h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Unfortunately it's integrated, because when I took it back to the manufacturers, they said I have to replace everything not just the cpu.

It is 266Mhz though, because I had a choice of recommended ram, one ran at 400Mhz but was 3.0 latency and 2.6 volts, but I got 266Mhz 2.5 latency( I can't remember the term for clock cycles to retrieve a bit of data) and 2.5 volts.

It's a pc and runs Kasperski which requires 1.3Ghz ok, I think it's fast enough, skype have got crap software and do too much nosey.

If I wanted to put sound into the background; I will use the object tag. This is supported by all main browsers, but looking in how to; it implied different objects for different browsers are needed.

Is there a generic object, all browsers can play, and what's its classid. Or is there another way such as data="sound.wav" type="sound/wav"

Phew, I got a message from Front Page about my illustrious club, but it was sent in error. Better tell the others it's alright to come out of hiding now.

I could do with a very nice pc for the next 5 years or so, I would like a top of the range HP. How hard is it to make one, is it substantially cheaper, is it possible to make a multi-processor pc, and say keep the price below £600. I haven't got £600 but might be encouraged to get it if making a pc is not too difficult.

Making a PC is surprisingly easy, if you're willing to forego the buffer of having a tech support department to ask questions to later...

Hang on, 'cos I've got a couple of things to do, and I'll price a decent PC from parts and get back to you...

Right...

The absolutely bottom price of a decent PC, just buying from DABS, and not including the price of software, keyboard, mouse or screen, would work out at:

Motherboard with onboard GeForce 8200 £47
http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=53QS

Triple core 2.3GHz CPU inc Heatsink £99.86
http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=541M

1GB "Value RAM" £11.76 (2 at £23.52)
http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=54N0

750GB SATA2 HDD £110.79
http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=4Q5S

Mini-tower case with 400W PSU £17.28
http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=42JQ

Totalling £298.45 for an AMD triple-core 2.3GHz CPU, 2GB of RAM, 750GB of HDD and an nVidia GeForce 8200 graphics adapter in a mini-tower case. That's roughly half your budget, assuming all bottom-end parts. If you shop around you might be able to shave £20 or £30 off the total...

Budget a case of beer (£8 from a supermarket) to get a mid-level hardware geek to assemble it for you. (Hint: Give them the beer *after* they've assembled and tested it. It should take a competent geek between 20 minutes and half an hour after everything has been unpacked.)

I'll do that then, half an hour, how long will it take me to assemble it. I have got a book on how to assemble this one, and the hardest thing seems to be setting the mainboard.

I'll use the software I've got, XP and hope drivers come supplied.

That will be cheaper than this one cost, and a lot faster.

Yep certainly a lot of pin settings, and different for win98 to xp, so that £8 looks a lot more attractive.

The hardest part is mounting the heatsink/fan on the processor. If it's off the level by a hairsbreadth the CPU will overheat and cook itself. Be *very* careful.

One other point I should mention - as each of those items is the "cheapest in class", you should mentally prepare for the fact that at least one of them will die during the warranty period.

Also, I forgot to include a DVD writer in the budget - add between £10 and £20 depending on the offers on at the time. Ditto if you really feel you need a floppy drive.

I'm not looking for cheapest in their class, but are using your suggestions as a guide. So I will in fact be looking for a mainboard around £100, and a processor of around a similar price.

I've got to borrow the money, so I'm looking to replace this pc with something to last over five years.

Is a triple core three processors, is their a board that can take more than one processor, has slots for more rhan one.

I don't need 750Gb of memory, I only use 10Gb now, and with bigger programs, bloated M$ this will probably increase to 40Gb, so a 100Gb unit is enough.

So I'm looking for speed in the board and cpu as well as reliability, but not massive memory. Expansion to 4Gb is enough, 100Gb hard drive is enough, I can get a dvd I will hardly use for pennies, no A drive required, but lots of USB's Front and Back.

"Is a triple core three processors, is their a board that can take more than one processor, has slots for more rhan one."

A triple-core processor is three processors in the one package, i.e. it uses a single socket. If you plan to use a different motherboard, make sure it has the AM2+ socket (rather than the AM2) so it's upgradable - the machine I specced out used a triple-core processor but would accept a fast quad-core (yes, that's four in the same package...) as a future upgrade.

"I don't need 750Gb of memory, I only use 10Gb now, and with bigger programs, bloated M$ this will probably increase to 40Gb, so a 100Gb unit is enough."

First, I wouldn't recommend under 160GB. Second, the 750GB I linked to is only twice the price of a 160GB drive, so more than twice as economical per byte. Once you have a machine that's fast enough to manipulate video streams in real-time you'll probably want to try that, and all the space will come in *very* handy.

If you do buy a different hard drive, *avoid* anything by Fujitsu-Siemens.

"So I'm looking for speed in the board and cpu as well as reliability, but not massive memory. Expansion to 4Gb is enough, "

If you use the motherboard I recommend you'll need to budget more than twice as much on memory to get 4GB - 1GB is the "sweet spot" for cheap memory at the moment, and that board only takes two chips. Two 1GB chips works out at about 2/3rds the price of a single 2GB chip.

"I can get a dvd I will hardly use for pennies"

If you don't care about the cosmetics too much (silver case, beige DVD) then I can get a DVD writer for £9.99 at the moment. On top of that, budget another £10 for a tube of 25 DVD+RWs or DVD-RWs and you'll be sorted out for backups for some time to come.

What do you think of this:

http://web-systems.co.uk/?page=Products&pid=3529

Also in the offers you have 1Gb usb drive for a fiver.

These are where I got my pc from, but after the experience with memory I would prefer to assemble most of it myself.

Big numbers again, the USB drive is very expensive. I got one off Amazon 4Gb for 1p +£4.99 postage. It works and it was sent first class letter post, and it's make is 'Integral'.

It's a reasonable looking motherboard, but the wrong socket for the AMD chips I was recommending. I was trying to come up with a solution that had the maximum future upgrade potential.

If you want to go with that motherboard you'll need to price an Intel dual-core or quad-core chip and heatsink to go with it.

Is there an equivalent for AMD.

I had a look at that company's list of motherboards, and I was surprised to see that they don't do *any* AM2+ models...

Just Googling for "AM2+ Gaming Motherboard", this seems loosely equivalent:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-139-GI

That's a good one, looks like FX2 is important, whatever that is.

what about this I found with the above cpu:

http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=438R&CategorySelectedId=11143&PageMode=1&NavigationKey=11143

That's an AM2, not an AM2+ - it won't accept triple or quad core CPUs, so the upgrade options are limited.

So it's the overclockers one, with the above cpu, a larger ATX case, because I read mini ones have cooling problems, cheap dvd, ect.