System upgrade questions

It even has a 160GB HDD built in.

No noisy fan, lets you pause live TV, and will never get a virus.

Philips DVDR3575H DVD Recorder
http://hometheater.about.com/od/toppicks/tp/aatpdvdrecorder.htm

I refuse to touch any All In 1 M'Boards. I find them crappy and slow when compared to a Dedicated System with it's own components chosen by the builder and not something thrown together for a price.

Since the advent of the All in One M'Boards or a Computer on a M'Board type things they speed of the M'Boards has dramatically dropped and it is quite noticeable even with fast Dual Core CPU's and lots of RAM., If you compare a old Gigabyte GA6 BXDU Slot 1 M'Board with it's 2 X 450 P2 CPU's fitted and 4 X 256 MEG SD RAM Sticks installed and using IDE Drives not SCSI and a 64 MEG AGP X 4 Video CARD this computer is more than fast enough for all but the most extreme games. Then try to load the same game onto a minimum Spec latter model board and it falls in a heap. I'm not sure that we have moved that far forward actually only made things cheaper and nastier while being able to install the most overpowered CPU's and vast amounts of RAM to do the same thing that could be done with 2 P2's and half or less of the RAM that is used now days.

Or look at the old Tyan Dual CPU M'Boards for a Pentium these came with 4 RAM Slots per CPU and where effectively 2 M'Baords with a combined Video, Keyboard & Mouse interface and with a 200 MMX Pentium they flew even with XP. They shouldn't have actually worked but they did and they did it quite well.

I've just built up a new Dual Core for my son and while it's nice I still do not consider it any better than the BX400 chip set one that I regularly use maybe a tad cheaper to buy initially because there is only 1 CPU to buy and I had to purchase 2 originally and a lot of expensive RAM. When it was running Debian as a Server it worked great on 128 MEG of RAM and there was talk about shelling out for a 256 MEG RAM Stick when or if they ever became available. Kind of reminds me of the time I was paying $100.00 Per Meg and I had to buy 8 X 16 MEG Sticks for one DOS computer. That had a whopping 128 MEG of RAM and a 500 MEG HDD which I had to fight to buy as the salesperson insisted that a 500 MEG drive was unfillable. That was with a DX 486 I think and was the first PC that I ever bought. Even then I had to settle for a base model as they couldn't supply the parts to my specifications as they where too expensive. But a few years latter when the Pentiums came out and i wrote a Engine management program on the 486 and then burnt it to a EPROM on a Pentium at work life got interesting as the motor destroyed itself and that was considerably more expensive to any of the computers we had then. It actually probably cost more than all the computers together but it did provide an excuse not to move to Pentiums for a very long time.

Anyway without a doubt I would say go with a Dedicated Video Card and a slower CPU if cost is an issue but even a 512 MEG Video card these days is relatively cheap. From past experience with NVida Video Cards though I would say stick with a Intel Chip Set M'Board rather than a ATI or SIS and NVida Chip Set M'Board. I've had way too many Hardware conflicts with nonintel Chip Set M'Baords and besides they are just plain faster and better bang for your buck.

Col

Those days when a meg was a hundred dollars. I forget which one dropped below that level first (hard drives and memory) because Im pretty sure they were both at that level. Now I remember, memory was a hundred a meg, while hdd's were a dollar a meg. Ill bet that old 500 meg hdd that you could never have filled :), was pretty darn expensive back then.

And yes that did help, I will stick with a dedicated card, because they aren't too much these days. And up until now, I had been semi planning on getting an Nvidia chipset board since I like Asus and that is what nmost of theirs are. Any suggestions on mobo's themselves or at least their manufacturers?

As you will accept whatever it does but if you buy something on the strength of someones else's opinion any little problem will be a major issue.

So I say buy what you like. You'll be much happier with it in the long run. :D

That reminds me of when I was working my way through Uni by fixing Sewing Machines some women would come in complaining that this Husqvana was the biggest pile of Shiite that they had ever run across and then trade it in on another one. I was under the impression that if you got something bad you bought something else but apparently not. As I'm only a lowly tech I figured out a long time ago that the Customer is always better off with what they want not what they actually need they are just happier with it no matter what happens.

Personally I don't have anything against AMD CPU's myself but the part of the industry that I work in refuses to use them mostly as they demand reliability and consider that Intel gives them that so that is what they want and use. Though I did have a major problem with a AMD Server that I built for a guy once it was simply terrible and fell over almost on the hour every hour, well that is what it felt like to me anyway and was a nightmare to deal with. But I had suggested a Quad CPU Intel unit and this guys son was insistent that AMD was better because it was cheaper and as he was a CS Student what he said had to be right. :D

Anyway they pulled out the AMD unit and replaced it with a Intel one that I had originally suggested and it never looked back the son there got the old new one and loved it even though it fell over hourly. But in that case it was the combination of parts that caused the problem not the CPU's, M'Board, RAM, Video Card they just should never have been put together that way. I did warn them of potential problems and even swapped everything out several times to no avail but that was a nasty one that I never care to repeat again. A very expensive lesson for the Father who lost millions in down time but he now leaves any advice that his son gives him at home and relies on what I suggest for him and is one of those customers that I'll never loose. I'll swear that he'll be at my funeral asking the coffin for advice on what to use where. :D

But for Gigabyte I've only ever had one fail and that was in the Burn In Period and was replaced immediately, but then again so was the Solteck and ASUS M'Boards that failed from new. That Gigabyte GA6 BXDU was made up in 1998 and is still running strong though the CPU's, Video Card and RAM have all been replaced over time. I just can't fault them overall though I do chose which ones I use and don't just buy anything available that could be part of the reason I find them so good.

Col