Seeking opinions of current parts.

CPU

Motherboard

Hard Drive (SATA)

DVD (SATA)

Monitor

A friend ask me to build him a new system. (no problem)

Windows 7 – clean install...

If you've built a system in the last year or two or had one built for
you I would appreciate your comments.

Just the above parts are what I'm interested in. Been awhile since I
built mine :-\

My work for him is free -- start to finish.

On Sat, 14 Jul 2012 14:53:57 -0700, Oren wrote:

Seeking opinions of current parts.


This is the wrong group, I'm sure-- but the last 3 I put together were
'bare bones' from either Newegg or geeks.com.

The last one was from geeks.com a few months ago--
A *de*branded HP-
slimline tower- dual core E6700 processor 3.2GHz, 2GB ram, 750GB HDD,
DVD burner- wireless keyboard & mouse- $200.

It would have been a real breeze if I'd known that hardware could be
OS dependent. I spent a couple days trying to figure out why it
wouldn't work before I emailed geeks and asked for help. They sent
me to the HP page with the driver set-- which was only available for
Windows 7 -- So I bought a copy of windows 7, retired my XP CD- and
I've got a pretty nice machine for $300-- and a Windows 7 CD for the
next box.

[I think my last monitor came from Walmart or Staples]

Jim

On 07/14/12 05:53 pm, Oren wrote:
Seeking opinions of current parts.

CPU

Motherboard

Hard Drive (SATA)

DVD (SATA)

Monitor

A friend ask me to build him a new system. (no problem)

Windows 7 – clean install...

If you've built a system in the last year or two or had one built for
you I would appreciate your comments.

Just the above parts are what I'm interested in. Been awhile since I
built mine :-\

My work for him is free -- start to finish.

For years I've bought nothing but Asus motherboards, AMD CPUs and
Seagate hard drives (except that I bought Hitachi drives for notebooks)
-- almost all my dead drives are Western Digital. Most recently I've
been buying G.Skill RAM but previously bought mostly Kingston. The DVD
drives I've bought recently have been whatever was on sale at the time.

My most recent purchases have been from NewEgg.com, but TigerDirect.com
has occasionally had better prices.

Perce

Oren wrote:
Seeking opinions of current parts.

CPU

Motherboard

Hard Drive (SATA)

DVD (SATA)

Monitor

A friend ask me to build him a new system. (no problem)

Windows 7 – clean install...

If you've built a system in the last year or two or had one built for
you I would appreciate your comments.

Just the above parts are what I'm interested in. Been awhile since I
built mine :-\

My work for him is free -- start to finish.

Hi,
I usually buy barebone kit from eBay and add thing as I need.
I always had good luck with ASUS, or Gigabyte mobo, HDD, the bigger
cache the better. And good video card is very important.

Oren wrote:
Seeking opinions of current parts.

Usage (and budget) will dictate the best choices. For instance, do you
need hard drive capacity or graphics performance. Personally, I'd get
an SSD drive rather than a hard drive--but that is because I place a
premium on performance over capacity. I think the Dell medium end
monitors are a good value (on sale for $239 recently from $300, I
think). Let me know if you are interested and I'll look up the model.

tomshardware.com has LOTS of information on components.

Good luck!



CPU

Motherboard

Hard Drive (SATA)

DVD (SATA)

Monitor

A friend ask me to build him a new system. (no problem)

Windows 7 – clean install...

If you've built a system in the last year or two or had one built for
you I would appreciate your comments.

Just the above parts are what I'm interested in. Been awhile since I
built mine :-\

My work for him is free -- start to finish.

On Jul 14, 7:34*pm, Tony Hwang wrote:
Oren wrote:
Seeking opinions of current parts.

CPU

Motherboard

Hard Drive (SATA)

DVD (SATA)

Monitor

A friend ask me to build him a new system. (no problem)

Windows 7 – clean install...

If you've built a system in the last year or two or had one built for
you I would appreciate your comments.

Just the above parts are what I'm interested in. Been awhile since I
built mine :-\

My work for him is free -- start to finish.

Hi,
I usually buy barebone kit from eBay and add thing as I need.
I always had good luck with ASUS, or Gigabyte mobo, HDD, the bigger
cache the better. And good video card is very important.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

When you can buy a whole system for $400,
and given the problems that can arise,
the idea of building a system for someone else
out of parts doesn't seem like a very good idea to me.
Also factor in that the $400 system comes
with a legal version of Windows 7, a warranty
and someone to go to for support. You can also
typically get MSFT office for another $100,
3 years of antivirus for $40, etc.

