justin_tx_16 Posted March 21, 2001 Share Posted March 21, 2001 I have new sony PCV-260DS computer with 800MHz PIII, 256mb SDRAM, and Sound Blaster Live Plus... i went to sony to get some tech support for a small problem and they ended up totallying the system, not email, no cd drives, i can not open images, it is whacked out! so since i wisely bought the 4 year warranty from circuit city i am getting a new computer... is this one good enough? or is the compaq one with less MHz but an AMD processor better? if you could chose between these two which one would you get? anyone know if circuit city will be getting a new line of computers anytime within the next month or sooner? here are the two systems, on compaq and the other HP. HP has Intel P4 and RDRAM is that a lot better than the compaqs with AMD and SDRAM? Item HEWLETT PACKARD 9870 Warranty:Months Labor/Parts 12/12 Processor Brand Intel® Processor Type Pentium® 4 Processor Speed (MHz) 1.3GHz (1300MHz) Frontside Bus Speed (MHz) 400MHz Level 2 Cache (KB) 256K advanced transfer cache RAM (MB) 128MB System RAM Expandable To (MB): 2GB Type of RAM RDRAM Hard Drive Maximum Capacity 60GB Ultra DMA CD or DVD DVD CD-RW Drive YES Maximum Optical Drive Speeds DVD: 12x ; CD-RW: 32x Max Read, 8x Max Write, 4x Max Rewrite Drive Bays Available 2 Total Expansion Slots 5 PCI; 1 AGP Available Expansion Slots 1 PCI Keyboard Illuminated Internet Command Center - 2 USB Pointing Device 2-Button Scrolling Mouse with USB connector USB Ports 6 total (2 front access) IEEE 1394 Port 3 Parallel Port 1 Serial Port 2 (1 front access) Other Ports 1-Game Port Video Memory 32MB SDRAM MPEG Playback MPEG2 3D Graphics Support NVIDIA TNT2 Pro AGP graphics card Modem V.90 High-Speed Modem Network Interface Card (NIC) YES Other Communication Features Audio Card Wavetable Sound Sound Enhancements Enhanced 3D Stereo Sound Speakers Polk Audio Stereo Speakers With PowerPort Technology Speakers Included In Box or With Monitor? In Box Operating System and Vendor Utility Software Microsoft® Windows® Millennium Edition Productivity Software Included MicroSoft® Works 6.0, MicroSoft® Money 2001 Standard, Smith Micro QuickLink III (fax), Adobe Acrobat Reader 4.0 Internet Software Included AOL, Earthlink, AT&T WorldNet®, CompuServe 2000, Disney's Blast Online Educational/Entertainment Software Included MusicMatch Jukebox 6.0 Note: Monitor Sold Separately Other Features Also includes 10/100Base-T Network Card and software for CD-RW, DVD + StudioDV; 128MB PC600 RDRAM now for the compaq... Item COMPAQ 7000US Warranty:Months Labor/Parts 12/12 Processor Brand AMD® Processor Type Athlon Processor with Enhanced 3DNow! Technology Processor Speed (MHz) 1.2GHz (1200MHz) Frontside Bus Speed (MHz) 200 Level 2 Cache (KB) 256KB RAM (MB) 128MB System RAM Expandable To (MB): 768MB (SyncDRAM DIMM required) Type of RAM SDRAM Hard Drive Maximum Capacity 80GB UltraDMA CD or DVD DVD CD-RW Drive YES Maximum Optical Drive Speeds Drive Bays Available 3 Total Expansion Slots 6 Available Expansion Slots 2 PCI Keyboard Compaq USB Internet Keyboard Pointing Device Internet Scroll Mouse USB Ports 4 (2 front, 2 back) IEEE 1394 Port 3 (1 front, 2 back) Parallel Port 1 EPP/ECP Serial Port 1 Other Ports 1 Joystick/MIDI/Gamepad Compatible Game Port, RJ-11 Phone Jacks(1 Input, 1 Output), RJ-45 Ethernet Port, Audio Ports(Line-In, Line-Out, and Microphone-In), Mouse and Keyboard Ports, and a VGA Monitor Connection Video Memory 32MB MPEG Playback MPEG2 3D Graphics Support nVIDIA TNT2 M64 Pro Graphics Card with 128-bit hardware-accelerated 3D graphics Modem V.90 High-Speed Modem Network Interface Card (NIC) YES Other Communication Features Audio Card Creative Sound Blaster PCI Audio Card with EAX 1.0 Wavetable Sound Sound Enhancements Dolby® Digital Surround Sound(AC3) Speakers Not Included Speakers Included In Box or With Monitor? With Monitor Operating System and Vendor Utility Software Microsoft® Windows® Millennium Edition Productivity Software Included Microsoft® Money 2000, Microsoft® Works 2000, Microsoft® Windows® Media Player, Adaptec Easy CD Creator, Logitec QuickCam Express. Internet Software Included America Online, Compaq.NET, Microsoft® Encarta® Online Deluxe(1 year subscription), Microsoft® Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator Educational/Entertainment Software Included MicroSoft® Windows® Media Player, Compaq Knowledge Center, Adaptec Easy CD Creator, Logitech QuickCam Web, My Presario - Learning More CD Note: Monitor and Speakers Sold Separately. Circuit City is an authorized Compaq computer products Internet retailer. Other Features Includes Logitech QuickCam Web Internet Video Camera, 10/100 Ethernet Networking Card, 3.5'' 1.44MB Diskette Drive, FireWire®/1394 connection and ''Caribbean Blue'' Special Edition Color Kit (speaker grills included with PC);ACPI compliant; Plug & Play they both are great computers i am sure and both have USB, Fire Wire, and DVD CDRW 10/100 ethernet, Modem, and the standards. if you could choose from the two which one? and any of these better? they are the cheaper ones but would i notice a difference? i use it mostly for