New Computer

[Troy F]

I'm thinking of buying a new computer.

A couple of questions for you experts out there.

What is the best operating platform?

Is 250GB ATA hard drive good?

Is the ATI Radeon X850 XT PE a good vidoe card or is the nVidia GeForce 6800 a better video card?

What are some local places that sell components and have a website? I did a search but was fairly unsuccessful.

[Gizmo]

IMO:

a solid OS is linux, but no one supports it so your stuck with XP like the rest of us.

by ATA i'm going to assume you mean the old IDE standard, so no go with an SATA drive. Faster, and the new standard.

ATI, Nvidia, personal choice.
I prefer ATI myself.


NCIX is a good place to find things now and then.

[LostMind]

ncix.com, atic.ca tigerdirect.ca for pricing.

I buy all my stuff thru synapsis.ca myself, he'll beat anyone elses pricing.

As mentioned before me, go with sata, your stuck with xp, and I also prefer ati for graphics cards.

if you want some more detailed advice, let us know what you intend to use the pc for and a rough budget...

Good luck hunting!

[Invigor]

look for an amd 64bit processor as well :D it'll benifit you in the future. I'm an ATI fan, nvidia kinda blew it once they released their geforce 4 cards and haven't really regained the market.

serial ata is pretty standard today now as well. :D

pretty much anything brand new today should do anything you throw at it with ease.

[Troy F]

Thanks for the responses.

I found atic.ca and priced out a computer for $1367 (no monitor or anything) but there are still some changes to be made and probably won't buy it through them. One of canreefs members has a computer company so I'll probably buy through him.

[Veng68]

whatever you do........ don't buy from ATIC......... very bad service especially if you have a return or problems.

Cheers,
Vic [veng68]

[Troy F]

Asus [A8N-E] A8N-E (A8N-E nF4 Ultra S939 1000FSB Dual-DDR400 PCX16 2PCX1 PCX4 3PCI SATA300-R 0/1/01 ATA133 USB2.0 7.1Audio G-LAN ATX)
AMD [ADA3800BPBOX] Athlon64 3800+ S939 (Athlon64 3800+ 2.4GHz 1000FSB 512KB L2 Cache Socket 939 (EM64T) (Retail))
Kingston [KVR400X64C3A/512] 512MB PC3200 (Kingston 512M DDR400 PC3200 CL3 (3-3-3) DIMM (retail ))
Kingston [KVR400X64C3A/512] 512MB PC3200 (Kingston 512M DDR400 PC3200 CL3 (3-3-3) DIMM (retail ))
Alps [FD1.44-BK] FD 1.44 Black (1.44MB 3.5" Internal Floppy Drive (Black))
Pioneer [DVR-110 BK] DVR-110 DVD-/+RW 16X BK (Pioneer 110 BK 16x8x16x DVD-RW 16x8x16 DVD+RW 6x DL DVD-/+R CD-RW: 40x24x40x 2M Cache Black (OEM))
Seagate [ST3160827AS] 160G SATA NCQ (Seagate 160G SATA150 7200RPM 8MB Cache & NCQ 7pin 3.5")
eVGA [256-P2-N376-AX] 6800GT 256M PCI-Ex (eVGA GEFORCE 6800GT 256M SLi TV-OUT & DVI PCI-Express (box))
Antec [Sonata-II] SONATA II 450W (ANTEC SONATA-II TAC Middle-Tower Black SMARTPOWER 2.01 450W 3x5.25" 2x3.5" 4x3.5")
Logitech [967418-0403] LX700 Wireless KB & Mice (Logitech Wireless LX700 Desktop Keyboard & Rechargable Optical Mouse)
Microsoft [ZAT-00007] Windows XP Pro x64 (Windows XP Pro x64 w/ CD & License (Single/Dual CPU) SP2 OEM (w/ System, Motherboard or HDD Only) - For 64bit Systems)
ATIC [WTY1-02] System Assembly (w/ OS) (System Assembly w/ Operating System Testing (1 Year Parts / 2 Years Labour))


If any of you feel like reading through the above and possibly critiquing it please do.

