Computer Hardware

[anachronistic]

Which is better?
(for running both Ubuntu Edgy 6.10 and Windows Vista) and 3d games, like half life 2?

NVIDIA GeForce 6150 LE Integrated Graphics GPU
128MB ATI Radeon X1300

Just looking at getting a new computer. Are both of these compatible with XGL and compiz, for linux?

I already have my heart set on a processor; AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core 3800+
because of its quality and price.

[jurupa]

Let me guess you do not have that much money to spend?

From what I have heard about Vista you will not be able to run it fully. As far as Half-Life 2 you will be pretty much on the lowest detail possible and even then you will most probably run into low frames per second, which is not good. As far as Linux goes I do not know how well it supports on board chip sets, so you are going to have to look that one up, but it should run with the ATI card as ATI has open their drivers to the Linux community and have been around long enough that most cards are basically supported.

[blue toxin]

Integrated = onboard to motherboard. AKA, as low as you can go. I strongly recommend an upgrade from this.

Is the ATI a separate card, or is that integrated too?

What's your price range? What's your other hardware choices?

[Junket]

128mb?

Jeez dude, Half Life 2?

No way.

[Gribble]

I haven't read much, Aegis, but rumor has it around the office that Vista ain't all that hot. It's just harder to crack.

[anachronistic]

I was looking at dell's inspirons. I was looking specifically at that really small desktop computer, because I want something decent for gaming in college, and the same quality on a laptop is about 3 times as much.

My current computer is a dell latitude c510. It came out like 4-5 years ago. I have upgraded the ram since then;

It uses a very shitty ATI Mobility Radeon card. Infact, I don't even know what exact card it is; my bet is that it is 'integrated' too. It runs a Pentium III processor at 1200 megahertz. It has a 20 gigabyte hard drive, 256 mb of ram. It has 1 USB 1.0 port, a dialup modem, and a pci card slot. Hell, it even has scuzzy ports. It looks ancient, the left shift key is missing, and the cd drive only reads CD ROMS. Doesn't have any other features.

The one I was looking at featured a wide selection of stuff. I know what I want so far, on it; 320 gigabyte hard drive, built in card reader (16 different card types) cdrom/dvd rw with double layer capabilities. 2 gigabytes of ram.

The graphics card and processor are what I struggle with the most, because I know little about them. I have read reviews on 'intel vs. AMD' which made clear to me that AMD is of better quality, and for a decent price. I also want a dual-core processor, because of advantages I would have with programs such as Photoshop. So I have a general direction in what kind of processor I want.

As far as graphics card go, I have no idea where to start. I read a wiki list on cards that are compatible with xgl/compiz, and all the graphics cards available for the tower I want, so I was satisfied with that. But, I would like to get into a few modern computer games, like half life ii and stuff. So I want a graphics card that allows those games to run decently.

The alternative would be to build my own computer, but I have no idea what I am doing, when it comes to hardware. A worry I would have is that the motherboard/other chips wouldn't fit in the tower... my brother tried to put a motherboard from a junk computer into another, and it wouldn't fit. If this would be more bang for my buck, and I knew what I was doing, I would go this way.

edit;

I have been putting away money (starting this month), saving up for a computer. Currently, I have $190. I would need it before I quit and leave for college, which would be August/September. Based on semi-accurate calculations, I will have saved about $1200 at the end of summer.

[anachronistic]

Can someone tell me what the difference is between all of these?

[url]http://castle.pricewatch.com/s/search.asp?s=7800&group1=2&sci=37&c=Video+Cards&i= 37&srt=t&mi=0&m=&view=[/url]

[anachronistic]

Nothing...just different stores with different prices. I have that exact card -that exact card- but I can't use it. It's a native PCI-Express card & uses the HSI-bridge chip to adapt it to the AGP interface. I have a Tyan K8W motherboard that uses the AMD-8151 AGP graphics tunnel. The AMD-8151 + HSI-bridge chip + Direct3D = disaster/doesn't work. If you want it, I'll sell it to you for $175, shipping on me. I took the card out of the box, tried to get it to work on my good machine, but it only works on my old box that has a VIA chipset, I'm not gonna use the old box for this card, it's just stupid, so I have no use for it. It has all the original packaging, parts & cables...it probably spent a total of 2 days out of the box before I packed it up & promptly left it in my drawer so I could forget to return it.

I have paypal if you're interested. And no, no motherboard you consider buying will have the AMD-8151 AGP tunnel, unless you're buying a 3-year old dual-opteron board.

Haha, no thanks. I am just looking;

What order would you consider buying parts in?

edit:

if you really want to get rid of it, try ebay. Surprisingly, I got $20 out of a deal for a 128 meg laptop ram chip.

[Kiechi]

[url]http://www.photo-ads.co.uk/site/images/img_ads_237.jpg[/url]

OR

[url]http://www.top-trendy.com/images/K-Swiss%20Mens%20Classic..jpg[/url]

[jurupa]

[url]http://www.photo-ads.co.uk/site/images/img_ads_237.jpg[/url]

OR

[url]http://www.top-trendy.com/images/K-Swiss%20Mens%20Classic..jpg[/url]

When did shoes become part of computers? lol


But I am assuming you meant to post this in the thread I created. Saying that I don't understand your point. One looks like an Air Jordan and the other looks like a K-Swiss. Ya they cost the same amount as my shoes. They do not come in my size and I do not like the looks of them and I am surprise Air Jordans have not gone out of style yet.

[anachronistic]

All at once, honestly...it always seems that if you do it piecemeal, you're always left with something holding you back. That being said, I always spend the most money on the core components, and to me, gaming actually takes a backseat. You pretty much have to buy the mobo, processor & ram at once...you can cannibalize other machines for all the other stuff.

In order of priority, as I see it:
1. mobo, cpu, ram
2. harddrive(s) - I prefer a small primary system-boot partition & a larger data partition, with a 3rd small Acronis TrueImage partition for backing up the system/boot partition
3. optical drive
4. video card
5. sound card - hell unless you've got a surround system and don't live where it'll piss others off, get integrated sound...you don't need 10-million-point-1 surround sound if you're gonna be using stereo or headphones (what I use for games). Plus the integrated drivers seem less prone to screwing up. (Probably personal suspicion rather than real fact).

You *need* an optical drive for OS installation, I guarantee you'll fill a harddrive & be left wanting higher-density storage at some point. At this point, you're probably running low on cash, so dump what you have left into a nice vid card & cheap sound card.

Good Lord I could go on & on about this crap...

Please keep going on and on, I will keep reading.

Why would I need an optical drive, when I am getting a 320 gigabyte hard drive?

edit:

Eurasian, Jurupa, don't spam my thread with shoes. Keep it in your own threads.

[anachronistic]

Why do you need an optical drive? I just assume you'd like to install your OS from a cd/dvd and not have to set up a server with installation files to do a network installation. I've never done it, but I think it's a bit messy if you don't have an infrastructure already in place for such operations. (Call me skeptical, but I don't think you do. )

Euro wasn't spamming per se...just posted in the wrong thread, and j realized it.

Meh, why can't I just put the computer together and then turn it on and pop in my OS cd and install it? Am I missing something?

[anachronistic]

No, you're not...an optical drive is what you pop that OS cd into. We're just having communication problems.

You could've just said cd/dvd drive

I am still trying to pick a processor.. I am thinking AMD Dual Core FX 5500.. 2.6ghz and 1 mb of level 2 cache... I haven't experienced a variety of processors.

I have used several powerpc's and my own computer uses a pentium iii; the computers at school have duo centrino... somethign intel. And they have the operating set up through the network. It is really slow, and I coulda done a better job.