soulJAHmon Posted January 31, 2013 Author Share Posted January 31, 2013 Had this happen once when I owned the shop. I ordered some stuff and among them was two standard cases. Everything but the cases arrived as usual by UPS. So we tracked the cases and it showed that they had shipped and were in Portland ready for delivery. A search of the Portland shipping dock and no cases. So UPS paid the bill and I got two more cases. About three or more weeks later, my UPS driver shows up, with two cases. I never ordered them. Then I started back tracking and they were the two lost cases. When I ran the UPS number, they had been shipped to Arizona to another store there with a similar name as mine. What happened was the place I ordered them thru hit the wrong name line and sent them there. But, the quirky thing was, it was also printed on my order sheet. But the UPS label put the Az store on the shipping label. What a mess. Since UPS had paid for them, I contacted them and they said to keep them. Whoo hoo! Well, maybe my lucky stars will align and a case will show up someday and i can sell it for others parts for my build! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoGooD Posted February 1, 2013 Share Posted February 1, 2013 Had this happen once when I owned the shop. I ordered some stuff and among them was two standard cases. Everything but the cases arrived as usual by UPS. So we tracked the cases and it showed that they had shipped and were in Portland ready for delivery. A search of the Portland shipping dock and no cases. So UPS paid the bill and I got two more cases. About three or more weeks later, my UPS driver shows up, with two cases. I never ordered them. Then I started back tracking and they were the two lost cases. When I ran the UPS number, they had been shipped to Arizona to another store there with a similar name as mine. What happened was the place I ordered them thru hit the wrong name line and sent them there. But, the quirky thing was, it was also printed on my order sheet. But the UPS label put the Az store on the shipping label. What a mess. Since UPS had paid for them, I contacted them and they said to keep them. Whoo hoo! Had something almost exactly like this happen when iPods first came out. UPS delivered it to the wrong address which happened to be a Apple retailer. After I filed with Apple/UPS, they sent me a new one, and my other one showed up a week later. Score! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LA_Kings_Fan Posted February 3, 2013 Share Posted February 3, 2013 First off, I'm disappointed that my plans of building a new rig continue to be dashed to pieces on the rocks. Even though I have acquired the necessary permissions from wifey, the money keeps evaporating. I thought I was going to be receiveing about $1800 in tax refund, because that's about what I get on an average year. However, after being laid-off and taking unemployment money w/out taxes taken out, and having my wife finish school, so no school deductions, and having worked some side jobs w/out taxes paid, my refund disappeared, ALMOST. BUMMER DUDE SO, the question is ........... What parts of my system are currently bottle-necking me, So, here's my complete system as-is right now. GPU: XFX Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTS, http://www.cnet.com/...7-32328758.html MOBO: Asus M3A78, http://www.asus.com/Motherboard/M3A78/ CPU: AMD Athlon 64x2 dual core 3800+, 2.1 GHz, http://www.cpubenchm...ore 3800 &id=77 CASE: Corsair Carbide 500R arctic white, http://www.newegg.co...&Tpk=500r white CPU Cooler: Corsair H100 liquid cooler, http://www.newegg.co...N82E16835181017 PSU: Seasonic X-series 750 Gold, http://www.newegg.co...onic x 750 gold OP.SYSTEM: Windows XP Pro, SP3 MOUSE: Logitech G400, http://www.newegg.co...N82E16826104577 CD/DVD DRIVES, have 2 of them, they both are old and sucky, and use the thin , wide sata cables that clog air-flow in the case INT.HARD-DRIVE, WD Caviar SE 160 GB, http://computers.pri.../m27995023.html EXT.HARD-DRIVE, wireless, Buffalo LinkStation LS-CH500L 500GB NAS RAM: Mushkin 996533 (2- 1 GB sticks), http://www.newegg.co...N82E16820146673 MONITOR: KDS USA model 786N (circa 2004), 15", boat anchor w/pretty lights Well ... obviously lot's of upgrades could be suggested here, the MoBo / CPU combo are out dated, the GPU is OLDER than OLD, WIN 7 Pro is a Nice upgrade for gaming, and more RAM is always a plus ... but for $350 you wouldn't get enough UPGRADE to also replace other