DrGlass' Absence

Quote DrGlass:

My house burnt down... not all the way mind you, but alot...

From what I know, it caught fire 4pm the day we left, while we were
over Alaska en-rout to China. My room was only hit by smoke damage and
lots of water damage (fire fighters). My computer, along with some
other stuff of mine has been evact by some friends, so the mosaic stuff
and all my art work is safe.

As for the rest of my house, its bad but not SO bad. We had alot of
artwork that can never be replaced but some of it made it out ok. My
mom's office is gone, it is just vapor now... and we think the whole
house will have to be taken down and re-built.

So, the project is still on, but I'm going to need a new computer.
If some one could post this on the snarkpit web site that would be
nice. I want to ask them to build the best computer for $1000 not
including the graphics card. So I'm looking to build a computer for
around 1500-2000$. Something that will run photoshop like a charm, game
good, and I think I'd like to use an ATI card.

thanks for any support and stuff guys.

[edit] I cant visit SnarkPit, I think the Chinese government had banned it from the public. I blame Gwil.

Hope he'll get everything back in order once he gets back from China...

Poor Dr. Glass...

Is it just me, or are a lot of bad things happening to snarkpit people lately?

Well, not much more I can say, just let him know that we care.

Until Later...

---

Dark_Kilauea
DVS Administration
http://www.dvstudio-production.com/

Oh man, this is really sad to hear :sad:

I'll give your task a shot but I don't really know what computing shops
are good in the US. I know of NewEgg, but if anybody could post up
other good US computer parts suppliers so that us foreign people can
also help find the best deal then that would be appreciated.

I know you aren't able to read this right now, but when you do, good
luck getting it all sorted out. I can only imagine how tough this must
be on you and your family, and I hope you make the most of your holiday
(if thats what it is) despite the obvious distraction.

---

[img]http://card.mygamercard.net/sig/Default/reno84.png[/img]
Designer @ Haiku Interactive | ReNo-vation.net

I really hope this is just another one of those bad jokes some morons seem to enjoy so much. X-is-dead-like jokes.

If not then...Jeez, poor poor dr.glass... :sad:

And what's this about spit being banned in China because of Gwil (the hammer and sickle thing?)?

So sorry to hear that.

I am not faring much better. The plaster ceiling in my apartment is coming undone. Huge chunks of plaster are falling down everywhere. I think it's triggered by the earthquake we had recently.

I had to tell the father of a girl that she might have brain tumor. Another patient I saw this morning had a seizure in the office, right in front of me.

Something is not quite right at the SnarkPit. Someone has done something to spread bad karma around.

---

"The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return." -- Toulouse-Lautre, Moulin Rouge

Sorry to hear that Dr Glass... Please don't grief me for saying this but sometimes it's not all bad...

I got robbed once and we did lose valuable items that could not be replaced. Although I did get brand new and much better replacements thanks to insurance. Of course when you have the chance don't waste it and say you lost things that you didn't actually own.

Same goes for Dr Glass, he has the oppatunity to purchse a new computer with all high tech equipement etc...

You have my sympathy and I wish you luck in rebuilding what has been lost.

damn that sucks. so there was no-one home, no electric things running, ... so do they know the cause ?

if he can spend 500 to 1000$ on the graphix card maybe he can get the GF7800 :smile: implying a PCI-E SLI mobo (around 100euro? dunno tbh), and then if we keep the other things cheap we can get him an AMD Athlon64 4000+ 64bit (490euro) if its possible to stay under 1000$.

---

These words are my diaries screaming out loud

[edit] I cant visit SnarkPit, I think the Chinese government had banned it from the public. I blame Gwil.

I almost pee'd.. almost.

---

The best things in life, aren't things.

Sorry to hear that DrGlass, that really sucks :sad: . Hope the
insurance comes through for you and you can replace everything, get you
place back together.

I can help with the whole video card choice, been scouring the net for
the last few days. I'd definately say newegg seems the best estore in
the US for PC parts, I would buy my new card from them if they shipped
overseas.

---

Ham and Jam Contributor
http://www.hamandjam.org

'Get your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape!'

I can build a very nice computer for about $1500 including video.
For a current video card I'd suggest nvidia. Normally it wouldn't really matter, but right now they're more bang for your buck.