music, DSL on weekends, DVD, buring lots of cd's, and music again. i like games not a gamer really though and i will use it for school, sophomore in high school. thanks! i knew that i could come to yall cause you are so educated with this kinda stuff. how much faster is RDRAM and what is the deal with RDRAM600 and RDR800? bitg difference. what is teh advantage of Intel or Amd? thanks and thanks and thanks and thanks again. ------------------ -justin http://www.fortunecity.com/campus/berry/88/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Distec Posted March 21, 2001 Share Posted March 21, 2001 If your deciding on either a p4 or athlon, definately go for the athlon. The p4 just isn't worth the money in its current form. Just because is has a higher MHZ rating, doesn't mean its faster. RDRAM is hardly faster than sdram, and is much more expensive. If you really want intel, just stick with the P3. But overall, I would say that the athlon is your best bang for the buck processor. Now, I would get neither compaq nor hp. I've had plenty of experiences with problems from both companies. That isn't to say you'll have problems with them, but there are alternatives. Northwest Falcon , Dell and Gateway are all better companies. Unfortunately, Dell doesn't sell athlons, although a P3 is still a good deal. Now, if youre just using the computer for school and gaming much, you don't need a top of the line computer. A 500-800mhz computer would do just fine. You don't need a fast cpu to run office. Even if you do some gaming, its better to go with a better graphics card and a slightly slower cpu. Both computers list a TNT2 video card, which is SLOW. A 1200mhz athlon with a TNT2 would probably run just as fast with a 600mhz athlon and a TNT2, since the graphics card is the major bottleneck. Definitely see if you can get a Geforce or better video card in there. Also, make sure you get at least 128mb ram. Anything under that is going to make the computer go slow. Hope this info helps, and try to do some research. There are plenty of websites that review products, such as www.tomshardware.com , www.firingsquad.com , www.overclockers.com and plenty of others. You could even learn how to assemble a computer yourself, which can save a good deal of money, and be better than most of the pre-made stuff out there (assuming you do it right). However, if you have no time or aren't technically inclined, then buying a pre-made is probably your best bet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JakeTheSlayer Posted March 21, 2001 Share Posted March 21, 2001 Actually RDRAM provides a lot more bandwidth than normal sdram, but I don't think it is worth. I think you should go with an athlon. I would do some reading on the internet and build a system yourself, it will cost you the same but you will get a lot better computer. I'm sorry, but oem computer suck, unless you use them for the net and email. If you want to game on it, I would recommend building a computer yourself (or resort to a dell, they aren't too bad for an oem). Even at that, you won't be getting a performance king. Plus you won't be able to overclock it, which is one of the main reasons to get an athlon/duron. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
janko10 Posted March 21, 2001 Share Posted March 21, 2001 ftlog, dude, build your own system. you can get everything you want, the way you want it. i used to have a compaq and after i built my own system, i wanted to take a .45 and shovel to that piece of ****. nothing but cheapo, cheapo parts man, seriously. even if you don't know how to build it, if you know the difference between all the components, then you can do it, its not hard and i'd be glad to point you in the right direction for info, just let me know. J ------------------ JOIN THE "AMY FOR PRESIDENT" CAMPAIGN. OUR PLATFORM: ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US, MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!! PIII @ 1.08GHZ SuperMicro PIIISCD I820 Mobo 192MB Crucial PC100 Maxtor 40GB 7200rpm ata66 Maxtor 40GB 7200rpm ata100 Generic DVD 4X Creative 8x4x32x Burner GeForce256 32mb DDR (orig) 3Com 905B-TX Lan Netgear RT314 Gateway/Router Philips Acoustic Edge 425w Power Supply Triple Boot Me/2K/Whistler Build 2416 Klipsch Pro-Media 4.1's umm... a floppy. thats it, for now MUAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billie Jean Posted March 21, 2001 Share Posted March 21, 2001 DO NOT GET A COMPAQ!!!!!! Compaqs do not work well, and they date very badly. Everything on them is proprietary and does not take too nicely to hardware upgrades. I've had the biggest problems with my compaq and if it wasn't for the fact that I got this thing for free, I would not have it. If you want something like a compaq, get a HP. They are halfway decent, not great but still better than compaq. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hofy Posted March 22, 2001 Share Posted March 22, 2001 Please, just build it yourself. You get exactly what you want and it will be a learning experience. Please feel free to ask questions on building a system.c>------------------ Hofy's Duct Tape Mounting System Support hofmonstr@rocketmail.com c> I am NOT ProMedia Tech Support promediatech@klipsch.com 888-554-5665c> Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justin_tx_16 Posted March 22, 2001 Author Share Posted March 22, 2001 i can not build one because i have to get one from circuit city, that isthe problem ------------------ -justin http://www.fortunecity.com/campus/berry/88/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justin_tx_16 Posted March 22, 2001 Author Share Posted March 22, 2001 i am at school right now... should not be here he he he... but if someone would, go to circuitcity.com and tell me which somputer ishould get... NOT A MAC i have a new G4. thanks ------------------ -justin http://www.fortunecity.com/campus/berry/88/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rol1 Posted March 22, 2001 Share Posted March 22, 2001 Go with dell, they'll walk you thru all the reformats to you hearts content. Free phone support forever. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billie Jean Posted March 22, 2001 Share Posted March 22, 2001 They don't have Dell at Circuit City. I wish they had Micron cause then I'd tell you to get one of those, but they don't have those, Best Buy does. I'd say get another Sony or a Hewlett Packard. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rol1 Posted March 22, 2001 Share Posted March 22, 2001 HP has a easy rescue disk, get in the habit of backing up your data and downloads, you can just reload off the cd. Quicker to keep multi .gho images, 1 for work, 1 for play and 1 to trash. No matter how bad you bung it up, 10 min later, Back up and running. Plus they picked up and returned my notebook with a new mb in less than 4 full days. No cost to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justin_tx_16 Posted March 22, 2001 Author Share Posted March 22, 2001 hey rol1... about the rescue thing... because it is am image wouldnt that save everything? like see i have nearly 4000 mp3s on my computer, adobe photoshop 6.0, Jasc paint shop 5, and Quark Xpress. if my computer was to blow up... for example... and i did the system restore and it read my cd, when i started it back up, i would not lose my music and programs cause they were imaged even though the hd was reformatted? that is waht norton utilities told me but i would have to have a zip drive. btw, i hate norton, it was the demise of my first PIII 500mhz, the 600mhz and my old 133mhz. all three went to pot after having this progam, you would think that i would elarn right! so back tot he imaging... that would back up all my music onto one cd even though it is 16 gigabytes? thanks i talked to a friend...well a kid at school who follows me around, his nickname is modem, he said to go with the P4 cause it was faster but the AMD was mroe reliable. what is your bet? i know yall have said compaq but i want to be able to expand and the compaq is a mini tower and the HP is a full tower. not like a server sized tower but you know what i mean. i do pay for all my stuff, my pro's, 21"monitor, computer, camera, clothes, and all of that stuff just so that you do not think i am a spoiled kid, i know some ppl like that. when i am getting ready for college i will proabaly build my own computer, it is going to be a lot cheaper right? how much do you save when you do taht kinda stuff? on a scale of 0-10, zero being a person who thinks taht a computer is teh same as a CPU and Bill Gates, where would i have to be to build a computer? i would say that i am at a 7, just below programming, i can do GWBASIC but who can't! LoL.... thanks for yall's help. you are the ppl i look to first for computer stuff and you have never been wrong for me! thanks again. ------------------ -justin http://www.fortunecity.com/campus/berry/88/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rol1 Posted March 22, 2001 Share Posted March 22, 2001 Ghost is the only thing I use from Norton. Ghost is such a snap. Norton just bought out the people who used to sell it on Art Bell's AM radio program every night. I use this program called symon http://symon.da.ru/ This program lets you do anything you want with partitions. Then I make a 2 gig partition, then maybe a couple of 8 gig partitions to fill the drive. Then every successful step of your fresh install, save a ghost image of c: to d:. A fresh install of 98 with drivers only takes 320 megs. I have setup a printshop and burned a clean image on 2 cd's. Instead of 1 setup trying to do everything from 1 partition, you have your system stuff on your 2 or 3 gig c:, and keep all your data and mp3's on your d: or e: partitions. You can have 1 image for playing games, another for typesetting, another for 3Dstudiomax. You can drive yourself crazy trying to get all that working together. I can't imagine how to use 1.3 gig cpu. The only things that use that much performance are the newest, and Lara still kicks my *** on a 366. Lets see, you can move into the dorm with a 1.3 ghz high dollar screamer that you won't respect a year later, or you can move in with a 16 port router with 4 matching 500 mhz celly's OC'ed to 700 mhz, Beowulf cluster running HA-Linux on a ReiserFS. Then you can save money buying 4 at a time. OK, mister, if I buy 4 will you toss in 2 sticks of the 128 Dimms? Free shipping too?? I got my Pro's in the next room hooked to an old Aureal SQ2500 audiocard in a old dual pentium-pro box. My first build. sounds so good with the v2-400's. I'm not in that race. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billie Jean Posted March 23, 2001 Share Posted March 23, 2001 Hey asudhir, the only Dells that are not upgradable, there are very few, are the cheap ones that are meant to compete with other cheap companies like Compaq and HP. Dell never even had any computers like that until less than 1/2 a year ago. Just wanted to set that straight. But yeah, Compaqs are the biggest bitchs to upgrade. Everything is on the motherboard and that's not a good thing. HP is the same way, everything is on the motherboard, but in my opinion their computers are much nicer and easier to work with. Plus I believe HP is more reliable with better customer support. I'm speaking from experience here. I own a Compaq and I hate everything about it. I could go on and on about it, but I won't. My ex has a HP and I always used her's. She moved twice when I knew her and I set it up both times and I had no problems at all. I actually liked using the computer a lot. I should've just taken it from her... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
justin_tx_16 Posted March 23, 2001 Author Share Posted March 23, 2001 so now i am going to get the HP i guess, its sound is seperate not on board i think... my sony is on board so i had a lot of work to do when i installed my new sound card, ntoa ll the things line up in th configuration thing but it works fine. what i really wanted to know last time was that if i make an image of drive d: that has 14gbs of music, will that mean that i would have backed up all myu music? ------------------ -justin http://www.fortunecity.com/campus/berry/88/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asudhir Posted March 23, 2001 Share Posted March 23, 2001 You won't be able to put 14gigs of music on one cd. I suggest you go out and buy a tape backup drive which can have about 4-8gigs per tape, and you can back up all your music on that. Check out http://www.compusa.com for tape backup drives. *zen Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JakeTheSlayer Posted March 23, 2001 Share Posted March 23, 2001 If he has 14 gigs, I would recommend getting another hdd, that way you don't have to worry about it. Tape backups are kind of slow, and aren't that efficient. Or you could burn all your mp3's to cd's, that would be about the cheapest way if you have a cd burner. It would take about 20 cd's to backup 14 gigs, and you can get 30 high quality cds for around $25. You could go with cheaper cd's if you didn't plan on burning any music cd's. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ForMatPrO1 Posted March 26, 2001 Share Posted March 26, 2001 quote: Originally posted by JakeTheSlayer: Actually RDRAM provides a lot more bandwidth than normal sdram True, in pure bandwidth it is much faster BUT because of its horrible latencies, it doesn't make it MUCH faster than regular SDRAM... So I would also, DEFINATLY, go with an athlon processor... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rol1 Posted March 26, 2001 Share Posted March 26, 2001 As far as using cdr's for long term storage, that don't work for me. As soon as I handle them a few times I start messin' them up, scratches, fingerprints, bad florescent lights, too close to the window, etc... I've seen people who use tape backup, set it up, turn it on, let it do its' thing. But I wouldn't want to hang around till it finished. I know you're able to reuse tapes, but most tape users have boxes of tapes around. You can get 60 gig drives for less than $200. How much a tape drive and 60 gigs of tape cost? The main point of backups are to get the backup off site. To do that you can make the image to tape or drive, and carry to secure storage, or have backup over broadband. A hard drive on a friend's machine, or backup to other remote location is easier to keep up after the first backup/image. If you save a ghost image of d: it will have all your files and data as when you made the image. If you want just a few gig storage that you can play on any fast connect, you can keep 3 gig on, http://myplay.winamp.com/ You get a lot faster stream from them than you can get from any internet radio or Real Audio stream. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rol1 Posted March 26, 2001 Share Posted March 26, 2001 Send an e-mail to contact the education and government link in the lower left. You should be able use your student status to leverage extra value. Explain how your university project requires a cluster and they will usually give you the discounts. Is it true some of these students in the dorms tap into the internet2, that us non-university types can't get? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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