KBlair Posted August 9, 2000 Share Posted August 9, 2000 Yes, I finally have the cash and I'm doing the research right now, I'm going to build a completely new PC. I want all the components to be top-of-the-line or next to it. I'll list what I'm going to keep from the current system and I'm taking suggestions for the other components. Keeping: Pros (Duh) Case (for the time being) Trackball Motherboard (if I go Intel, it's Tyan Trinity 400) 64MB PC100 SDRAM (it's generic, i think) Hmm, that's about all worth keeping. Please, if you've got a link to go along with your suggestion post it. Even though it's grossly expensive, I'm looking at the 24" Sony monitor. If I go 21", then I've got some choices, but the Sony is the only 24" available. Um, that's all, later. Oh, and this will be an O/Ced system. c>------------------ Who knows what evil lurks in the darkness of The Kave ? www.thekave.net Home of The Klipschmonster! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joshua Posted August 9, 2000 Share Posted August 9, 2000 24?s>Good Lord, I've been thinking of buying maybe a 21" myself, sigh. Well, I'll be leaving now. Bye.s> Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geekysteve Posted August 9, 2000 Share Posted August 9, 2000 K, checkout www.pcprogress.com for some low, low, low prices on processors and mobo's. I ordered a PII 400 (for my linux box) from them for $120, got it 2 days later. I have ViewSonic P815's, and love them. I also have some Sony 17" Trinitron's (CPD-E210's), and they're nice too- but a bit smallish. I'd also dump that PC100 RAM. For $150 (direct from micron) you could have yourself 128MB of PC133 RAM. JMHO. Good luck. ------------------ The ability to speak does not make you intelligent. -- Qui Gon Jinn, Star Wars: Episode One Try the world's greatest search engine: www.google.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KBlair Posted August 9, 2000 Author Share Posted August 9, 2000 Yeah, I probably will dump the ram. Right now I'm thinking 256MB of PC133 that will do CAS2. Gonna cost me, I know, but I shouldn't have to buy ram for a while. I was thinking IBM 75GXP 20Gb or Quantum Firebal LM for harddrives. I think 40GB total should be sufficient. I'm not a big fan of HUGE (75GB) harddrives. Also been thinking Plextor for the CDRW, IDE flavor. The new ones with the Burnproof technology and the 4mb buffer. Any others? DVD is looking like Pioneer TRAYLOAD (please, let's not go through that again), but I don't know if I need the 16x model. My 2x plays DVDs fine right now, it's just slow as a CDROM, and the Plextor CDRW is like 32x so that's plenty. No floppy, going with a internal superdrive for legacy floppy support. The only reason there is that I've got one at work, otherwise I'd just burn it to cd. Hmm, lets see what's left. Guess I'll have to bite the bullet and get an X-gamer, although that will probably be the last piece purchase, my MX300 will do fine i'm sure. Wish those damn next-gen soundcards would hurry up and get out here. For video it's either VooDoo5 5500 or GeForce 2. I'm not going to skimp on the vid card cause I want it to last. I personally don't have a preference, but it seems to me that for real-world stuff that I will be doing, the VooDoo5 is a better choice, although the GeForce2 offers more futreproof tech. What month are we in the 6-month cycle? At first, I was thinking ABIT KT7 Socket A motherboard and a 700 Mhz Tbird, but after doing a little poking, I may just get an O/Ced P3 from Step-Thermodynamics.com and use my Tyan board and save the $175 for more Mhz. Example: KT7 + Tbird 700 OEM = $350 or P3 700 O/C to 933 = $347 Don't really know what to do there. Probably go T-Bird cause the Mobo has IDE RAID onboard and I've had great luck with AMD lately. Um, what'd I miss? Oh, H+ card for sure. Intel NIC, external USR modem, Stiltbilt aluminum case custom anodized black with red or blue accents inside and out, Panaflow aluminum fans also anodized red or blue. So what'dya think? Will that last 2 yrs? I know the monitor will be good for 5 or so. I want to start ordering this stuff in a couple weeks. c>------------------ Who knows what evil lurks in the darkness of The Kave ? www.thekave.net Home of The Klipschmonster! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geekysteve Posted August 9, 2000 Share Posted August 9, 2000 I have the IBM drives- they rule. I have the IDE Plextor 8/4/32 CD-RW, it rocks. Only burned one coaster, and that was my fault. To date, I've burned over 60 discs with only one failure. You can get a plain-jane SB Live! for $40 (w/cables) from www.compuplus.com Video card's a tough choice. I've got the nVida flavored Asus V7700 (and V6800). I think they're tough to beat. What about the Voodoo6? mmmmmmm, 4 processors and it's own powersupply... Tbirds are easily overclocked, so that's a tough choice again. I don't think there's any "clear winner" here. Intel NIC's are tough to beat- very durable. Not familiar with that case, but I hope you'll use a Turbo Cool 300watt ATX power supply. OS? Win2K? Win98? Linux? WinME (although early benchmarks show no performance increase over Win98)? ------------------ The ability to speak does not make you intelligent. -- Qui Gon Jinn, Star Wars: Episode One Try the world's greatest search engine: www.google.