OK, how about this system for $80

OK, how about this system for ~$800? This is at http://www.buyabs.com
Thanks!

AMD Athlon 1.1GHz Item#0554
Gigabyte AMD 761 GA-7DX+ Motherboard
128MB DDR SDRAM PC2100 / 20GB Maxtor 7200RPM ATA100 HD
Pioneer 16X DVD-ROM
32MB MSI nVidia TNT2 M64 AGP w/o TV-Out
No Monitor
Sound Blaster Live! 5.1
Altec Lansing AVS500 Speakers w/Subwoofer
Zoom PCI 56K V.92 Modem
1.44MB Floppy Drive
Microsoft IntelliMouse/Microsoft Natural Keyboard Pro (No NT Support)
Windows XP Home Edition
In-Win ATX Mid-Tower Case
3 Years Limited Warranty Standard
PCI 10/100 Base-T -- http://www.dougrhess.com

get the fastest processor you can afford, for another $50 you should be able to get an Athlon 1400 or better.

doug said:

OK, how about this system for ~$800? This is at http://www.buyabs.com
Thanks!

AMD Athlon 1.1GHz Item#0554
Gigabyte AMD 761 GA-7DX+ Motherboard
128MB DDR SDRAM PC2100 / 20GB Maxtor 7200RPM ATA100 HD
Pioneer 16X DVD-ROM
32MB MSI nVidia TNT2 M64 AGP w/o TV-Out
No Monitor
Sound Blaster Live! 5.1
Altec Lansing AVS500 Speakers w/Subwoofer
Zoom PCI 56K V.92 Modem
1.44MB Floppy Drive
Microsoft IntelliMouse/Microsoft Natural Keyboard Pro (No NT Support)
Windows XP Home Edition
In-Win ATX Mid-Tower Case
3 Years Limited Warranty Standard
PCI 10/100 Base-T
--
http://www.dougrhess.com

Click to expand...

No CD burner?

If you don't already have one, I'd suggest getting one. Where are you going to back things up too?

-Josh

doug said:

OK, how about this system for ~$800? This is at http://www.buyabs.com
Thanks!

AMD Athlon 1.1GHz Item#0554
Gigabyte AMD 761 GA-7DX+ Motherboard
128MB DDR SDRAM PC2100 / 20GB Maxtor 7200RPM ATA100 HD
Pioneer 16X DVD-ROM
32MB MSI nVidia TNT2 M64 AGP w/o TV-Out
No Monitor
Sound Blaster Live! 5.1
Altec Lansing AVS500 Speakers w/Subwoofer
Zoom PCI 56K V.92 Modem
1.44MB Floppy Drive
Microsoft IntelliMouse/Microsoft Natural Keyboard Pro (No NT Support)
Windows XP Home Edition
In-Win ATX Mid-Tower Case
3 Years Limited Warranty Standard
PCI 10/100 Base-T
--
http://www.dougrhess.com

Click to expand...

If you plan on playing games, that video card is terrible. For photoshop it may or may not be problematic at high resolutions (ie. 1600x1200). nVidia TNT cards are not known to be very good at 2D graphics. Recommended are a Matrox G450 Dualhead (lousy at 3D games but good 2D dual monitor card), or else ATI Radeon (good 2D and good 3D), or ATI Rage 128 Pro (good 2D, mediocre 3D).

I'd advise 512 MB DDR, 40 GB drive.

Forget the DVD-ROM and get a CD-RW. Or else get both.

Do you need Firewire? I'd consider it. The Sound Blaster Audigy includes one Firewire port, and it's only moderately more expensive than a Live!

Do you need a dial up modem?

Clarify what that warranty means.

doug said:

OK, how about this system for ~$800? This is at http://www.buyabs.com
Thanks!

AMD Athlon 1.1GHz Item#0554
Gigabyte AMD 761 GA-7DX+ Motherboard
128MB DDR SDRAM PC2100 / 20GB Maxtor 7200RPM ATA100 HD
Pioneer 16X DVD-ROM
32MB MSI nVidia TNT2 M64 AGP w/o TV-Out
No Monitor
Sound Blaster Live! 5.1
Altec Lansing AVS500 Speakers w/Subwoofer
Zoom PCI 56K V.92 Modem
1.44MB Floppy Drive
Microsoft IntelliMouse/Microsoft Natural Keyboard Pro (No NT Support)
Windows XP Home Edition
In-Win ATX Mid-Tower Case
3 Years Limited Warranty Standard
PCI 10/100 Base-T
--
http://www.dougrhess.com

Click to expand...

I agree but if money is tight there are many other things that need upgrading first, not the least of which is the memory.

newsposter said:

doug said:

OK, how about this system for ~$800? This is at http://www.buyabs.com
Thanks!

AMD Athlon 1.1GHz Item#0554
Gigabyte AMD 761 GA-7DX+ Motherboard
128MB DDR SDRAM PC2100 / 20GB Maxtor 7200RPM ATA100 HD
Pioneer 16X DVD-ROM
32MB MSI nVidia TNT2 M64 AGP w/o TV-Out
No Monitor
Sound Blaster Live! 5.1
Altec Lansing AVS500 Speakers w/Subwoofer
Zoom PCI 56K V.92 Modem
1.44MB Floppy Drive
Microsoft IntelliMouse/Microsoft Natural Keyboard Pro (No NT Support)
Windows XP Home Edition
In-Win ATX Mid-Tower Case
3 Years Limited Warranty Standard
PCI 10/100 Base-T
--
http://www.dougrhess.com

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

I really agree with the previous posters. Considering that this PC is for digital imaging... 1st of all, forget the dvd-rom. You can get a CD burner for the same price. 2nd, consider more memory... minimum 512 MB. 3rd, that 20 GB harddrive will probably last you just 1 to 2 years max. Consider a bigger one now or stay with it. When you buy a bigger one, use the 20 GB for scratch disk and data strorage.

doug said:

OK, how about this system for ~$800? This is at http://www.buyabs.com
Thanks!

