n0lxx

Phenom II Gaming Build? Maybe... Under $1,400.00!

2009-01-08T13:16:00Z

Well, I've already started to play! Since the AMD Phenom II CPUs are starting to come out, I decided (for fun) to see what a fairly solid system I could put together. In parts, I've over built it for the up coming Windows 7 64-BIT.

All the prices are current as of 7:30AM CST on the 8th of January, 2009.

CASE: Antec Nine Hundred $99.99

POWER SUPPLY: PC Power & Cooling S75QB 750W $134.99

MOTHERBOARD: GIGABYTE GA-MA790GP-DS4H $138.99

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 940 Black Edition $275.00

CPU FAN: XIGMATEK HDT-S1283 $36.99

MEMORY: (2) G.SKILL PI Black 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 $99.98

HARD DRIVE: (2) Western Digital Caviar Black WD7501AALS 750GB $179.98

VIDEO CARD: SAPPHIRE 100259-1GL Radeon HD 4870 1GB $244.99

DVD BURNER: SAMSUNG Black 22X with LightScribe $29.99

OPERATING SYSTEM: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-bit $99.99

TOTAL INCLUDING $42.49 SHIPPING CHARGE TO MINNESOTA: $1,383.38

As you can tell, I over built it a bit by adding 8GB of memory and 1.5GB of hard drive space using 2 drives.

The price can be raised or lowered by adding or changing the video card, lowering it to 4GB of memory or changing it out, or dropping one of the hard drives. There are, of course, other ways to change the price as well.

EDIT: I almost forgot to add the DVD burner! It's in there now though.

EDIT AGAIN!: Here is a review from Tom's Hardware that just came to my attention.

EDIT YET AGAIN!: Newegg finally added free shipping to the AMD Phenom II CPUs!

Till Next Time!

The AMD Phenom II CPUs are Starting to Arrive!

2009-01-08T12:25:00Z

2 of the AMD Phenom II CPUs are now available through NewEgg. The 920 (standard) and the 940 Black Edition. Both have a 6MB L3 cache, 45nm manufacturing tech, work on the AM2+ motherboards, and use 125 watts of power.

The 920 has a operating frequency of 2.8GHz.. While the 940 Black Edition operates at 3.0GHz.

Both are quad cores.

The 920 costs $235.00 while the 940 costs $275.00. Neither one is marked with free shipping at this time.

Till Next Time!

The Price of Memory

2009-01-05T16:26:00Z

Well, it's happened. It is now cheaper to buy G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066MHz. memory than it is to buy the G.SKILL PI Black 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800MHz. memory. The DDR2 1066 is now $49.99 and the DDR2 800 is $74.99. The DDR2 800 used to be $49.99, but they have changed it.

So, if you are building a new system, you might want to simply look at the 1066 and forgo the 800. (If you are running an AMD you will need an AM2+ CPU to use the 1066 memory to its full clock speed of 1066.)

Till Next Time!

EDIT: With in a short time of writing this blog, Newegg has dropped the price of the 4GB G.Skill PI Black DDR2 800MHz. memory back down to $49.99 like it used to be. I can't understand why they had raised it up that high to begin with? It almost seems that someone or a computer at Newegg keeps moving the price up then down again. (I hope they decide soon which price they are going to give it and keep it there.)

Explore The Universe With WALL•E

2008-11-20T15:21:00Z

Microsoft Research teamed up with Disney•Pixar and created a virtual tour of the universe hosted by none other then……WALL•E!
WALL•E is assisted by award winning director Andrew Stanton, who narrates this tour.

Here is the link to the rest of the article: Explore The Universe With WALL•E And Andrew Stanton (Liveside.net article)

This should be great for anyone who has kids or grandkids like I do.

This will require you to install the world wide telescope program. The link is included farther down the page to the website.

UPDATE

I just watched it myself and it was quite interesting. It's only a few minutes long and just gave you a glimpse at a few things that are out there. Then suggests you continue on your own to look around the universe.

Till Next Time!

Windows 7 Reviews

2008-11-18T16:43:00Z

People that attended to the Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles three weeks ago were given a hard drive with Windows 7 build 6801 on it for testing. (Windows 7 isn't slated to be released until sometime in late 2009 or early 2010.)

The reviews of this BETA are starting to show up.

Here is the review from Ed Bott's Microsoft Report from ZDNet.

If you find more reviews, add them in!

$350 Barebones Vista/7 PC ?