Here's a general price range with the parts (No case or video card, prices are from enuinc.com, which is a local hardware store. Pretty much all prices are cheaper online. Not sure how warranties hold up though. Also, this store, ENU, has a 1 year warranty on everything they sell regardless of the manufactuer):

(USD, No Sales tax)

MSI K8N NEO4/SLI Platinum - $189 ($149 without SLI)
Athlon64 3200 939pin Retail - $205 (3 Year Warranty)
Kreton 1GB PC3200 X 2 - $190 (Lifetime Warranty)
Maxtor 250G 16M SATA - $149 (16M Cache, 3 Year Warranty)
Pioneer 109 +-RW 16X OEM - $59 (Beige, No Warranty, but I'll vouch for it)

Total - $792

The machine will do everything you want it to. You can get a faster CPU or more ram as well. Video cards are well priced currently, so wait a little longer and you'd be able to get a great deal.

I'd suggest:

MSI NX6800 Ultra PCI-E - $469 (That's too much for video, but the price will go down more soon, sadly, this is the cheapest I've found, even compared to newegg)

That'd bring the total to: $1,261. Although, I personally thing anything over $800 is too much for a computer. But it's up to you of course.

If you actually planned on spending 2 grand, I'd suggest an FX-53 chip and a 7800 card. However, they're not worth the extra price in the long run. Rather you saved the left over money for upgrading down the line. The board I listed is pretty nice, upgradeable processor (up to 4000 FX-53) but the ram is as fast as it goes (400). Hell if you REALLY wanted you could buy two of the same card and use SLI (which is an nvidia only thing) which I've heard gives insane increases, near doubling performance of video intensive applications. An FX-53 chip would give you higher FPS in games (more pipelines) and less to no stalling in most programs.

None of this includes a new case or anything like that. Depending on what you want, it could cost nothing or a couple hundred (in which case, you're insane).

But this machine will run PS like a dream. Especially with that HDD access time and space.

Hope this helps. Sorry about your home.

---

Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

That's terrible news Doc, but at least everyone in your family is safe.

I'd like to echo everything that ReNo mentioned, and I hope you can bounce back from this accident.

As for the computer set up, I'm no computer whiz so I can't help you much there, unfortunately.

s**t. This really makes it seem like a small world. You never think this will happen to anyone you know.

I really feel bad for you. Good thing you and your family is ok. And your computer.

I hope this clears quickly and your new house is remade and everything starts going smoothly again.

Doc, I hope you get things sorted out man. Really sorry to hear about it :sad:

I feel real bad this has happened to him.. the man has been though a
lot in the last year or so.. But I know one good thing will come from
this.. his art. Tragedy seems to give him great inpriration, and his
art soars.. I can hardly wait to see what his soul and his heart put out
after this.

I have some local whole sellers I can get stuff from, I can whip a nice 64 bit machine together for a 1000 bucks.. let me know.

Sorry to hear that Doc :sad:

Terrible stuff. Good luck in getting things straight again.

---

:: Forceflow.be :: Nuclear Dawn developer

That's rough man. But I told you that jumbo vibrators are a fire risk. :razz:

Nah, seriously, I'd help if I could, but im too poor and too far away.

Lets hope no other snarkpitters share our similar misforturnate positions, bad things happen in threes as they say. :sad:

That sucks. Luckily not everything went up in flames. I've seen people
who have lost everything in fires. It's a bad thing to happen to
anyone. Just how did the fire start?

Sad news indeed. :sad:

Must be horrible to have your belongings destroyed like that. Good luck with everything.

---

What the Snarkpitters listen to!

Very sad news, i would reccommend everyone has a whip-around for dr.Glass's new GFX card, but i cant donate :sad:

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I need a new sig

im v sorry to hear about ur home dr glass :sad: i know how u feel. when i
was 18 part of my house burnt down and we had to move for a period
whilst it was rebuilt. It turned out to be faulty wiring in our living
room which started the fire. As for ur comp thats harsh. and i hope ur
back soon :smile:

Whoa! Sounds terrible! :sad:

I've been lucky and never experienced that. The home is a vital part of
everybody and i'm releved to hear that some of your work and belongings
where saved from water and flames.

