quick friendly advice needed

bobk

MSI K7D Master-L Motherboard
1 x AMD Athlon XP 1700+ CPU
512MB PC2100 DDR DIMM
Creative G-Force 2 GTS 64MB AGB Video Card
Dual Intel Ethernet Pro PCI LAN Adapter
Compaq 66Mhz/64bit Fibre Channel Adapter
2 x Maxtor 40GB IDE Hard Disk Drives
2 x Seagate 40GB Fibre Channel Hard Disk Drives
Adaptec 2940 SCSI Controller
Archive 4326 DDS3 SCSI Tape Drive
ACER 16x DVD-ROM Drive
1.44 Floppy Disk Drive
Keyboard
Mouse

is this worth €500 ?

thanks in advance

Bob

BadCharlie

If i was buying that computer i would not go for it. Its kind of out of date i think but then it all depends on what you going to use it for. But if you are selling that computer for that price well then take it would be a good price to be getting.

Well thats just what i think.

bobk

I'm thinking of buying it for that.

what do you think it is worth?

and offhand do you think it's easily upgradable?

Col_Loki

Erm that motherboard is a dual CPU motherboard, its normally around €200 to buy!! Why on earth someone would have a single XP processor in it i dont know.

The main disadvantages with that system is limited FSB (max is normally 150mhz - 300mhz when double pumped - when overclocked). This means it wont perform aswell in games, but put a decent graphics card and it wont be too bad (still wont compare to a single CPU with the same card).
Advantages come from very fast multitasking, you can have one CPU encoding and say play a game on the other while you wait.... which is nice.

This system is in need of 2x MP processors, or if you want to try a mod you can get two XP processors and join a bridge to make them MP compatible (80% success rate roughly).

The board has the first two memory banks which will take normal Ram, but if you want to fill the others you will need ECC, registered memory.

It depends on what you want the system for?? Gaming then definetly a single CPU is better, if not then there are alot of advantages to dual CPU's (provided you are going to pop them in).

bobk

Main uses for the pc would be music and graphics.
Gaming will be important, but not initially.

Can only really afford €500 now, but will hope to upgrade a bit over the coming weeks.

COL_LOKI thanks for the tips, doy you think it's a good price?

could i do better for the price anywhere else?

Col_Loki

If your using it for rendering and the like then a dual system is a good way to go. Its also fast multitasking. With only one CPU installed it will act as the same as a single CPU machine.

The main advantage of this system is the fact that it has a server board installed and you can add dual CPU's. This taken into account i dont think its worth €500, especially in your case. If you were to build a new system you would get an overall better spec with newer technology (im taking into account you want to use it for games, graphics, etc). The graphics is very weak on that system , the FSB is low, it only comes with one CPU (which by the way you will have to mod to make it work with dual cpu's).

The price's of everythin has dropped so much over the last while and specs have increased.

€400-450(give or take) and id get that system as you have extra left over to make it dual CPU (or get a new GFX card)....... other than that running it on 1 CPU your system wont be a good performer and will be beat in almost all cases by a single rig. It does have SCSI controllers, and tape backup - its a server as apposed to a rendering machine/gaming etc. It has advantages in area's that prob wont be an advantage to you. It would be nice to have dual CPU's (was so close to gettin this sorta setup mmyself).

Give me a few mins and ill try to put something toghter spec wise.......

Col_Loki

Ok trying to keep the spec up, i went over budget a little.........

Kühler SA Sharkoon CUS2 Lownoise € 9,98
CDR IDE LG GCE-8525B 52x/32x/52x bulk € 35,98
DVD IDE LG GDR-8161B/8162B 16x48x Bulk € 26,39
HDD IDE 160GB Samsung SP1614N 8MB € 101,40
MB ATX SA Abit NF7-S V2.0 nForce2 € 93,80
DDR PC400 256MB TwinMOS/Winbond CH5 € 49,90
CPU AMD Athlon XP 2500+ Tray € 69,94
128MB Sapphire Radeon 9200 DVI RTL € 69,90


Sub-Total: € 457,29 (www.jes-computer.de - add around €20 for delivery)


And pick up a cheap case (jaguar have em from €40 with PSU) . String points would be CPU performance, overclockability, it has DVD and CDRW, Big 160gb hard disk, great motherboard with very good sound , USB2.0, Firewire etc.



