Getting a DIY PC

[Zoomer]

Recommended shops in SLS (kinda like CP style ones):
Superpet
Fuwell
Cybermind (But higher than average price)

I personally would stay away from Video Po (5th Floor SLS). Their customer service aren't stellar...among other non-positive stuff.

Stay away like the plague:
Shops than are manned by ABNN(partly or otherwise)...not discrimating but that's the trend in simlim. Coincidence, or something I guess. (What's ABNN? Well...their ancestors came from somewhere south of the tallest peak)
Shops that give out leaflets screaming stuff like $599 FAST P4!!! in super large bold text, etc. Commonly given out at escalators...throw them away!

Beware, there are a lot of AP style shops in sls too... :kok: your carrot head okay...

If in doubt, COME BACK AND ASK! Just say u decide to go home and think it over lor.

 

[Zoomer]

Originally posted by erwinx
AMD too hot for me. have to do too much cooling. i prefer P4 with 'silent casing' (low speed quiet fans)

That's a common misconception.

Lousy 3rd party heatsinks making lots of noise have really spoiled AMD's rep. And no, it ain't that hot at all. The latest P4 3 gig puts out more heat than any athlon here. (84W...gosh)

The truth is, if you don't:

1. Use lousy heatsinks some shops like to bundle to get back their $$$ from offering cheap processor + mobo bundle
2. Try to suffocate the comp, by placing it in an encolsed, air tight or almost like that cupboard

You'll be alright. My system is merrily processing all the crap that I'm typing, without much noise. I have tested the fans and have identified 2 noisest components:
1. Heatsink Fan - Gonna Replace these with the TruPower ones once I have money
2. Aging Quantum Fireball AS 60gig - RIP quantum.

 

[SNAG]

Originally posted by Zoomer


That's a common misconception.

Lousy 3rd party heatsinks making lots of noise have really spoiled AMD's rep. And no, it ain't that hot at all. The latest P4 3 gig puts out more heat than any athlon here. (84W...gosh)

The truth is, if you don't:

1. Use lousy heatsinks some shops like to bundle to get back their $$$ from offering cheap processor + mobo bundle
2. Try to suffocate the comp, by placing it in an encolsed, air tight or almost like that cupboard

You'll be alright. My system is merrily processing all the crap that I'm typing, without much noise. I have tested the fans and have identified 2 noisest components:
1. Heatsink Fan - Gonna Replace these with the TruPower ones once I have money
2. Aging Quantum Fireball AS 60gig - RIP quantum.

Hm, just to ask, what would you consider a good heatsink?
Copper ones? What about the TT Volcano?

For noise wise, just don't use any Delta Focused Flow fans and you will be blessed... my god, they do sound like vaccum cleaners, and I mean it!

 

[Acieed]

Good quiet (and i mean quiet) HSF are hard to find. Get good copper ones then quiet fan like those from Panaflo (panasonic).

Also, don't trust gamers' reviews on -quiet- fans, because they aren't quiet at all!

 

[Zoomer]

Originally posted by Acieed
Good quiet (and i mean quiet) HSF are hard to find. Get good copper ones then quiet fan like those from Panaflo (panasonic).

Also, don't trust gamers' reviews on -quiet- fans, because they aren't quiet at all!

I should think you can trust mine. I rate Papst 8412NGH as very noisy .

The default AMD bundled fan is rather quiet. At least, it will not be noticable unless your PSU is stuff like the TruPower and you're in a very quiet room (eg your own room, windows closed, quiet neighberhood, at night).

THe noise from the HEC dual fan 330w is just acceptable for me. Yes, if you actively listen or in a quiet room, you can listen to it.

Don't even think about the deltas. I rate them as useless cos of their noise (high pitch too!).

If you want ultimate noiseless-ness, try getting the Alpha 8045 and then mount a 120mm fan onto it. Its possible, just make sure you get a rather quiet ~80CFM fan and wire a pot to the +12v. That way, you can control the amount of cooling desired.