parts that are also needed. FRANKLY ... IMO, it's generally a poor idea to spend too much money on upgrading already OLD and out dated computer tech, unless you just have no budget at all and don't plan on doing much in the near future ... otherwise I'd usually suggest holding off, saving that money, and use it ALL on the FUTURE RIG Upgrades down the road. That said I can see that you still want SOME improvement between now and NEXT YEAR .... well, I'd say DO NOT invest heavy in items that you can't bring with you to the New Build ... meaning something like an new MoBo or CPU that while maybe better than what you have, would again be OLD a year from now and not worthy of keeping for a Complete NEW BUILD at that time ... while on the other hand a NICE BIG NEW MONITOR , while not a big 'performance' gain for you, is at least a piece of tech you CAN bring to the NEW BUILD a year from now and not have wasted the money if that makes sense ? Other than that, I'd say the OTHER option is a few SMALL scale upgrades that will improve 'performance' slightly and allow you to get another year out of your current rig, and pass it on to another family member or have as a back-up once you do your NEW RIG. I should still get about $350. SO, the question is ........... what is the smartest thing to do with the money? I have a few leading ideas, but cannot decide. A. save it, don't buy anything with it yet always a WISE possible option IF you're willing to sacrifice for now until a future payoff ... but FEW of us can DO this. B. buy peripheral/s like maybe a new monitor for about $150, CD/DVD drive, memory, or storage and save the rest Not a bad idea, a top end monitor for $350 +/- can certainly be carried over to the NEW BUILD down the road ... OR / do a handful of small upgrades, like a new GPU, some more RAM, and maybe WIN 7 ? C. buy the best cpu/mobo combo that i can get, and replace only that for now NO WAY ! ... waste of $ IMO, A.) you won't get MUCH for $350 and B.) it wouldn't be worth building Off of it a Year from now, so why bother ? D. buy the graphics card that i want, the XFX HD7870 DD black for about $260 IMO by the time you do your FULL NEW RIG, the 8xxx series will already be OLD and Cheap .... I'd look into maybe a CHEAP / USED upgrade in GPU that will do more than your 8800 GTS, but not cost you over $100 ... maybe something like an HD-6770 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150661 or something in the HD-7770 / HD-7850 range ? for $100+ - $150. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121642 E. do something else There always the DONATE it to ME option Now i figure my goal is to try to improve my setup a little, and to get by for one more year, until next year's tax refund. At that point, I should be able to finish the build completely, at long last. So, please put your awesome brain powers together, marinate on it awhile, and help a brother out with some mind-bullets of devastating awe-inspiring PC-Buld advise. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soulJAHmon Posted February 4, 2013 Author Share Posted February 4, 2013 Ok, so in suggestion B , I have others questions. When i looked up my current ram sticks on newegg, they were discontinued. So, I believe getting 2 more to double the ram probly isnt possible. So, what are the risks/challenges with switching out the 2 old ram sticks with 2/4 entirely different/new sticks? Also, is it your opinion that its the ram thats the worst bottle-neck? I like the idea of getting a decent monitor for under $150, and either using the remaining on something that will help my game-play until next year or simply save the remaining. My mobo does have 2 empty RAM slots, so if i could upgrade the ram for cheap thats a no-brainer. As it is right now, I'm getting warnings that I have almost no disk space left, so I think that the 2GB of ram is a serious issue ATM. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dak Posted February 4, 2013 Share Posted February 4, 2013 (edited) I like the teak computer case idea. After seeing some of your work I think it would be awesome. Edited February 4, 2013 by Dak Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rolf Posted February 4, 2013 Share Posted February 4, 2013 Soul: Having almost no disk space left has nothing to do with your memory, but more with the hard drives. Personally, you never can have too much hard disk space, but upgrading that is easy at the moment you have the spare money. As for upgrading the memory; there is a serious issue about it. On one hand, you have 2GB which is sufficient if you're only gaming on WinXP, but doesn't has a lot of room left. I personally believe that -as with hard disks space- you never can have too much (24GB in a laptop ), but on the other hand you have DDR2 which is these days way to expensive to upgrade. Better try to avoid upgrading this. Also, don't care about getting exactly the same memory, DDR2 with the same data rate (and cas latency) is good enough. Another thing is the GPU. It should -and will- suffice for the games you are currently playing (obviously, otherwise you won't play them), but if you do a nice upgrade on a GPU your CPU will be the bottleneck. Upgrading your CPU/mobo/mem causes the GPU to be the bottleneck immediately. My first problems with your setup, but I don't only use it for gaming, is the WinXP (although within FA many don't care about those things) and the monitor. Upgrading the monitor causes the problem that a higher resolution would demand more from your GPU, but your overal feeling for the computer would be soo much better. A nice TFT (I guess you have a 3D monitor? ) of 21-24", Full HD would cost about 100~150$, and you can take that to your next gaming rig. Upgrading your cd/dvddrives is something I would never do anymore. I use them only for installing CoD4, which isn't that often. If you really want to upgrade, in the Netherlands one of the major sites in computers (tweakers.net, Dutch), offer a "best buy guide". The one from January has: - AMD Athlon II X4 640 - Gigabyte GA-78LMT-USB3 - Some 4GB DDR3 ram, every DDR3 memory is either the same or overpriced. But ask us first. - HD7850 All for about 270 euro. That means you should be able to buy it in the US for less than 350$, however I don't know the shops sufficient to find them. Or, better: - Intel Core i5 3350P Boxed - ASRock B75 Pro3-M - Some 8GB DDR3 ram - HD7870 But that will be overpriced. Furthermore, WinXP (32bit) can only address up to about 4GB. If you really want to upgrade I suggest to go for the first one, and -if the money is available- upgrade the HD7850. Note that these new motherboards don't have 2 IDE connection for the CDdrives you currently have (I guess, wide SATA would remind me of IDE/PATA ), so you either need to drop an optical drive, get a new one or a new hard disk, and that's a few extra bucks. A disadvantage is that your monitor is very very old for this upgrade. However, it removes all the bottlenecks (except HDD, but SSD is out of budget for you) for now, it's a pc that can last a few year. Your current setup is also about 4 years old now, so you are able to stretch it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LA_Kings_Fan Posted February 4, 2013 Share Posted February 4, 2013 (edited) RAM .... get these, http://www.newegg.co...N82E16820231209 , I have 8 GB of that very RAM in my Older rig and it's the AWESOME SAUCE of DDR2 800 RAM , at least as good if not better than your Mushkin Enhanced Blacklines. Same high speed Latency 4, at a lower voltage for less heat and more head room if you OC your RAM. This option leaves you 2 DIMM slots open to upgrade to 8 GB RAM later on if you want, which is something to consider. Option B - {add 2 sticks of this to your existing RAM http://www.newegg.co...N82E16820231087 or/ http://www.newegg.co...N82E16820134125 for 4 GB total, and only spend $40. Keep in mind, this option FILLS all 4 DIMM slots and limits you to only 4 GB RAM.} With only 2 GB right now ... yeah it's a bit of a bottleneck on your system, so upgrading to 4 - 8 GB will help ... The TECHIE Talk = Most of todays games are 32-bit binaries, meaning they are limited to 4GB address space (which any 4KB slice can be either in RAM or swap) out of which 2GB are reserved to the OS (low-level APIs that any app uses to access system services). The rest of the RAM will be used by OS and background apps. But the most important piece that could use extra RAM is caching. With 4GB of RAM (on 64-bit OS) you could still get at least 1GB of caching, which I would say it's enough for even the most hardcore game. In short, while 4 GB would be great for your Rig, I don't think 8GB is really necessary, It would be a luxury, and only really useful for you IF you do A LOT of Multi-tasking while gaming. So, I'd get 4 GB for your system for now, unless you can find it on sale or get a NewEgg Coupon, as you can always buy more later if you want. It's a 4 GB Dual Channel KIT for $75, not as cheap as DDR3 RAM, but DDR2 RAM will never be cheap again as it's fading out use and will be harder and harder to get as time goes on. =============== GRAPHICS CARD .... this IS holding back your gaming to be sure ... 