I've always wondered how china can block websites?? Stupid dictatorship! Ooops... now snarkpit is blocked for sure. But, shouldn't it be possible to jump over the block using some proxy?

---

God got tired waiting all sunday for the world to compile and finaly had it.
On the Eight day, god created func_details, and he saw that it was fast.

hmm... He could try Gibeo.net as a proxy.

Until Later...

---

Dark_Kilauea
DVS Administration
http://www.dvstudio-production.com/

Sorry to hear about the fire doc, its a good thing you kept backups tho. Data is priceless.

I'm not sure about China, but I know Vietnam has a similar system. It blocks sites the government doesnt agree with... anywhere theres anti-communist sentiment. I hear they even blocked geocities. I'd be interested to see if a proxy works.

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"If you talk at all during this lesson, you have detention. Do you understand?"

• My yr11 Economics teacher

Look at the bright side, they could have blocked the Internet altogether like Stalin or Mao would have done.

Thats pretty bad news... :eek: Hope it gets sorted, I wanted to do part of the next mosaic!

On another bad news note, Lep has leperousy...

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-[Better to be Honest than Kind]-

Shoulda seen that coming...

(the leperousy)

Na'ah, you're bluffing! ...aren't you?

I'm back, kinda!

I'm living in an apartment atm with no internet, TV, or computer. Thanks for the support but I'm going to have to be brief here. Fire sucks but I'm not really freaking out about it, s**t happens so move on.

Here is my computer specksa that I may buy, if you have any suggestions or think something is too over board do tell. I'd like to keep it under $2,000

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ Dual Core Processor $557.00
Corsair 1GB PC5400 DDR2 DIMM XMS2 Dual Channel Memory Kit $163.00
Western Digital Raptor WD740GD 74GB Hard Drive(SATA 10k RPM) $174.99
Western Digital WD Caviar SE WD3200JD 320GB Hard Drive(SATA, 7.2k RPM) $155.00
Logitech Inc MX1000 Laser Cordless Mouse $58.99
Logitech Elite Keyboard (Black) USB with PS/2 Adaptor $14.95
Lian-Li PC6070B Aluminum ATX Mid Tower $161.07
MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum Motherboard $132.00
BFG Technologies GeForce 6800 GT OC Video Card $413.50
Pc Power & Cooling Silencer 470 ATX $99.00
Sennheiser PC155 Traditional Binaural PC Headset $67.48
Logitech X-230 2.1 $35.04
NEC ND-3520A Dual Layer DVD?RW Writer $51.01
Microsoft Windows XP Professional x64 $145.08
Mitsumi 3.5" Floppy Disk Drive - Black $12.19
Total: $2240.31

Where are you posting from?!?!?

That processor is overkill. It wont be used, be a better idea to get a single core chip. Not to mention that board doesn't support that processor or that speed of ram. I know the ram would just clock to 400 (if the ram allows it, some don't).

I'd suggest taking some money away from the ram and processor (since their full potential wont be used anyway) and add it to the video card and board. I think for about $30 more you can get an Ultra MSI card, or something as such, bundles and quality are always common with them. And about $40 more you can get a Sli Platinum. (They're planning on making expansions other then video that will use it)

With the HDD, Raptor, obviously, you're going for access speed, so whatever. But, you can get a Maxtor, probably around the same price, instead of the 320Gb WD that has a larger cache (16).

The most important thing for you to look at when compiling a computer parts list is: chipset, video, and ram. The chipset is fine, however, it doesn't support that speed of ram or that processor type.

What I suggested is pretty reasonable, to be honest. You could even get two video cards and have something that puts out more usable computing power then what you've got there.

Also, be aware that getting four sticks of single channel ram would turn out to be more beneficial then the maximum allowed two sticks of duel channel ram. (probably cheaper too)

You may also want to look at an FX 53/55 chip, I believe that boards highest supported CPU is a FX 55 4000+.

Personally, I'd avoid spending anything over $1100 at the most for a computer (meaning able to run anything and everything out wonderfully). But, $2000 is way to much to spend on a computer, especially with the specs you have there, you'll just be wasting your money. But, you don't have to listen to me, and it's pretty obvious that no one has or will attempt to, so whatever. :rolleyes:

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Awww Crono, I wouldn't ask if I wasn't going to listen. I'll be honest though, this is all over my head and I'm letting my friend take care of building the computer, and he seems to know his s**t.

