Re: OT - Lookign for a new computer
 

Gee i guess my TRS-8 color computer 2 with 64k ram and an external 300bps modem and 16k 51/2 floppy, must be worth more than 1700.

Re: OT - Lookign for a new computer
 

I've got a dell 530 dually workstation that has been going 24/7 for almost 5 years. I had one of the IDE hard drives fail at a litle short of 3 years. But other than that it has been great. I switched it to SCSI 160's a few months ago. The 160's are second tier now and I got 5 36gig 10k drives $175 http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Buy a cheap system....Get a cheap system. You will seldom get more than you pay for.

Re: OT - Lookign for a new computer
 

You can also go on E-bay and search for misspellings of computer brands/parts; e.g., Compaq: Compack, Kompaq, Kompack. in the appropriet categories. Few people search on misspellings, so those that have them tend not to be bid on. Of course, it's a little bit of a gamble - you don't really know what condition the items are in, or what, precisely, they truly are, but it's an option.

Edit: Ah! Compac is doing pretty decent at the moment.

Re: OT - Lookign for a new computer
 

Will you take 200 minerals, 0 organics & 20 radicals?

Re: OT - Lookign for a new computer
 

I bought a few books, read a lot on the internet, and built a AMD 3700+ system from the ground up with quality components for about $1400. (Which I know is too much for a lot of people around here.)

I wanted quality parts which had warranties and built it in a quality case - Antec P160
1 gig of RAM
Radeon X800 XL
DVD+R
On-board sound with an Asus Motherboard
WinXP Pro SP2
Zalman fan

I had to replace my Compaq, purchased in 1999, 700 Mhz <256megs of RAM, Win98. It was starting to have recurrent errors that we couldn't solve.

Overall the build went smoothly and I had noone standing over my shoulder helping. A great learning experience for me.