8800 GTS = Limited GPU processing power, limited VRAM, NO DirectX 11 support. It works for COD 4, but as you see to get better FPS you're forced to turn the graphics settings down to have the game look and run smoothly while playing ... a newer / better Graphics Card will help without breaking your budget. I've got a slightly older HD-5770 in my Older Rig and it runs through COD 4 on mostly all HIGH to MAX settings while still allowing me the 125 - 250 FPS range depending upon how I tweak the settings. For $100-150 or less if you find on sale or buy used you can buy an even better GPU than that today, I'd suggest something along the lines of the following ... Sub $100 Card = http://www.newegg.co...N82E16814150661 $80 after rebate, great card for the VALUE ! Sub $150 Card = http://www.newegg.co...N82E16814121642 $140 after rebate, HELL of a Card for that $ ! it's 2 GB of VRAM btw ! Note: While not a Graphics card I'd use on your NEW RIG BUILD, you COULD use it as a temp card and play until the AMD 8xxx series come down in price, or what not. Just saying it COULD be a servicable Graphics Card, even in the new build, until you REALLY GET what you want. =============== MONITOR .... the ONLY piece you'd really be able to hang on to and use with your NEW BUILD down the line ! Also, something NewEgg has on sale ALL THE TIME, so finding a deal should be easy ... in fact ... BOOM ! - http://www.newegg.co...N82E16824236079 , $125.00 with all rebates and promo code IF YOU BUY ASAP =============== You might also consider upgrading to WIN 7 Pro ? http://www.newegg.co...N82E16832116992 or WIN 8 Pro http://www.newegg.co...N82E16832416552 but it's not needed I guess. =============== So that's .... RAM @ $75, Graphics Card @ $80, and Monitor @ $125 = $280 + Tax ? Those upgrades will be cheap and give your gaming experience a boost IMO. Edited February 4, 2013 by LA_Kings_Fan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soulJAHmon Posted February 4, 2013 Author Share Posted February 4, 2013 @Dak - Thank you buddy, I'm flattered. @Rolf - TY for the advise. I'm wondering, the PC guy who helped me set up this current pc, divided or "partitioned" the drive. So, would it help me to move programs from C (main drive partition) to D (the second half)? @LA Kings - Thanks again. Good advise also. I think I'm sold on getting the monitor for sure. But, I'd hate to buy the RAM and GPU if it's only gonna be useful to me for this year, and will be basically garbage 1 year from now. I'll have to think on that a bit. I get frustrated with iw3mp exe errors and having the graphics settings on lowest levels, not sure if I have the patience to last one more year or not. When it comes to the OS, I'm confused about OEM vs "retail". My understanding is that OEM can only be used on ONE pc and has no support. The thing I don't get is: if I bought an OEM OS now and put it on this old rig/setup, and then a year from now, completely overhaul my pc, do they consider that a new pc? or would the OEM OS still be able to re-load on the new upgraded pc? If I spent money on a new OS I want to be able to use it on the new setup also, so would I have to buy a "retail" version? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LA_Kings_Fan Posted February 5, 2013 Share Posted February 5, 2013 (edited) Soul , - New Monitor, yeah do it now, in fact ASAP maybe as that ASUS VH232H 23" job I linked is a NICE Monitor, but @ $125 that is very hard to beat ! - Upgraded RAM & Graphics Card, I understand the position, but a YEAR is a LONG TIME when you think about it. And for a little bit of $ you get an improved gaming experience for that year, so IMO it's maybe worth it ? To be budget wise though, I'd just do the extra 2 GB add-on to your existing then for $40 (Option B above), and do the XFX Radeon HD-6770 1GB graphics card for $80. Or maybe see what you can find used ? But that's only another $120 that will let you run COD 4 on higher / better quality graphics settings than you do now, and still hit about 125-250 FPS, and look great on that New Monitor IMO worthy considerations, as a year from now that extra $120 wouldn't make or break your NEW BUILD would it ? and another way to look at it is ... it's only $10 a month for 12 months! - OS ... "OEM" vs "retail", you're going to get different answers here depending upon how "hard nosed" your interpretation of Microsofts "End User License Agreement" is I suppose, but I can tell you my experience at least, which is don't waste your money on 'retail' Here's why ... - OEM is CHEAPER, reseason it's cheaper - no fancy RETAIL Packaging, and yeah NO Microsoft Customer Support by PHONE ... BUT, when's the last time you called Microsoft for customer support anyways ? and when's the last time you actually got a HELPFUL resolution from doing so ? ME it would be NEVER ! I either got help from online forums, google searches to my problems, from friends, or I figured it out myself. The Retail version is $150 MORE, but the OEM version is 100% the same program on Disc., all you miss is the fancey 'retail' packaging and the Microsoft support which is what ? 90 days Free ? 1 year ? I don't even remember anymore, but IF I really need help $150 could be spent on GEEK SQUAD or whatever and give me better results I think ? Keep in mind you still do get the MS HELP files on disc, and can still get ONLINE help from MS, it's just not one on one personalized support. Then again how personal do you want to get with that out-sourced CS tech support guy in Mumbai, India reading from the Microsoft handbook ? - OEM is suppused to be "System Builder" and that IS what you'd be doing, Building your OWN System, and supporting it yourself. And while it's suppose to be ONE OEM COPY for ONE MACHINE, the KEY CODE is YOURS and will work if you move it to another machine at a later date, they CAN'T STOP YOU, think about it ... the same would apply if your Hard drive crashed, or your Motherboard failed ... you still own a LEGAL copy of WINDOWS, and are moving it to a new Hard Drive or system, but it's still ONE OEM COPY for ONE MACHINE. What you can't do is use one OEM copy on TWO computer systems and exect to log in at the same time, that would be breaking the rules. In the end only YOU can decide if the extra $150 for 'retail' is worth it to you ... for me it wasn't ... but keep in mind at least, you're NOT breaking any rules, and no one is going to come knock on your door and take you to Microsoft prision for personally using the OEM version of windows. Hell Microsoft wouldn't SELL it on the open market if anything like this were even close to true. Edited February 5, 2013 by LA_Kings_Fan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
soulJAHmon Posted February 5, 2013 Author Share Posted February 5, 2013 ahh, ty, that clears it up quite a bit, so unless i must have it for 2 pc's at the same time, OEM is no-brainer choice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rolf Posted February 5, 2013 Share Posted February 5, 2013 (edited) @Rolf - TY for the advise. I'm wondering, the PC guy who helped me set up this current pc, divided or "partitioned" the drive. So, would it help me to move programs from C (main drive partition) to D (the second half)? Programs not so much, but plain data (movies, documents, music) a lot more. You can't easily "move" a program, better to reinstall the program then onto the second partition. Another option is to reinstall WinXP and make it one large disk. But obviously, that will take some time if you don't do it 6 times a year If you buy the monitor and while you're saying that you hate playing on low graphics, I *really* recommend that you upgrade the GPU as well for now. A new monitor with higher resolution would demand more. Note that then your CPU will be the bottleneck in the system then. The monitor you can take indeed to the new system and the GPU will be sufficient if next year you have the same problem and only can update parts. The difference between the CPU and the GPU on gaming is roughly that the CPU is more an upper bound on which games you can run and the GPU is more the quality of those games. For memory, if you upgrade don't spend too much on it. The memory you have is very good, but having slightly less performing memory in it won't make the big difference. A hard rule: have the best performing memory, *unless* that would make you have not enough memory. Any kind of memory is better than having not enough. The performance of different memory is about 1.1~1.2. Not enough gives a performance decrease of ~100 or even more (in theory, in practice that doesn't mean a framedrop from 50fps to 0.5fps, but still very significant). Edited February 5, 2013 by rolf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.