[LostMind]

I think, you will be very happy with that. Especally that case - I have it and it is amazingly quiet.

As mentioned before though, don't actually purchase thru atic, pls buy somewhere else. They have the worst customer service I've ever dealt with and I've dealt with a LOT of computer suppliers.

[Troy F]

Thanks for your advice.

Have they worked the bugs out of the Windows XP 64Pro or should I just go with XP Pro or XP Home?

What is the preferred ATI video card?

[Griffin]

i always go with infomicro.ca in richmond - great pricing and easy to work with. Check them out and compare - i have saved alot compared to shopping at atic in years past.

cheers
Rich

[adidas]

whatever you do........ don't buy from ATIC......... very bad service especially if you have a return or problems.

Cheers,
Vic [veng68]

they must have changed, used to be my favorite pc store when i lived in vancouver..

[Samw]

Its actually quite common knowledge that customers of ATIC are yelled at and accused of lying to the store when the customer tries to make a claim that they did not receive what they ordered.

"http://groups.google.com/groups?as_q=atic+service&num=10&scoring=r&hl=en&as_epq=&as_oq=&as_eq=&as_ugroup=van.*"

http://groups.google.com/group/van.forsale/browse_frm/thread/ba87a1414f114ee0/a3ca1aa5ab1e05ff?lnk=st&q=atic+service&rnum=2&hl=en#a3ca1aa5ab1e05ff

[titus]

Hello,

Better service than Atic and pricing not bad.
www.anitec.ca

Titus

[Troy F]

Its actually quite common knowledge that customers of ATIC are yelled at and accused of lying to the store when the customer tries to make a claim that they did not receive what they ordered.

Oh that would go over well. I'd end up in jail.

It's funny, the last couple of places I've bought systems from have been brutal. Told the manager he ought to have them all spanked right before nap time every day as a reminder to treat the grown ups with proper respect.

Again, thanks for the suggestions. I'm still curious if anyone knows anything about the new XP 64. I've read reviews about the AMD 3800+ and it gets rave reviews but I don't want to get the OS if it's all buggy.

[LostMind]

64bit XP is pretty good... but I've found a few driver issues here and there. Haven't noticed a speed increase myself, but I haven't really used that pc for anything but mail and web browser, messenger/icq, etc.

If only I had some more real input for you....

[TommDool]

64bit XP is pretty good... but I've found a few driver issues here and there. Haven't noticed a speed increase myself, but I haven't really used that pc for anything but mail and web browser, messenger/icq, etc.

If only I had some more real input for you....

Well I work for a local computer shop here on the Island as teh sales manager. The computer you priced out is a great computer, you will be very happy with it. All top end parts. Asus makes teh best boards, seagate has 5yr warrenty, Kingston is the most stable Ram, so on and so on. Just be aware the atic is not a good place to buy from. They have been known to sell stuff that have been RMA'd and fixed as new. They have also been cought taking the old PII's and switching out 500Mhz and placing 350's in the little black cases. Cought this myself on mine and a friends CPU when we notice damage to the outer casing. so be careful.

P.S.

The XP 64 has some bugs last time I tried it. They did just release the OEM version which I haven't tried. The pre release copy I had from Microsoft was flakey. Most of the 64 bit side didn't work and I was stuck using the 32bit apps. Hopefully they fixed this.

[reefburnaby]

Hi,

The computer looks great and it will still have some legs left after Microsoft releases their next windows in 2 years. However, the AMD 3800 is quite expensive these days and you can save a lot of money by choosing a slightly slower processor (like a 3500) - 10% slower, save $120 and you probably can't tell the difference anyway. Otherwise....I would have chosen a 3800 dual core for an extra $50 - two processors for an extra $50. I would also consider getting a slightly larger hardrive - they are so cheap these days.

As for XP64...I'd stay with XP for the time being. http://www6.tomshardware.com/howto/20050823/index.html

- Victor.