 

[Acieed]

The HEC's are really nice. Better than the Enermax, IMHO. I have both the single-fan (AR-T) and dual-fan (LD-T) models. The single-fan one powers my audio recording box, really quiet. Only thing that makes noise now is my 6-year old Ultrastar. Maybe need to set aside some budget for a replacement ;p

Pentium or AMD likewise, its a never-ending pursue for a perfect silent PC. Cheaper to use long cables and leave the PC in a separate room, or if you are feeling rich, get an isolation box. Only need to sell off 1 or 2 of your DSLRs. If not, I think most people will just tolerate with all the noise.

 

[Zoomer]

Long cables are the best way!
Ever tried the Antec TruPowers? Super!

I rate the dual fans as below average noise though.

 

[xiaops2]

Hi I recently configure 2 price list for my friend, you might wanna take a look, hope it help,........


http://homex.coolconnect.com/member4/ayumisg/document/Azman Price Guide.txt

By the way, you might wanna update the price list as it was configured on the 13th nov 2002. The price will be slightly different.....

For the 2nd price list, you need to change the processor

INTEL Pentium-4 2.26B -2.26GHz- (512K/Box) 533MHz FSB =Bundle=

cost $221/- to fully max the P4 system running RD RAm with 533 FSB.

 

[Zoomer]

Why walk around the whole building buying stuff?

Just waste time and in the end save like what, $10 dollars?

Btw, p4 2 gig is a tad slow. And 256meg ram ain't gonna cut it anymore.

ABIT Siluro GeForce4 Ti4400 128MB DDR w/TV-Out+DVI $182Costronic

Impossible. Did u make a mistake?

 

[jeff chen]

Zoomer good suggestions. BTW, heard that Athlon not good for broadband...cos got problem...izzit? Truth or half-truth? I plan to get broadband later ...

Also, I wanna save cost that is why I still using my good ole HP 17 inch monitor like from 1997 Any problems with using an ole monitor with a brand new sys? I mean the monitor still is functioning...comments?

Say die die want P4, shld get 2.4Ghz plus 512 DDR RAM, plus what other config to get to the amt of S$1500 including licence copy of OS and Software...can or not? Keyboard, mouse and casing...not too particular...can recommend?

 

[Acieed]

Why's an Athlon "not good" for broadband?
Neither the modem nor the CPU will know what they are used for.
Doesn't make much sense doesn't it?

 

[jeff chen]

:dunno: :dunno:

Kena con lar...must be...so can anyone recommend me an optimum set up without monitor for $1500, including Win 98SE OS, and software (original). The purpose of the PC is mainly used for internet, photediting and storage, plus normal operations like words, excel, powerpt dah dah...?

 

[erwinx]

Originally posted by jeff chen
:dunno: :dunno:

Kena con lar...must be...so can anyone recommend me an optimum set up without monitor for $1500, including Win 98SE OS, and software (original). The purpose of the PC is mainly used for internet, photediting and storage, plus normal operations like words, excel, powerpt dah dah...?

if no games than cheapo graphic card can (cheap chipset, but get good brand for better image quality)

 

[StreetShooter]

As someone mentioned, it's probably not worth your time wandering around Sim Lim Square trying to save a coupla bucks here and there, and spending hours trying to troubleshoot exactly which piece of hardware or software is giving you trouble when you put everything together.

Better to buy from Dell - they're pretty competitive considering the software they throw in - just upgrade your own memory, because their upgrades are ridiculously priced. One thing I have to say, Dell computers are rock-stable. My two Dells (one Win98SE, the other WinXP) have NEVER crashed.

The other option is a local assembler. I've had good experience with http://www.techzone.com.sg/website.htm. The two computers they sold me are still running great. Just check out the preconfigured systems. If you want to upgrade anything, he'll do it for you at local (Sim Lim) prices or better. Specify your system and he will give you a quotation. Includes free delivery (Dell now charges for delivery). To give you an idea, I just got a P4 1.8GHz 512MB 80GB 40X CDRW Geforce 420 (64MB) Soundblaster system for just over 1K, and that was about 3 months ago. Including Win98SE it cost me $1200.

 

[jeff chen]

Thanks everyone who have contributed...good nite for now.

 

[Zoomer]

Originally posted by jeff chen
Zoomer good suggestions. BTW, heard that Athlon not good for broadband...cos got problem...izzit? Truth or half-truth? I plan to get broadband later ...

Also, I wanna save cost that is why I still using my good ole HP 17 inch monitor like from 1997 Any problems with using an ole monitor with a brand new sys? I mean the monitor still is functioning...comments?

