Make Your Own .... Pc

[melus]

...and a 40 MB hard drive was just greedy!

I once thought 1 GB was all that I'd ever need, and couldn't understand why I got error messages when I tried using VoIP with a 28KBps modem.

[Darknight]

QUOTE(Firefoxx @ 2004-12-04 00:02:50)

There are a lot of things that the current generation of computer users don't have to put up with.  I remember times when.....

Those were the good old days.  But, gasp, there was no 'net!  How in the world did we survive?

  That little bit of spare memory up to 640 K! The things we used to do to get the most out of that! Oh dear, this thread'll turn into "PC Reminiscences"

I also remember using 8" floppy disks, DEC RLO1's (5 MB, and the size of a Sunday roast plate), upgrading to 4 or 8 MB RAM (wow!), and a 40 MB hard drive was just greedy!

Think I'll definitely pop down to my local computer shop soon - getting the urge to build something special!

In comparison.....

The newest video card from ATI has RADEON® X850 graphics technology features SMARTSHADER™ HD, the most advanced pixel shader engine with up to 16 parallel pixel pipelines capable of an incredible 6 gigapixels/second fill rate and up to 43 billion shader operations per second in full precision! With six programmable vertex shader pipelines, capable of up to 700 million vertices per second and an overall capability of over 200 billion floating point operations per second(Giga FLOPS)

This is more then a pentium 2 processor from a few years ago, and even more then a mainframe from the 80's.

It's now a Videocard to play games

[MikeWill]

In comparison.....

The newest video card from ATI has RADEON® X850 graphics technology features SMARTSHADER™ HD, the most advanced pixel shader engine with up to 16 parallel pixel pipelines capable of an incredible 6 gigapixels/second fill rate and up to 43 billion shader operations per second in full precision! With six programmable vertex shader pipelines, capable of up to 700 million vertices per second and an overall capability of over 200 billion floating point operations per second(Giga FLOPS)

This is more then a pentium 2 processor from a few years ago, and even more then a mainframe from the 80's.

It's now a Videocard to play games 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

In comparison with what? ATI with its Radeon series of cards and Nvidia with the infamous Geforce line.

With your coordinates of times and stages, you're really up to the peak in playing games.

Haven't you overlooked the Videoshader HD? Just in case...

[MikeWill]

Re: "In comparison..."

Most of us who want to built/buy a personal computer surely want it to last many years with possibility to upgrade some hardware and software. Such approach does not necessary require to aim to the latest and most advanced models of equipment, especially if cost effectiveness is a consideration.

There are entirely different requirements for machines intended for playing games (which demand lots of computer power and advanced graphics capabilities) compare to the PCs for 'office function' needs.

If I'm not wrong, this topic isn't about the latest advancements in graphics cards, but the ways (hardware and software) to assemble a PC in Thailand.

In comparison... the info on high capacity (200GB) hard drives, their partitioning, etc., was very useful indeed.

Is there still a need for a "Floopy drive" in new machines?

Any recommendations on CD/DVD drives?

I've heard about "LiteOn" (~$45) 52x32x52/16x CD-RW/DVD-ROM Combo Drive.

4-in-1 drive: 52x CD-R, 32x CD-RW, 52x CD-ROM & 16X DVD-ROM SMART-BURN Buffer-underrun error protection, 2MB Buffer.

Support formats of CD Family, CD-R & CD-RW discs ( up to 99min. )

Support formats of DVD Family, single/dual layer (PTP, OPT), DVD+R/RW, DVD-R/RW.

Any comments?

[Firefoxx]

I usually don't install a floppy drive anymore unless it's specifically asked for. It's not much (about 300 baht) but it's hardly used at all. With the wide availability of USB ports and USB-aware OS's, a flash drive is a much better option.

I'd recommend a DVD writer now. The prices have come down into the 4,000 baht range and the speed/compatibility is pretty stable. If you're really against it, then buy a combo drive. My friend uses the LiteOn, and it does it's job. Once I changed to a DVD-R drive, I wrote very few CD-Rs.

I also don't buy the latest and greatest, but instead I look for the most bang for the buck. My old computer was a slot Celeron 300 overclocked to 450, and it worked well with near 24/7 use until I replaced it last year. The system I replaced it with is a P4-C (HT) 2.4, overclocked to 3.2 on stock cooling, on an 865PE Asus mainboard. It was good value then and still is right now, since the new Intel chipsets don't outperform the old ones, and it has memory acceleration options. I use a middling ATI 9600Pro, which coupled with my system, can play half-life2 with nearly full eye-candy options at 1152x864 (but no anti-aliasing).

My normal use commit charge is around 300-400MB, but when I play something like HL2, it jumps to 900+MB, so having 1GB of memory is nice.

[RDN]

....so having 1GB of memory is nice.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

My mouth is watering! How much is 1 gig. of memory?

[Firefoxx]

I'm using no-name "rambo" ram (really idiotic name, but they work well enough), two sticks of 512MB DDR 400. When I bought them, they were about 4,000 each. Now they're less than 3,000 each. Not that expensive.