We caught the ram problem after I posted, and Kris (my friend) is looking up some stuff about the Mother Board right now.

I'm really wanting to make a computer that will last me for the next few years and can pull it weight around. I've always had half ass computers that cost me too much, so I'm really going to be careful on this one. I have $2000+ to spend, but if its not worth it then I'll take a second and third look.

I really want this computer for my apps more than for my games, I dont play that many games as it is anyways.

So we will take a look at your suggestions and I'll give you guys a new list soon.

P.S. I'm posting at my friends house untill I can get computer/internet at my place.

Here is the new price list

AMD Athlon 64 4000+ Processor(2.4GHz, 1MB, 2GHz FSB, Socket 939) $473.00
Corsair 1GB PC3200 DDR DIMM Memory(x2) $175.80
Western Digital Raptor WD740GD 74GB Hard Drive(SATA 10k RPM) $174.99
Maxtor DiamondMax 10 300GB Hard Drive(SATA, 7.2k RPM) $182.00
Logitech Inc MX1000 Laser Cordless Mouse $58.99
Logitech Elite Keyboard (Black) USB with PS/2 Adaptor $14.95
Lian-Li PC6070B Aluminum ATX Mid Tower $161.07
Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe Motherboard $164.47
BFG Technologies GeForce 6800 GT OC Video Card (PCI-E) $413.50
Pc Power & Cooling Silencer 470 ATX $99.00
Sennheiser PC155 Traditional Binaural PC Headset $67.48
Logitech X-230 2.1 $35.04
NEC ND-3520A Dual Layer DVD╠RW Writer $51.01
Microsoft Windows XP Professional x64 $145.08
Mitsumi 3.5" Floppy Disk Drive - Black $12.19
Total: $2228.57

He thanks you for pointing out the mobo problem, and the hdd. Does anyone know about student discounts for Windows XP?

Sorry to hear about your house, DrGlass - I hope you and your family can get back on track as soon as possible. It's a small blessing it wasn't more badly damaged, I figure.

As for the PC, Microsoft do offer student discounts for software, but I have no idea how you obtain such reductions.

Best of luck with getting back on your feet and into normality again mate - as has been said I'm sure you'll be raring to get back into the art and mapping projects. And good luck circumventing Communist net traffic blockades! Crazy Chinese...

BTW, for those curious, China controls all internet traffic centrally - it filters not anti-Communist sentiment, moreso it shuts down blogs and discussion boards focused on Democracy and full autonomy/independence for Taiwan. Microsoft recently made a tidy profit off the Beijing government with a new, stronger firewall designed for further censorship. Oh well...

yeh, i got the student discount and got xp pro for 84 bucks. great deal. thats on newegg.com

id say half you stuff can be replaced with better, cheaper alternatives. like the 6800gt, you have a bfg. bfg is good, but always more expensive. if you get the msi, its pci-ex and supports sli, and combo that with the, what was it, some msi mobo... ill put together a price list real fast.

and... do you want a monitor with that?

---

• AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego Model ADA3700BNBOX - $325
• ZALMAN CNPS7000B-Cu - $41.99
• MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum SLI Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard - $172
• CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB (2 x 512MB) -- *(x2) - $160
• MSI NX6800GT-T2D256E Geforce 6800GT pci-e sli - $365
• Western Digital Raptor WD740GD 74GB Hard Drive SATA - $166
• Maxtor DiamondMax 10 300GB SATA 16mb cache - $160
• Logitech MX518 -- as good as mx1000 - $39
• Saitek PZ30AU Black USB Eclipse Keyboard - $47
• COOLER MASTER CAV-T01-WKA CASE - $87
• Sennheiser PC155 Traditional Binaural PC Headset - $67.48
• Logitech X-230 2.1 - $34.99
• LITE-ON Black IDE DVD Burner SOHW-1673S BK - $47
• Microsoft Windows XP Professional Acedemic Edition - $84
• SAMSUNG Black 1.44MB 3.5" Internal Floppy Drive - $8.99

Total: 1805.45

--

the eclipse keyboard is the most comfortable keyboard in the world, and it lights up. yeah.

the mx518 is just as good as the mx1000, but has on-the-fly sensitivity adjustment. that just plain kicks ass. heard of the razer?

this setup also supports sli. if you feel you need it, you can someday add another 6800gt.

