View Full Version : The best place to get a new PC is...
Well?
I need 1gig DDR Ram
2 gig processor
That Canadian Videocard
and 30+ gig HD
I know building one is the cheapest way but I lack compitence and the ability to spell. :(
MrVicchio
2003-01-09, 06:32 PM
I built mine on my own, and I am NOT a hardware guy. Its really actaully pretty easy, just take a day to learn about it. You will take a LOT of pride in your rig if you "do-it-yourself"
PS I got a GeForce4 Ti 4600, and they roxxors.
powdahound
2003-01-09, 06:42 PM
It is VERY easy. I remember I was thinking about building but I put it off thinking I could never do it. After I bought my new comp I started learning about hardware and was VERY upset that I hadn't built instead. Saves SO much money, you ARE your own tech support, and it's FUN!!! We can help in the tech forum and #tech on irc too. :)
I took a PC building class back in college but I was dealing with 486Dx2 and other ultra lame systems. If you guys can back me.. makes me want to build my own machine. :D
Civilian
2003-01-09, 07:02 PM
My next PC will be one I build myself. However, this time, after much deliberation and comparing, I have decided to purchase an ABS X5(customized to my liking). This may be the last one I purchase for a while mainly because I plan on upgrading whenever it falls behind. You might want to check it out:
http://www.abspc.com/
I am slowly learning the basics of upgrading. Tomorrow I will install my first video card on my current system.
That's easy. You just slap it into the slot and then tell your OS which drive to grab the driver info from.
Memory upgrades, card installations, CDRom/burner installations are all easy. I can't figureout how to slave one of my harddrives. I set the jumper correctly but I'm not sure how I should connect it to the motherboard. Do I use the same connection my other Harddrive is using or what? :confused:
Unregistered
2003-01-09, 07:28 PM
Yep. There should even be a second connector on the ribbon cable for a second hard drive. If you hgave one set to slave, and the other to master just hook them bothin to the same cable and your good to go.
Here is the local shop i got mine from and am going to be getting my next one from: www.centralcomputers.com
avail
2003-01-09, 07:29 PM
www.hypersonic-pc.com
Pretty good stuff.
Airlift
2003-01-09, 08:40 PM
I got my parts from googlegear.com and I will use them again next time.
Navaron
2003-01-09, 08:45 PM
Make sure you have the ribbon in right, maker sure the pins are set right, and make sure the bios boots right. thats it.
Everything is connected correctly and the device manager says the device is working properly.
The computer didn't designate a Drive letter for the second HD though. So how do I access it? :confused:
mistled
2003-01-09, 10:06 PM
Make sure your master drive's jumper is set to master and not single drive. Though if your OS detects both drives, I don't think that's the problem. :( How big is the second drive?? You haven't exceeded the limits of your operating system have you??
As far as buying a comp, I agree you should build it yourself. Since you know how to put in cards and things, just buy a barebones system (case, motherboard, cpu) and then add the rest yourself. That way you don't have to worry about installing the cpu. I personally always buy my motherboard and cpu together. In part to ensure compatibility and in part because I'm paranoid after finding out how easy it is to fry athlon cpu's by not aligning them just right. :O_O:
Check pricewatch.com before you buy anything. Sometimes they have some really good prices.
mistled
Originally posted by {BOHICA}mistled
Make sure your master drive's jumper is set to master and not single drive. Though if your OS detects both drives, I don't think that's the problem. :( How big is the second drive?? You haven't exceeded the limits of your operating system have you??
barebones system (case, motherboard, cpu)
My master HD is set correctly and so is the Slave jumper. I just don't know how to access the drive. Is it supposed to pop an icon up for it or something? Device manager says everything is good. I know I haven't surpassed my capacity either.
:confused:
*EDIT*
So which is the best kind of processor to get these days anyway?
mistled
2003-01-10, 12:16 AM
I dont' know what your drive problem is. Do both drives come up when you are starting the computer??
Go into DOS and see if you can get to it there. At least that will tell you if it's a Windows thing or a hardware problem.
