OT: Building a PC online....who...

[The Gainster]

other than Dell?

 

My PC bluw the {censored} up....

 

Thinking of building one with someone online but have no ideas.

 

I did build a nice one with Dell for $889.

 

No Apples at all!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

Thanks.

[loofery]

Buy the parts from Newegg.com and build one yourself!
It is VERY easy and you can get a see-through or lit up case, it doesn't come installed with extra crappy software like the big companies put on theirs, and it is actually cheaper!
I suggest you look at a DIY computer.

[Phil O'Keefe]

I've usually just built my own. The best places for parts online can be found via www.pricewatch.com - that will give you an idea of good price points for various parts. I like www.newegg.com and www.monarchcomputer.com

You can get a "barebones" system, with the motherboard, CPU / fan and power supply all pre-installed into a case, and then just add hard disks and so forth to it yourself. That's probably the best compromise between low cost and ease of assembly.

[Phil O'Keefe]

BTW, I believe there are a few "build your own computer" type threads over on my forum and on Craig's forum, and if you need help / suggestions on what parts are good, feel free to ask on either one of those two forums - those are fairly common / on topic posts over there.

[dot-dot-dot]

I'd agree - if you have even the faintest idea of how to put a PC together, do it yourself. You still get more for your money, and you get much better control of the quality. Dell seem to buy bins of bargain basement parts, sling them together and sell them off as offers.

[jeverist]

Its unlikely that your entire PC blew up - surely you have several good parts - your HD, CD-ROM, monitor, etc. So if you go the newegg route you might be able to buy a barebones PC and just move your old components to it.

Alos, it may be something simple like a power supply going bad. In my experience power supplys go bad far more than any other part of the computer.

If you turn on your computer and hear a series of beeps, then it is a piece of hardware. Pull all the cards from the motherboard and try powering it on again. If it still beeps then, its a problem with the motherboard and/or CPU.

If you turn on your computer and nothing happens, just total silence, its likely to be your power supply.

[The Gainster]

Thanks for the suggestions...all good ones!

I can't get 2000 Pro to boot up. It states a file is missing. I can't get into ANYTHING...Safe Mode or anything.

The File is:


WINNTSYSTEM32CONFIGSYSTEMced


I can't get past the message about the missing file.

The comp is 6 years old and I have been good to it.

Maybe it needs to die.....

[FearTheVoices]

Ill sell you mine for $1000

AMD X2 4400+

with all the other goodies

[dot-dot-dot]

Could be either a corrupt Windows installation or a bad hard drive.

Hard drives are cheap; I would suggest buying another one, installing Win2k or XP on it, then plug the old one in as a secondary drive and grab all your old documents from it.

[The Gainster]

Originally posted by dot-dot-dot Could be either a corrupt Windows installation or a bad hard drive. Hard drives are cheap; I would suggest buying another one, installing Win2k or XP on it, then plug the old one in as a secondary drive and grab all your old documents from it.

 

 

 

I have two harddrives in her...I can't get by the message. Geek Squad was going to charge me $229.00 to come to my house.

 

I can get a comp for just a bit more than that.

 

My big problem is the time to deal with this.

 

I work soooo many hours it's hard to find time.

[Phil O'Keefe]

As Dot said, it's almost certainly a bad HDD or a corrupt windows file. You can try reinstalling Win 2K over the top of the old installation (without reformatting the C drive) and see if that fixes things up, or as he also suggested, do a new install to new HDD, then use your current C drive as a secondary drive for long enough to get any old files you still need off of it.

[beezdeez]

I used to build my own computers. But I got a laptop that I use all the time. It's easy to do and you learn about how a computer works. You can save money too. You probably won't save any time though.

As much as people don't like Dell (I didn't either because of their proprietary nature), check out the Dell Outlet. They are just returns or cancelled custom orders. They refresh the list like 3 or 4 times a day and post some really good deals. I got my Inspiron 9300 configured on the regular Dell site over $2100 for $1300. I received it within a week and it was brand-spankin-new. Or at least it seemed that way. It's worked like a champ since, no problems.

This is your best bet, as you can get a pretty decent setup for cheap.

Go to Dell.com, click on Home & Small Business or whatever. Then at the bottom right you will see a list of "Shopping Alternatives." Click on Dell Outlet.

Here is an example of a deal:

Operating System
Genuine Windows XP Media Center 2005
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Memory
1 GB DDR2 NON-ECC SDRAM 533MHz (2 DIMMs)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hard Disk Drive
80 GB EIDE SATA Hard Drive (7200 RPM)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Modem
56Kbps Data/Fax Modem
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Scratch & Dent
Scratch & Dent
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Base
Dimension 3100/E310 Mini-Tower: Intel Pentium 4 Processor 521 w/HT Technology (2.8GHz,800FSB)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Media Bay
16x DVD +/- RW w/dbl layer write capability
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Network Interface Card
1450 Wireless card



$369

[The Gainster]

Originally posted by beezdeez I used to build my own computers. But I got a laptop that I use all the time. It's easy to do and you learn about how a computer works. You can save money too. You probably won't save any time though. As much as people don't like Dell (I didn't either because of their proprietary nature), check out the Dell Outlet. They are just returns or cancelled custom orders. They refresh the list like 3 or 4 times a day and post some really good deals. I got my Inspiron 9300 configured on the regular Dell site over $2100 for $1300. I received it within a week and it was brand-spankin-new. Or at least it seemed that way. It's worked like a champ since, no problems. This is your best bet, as you can get a pretty decent setup for cheap. Go to Dell.com, click on Home & Small Business or whatever. Then at the bottom right you will see a list of "Shopping Alternatives." Click on Dell Outlet. Here is an example of a deal: Operating System Genuine Windows XP Media Center 2005 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Memory 1 GB DDR2 NON-ECC SDRAM 533MHz (2 DIMMs) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hard Disk Drive 80 GB EIDE SATA Hard Drive (7200 RPM) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Modem 56Kbps Data/Fax Modem -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Scratch & Dent Scratch & Dent -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Base Dimension 3100/E310 Mini-Tower: Intel Pentium 4 Processor 521 w/HT Technology (2.8GHz,800FSB) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Media Bay 16x DVD +/- RW w/dbl layer write capability -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Network Interface Card 1450 Wireless card $369

 

 

 

 

WOW.....thanks so much!

[beezdeez]

No prob.

[beezdeez]

P.S. - Google "dell coupons" and they put out coupons that last like a week that take hundreds of dollars off of a system depending on the configured price. You'll see what I mean when you look at it.

A lot of times they put out ones for Outlet computers so you can save even MORE money when you go to purchase.

But a hint, if you find a good one, snatch it up. People sit on the outlet all day and keep hitting refresh and nab it in their cart. If you want to think about it for a little bit, put it in your cart but I think you only have 15 minutes before it takes the item out of an inactive cart and puts it back in the outlet.