Just saying, sounds like aggravation and a good
way to ruin a friendship.

Oren wrote:
Seeking opinions of current parts.

CPU

Motherboard

Hard Drive (SATA)

DVD (SATA)

Monitor

A friend ask me to build him a new system. (no problem)

Windows 7 - clean install...

If you've built a system in the last year or two or had one built for
you I would appreciate your comments.

Just the above parts are what I'm interested in. Been awhile since I
built mine :-\

My work for him is free -- start to finish.

It might be less frustrating to start with a bare-bones system or a used
one, then upgrade.

I saw some desktop Dells that came back off lease to a school district:
* $99 - Intel dual core, 2.4GHz, 1GB DDR2, 160GB drive, CD-RW/DVD, WinXP-Pro
* $148 - Pentium D dual core, 17"LCD monitor, keyboard, optical mouse, 1GB
DDR2 memory, 80GM drive, LAN, XP Pro. Add $100 for a terabyte drive and $75
for 3 MB more of memory.
* and so on

The above were discovered at Directron in Houston.
http://search.directron.com/newsearc...used&x=18&y=33

On Sat, 14 Jul 2012 17:00:42 -0700 (PDT), "
wrote:

When you can buy a whole system for $400,
and given the problems that can arise,
the idea of building a system for someone else
out of parts doesn't seem like a very good idea to me.
Also factor in that the $400 system comes
with a legal version of Windows 7, a warranty
and someone to go to for support. You can also
typically get MSFT office for another $100,
3 years of antivirus for $40, etc.

Just saying, sounds like aggravation and a good
way to ruin a friendship.

We disagree. Bought my bride a "system" for some bucks under or
around $400. The system is full of OEM trash-ware, much of the
software is useless or not used. I don't need stuff, except the OS.

Built mine (for 20 years) from scratch without ALL the bloat ware..

As to warranty, any system can fail in a matter of days. Burn in is
around 3 days. After that it will run for years.

Windows 7 has *free* AV and Open Office is free (open source) and
just as good (better) as MS Office, plus compatible. No cost, ever.

PS. My friend will not be lost. He asked, because he trust me.

I didn't mean to upset anyone. I appreciate this group for the
intelligence and vast knowledge of common sense.

In a few hours I can build a system for him as I WOULD want for
myself or meet his expectations. I'm not looking for what an OEM
"thinks" he needs.

I think for myself. Hardware advice?

On Sat, 14 Jul 2012 17:00:42 -0700 (PDT), "
wrote:



When you can buy a whole system for $400,
and given the problems that can arise,
the idea of building a system for someone else
out of parts doesn't seem like a very good idea to me.
Also factor in that the $400 system comes
with a legal version of Windows 7, a warranty
and someone to go to for support. You can also
typically get MSFT office for another $100,
3 years of antivirus for $40, etc.

Just saying, sounds like aggravation and a good
way to ruin a friendship.

Right. Unless you have "special needs" like gaming, fooling around
with the hardware, etc, the cost curve went against building you own
at least 10 years ago.
I still do it, because I'm particular about that, and game and tinker.
It's not cheap, because you pay retail for components.
High end parts cost.
Going with used eBay parts can make it work, but that has its own
traps. You have to know the real values.
Then, as you say, you'll be obligated to support it.
Reminds me of what somebody on a another newsgroup years ago.
Paraphrasing: "Why would somebody spend years writing a novel when you
can pick one up at a bookstore for a few bucks."

--
Vic

Oren wrote in news:kh2408drodq2ioric67lsmssf22702lcls@
4ax.com:

Bought my bride a "system" for some bucks under or
around $400. The system is full of OEM trash-ware,


You probably bought a boxed unit from a chain store.

Get one of those independent hole-in-the-wall places to build one for you.
That way you get total control over hardware choice, partitioning, and
software installs. Plus the builder then takes care of the burn-in and the
warranty, and he'll be up on all the new hardware in a way you and I are
not. Tiger Direct will also build-to-order, and they're probably better
than the hole-in-the-wall places on account of their sales volume.

I gave up rolling my own years ago. It just wasn't worth it any more.


--
Tegger

On Sat, 14 Jul 2012 17:38:49 -0700, Oren wrote:


We disagree. Bought my bride a "system" for some bucks under or
around $400. The system is full of OEM trash-ware, much of the
software is useless or not used. I don't need stuff, except the OS.