AMD Athlon 1.1GHz Item#0554
Gigabyte AMD 761 GA-7DX+ Motherboard
128MB DDR SDRAM PC2100 / 20GB Maxtor 7200RPM ATA100 HD
Pioneer 16X DVD-ROM
32MB MSI nVidia TNT2 M64 AGP w/o TV-Out
No Monitor
Sound Blaster Live! 5.1
Altec Lansing AVS500 Speakers w/Subwoofer
Zoom PCI 56K V.92 Modem
1.44MB Floppy Drive
Microsoft IntelliMouse/Microsoft Natural Keyboard Pro (No NT Support)
Windows XP Home Edition
In-Win ATX Mid-Tower Case
3 Years Limited Warranty Standard
PCI 10/100 Base-T
--
http://www.dougrhess.com

Click to expand...

--Simon-Ph

thanks. actually. i already own a cd-rw, so that's why i'm going with just the dvd. i agree about the RAM. i'm not so concerned about the processor being over 1ghz. i'm just a hobbyist, not pro. is this really going to be a headache at 1.1?

thanks for the advice on the RAM. that's the area i'm most confused about. going up to 30 gigs is cheap. i don't exactly know what i would do with that much space anyhow. i don't play games. music i download goes onto CDs and i'm constantly cleaning out my drives.

any other ideas?
thanks again.

Simon-Ph said:

Simon-Ph said:

AMD Athlon 1.1GHz Item#0554
Gigabyte AMD 761 GA-7DX+ Motherboard
128MB DDR SDRAM PC2100 / 20GB Maxtor 7200RPM ATA100 HD
Pioneer 16X DVD-ROM
32MB MSI nVidia TNT2 M64 AGP w/o TV-Out
No Monitor
Sound Blaster Live! 5.1
Altec Lansing AVS500 Speakers w/Subwoofer
Zoom PCI 56K V.92 Modem
1.44MB Floppy Drive
Microsoft IntelliMouse/Microsoft Natural Keyboard Pro (No NT Support)
Windows XP Home Edition
In-Win ATX Mid-Tower Case
3 Years Limited Warranty Standard
PCI 10/100 Base-T

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

-- http://www.dougrhess.com

Considering that a 4 MP JPEG file is already 2 MB and tiff files are in the range of 12 MB, you can go through disk space pretty damn quick. 1000 JPEG pix with TIFF file edits would eat 20 MB in no time.

By the way, I've been telling people lately that if they're the type not to regularly backup, a RAID setup might be worth it. ie. Two 30 GB drives in software RAID 1 might be a good investment, considering it costs $100 extra only compared to one drive.

OTOH, if you consistently backup your photos to MULTIPLE copies of CDs then a single 30 GB drive is fine. I find CD type backup a big pain however. My collection of photos would take too many CD-Rs.

You're right. CPU speed is not that important relative to the other things.

doug said:

any other ideas?
thanks again.

Member said:

Member said:

AMD Athlon 1.1GHz Item#0554
Gigabyte AMD 761 GA-7DX+ Motherboard
128MB DDR SDRAM PC2100 / 20GB Maxtor 7200RPM ATA100 HD
Pioneer 16X DVD-ROM
32MB MSI nVidia TNT2 M64 AGP w/o TV-Out
No Monitor
Sound Blaster Live! 5.1
Altec Lansing AVS500 Speakers w/Subwoofer
Zoom PCI 56K V.92 Modem
1.44MB Floppy Drive
Microsoft IntelliMouse/Microsoft Natural Keyboard Pro (No NT Support)
Windows XP Home Edition
In-Win ATX Mid-Tower Case
3 Years Limited Warranty Standard
PCI 10/100 Base-T

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

--
http://www.dougrhess.com

Click to expand...

I might suggest you consider a pair of hard disk drives. Then copy your images from one to the other for backup. You can also use the second HD for swap file and perhaps for Photoshop swap disk too.

Do get 7200RPM drives, not 5400 (at least for your primary drive). I strongly suggest Maxtor as the best quality; Seagate is also good. Personal experience says to avoid IBM, and I keep hearing bad things about Western Digital. I'd avoid the Quantum drives that Maxtor now resells under their own name; no good reason, but Maxtor always had a top notch reputation. You may need to visit the Maxtor site to confirm.

I think you've got a good idea with both a burner and DVD; I've gone that route myself, and use the burner only for burning.

doug said:

any other ideas?
thanks again.

Member said:

Member said:

AMD Athlon 1.1GHz Item#0554
Gigabyte AMD 761 GA-7DX+ Motherboard
128MB DDR SDRAM PC2100 / 20GB Maxtor 7200RPM ATA100 HD
Pioneer 16X DVD-ROM
32MB MSI nVidia TNT2 M64 AGP w/o TV-Out
No Monitor
Sound Blaster Live! 5.1
Altec Lansing AVS500 Speakers w/Subwoofer
Zoom PCI 56K V.92 Modem
1.44MB Floppy Drive
Microsoft IntelliMouse/Microsoft Natural Keyboard Pro (No NT Support)
Windows XP Home Edition
In-Win ATX Mid-Tower Case
3 Years Limited Warranty Standard
PCI 10/100 Base-T

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

--
http://www.dougrhess.com

Click to expand...