rec.autos.simulators

I'm shopping around for a new computer system and was wondering what you
guys feel is the best multimedia system in the stores today.  Please do not
say Dell or Gateway because they are a little out of my price range..  I'm
shopping for a 266 to 400 MHz system.....

Cowen Wilson
**********************************************************
Webmaster
http://www.racesimcentral.net/
Thunder Alley
**********************************************************

It all depends if you want a Brand PC or a self-made PC.

If you think that Dell's or G2k's are more expensive than the other brands,
it is somehow a false statement. Sure they have better quality parts but
check out IBM they still ship some mWave modem/soundcards on many Home and
Entertainment PC.  Ridiculous

Compaq, HP, etc.. all sell what I call "Supermodel" PC's.  Great on the
outside, dumb on the inside.  You know those
"TV-remote-USB-Phone-fax-answeringmachine" PC's all in black with
293zillions buttons on the case.  And NO expansion slots.

Heck check out the price I did for a normal 266mhz Pentium at DELL.com :

Pentium II  266mhz
32mb SDRAM
4.3GB Hard drive
17' Trinitron Monitor
STB Velocity 128 AGP
32X CD-rom
Trutle Beach Montego A3d card.
Altec Lansing ACS90 Speakers
Win98/MS Office 97
56k USR Modem
etc etc (guaranty, service, etc..)

1,732 $   Yes   One seven three two.    Don't tell me Cowen that is too
expensive for what I consider a VERY good power/price PC.   VERY good.
Take off that monitor and you have a less than 1500$ PC.

- Fran?ois Mnard <ymenard> Good race at the Brickyard, (-o-)
- Official Mentally retarded guy of r.a.s.
- Member of the r.a.s. Ego-maniac club
- Excuse me for my English (I'm French speaking)
- Excuse me for being provocative (I'm dumb speaking)
- "People think it must be fun to be a super genius, but they don't realise
how hard it is to put up with all the idiots in the world."--

Don't buy a "shelf system".....get a computer specialist to build one to
your own specifications or requirements on what you want it to do.
Maybe a bit more expensive but at least you'll get what YOU want.

I'll give you my opinion on the subject.  I have had both the low and the
high end of the spectrum as far as computers go.  Back when the 486 was
king, I shopped around and got what I thought was a great deal, a packard
Bell 486 dx2-66 for 2200, with a 14" moniter!  Little did I know that when I
decided to upgrade my sound card, I would have to ditch my modem also, as it
was integrated into the sound card.  It crashed on me one time, and I was on
tech support for an hour just to get a hold of someone.  About a year later,
lightning struck, and I was fortunate enough to get enough money from
insurance to allow me to upgrade to a p120.  But alas, the only thing I
could afford was a Packard Bell again.  The same things were incountered,
sound card and modem are integrated, video card is integrated, no
documention on how to disable the video card if I want to upgrade it(and
believe me, I did, it sucked!), so I again called Pakard Bell and was on the
phone for an hour to figure out how to disable my video card, but guess
what?  My warranty was up and the only way anyone would help me is if I give
them a credit card # so they could charge me 25 bucks for the call, whether
they solve the problem or not.  I told them I would figure it out on my own.
This is the problem with most of the cheaper systems.  they manufacture
their own add ons, and it usually creates minor headaches when it is time to
change.  Not to mention how much slower it ran compared to other
manufacturers.  My sister had a p120 made by Gateway, it would run ICR2 with
all details on, and 39 cars without a hickup.  Packard Bell would only let
me run about 8 cars, no grass or road texture, no texture on objects, you
get the picture.  Enter Gateway 2000.  This last September I decided when
the new P2 motherboards came out, I was going to jump on it, and get the
best system I could buy, a 266 Pentium 2 with the 440lx motherboard.  So I
went to Gateways website, and customed designed a pc on there that was
exactly how I wanted it as far as specs go, and was quoted a reasonable, yet
expensive price for the system.  So I bit the bullet and called gateway,
they sent the pc a week later to my door, and it has worked flawless ever
since.  Nothing is integrated, there are plenty of empty expansion slots, I
have all the drivers for each piece of hardware on a seperate floppy or
cdrom, all the software included in the bundle is on seperate cdroms, and
they come in a nice notebook, and I haven't seen a game yet that I couldn't
run with full details on.  the moniter is 19", and it is awesome compared to
my 14".  All the add on hardware is not manufactured by gateway, it is all
name brand manufacturers, like esonique, stb, telepath.  They are easy to
remove, and you can use the latest drivers from their websites, not the ones
on gateways.  It is just a well put together package, and the customer
support is the friendliest people I have ever met in my life.  5 minutes on
hold, and any problem I have is solved, no charge.  And they have their own
internet service now.  I hear it is a good value too.  what I would suggest,
is go with gateway, or even dell, they are supposed to be good too, and are
near the top of all the speed charts.  Do without some stuff when you order
your pc.  Make do with the moniter you have if you can, and if you have a
decent sound card, use it instead, they are not hard to install, and between
those two and the speakers that come with, you can save about 500 dollars or
more.  you can buy ram anywhere, too, so don't go overboard, although it
might be cheaper from dell.  As far as software packages, you might be
forced to pick something, but just pick something that has a bundle of
software you don;t already have.  Bottom line, get one that you can pick and
choose what you want, and you'll get the price you want, with a decent
computer as the result.