I've not built my own, but we have a guy we use for our computers for
work and he has built mine for a number of years now. Yes, the big
difference is all the crap that comes with the typical store bought
system. Only thing worse is the Gook Squad that fine tunes them to
the point they hardly run at all.

Oren wrote:
Seeking opinions of current parts.

I replied earlier that you hadn't specified any system goals or a budget.

One of the best arguments made against you doing this is that you become
the "fix it" man when ANYTHING goes wrong and, as you must surely know,
something surely will, and then you will likely be sorry.

Build for yourself, maybe. For someone else, forgetaboutit! : )

I think you would be being a good friend if you located a system to
consider.

Good luck!
Bill


CPU

Motherboard

Hard Drive (SATA)

DVD (SATA)

Monitor

A friend ask me to build him a new system. (no problem)

Windows 7 – clean install...

If you've built a system in the last year or two or had one built for
you I would appreciate your comments.

Just the above parts are what I'm interested in. Been awhile since I
built mine :-\

My work for him is free -- start to finish.

"Oren" wrote in message
...
Seeking opinions of current parts.

CPU

Motherboard

Hard Drive (SATA)

DVD (SATA)

Monitor

A friend ask me to build him a new system. (no problem)

Windows 7 - clean install...

If you've built a system in the last year or two or had one built for
you I would appreciate your comments.

Just the above parts are what I'm interested in. Been awhile since I
built mine :-\

My work for him is free -- start to finish.

Tell him to buy himself a laptop
At the prices of laptops today, the savings for a desktop are not worth
the effort.
Plus the laptop provides a built-in backup power supply, aka battery.

wrote in message
...
On Jul 14, 7:34 pm, Tony Hwang wrote:
Oren wrote:
Seeking opinions of current parts.

CPU

Motherboard

Hard Drive (SATA)

DVD (SATA)

Monitor

A friend ask me to build him a new system. (no problem)

Windows 7 – clean install...

If you've built a system in the last year or two or had one built for
you I would appreciate your comments.

Just the above parts are what I'm interested in. Been awhile since I
built mine :-\

My work for him is free -- start to finish.

Hi,
I usually buy barebone kit from eBay and add thing as I need.
I always had good luck with ASUS, or Gigabyte mobo, HDD, the bigger
cache the better. And good video card is very important.- Hide quoted
text -

- Show quoted text -

When you can buy a whole system for $400,
and given the problems that can arise,
the idea of building a system for someone else
out of parts doesn't seem like a very good idea to me.
Also factor in that the $400 system comes
with a legal version of Windows 7, a warranty
and someone to go to for support. You can also
typically get MSFT office for another $100,
3 years of antivirus for $40, etc.

Just saying, sounds like aggravation and a good
way to ruin a friendship.

Not to mention that for $400, you can get a decent laptop with a built-in
emergency power supply.

"Oren" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 14 Jul 2012 17:00:42 -0700 (PDT), "
wrote:

When you can buy a whole system for $400,
and given the problems that can arise,
the idea of building a system for someone else
out of parts doesn't seem like a very good idea to me.
Also factor in that the $400 system comes
with a legal version of Windows 7, a warranty
and someone to go to for support. You can also
typically get MSFT office for another $100,
3 years of antivirus for $40, etc.

Just saying, sounds like aggravation and a good
way to ruin a friendship.

We disagree. Bought my bride a "system" for some bucks under or
around $400. The system is full of OEM trash-ware, much of the
software is useless or not used. I don't need stuff, except the OS.

Built mine (for 20 years) from scratch without ALL the bloat ware..

As to warranty, any system can fail in a matter of days. Burn in is
around 3 days. After that it will run for years.

Windows 7 has *free* AV and Open Office is free (open source) and
just as good (better) as MS Office, plus compatible. No cost, ever.

PS. My friend will not be lost. He asked, because he trust me.

I didn't mean to upset anyone. I appreciate this group for the
intelligence and vast knowledge of common sense.

In a few hours I can build a system for him as I WOULD want for
myself or meet his expectations. I'm not looking for what an OEM
"thinks" he needs.

I think for myself. Hardware advice?

Bloatware can be removed

On Sat, 14 Jul 2012 23:46:35 -0500, "Atila Iskander"
wrote:




Tell him to buy himself a laptop
At the prices of laptops today, the savings for a desktop are not worth
the effort.
Plus the laptop provides a built-in backup power supply, aka battery.