2008-11-13T14:49:00Z

In the ZDNet blog Hardware 2.0, Adrian Kingsley-Hughes wrote an article called "$350 Barebones Vista/7 PC". The system he came up with is an Intel. But it's not complete. What he has listed has everything EXCEPT the DVD burner and the case. (As normal it does not include the operating system or anything outside the case.) He was showing how much you can now buy for $350.00 compared to, say, a month ago.

Here is the list of parts he constructed:

CPU: Intel Pentium E5200 Wolfdale 2.5GHz MOTHERBOARD: ASUS P5N-EM HDMI MEMORY: Crucial 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 VIDEO CARD: HIS Hightech H467QS512P Radeon HD 4670 HARD DRIVE: HITACHI Deskstar T7K500 HDT725032VLA360 (0A33435) 320GB POWER SUPPLY: SeaSonic SS-300ET 300W

The total cost of what he has listed is $344.94 in a NewEgg Wish List. (If you throw it in the NewEgg "buy basket", it comes to a total of $364.02 shipping it to Minnesota zip code 55111.)

Now, like I said, he didn't include the DVD burner or the case. So I went hunting for a cheap case that still had some fairly good reviews. I ended up with the Rosewill R102-P-BK at a cost of $19.99. With the $12.99 shipping charge, it comes to a total of $32.98. For the DVD burner I chose the Samsung Black 22X DVD+R 22X. This DVD burner is a 2 time winner of the Customer Choice Award at NewEgg. It costs $27.99. With the shipping charge of $6.99, it is $34.98.

If we add everything together, we get a total now of $431.98 including all shipping charges to Minnesota zip code 55111.

Needless to say, the $350.00 box just came up to over $430.00 after including everything to build a fully functional box, minus the operating system.

That's not to bad, but it isn't a true $350.00 computer. I also saw there might be 1 very large problem right off the bat with this set-up. Since we are dealing with a micro ATX case (that's what most of them were that are under $20.00), the video card he put in the build might not fit the case. It is the newer "long card" configuration which needs space behind it versus the older "square card" configuration. A square card will fit in just about any case as long as it doesn't have the "half height" card restriction.

If the video card fits in the case, this would make a good Intel starter system for the money.

Now that we have Adrian's Intel system out of the way, I decided to put together an AMD system for about roughly the same amount of money. (A total of 431.98 including all the parts and shipped to Minnesota zip code 55111.)

Here is what I came up with.

CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ MOTHERBOARD: GIGABYTE GA-MA78GM-S2H (This is the 3 time winner of the Customer Choice Award for AMD motherboards at NewEgg.) MEMORY: Kingston ValueRAM 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 VIDEO CARD: SAPPHIRE 100255L Radeon HD 4670 HARD DRIVE: Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD3200AAKS 320GB POWER SUPPLY: SeaSonic SS-300ET 300W

That completes the AMD build. The total cost in the NewEgg Wish List is $345.95.(When put in the NewEgg "buy basket", this comes to a total of $361.44.)

After adding the same Rosewill case and the same Samsung DVD burner, our total in the buy basket (or cart) is $429.40 to Minnesota 55111.

Well, with the AMD system, we didn't break the $430.00 mark for a total. The AMD system will fit in a micro ATX case since the video card I chose was the older "square card" format and doesn't need the extra room in the case.

As we can all see, the AMD system is about $2.00 cheaper than the Intel system. Both systems should be a good match for either Windows Vista or Windows 7 when it comes out sometime in late 2009 or early 2010.

I would recommend changing the HIS video card in the Intel system for the Sapphire card in the AMD system. Both cards cost the same. It's just that the Sapphire card is shorter. That is the only reason.

Have fun with either of these builds.

Till Next Time!

Cheap Computers! PRICES UPDATED FOR THANKSGIVING!

2008-10-25T10:04:00Z

Back on September 30th, 2008, PC Magazine came out with an article titled "Build It: A Sub-$250 Desktop PC".

They used a Shuttle "G7" Chassis K48 barebones kit, an Intel Celeron 430 (single core) CPU, a single 1 GIG stick of Crucial Value Ram, a Western Digital 80GB SATA2 hard drive, and a Lite-On DVD-RW burner. All the parts came from NewEgg and did not include shipping. The operating system was Ubuntu Linux, which is a free operating system if you download it from the internet.

