Seriously considering a new home office rig when I get home. System won't see any serious gaming - primarily browsing, MS Office, light photo editing and ripping CD's and occasionally DVD's. I'll probably be stuck with Vista (unless I can find my XP disc). I do want dual monitors on this as I typically have to work with 1 or 2 browser windows open along with a spreadsheet. This my be a silly question, but any problem using a widescreen monitor as my "primary" off the DVI output and then a 19" "browser" 4:3 monitor off the VGA? I don't plan to OC but would consider if it's truly worth it. Budget is $1,200 USD. Greatly appeciate any feedback. I have been reading around and think I want to start somewhere around E6550/Gigabyte P35 mobo/2 GB DDR2 RAM and a decent video card but will see what folks have to say. Thanks!
you don't need to find your xp disc, you just need to find your serial and _a_ xp disk Magical Jelly Bean is able to tell you your serials for windows & office (but its also normally on the certificate sticker on the case)
Actually, I've had a change of plans - please let me know what you think about this: 1. Have my company laptop running XP currently with a VGA port if I want to hook my second monitor in there. Any suggestions for a good 17" or 19" monitor under $200? 2. Build a Linux box for personal use - surfing, email, etc. I am starting to enjoy this idea because I don't do anything outside of work that requires Microsoft anything (other than my iPod but can run iTunes off the laptop since it'll still be on Winblowz). And I'd rather go cheap with the hardware rather than need 2 GB of RAM for Vista/XP to go hog. Would appreciate any recommendations on CPU/Mobo/video on that setup please. E6550 and Gigabyte P35 or would that be overkill and stick with the E21xx? Also, for non-gaming - 512gb or 1mb of RAM? Thanks for any feedback!
You can manage your Ipod from linux, you cant buy from the apple store but you can copy music onto Ipods (and copy the music on a Ipod to your computer) but you cant buy from the apple store. I would go with an AMD processor tbh, You can get RAM quite cheaply so i would rec 1GB. In normally build a computer by starting with an idea of how much i want to spend, building it around that and then seeing how much more it would cost for better parts (more RAM etc) and then deciding if its worth it. I choose hard drives based on there price per GB, unless im on a strict budget, I have a 400GB (cheapest at the time) and a 500GB (still the cheapest per GB )
thanks for the feedback - the 320GB drives are the cheapest currently at my favorite online retailer (seagates - had really good luck with them and they're quiet). Any constraints on the video card? I really am not a PC gamer at all unless you count online poker but do want decent photo editing and video playback performance. nvidia geforce OK? Probably a DVI output to a 19" monitor. Total on system (excluding monitor) I'm shooting for around $600. Feasible?
I'm reading a lot of the distro forums - over at ubuntu, etc. so they've got a lot of hardware info there. Any particular problem with using a 802.11g card? Running a Linksys router upstairs and there's not a cable modem down here in my office currently. Although I think I have my old Linksys modem somewhere if needed.
depends what wireless card you get, most cards work but some cards work alot better than others. it depends on what chipset they use (i have never had any problems with a atheros chipset, but have had plenty with ralink chipsets)