Laptops have a place, but for home use, I still prefer a big honkin'
desktop with a 21 inch or larger monitor, keyboard that can be moved
around, etc.

When I want portability, my netbook has traveled to much of the US and
Europe with me. Or it can sit on my belly when in front of the TV.

Ed Pawlowski wrote in
:

On Sat, 14 Jul 2012 23:46:35 -0500, "Atila Iskander"
wrote:




Tell him to buy himself a laptop
At the prices of laptops today, the savings for a desktop are not
worth
the effort.
Plus the laptop provides a built-in backup power supply, aka battery.


Laptops have a place, but for home use, I still prefer a big honkin'
desktop with a 21 inch or larger monitor, keyboard that can be moved
around, etc.

When I want portability, my netbook has traveled to much of the US and
Europe with me. Or it can sit on my belly when in front of the TV.



but for home use, I still prefer a big honkin'
desktop

And I thought I was the last one... Must be a CT thing (OEM Stamfordite)
:-)

Red Green wrote in
:

Ed Pawlowski wrote in
:

On Sat, 14 Jul 2012 23:46:35 -0500, "Atila Iskander"
wrote:




Tell him to buy himself a laptop
At the prices of laptops today, the savings for a desktop are not
worth
the effort.
Plus the laptop provides a built-in backup power supply, aka battery.


Laptops have a place, but for home use, I still prefer a big honkin'
desktop with a 21 inch or larger monitor, keyboard that can be moved
around, etc.

When I want portability, my netbook has traveled to much of the US
and Europe with me. Or it can sit on my belly when in front of the
TV.



but for home use, I still prefer a big honkin'
desktop

And I thought I was the last one... Must be a CT thing (OEM
Stamfordite)
:-)


p.s. and also a "-ski".

On Jul 14, 8:44*pm, Vic Smith wrote:
Unless you have "special needs" like gaming, fooling around
with the hardware, etc, the cost curve went against building you own
at least 10 years ago.

My old new thing was to buy an OEM package, wipe the HDD and install
an OEM version of Windows. Even with the extra $100 I feel I'm ahead,
short and long term. If I should decide I want a load of useless crap
on my machines I can always find it all over the 'net.

My newer thing is to buy an extra HDD and install the OEM Windows on
that,
-----

- gpsman

Oren wrote:
Seeking opinions of current parts.

CPU
AMD Phenom II X3 720 2.8GHz, 95 watt. I chose this because most bang for
the buck for my purposes; X3 rather than X4 because of much lower power draw
& heat.

Motherboard
ASRock AOD790GX, 140w OK, AM3 OK - $124.99. Chosen because compatible with
CPU, decent price. No other reason, has been fine.

Hard Drive (SATA)
Western Digital Caviar Black WD5001AALS 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA
3.0Gb/s, OEM - $69.99, 5 year warranty. Fast, good cache, fast data
transfer, great warranty (paid with MC to double it). Comes in bigger
capacity too, didn't need more. Specs are even better now, eg 6.0 Gb/s.
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=760

DVD (SATA)
BURN LG|GH22NS30 22X SATA - OEM $24.99. No particular reason for getting an
LG but it has been fine, very happy with it. Price was certainly right


--

dadiOH
____________________________

Winters getting colder? Tired of the rat race?
Maybe just ready for a change? Check it out...
http://www.floridaloghouse.net

wrote:

The main advantage of buying a name brand PC is you can usually get a
driver disk that has drivers that will work together.
Otherwise you are on a scavenger hunt looking for all the drivers you
need and about half the time there will be one that won't play nice
with another one.

If a component needs software it comes with what you need.

--

dadiOH
____________________________

Winters getting colder? Tired of the rat race?
Maybe just ready for a change? Check it out...
http://www.floridaloghouse.net

Oren wrote:
Seeking opinions of current parts.

CPU

Motherboard

Hard Drive (SATA)

DVD (SATA)

Monitor

A friend ask me to build him a new system. (no problem)

Windows 7 - clean install...

If you've built a system in the last year or two or had one built for
you I would appreciate your comments.

Just the above parts are what I'm interested in. Been awhile since I
built mine :-\


Lots of luck. Thus far, you have a lot of basically useless comments and
opinions, very little of what you asked for.


