Meaning that I would have to get an original Xp, not the one that came witht the system? That is not an issue. The CD that resets the system says that it will only work on a eMachines PC. I kinda doubt that but...????
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Geeky1University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
edited November 2003
If it can install a fresh copy of windows, it'll work. It may install all sorts of emachines support crap on the machine, but it should work.
I would like to upgrade my existing PC for less than 500 and build one for less than 1500. Just checked.....NO AGP SLOT!!!!! :banghead: I guess I should start parting and get some upgrades? I looked at new egg and I think with all your hwelp I can get the stuff I need.
ourlove2802 had this to say ...The CD that resets the system says that it will only work on a eMachines PC. I kinda doubt that but...????
Geeky1 had this to say If it can install a fresh copy of windows, it'll work. It may install all sorts of emachines support crap on the machine, but it should work.
Not necessarily. Lots of manufacturers only give you a restore CD, with the windows image stored on the hard drive in an encrypted format. The first thing the restore CD looks for is the BIOS code of the original MB. If it doesn't find the right code it stops you dead in your tracks.
ourlove - did it actually give you the big hairy long-as-all-get-out CD Key for winXP, or do the instructions for a format/reinstall tell you to just run the recovery CD?
Just to run the recovery CD. I think I have about had it.... Earlier, it was mentioned that I could get a PCI upgrade for my infernal machine. I need to find one with a RCA input so that I might load some video footage into memoriesonTV. Is there such a beast as a decent PCI card (forget the gaming) that I could get to up the performance and allow for a RCA input for video feed? With this add-on, I think this machine will be done and it is on to the next one...
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Geeky1University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
edited November 2003
What, a PCI card that will allow you to output stuff TO a TV, or a card that will allow you to GET stuff from a TV (or a VCR, Camcorder, or whatever)?
It looks like you paid $400 for your emachine, plus whatever the ram upgrade cost. If you could sell the works for $300 (I believe you said it's new, right?) you may want to consider writing it off as a $100 learning experience (cheaper than many of mine ) and start over from scratch.
Make two lists: one with what you absolutely must have in your new computer, and a second with what you would like to have if it will fit the budget. Then give us a budget range for the amount you are willing to spend.
I can promise you from long experience that the savvy people here will help you get the most bang for your buck, and outfit you with a system which will be great right now - and easily upgradeable in the future as your needs/desires grow.
Alternatively, I would not spend a huge amount of money trying to turn a sow's ear into a silk purse. The computer you have now will be fine for most activities (except hardcore gaming). You could add a reasonably capable video capture card for $100 or less. Then just live with the computer for a year and you could probably still sell it for $200 - look at it as spending $16 a month (approximately equal to the 50% depreciation over the year) to rent the machine.
As a third alternative, consider this: Massive upgrades to your current computer will probably cost nearly as much as building what you want from scratch, and leave you with a pile of parts of dubious value. I don't know what your personal situation is, but if you have kids you might find that keeping the emachine for them will allow you to enjoy your new computer more often!
As a final bit of advice, keep in mind that on a quality tech site like Short-Media you will encounter a lot of people who are satisfied with nothing less than the very best. Listen to them, and you will certainly have the information you need to build a superior system. However, if your budget won't allow that, keep in mind that you can still build something formidable without taking out a 2nd Mortgage on your house. Just to put it in perspective, we have (lucky!) folks here who have spent more on their video card alone than you spent for your entire computer. That's where providing us with a firm budget range will come in handy - the suggestions you receive will be targeted to your needs and your means.
Geeky1 had this to say Well... first of all, have you checked to see if it's got an AGP slot, or do you have a digital camera so you can take a pic of the inside of the case so we can see what we're dealing with?
I've got bad news, and worse news.
The bad news:
It's got a 250w generic power supply
The worse news:
It has a Trigem motherboard. Trigem is a generic, OEM-only brand. Their boards are notorious for being (for lack of a better term) total crap.
Other news:
Unless you upgrade the power supply, (and MAYBE the motherboard... if it has an AGP slot, and you're on a budget, it'll be fine) you won't be able to do much with this thing.