ALL PRICES ARE FROM WWW.NEWEGG.COM

enjoy.

---

www.nysteo.com

If animals weren't meant to be eaten, then they wouldn't be so delicious and easy to catch!

Face it: if crime didn't pay, there would be very few criminals.

The board was fine, actually, I'd strongly suggest it. But I have a personal vendetta against ASUS. I've had nothing but problems with them when regarding motherboards. Honestly, going back through, with a target of $1500 US, I'd suggest the board ishbog put down:

MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum with SLi, it's a good company, and it's considered the best SLI board for your money currently.

Hey look, a good deal on corsair ram. I'd suggest 4 of those. (4GB, systems maximum capacity) $85 x 4 = $340, a little steap, but no ram upgrading until you get a new board, so it'd most likely last you about 4 years, based on what's happened before, but we're heading into a time where the architecture could be getting killed off. Also, by no means do you NEED 4 gigs of ram, but if you want to spend anything close to the amount you have and have no need to really, but, I'd suggest at least 2 GB, simply because to max out current games you need at least a gig and if you want to last a couple years before buying ANYTHING for the computer, 2 is a good choice. Not to mention there's a lifetime warranty :smile:

The processor is really arguable. I could sit here all day and tell you how pretty unimportant it will be to get something insanely fast right now, you simply wont use it. I'd suggest something in the $150 - $200 range, for you. It'd last a couple years, at the least, and there's still'd be room for upgrading after that point. Also, that doesn't include, later on, investing in an FX chip, which is supported by that board.

My suggestion would be: AMD Athlon 64 3200+ The next one up would be the one ishbog suggested, but that's a little expensive, I wouldn't go higher, but a 1MB L2 Cache would be nice. But not imperitive. In any case you wouldn't currently notice a difference.

On the video card, I'd suggest shelling out a little more for an Ultra, just because it has overall higher performance longevity. It has some things (registers) built in that the GT doesn't have which are going to be standard in the next generation stuff. (64-bit texture blending) It's about $100 more (on newegg), PCI-E, then the GT. Probably wait a couple weeks and it'll go down. It's $419 on zipzoomfly.com It'll get lower.

The other things really are up to you. I don't suggest an NEC drive, or SONY, Lite-On, I think is alright, I've never used them though. Pioneer is good too.

Those are the only things I have any opinion on really. Those would all cost together:

$949, Board => 1121. That's going to come out to be about $1500 total. I think just cut back on the CPU and it'd be a good deal. Cheaper too. Spend less money now, and you can use more later to put longevity in your computer.

Also, unless you actually use floppy discs often, there really is no use in buying one. And if you really need one, just take it from another computer.

I'd, personally, purge a little more on the video right now, because that'll give you the most noticeable performance boost for the time being. Hell, if you wanted to wait a month or so, either the ultra will be even cheaper (it's gone down over $100 in the last month) or the 7800 might be worth the purchase. (less likely).

But it's your choice.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

I can't understand anything said in this topic anymore :biggrin:

Crono said:
The board was fine, actually, I'd strongly suggest it. But I have a personal vendetta against ASUS. I've had nothing but problems with them when regarding motherboards. Honestly, going back through, with a target of $1500 US, I'd suggest the board ishbog put down

We are going to stick with the board for now, I want the SLI option for later and I personaly like ASUS, though I did have problems with my last ASUS board I got lots of help from them and the BIOS and options on the board were great.

Crono said:
Hey look, a good deal on corsair ram.

ha! jus before we read your post we found this deal and are going to go with 2 gigs.

Crono said:
My suggestion would be: AMD Athlon 64 3200+ The next one up would be the one ishbog suggested, but that's a little expensive, I wouldn't go higher, but a 1MB L2 Cache would be nice. But not imperitive. In any case you wouldn't currently notice a difference.

On another forum we were told to not go with this, but since then we have gone back to that.

