Your review is Submitted Successfully. Ã—

Branded Vs. Assembled Computers

0 Followers

165 Tips

WRITE A TIP

Terence Fernandes@terry_fdes

Sep 16, 2003 03:08 AM, 4577 Views

(Updated Sep 16, 2003)

Assembling your Monster PC - with component prices

ASSEMBLING YOUR MONSTER PC? WITH COMPONENT PRICES

This is one mean PC that would be of special interest to all Music enthusiasts(not just the listener but for those interested in creating/mixing/DJ?s/cleaning-up music); Moderate Gamers and Video Editing enthusiasts. All prices are Mumbai based as on Jul-August 2003.

WHY GO FOR AN ASSEMBLED PC? It?s Cheaper any day plus you can precisely pick and choose each component of your dream system. Of course what is most important is that if you are not assembling the PC yourself then check the credentials of your Assembler? ask for references and check them out(this is always necessary if your system is going to be a state-of-the-art one). Do your homework about choosing the various components(Brand/Model No.) Check up product reviews at tomshardware.com/ anandtech.com/ hardwareanalysis.com/ extremetech.com. These are places where most pc components are rigorously tested and reviewed regularly. DIGIT magazine is also a good reference guide. Once you have made your choice do not change it(esp. if your assembler is suggesting some other brand or model that is more easily available but which could be dated). Choose your components based upon your needs plus budget. Most assemblers have their fixed distributors contacts and very often you may hear that a particular component that you want is not available. Do not fall for this yarn(it only means that his distributor does not have the stock) tell him that you can wait for a few days or threaten him that you would buy it yourself(which would eat into his margins). Lamington road in Mumbai is an excellent place to buy and compare prices. Most of all in an assembled PC you could add certain components at a later stage and thus stagger the investment(like additional RAM/HDD/DVD drive/CD-Writer/Speakers/Sound Card/TV Tuner card). Lastly, in an assembled PC your assembler would load it with software that could take care of most of your needs.

BRANDED PC?: The only plus point would be the after sales service(provided you have the patience). You cannot change any component on the offered system. You could only perhaps modify a few cosmetic changes like RAM capacity or HDD size or Monitor size. You would not be allowed to add any components on your own later on as it would nullify the warranty. Most of the packages on offer today have a pathetic configuration which is already outdated. Note that SDRAM and ATA 100, 5200 RPM HDD are still being bundled with P4?s(they have to clear up their stocks and inventory!)

INTEL V/S AMD. Money, money, money. That?s the BIG difference between these two with AMD scoring majorly. Note that with the config listed below I ended up saving over Rs. 14000/-(Compared with Intel 2.7 GHz and Gigabyte motherboard). AMD has long resolved their overheating issues and all their Athlon range of processors are stable and performance wise better than Intel. AMD again scores with their motherboards that are compatible over a broad range of their processors ranging from Durons to the next gen processors(Intel sadly needs a motherboard change with every generation of their processors? the P4 motherboards are not going to be compatible with Intel?s next gen of processors!)

Now, here?s my PC that I assembled(which was my?Dream PC? for the past few years). Note that this configuration has been used and tested for the past 7 weeks and its performance is outstanding in all respects? speed/ stability/ long hours of use/ rare error messages(which are software related issues). I use Windows XP-Prof as my OS and an external d-link 56.6 modem. Where necessary I have given my reasons for choosing.

CABINET: VIP 833-DGG(Rs. 2785/-) with a 450W - SMPS. This is the most versatile of all available cabinets and is a dark cyber beauty. Height is 42cms and Depth is 46.5 cms. It has 8 available 5 ½ slots in front. This makes it extremely flexible for you to place your drives anywhere(CD-ROM, FDD, CD-Writer, DVD-ROM, ZIP etc.). I have used the bottom most slot for my Sound Blaster Drive. The 450W power supply, which was the minimum necessary for my configuration was an extra requirement and which pushed up the price of my cabinet( the existing cabinet comes with a 300-350W SMPS and is priced at Rs. 1750/-) It also comes with headphone, mic and USB port connectors in front.

MOTHERBOARD: ASUS A7N8X-X(Rs. 6850/-) This has the nVidia nForce 2 400 chipset, AGP 8X, ATA 133, nVidia LAN, 5PCI & 1AGP slots, Firewire & USB ports DDR-RAM and onboard sound. Note most AMD or Intel high-end mobo?s will not come with onboard graphics today. This board does not have support for RAID or SATA HDD(which I believe would be the next gen of HDD at ATA 150). Those interested in going in for excellent quality onboard sound should look at A7N8X-Deluxe, which is the only mobo so far to have Dolby sound.

GRAPHICS OR DISPLAY CARD: ASUS GeForce FX 5200 V9520-Magic 128MB DDR RAM -(Rs. 7350/-) Direct X9 and open GL1.4 support, S-VHS & Composite TV-out. This card offers excellent display resolutions at 1024 x 768(and upto 2048 x 1536 depending on your monitor) and handles all the latest games with ease, fine display of any particle effects(no pixellation or dropped frames at this resolution). Those wanting a built-in-TV-Tuner could go for V9520 Home Theatre or ATI All-In-Wonder AGP cards.

PROCESSOR: AMD ATHLON 2600+(Rs. 6500/-) I chose AMD over Intel as the price of an Intel 2.6 GHz was Rs. 11500/- and a comparable mobo Gigabyte was Rs. 15250/-

DDR-RAM: 2 X 256MB DDR(Rs. 5050/-) I chose DDR 333 Mhz . I plan to add an additional 1GB after 6 months or so. Never go for only a single stick of RAM(just is case one of your RAM conks off on day you would always have the other stick to carry on).

CD-RW: ASUS CRW 5224(Rs. 2950/-) A 52X writer this is one of the best.

DVD-ROM: SAMSUNG SD-616(Rs. 2650/-) Nothing exceptional you could try Sony.

SOUND-CARD: CREATIVE SOUNDBLASTER AUDIGY 2 PLATINUM(Rs. 12600/- lamington road) The world?s best comes at a price. What a fantastic piece of architecture and sound quality that will blow your mind. With a Easy Front-Panel Audio Connectivity Drive and a Internal PCI drive bay, 24bit/192 kHz DAC, recording at 24bit/96 kHz. Professional Music creation & editing tools and tonnes of softwares(7 CD?s). Firewire, Optical In/Out, SPDIF and wireless remote. Optimised for 6.1 Digital speaker systems. Note the official price is Rs. 15500/-

SPEAKERS: CREATIVE INSPIRE 4.1(Rs. 3400/-) I chose this since I already have a Technics home theatre system(I needed at least a 4.1 system to test my audio recordings on the PC).

UPS: APC Back UPS-Pro 650VA(BP 650SI)(Rs. 5513/-) If you are going in for a monster system do not scrimp over this most essential of all components. It can take care of all sorts of voltage problems and give you almost 20 mins of backup time. Esp. useful for areas having voltage problems(otherwise for each spike/surge/blackout that your computer faces you are damaging various components of your hardware & software). Comes with a PC powerchute software for auto shutdown etc.

HDD: Seagate Barracuda 120GB, ATA 133, 7500 RPM(Rs. 7250/-) I needed a huge hard disk to support all my audio and video workings. Samsung did not have the above specs. I have made 3 partitions of 40GB each(C is in FAT32, D & E are NTFS formatted). I have also attached my old 20 GB HDD to my PC. Later if needed I plan to add another 180 GB harddisk.