Qty Your Price Total
Chieftec Dragon Medium Tower Silver Case w/360W power, w/USB/Firewire

- Surcharges 0 per item will be added.
Varenr.: 114494
Lagerstatus: 5 stocked 95.59 95.59

---

Sony DVD Drive 16x/40x IDE Black OEM

- Surcharges 0 per item will be added.
Varenr.: 121052
Lagerstatus: 10 stocked 38.26 38.26

---

AMD Athlon XP2500+ 1.833 GHz Socket A 333MHz, 512KB Barton, OEM

- Surcharges 0 per item will be added.
Varenr.: 116244
Lagerstatus: 20-49 stocked 75 75

---

Spire CPU-Fan WhisperRock IV Socket A SPA04B4 For AMD up to XP 3200 Mhz

- Surcharges 0 per item will be added.
Varenr.: 119402
Lagerstatus: 100+ stocked 10.77 10.77

---

Western Digital Caviar 160GB IDE ATA/100 Special Edition 8MB cache 7200RPM

- Surcharges 0 per item will be added.
Varenr.: 116430
Lagerstatus: 50-99 stocked 116.27 116.27

---

Abit NF7 V2.0 Mainboard for Socket A DDR nForce2SPP/MCP/Ultra 400,ATX,USB2.0,LAN

- Surcharges 0 per item will be added.
Varenr.: 118267
Lagerstatus: 8 stocked 78.65 78.65

---

Corsair Value S. PC3200 DDR-DIMM 256MB Unbuffered, Non-parity, 32Megx64, CL2.5

- Surcharges 0 per item will be added.
Varenr.: 117209
Lagerstatus: 20-49 stocked 59.29 59.29

---

PowerColor Radeon 9600 PRO EZ 128MB AGP, ATI 9600PRO, DVI-I, TV-Out, Retail

- Surcharges 0 per item will be added.
Varenr.: 120318
Lagerstatus: 9 stocked 129.47 129.47

---

Surcharges: 0
Your Ref: Total: 603.3 (www.komplett.ie - add €10 for delivery)


Strong points.... very good graphics, big hard disk, good CPU, very overclockable (Xp3200+ shouldnt be a problem), good case & PSU, good sound, good motherboard.... all quality parts basicly.


If €500 is your exact limit then its not hard to get them down to that, this is just to give you an idea.

Loki

bobk

Wow that's great , thanks COL_LOKI...

It seems to make more sense to build my own

I could also save money with some bits and pieces that I already have such as dvd drive, firewire card, sound card, etc. and buy more ram, etc.


Thanks again for all your help

Bob

Col_Loki

Definetly for what you want it is wiser to build your own. Its not that hard and people around here are more than happy to help with any problems you might find.

You will find far cheaper prices online than say peats , maplins etc so its prob better to order over the net. Have a look at some specs, anything your confused about just pop up a post.
Chances are your existing Ram wont be any use as its prob SDRAM which is much slower than DDR and you would have a performance hit by using it. Ram prices are very high at the min its sorta a bad time to buy. It moves up and down so much, a month or two ago it was €60 for 512mb now its that for 256mb......lol its crazy, mabye get 256mb first and then another 256/512 when price fall again!!

AMD is probably the best way to go if your on a budget. The onboard sound of most of the new motherboards will be better than alot of older soundcards out there, you would need an Audigy to show any improvement over the sound on the Abit NF7-S (great onboard surround sound), the NF7 (non -S) hasent as good sound but its still very decent.

Graphics card wise dont be fooled by the 256mb cards, 128mb is totally enough and you wont see any increase in performance (in fact it will prob be slower) over 128mb. There are really bad cards and good cards out there. Generally stay away from Fx5200, Fx5600 as there bad choices. If possible get a 9600 (or the 9600pro which is a faster version) if you intend on playing games on a performance level. ATI are the best at the min due to there DX9 implementation. They also have SE cards like 9600se , there much slower than a regular 9600 .

Pc3200 Ram is the same price as Pc2700. Pc3200 will run at Pc2700/Pc2100 aswell with no problems so get the faster stuff ....... comes in handy if you want to overclock, or upgrade.

The Xp2500+ is pretty easy to set up as an Xp3200+, nice performance increase for free..... recomended chip. Works best with Pc3200 Ram .

There just a few tips, hope its been some help .......

PS some links,

www.jes-computer.de (cheapest place for parts and good company)
www.komplett.ie (decent company, good prices)
www.elara.ie (nice cases, good company - more expensive than other 2)
www.xcase.co.uk (biggest range of cases ive seen)
www.hitide.ie (performance shop, great overclocking / silence gear)
www.pc-look.com (nice flashy stuff)
www.computerbits.ie (best customer service ive ever had, some good stuff)
www.blankdiscshop.co.uk (cheapest place to get media - cd-r's etc, buy in bulk shipping is expensive)