Time for a new computer
Tags: Hardware
OK, I can finally admit it - I've been using a computer that I would never let a client use. The Dell 4600 is practically older than dirt. I bought it in 2002 and have steadily upgraded it but it just wasn't cutting it any more, especially after I upgraded it to Vista (I know, I know, but I have to support Vista, so it's best for me to have a machine running it as well. And it's really not that bad, but that's a topic for a different post.)
Anyway, I was going to replace my trusty old Dell with a trusty new Dell when my buddy Shane convinced me that I'd be better off building a PC from components I bought at Newegg. I resisted, but then spent some time with Shane researching and pricing stuff out and whaddya know, I could save $600. OK, I'm in - I geeked out and went for it.
After researching a ton, I settled on an ASUS M3A78-EM motherboard, an AMD Phenom 9600 Agena quad-core processor, 4 GB of OCZ Reaper RAM, and an Apevia X-Gear case. Everything showed up in 3 separate orders over a couple of days this week. After I finally had everything in my office it didn't take too long to hook it all together, although I had a few setbacks and questions during the process. If I had to do it all over again (and I do - more on that later) it will probably take about 1/3 of the time. Oh, you might have noticed some components missing, and this is partly how I kept my costs down. I already had a SATA hard drive, a DVD burner, floppy, keyboard, and mouse.
So I finally got it all together and loaded up Vista Ultimate. Took a while (I think the DVD drive is kind of slow) but eventually I had a working computer. For the most part. I tried running the Vista evaluator to see how my system makes out but it doesn't seem to recognize my onboard graphics card. Eh - no biggie, I know it's fast. Certainly faster than my old Pentium 4.
But it's not without problems, one of which is going to require swapping some hardware. Basically, I hate the case. It's awful. It has these bright blue lights all over it - they're blinding. More importantly, it's LOUD. What, I can't hear you? It's L O U D. OK, maybe for a gamer they need all these lights and fans, but I just want a quiet machine. I can't stand the drone of the fans, primarily the power supply fan. Back to the drawing board. It turns out there's a big group of silent PC enthusiasts. Who knew? Shane doesn't care about the noise and has lots of computers droning away in his office so he didn't even think about that. I'm still in the process of researching but I might have settled on an Antec Sonata III which is supposed to be pretty quiet without breaking the bank. I'll follow up on that when I order a new case.
So would I recommend this for anyone else? Eh, probably not. It's OK for me because I can put it together myself and maintain it and I had a bunch of extra components laying around. If you fall into that category, sure, you'll end up with a better machine for less money than if you buy a Dell. But most of my clients are still better off buying a name brand machine with a warranty.
OK, I can finally admit it - I've been using a computer that I would never let a client use. The Dell 4600 is practically older than dirt. I bought it in 2002 and have steadily upgraded it but it just wasn't cutting it any more, especially after I upgraded it to Vista (I know, I know, but I have to support Vista, so it's best for me to have a machine running it as well. And it's really not that bad, but that's a topic for a different post.)
Anyway, I was going to replace my trusty old Dell with a trusty new Dell when my buddy Shane convinced me that I'd be better off building a PC from components I bought at Newegg. I resisted, but then spent some time with Shane researching and pricing stuff out and whaddya know, I could save $600. OK, I'm in - I geeked out and went for it.
After researching a ton, I settled on an ASUS M3A78-EM motherboard, an AMD Phenom 9600 Agena quad-core processor, 4 GB of OCZ Reaper RAM, and an Apevia X-Gear case. Everything showed up in 3 separate orders over a couple of days this week. After I finally had everything in my office it didn't take too long to hook it all together, although I had a few setbacks and questions during the process. If I had to do it all over again (and I do - more on that later) it will probably take about 1/3 of the time. Oh, you might have noticed some components missing, and this is partly how I kept my costs down. I already had a SATA hard drive, a DVD burner, floppy, keyboard, and mouse.
So I finally got it all together and loaded up Vista Ultimate. Took a while (I think the DVD drive is kind of slow) but eventually I had a working computer. For the most part. I tried running the Vista evaluator to see how my system makes out but it doesn't seem to recognize my onboard graphics card. Eh - no biggie, I know it's fast. Certainly faster than my old Pentium 4.
But it's not without problems, one of which is going to require swapping some hardware. Basically, I hate the case. It's awful. It has these bright blue lights all over it - they're blinding. More importantly, it's LOUD. What, I can't hear you? It's L O U D. OK, maybe for a gamer they need all these lights and fans, but I just want a quiet machine. I can't stand the drone of the fans, primarily the power supply fan. Back to the drawing board. It turns out there's a big group of silent PC enthusiasts. Who knew? Shane doesn't care about the noise and has lots of computers droning away in his office so he didn't even think about that. I'm still in the process of researching but I might have settled on an Antec Sonata III which is supposed to be pretty quiet without breaking the bank. I'll follow up on that when I order a new case.
So would I recommend this for anyone else? Eh, probably not. It's OK for me because I can put it together myself and maintain it and I had a bunch of extra components laying around. If you fall into that category, sure, you'll end up with a better machine for less money than if you buy a Dell. But most of my clients are still better off buying a name brand machine with a warranty.
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Comments
However, unless you're a computer guy or hobbiest, I definitely don't recommend it for the avergae computer user. Either order a customer machine from a trusted source like Dell, or ask your local good computer guy to do it for you!
Posted by your friendly neighborhood computer guy At 02:24:13 PM On 01/09/2009 | - Website - |
Posted by Bill Greenberg At 04:48:33 PM On 01/14/2009 | - Website - |