For gaming, Athlon XP cpu's are the best. Argue this one all people want, but in the most recent comparision I read, the Athlon XP 2800+ (2.26 GHz) beat out the Intel P4 3.06 GHz in 4 out of 6 benchmarks, even though it reads to be a much slower chip.
For other things though (multitasking in Office for example), the new P4 3.06 is best because it has hyperthreading, which allows the cpu to work on more than one command at a time. Unless the game is specificially writen for it though (I don't think any are since it's so new), it doesn't affect gaming any though.
Overall quality, I'd still go with the P4 3.06.... but since the Athlon is sooo much cheaper, I'd personally spend my money on an Athlon 2800+.
mistled
Airlift
2003-01-10, 01:25 AM
It sounds to me like the drive problem is that the hard drive has not been partitioned. If it is a really big drive, you might need a specific piece of software from the manufacturer to get it recognized.
So how do I go about partitioning a drive I can not access?
Marsman
2003-01-10, 08:32 AM
If you are dealing with 9x/ME - you need to run FDISK and select physical drive #2 and see what the partition looks like or create it as necessacy. The partition is the part responsible for creating the drive letter. If you are dealing with NT/2k/XP - you have to do this from the Drive Manager.
Zatrais
2003-01-10, 11:53 AM
Your problem to me sounds like your bios isn't set up for 2HD's.. You need to go into your bios and set it up to autodetect primary master and slave and secondary master and slave. If the bios on your rig has been set to a preconfigured configuration whit only 1 HD then this is most likely your prob.
My bios is showing a Primary and Slave HD. I have a few peripherals (Cameras) but other than that I can't think of anything that could be conflicting with a HD. :confused:
Zatrais
2003-01-10, 03:23 PM
Does your PC find it during the bootup? does it say this after the RAM has been counted:
Primary Master somethinHD
Primary Slave somethingHD
Unregistered
2003-01-10, 03:35 PM
MTX - There are 3 jumpers on the back of an IDE hard drive. In order to have multiple hard drives one must be set to Master, and the Other to slave. If you have the Master set to "Primary" or what ever they call the 3rd option it will not recognise the slave drive.
That's what happened to me the first time I added an extra HD to a comp.
mistled
2003-01-10, 06:00 PM
So, is it fixed now??
Master and slave are set correctly on the jumpers. The Device manager says everything is running fine. Strange huh? I always get the strange stuff.
Zatrais
2003-01-11, 08:18 AM
Your device manager finds both HD's in windows?
mistled
2003-01-11, 09:06 AM
Originally posted by Zatrais
Your device manager finds both HD's in windows?
but Explorer can only see the master (which is the old one), right??
mistled
2003-01-11, 09:15 AM
Checj this out... I got it from http://www.cnet.com/software/0-429669-8-8236843-1.html
Q: I just installed a new hard drive under Windows XP Home. Upon booting, the little XP bubble kindly informed me that Windows had detected the new hard drive and installed the necessary files for it. But when I open the My Computer window, the new drive doesn't show up. The device manager says the drive is working properly, but it's not. Help!
A: While Device Manager correctly identifies that new hardware exists, the new hard drive probably isn't partitioned or formatted with a file system that My Computer can recognize. You still have one more step to complete.
Click Start > Control Panel, then select "Switch to classic view" from the Control Panel menu at the left side of the window (which offers access to many more items). From there, double-click Administrative Tools in the main portion of the Control Panel window, then double-click Computer Management. Click Disk Management (listed in the left pane)--this provides the tools to partition and format your disk drives. Right-click the icon for the new drive and select Format.
In the Format dialog, select the type of partition you want the drive to use once it's formatted--either FAT32 or NTFS--then, type a volume label (a friendly name for the drive) and click OK to format the drive. After formatting, which takes just a few minutes, your new drive will be immediately ready to use--no restart required. You can use the Disk Management process for NT and 2000 to prepare a new drive, too, but for Windows 95, 98, or Me, you must use the built-in DOS FDisk or third-party partitioning software.
I dont know what OS you're running, but hope that helps.
mistled
*edit* I know this is what Marsman said earlier, but this actually tells you how to do it. :)
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