Since Linux laptops and PCs are being returned at a rate of 4 to 1 versus Windows or Mac computers, I decided to see if I can build a little better PC for about the same price. The answer is: YES!

Now remember. The total of what everything is DOES NOT include the operating system or anything outside "the box". (Monitor, Keyboard, Mouse, Speakers, Etc.) It DOES include the shipping charges though. (At least to Minnesota. Your mileage may vary.) I didn't use any rebates when I set these up.

I set 2 parameters that both the Intel and the AMD computers had to meet. A Dual Core CPU and 2 GIG of Dual Channel Ram. With these 2 parameters met, they should be able to run WindowsXP Home or Windows Vista Basic at a minimum.

These are not going to be speed demons of any sort. These are very basic computers which should allow e-mailing, surfing the web, and running some programs. Not necessarily games real well since these are minimalist machines. (Go check out "jsv35's Budget Builds" in the forums for more powerful computers than these.)

UPDATE! I just noticed the prices have changed since I wrote this. I will correct them at the bottom. I also noticed the Samsung DVD has been deactivated and I will put an active one in its place.

Time for the "guts" of both machines. They share just about everything except motherboards and CPUs, which is only natural since you can't put an AMD CPU on a Intel motherboard. It just doesn't work that way.

CASE - I used the RaidMax xB with a 380 watt power supply built-in. It's not THE bottom of the line case, but it is close. The 380 watt supply that comes with it should be more than big enough to power it.

RAM - I went with Kingston ValueRAM (2x1GB) Dual Channel set. It has a CAS 5 latency so it's not slow, but it's not the fastest either. Kingston are my old "stand by". If no other ram works, Kingston does.

HARD DRIVE - Western Digital Caviar Blue 80GB. Same with this hard drive. I've never had a problem with a Western Digital I've bought yet.

DVD-RW BURNER - Samsung 22X DVD burner. Since the power supply has only 1 SATA power connector on it, I went with an IDE burner. Leaving the SATA connector for the hard drive. PC Mag used a Lite-On burner for their build. But I've had 1 Lite-On burner myself and it was very noisy. The Samsung burners seem to be quieter and cost the same.

VIDEO CARD - BioStar GeForce 8500 GT. This will help with better video instead of using the on board on the motherboards. Since both the motherboards I picked have the older PCI-E slot, I didn't want to trust using a card built for a newer 2.0 slot. It might not work. (I went with a BioStar video card since both of them have BioStar motherboards.)

Now that all the parts they share are out of the way, it's time for what they don't share.

INTEL SET-UP

MOTHERBOARD - BioStar G31-M7. Lately I've built 2 computers with BioStar motherboards and had good success with them. So I went with them for these builds. This is a socket LGA 775 board. So it should work with the CPU I picked out. Also a LGA 775.

CPU - Intel Celeron E1200. This isn't the fastest by no means. But it serves the purpose for what we are doing here.

This brings the Intel machine to a total cost of $305.25 including shipping.

AMD SET-UP

MOTHERBOARD - BioStar MCP6P-M2. This is a nVidia board. It serves the purpose like the Intel motherboard does.

CPU - AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+. Since this is an OEM part, we will have to add a separate CPU cooler to it.

CPU COOLER - COOLER MASTER DK8

This brings the AMD machine to a total cost of $345.05 including shipping.

As you can tell, both machines have met the criteria and the cost is a $39.80 difference.

OH! How do you get both machines to around $250.00? That's easy. Take out the video card from each machine! The Intel will cost $255.26 and the AMD will cost $292.50. Each including shipping from the time I wrote this.

Till Next Time!

Time for a New Computer II - Under $600.00!

2008-10-14T14:41:00Z

Last time I wrote a blog similar to this, I used some parts I picked up on the cheap. This time I will attempt to build a fairly good all-around rig including all the parts. Everything will be retail packaging except for the hard drive and DVD burner, which is OEM. The total cost, including shipping, from New Egg is just under $600.00. This is all the hardware, not including monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers, or the operating system. You are on your own there since some people will run different versions of Windows or maybe even Linux.

NOTE: They change the prices every once 'n awhile. So I'm going to take all the price quotes out. You can look at the links to get the prices. It SHOULD still come in under $600.00 including shipping for some time to come.

