Thinking For A New Computer

[h90]

mainly use in office

My quick thoughts are:

Case: approx. 900 Baht

CPU: AMD CPU AM2 Sempron 3000 Socket 940: 2300 Baht (a good choice??)

Graphiccard: ???? no idea, but need two monitor out and DVI. approx. 3000 Baht

Harddisk: 2500KS SATA300 7200RPM 16 MB Buf SATA ll: 3090

Mainboard: no real idea, would like to have GB Lan, Wifi would be fine, but not really necessary: approx. 3500 Baht

Monitor: 19 inch, LCD acer approx 6500

Memory: I don't understand the clock thing, what do I need?

please help....

[h90]

Mainboard add: which chipset to go?

Just read that the Semperon 2800 can also run overclocked at 3000, would save a few bucks

[penguin]

My quick thoughts are:

For a computer for basic office tasks a Sempron would be fine, for 2300 baht you should be able to buy a 3200 at least. Work out the budget for everything else, then upgrade a little if you have some spare cash.

Motherboards, ASUS, ASRock, Gigabyte or MSI are good brands for your budget. ASUS M2NPV-MX or ASRock AM2 NF6G are worth a look but l'm sure there are plenty of other choices. On board Wifi at 3500 baht, don't know about that. ASRock and MSI are good value, don't bother with SLi as you don't need it and can spend the money saved elsewhere.

Memory for AM2 is DDR2, either 533 or 667 is fine, just get whatever is best value when you are buying. You don't need to overclock memory unless you have nothing better to do with your time and a top line gaming machine. Minimum 512Mb, 1Gb if you want to run Vista (if Vista even works with a Sempron, probably not), you need to budget 1500-4000 baht. AM2 boards are dual channel so a 2x512Mb kit of Kingston value ram would be my choice for either XP or Vista, it will boot first time unlike some of the more esoteric and expensive ram out there. For linux 512Mb will do the job okay.

Monitor, l recently got a Samsung 940BW, 7350 baht and not too bad, l really, really like the widescreen.

Case, maybe spend a bit more and get something in the Cooler Master budget range. Don't forget to have some decent cooling if you're not in an air-conditioned environment.

Edited February 5, 2007 by penguin

[h90]

My quick thoughts are:

For a computer for basic office tasks a Sempron would be fine, for 2300 baht you should be able to buy a 3200 at least. Work out the budget for everything else, then upgrade a little if you have some spare cash.

Motherboards, ASUS, ASRock, Gigabyte or MSI are good brands for your budget. ASUS M2NPV-MX or ASRock AM2 NF6G are worth a look but l'm sure there are plenty of other choices. On board Wifi at 3500 baht, don't know about that. ASRock and MSI are good value, don't bother with SLi as you don't need it and can spend the money saved elsewhere.

Memory for AM2 is DDR2, either 533 or 667 is fine, just get whatever is best value when you are buying. You don't need to overclock memory unless you have nothing better to do with your time and a top line gaming machine. Minimum 512Mb, 1Gb if you want to run Vista (if Vista even works with a Sempron, probably not), you need to budget 1500-4000 baht. AM2 boards are dual channel so a 2x512Mb kit of Kingston value ram would be my choice for either XP or Vista, it will boot first time unlike some of the more esoteric and expensive ram out there. For linux 512Mb will do the job okay.

Monitor, l recently got a Samsung 940BW, 7350 baht and not too bad, l really, really like the widescreen.

Case, maybe spend a bit more and get something in the Cooler Master budget range. Don't forget to have some decent cooling if you're not in an air-conditioned environment.

Vista does not work on Semperon? What would be a cheap CPU which is working with Vista.

Not that I focus on using it, but maybe in future.

[cdnvic]

Vista will work on a Sempron, but it won't work to it's upmost. If cost is an issue, wait a month or so and go dual core. My latest purchase cost me about $200 by going to AMD 64x2 over Sempron, and the performance is amazing.

Edited February 6, 2007 by cdnvic

[h90]

Vista will work on a Sempron, but it won't work to it's upmost. If cost is an issue, wait a month or so and go dual core. My latest purchase cost me about $200 by going to AMD 64x2 over Sempron, and the performance is amazing.

cdnvic: do you think prices are dropping soon? My idea was with Vista many people want to buy a new PC and prices keep stable. Do you think different?

[cdnvic]

Vista will work on a Sempron, but it won't work to it's upmost. If cost is an issue, wait a month or so and go dual core. My latest purchase cost me about $200 by going to AMD 64x2 over Sempron, and the performance is amazing.

cdnvic: do you think prices are dropping soon? My idea was with Vista many people want to buy a new PC and prices keep stable. Do you think different?

