More PC problems

gkitching · Post by **gkitching** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 4:46 pm

As my great luck would have it, my family computer died last night.

I was able to get it running again today(unlike the E-Machine) with a new power supply. This one was the HP only 16 months old. I swore I would never buy anything HP again.... But I still need to get a new one for the home business and thought maybe I'll use the HP for that and get a new family computer.

So I assume building your own is the way to go. What would be the important things to look for and are there certain brands that I should stay away from or look at? They, unfortunately, need to be Windows based. Should I stay away from vista? or are things getting smoothed out with that OS yet?

Any advise here would be greatly appreciated!

rlockwood · Post by **rlockwood** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 5:31 pm

I run vista on both my desktop and laptop, and can honestly say to stay away

I always feel the best way to do something like this is for you to lay out a budget and maybe some goals for what you use the pc for, and I (as well as i'm sure other forum members) could help pick out some components, and give you some options.

building the pc itself is pretty self explanitory, but picking out components tends to require periodic research.

at any rate, current stats put intel over amd by a landslide, and nvidia over ati for video cards.

nutxo · Post by **nutxo** » Mon Apr 14, 2008 6:24 pm

Ive owned my own business building and repairing computers. A+ and MCSE since 1999. If ya need anything lemme know man.

gkitching · Post by **gkitching** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 3:19 am

Well, I use it mainly for photos, e-mail and internet. My wife the same. My daughter has an I-pod (80gig) and she probably uses it the hardest with downloading music, videos etc. We don't necessarily do any gaming on the computer. So it doesn't have to have massive storage but I definitely want fast!

Also I would like to be able to convert analog audio to digital as well as copy and burn hi quality cd's. These things I've never been able to do so it would be new to me and I'm not sure what's needed hardware wise.

My budget isn't endless but I have no problem spending a little more for quality and upgrades. What I hate most is spending money twice. Where as if I had just spent a little extra for something more reliable ... that's the predicament I'm in now. My wife is a cheap ass!

Post by **stipud** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 7:03 am

If you can put together a car stereo, you can put together a computer. It's really not that hard at all. My only recommendation is finding a good local parts warehouse, because piecing things together individually through online ordering is always a huge pain in the ass. It's fine for ordering a key part or two, but sometimes having a good local shop is an absolute necessity.

In Calgary, we've got http://memoryexpress.com/ . That place is great, though they don't always have everything. I just had to order my 200gb 7200rpm laptop HDD from DirectCanada.com, since MEMX's biggest 7200rpm drive was 160gb. In most cases though, I can find things at MEMX for only a few bucks more than online, without the hassle of shipping to worry about.

For what you need to do, you can go with an absolute bare bones setup. $1000 would probably buy you a computer that is overkill for your needs. For example, if you're not gaming, you can save a huge wad of cash by buying a motherboard with an onboard GPU, instead of buying a fancy aftermarket one. Also, you will definitely not need the latest and greatest CPU, or the fanciest matched pair RAM (gaming computers can be expensive). You can also go with a much smaller PSU, now that you don't have to power all of these things.

For example, something like this would probably be more than enough (copy and paste URL):
http://www.memoryexpress.com/Products/P ... 4(ME).aspx

gkitching · Post by **gkitching** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 7:48 am

Thanks alot! That seems to be just what I'd be looking for.

My only question is what do I need for getting an analog audio input to transfer to digital?

Post by **stipud** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 7:53 am

gkitching wrote:My only question is what do I need for getting an analog audio input to transfer to digital?

A computer

Buy one of them fancy "mini" cables (basically a double ended headphone cable). Plug the output of your Walkman into the computer's mic/line input. Alternatively, get an RCA -> mini connector, and hook up a real tape deck.

Voila, you record via your mic input. There are many free tools to convert this to MP3 if you like.

nutxo · Post by **nutxo** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 8:13 am

gkitching wrote:Well, I use it mainly for photos, e-mail and internet. My wife the same. My daughter has an I-pod (80gig) and she probably uses it the hardest with downloading music, videos etc. We don't necessarily do any gaming on the computer. So it doesn't have to have massive storage but I definitely want fast!

Also I would like to be able to convert analog audio to digital as well as copy and burn hi quality cd's. These things I've never been able to do so it would be new to me and I'm not sure what's needed hardware wise.

My budget isn't endless but I have no problem spending a little more for quality and upgrades. What I hate most is spending money twice. Where as if I had just spent a little extra for something more reliable ... that's the predicament I'm in now. My wife is a cheap ass!

If ya dont wanna build one try dell outlet. Theres some really good deals to be had there. If ya wanna build one watch frys for the combo deals. Newegg is also most excellent.

For computer advice theres always anandtech and hardocp forums. Theres an absolute wealth of knowledge in those forums.

gkitching · Post by **gkitching** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 9:01 am

stipud wrote:
gkitching wrote:My only question is what do I need for getting an analog audio input to transfer to digital?
A computer

Buy one of them fancy "mini" cables (basically a double ended headphone cable). Plug the output of your Walkman into the computer's mic/line input. Alternatively, get an RCA -> mini connector, and hook up a real tape deck.

Voila, you record via your mic input. There are many free tools to convert this to MP3 if you like.

Really? Am I that stupid? I've always assumed there was some sort of 'card' nessessary for that. But it certainly makes sense. I always figured the mic was simply for video chatting and internet phones. I guess then there would have to be a program for recording?

Thanks nutxo! I'll check out those sources as well!

Post by **stipud** » Tue Apr 15, 2008 9:19 am

gkitching wrote:Really? Am I that stupid? I've always assumed there was some sort of 'card' nessessary for that. But it certainly makes sense. I always figured the mic was simply for video chatting and internet phones. I guess then there would have to be a program for recording?

Thanks nutxo! I'll check out those sources as well!

Nope, no card necessary. Having a better soundcard can sometimes make things easier, or better quality (e.g. they may have RCA or digital inputs), but satisfactory results can be had simply through the line input.

Windows comes with Sound Recorder, which is the most rudimentary thing you can use. It should record to WAV, which you can convert to MP3 (I think even Windows Media Player can do this for you). Otherwise there is other software out there, which offers better recording. Unfortunately I am more a Mac guy, so I'm sure someone else here can suggest a better alternative.