Broken PC.. Building on a new one. Watcha think ?

[Rakie]

Long story short.. my fish broke my PC, splashed water in the monitor, monitor shocked the video card, video card is dead, and mobo is damaged, monitor is also fried...

OK... so im getting this nearly free from my aunt, she's getting a new PC at work and her company sells their old PC's to the workers, she'll pay for most of it for an early xmas present.

Dell GX280-LIMIT
Price: $200.00 (about $50 my cash)
CPU Speed: 3.2
Description: Pentium 4 3.2GHz (LGA775), 512MB DDR2 RAM (3 free slots), 160GB SATA Hard Drive, PCI-Express slot, 3 x PCI slots, DVD/CDRW Combo, 2 front USB slots, 6 rear USB slots.

SO... im getting that, plain jane, nearly a free platform to build on, i'll be using it for sound editing, and maybe some video editing for fun. OH, about the 160GB hard drive... I have multiple external hard drives, so don't worry about 160gb being too little.

This is what I have planned for it: Either an Acer AL2216WBD 22" or Samsung 226BW 22" widescreen LCD monitor, an XFX GeForce 8600 GT XXX graphics card, overclocked from factory and 1 or 2gigs of ram. I also have a 600w power supply to toss in to replace the 350w supply in there already. This will cost me $360 to $440 depending on what monitor and ram I choose. And im buying all this from Tigerdirect.com and Newegg.com love those stores.

Sounds good eh ?


BTW, im currently computer-less, im at my parents house and hopped on to leave this, so I won't have too much time to check responses, please leave one if you have something to say, negative or positive

[iScott]

Blaming your fish. That's sad, man.
No doubt bump up the RAM as much as you can. (pricewatch.com, newegg.com)

Or go with a much better solution: get a Mac!

[need4mospd]

Also consider moving the fish tank to the other side of the room.

[Rakie]

Originally Posted by iScott

Blaming your fish. That's sad, man.
No doubt bump up the RAM as much as you can. (pricewatch.com, newegg.com)

Or go with a much better solution: get a Mac!

hehe, i have almost no money and a $20,000 bill from my school (Which im paying for via check, no financial aid) so for $400 this beats the hell out of an Imac, and the Imacs (Cheap ones) about $1200 aren't strong enough for my uses (I've stress tested it)

[RWP]

Sounds like a GREAT machine! Congrats.

[Jeremy Crockett]

Originally Posted by Rakie

...
Dell GX280-LIMIT
Price: $200.00 (about $50 my cash)
CPU Speed: 3.2
Description: Pentium 4 3.2GHz (LGA775), 512MB DDR2 RAM (3 free slots), 160GB SATA Hard Drive, PCI-Express slot, 3 x PCI slots, DVD/CDRW Combo, 2 front USB slots, 6 rear USB slots.



This is what I have planned for it: Either an Acer AL2216WBD 22" or Samsung 226BW 22" widescreen LCD monitor, an XFX GeForce 8600 GT XXX graphics card, overclocked from factory and 1 or 2gigs of ram. I also have a 600w power supply to toss in to replace the 350w supply in there already. This will cost me $360 to $440 depending on what monitor and ram I choose. And im buying all this from Tigerdirect.com and Newegg.com love those stores.

Sounds good eh ?


...

Sounds very good to me. The part I find disturbing is that some folks would find 160GB of HDD space too little.

What the heck are you kids up to nowadays???!!!

[RWP]

Originally Posted by OctoberMooN

Sounds very good to me. The part I find disturbing is that some folks would find 160GB of HDD space too little.

What the heck are you kids up to nowadays???!!!

No kidding. I can remember when 20 megabytes was BIG.

[hbarcat]

Originally Posted by OctoberMooN

Sounds very good to me. The part I find disturbing is that some folks would find 160GB of HDD space too little.

What the heck are you kids up to nowadays???!!!

Good one!

I remember back around 1994 when my brother bought a new 1.2 GB hard drive and I told him he was an idiot for wasting $300 on hard drive space that he wouldn't be able to fill even a fraction of.

[Asa Samuel]

Tip: dont build a broken PC.

[Rakie]

Originally Posted by Bass Junkie

Tip: dont build a broken PC.

This one isn't broken, its brand new. My old PC is broken.

[Asa Samuel]

Originally Posted by Rakie

This one isn't broken, its brand new. My old PC is broken.

I see once again my attempt at a joke on TB has failed.


Does nobody get sarcastic comments about thread titles anymore?

I should just give up now

[Rakie]

Originally Posted by Bass Junkie

I see once again my attempt at a joke on TB has failed.


Does nobody get sarcastic comments about thread titles anymore?

I should just give up now

LOL, its hard to read sarcasm, you have to establish yourself as that guy, and once that happens, nobody takes you serious again, hahah.

[BlacktotheBlind]

The Optiplex GX270 and GX280 models were notorious for having really bad motherboards, even to Dells own admission (check wikipedia). We have many where I work, at least once a week I have to swap one out. The capacitors on the motherboard swell up and will sometimes bleed. When this happens your mobo is toast. If it is still covered under warranty Dell will replace the mobo for free, if not you're pretty much screwed.