I think the demand for more robust hardware will keep the prices stable if not push them up.

[h90]

Maybe better to go with the X2 3600 and having peace for a few years. which motherboard do you use?

[cdnvic]

Haven't looked to be honest. I got a good price on a ready made one so I picked it up:

http://www.thesourcecc.com/estore/product....&tab=2#more

[h90]

Haven't looked to be honest. I got a good price on a ready made one so I picked it up:

http://www.thesourcecc.com/estore/product....&tab=2#more

But you didn't let them send it to Thailand and messed arround with customs, or did you?

[Barney_the_Dinosaur]

How about an ATEC brand?

[h90]

How about an ATEC brand?

I don't know ATEC. Whats that?

[Barney_the_Dinosaur]

Used to be called 'Alphatec', now called ATEC.

Its a Thai brand. A colleague had one and said it was a tough piece of equipment.

They have a store on #2 or #3 Pantip Plaza.

[cdnvic]

Haven't looked to be honest. I got a good price on a ready made one so I picked it up:

http://www.thesourcecc.com/estore/product....&tab=2#more

But you didn't let them send it to Thailand and messed arround with customs, or did you?

No I kept it here, but they sell the same model in Thailand.

[h90]

I am now sure I either take a Sempron or an AMD X2.

But Mainboard there are zillions of different ones and graphicards are the same.

As for the graca, I would like to use two monitor and play some basic games.

Any recommendations?

[penguin]

Atec are a budget Thai brand, cheaper even than Belta or SVOA. I think they used to compete with the government when there was that scheme to buy a cheap computer and collect it from the post office a couple of years ago. I don't know what the quality is like but the specs l've seen on flyers suggest very good value for money. They have a few stores, there is one at Seacon Square maybe, but if you have 25,000 to spend then you can do better.

Acer have some great prices on desktops at the moment. I saw some in a store the other day and at the lower price levels it's hard to put something of the same quality and with a good warranty together yourself cheaper.

If you want to use a Sempron or Celeron then l'd be sticking to XP. Why spend the money on Vista if you're not going to be able to utilize all its features. Someone who has Vista could comment better but for an office computer do you even need Vista? If you think you do then upgrade the cpu however for what you intend to use it for a Sempron with XP will do the job well enough.

[h90]

thanks I want to config my computer myself, did it always that way.

just I am thinking of maximum safe or buy a little bit better than the cheapest, still not sure on that.

[cdnvic]

A single core Athlon will perform far better than a sempron, at a cost savings over the dual core.

[penguin]

I think VGA cards with dual dvi connections are going to cost more than 3000. The ones l've seen have been at least double that, like a 7900GS series. A good value card seeing you haven't said anything about playing high end games would be a 6600GT or a 7300GT so do some searching to see if any of those come with dual dvi.

For your motherboard make a list of the features you want and then look at what ASUS, ASRock etc. have that meet your needs.

Things to consider include:

ATX or micro-ATX size

can you upgrade to a faster cpu without buying a new board

how many hard disks and optical drives can you run. pata, sata, in what combination

how many usb ports

how many memory slots do you neeed e.g. is 2 enough or do you want more for a future upgrade

speed of memory the board supports

[h90]

I think VGA cards with dual dvi connections are going to cost more than 3000. The ones l've seen have been at least double that, like a 7900GS series. A good value card seeing you haven't said anything about playing high end games would be a 6600GT or a 7300GT so do some searching to see if any of those come with dual dvi.

For your motherboard make a list of the features you want and then look at what ASUS, ASRock etc. have that meet your needs.

Things to consider include:

ATX or micro-ATX size

can you upgrade to a faster cpu without buying a new board

how many hard disks and optical drives can you run. pata, sata, in what combination

how many usb ports

how many memory slots do you neeed e.g. is 2 enough or do you want more for a future upgrade

speed of memory the board supports

Do you know a comparison between the vga chipsets? On a first look PCI Express looked more expensive than AGB or is that wrong (looking older models on AGB?)

[penguin]

Do you know a comparison between the vga chipsets? On a first look PCI Express looked more expensive than AGB or is that wrong (looking older models on AGB?)

Are you asking if you should get PCI-E or AGP? PCI-e is what you want, AGP is old technology.

Busitek have a XFX GeForce 7300 GT 256MB with dual dvi for 3650 baht, might be worth a look.

[h90]

Do you know a comparison between the vga chipsets? On a first look PCI Express looked more expensive than AGB or is that wrong (looking older models on AGB?)

Are you asking if you should get PCI-E or AGP? PCI-e is what you want, AGP is old technology.

