn how to use it. Make incremental
> backup copies of your Windows XP installation. It will make life
> easier. I have heard, not confirmed, that a Maxtor utility called
> MaxBlast will make backup copies of Windows XP partitions.
> Successfully restoring the OS partition would be neat trick with
> Windows XP. Doing that makes a world of difference using a personal
> computer.
>
>
Again thanks for the advice, will defiantly look into one of these disk
managers. Any recommendations?

Again many thanks for the help

Vaughn

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

"Vaughn" <vaughn.lucock@ntlworld.com> wrote:
>"John Doe" <jdoe@usenet.is.the.real.thing> wrote in message

....

>> I would recommend 512MB of RAM and Windows XP.
>> Also. Get a disk manager and learn how to use it. Make
>> incremental backup copies of your Windows XP installation. It
>> will make life easier. I have heard, not confirmed, that a Maxtor
>> utility called MaxBlast will make backup copies of Windows XP
>> partitions. Successfully restoring the OS partition would be neat
>> trick with Windows XP. Doing that makes a world of difference
>> using a personal computer.
>
>Again thanks for the advice, will defiantly look into one of these
>disk managers.

It almost doubles the usefulness of the operating system, in my
opinion.

>Any recommendations?

That is a timely question. I use PartitionMagic 8 with Windows XP.
If you have < Windows XP, not recommended for stability reasons,
then PartitionMagic 4 or greater will work.

PartitionMagic is problematic in Windows XP for making backup copies
of the operating system partition. I have to boot to the original CD
in order to work the partitions. I also have to delete the contents
of BOOT.INI. It probably would be a mess for most people.

If I had any more trouble using PartitionMagic for copying/restoring
Windows XP partitions, I would definitely look for something else.

I think the storage group is the best resource for the question.

comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.storage

I just asked under the subject "Utility for copying/restoring
Windows XP partitions?"

Good luck and have fun.