On board Video quesiton.

[Duke{CLR}]

My father is having issues with his 5 year old Dell and after talking for awhile I think he just need to have me build one for him. I think i can easily keep it under $500.00 due to the fact that he has no interest in gaming.

I found this MB that has on board video. Is this sufficient for day to day use?

Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GA-G31M-ES2L LGA 775 Intel G31 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard - Intel Motherboards

[Zenosincks]

Yes, an integrated graphics chip is sufficient for basic, every day tasks. That said, with CES and Intel's Clarkdale chips coming up, I'd wait a couple of weeks before you purchase anything. Your father may be able to squeeze an i3 into his budget, which would be preferable for many reasons, not least platform longevity -- LGA 775 is on its way out.

If you're set on buying a computer right this very instant, the ASRock G41M-S offers more for the dollar than your selected Gigabyte motherboard.

[Apache Warrior]

Zenosincks. Post in the Introduce Yourself Forum and say hi.
Apache

[Zenosincks]

I'm not really one for introductions. Thanks for the welcome though, Apache.

[Caddys83]

I dont know if its my mobo(ASUS), AMD or onboard Nvidia chipsets but previous systems that I had built, the web brower (IE) experience gets choppy when I scroll the page down or up. I never looked into see what cause that since I always install a graphics card after the inital first boots.


Just something to keep your eye out for.

[Duke{CLR}]

Well my parents are off on a trip for a few weeks and he still wants to see if he can get his Dell up and running but after telling him how inexpensive a nice trouble free PC could he may just go for it. I will keep an eye out for this i3 and other stuff.

[Zenosincks]

What is the problem with his Dell, anyhow?

[WalkinTarget]

That Gigabyte board is an absolute BEAST for overclocking, and I bought an e5200 (for only $42) just to pair it up with that board and see if I can hit 3.66 with it.

You don't find mATX boards that overclock, so that's why its such a nice board. No need to pass on s775 boards at this point ... that is where the deals are at.

Considering the board, CPU and HSF were under $100 total, I challenge anyone to top that performance for that price. The only issue is whether you can come up with the DDR2 that has gone through the roof in price over the last 4 months.

Duke, I haven't bought that board yet, so if buy me that board, I'll trade you some nice Buffalo Firestix RAM

[Dead...Again]

You might want to look into this:
http://www.officedepot.com/a/product...uter-With-AMD/

We got one for my mother-in-law. Seems decent for her needs, and at $270 after rebate, it is hard to beat.

[Duke{CLR}]

WT would those be 2GB sticks? Because the RAM and the OS are the most expensive parts for this thing.

[Duke{CLR}]

As I was reading some of the reviews one person said that this would fit nicely into an OEM case. I was wondering if anyone has tried this with a Dell case? That could save me a few more bucks.

[Zenosincks]

LGA 775 is on its way out (road maps I've seen suggest Q3 2010 will be about the end commercially). There are plenty of deals to be had at the moment and an LGA 775-based rig is suitable -- but in January Intel will release an entry level LGA 1156 series: the Core i3. The direct competition for these chips is Intel's own Core 2 Duo line, so prices may fluctuate, and even if you want to go with an LGA 775 setup, it could be cheaper in a couple of weeks. Not to mention that DDR2 is also on its way out, and will be getting more expensive as time goes on. Future memory upgrades will be cheaper with DDR3.

That said, going the Core i3 route will undoubtedly be a touch pricier initially, but again, it will provide platform longevity -- if that matters at all it's worth considering.

If you're going to build around technology that's currently on shelves, I would again, recommend that ASRock motherboard over the Gigabyte. For the same price, it offers an Intel GMA 4500 rather than a 3100. The former offers 10 pixel pipelines versus 4, shader model 4.0 versus 3.0 or 2.0, OpenGL 2.1 support versus 1.5, the ability to access up to 512MB of RAM for video purposes versus 256MB, and more. The recommended E5200 processor is spot on, and you're unlikely to find a cheaper, equally sufficient solution at the moment. For whatever it's worth, here's a buying guide I recently wrote and maintain, which targets a similar $500 budget.

As for using the Dell case. It *might* be possible. Assuming there are properly aligned mounting holes you should be able to fit the board in -- BUT -- a ton of Dell (and probably other) systems don't use standard front panel connectors. Rather than having each LED separate, they kind of put them all on a single header, which makes assembly easier. This single header almost surely won't work with your motherboard because the LEDs won't line up properly. Technically, you could buy LED headers, snip the wires off of the Dell's single connector, strip the wire a bit, and make your own, but that's just a hassle.

Any idea what's wrong with your parent's current system?

[Duke{CLR}]

Thanks for the reply Zenosincks I will read that guide when I get a chance.

He had been having performance issues with the machine and after talkign to him I suggested that he reinstall the OS, which he did. Then a couple of days later while watching a DVD the system froze and I think shut down. When he tried to reboot he got a BSOD and some error about bad portions of his HDD. Somehow it led him to some HDD check where it locked up. Now it doesn't seem to be powering up as it wont POST and the monitor has some message about an analog signal. I'm guessing a HDD or PSU issue. I won't be able to get over there to look at it for a couple of weeks so i just have to rely on wht he is telling me.

I also have a similar model Dell sitting in my office. I was gong to remove the HDD and throw it away but I haven't gotten around to it. I may be able to take some parts form that to get him up and running then build later on down the road.

[Zenosincks]

The HDD check was probably Windows' Checkdisk utility, which is often initiated on boot up after Windows crashes or is otherwise shut down improperly (is he running XP by chance?).

The analog signal message is probably being displayed because the monitor is powered on but is not receiving any input -- which makes sense, because you said the system won't POST.

Defective power supplies are pretty common in proprietary systems, and could absolutely be responsible for the explained issues. HDDs play no role in the early boot sequence, and if the system won't power on or POST, then the hard drive is pretty much ruled out -- or at least, is not the only problem.

[Duke{CLR}]

The HDD check was probably Windows' Checkdisk utility, which is often initiated on boot up after Windows crashes or is otherwise shut down improperly (is he running XP by chance?).

The analog signal message is probably being displayed because the monitor is powered on but is not receiving any input -- which makes sense, because you said the system won't POST.

Defective power supplies are pretty common in proprietary systems, and could absolutely be responsible for the explained issues. HDDs play no role in the early boot sequence, and if the system won't power on or POST, then the hard drive is pretty much ruled out -- or at least, is not the only problem.

If it is the PSU there is a good chance that the one in my Dell will work and I could just swap it out.