--

dadiOH
____________________________

Winters getting colder? Tired of the rat race?
Maybe just ready for a change? Check it out...
http://www.floridaloghouse.net

On Saturday, July 14, 2012 4:53:57 PM UTC-5, Oren wrote:
Seeking opinions of current parts.

CPU

Motherboard

Hard Drive (SATA)

DVD (SATA)

Monitor

A friend ask me to build him a new system. (no problem)

Windows 7 – clean install...

If you've built a system in the last year or two or had one built for
you I would appreciate your comments.

Just the above parts are what I'm interested in. Been awhile since I
built mine :-\

My work for him is free -- start to finish.

I usually buy from Dell (4 new units, bought and sold many used ones).
If you get a cheap Dell and it doesn't come with an OS disc for reinstall....you can ask them for one (in the US).
https://support.dell.com/support/top.../backupcd_form

On 7/14/2012 5:53 PM, Oren wrote:
Seeking opinions of current parts.

CPU

Motherboard

Hard Drive (SATA)

DVD (SATA)

Monitor

A friend ask me to build him a new system. (no problem)

Windows 7 – clean install...

If you've built a system in the last year or two or had one built for
you I would appreciate your comments.

Just the above parts are what I'm interested in. Been awhile since I
built mine :-\

My work for him is free -- start to finish.

+When I started building my own computers, I would typically go to
Newegg and check ratings and reviews for each of the components, then go
with that advice.
All of my original builds, I used the best Asus motherboards available
at the time. P4PE, P4C800E-D, P5AD2E. These are Intel socket boards, and
I used the best bank for the buck processor. I used Seagate hard drives.
Those machines worked flawlessly, but ultimately all of the boards
crapped out except the original P4PE. At the end of the day I'm not that
happy with Asus
After some time of not building anything, I needed to build another
batch, these are within the last two years. This time I went with
Gigabyte motherboards and I5 intel processors. I also switched to WD
hard drives, just for a change, the Seagates were always good to me. All
my machines are running continuously, some are gaming setups, and there
hasn't been the slightest hiccup from any of them.

On 2012-07-15, Red Green wrote:

And I thought I was the last one... Must be a CT thing (OEM
Stamfordite)
:-)


p.s. and also a "-ski".

Nope. Lots of us.

Better yet, you can pick up decent box fer zero $$. Ppl can't give
'em away, anymore. Actually costs $$ to dispose of 'em. I haven't
paid for a computer in yrs. Granted, I'm not running the hottest
gamer box in town, but running Linux gets me what I need for nada.
Finally hadda kick out the jams and splurge fer an LCD monitor, no
CRTs lying around. My new Acer 23" is killer. I may join the 21st
century if I can find a decent box fer $200.

Oh yeah, two days ago a 17" CRT turned up, fer free. With 2 keyboards
and two mice. I passed.

nb

--
vi --the heart of evil!

On 7/15/2012 9:32 AM, dadiOH wrote:
wrote:

The main advantage of buying a name brand PC is you can usually get a
driver disk that has drivers that will work together.
Otherwise you are on a scavenger hunt looking for all the drivers you
need and about half the time there will be one that won't play nice
with another one.

If a component needs software it comes with what you need.

Absolutely, that's what ****ed me off about store bought machines. I was
always groveling to Dell, or Compaq for information.
Every component you buy, has all the information you need to make it work

On 2012-07-15, Oren wrote:


Open Office is free (open source) and just as good (better) as MS
Office, plus compatible. No cost, ever.

You might prefer to go with LibreOffice, as OO needs some plug-ins:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compari..._office_suites

nb

--
vi --the heart of evil!

"Oren" wrote in message ...
Seeking opinions of current parts.

CPU

Motherboard

Hard Drive (SATA)

DVD (SATA)

Monitor

A friend ask me to build him a new system. (no problem)

Windows 7 - clean install...

If you've built a system in the last year or two or had one built for
you I would appreciate your comments.

Just the above parts are what I'm interested in. Been awhile since I
built mine :-\

My work for him is free -- start to finish.

Oren, I have built a few systems for self and friends since '94. Still do upgrades, etc., but now it's less cost (and I have less time now) to just buy a complete basic system at one of the discount houses, swap out parts & sell the extra one on ebay. If I had more time, I would still be building them like you are.

So, just for info, the place I hit first around here in Calif is www.frys.com. A few times a year they will have a basic system less monitor for $199. Typically it's a no-name brand, but I have bought a dozen over the years and never had trouble with any of them. Right now I'm using one called Great Value. (I knew it had to be bottom of the line. LOL!!) But ended up buying 3 total and all are still humming away. Only had one USB port go out on one of the, and a $15 USB card fixed that.