CASE - I chose the Antec Three Hundred case for this build. It's a sturdy case and pretty cheap. It's only 1" higher and 1" longer than the mini P180. (18"L x 18"H x 8"W)

POWER SUPPLY - Once again, Antec. Antec Earthwatts EA500. This is a 500 watt supply that is SLI and CrossFire ready. It is also 80 Plus Certified so it will save you a bit on your power bill. Hopefully. The Earthwatts EA430 is about $10.00 cheaper.

MOTHERBOARD - I decided to stay with the GigaByte GA-MA78GM-S2H. The 3 time winner of the Customer Choice Award for AMD motherboards. This is pretty much a fully loaded motherboard.

MEMORY - I stuck with 3 GIG of Kingston Value Ram. (A 1GIG set and a 2GIG set.) The reason for sticking with these Kingston sets? They are in the ballpark costs of what most of the other memories single sticks. Both of these are dual channel sets. (If you choose to run a 64-BIT operating system, simply buy 2 sets of the 2GIG. This will give you 4 GIG total.)

CPU - AMD Phenom 9600 Quad Core. This is the cheapest Quad Core there is from what I can see. It suffers from the B3 problem. But reading some of what has been written, it's not easy to make it happen. A lot of people shut off the B3 repair on the motherboard. It takes away about 18% of the Quad Core's speed when it is turned on. This is cheaper then a lot of the Triple Core CPUs. (The 8450 triple core is cheaper by around $20.00.)

VIDEO CARD - I decided to go with one of the least expensive ATI Radeon 4670. That is the Sapphire Radeon HD 4670. It has 512MB GDDR3 video ram and 320 streams. The 4670's chip is based on the 4800 series. ( ATI just released the new Catalyst v8.10 drivers on October 15, 2008. This new version of Catalyst now supports the Radeon 4670 chipset.)

HARD DRIVE - Western Digital Caviar 640GB. I have always trusted Western Digital hard drives. They seem to be the most rugged and last the longest. When I ran a BBS many years ago, there were others that ran Seagate and Maxtor hard drives. They seemed to die more often then Western Digital drives did. I figured a 640GB hard drive should have plenty of space for the future. If you need more, simply add another 640GB drive and have a total of 1.280 Terabytes. (I use Diskeeper Pro to keep my hard drives defragged automatically in the back ground. Diskeeper Pro will handle up to 1 terabyte per drive.)

DVD-RW DRIVE - Samsung 22X DVD-RW with LightScribe. I have found the Samsung DVD drives are quite good. (I have a 20X in my current computer.) I included LightScribe on the drive because you never know when you might want to burn a disk for some one and then personalize it.

Till Next Time!

Symantec Releases a UAC BETA!

2008-10-13T13:56:00Z

I was reading my RSS feeds and came across this little gem from Adrian Kingsley-Hughes in the ZDNet Hardware 2.0 blog.

It appears that Symantec (AKA Norton) has come out with a BETA replacement for the Windows VISTA User Account Control (UAC).

It appears to give you the ability to (finally) get the UAC working right so once you tell it to run or not run the program, it will remember your decision. It also gives you more information as to why it activated the UAC. This is a direct replacement for the UAC built into Vista. It comes in both 32-BIT and 64-BIT versions. Downloading is available through a link I will add to the bottom as well as a link in the article.

PLEASE READ THE WHOLE HARDWARE 2.0 ARTICLE BEFORE INSTALLING THIS!

Remember... THIS IS A BETA!

DO NOT install on mission critical computers! (Betas do not always work like they are supposed to.)

Here is the link to the Norton Labs Vista User Account Control BETA.

Till Next Time!

Laptop Build Anyone?

2008-09-23T16:14:00Z

In my blog post "Time for a New Computer", Jas0n asked if you can build a laptop? That's a fair enough question.

So I started looking around to see if it is possible to build a laptop. I checked NewEgg, GearXS, and Pricewatch. I didn't find anything dealing with a "laptop" bare bones kit at any of these sites. I finally went to Tiger Direct. The answer is: Yes you can. But there is not much that you can configure in the kit. It comes pretty complete.

All their "notebook" kits are made by OCZ Technology. There are 6 different ones. They range in price from $649.99 all the way up to $1,549.99. Warranties are offered starting at $134.98 for 1 year. Shipping is not included, that's extra on almost all of Tiger Directs products. (3 to 7 day shipping to my home here in Minnesota for their cheapest one is about $15.00.)

There are only 3 items you get to decide to install on these kits. The hard drive, the memory, and the operating system. Everything else is already installed and ready to go.

So let's look at their cheapest kit. The OCZ DIY 17" Gaming Notebook PC.