They tend to use cheap low performance parts (varies of course) and lots
of integrated parts.

No prob you say, I can disable those with a jumper

Yeah right, especially when the original vid.card is an integrated AGP
card, you can disable it and put in any PCI card you want in one of the
2 free PCI slots, sure gives you a lot of options for expanding later
later huh

Having you new computer buildt by a reputable "screwdriver shop"
probably won`t cost you more either, because you can choose to leave out
all the "cool" software that comes with a new computer today, unless of
course you "have" to have MS-Wineguide and stuff like that :-) and you
have the added comfort of choosing your own parts such as video and
sound cards

At the moment I`d choose either a PII-233 or one of the new Celeron
266-300`s, (cheepo PII`s without cache) BUT I`d choose a BX motherboard
with the appropriate 100 MHZ RAM, that way you can get a 400 or bigger
later on when the prices come down (they always do :-)

Get a decent 3d vid.card (choice depends on what apps you will be
running) and that will make up for most of the lost cpu power.

Based in Norway I can`t really tell you what you have to pay for a good
"screwdriver shop" computer, but I`m sure there is enough others here
that can give you a hint or two :-), hope this helps

Beers and cheers
(uncle) Goy
UncleGoy on TEN

Right now, one of the best systems you can build would consist of the
following:

Motherboard: Abit BX-6 or ASUS P2B
CPU:         PII 333 (fast enough for anything available now, and will
                      run at 400MHZ on either of the above
motherboards...
                      save $300 0ver a PII 400)
Memory:      Corsair PC100 SDRAM
             (or Corsair PC 100 CAS-2 if you MUST have the best)
Video:       Rendition 2200 AGP + MonsterII in a PCI slot
Hard drive:  Western Digital 6.4 UDMA
CDROM:       Sony 32X and Memorex 32X both work really well
Soundcard:   Awe 64 (compatible with everything, and one of the best
                     gameports of any soundcard)

Find an honest dealer and price a machine built this way and you'll be
surprised how little you'll actually have to spend... You should be able
to buy all the above over the counter for under $1500.

Trips

No, that is not to bad, but I went to dell and what I want is the 333 to
400MHz system they advertise on TV.  I find for what you get in that system
the price if far to high.  All you are paying for, in a sense, is the name.
In my searching around I have found you can get other brand systems with the
same components in them for far less money.

Cowen

What if I find a shelf system that has what I want and is expandable for
future needs?  I see nothing wrong with shelf systems other that HP's.  They
are by far the biggest gyp a person can get.  They claim to be upgradable
but everything is integrated.  If I could find a Dell or Gateway 300MHz
system for about $1,500 then I would get that.

Cowen

Trips

try www.quantex.com

here is a number for a company that i purchased my computer from. they have
the downright lowest prices on the market that i could find.i dont know
where you live but if you call these guys and compare prices you will see
what i mean.goto AOL <keyword> Advancedcomputers> or if you dont have access

had with them is the language barrier. but if you dont have to interact with
them its not a problem. this is there phone number (714) 670-6393

P.S. they are in the micro times free magizine if you can get your hands on
one.
P.S.S. Dont buy a gateway .....  ;o) hope i helped.