Check out their specials -- they run full page ads in the paper which is better for me than searching a website. You can view them online also at www.frys.com -- click at the top on "See our ads".

Bob

On Sun, 15 Jul 2012 09:27:26 -0400, "dadiOH"
wrote:

Oren wrote:
Seeking opinions of current parts.

CPU
AMD Phenom II X3 720 2.8GHz, 95 watt. I chose this because most bang for
the buck for my purposes; X3 rather than X4 because of much lower power draw
& heat.

Motherboard
ASRock AOD790GX, 140w OK, AM3 OK - $124.99. Chosen because compatible with
CPU, decent price. No other reason, has been fine.

Hard Drive (SATA)
Western Digital Caviar Black WD5001AALS 500GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA
3.0Gb/s, OEM - $69.99, 5 year warranty. Fast, good cache, fast data
transfer, great warranty (paid with MC to double it). Comes in bigger
capacity too, didn't need more. Specs are even better now, eg 6.0 Gb/s.
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=760

DVD (SATA)
BURN LG|GH22NS30 22X SATA - OEM $24.99. No particular reason for getting an
LG but it has been fine, very happy with it. Price was certainly right

Thank you.

On Sat, 14 Jul 2012 19:50:42 -0400, Bill wrote:

Usage (and budget) will dictate the best choices.

Just a simple system. The fellow is not a gamer or video editor and
the like. Basic E-mail and Web browsing.

On Sun, 15 Jul 2012 09:37:05 -0400, "dadiOH"
wrote:

Lots of luck. Thus far, you have a lot of basically useless comments and
opinions, very little of what you asked for.

Ta Da! :-\

On Sun, 15 Jul 2012 08:49:08 -0700, "Guv Bob"
wrote:

Check out their specials -- they run full page ads in the paper which is better for me than searching a website. You can view them online also at www.frys.com -- click at the top on "See our ads".


Thanks. I have a paper ad good for 7 days. We will be going to Fry's
this morning, so my friend can get an idea of exactly what it would
cost to build vs. a box OEM unit. He did mention a laptop so we will
check them out. He has very simple needs for his computing.

On Sat, 14 Jul 2012 22:29:51 -0400, Ed Pawlowski wrote:

On Sat, 14 Jul 2012 17:38:49 -0700, Oren wrote:


We disagree. Bought my bride a "system" for some bucks under or
around $400. The system is full of OEM trash-ware, much of the
software is useless or not used. I don't need stuff, except the OS.


I've not built my own, but we have a guy we use for our computers for
work and he has built mine for a number of years now. Yes, the big
difference is all the crap that comes with the typical store bought
system. Only thing worse is the Gook Squad that fine tunes them to
the point they hardly run at all.

Yep. I supervised the (contract) building of a LAN network. Then
setup 75 PC nodes. Ran that LAN in an acting capacity for two years
after the IT manger left. This LAN was on a WAN with ~500 PC nodes.

Computers were not the problem as it was always the users sigh. They
would swear up and down they turned the monitor on.. Get to their
office, flip it on and magic happened.

I prefer to build a system that I would want for myself. Simple, fast
and without all the crap loaded on them - clean and efficient.

On Sat, 14 Jul 2012 23:48:39 -0500, "Atila Iskander"
wrote:

Bloatware can be removed


Or never installed in the first place -- my preference.

On Sun, 15 Jul 2012 09:32:01 -0400, "dadiOH"
wrote:

If a component needs software it comes with what you need.

If the system is Win 7 compatible the install will find all the
drivers on the install disk. They can later be updated at the
manufacture's web site when they become available for the device.

I haven't had a driver problem for years.

"Ed Pawlowski" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 14 Jul 2012 23:46:35 -0500, "Atila Iskander"
wrote:




Tell him to buy himself a laptop
At the prices of laptops today, the savings for a desktop are not
worth
the effort.
Plus the laptop provides a built-in backup power supply, aka battery.


Laptops have a place, but for home use, I still prefer a big honkin'
desktop with a 21 inch or larger monitor, keyboard that can be moved
around, etc.

When I want portability, my netbook has traveled to much of the US and
Europe with me. Or it can sit on my belly when in front of the TV.