This is an AMD machine using the AMD Athlon 64x2 Dual-Core TK-53 processor with a 512KB L2 Cache. (Most of the other more expensive notebooks are Intel.) The optical drive is the standard DVD +/- RW Dual Layer drive. Audio is a RealTek ALC885 HD audio codec. Graphics are nVidia GeForce 8600 GS with 256MB DDR2 dedicated memory. A modem, Gigabit wired LAN, and a Atheros b/g wireless LAN are all included. The built-in display is a WXGA+ DimondBrite display with a 1440 X 900 max. resolution. The battery is a 6-Cell Lithium-ion. No battery life was stated. It has 1 - Express Card Slot/54 or 34.

O.K. Now that we have the major specs out of the way, let's take a look at memory. It says it can take a maximum of 4GB (2x2GB) of DDR2-667MHz. memory. Well, there seems to be only one option for this memory at NewEgg. It's OCZ 4GB (2 x 2GB) 200-Pin DDR2 SO-DIMM . This is dual channel memory. $74.99 with $6.99 shipping. There is a MIR of $25.00, but I'm going to take the full price since that's what we will pay upfront.

Now the hard drive. Since this is a gaming machine and games are getting up around the 10GB each in size, I went with the biggest and fastest hard drives there are. For laptops, that's 320GB and 7200RPM. There are 3 of them from 3 different manufactures available at NewEgg. A Western Digital , a Seagate, and a Hitachi. All of them have free shipping. The Hitachi is the most expensive at $139.99. Both the Seagate and the Western Digital cost $109.99. I'll use the Hitachi for this example at $139.99.

Now the Operating System. Since the laptop has 4GB of memory, we'll look at the 64-BIT Vista Home Premium and WindowsXP Pro 64-BIT. It's not a real fair comparison since the Vista Home Premium 64-BIT is a 3-Pack and the WindowsXP Pro 64-BIT is a single pack. We'll use WindowsXP 64-BIT for this build since it's a single pack. The cost is $139.99 with free shipping.

O.K. Time for the total bill. This will include the notebook, 1 year warranty, 4GB of memory, 320GB 7200RPM hard drive, MicrosoftXP Pro 64-BIT operating system, and all shipping charges (to Minnesota).

All the damages come to a grand total of: $1,161.39

The price will be different with a smaller hard drive, not including the warranty, less memory, and using the Vista Home Premium 3-Pack.

This was using Tiger Direct's cheapest D.I.Y notebook. There are 5 more that are more expensive then this one.

Till Next Time!

Cookies, Cookies Everywhere....

2008-09-21T16:28:00Z

Right now in the EggXpert: Suggestions & Feedback forum is a popular thread called "Why is EggXpert so slow?". (With 2360 views and 52 replies, which I'm the last one at this writing, it must be a popular one.) Some people contribute the problem to cookies. Cookies get loaded into our computers at almost every website we visit. A lot of these cookies are what are know as "tracking cookies". They get loaded, without our permission in most cases, to track what we do and where we go on the internet. This information is then sent to another website so someone can see what we have been doing. It may not give our names, but they create a footprint as to where we have been. Needless to say, this slows down the connection just a little bit. When you start adding up more than one tracking cookie, it can really start to slow down the connection.

The best way to get rid of this problem is to occasionally delete the cookies from the computer. But some of them are there for a purpose. Like letting us login easier into our banks to check our account information. Those we really don't want to get rid of.

What if we could simply delete these "bad cookies" as they come into our computers? This would stop them from sending the information from our computers to begin with. Now, as far as I know, there isn't a program that will do this. But there is a program that comes close.

That program is WinPatrol.

WinPatrol has been around for about 10 years. (Programs don't stick around for that long unless they work.) It comes in 2 flavors. The freeware, WinPatrol, and the paid version, WinPatrol Plus. WinPatrol Plus is a one time payment of $29.95. That payment is for life. You never have to pay ever again.

Built into WinPatrol is a tab marked "Cookies". On that tab you can list all those bad cookies. I have 24 bad cookies listed in mine. (I'll give you my list at the bottom.)

