Com-Central.net

- JG300-Stoopy

Hmmm. Well, in trying again a time or two, it looks like my pencil wasn't too dull - can't seem to do too much better. A few caveats:

- One thing I like about those options is the sound card. I just finished putting that VERY SAME ONE in my son's PC because there's a very EVIL thing going on nowadays and it's called "Intel VIIV technology". You can't get away from it innewer off-the-shelf systems it seems, it's a build-in sound card on the motherboard and comes with it's own drivers. But, get this - the speakers are USB (ewww!!) and also, Microsoft XP Media Center Edition managed to drop the drivers 4 times in as many weeks, resulting in no sound and annoying pop-ups on bootup about "No Windows Mixer Device Available". The solution? Get a real sound card, that uses real speakers with real cables, and real drivers. Disable the on-board audio, and THEN also rename the folder for the Intel Audio Studio software (that strangely CANNOT be Uninstalled or removed!) so that Windows can't even TRY to load it and then give annoying pop-ups. The LAST STRAW was when I had them all working together but Intel Audio Studio complained when we switched his screen to very hi-res with large (120 dpi) fonts - "Intel Audio Studio requires a font size of 96 dpi"....oh for the love of......SCROO'T!

- The CPU is "Non-HT" or, non-Hyperthreading. I chose it because it was fast and cheap.....clock cycles are the Holy Grail in flight simming! But non-HT means it'll stumble somewhat when tasked with running other thnigs in the background. However the HT-capable 2.40 Ghz CPU is another 600 bones or so, so I'm queasy on this choice right now. Ideally I've got my eye on the 2.66 Core 2 Duo CPU's which are HOT STUFF and coming down slowly but surely.

- You're going with XP Pro, right? Or maybe XP Home (which I have, and is fine). Not XP Media Edition.....please. Did Dell give you any price breaks for NOT going with VISTA? I know it's not likely.

- I chopped the extended warranty stuff out since I was focusing on parts. I don't know how much you're married to it so you'll need to add that in. Might put me over budget.

I think, subject to good feedback about the non-HT-capable CPU, that system should cook....it wont SCREAM like a $3000 system, but it shouldn't be any slouch at'all! 300HP Mustang GT as opposed to the 400HP GTO with higher price tag.

I'll keep trying to tweak the pencil tho....

- JG300-Stoopy

EXACTLY my point on the sound-card thingy. You don't wanna know about or deal with it - it's gotten ugly and I'm disappointed that such a simple, inexpensive part of any system has now been screwed up for people. Getchya a proper built-in sound card like that one, with the system and properly integrated, and you'll happily plug in the cables and hear stuff the way it's s'posed to work.

Gateway is like 200 bones on the on-site 3-year warranty stuff, probably becuase it's a desktop and not a laptop...kind of comparing apples & oranges there.

The 22" LCD monitor at $160 is optional, but I'll tell ya this came with my son's rig and it is a SWEET monitor! Very nice. Something to think about is how you're gonna transfer all your old stuff from the old machine to the new. You could either get an external USB hard drive with that money and transfer everythign via it (plus, have it all backed up when you're done) or go with the new monitor and keep the old rig set up with the old monitor while you move stuff over via thumb drive or whatever - that's kinda like moving all the water from one bucket to another with a ladle, though.

Going down to a less-expensive model and building it up to the same specs makes it more expensive and I note the disclaimer about "give us a call about WIndows XP" is missing on those systems. So I have to say I think I got it pretty much right with that first stab - the one change I'm making is specify ONE 500GB hard drive, as opposed to a RAID setup which is two 250MB drives paired together. Helps keep heat and power draw down, against the arguable advantages of a RAID setup.

So......here she blows, WITH 3-year on-site: Yanked the speakers too, since the ones you have now seem to be making perfectly adequate bleeping, blooping and crashing noises. Also, added one more item there at the end, don't know if you've heard of it but it's kinda neat



Quote is saved under fake email name of "Ascout@CC.net" so you can call it back up - for some reason, an earlier system I'd been playing with is saved there too, just ignore it (it's from the other thread).

Your boss is a smart cookie.....not that I'd ever say anything bad about those weird Aussie cars either, even with that fine LS2 motor and excellent rolling hardware. Hopefully the price isn't gonna be balanced out by family chiropractor visits from trying to get in & out of the back seats...

- Shades

THIS may help you with the graphic card bit.
That 7950 is quite a high spec gaming card.

- JG300-Stoopy

Thanks Shades! Had heard good thigns about it but no personal input....for about $200 it's got as much RAM as my ATI 1650 PRO card but is even faster....and cost about the same as I paid.

Oh hey Ascout.....be sure that, although you do need MS Office Home and Student 2007, do NOT buy it from either Dell or Gateway with a computer....because you don't usually REALLY get the install media - they pre-install it for ya and that's that.....so installing it PER the license agreement on another system can be, of course, impossible.

Get that when you make your side-trip to Best Buy or CompUSA for that Linksys Wireless router,,,,and FSX Deluxe...

It's one other thing I'm not crazy about how things have transpired these days......used to be, you got software bundled with the system, you got the install media too.