Mostly: Classical

[Sexton O Blake]

So you're gonna buy a compter....

This last go followed the steps:
(A) CPU Price #1 (ballpark)
(B) Motherboard specs
(C) Case (relied on B)

A) My case this go around was central to my purchase - noise is a one problem - cooling is a second. No idea on what you plan on using your system for, but your drives are "old school". The new ones are all 7200 160GB and north of that. I have about 1x120GB at 5400 and 6x120 at 7200. This unit has 3x120GB plus a legacy 60GB 7200.

THe problem with the old case I had was - an 80mm intake fan was at the bottom - the drives were higher in the middle. Useless.

The Antec P160 case I bought - not only beautiful (which is not why I bot it) but had room for 2x120mm fans. One at the back - to suck out. I was going to add (haven't but still toying with it) a similar fan in front for intake - the air goes RIGHT OVER the drives. You can buy fans with "temperature sensors" which turn on or go faster when the system gets hotter. The case comes with firewire; usb and audio ports in the FRONT/TOP.

120mm fans are QUIETER and move MORE AIR than the crappy 80mm fans. WIth this case it comes with an intake filter plus you SLIDE the drives in from the side versus from inside.

I also use ROUND cables instead of flat - more air circulation. Water cooling? Enough headaches with the car - except when you leak in the car nothing goes wrong - in the puter? ??

http://www.bigfootcomputers.com
They have a good selection of stuff - I saw fans I liked but they are not there now - can't remember their names (can "think" harder if interested).

The headset plugged into the front (which automatically turns off the sound from the back) is worth the price of admission alone. I was sick and tired of dicking with the back leads.

B) My motherboard was an Asus P4P800DX - part of that reasoning was - when I bot end of Dec 2003 - not many had FIREWARE/USB ON THE MOTHERBOARD. You see most didn't have firewire; and if they did, they all only had firewire at the BACK (on the bloody floor). This one had it as pin outs (a 2nd firewire and #7/#8) USB too. So the CASE plugged into those - voila - USB/FIREWIRE at the front. Now I have my DV camera with a short cable I plug in when I need it. If I had a game controller - likewise it plugs into the front.

No point on dwelling on this MB (unless you ask) but I never got a sound card - uses the one built it - I am sort of sorry about that since there are design problems with the sound they provide - yes it works but poorly designed.

C) 64 bit.. I was toying with that but at the time XP 64bit I don't think was out; not even sure about now the pros and cons. it isn't mainstream so I say "what is the point for the premium?". I have read the AMD was better. I think the 64BIT stuff still runs the 32BIT but "faster"? Part of me thinks until they are ALL 64BIT, you are paying for the number "64" than any performance gains you will get. But I haven't read anything since December so I am no authority..

If interested.. (to read and change your mind 1000 times)
http://www.Anandtech.com
and
http://www.SharkeyExtreme.com
Sharkey actually had buying guides - not to follow but just to "see". They talk about problems with motherboards (trying to install the AGP Video card is tight on this one...)

D) Mainstream DVD media in these parts (and I am talking 50 DVD's for $38CDN at SAMS Club - is ONLY 4X. Not 8x; 12x or 16x and not dual layered. Most stores still sell this 4X shit media for over $1/disc. Haven't seen anything faster.

Yes I toyed with all that stuff.. I figure I will wait a couple of months and get whatever I can at Costco -- easy to return within a year plus should be pretty cheap -- 8X single layer is enough for me (a $40 4X dvd writer would be better but..)

If the stock market is a giant ponzi scheme, the CD/DVD market is the creme de la creme of scams.

I had a Samsung COMBO DVD ROM; CD-WRITER .. yes it is ok now but the computer store I got my machine said there are a lot of problem with "SAMSUNG COMBOS" or "COMBOS" (can't remember which). Although I would expect things are far better today, I think ALL optical devices (CD PLAYER; DVD Player; Computer CD/DVD gear) are shit. You can burn a CD and then read it back and find it fails all over the place. I now use a program called "Beyond Compare" from http://www.scootersoftware.com to always do a byte-to-byte comparison. Safe than sorry. I may have a few hundred CDs but at least I tested once burned. Also I have added PAR2 for "just in case of an emergency".

E) My video is ATI 9600 All-In-StillWonderhowitworksfromATI 128MB. So I can watch/record TV or listen to the radio with the FM tuner.

F) I have partitioned my C drive with exactly 30GB. I use about 10GB. THe rest is another "logical" drive. Why? So I can use NORTON GHOST to backup the entire C drive -- you can't specify directories with Ghost - but you can choose LOGICAL drives. All my apps go on C; data elsewhere. Doing this ensures that everything is "C" based for fast recovery. I use to have some things on C and D but then when you try to restore, there was a mismatch. I am suppose to ghost monthly.. makes about 6GB backups.

I am a HUGE fan of DISK TO DISK cross over backups. ie I backup specific "D" data to physical drive on "Q". Also to another SERVER. I use "rar" (dos version of WINRAR) to perform my nighly backups. Simple text filelist and boom.. Never bother with "entire computer" backups. How would it fit? You gonna pay $20CDN for a high capacity 9GB DVD? Assuming you are 50% full and can compress up to 80% - (big assumption) - that is still 16GB to offload. As soon as you have a movie or MP3 - forget it.

I had problems on C... I had a ghost bootup on my CD - booted my CD and was able to recover my whole C in about 10-15 minutes. The whole process from "first problem"; trying to solve and to "back 100% working" (except any differences between last backup) was probably about 2hours max (versus MANY HOURS to DAYS).
EDIT; I had a copy of the ghost app on my CD but the ghost image was on another DRIVE - you can also (haven't tried) setup recovery from a network.



Anyways -- you have to ELIMINATE what you don't need or care for. To me I HAD to have firewire and WANTED it at the front. I wanted a case with great circulation/cooling. When I looked at these points the offerings narrowed quite considerably. I have had ZERO regrets with this system (save the sound - but the theory there was - I could always add an Audigy from Costco - price will be cheaper etc) - but to this date I have lived with it.
EDIT: Very quiet - the sensors in the computer - I have a an LED on the front showing "50/32" degrees Celsius - when I play HALO 50 turns north to about 58. So I do want to add the 120mm intake fan.


I have come to realize, esp as I have gotten older, that computers are shit - like most stocks - like cars - but depreciate far faster. Like within a day after I placed the order on my P3-500 - something new was out and available - a day late!! That was a funny time.. I ordered a MATROX video card and MAXTOR harddrive. Talk about anagrams.

(well I suppose Stocks do depreciate the fastest.. but .. quick and the dead).

Cheers!
B