Maximum Number Of Internal Hard Drives

[ntluser]

Originally Posted by Semi On

IMO, your only option is to give it away or bin it, and build or buy a new one. Upgrading wouldn't be worth it. PC's are dirt cheap these days.

If you are considering a new one, why don't you tell us what budget you have in mind and what you'll mainly be using it for, and maybe we can help. There are plenty of knowledgable peeps here that could either price up parts for a build-your-own or point you in the direction of some good deals on pre-built machines.

My budget would be about £1500-£1600 but I need to get Windows XP Pro included. I was really hoping to keep costs down by upgrading or at least get something for my existing PC so that I could get more of the things I want:-

an Intel 3GHz processor with 800 fsb and hyperthreading
a P4C800-E deluxe motherboard
an ATI 9800 Pro graphics card or All In Wonder card
1GB Dual Channel DDR400 Memory
an internal DVD multi-burner
an Audigy 2 Platinum sound card/front panel
2 80GB serial ATA hard drives in a RAID configuration

I'd also like to get Microsoft Office Professional if possible.

Maybe I should go for a £3000 bank loan and use my existing £1500 to pay it off!!

[Semi On]

Okay, using Planet Prices as a guide, this is what I came up with:

P4 3GHz £157.81
P4C800-E Deluxe £128.90
9800Pro (ATi branded) £135.07
2x 512MB XMS3200 Corsair RAM £204.64
Pioneer DVR-A07 DVD +R/RW -R/RW £95.59
2x Samsung 80GB (8MB Cache) SATA Drives £109.28
XP Pro OEM £98

I looked for the Audigy 2 Platinum but only found one listed and the site said "No Longer Available" for some reason. Are they discontinued?

Anyways, that comes to £929.29 without shipping, but still gives you plenty to spend on the sound-card, case and PSU. The cheapest I've seen Office XP was £209, but that requires buying a selected piece of hardware (CPU, HDD or Mobo).

You could go cheaper on some of the parts I listed of course - I'm just brainstorming - so I don't see why you can't get what you want within your budget, or at most just over it.

[ntluser]

Originally Posted by Semi On

Okay, using Planet Prices as a guide, this is what I came up with:

P4 3GHz £157.81
P4C800-E Deluxe £128.90
9800Pro (ATi branded) £135.07
2x 512MB XMS3200 Corsair RAM £204.64
Pioneer DVR-A07 DVD +R/RW -R/RW £95.59
2x Samsung 80GB (8MB Cache) SATA Drives £109.28
XP Pro OEM £98

I looked for the Audigy 2 Platinum but only found one listed and the site said "No Longer Available" for some reason. Are they discontinued?

Anyways, that comes to £929.29 without shipping, but still gives you plenty to spend on the sound-card, case and PSU. The cheapest I've seen Office XP was £209, but that requires buying a selected piece of hardware (CPU, HDD or Mobo).

You could go cheaper on some of the parts I listed of course - I'm just brainstorming - so I don't see why you can't get what you want within your budget, or at most just over it.

Thanks for that, Semi On. That looks encouraging. I can limit shipping by just using one or two suppliers.I can have a good look round and get Microsoft Office Pro from the cheapest source.As for the Audigy it may be discontinued as new models are coming out all the time but as I found recently when buying a discontinued camcorder,someone,somewhere will have it.

[ntluser]

After looking at the list of hard drives and other components to go with the system I hope to build I started checking on memory because the P4C800-E Deluxe has to have specific memory.

The board supports 4GB and there are 4 memory slots in 2 pairs so ideally I thought that a 1GB memory card in each slot in two matched pairs should allow me to maximise memory usage in time, but I don't seem to be able to find 1GB memory cards.

The ads say 1024MB (2 X 512 MMB).Do this mean 1 double-sided memory card with 512MB on each side or does it mean 2 separate memory cards with 512MB on each please? If the latter, how do you get a 4GB system? Also which is the fastest, most stable type of memory to use?

[Semi On]

While I think about it - is there any reason why it has to be a P4? I am just thinking out loud...and if your upgrade cycle is a fairly long time (and considering the system you're coming from that's not a wild assumption), have you thought about going the Athlon 64 route?

It would make sense in terms of future-proofing. Intel are going the 64-bit route, but exactly when is anyone's guess, so...

Just some food for thought.

[ntluser]

Originally Posted by Semi On

While I think about it - is there any reason why it has to be a P4? I am just thinking out loud...and if your upgrade cycle is a fairly long time (and considering the system you're coming from that's not a wild assumption), have you thought about going the Athlon 64 route?

It would make sense in terms of future-proofing. Intel are going the 64-bit route, but exactly when is anyone's guess, so...

Just some food for thought.

I've always used Intel because they are more powerful but expensive chips, while AMD are not as powerful but a lot cheaper.

At the moment AMD have the Athlon 64 and a 400MHz fsb. Intel with just a 32 bit P4 and an 800 fsb are managing to stay ahead.When Intel do go the 64 bit route,I think their advantage will be magnified,but as you say we don't know when that will be.

I wondered if Intel were waiting for the PCI Express motherboards to arrive before they did anything. New PC systems will be a heck of a lot quicker as PCI Express will really speed up the system bus and all electronic traffic within your computer.

But as you say considering Athlon is an option particularly if the costs get too high.