Unofficial Tex Murphy

Hey guys, I know way back I mentioned my computer was making funny noises and so on and we kinda got onto that subject of PC parts and stuff. Its holding out OK, after I reformatted to give it a bit more life. But it is getting on now and still a pain especially in the heat in UK recently... Well I finally have saved some money to be able to get a new PC and I was wondering if you guys here would be so kind as to give me a few suggestions as parts or a package to get. Last time I think I got my PC built by a small PC outfit based on specs you request through their site. Although I don't mind getting a package deal if theres one thats fine for me. Bear in mind I am in UK though...

I mainly will be using it for my work which is design (websites, flash games, graphics, print work etc.) and illustration. So something that can handle the usual suspects in that field (Adobe mostly). Don't do much if any video work so its ok if it cant do anything beyond dinky trailers. I don't do much PC gaming aside from older games. I'll probably be sticking with Windows XP too and not switching to Vista.

Right now I have a Pentium 4 2.40 GHz, 1 GB RAM, Nvidia GeForce FX 5200, Windows XP Home Service Pack 3.
Sound card is just an onboard one I think Vinyl AC'97 or something like that.

Oh and I think I need a new router. *Maybe* its just that my current PC is a pain but my router loses connection on and off a lot and I cant login to its control panel anymore, tech support gave me various logins to try of which none worked and I don't remember changing the login myself.... And it couldnt seem to handle playing online with my PS3, lagging so bad I could hardly move or disconnecting all over the place, plugged in direct and everything was smoooth The other day all I was doing was chatting on MSN and listen to an internet radio and it was dropping out every 10 - 20 minutes! So yeah I just get fed up with it sometimes and plug in direct to my box until someone else needs the net and then its a royal pain to plug the router back in and get it to pick up the connection of the ethernet box again. After all this I HAAATE routers!!
I have a Linksys BEFSR41 I think. I hear bad things about it now on the net but then I hear bad things about every router which is making me have a big headache trying to work out what router to get....
It'd be nice to have a router that simply works and doesn't flake on me every other day... So any suggestions on routers would also be awesome!

Anyway thanks for ANY help!

hold off until you can get windows 7 preinstalled, shouldn't be long now. it will go better than xp & it's better than vista also.

Go for at least core 2 duo with at least 2gb ram. windows 32bit will only use 3gb ram any more is a waste. If you get 64bit windows you can get higher ram. Down side some programs have trouble with 64bit.

The new video cards coming out now need to hooked up to psu(power supply) so the power supply has to have a PCIE 6 pin adaptor.

they all seem to have on board sound now.

Get someone to build it for you

Does Windows 7 come in both 32 and 64???

yes it does, I am using the RC32 but I have the 64 on the same disk. When you do the install it asks you which version you would like to install.

Thanks plumgas, really good information to know.
Oh I heard about Windows 7 hmm. Guess I will check up when its out here in UK and look for some videos/reviews etc. of it. Thanks for the tip!

32bit or 64bit... wouldn't really know what I should get but I guess I'll stick with 32 since I use some old games/software sometimes. Don't want too many compatiblity issues.

Thanks for the advice regarding the processor, ram and video card. I appreciate it.

By the way are PCs pretty quiet these days? Is it just that mine is so old now that it whirrs away and so on...? (although I think I also kind of have sensitive hearing to high-pitch electrics that are old and noise-leaking)
Or would it be worth investing in some things to make it run quieter and what would those be?

fans make the noise, the more fans more noise. A lot of times it's the video card fan that makes the most noise.

Looks like win 7 is to set released in oct.

Yeah fans are usually the cause of the noise, but they are quiet for the most part... Your noise problem might be due to the fan being so old that the motors screeches because it is wearing out or needs a really good cleaning...

Fans can be replaced rather easily as well... They are also coming out with better Heat Coils, which in some cases eliminate fans, like in Laptops and tiny desktops, but the prices are always higher for that kind of stuff...

Nothing wrong with fans normally... They can be replaced and are rather cheap to do so... But you are planning on replacing the computer shortly so I wouldn't bother with the fans unless they cease up on you and cause overheating before you are ready to get the New Computer...

If your current hard drive is a reasonable size and you're getting rid of your old computer, buy a box for it, take it out the pc and use it as an external drive. You can get them from Maplin for about £30-40 or on eBay for about £10. It's brilliant for using it to keep backups or to store photos or itunes music etc and keeps your main hard drive free for other things.

Yeah I heard about a box like that called Voyager just the other day... Keeps you from having to reinstall everything and leaving the junk behind in your new registry...

I have it partitioned. One half has all my photos and music, which I don't listen to via my computer that often (I have my ipod and speakers for that) and the other half has my computer games which take up tons of space. That leaves loads of space on my laptop for everything else. works a treat.

yeah I purchased a enclosure with fan & installed a 750gb disk & partitioned it, (1) win 7
(2) win xp (3) media & then last partition was for image files. Win 7 set up a dual boot so just changing the external drive in the bios as the first boot now enables me to boot in to either vista on internal drive/ win 7 or xp on external drive works great.