Say die die want P4, shld get 2.4Ghz plus 512 DDR RAM, plus what other config to get to the amt of S$1500 including licence copy of OS and Software...can or not? Keyboard, mouse and casing...not too particular...can recommend?

That's as ridiculous as saying Canon isn't good for manfrotto tripods...or something like that. They can't be serious! :bsmilie: The only problems are old USB modems that don't really comply with USB spec and old VIA based USB controllers that don't really comform to spec...accumulate and bang! These issues would be gone now.

No issues with using the old monitor. 15 pin D-Sub analogue output is still here with us.

p4 2.4 won't leave much for components, and you want a licenced copy of XP I suppose...that's expensive, won't leave much for other stuff. IMO you can just get from ahem sources, works perfectly well. All, save the "feed the starving programmers" arguement, please.

Note that the benchmarks you see on sites, eg. the ones posted above, are done with i850 and pc1066 rdram. Using DDR ram will reduce the performance by about 15%, on aveage, depending on application.

 

[Zoomer]

Originally posted by jeff chen
:dunno: :dunno:

Kena con lar...must be...so can anyone recommend me an optimum set up without monitor for $1500, including Win 98SE OS, and software (original). The purpose of the PC is mainly used for internet, photediting and storage, plus normal operations like words, excel, powerpt dah dah...?

Cannot lar. $1500 cannot even cover photoediting software. (Photoshop hehe)

 

[jeff chen]

No lar...what I mean is the usual software like word, excel, ppt, antivirus like Norton. Sorlee I did not make myself clear...PS 7 is at least 1K right? Also probably Win 98 SE OS.

 

[Zoomer]

Originally posted by StreetShooter
As someone mentioned, it's probably not worth your time wandering around Sim Lim Square trying to save a coupla bucks here and there, and spending hours trying to troubleshoot exactly which piece of hardware or software is giving you trouble when you put everything together.

Better to buy from Dell - they're pretty competitive considering the software they throw in - just upgrade your own memory, because their upgrades are ridiculously priced. One thing I have to say, Dell computers are rock-stable. My two Dells (one Win98SE, the other WinXP) have NEVER crashed.

The other option is a local assembler. I've had good experience with http://www.techzone.com.sg/website.htm. The two computers they sold me are still running great. Just check out the preconfigured systems. If you want to upgrade anything, he'll do it for you at local (Sim Lim) prices or better. Specify your system and he will give you a quotation. Includes free delivery (Dell now charges for delivery). To give you an idea, I just got a P4 1.8GHz 512MB 80GB 40X CDRW Geforce 420 (64MB) Soundblaster system for just over 1K, and that was about 3 months ago. Including Win98SE it cost me $1200.

You'll need to factor in the quality of components they use. I'll provide an analogy you can relate to.

Its like getting some great lens, maybe even a leica. Put that on a substandard body, and then, worse, screw in some cheapo nice looking 2.5X vitacon teleconvertors (which are actually 1.6x or even less with horrible CA, light fall off at side, softness, eg.), ultra cheap plastic filters, and then using max 400.

Novices will say wah! Leica (like the p4 whatsoever speed processor), 2.5x teleconvertor (nvidia GF4 MX 420 which is actually based on GF2, and have seriously s***ty performance), and then never notice the rest of the stuff that really suck. Like harddrives. At the price (1k?), you'll be getting a 5400rpm one. That's slow. Even worse, the hard drive is one of the largest bottlenecks in PC performance. A P3 1Ghz with a cheetah X15 will blow the socks off a P4 3gig on many apps. The feel will be, overall, more responsive and quicker.

 

[Zoomer]

Originally posted by jeff chen
No lar...what I mean is the usual software like word, excel, ppt, antivirus like Norton. Sorlee I did not make myself clear...PS 7 is at least 1K right? Also probably Win 98 SE OS.

I saw an ad saying special price! Photoshop 7 $1550! ;p

Let see:
Windows Xp Home - $160
MS Office XP.... - $600 (I think)
Norton AV - $80

Well, I guess this is the reason why the you know what is so prevalent in singapore...hehe.

Btw, you can't really find 98se selling anywhere anymore. Could proably find it, but will be hard. XP is better anyway unless you need some critical app that can only be run in dos.