New 'pute!
Seeing as how graduation is right around the corner, I've decided to treat myself to a new computer. Although I've upgraded certain components of this computer over the years, it's still based on some really old technology. Here's what's being changed:
Case: not sure what it is (~9 years old)
CPU: AMD Athlon 1200 (~7 years old)
Motherboard: Abit NF7 (~3 years old)
Memory: 2x256M of PC100 (~7 years old)
Graphics card: GeForce 6200 (~1 year old)
Keyboard: a standard Dell keyboard (~12 years old)
Mouse: a GE mouse (~2 years old?)
The main two things I've been hankering to change for a while now have been the case (which has poor air-flow) and the CPU (its age is starting to show in newer applications). However, I couldn't do a meaningful CPU upgrade without also upgrading the motherboard and memory (because my old ones aren't compatible with new stuff). My video card I got as a replacement for one whose fan died, and I got it because it was fanless, so it's fairly slow. Finally, my keyboard is starting to get a little flakey, and my mouse's left mouse button often registers a double-click when I click it only once. So! Here's what I went for:
Case: Lian Li PC-7B plus II Black Aluminum ATX Mid Tower ($80)
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E4300 Allendale 1.8GHz ($121)
Motherboard: ECS PT890T-A ($50)
Memory: Crucial 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 533 (PC2 4200) ($100)
Graphics card: Chaintech GAE79GS-A1 GeForce 7900GS 256MB ($175)
Keyboard: LITE-ON SK-1788/BS 2-Tone 104 Normal Keys PS/2 Wired Standard ($7)
Mouse: Kensington Optical Elite 72121 2-Tone 5 Buttons ($20)
Andrea set me an arbitrary budget of $500 for this, and I only overshot it by ~$80 (including shipping and handling), which is much less than I figured I'd overshoot it by (all the comparable pre-builts I looked at were in the $750-$1000 range).
The only thing I'm not 100% happy with is the motherboard. I'd hoped to get an all-Intel motherboard (i.e., made by Intel and with Intel chipsets). However, all such boards I found had only one ill-placed PATA port, meaning I'd have to connect my hard drive and DVD drive to the same cable; this would be physically impossible due to how the drives are laid out in the case I picked. I considered getting an expansion card with extra PATA ports, but those seem to have lots of issues connected with them (no pun intended). I considered buying a SATA hard drive (the board has lots of well-placed SATA connectors), but didn't really want to throw out my current hard drive which is less than a year old and plenty big. I finally settled on a non-Intel board with two well-placed PATA ports, which was $65 less, to boot!
Case: not sure what it is (~9 years old)
CPU: AMD Athlon 1200 (~7 years old)
Motherboard: Abit NF7 (~3 years old)
Memory: 2x256M of PC100 (~7 years old)
Graphics card: GeForce 6200 (~1 year old)
Keyboard: a standard Dell keyboard (~12 years old)
Mouse: a GE mouse (~2 years old?)
The main two things I've been hankering to change for a while now have been the case (which has poor air-flow) and the CPU (its age is starting to show in newer applications). However, I couldn't do a meaningful CPU upgrade without also upgrading the motherboard and memory (because my old ones aren't compatible with new stuff). My video card I got as a replacement for one whose fan died, and I got it because it was fanless, so it's fairly slow. Finally, my keyboard is starting to get a little flakey, and my mouse's left mouse button often registers a double-click when I click it only once. So! Here's what I went for:
Case: Lian Li PC-7B plus II Black Aluminum ATX Mid Tower ($80)
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E4300 Allendale 1.8GHz ($121)
Motherboard: ECS PT890T-A ($50)
Memory: Crucial 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 533 (PC2 4200) ($100)
Graphics card: Chaintech GAE79GS-A1 GeForce 7900GS 256MB ($175)
Keyboard: LITE-ON SK-1788/BS 2-Tone 104 Normal Keys PS/2 Wired Standard ($7)
Mouse: Kensington Optical Elite 72121 2-Tone 5 Buttons ($20)
Andrea set me an arbitrary budget of $500 for this, and I only overshot it by ~$80 (including shipping and handling), which is much less than I figured I'd overshoot it by (all the comparable pre-builts I looked at were in the $750-$1000 range).
The only thing I'm not 100% happy with is the motherboard. I'd hoped to get an all-Intel motherboard (i.e., made by Intel and with Intel chipsets). However, all such boards I found had only one ill-placed PATA port, meaning I'd have to connect my hard drive and DVD drive to the same cable; this would be physically impossible due to how the drives are laid out in the case I picked. I considered getting an expansion card with extra PATA ports, but those seem to have lots of issues connected with them (no pun intended). I considered buying a SATA hard drive (the board has lots of well-placed SATA connectors), but didn't really want to throw out my current hard drive which is less than a year old and plenty big. I finally settled on a non-Intel board with two well-placed PATA ports, which was $65 less, to boot!