my turn for help please
 

i just ordered a new box. it will be built this coming week locally and am i missing anything? i do not need to much in frills.
p-4 3.4 gig
1 gig of two sticks of 512
pci express board with nvidia 6600 card
floppy drive
cd 24x
dvd-rw
anything else he is doing that is standard i dont know.
if there is something i need included that he may not have advised me to do please give some advice.

Re: my turn for help please
 

What kind of hard drive?

Re: my turn for help please
 

120 gig 7200 rpm. i dont know the brand if that really matters.
he is also going to install a virus protection for me. and syware and adawre. and move my files and set up my connections for me. which i cant do myself as yeat and move address book.
whole cost so far is $1050. i expect to pay more for the hand holding and being able to take it into town if there is a probelm and he comes out to the house. thanks/

Re: my turn for help please
 

seems pretty good then. enjoy.

Re: my turn for help please
 

[ QUOTE ]

cd 24x
dvd-rw


[/ QUOTE ]

Not much point in a CD drive - I'd get DVD instead (can't cost much more if anything over CD). I like to use a burner only for burning so if you're going to have a second drive, IMO only DVD makes sense...

Mike

Re: my turn for help please
 

one is a cd dvd burner. he said the second would be good for copying cds easily or playing them. i think that whats he said so i told him to put the two in. are you saying both should be dvd cd burners. you are dealing with a real novice here. thanks.

Re: my turn for help please
 

no, he's saying one should be a DVD-reader. I'm not sure why though, as you can't copy 1:1 DVDs...

Re: my turn for help please
 

[ QUOTE ]
one is a cd dvd burner. he said the second would be good for copying cds easily or playing them. i think that whats he said so i told him to put the two in. are you saying both should be dvd cd burners. you are dealing with a real novice here. thanks.

[/ QUOTE ]

Since you've already decided on DVD, my suggestion is one dual-purpose DVD burner and one DVD reader, instead of the CD drive. Maybe I misunderstood OP but whether or not the CD you've chosen is a burner or just a reader, CD-only anything IMO is practically obsolete and therefore a waste of money.

With a dual-purpose DVD burner (AFAIK most are dual-purpose these days but still check that yours is) you burn DVDs and CDs in the same drive. So your second drive really only needs to be a reader. A DVD reader will read DVDs and CDs but a CD reader (or CD burner) can only read CDs.

Burners don't last forever so if you can minimze their use by only using them for burning, so much the better (and readers are at least half the cost of burners). But if your second drive is CD-anything (reader or burner) you'll have to use the DVD burner to read DVDs that you burn, or games that are DVD-format like Myst IV.

Therefore I suggest you check if the DVD burner you're getting is dual-purpose and if so, drop the CD drive in favor of a DVD reader. If the DVD burner you're getting is not dual-purpose, I suggest considering upgrading to dual-purpose. If there are DVD burners that are not dual-purpose, it can't be cheaper than having to buy a CD burner also. And DVD readers are cheap to begin with.

Mike

Re: my turn for help please
 

[ QUOTE ]
one is a cd dvd burner. he said the second would be good for copying cds easily or playing them. i think that whats he said so i told him to put the two in. are you saying both should be dvd cd burners. you are dealing with a real novice here. thanks.

[/ QUOTE ]

Stick with the dvd burner only. The second drive is overkill and just waste of money. I would rather put that money on a bigger (if you have use for that) or better hd.

If you ask many people they say that the brand on the hd is what matters the most, noone wants to have a bad disk go broke when you least expect it. My prefered choice is Maxtor (with fluid bearings for less noice). I would also ask for a Zalman cooler for the cpu for less noice. Small changes like that cost nothing but makes big diffrence in the long run.

What about sound, soundchip built into mobo? No need for a nic?

Just my 2c.

Re: my turn for help please
 

"Burners don't last forever so if you can minimze their use by only using them for burning"

The typical user uses it so little that it last longer than the computer could be considered "modern". The quality of the products today and the price they cost there is no need to buy one reader and one burner. Might as well wear out (never seen that happen) the burner and buy a new one if it actually wears out.

I would recomend the Pioneer 109 dvd burner.