You are not thinking outside of the box, and are suffering from tunnel
vision
..
A properly set-up laptop as the equal to your "big honking box"
but with a smaller footprint
AND a backup battery
I also have no problem hooking up 2 monitors, a keyboard and a backup HD to
my laptop

Just because it's "portable" does NOT mean that it cannot perform in a
non-portable role as well
I have 2 older laptops acting as server and firewall.

Not only are they on a smaller footprint but they also use less power.

On 15 Jul 2012 14:51:01 GMT, notbob wrote:

On 2012-07-15, Oren wrote:


Open Office is free (open source) and just as good (better) as MS
Office, plus compatible. No cost, ever.

You might prefer to go with LibreOffice, as OO needs some plug-ins:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compari..._office_suites

nb

Thanks for that link. The other day I checked for updates for OO and
was pointed to "Apache" OO. From the link you gave, it makes sense
what happened. OO is now under the Apache Foundation. The predecessor
of LibreOffice is OpenOffice.

On Sat, 14 Jul 2012 14:53:57 -0700, Oren wrote:

Seeking opinions of current parts.

CPU

I have been partial to AMDs but haven't built a computer for myself in some
years (parts for the last buy are sitting in the closet collecting dust
(intended as a media PC). Since laptops became more like desktops, I switched
and haven't done much with components since.

Motherboard

Tyan or Asus were my choices.

Hard Drive (SATA)

At one time I bought nothing but IBMs. I had zero problems with them, even
with the worst of the DeathStars, I had no failures. When IBM got out of the
business I went to Seagates but with laptop drives I had a lot of failures,
usually at quite inopportune times (traveling). It got so I'd carry a spare
in my laptop case. I think this one is a WD, but I'm not sure. It's been
fine for three years.

DVD (SATA)

Whatever's cheap. I would buy a writer. They're cheap.

Monitor

I've had *very* good luck with a cheap 16x10 (1920x1200) 24" Soyo. I bought
it five years ago for $260 and it's been great. I also have an older 21" Dell
but I don't use it much. I'd use both if I could get a third monitor working
reliably on my laptop. I tried one of the USB display adapters but it wasn't
reliable.

A friend ask me to build him a new system. (no problem)

Windows 7 – clean install...

If you've built a system in the last year or two or had one built for
you I would appreciate your comments.

Nevermind! ;-) I've bought a laptop (wife's) and a netbook in that time, but
no desktop stuff.

Just the above parts are what I'm interested in. Been awhile since I
built mine :-\

My work for him is free -- start to finish.

I used to do that for people (used to build several a day at work -
investigating compatible parts) but found that they weren't so competent and
tended to blame the hardware. It's much easier to let them buy the $400
special at BestBuy.

On Sun, 15 Jul 2012 11:33:01 -0500, "Atila Iskander"
wrote:


"Ed Pawlowski" wrote in message
.. .
On Sat, 14 Jul 2012 23:46:35 -0500, "Atila Iskander"
wrote:




Tell him to buy himself a laptop
At the prices of laptops today, the savings for a desktop are not
worth
the effort.
Plus the laptop provides a built-in backup power supply, aka battery.


Laptops have a place, but for home use, I still prefer a big honkin'
desktop with a 21 inch or larger monitor, keyboard that can be moved
around, etc.

When I want portability, my netbook has traveled to much of the US and
Europe with me. Or it can sit on my belly when in front of the TV.

You are not thinking outside of the box, and are suffering from tunnel
vision
.
A properly set-up laptop as the equal to your "big honking box"
but with a smaller footprint
AND a backup battery
I also have no problem hooking up 2 monitors, a keyboard and a backup HD to
my laptop

How do you hook up two monitors? Even with my docking station (a graphics card
doesn't work in it, for some reason) I can only connect one external display.
I used a USB adapter (they're *slow* but still useful) but it wasn't reliable
enough (worked at first, then nothing, reinstall, worked, nothing...).

Battery "backup" doesn't work, either. When the power drops the system
reboots or hangs. That may be a dock problem, though.

Just because it's "portable" does NOT mean that it cannot perform in a
non-portable role as well
I have 2 older laptops acting as server and firewall.

When I replace mine, they're dead. My wife's screen died last fall and for
some reason it doesn't like running without it. I'll have to try again
sometime.

Not only are they on a smaller footprint but they also use less power.

Not as fast, either, but I don't miss that aspect at home.

How about a refurbished Dell for $158?

http://preview.tinyurl.com/8827jsp