How many slot cutouts are there on the back of the case (or better yet, how many slots does the board have?). I don't know how computer-literate you are, so I'm going to attach a pic of what I mean... please don't take offense if I insult your intelligence, as that is not my intent.
Oh, and SimGuy, the board in the attached pic is an Intel i845gv board. It has an AGP slot.
The board in the picture is an i845GE board... which DOES support AGP. The i845GV does not
GE = Graphics Expandability (AGP)
GV = Graphics Value (NO AGP)
ourlove2082, if you are looking for an idea of what you can put together for under $500.00, take a look at Short-Media's article regarding "Budget PC's."
Alright, I like the idea about keeping the emachines for the kids, above in the thread were some ideas for the items I should get based on my needs and wants. I think a solid budget figure would be $1,000 to $1,200. Geeky, I would like output and input for a TV, camcorder format. I'm guessing that on my PCI only board that will be hard to come by.
Primarily, I want to put ths new system together for gaming/ general multimedia. My other applications can be saved for my misinformed purchase of an emachine. It looks like I am starting from scratch, building from the Mother Board up. I have some ideas (newegg.com) but I think I will start a new thread about building a computer. The title of this one is pretty far off now.
For that money you will be able to build a blazing-fast killer computer, with all the features you need.
For about $50 - $100 you can even network the two and share a printer between them. Maybe even let your kids beat the tar out of you in some multiplayer games.
profdlp had this to say Maybe even let your kids beat the tar out of you in some multiplayer games.
Nah, the kids will have the eMachines so they'll lose because they'll be playing at 2 FPS or so..
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Geeky1University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
edited November 2003
GH, the Intel Extreme Graphics aren't THAT bad. They're awful, yes, but they do ~1500 in 3dmark 2001se, which is enough to play most things @ 640x480...
Oh, and Simguy... I guess newegg had it mis-labeled then. My mistake.
What is better, high refresh, high color, or high resolution? My thought is that if I make everything work as little as possible, my "anti"graphics card might support it more fluidly...
Still, would it be worth while to upgrade the video PCI card to use this pc until I buy the new one?
All of them. High colour is normally referenced when talking about 16 bit colour, which you want set to 32bit anyway (True Colour). High refresh rate is good too, anything over 80hz is fine, and high Res is nice too, normally 1024x768 on a 15" display, 1280xXXX on a 17" and 1600x1200 on a 19" display.
Your goal is basically to get 30 FPS (Frames per second) so the motion looks totally fluid. Then you want as good a resolution as you can keep 30 FPS in, in either 16 or 32-bit color (16 is fine on an LCD, but on a CRT sometimes you can tell the difference).
As for the upgrade, if you've got the few extra bucks, it'd probably be worth it.
Will my emahcine supprot this or will ot freeze up and crap out? Will I ever be able to play anything that came out after Stardraft again?(on this system)
I've run GTA Vice City on very lowly equipped computers (my notebook, with IGP 320M graphics) at 1024x768x32-bit... it just depends upon the game, I think.
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Geeky1University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
edited November 2003
It depends on the game. The bare minimum to run games decently is really a GeForce 2 MX400/32MB (did they ever make a 32MB MX400? Anyone? I know there were 64MB...) or MAYBE an ATi Rage 128/32MB; more likely an ATi Radeon (a.k.a. Radeon 7000) 32MB. Those cards are all a bit over 2x as fast as your emachines.
So, it'll run... I know someone that plays need for speed: porsche unleashed on his intel extreme graphics, but to get it to run acceptably fast, most games are going to look like crap.
You could buy a PCI graphics card, and that would help, but the problem is that PCI is WAY too slow for a graphics card, so it tends to bottleneck the card. (which is why you don't see ultra high-end gaming cards with PCI interfaces anymore)
What would be the best PCI card so that I could have a chance to check some of these things out? I have all this software and nothing to do with it. I understand that the PCI probably will bottleneck but it has to be better than "Extreme Crap". Also, video PCi card with diverse video inputs, any thoughts?
