BH2 said:
I am building a computer first time,I have an Epox 9nda3j mobo, an AMD 64
3500+, any recommendations for the following mid range: Ram, graphics card,
sound card, SATA drives, DVD Recorder, monitor etc.
Buy RAM locally from a store that gives 100% money-back guarantees
because a lot of it for me has been incompatible or defective, and I'm
including national brands like Kingston and K-byte. I wouldn't buy RAM
by mail unless it was from Crucial (Micron) or the module contained
chips marked with the chip manufacturer's branding AND was guaranteed
not to be returned by another customer.
Similarly I'd be reluctant to buy a bargain monitor by mail, especially
the LCD type, which is infamous for having a few dead pixels straight
out of the box. 19" CRT monitors are often offered for well under
$100, after rebate.
Doesn't the mobo have built-in sound that's pretty good?
www.cdrinfo.com has in-depth reviews of DVD and CD drives.
Do you really need SATA, considering all the PATA bargains? Local
store prices can be found at
www.salescircular.com, but they often
leave out Fry's offers (
http://newspaperads.dfw.com and
www.ocregister.com publish their ads, but they usually differ a bit by
city).
Graphics cards can vary over 10:1 in speed on games (see articles like
these:
http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/index.html), but if
you don't play games even a $20 card is fine. However you may want to
get something with digital as well as analog output so you can take
advantage of the digital inputs of some LCD monitors. I don't know how
important DirectX version 9 support is for non-game use, but for some
reason even some TV tuners require graphics cards that support it. I
haven't found many local bargains in graphics cards, and usually a
check of a price search, like
www.pricewatch.com,
www.techbargains.com,
and
www.pricegrabber.com turns up cheaper products.
Power supplies probably vary more in quality than all other PC
components, and you have to avoid junk, such as Deer (at least a dozen
brands, including Codegen, Logic, L&C, and lots of animal names).
Stick with the solid stuff, like Fortron-Source (Fortron, Sparkle,
Hi-Q, PowerQ, Aopen -- look for "FSP" at the start of the model
number), Antec, Zippy-Emacs, or PC Power & Cooling (excellent but
overpriced). Fortron-Source isn't only one of the best but also one
of the cheapest -- see
www.newegg.com and
www.directron.com for
400-450W single 120mm fan models costing $40-50. Ignore 99% of the
reviews because they don't test beyond 250W or so.
www.tomshardware.com,
www.xbitlabs.com,
www.slcentral.com,
www.3dvelocity.com, and
www.silentpcreview.com are about the only
places that do good tests for PSUs.