Thanks for the help, we were able to get the price down to about $1,800 and that is with tax/S&H so really we have about a 15-1600$ system here. Unless something comes up, I'll have it within the next 2 weeks.

Apparently that MSI board is winning all the awards when regarding SLI. And to be honest, ASUS are overpriced hunks of junk. And from my experience their short commings are usually from their motherboards. But whatever, they both have the same chipset. The ASUS has 8 channel audio, the MSI has 7. Both have Gigabyte lan ... the ASUS board has two, which you wont need. Basically all those "features" are on any board with that chipset. The actual construction or bundling should really determin your purchase. MSI usually bundles a lot of stuff with good support and is readily adjustable. The ASUS board is probably a little harder to find support for as their site doesn't even give proper specs on the thing. But they'll both work fine, I've just had problems with ASUS before, as you have, apparently. I suppose the one "advantage" the ASUS board has is that retarded AS NOS garbage. Which, if you were an average "I don't really know anything about computers and I think case fans are more important than a chipset" type of people, then that'd intice you to buy that board instead. No offense intended. I've met many people who think that way and it confusses me.

The processor will work and it will suit your needs, nothing more, nothing less. And like I said, depending on the board you get there could be room for a lot of upgradability.

Oh, something else that's pretty nice about MSI boards is they all come with D-Brackets. Which acts as extra USB ports and bluetooth, but they also have four lights and can be used to trouble shoot hardware problems. Not that I've ever needed it, but it'd be very handy, more handy then nothing. The manual for the board tells you what all the lights mean as well.

Another nice thing is usually the MSI boards upgrade to others very easily, meaning, Windows doesn't go ape s**t and lock you out of your computer, Demanding that something is wrong because there was a major hardware change. Not sure if it always happens on ASUS boards, but it's happened to me with other people's computers.

I'd say the only confusing thing in either board is SPDIF and six-eight channel audio. Because they explain it one way and give you 1/2 ports, yet on EVERYTHING ELSE there's AV (RCA) jacks or just one in port. It's very nerv racking. I don't think anyone is suppose to properly understand hooking up complex sound systems or something.

Don't think I'm pressuring you or anything, I'm just explaining what I've learned from experience and my opinion to try to give more information about both types. The choice is yours to make. Either board will do you fine really, it mostly goes along with minor preferances. I just prefer for my stuff to work past the warranty period :razz:

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

You've sold me on the MSI board, and now that I think about it we may have gone with the MSI, if not I'll talk with my friend and get him to change it.

As for the audio, I'm going with a very simple sound set up, I dont plan on getting a 5:1 surround sound any time soon, and if I did I'd go spend the $50-100 on a good sound card.

Welcome back DrGlass!

and

French Toast said:
I can't understand anything said in this topic anymore :biggrin:

I agree... sometimes it feels like everybody on snarkpit is hardware
experts cuz as soon as someone mention "motherboard" you're most likley
to get essay sized replys and no matter if the topic is dedicated to
the subject like this one.

I buy a motherboard every third year, and goddamnit, when i do, i just buy the cheapest. :biggrin: It has worked this far. :razz:

---

God got tired waiting all sunday for the world to compile and finaly had it.
On the Eight day, god created func_details, and he saw that it was fast.

RaPtoR said:
Welcome back DrGlass!

I agree... sometimes it feels like everybody on snarkpit is hardware experts cuz as soon as someone mention "motherboard" you're most likley to get essay sized replys and no matter if the topic is dedicated to the subject like this one.

I buy a motherboard every third year, and goddamnit, when i do, i just buy the cheapest. :biggrin: It has worked this far. :razz:

thanks!

I am not a hardware person by a long shot, but I've always made poor computer choices and this time around, I have alot of money to spend and I want to get the best damn computer I can for a good price. So I'm doing my homework and asking anyone who knows, what they think about it.

Yeah ... Do you know of an EIGHT channel audio system you can buy? Because I don't. However, a 16.4 audio system would be soooooo sweet.

It'd be two center, one high one low, two left, right, rear center, rear right, rear left, and a woofer for each side. You'd have almost completely submerged sound. It'd be nice. I don't know what there aren't multiple woofer hook ups yet, seriously.