0
Geeky1University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
SimGuy had this to say PowerColor makes a PCI Radeon 9000 64 MB video card, which will give you DirectX 8.1 video card extensions, however there is one downfall to this card: Because it is operating on the PCI bus, the clock speeds of the core & memory of the video card have been scaled back so the card does not completely saturate the available bandwidth of the PCI bus. This results in a substantial performance drop, to the level where the Radeon 9000 performs just as well in raw frame-rate tests as the GeForce 4 MX. Therefore, it will perform better than Intel's Extreme Graphics, but it won't be as fast as the regular AGP Radeon 9000.
Comments
What is your budget? $800,1000, 1500, 2000? Give us a figure
Not necessarily. Lots of manufacturers only give you a restore CD, with the windows image stored on the hard drive in an encrypted format. The first thing the restore CD looks for is the BIOS code of the original MB. If it doesn't find the right code it stops you dead in your tracks.
ourlove - did it actually give you the big hairy long-as-all-get-out CD Key for winXP, or do the instructions for a format/reinstall tell you to just run the recovery CD?
Make two lists: one with what you absolutely must have in your new computer, and a second with what you would like to have if it will fit the budget. Then give us a budget range for the amount you are willing to spend.
I can promise you from long experience that the savvy people here will help you get the most bang for your buck, and outfit you with a system which will be great right now - and easily upgradeable in the future as your needs/desires grow.
Alternatively, I would not spend a huge amount of money trying to turn a sow's ear into a silk purse. The computer you have now will be fine for most activities (except hardcore gaming). You could add a reasonably capable video capture card for $100 or less. Then just live with the computer for a year and you could probably still sell it for $200 - look at it as spending $16 a month (approximately equal to the 50% depreciation over the year) to rent the machine.
As a third alternative, consider this: Massive upgrades to your current computer will probably cost nearly as much as building what you want from scratch, and leave you with a pile of parts of dubious value. I don't know what your personal situation is, but if you have kids you might find that keeping the emachine for them will allow you to enjoy your new computer more often!
As a final bit of advice, keep in mind that on a quality tech site like Short-Media you will encounter a lot of people who are satisfied with nothing less than the very best. Listen to them, and you will certainly have the information you need to build a superior system. However, if your budget won't allow that, keep in mind that you can still build something formidable without taking out a 2nd Mortgage on your house. Just to put it in perspective, we have (lucky!) folks here who have spent more on their video card alone than you spent for your entire computer. That's where providing us with a firm budget range will come in handy - the suggestions you receive will be targeted to your needs and your means.
The board in the picture is an i845GE board... which DOES support AGP. The i845GV does not
GE = Graphics Expandability (AGP)
GV = Graphics Value (NO AGP)
ourlove2082, if you are looking for an idea of what you can put together for under $500.00, take a look at Short-Media's article regarding "Budget PC's."
http://www.short-media.com/article.php?117.0
Primarily, I want to put ths new system together for gaming/ general multimedia. My other applications can be saved for my misinformed purchase of an emachine. It looks like I am starting from scratch, building from the Mother Board up. I have some ideas (newegg.com) but I think I will start a new thread about building a computer. The title of this one is pretty far off now.
For about $50 - $100 you can even network the two and share a printer between them. Maybe even let your kids beat the tar out of you in some multiplayer games.
We'll keep an eye out for the new thread.
http://www.short-media.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=6385
Nah, the kids will have the eMachines so they'll lose because they'll be playing at 2 FPS or so..
Oh, and Simguy... I guess newegg had it mis-labeled then. My mistake.
Still, would it be worth while to upgrade the video PCI card to use this pc until I buy the new one?
NS
As for the upgrade, if you've got the few extra bucks, it'd probably be worth it.
So, it'll run... I know someone that plays need for speed: porsche unleashed on his intel extreme graphics, but to get it to run acceptably fast, most games are going to look like crap.
You could buy a PCI graphics card, and that would help, but the problem is that PCI is WAY too slow for a graphics card, so it tends to bottleneck the card. (which is why you don't see ultra high-end gaming cards with PCI interfaces anymore)
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProduct.asp?description=14-131-230&depa=1
Or:
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProduct.asp?description=14-102-322&depa=1