To get this to work: 1.) Near the upper right corner on the cookies tab is a switch marked "Monitor". Check that box. A separate screen will open. Set it for 1 minute, then hit OK. 2.) Now, in the single line box near the center of the screen (next to the ADD button), type in the first bad cookie of your choice. ( A common one is doubleclick.) Then hit the ADD button. It will show up in the box to the left of it. It's not case sensitive. The second you do this, it will go into where your cookies are kept on your computer and delete any cookie that has doubleclick anywhere in the name. It will check your cookies every 1 minute from then on and delete all the doubleclick cookies that have been added. It will show you all your cookies by hitting the "Show Cookies" button near the bottom right. (Do not use the monitor button in the show cookies screen. That is an old way to monitor and it will tell you that.) Sorry to tell you this, but you have to enter each cookies name separately on that line. That means you'll have to type a bit.

That's only one thing this program can do. It can do many other things. If you choose to try it, I'll let you explore it from there.

O.K. Time for the list of 24 bad cookies I have listed.

2o7 Adrevolver Advertising Apmebf Atdmt BetterInternet Coremetrics Doubleclick Euroclick Fastclick Hitbox Mediaplex Overture Questionmarket Realmedia Revsci Serving-sys Statcounter Tacoda Tribalfusion Valueclick Webtrends Yieldmanager Zedo

These 24 bad cookies were identified by my AVG Internet Security v8.0. Now running WinPatrol, none of these cookies ever show up.

Until Next Time!

Time for a New Computer

2008-09-20T12:18:00Z

Well, I was going to build a computer for my Grand Daughters. I've decided to give them my old one instead after changing out the hard drives. It's a good computer and should serve them for a few years. It's an AMD Athlon 64x2 5400 with 3 GIG of memory, Radeon 3650 video card, and a Samsung 20X DVD burner. All mounted on a BioStar A770 A2+ motherboard.

Now the question is: What am I building to replace it? (Good Question.)

Let's start out with the case. NewEgg this past week had the Antec Mini P180 (in black) on one heck of a sale. The case normally sells for $159.95. They must have had to many of them. With a promo code, they knocked off $89.96 and sold them for $69.99 including free shipping! This was one of their 24-Hour sales and I couldn't resist picking up an Antec case for a steal like this. (Hope some others here got in on it too.) My old computer is in a cheap Dynex case that came with a 500 watt power supply for $80.00 from Best Buy. It's a nice case and all. But if you can get an Antec cheap, grab it. No questions asked.

Here is what I'm going to throw in that case. (I've already started by getting some of the small parts ordered. I'll be ordering parts a few at a time getting the whole thing completed before Christmas. I'm trying to pay cash and keep the parts off the credit cards. Need those for the other Christmas Gifts.)

The power supply is the Antec Earthwatts EA430. It is also on sale for $44.99. Down from the normal price of $69.99. Shipping was free again. After a $10.00 MIR (Mail-In-Rebate), the price comes down to $34.99. Might as well keep it all Antec! Antec does make some of the better power supplies anyway and it goes with the case. (I hear you can mount the power supply upside down in this case. The power supply mounts in the bottom, not on the top like in most cases.)

The motherboard I've settled on is the Gigabyte GA-MA78GM-S2H. From what I understand, this motherboard has a few things to offer that some motherboards don't. For one, it has HDMI built-in and the ability to add another graphics card to boost the video up a bit more. Kind of like having CrossFire without 2 cards. The motherboard costs $82.99 with $8.25 shipping.

The CPU will be the AMD Phenom 8750. This was the fastest triple core I saw on the NewEgg website at the time. I figure I might as well get a good CPU so the computer will last a while without having to upgrade it in the near future. The costs is $129.99 including shipping.

Since the Phenom CPU is a box and not a "Black Edition", it comes with a CPU fan which will hold it for awhile till I decide to get a different one.

I decided on 3 GIGs of RAM total. Since I run WindowsXP Pro 32-BIT, there is no sense in getting 4 GIGs since it can only see an average of about 3.5 GIGs. I'll be using Kingston Value Ram. 4 sticks total. Dual Channel. All CAS 5 Latency. 1 set of 2GIG and 1 set of 1GIG. Total cost is $51.98 with a $13.98 shipping charge.

The video card will be the ASUS EAH4670. This is one of the more inexpensive Radeon 4670 cards. Since most of the video cards are very long and we are using a mini case, I figured I would make sure the video card would fit. This is more of the old style square card and should fit nicely in the case. With 512MB of memory and 3 connectors (D-Sub, DVI-D, and a HDMI), I should be able to hook it up to almost anything I decide to throw at it. It costs $79.99 with a $8.25 shipping change.