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joshua Posted August 10, 2000 Share Posted August 10, 2000 Hey that's interesting, I'm about to buy a new system myself and it looks almost the same. Mobo: here ----> socket-A VIA KT133 Motherboard Roundup Not surprisingly Abit, Asus, and MSI come out on top, I think I'll go for the Asus. RAM being very expensive at the moment I would choose for the same CAS2, only 128 tho, add another 128 later on. I think we're in month number three of the 6 month cycle, another three months and the awesome NV 20 will ship, better FSAA and so on, well, can't wait for that one. Go for the GeForce 64 Mb if you can afford it. I've seen the case, it's awesome AMD's next price slash is scheduled aug. 14th I believe, T-bird 800 will become very affordable, Duron 600 will be almost for free That should last 2 years, at least I hope it will be able to play Duke Nukem at high detail. Damn game! Sound card, well you know by now that the new Videologic/Santa cruz looks very promising. Microsoft will launch two trackballs this fall, looking good. K, you got a link to that ridiculous 24" ? You better build a new desktop for that one! I haven't figured out yet which monitor to buy, not even if it's gonna be a 19" or 21". I have a IIyama and I'm satisfied with it, but Sony, some Philips models, CTX, EIZO(?!), Viewsonic? I dunno. I do check out the ArsTechnica forum regularly for tips and hints about a monitor, tough choice though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joshua Posted August 10, 2000 Share Posted August 10, 2000 Ouch, did I forget to mention the ATI Radeon 64 Mb? Great card! (bangs head to wall) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DiGNAN17 Posted August 10, 2000 Share Posted August 10, 2000 How the hell long have they had this forum? Man, I gotta stop going directly the the Pro's forum. Anyway, KBlair, I recently ordered that Sony monitor for my dad's office. He's needs it for his desktop publishing station where we have a dying 21" NEC. Unfortunately, because it's so big and so damned expensive, I think it's hard to come by. I looked on pricewatch and it listed a few stores selling it for around $2300. I tried to go to either of them but those stores didn't exist sooo, I thought what the hell, and I went over to Outpost.com. They have it for $2300, but with free shipping it's a (relatively) good deal. Unfortunately again, it is now on back-order and we've been waiting like 3 weeks with absolutely no word on when it's expected to arrive. So unless you're building this right away or don't mind paying more somewhere else, you might have to go with something else. Although this is supposed to be a fantastic(ly expensive) monitor! ------------------ FURIOS Df>c> Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seb Posted August 10, 2000 Share Posted August 10, 2000 get a flat screen 23 incher... ------------------ Pump up the BASS!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kimber Posted August 10, 2000 Share Posted August 10, 2000 ok here's my opinion. 21 trinitron,24 is to large to sit in front of mb,asus with new via 133 chip set 256 micron pc133 p3 600e(oc'd to 800) live w/live drive cheapest geforce2,tests show they almost keep with 64mb at close to 150 less plextor and the pioneer sounds good ibm 7200 rpm hd of at least 20 gig,probably bigger Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KBlair Posted August 11, 2000 Author Share Posted August 11, 2000 I'm not sold on the flat screens just yet. CRTs still have a better image quality, at least to my eyes. Kinber: That 24" monitor is a wide format type, so it's about the same height as a 21" but a few inches wider. It's geared towards graphics and publishing professionals, they made it wide so that you can display 2 letter size pages side-by-side. I'm not sold on it yet either, I'd like to wait till DiG gets theirs in and see what he thinks. The thing is, I've got a 20" Sony (SUN) now, but it's actually more like a 19" (18" viewable), so a 21" isn't that much larger. Plus, I bet DVD's on that 24" would be awesomw. And yes, $2300 for a monitor is borderline rediculous, but it will be the last monitor I buy for 5 or so years. Josh: That tbird 800 sounds sweet. Now I just need to read up on the mobos c>------------------ Who knows what evil lurks in the darkness of The Kave ? www.thekave.net Home of The Klipschmonster! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hofy Posted August 11, 2000 Share Posted August 11, 2000 Here is a little help with the NEW pricing for AMD effective 14 Aug. These are street prices. AMD Duron 600Mhz CPU(OEM) $69.00 AMD Duron 650Mhz CPU(OEM) $85.00 AMD Duron 700Mhz CPU(OEM) $105.00 AMD Thunderbird 750Mhz CPU(OEM) $169.00 AMD Thunderbird 800Mhz CPU(OEM) $199.00 AMD Thunderbird 850Mhz CPU(OEM) $255.00 AMD Thunderbird 900Mhz CPU(OEM) $335.00 AMD Thunderbird 950Mhz CPU(OEM) $445.00 AMD Thunderbird 1000Mhz CPU(OEM) $629.00 As for mobo's go Asus A7V with the dip switches or Abit KT7c>------------------ When the going gets tough, the tough get Duct Tape. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DiGNAN17 Posted August 11, 2000 Share Posted August 11, 2000 Those prices are IN-SANE! okay seriously. back in the early 90's, who could have imagined that one day a 700MHz chip would cost $105? ------------------ FURIOS Df>c> Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KBlair Posted August 11, 2000 Author Share Posted August 11, 2000 OK, so the Tbird 800 looks nice at $200, probably should overclock to 950 or so, plenty fast. I'm thinking Abit KT7 mobo..... Ram question, 192 or 256? Will the extra 64MB or Ram be that much better? or should I apply that $80 or so somewhere else. I really, REALLY want that 24" monitor, but I'm a little hesitant about spending that much sight unseen, so I'm going to try and find somewhere here in Atlanta that has one or has recently sold one that I can look at. I'll keep you posted. I decided against the Live card and I'm going to use my MX300 for now. The Santa Cruz card looks nice, but not much of an improvement. So, do I go GForce 2 64MB DDR or VooDoo 5 64MB? c>------------------ Who knows what evil lurks in the darkness of The Kave ? www.thekave.net Home of The Klipschmonster! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kimber Posted August 12, 2000 Share Posted August 12, 2000 boy i hate to say this being a long time voodoo owner but the geforce2 seems to beat it up pretty bad.the only time the voodoo even seems to come close is with high resolution 1024+ and with fsaa on.and i cant speak from(not seeing the geforce2 in action) experience but the voodoos seem to work with everything and theres always that glide thing.people said glide would be dead by now but you still see games coming out supporting it.tough choice im glad i dont have to make it right now. lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joshua Posted August 12, 2000 Share Posted August 12, 2000 AtiRadeonreview Another great card is ofcourse the Hercules (guillemot) Geforce2 64-Mb: "With the same blazing speed at low-resolution tests, the Hercules GeForce2 GTS hardly breaks a sweat. As the resolution increases however, we see a fraction of the speed observed in the Normal quality tests, almost half at 1600x1200. The extra 32MB of memory makes little difference until the high resolutions, reaching a 22% increase over the 32MB GTS at 1600x1200. Again the 3dfx card trots in last, bested by a margin of 24% to 41%. " VooDoo what? You gotta luv benchmarks You can find the reviews at Sharkey's, here and here Ongoing discussion at Arstechnica too, VooDoo5 seems to lose the battle, only performing better with low res and FSAA on, but with action gaming the word is :high-detail, fast fps. You can meet the guys at Ars audio/vid here BTW, did you win the lottery or what? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Birdman Posted August 12, 2000 Share Posted August 12, 2000 The T-Bird 1000 MHz can be had for $497 at www.tcwo.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hofy Posted August 12, 2000 Share Posted August 12, 2000 quote: Originally posted by KBlair: OK, so the Tbird 800 looks nice at $200, probably should overclock to 950 or so, plenty fast. I'm thinking Abit KT7 mobo.....c> THe Abit is more flexable than the Asus.c> Ram question, 192 or 256? Will the extra 64MB or Ram be that much better? or should I apply that $80 or so somewhere else.c> Since you are keeping the MX300 and wont be spending money on a new sound card go 256MB!!c> So, do I go GForce 2 64MB DDR or VooDoo 5 64MB?c> I too am a long time Voodoo user and my next card will be GForcec> ------------------ When the going gets tough, the tough get Duct Tape. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Seb Posted August 13, 2000 Share Posted August 13, 2000 Hey KBlair, you're going to hit the 1000 post barrier soon!! ------------------ Pump up the BASS!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kimber Posted August 14, 2000 Share Posted August 14, 2000 read a few reviews and that radeon is definetly looking good.exspecialy at high resolutions,and thats what your going to want with a 21 or 24 monitor.i found the radeon 64 mb ddr on pricewatch for 295. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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