Building a new computer... what are your suggestions?

cableboy · Post by **cableboy** » Mon Jan 10, 2000 3:02 pm

Hey everyone! Good news... for me at least. I am going to be building myself another computer. What are your suggestions for it? Keep it reasonable! None of these 5,000MHz processor, 600mb ram suggestions.

Here is what I have so far...

19" moniter.
Scanner.
Epson 800 Printer.
My old computer.
Boston Acoustics 635 speakers.(I like 'em!)
Cable Modem (I like it ALOT)

Here is what I am looking at...

30 Gig hard drive.

128 mb ram- may be higher, what do you think?

Between 450-700 MHz processor: The big
question for this is whether to go for the pentium III or for the athlon.(I am not going to have linux on this comp. it will be on my other one, so if I get the athlon it wouldn't matter.)

Motherboard- What do you think is the best?

CD writer/rewriter- what model suits you?

Mouse- I saw this mouse in Popular Science called the "Razer". It has 1000 dpi or 2000 dpi compared to a regular mouses 350 dpi. I think this would be excellent for gaming. Check it out at www.razerzone.com. Or should I go with that new microsoft mouse without the track ball? They cost about the same, but if I buy the Razer Boomslang I get Battlezone 2 for free.

Zip drives, Jaz Drive?...

3d card- Voodo?

What else can you think of that I might have/probably forgot? Price range I am lookin at is around $1,900.

Thanks!
cb

[This message has been edited by cableboy (edited 01-10-2000).]

Crimmshaw · Post by **Crimmshaw** » Mon Jan 10, 2000 3:47 pm

Heres my two cents. Wait for a couple of months. Here is the explanation why. Athalon processors are far better than P3s but right now due to mb companies being afraid of Pentium have yet to expand to multiple companies and chip makers, but that is starting to turn fast due to the Athalon beating the P3s in every which way. The difference between an athalon and a p3 other than the athalon being faster at any clock ratio is the mb stuff. Athalon boards do not yet have agp4x chipsets yet but they are being made now and will be released soon. Thats what I have to say about Athalon and P3s as well as MBs. When that chipset is available on mbs , pick a good board like Asus, Gigabyte, etc. As far as ram goes get a 128 mg chip to start, you can always upgrade to more later. Get a WD expert 27 gig hd , 7200rpm , 2mg cache, ata66/udma33. I dont know anything about rewriters so Ill keep my mouth shut. Mice is totally a feel thing but if your going to get one , I suggest one that is ball-less, like microsoft intelleye. Video card is simple.Get any card with Nvidia geforce256 that has DDR. I wont put down 3dfx cards or voodoo but I will say that the geforce puts any other vid cards to shame. The zip thing is up to you, I recommend that if you have a rewriter or you old hd that you use them for storage and save your money for one of the other products. The rewriter and old hd will come in handy for storage so I see no sense in a zip drive. Before ending I would like to say that my preference of Athalon over P3 comes from statistics and hard core comparison. I have no loyalty to either , I simply go with the best product. No offense to any Pentium hardcore fans about my preferences.

Jehova · Post by **Jehova** » Mon Jan 10, 2000 4:07 pm

Here's a couple of things you might want to consider.

-The Razor mice have gotten some great reviews from several sites (definitely go for the 2000dpi version), and have gotten a lot of flack from serious fps gamers because of its weird design and the fact that the ball is in the back of the unit. If you're into shooters, I'd try to get my hands on one to try out before you drop $100. Also, I haven't tried one, but I've heard from several people that the ball-less mice are VERY bad for high-speed gaming.

-Get the biggest, fastest HD you can afford, 30GB is quite respectable right now. Definitely get the 7200rpm. Same with memory, 128MB is fine, but save room for expansion later.

-If you're considering overclocking, I've gotta recommend Abit motherboards. They've served me well.

-As far as CD-R/Ws go, the Creative Labs "Blaster" (what a stupid name for a bunch of cool products) drives are good and pretty cheap. I got a 4/2/24 a while back, and I've had zero problems with it. Now they have a 6/4/36 that's way sweet, and comes with Nero, which is the easiest burning software I've seen.

-For video, I totally agree that the GeForce is the only chip to consider right now. The Voodoo chips don't cut it, and though some of the other contenders are pretty cool, especially the G400, nothing's as fast and pretty as the GeForce.

tAxI-dRiVeR · Post by **tAxI-dRiVeR** » Mon Jan 10, 2000 4:22 pm

Here goes:

1.) xeon pentium 3 600mhz. 133mhz front side bus, .18 micron die @ $517

2.) Abit VA6 pIII agp based motherboard @$99

3.) 196 megs pc-100 kingston ram @ $250

4.) SB live sound card @ $80

5.) Western Digital 27.3 gig Ultra DMA hard drive @ $235.95

6.) Creative Labs CD-RW IDE 6x write/4x re-write/24x read internal @ $199

7.)Creative labs Geforce 256 vid. card @ $244

Grand Total = $1624.95

keep your monitor, speakers and printer if there's nothing wrong with them. No need in getting rid of stuff that is still up to par.

postscript: These prices were found on the internet and may vary from place to place. You could spend significantly less if you purchase ALL of these items oem.

[This message has been edited by tAxI-dRiVeR (edited 01-10-2000).]

webhead · Post by **webhead** » Mon Jan 10, 2000 6:06 pm

To Anyone With a Creative 6/4/24 Burner....

Have you had ANY problems trying to get the burner to work with Adaptec Easy CD Creator???