I also don't think your plans to upgrade it are going to work, unless you order all your parts from Dell.

If you're using the low profile version, the PCI slots on the GX270/280 are through a riser card and it is very cramped.

I believe the RAM that Dell uses on those models (and later) is proprietary, your standard off-the-shelf RAM will not even fit into the slots. This is also the case with the power supply. If you're using the low profile version it is very proprietary and will be somewhat difficult to replace with an off-the-shelf brand.

I guess for $200 you go can't go wrong, but buyer beware.

[Rakie]

Originally Posted by BlacktotheBlind

The Optiplex GX270 and GX280 models were notorious for having really bad motherboards, even to Dells own admission (check wikipedia). We have many where I work, at least once a week I have to swap one out. The capacitors on the motherboard swell up and will sometimes bleed. When this happens your mobo is toast. If it is still covered under warranty Dell will replace the mobo for free, if not you're pretty much screwed.

I also don't think your plans to upgrade it are going to work, unless you order all your parts from Dell.

If you're using the low profile version, the PCI slots on the GX270/280 are through a riser card and it is very cramped.

I believe the RAM that Dell uses on those models (and later) is proprietary, your standard off-the-shelf RAM will not even fit into the slots. This is also the case with the power supply. If you're using the low profile version it is very proprietary and will be somewhat difficult to replace with an off-the-shelf brand.

I guess for $200 you go can't go wrong, but buyer beware.

Interesting. I was always told Dell is one of the only brands that people aren't bothered by since they can be upgraded.

[Tsal]

Originally Posted by Rakie

..for $400 this beats the hell out of an Imac, and the Imacs (Cheap ones) about $1200 aren't strong enough for my uses (I've stress tested it)

Wait, you mean a computer can't take the physical abuse you put it through? What the hell do you use your boxes for, to hold your car on a jack?

All my computers do is sit on a table and do whirring and humming noises!

[middy]

I think that I'll buy cheap computers for surfing the web and game consoles for playing games and save a lot of money....

[fenderhutz]

That video card is going to require you to probably upgrade the power supply in that dell.

Make sure you check the specs. Dell power supplies for the most part are rated for what comes in the machine.

It will be like mini brown-outs internally if the video card needs more power than the supply can handle.

Just a heads up.

[enim]

Originally Posted by Rakie

This is what I have planned for it: Either an Acer AL2216WBD 22" or Samsung 226BW 22" widescreen LCD monitor, an XFX GeForce 8600 GT XXX graphics card, overclocked from factory and 1 or 2gigs of ram. I also have a 600w power supply to toss in to replace the 350w supply in there already. This will cost me $360 to $440 depending on what monitor and ram I choose. And im buying all this from Tigerdirect.com and Newegg.com love those stores.

Sounds good eh ?


BTW, im currently computer-less, im at my parents house and hopped on to leave this, so I won't have too much time to check responses, please leave one if you have something to say, negative or positive

That sounds good (although, do you need that much graphics?). Also, I wouldnt recommend overclocking. 3.2 GHz is pretty damn fast, and I doubt there is anything out right now that will need much more then that. Also, overclocking increases the risk of killing things, especially with the problems dell's have, its more of a risk then something you'll need.

[Rakie]

Originally Posted by fenderhutz

That video card is going to require you to probably upgrade the power supply in that dell.

Make sure you check the specs. Dell power supplies for the most part are rated for what comes in the machine.

It will be like mini brown-outs internally if the video card needs more power than the supply can handle.

Just a heads up.

hehe, you probably missed it, but I said I have a 600w power supply from my old computer in the original post ;p

Originally Posted by enim

That sounds good (although, do you need that much graphics?). Also, I wouldnt recommend overclocking. 3.2 GHz is pretty damn fast ... (Snip)

You miss understood... Im not overclocking the PC, the video card is overclocked by the factory (Its a pretty nice video card)

[Jeremy Crockett]

Originally Posted by BlacktotheBlind

The Optiplex GX270 and GX280 models were notorious for having really bad motherboards, even to Dells own admission (check wikipedia). We have many where I work, at least once a week I have to swap one out. The capacitors on the motherboard swell up and will sometimes bleed. When this happens your mobo is toast. If it is still covered under warranty Dell will replace the mobo for free, if not you're pretty much screwed.

I also don't think your plans to upgrade it are going to work, unless you order all your parts from Dell.

If you're using the low profile version, the PCI slots on the GX270/280 are through a riser card and it is very cramped.

I believe the RAM that Dell uses on those models (and later) is proprietary, your standard off-the-shelf RAM will not even fit into the slots. This is also the case with the power supply. If you're using the low profile version it is very proprietary and will be somewhat difficult to replace with an off-the-shelf brand.

I guess for $200 you go can't go wrong, but buyer beware.

Just to clear a couple things up. Yes, GX280s are notorious for bulging capacitors but failure usually occurs within the warranty period and very early in the life cycle... usually.

The RAM is non-proprietary.

The power supply issue can be dealt with on the tower models, but yes the compact model power supplies are proprietary.

Lastly - there were two versions of the GX280. The first generation had the all-plastic exterior the second has the metal sides. The second generation did not have the mobo issues the first generation had, if I recall correctly.