Help Culhwch buy a new computer!

[Culhwch]

Slightly off-topic but I just went upstairs to my desk on my lunch break, and my shiny new iMac has been installed. Horrid, unnatural thing it is, too...

[Wybren]

OOO they gived you a Mac, we had a mac laptop for a while, and yeah unnatural things they are indeed

[Culhwch]

I don't see the point, because we're not doing anything that actually requires a Mac - they're going to running Windows, for crying out loud. I think the big boss has an Apple fetish. Ever since he started it's been iPods and iTouches and iPhones and Air Books and now iMacs...

[Wybren]

I think it is an academic thing, all the uni's I have attended seem to have this preference for Apple though I don't understand why, macs only account for 5% of the market, everyone else is a PC user and even the Ipods etc you can use with a PC anyway

[Culhwch]

Actually I think we may be the first at UQ to go with Macs. Certainly one of the first. But I have heard that they're gaining massive ground in the tertiary sector, particularly in the US...

[Wybren]

WOW, No when I was at SCU the majority of the computers for student use were macs, same with at UNE and from what I saw of QUT there were way too many Macs there too. My lectures at UNE seem to like the Macs too. Maybe they like inflicting the Macs on the students because they cant really play games on them so the figure the students can only do study on a mac cause there is bugger all else they can do

[Culhwch]

I like that theory!

[Wybren]

Its the only thing I can think of, I mean what good is a mac otherwise than to keep people away from the fun stuff. Sure they say they are good at graphics and media stuff but its nothing you cant do with a good video card and a decent amount of ram.

[Happy Joe]

Wybren; good, solid recommendations, seems a bit pricey though... (not certain of the exchange rate).
Here the same system with XP would run about US $745.

I'm not an IMac fan, there seems to be only a core of die-hard/ignore the advantages of alternatives, fan-boys who prefer them locally.

(I wish that PCs were available when I went to Uni, we had to make do with punch cards, and an IBM 360 (there were a few H/P mini computers, program it yourself in Basic, in racks scattered around the departments)... when I started slide rules were the standard calculator).

Enjoy!

[Wybren]

Happy Joe $745USD is $1138AUD so really $1150 is only $12 more than what he'd pay if it were over there.

The company my grandfather worked for was one of the first places in the country to get a computer, he said that the room it was stored in was huge because it was so huge, and he alway is amazed at how small the computers are getting compared to that one.

[Culhwch]

Thread ressurection! Well, it's been a long time between drinks, but I've finally pretty much settled on what I'm aiming to get. Now I just need to find the time to order it all and pick it up (and hope that the supplier doesn't suddenly go out of stock on anyhting and derail my progress - again...). For the record, this is what I'm looking at:

- Intel ATX E7300 CORE 2 DUO 2.66G 3MBCache 1066FSB LGA775
- Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3P P45+ICH10R DDR2 1200 1600MHz PCI-E 2.0 SATAII RAID GLAN 1394a 8Ch ATX
- Western Digital 500G SATAII 7200 rpm HDD(16Mb Cache)
- MSI ATI R4830 512M OC
- Kingston DDR2 4(2x2G)PC6400 800Mhz - KVR800D2N6K2/4G
- CoolerMaster Centurion 5 RCT05KKR2 with 460w PSU Black

And a DVD burner I salvaged from my wife's old PC. Surely I don't need a floppy drive in this day and age, do I? In any case, the whole rig should set me back just a smidge over $A800, which is about what I was aiming for. Then comes the fun part... piecing it all together!

[Wybren]

Ah floppy drive? whats a floppy drive? I think we just have bit where one could go if we put one in but I dont think it is needed.

[Happy Joe]

I have some but they are beige...
The last bunch of floppies that I bought were unreliable (at best).
I like thumbnail drives (USB) for temporary storage and sneakernet transport of data between unconnected machines.
Burn CDs for small storage ~700mb and DVDs for larger backups.

The floppy drive position will hold another hard drive...

Enjoy!

[Culhwch]

Originally Posted by Culhwch

Thread ressurection! Well, it's been a long time between drinks, but I've finally pretty much settled on what I'm aiming to get. Now I just need to find the time to order it all and pick it up (and hope that the supplier doesn't suddenly go out of stock on anyhting and derail my progress - again...). For the record, this is what I'm looking at:

- Intel ATX E7300 CORE 2 DUO 2.66G 3MBCache 1066FSB LGA775
- Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3P P45+ICH10R DDR2 1200 1600MHz PCI-E 2.0 SATAII RAID GLAN 1394a 8Ch ATX
- Western Digital 500G SATAII 7200 rpm HDD(16Mb Cache)
- MSI ATI R4830 512M OC
- Kingston DDR2 4(2x2G)PC6400 800Mhz - KVR800D2N6K2/4G
- CoolerMaster Centurion 5 RCT05KKR2 with 460w PSU Black

And a DVD burner I salvaged from my wife's old PC. Surely I don't need a floppy drive in this day and age, do I? In any case, the whole rig should set me back just a smidge over $A800, which is about what I was aiming for. Then comes the fun part... piecing it all together!

I swapped the 7300 for the 2.8G 7400 for $6 more, and had to change the case to a 534, but I now have a mostly assembled computer on my desk beside me. I have to set up my monitor yet, so I'm going to leave it to the morning to test it all. Hopefully she fires up first go.

The only thing that has stumped me is that there are two single-pin connectors coming from the front panel, twisted together, one marked '+' and the other '-'. The manual is largely unhelpful, and I can't figure out what they are for. I've got the power, reset, hdd light, USB and firewire connectors plugged in. Anyone have any idea?

[Happy Joe]

Do they connect to a switch or to an LED or possibly a speaker (though speakers in cases seem to be rare now days).
Most likely they go to either a power led, or effect LEDs.

This case?
Newegg.com - Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers, Digital Cameras and more!

Does it have mesh or slanted plates for the front vents (the 534+ has the slanted plates), both are supposed to have effect lighting in front (connect to the power LED pins).

Enjoy!