I ordered A Samsung floppy drive (WindowsXP still needs a floppy drive for some functions) and a Samsung 22X DVD burner. I have a Samsung 20X burner in the old computer and I really like it. It can burn a DVD that is supposed to have a max speed on the disk of 16X, at 20X. This does speed up the burning process. I'm hoping the 22X burner can do the same thing. (Not all burners can do this.)

I didn't include the cost of the hard drives since I already have them. Both Western Digitals. SATA2. 320 GIG normal and a 500 GIG green drive. (I'll throw my old 250 GIG SATA1 in my old computer for my Grand Daughters.)

O.K. Time to total everything up and see how much I set myself back at NewEgg. (Some of the shipping charge prices won't quite match. I think they take the highest shipping charge and apply that one charge to the whole order.) I've already thrown everything through the shopping cart to get a total on each shipment.

The Grand Total is: $528.19

That's not too bad for everything.

I think this should make a pretty good computer for all-around use. There's plenty of memory, a decent inexpensive video card, and a fairly speedy CPU.

UPDATE: September 27th, 2008

Well, so far I have the floppy and DVD drive along with the power supply mounted in the Antec Mini P180 case.

This is a very nice case. It comes with 2 fans. A 120mm fan on the back, which is pretty standard on most cases, and a monstrous 200mm fan on the top. The top fan takes up about 1/2 of the top surface, so don't plan on setting anything on top of this case if you decide to get it. If you don't know how big a 200mm fan is, this case is about 8 inches wide. The fan takes up, I would guess, 71/2 inches of that width. That makes it a really big fan for the size of this case. (You can mount 2 more 120mm fans in the front, but Antec says you really don't need them. I can see why.)

The floppy mounts in an adapter (comes with the case along with a 5.25 to 3.5 faceplate). It did quite fit flush. It sticks out slightly forward. But not far enough to see any metal, just the plastic front of the floppy drive after you install the faceplate. I didn't think at first the DVD was going to fit right either. Then I gave it a little extra shove and it went flat. (I mounted the floppy in the very bottom slot and the DVD in the top slot.)

The power supply mounts in the very bottom of the case in the back. It can be mounted right-side-up or upside-down. (If you get a power supply with a fan on the bottom, mount it upside-down.) It's kind of a tight fit if you try to install it while leaving the cables still tied up as they were shipped. Once you decide which cables you need from the power supply and stretch them out it goes in easier.

Since I started writing this, the ASUS video card went out of stock once. So I've added a couple as fall backs. These cards have about the same specs, but don't have the HDMI connector. A Sapphire and a MSI. (I just checked the NewEgg website for all 3 video cards and all 3 are out of stock at 6:25PM CDT on 9\27\2008. Is everyone reading this blog then buying the video cards so I can't get one? LOL!)

Since first writing this, they came out with an AMD Phenom 8750 Black Edition. I asked NewEgg if this new black edition came with a CPU fan. They didn't know, which seems a bit strange to me. (Why don't they simply open one of the boxes and find out!) It doesn't say one way or the other in the specs on their website. My experience tells me there isn't one included. That would mean an added expense of a CPU fan. The black edition costs $134.00, which is slightly more then the standard Phenom 8750 at $129.99. They both seem to have the same specs as far as everything listed except for the CPU fan, which isn't listed one way or the other on the black editions specs. If I have to add a CPU fan to the black edition, I will go with the Scythe Ninja Mini. Now I know it doesn't look "mini" and it really isn't that small (110x110x140mm total with the 80mm fan on top). But I've used Scythe CPU fans in the past. (I have 2 of their "Kama Cross" mounted on 2 other computers. This cooler looks like a small V6 engine with the fan mounted on top.) They do a real good job of cooling down the CPU. The Ninja Mini would add another $29.99 and $8.25 for 3 day shipping.

The Antec Earthwatts EA430 power supply is back to the normal price of $69.99. It still has the $10.00 M.I.R. so far.

Till Next Time!

New Windows Live Betas are Out!

2008-09-17T14:41:00Z

The new Windows Live Beta (Wave 3) are out for download. These include Messenger v9, Windows Live Movie Maker, Mail with Calendar synchronisation, Writer, Photo Gallery, Family Safety and the Outlook Connector.

There is a little different look to the Messenger 9 Beta. I haven't opened up Live Writer as of yet. (Wish there was a way to get that working with eggxpert, but I haven't found a way yet.)

Till Next Time!

