Onboard sound/video/fax...

[FrayDenZ]

I was gonna order a system off of Pricewatch with a 1ghz P3 and lots of other nice sounding things. I called to ask them about the system, tho, and when I got to the motherboard, she told me it had the sound and video built into it, and it only had 2 PCI slots. Ug. Thats sounds aweful to me, like no upgrading, ever, w/out a new mobo.

On the other hand, its in my price range, and I can get up to 64 mb of video put on it, and it does hold up to a gig of ram.

Is it that big a deal, do you think? I've always been able to take out or put in whatever I wanted in my system, so I am kinda leary about this...it's listed at $472 for 1ghz P3, 128mb ram, 20gb HD, 64mb vid, onboard sound...

[Surrea1]

Is that all retail also?? That's sounds pretty interesting... the problem is with onboard sound and the other onboard stuff could cause conflicts if you wanted to upgrade to a better sound card if it is no good. As well as modem and the other accessories... so choose wisely.

I believe the reason why there are only 2 pci slots is the onboard cards are using those irq's, so that's what I mean by conflict... I'm not an expert on this so you probably should hear what others have to say.

[FrayDenZ]

What I really wanted to be able to do was to add a GeForce or maybe GeForce 2 to the system, and also a SBLive Value card. I also will need to add a ethernet card, which will take up one of the 2 pci slots.

I can't imagine that a motherboard would come equipped with better sound/video than the Geforce or Sblive...of course, I could be wrong about that - I haven't payed any attention to motherboards since I got my abit bh6 a couple years ago...getting to be about time to replace that, too, heh.

[This message has been edited by FrayDenZ (edited 07-06-2001).]

[sharder8]

Just my .02! http://www.sysopt.com/forum/wink.gif

For most of us, integrated audio and video just won't cut it! Why? Because as fast as we learn what we like and what we want, we like to buy it and up-grade it without buying a whole new system! Yes, we pay a little more up front, but we save BIG time in the long run! http://www.sysopt.com/forum/biggrin.gif

I just built my 13yo daughter her own system and yes, it has integrated audio and video. But it's a starter for her and when she learns what she really wants and earns the money to buy her own parts, I'll advise and coach her on building her own. Her computer will get passed down to the youngest (currently sharing an IBM Aptiva 400MHz). I'll be building a new computer for the middle kid later this year) and then donating the left over computers to those who need them.

Harder

[FrayDenZ]

Yeah, that sounds about right. I just wanted to see what someone else thought about it. I really don't think I would like to have a computer that had no chance to be upgraded. I had a max budget of about $1k, so I started w/the cheapest I could find on Pricewatch, which was a system that came with that type of motherboard.

I ended up going w/a Dell with some pretty decent specs...starting w/a P3 1ghz, 128mb pc133 ram, and a 32mb Geforce2 (it's a budget gaming rig), for under $1k.