Busitek have a XFX GeForce 7300 GT 256MB with dual dvi for 3650 baht, might be worth a look.

sounds good, is FXF a good brand?

now only need a mainboard.....

[Guest Reimar]

Do you know a comparison between the vga chipsets? On a first look PCI Express looked more expensive than AGB or is that wrong (looking older models on AGB?)

Are you asking if you should get PCI-E or AGP? PCI-e is what you want, AGP is old technology.

Busitek have a XFX GeForce 7300 GT 256MB with dual dvi for 3650 baht, might be worth a look.

sounds good, is FXF a good brand?

now only need a mainboard.....

If I'm you I would go for an MSI Platinum or Diamond Series with SLI, GB LAN, WiFi pp.

I use the older K8N Platinum and Diamond on two computers and they excelent, one with Sempron 3300 and the other with Dual core Atlohn 3800+.

The MSI Platinum Board with Dual 3800 has 4 GB Memory and a Nvidia 6600 gt with 512 MB. On this comp I run the FSX with 40 frames and all settings to highes level. HDD is SATA 2 250 GB x 2 with Promise Controller.

By the way: Atec is a Computer Wholesaler and Retailer with assembling of the computers. The Laptops from Atec are from Taiwan and the real Brand is Sunrace a 2. quality class manufacturer! SVOA is same as Atec but older on the Thai Market.

All of the "Thai Brand" computers are assembled in Thailand but using various hardware for the same "product"!

[Richard-BKK]

I just bought a small "cheap" computer to test an new operating system, after a few hours in Panthip I bought a Pentium D 805 (2x 2.66Ghz) 1GB, 160GB with PCIe x16 for 14000 (including LG DVD writer, FDD keyboard, mouse, Gview case)

Th mainboard with a little bit apy more we upgraded to an Asus P945 mainboard, which is able to overclock the Pentium D 805 to near 3.6Ghz (with Intel cooler) "Read Tomshardware.com story about this amazing cheap processor"

The VGA card with was included is able to be used with two monitors (VGA. DVI and video out port)

I bought it from a shop called AND Computers......

Edited February 6, 2007 by Richard-BKK

[meadish_sweetball]

By personal experience I recommend caution when it comes to case and power supply. I bought a computer just over 1 year ago at 23,500 baht, the following specs:

Mainboard ASUS P5GD2-X

CPU Intel P4 506+ 2.66GHz Socket 775

DDR2 Kingston 512/533

Firewire card

CASE: GView Window

Monitor: Gview 17" FDI76

Keyboard: Multimedia Cool PS2

HDD Seagate 80/7200 SATA

Graphics card VGA Simmax X300SE 128MB

My recent experience with this GVIEW case the one on the far left (and possibly the inbuilt, noname PSU) means I will not take chances with those another time. A faulty power supply can mess up all your other equipment, and the fans in Gview cases are really pretty crap and also quite noisy. Go for Coolermaster (or Lian Li) and get an Enermax power supply, the difference in price is not really that high.

I also suspect my graphics card has some compatibility issues with the mainboard - not sure if this is due to a faulty Power supply or an issue that would be there anyway, even if the power supply was ok. Anyways, I get quite frequent Blue Screens of Death saying there is a problem with the ati2dvag driver...

[penguin]

I also suspect my graphics card has some compatibility issues with the mainboard - not sure if this is due to a faulty Power supply or an issue that would be there anyway, even if the power supply was ok. Anyways, I get quite frequent Blue Screens of Death saying there is a problem with the ati2dvag driver...

Google indicates it's an ATI driver update issue, lots of people have had the same problem with different brands of computers, do some reading and you may find a fix to the problem.

Agree about getting a good PSU. You can get a budget Enermax 350w for 1500 that has a sata connector. I have a Coolermaster Elite 330 which for a cheap case is okay, it has 1x120mm exhaust fan and room for a 120mm intake fan that blows across the hard disks keeping them at room temperature. The Coolermaster Centurion range is very popular but a bit more expensive. Lian-li are often plain looking but very good, prices start at 2500 baht.

[h90]

I just bought a small "cheap" computer to test an new operating system, after a few hours in Panthip I bought a Pentium D 805 (2x 2.66Ghz) 1GB, 160GB with PCIe x16 for 14000 (including LG DVD writer, FDD keyboard, mouse, Gview case)

Th mainboard with a little bit apy more we upgraded to an Asus P945 mainboard, which is able to overclock the Pentium D 805 to near 3.6Ghz (with Intel cooler) "Read Tomshardware.com story about this amazing cheap processor"

The VGA card with was included is able to be used with two monitors (VGA. DVI and video out port)

I bought it from a shop called AND Computers......

How much was it?

[meadish_sweetball]

Fourteen thousand?