Something Not Available at NewEgg

2008-09-15T15:55:00Z

Here is a software set not available at NewEgg. This one is at Circuit City. It's called "Microsoft Equipt".

This is an "All-In-One" solution for people that don't know a lot about security on their computers and want a good office suite at the same time. Under normal circumstances, this package would cost about $140.00 if everything was bought separately. They have the whole package available for $70.00.

The package includes Microsoft Live OneCare, Microsoft Office Home & Student 2007, and Windows Live Tools. This is all on one CD. Since it's all on one CD, this leads me to believe the whole thing must be installed and you can't pick and choose what you want to install off the CD. (I haven't bought it since I have AVG Internet Security v8.0 and Microsoft Office 2007 Enterprise Edition installed on my computers already.)

Even though Microsoft OneCare is rated as one of the worst security packages, just getting Microsoft Office Home and Student is worth the cost. Home and Student normally costs about $100.00 alone. OneCare costs about $40.00.

Microsoft Office Home and Student includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and One Note. All the latest Office 2007 versions. It is missing Outlook. (Outlook 2007 can be bought separately for about $99.00.) They use Windows Live Mail in its place, which is based on Outlook 2007. (Windows Live Mail is a free program.)

Microsoft Live OneCare includes Their anti virus, antispyware, firewall (this strengthens the one already built into Windows), online identity theft protection, automated tune-ups, file and photo backup, and multi-PC management. (I took this straight from the manufacturer's description.)

This might be a package to look at for your friends that aren't as fluent in computer as most of us are. This might also include your parents, grandparents, sisters, and brothers if they live farther away.

This package is good on up to 3 PCs.

Till Next Time!

A Computer for my Grand-Daughters

2008-09-12T14:22:00Z

Well, I've decided to build a computer for my 2 Grand-Daughters for their Christmas present this year. Since I'm not made of money, they'll have to share one computer between them.

I set-up a few criteria for this project. 1st, everything I order must have free shipping (if it's available in that category). 2nd, it can't cost an arm and a leg. That means a gaming rig is out. I still want something that can handle most programs with ease. I did not include a case, power supply, DVD-ROM, or floppy drive in the cost. (Windows XP still requires a floppy drive for some operations.) I didn't include them since I have an old white nLite case with a 450 watt power supply. Already installed in the case is a Sony floppy drive and a Sony 20X DVD drive.

O.K. Here we go with the parts I decided to go with.

First and formost, you need the CPU. I decided on the AMD Athlon X2 BE-2400 OEM (item number N82E16819103215) The CPU is on sale for $39.99 and is normally $49.99. That should be a pretty good amount of horse power to hold it a few years and play most games.

Next, gotta have a good CPU fan to keep it cool. I went with the Scythe SCKTN-2000 "Katana 2" (iten number N82E16835185044). The cost is $29.99. I have a Scythe "Kama Cross" installed in 2 computers here at the house already and they work quite well at keeping the CPU cool.

Now, the motherboard. I went with the GigaByte GA-MA74GM-S2 (item number N82E16813128342). Cost is $59.99 with a $8.97 shipping charge. This is the only place I have a shipping charge. Why? If you want free shipping, you need to go to a $100.00+ motherboard in most cases. Since I'm trying to get away a little cheap, I had to go with a shipping charge on it. I picked this motherboard because it has both types of video connectors built into the board.

Memory is a bit more complicated. I normally use Kingston Value Ram. It has never failed me yet. It's not gaming speed memory, but it does a good job with most games. The cost of the Kingston was a bit high. So I looked to see what others were using that is cheaper. It looks like the G.SKILL 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 800MHz. (item number N82E16820231098) at $42.99 was given some high marks. So I'll try that.

Hard drive for me was easy. I only use Western Digital. Why? I'm a ex-BBS SysOp. I've seen a lot of Seagate and Maxtor's die while the WD's I ran just kept running without a hitch. Now I don't need a monster 1TB drive, but something with some storage room. I chose a WD Caviar SE16 250GB SATA2 (item number N82E168221136161). Cost is only $59.99. A fair price for a good middle-of-the-road sized drive. I already have a spare WD 250GB SATA1 hard drive. That means a total of 500GB of space.

My total costs including the one shipping charge: $241.92 (Might as well say $242.00)

With this rig, it should be able to run Vista Home Premium if they want to as an operating system.

Now I just need to buy the parts before everything goes off sale!

Until Next Time!