I'm glad I could help. Don't try to spend too much money on the system. It'd probably be a good idea to take the "left over money" (looks to be about $500 or so) and save it, add a little more to it every once in awhile, then in a couple years, do a small upgrade, more ram, faster CPU, better video card, etc. That way $2K would make the computer last longer and give you a far better functional life span then blowing all your money at once. :smile:

Enjoy your computer. I'm sure there's some more cuts you could make, probably with the HDDs. But, I'll leave that to you. As I've said before, I've had WDs fail on me (about 6), but they were much older, back when IBM really was the cream of the crop on the HDD front. I think, Maxtor is the most bang for you buck right now though.

If I scrounge some money up, I think I might pick up that ram, cause that's cheaper then local prices. (There was a gig stick for $95 here, lifetime warranty, but that's $7 or so cheaper, with shipping)

Please don't think that long drawn out explanations are needed regarding hardware, it's usually just me who posts like that. I try to give as much information I can, but, a lot of people probably drone through it and ignore half of it.

---

Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

ahh, dude. The MSI board has 8-channel audio integrated. and unlike any other board out there, its 24-bit CreativeLabs SoundBlaster Live. All the reviews I've read say this thing outputs awesome sound, and it has to be better than the VIA all-in-one crap i got now.

also, on the processor, it doesnt go from 3200 to the 3700. the 3500 is what im planning on buying, at 2.2-2.4 ghz, it has great performance. i selected the specific 3700 for drglass because its got the new San Diego core -- the big brother of Venice -- its 90nm, got 1mb L2, and numerous other features that make it a great choice. its worth it for the extra 50 bucks over the 3500.

and the ultra... just get the gt and overclock it. bout same perf ratings when OC.

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www.nysteo.com

If animals weren't meant to be eaten, then they wouldn't be so delicious and easy to catch!

Face it: if crime didn't pay, there would be very few criminals.

If you can get that sort of sound it would be damned nice. A
soundblaster integrated with the motherboard? Good God. When it says
8.1 it actually means 7.1 for the time being. A 5.1 card could probably
handle 6 speakers as it has three channels - one for front, one for
centre, and one for back. Each cable can carry two speakers worth of
sound.

At least, that's what I think is the case, and my understanding of it. Probably wrong though. :biggrin:

As for NewEgg: YAY.

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My site

I assume, the 9600pro was burned? shrugs

Welcome back ol man..

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The best things in life, aren't things.

Welcome back Dr. Glass, I'm glad your getting your life back in order.

Until later...

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Dark_Kilauea
DVS Administration
http://www.dvstudio-production.com/

The ultra card has abilities that are present in the newer stuff that isn't present in GT and such. It's more of an inbetween card, which means it'd hold up longer. The ultra isn't just an overclocked GT card, in other words.

As for the processor, the price is a big issue, to be honest. The core doesn't particularly hold as much ground as you're implying, the cache is nice though. That was my only thought on the topic, if you noticed.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

Orpheus said:
I assume, the 9600pro was burned? shrugs

Welcome back ol man..

The card was in a USPS box in my room, so it didn't burn but... all I found of the card with the soggy torn up box. So the card it somewhere in my room sitting in a static bag full of water.

I'm sorry for your loss orph :razz:

Thanks guys.

oh and BTW I dont think the MSI board it compatable with my processor, so we will be going with the ASUS.
I should have the money today and have all the parts by nextweek. By then I'll have my GED and be free untill my pre-college road trip in Agust.

Um ... that MSI board supports the same processors as the ASUS board you suggested ... Which is pretty much everything out under the AMD 64 line except dual core stuff, which that ASUS board didn't support either.

Get whatever you want though. Just don't lie :razz:

Also, if you find that video card, it's fine, just dry it out. It'll work without shorting as long as there is no moisture left.

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Blame it on Microsoft, God does.

I'm not fibbing on purpose. We are going with the ASUS still I think, doesn't seem to make a big diffrance to me and all the stuff I saw about the two makes them look so close to the same that its not worth thinking about.

well If I can find the board I'll dry it out, but who ever took care of my house while we were in China just kinda piled all my s**t up in the room along with the plaster ceiling and wall and wet chunks of carpet, so It my turn into one hell of a chore finding this.