I sure have, thanks.

cableboy · Post by **cableboy** » Mon Jan 10, 2000 7:48 pm

I see your point about not needing a zip drive... how did I miss that one? Great info so far guys, thanks. Anyone else?

jaza27 · Post by **jaza27** » Mon Jan 10, 2000 9:49 pm

I'd like to recommend the teac 8x24 scsi writer I personally don't see the need to have a cdrw since you can buy verbatim cdr's less than .75 cents each and you can make backups of psx games and also overburn these 650Mb cd's to 700Mb. At 8x I really appreciate the speed when backing up my HD.

cableboy · Post by **cableboy** » Mon Jan 10, 2000 10:14 pm

Thanks! I will look in to that as well.

Crimmshaw · Post by **Crimmshaw** » Mon Jan 10, 2000 11:29 pm

Just adding a few things to keep in mind after some of the posts. P3s and athalons dont overclock the same way that socket 7s did so I recommend reading from www.tomshardware.com to check out what boards they used in overclockin both processors due to some doing better than others. P3 xeon has a front bus speed of 133 ,, well athalons is 200mhz. doesnt matter how you get to 600mhz, the faster front bus speed is the faster way to go.

Brent · Post by **Brent** » Tue Jan 11, 2000 2:18 am

Ok here is my suggestions:

Oh and BTW Tom of Toms Hardware is a Jerk, he is biased and not a good computer reviewer. I recomend www.anandtech.com or for your overclockin love www.hardocp.com

Case - Get nothing less then a Mid-Tower ATX with a 250 power supply, I use Enlight brand for one of my systems

Mobo - Definatlly a BX based mobo because they are STABLE and COMPATIBLE unlike the Athlon Mobos. I reccomend Abit specifically the Abit BE6-2 it has Ultra ATA/66 and can overclock the BUS in Increments of 1Mhz from 83-200Mhz FSB. VERY GOOD Mobo.

CPU - Get a P3. Specifically a P3 500E the E means that it's a Pentium 3 Coppermine. It can be overclocked ALOT! I know someone that has their P3 500E running at 750Mhz!!!! It's very friendly. Also to run it you will need a Slocket adapter for it they are cheap like $40.

RAM - Nothing less then 8ns PC100, PC133 if you can afford it especially if you want to overclock. Micron is the best brand here for RAM. Start with 128MB module and you can add more if you need to later.

Video Card - GeForce DDR simple as that, it's the best right now, specifically the Hercules Prophet DDR DVI, best brand of GeForce.

Sound Card - MX300 it's got A3D 2.0 which sounds AWESOME! And in the next drver release it will support EAX.

Hard Drive - Go for Western Digital. Prolly upwards of 20GB get the 7200RPM UltraATA/66 kind with 2MB of Cache.

CDRW - HP best brand period. Their 8x4x32 is fassssssst

CDROM - Some 32x + will be good, don't matter much they all work fine

NIC - PCI 10/100

There ya go! Got any questions on my choosings? Just ask!

------------------
Brent a.k.a Borg Drone
Owner/Webmaster
The websites:
eXplosive3D up soon http://www.mngamers.com/explosive3d
Gamers Reality up soon http://www.gamersreality.com

Out the 100TX, through the switch, down the cable modem, over the fiber optics, off the bridge, past the head end office....nothing but Net

cableboy · Post by **cableboy** » Tue Jan 11, 2000 7:14 am

Great info guys! I will keep you updated on how it is going.

cb

snoop99 · Post by **snoop99** » Mon Jan 17, 2000 11:21 pm

Get an Athlon (not Athalon sorry) 550 chip for $214 OEM (www.paragoncomp.com) and buy an overclocker for it for $55. Take the Athlon to 750 mHZ. Use the ASUS board for the best stability.

Reasons not to get the Pentium? They have not been producing what has been promised. The 820 chipset is just now getting to stores (it was promised in November). And most 820 chipsets only support the Rambus memory from 600-800mHZ. Tests have shown that Rambus memory is really not worth it's very high price, and it is in very short supply. On top of that, Intel had problems with the motherboards and the Rambus memory, and had to remove the 3rd DIMM slot due to errors in design.

Go with the Athlon. Just get a decent power supply. Video card: GEFORCE DDR

Anon · Post by **Anon** » Thu Jan 20, 2000 12:56 am

My opinions ....
The RDRAM is worth it. A P3 with the 800mHz RAM kills the Athlon in performance.
Also, Plextor makes the very best CD-R drives. You can even copy PSX raw data so you dont need a mod chip to run the games. Go for the SCSI 12x one, it's FAST!

Brent · Post by **Brent** » Mon Jan 28, 2002 1:39 pm

look at what we suggested so long ago lol

onetrueday · Post by **onetrueday** » Mon Jan 28, 2002 7:56 pm

Originally posted by snoop99
Get an Athlon (not Athalon sorry) 550 chip for $214 OEM (http://www.paragoncomp.com) and buy an overclocker for it for $55. Take the Athlon to 750 mHZ. Use the ASUS board for the best stability.

Reasons not to get the Pentium? They have not been producing what has been promised. The 820 chipset is just now getting to stores (it was promised in November). And most 820 chipsets only support the Rambus memory from 600-800mHZ. Tests have shown that Rambus memory is really not worth it's very high price, and it is in very short supply. On top of that, Intel had problems with the motherboards and the Rambus memory, and had to remove the 3rd DIMM slot due to errors in design.

Go with the Athlon. Just get a decent power supply. Video card: GEFORCE DDR

are you serious? 269 for that?

BaLa · Post by **BaLa** » Mon Jan 28, 2002 8:58 pm

Originally posted by onetrueday

are you serious? 269 for that?

WAKEUP..

OLD THREAD

MartialArtist12 · Post by **MartialArtist12** » Mon Jan 28, 2002 9:00 pm

Get a GF3 Ti200 as it's at a good price right now. The Radeon 8500 are also being sold under $200 and if you have the money, go for it.