Thanks for the feedback Eben. The system it is replacing was originally
purchased in 1996, and is a bit of a frankenstein. I'm much more of a
software guy than a hardware guy and to be honest I wasn't sure if the new
components would all fit together the same with the old pieces/case.
Just a quick rundown, the original power-supply blew up a few years ago,
and I got an equivalent used for $2 on ebay which has held up since so far.
Also dead is the original cpu fan and cdrom, and lately it's been taking
weird and unpredictable i/o errors on different optical devices and
hard-drives that no amount of juggling master/slave and using different ata
ribbon cables has been able to remedy. The case has been, well, "shortened"
in order to fit into a tight space. I plan to scavenge what I can from it
(soundcard, 10/100 ethernet cards, etc), but it's time for a replacement :).
After a day or two of looking around this place seems to be fairly
competitive with net-only stores (though their quote to upgrade from 256MB
to 512MB is priced too high, they are offering it for free as of 4 days ago
if you ask for it http://forums.isorm.com/viewtopic.php?t=4). I was just
checking to make sure that nobody knew of any much better deals or places or
had any reasons to avoid these guys. I do value the warranty and it being
local, and it seems competitively priced. Thanks for your help and
suggestions!
~ Daniel
On 5/25/05, Eben King <eben1@tampabay.rr.com> wrote:
>
> On Wed, 25 May 2005, Daniel Jarboe wrote:
>
> > I'm about to buy a budget/value desktop to replace a flakey Pentium Pro
> > system, and am currently looking at isorm
> > (http://www.isorm.com/product_info.php?cPath=21&products_id=197
> > minus $90 for no OS = $299) which is located on N Florida by Bearss.
> > Does anyone have any good/bad experience with isorm, or recommend any
> other
> > local tampa stores instead?
>
> 256 MB RAM isn't much. You will probably want to upgrade that pronto. I
> would avoid onboard components in favor of things on cards, if possible.
> They're usually more flexible and of better quality.
>
> For instance, my latest motherboard (Asus A7V-333) came with onboard
> sound.
> I saw no way around that. But, it has only three jacks. If I upgrade to 4-
> or 6-channel audio, I lose either my microphone or line in or both. I used
> a Soundblaster Live! I had used with my former motherboard, and it has
> enough dedicated jacks for all that plus more. And, it (or ALSA) would mix
> overlapping sounds, which wouldn't happen with the onboard card.
>
> Is anything wrong with your case, power supply, or hard drive? Why not
> just
> replace the motherboard, CPU and memory if not?
>
> You pay some extra for a storefront, maybe 25%. So what costs $300 locally
> can probably be found on the net for $225. Or, if you've already decided
> to
> spend $300, on the net you could find a $300 computer which would cost
> $400
> locally.
>
> --
> -eben ebQenW1@EtaRmpTabYayU.rIr.OcoPm home.tampabay.rr.com/hactar<http://home.tampabay.rr.com/hactar>
> CAPRICORN: The stars say you're an exciting and wonderful person...
> but you know they're lying. If I were you, I'd lock my doors and
> windows and never never never never leave my house again. -- Weird Al
>
>
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