Building New Computer

D

DorGunR

New member
I've decided to build a new computer and so far this is what I've decided to go with.
Your thoughts or comments will be appreciated. :)

ViewSonic 17" Monitor
TNT2 32MB AGP Graphics Accelerator
Cendyne 8X4X32X IDE CD-RW
MID Tower ATX w/250W PS
ABIT motherboard w/750MHZ Pentium lll
Creative Soundblaster live X-gamer
Altec Powerplus ACS 54 speaker system
Logitech Internet keyboard


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"Lead, follow or get the HELL out of the way."
 
AMD Athalon... Switch chips on that list and you will be very pleased. I'm running an Athalon system at home and its far and away the BEST computer I have ever used. Ever.
Ever have a PC that booted up in under 15 seconds?
 
I would agree get the athalon It is cheaper and just as good or not better.

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"We are fast approaching the stage of the ultimate inversion: the stage where the government is free to do anything it pleases, while the citizens may act only by permission; which is the stage of the darkest periods of human history, the stage of rule by brute force."

--Ayn Rand, in "The Nature of Government"

http://hometown.aol.com//jsax13/web.html
 
Sound Blaster Live is SWEET!!! I went from a Sound Blaster AWE-32 with 8mb on Board, to a SB Live Value!!! (using the same speakers) When I first heard the new sound card WOW!!!!!!!!!! I was totally amazed at how good it was, as a nice smile appeared on my face. Make sure you get the latest Live!ware for your SBLive! :)

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-AoW[t]-Dead [Black Ops]
 
Sound is good - but I find playing MP3s and Audio CDs makes playing Quale 3 and Diablo 2 rather hard - I have a very good stereo for music...
More important than Sound is Graphics. That TNT2 is a good card. Dont skimp on that card.
 
Hmmmm.
Try and make the case an Enlight and move up to the 300 watt power supply.

Don't know the brand of CDRW but I know that Yamaha and Sony are good.

Abit Mboard is OK, I prefer the ASUS. Abit has the advantage of soft jumpers.

Go for a 7200 RPM hard drive with ATA 66 interface and a buffer of at least 512K such as the IBM, Quantum, WD and Seagate.

The Monitor is OK - Viewsonic has an excellent price/performance combination. The Sony flatscreen (tube, not LCD is the best IMHO) Otherwise for less cost than the Sony I would move up to a 19" either the Viewsonic or KDS. KDS makes some excellent models with some superior specs and has a great warranty. Each company has models that are targeted towards the desktop publishing market. These are usually superior monitors with greater color accuracy, balance and crispness.

I'm jealous already (grin).

OH and what OS? (98, 2000?). For games stick with 98 and go for 128Mb of ram.

Give some thought to future expandability via USB version 2 spec and certainly Firewire which will come on strong in the next year.

Also I definitely like the "optical" mouse either the mickeysquash original (45.00)or the recent clones(25.00). the Microsoft Internet keyboard is good stuff at a great price(29.00).

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"The more perfect
civilisation is, the less occasion has it for government." Thomas Paine The Rights of Man 1792
 
Go with 98 right now... Windows ME will be coming out soon enough - the 98's replacement. Millenium Edition - It rocks.
I've been playing with it all week and it is SWEET.
 
Were ya planning on putting a hard drive and memory in there?

;)

Just diddnt want you to over look it if this is what you are using to price your new box...
 
Concur on the Athalon. My Dad just put together an Athalon 650MHz system and it's crazy fast.

TNT2 is a great card, got one myself. If you're into games (and have an extra PCI slot) get a PCI VooDoo2 card and loop them together.

Just got a new WD ATA-66 15 gig hard drive, and couldn't be more pleased.

Later,
Chris

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"TV what do I see, tell me who to believe, what's the use of autonomy when a button does it all??" - Incubus, Idiot Box
 
Try this.

Install a ramdisk to hold your bootable exe and ini files.

It'll boot so fast your monitor won't be warmed up before you're queued for a password (network security). No joke!

I did this several years ago on a system I built for a dedicated application, then used it for a desktop system after the project was finished.
Same thing as having your OS in ROM, only with flash chips, the sys files can change, and are rewritten to the flash chips as necessary.
 
Ok here is my opinion. Just remember it is worth what you pay.

ViewSonic 17" Monitor:
This is ok but you might want to look around for a 19. they are getitng cheaper.

TNT2 32MB AGP Graphics Accelerator:
Skip this. Get a GeForce or GeForce2. The price difference is negligable and the performance increase is 2-3 times

Cendyne 8X4X32X IDE CD-RW:
Also look into a DVD Drive they are under $100.00 now

MID Tower ATX w/250W PS:
Sounds good to me.

ABIT motherboard w/750MHZ Pentium lll
Great choice. I prefer Asus but I also build the biggest and the best. And don't listen to the people who say Athlon. I have had Four of them Burn out at work, and not one PIII. You may save 50 bucks up front but in the end it will cost you a LOT more.

Creative Soundblaster live X-gamer:
Best sound card out there. These are great.

Altec Powerplus ACS 54 speaker system:
Good speakers. Sounds great to me.

Logitech Internet keyboard:
I prefer the MS Natural internet Keyboard but that is just personal preferance. Nothing at all wrong with the Logitech

How much RAM? At least 128MB I hope.
 
Let it be said that I never endorsed the Athalon for "work". There it is P-III all the way but my Athalon does Da@n good here and a good bit less costly.

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DUM SPIRO SPERO
While I Breath I Hope
 
'Nuther for the Athalon...upgraded a month ago....its a screamer and is upgradable. Oh yeah, another vote for a 7200 rpm drive

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"Quis custodiet ipsos custodes" RKBA!
 
If ya get a TNT2,make sure it's the Ultra and definitely not the M64. A better choice is to go with a GeForce or even GeForce 2 card,if it's in the budget. You might also consider getting 300w power supply.

Bill
 
I built a computer last year using an Abit Bh6 motherboard, Celeron 300a overclocked to 374mhz, Voodoo3 3000 AGP video card, SoundBlaster Live! Value, generic 56k modem, Quantum 8.4 gig hard drive, generic floppy and cd drives, all in a mid-tower case. 3 weeks ago I upgraded the cpu to a P3 500 (boxed). It was the first time I'd rolled my own.

The TNT2 is getting a bit dated. You might consider a VooDoo5 or a GeForce.

My Abit BH-6 has run perfectly since startup. The jumperless, soft cpu setup is outstanding. Abit usually benchmarks very well.

Unless you use exactly the components that AMD has tested and reccommended, you can have severe problems running an Athalon.

Have you checked out www.pricewatch.com for the latest, best prices?
 
I built a computer last year using an Abit Bh6 motherboard, Celeron 300a overclocked to 374mhz, Voodoo3 3000 AGP video card, SoundBlaster Live! Value, generic 56k modem, Quantum 8.4 gig hard drive, generic floppy and cd drives, all in a mid-tower case. 3 weeks ago I upgraded the cpu to a P3 500 (boxed). It was the first time I'd rolled my own.

The TNT2 is getting a bit dated. You might consider a VooDoo5 or a GeForce.

My Abit BH-6 has run perfectly since startup. The jumperless, soft cpu setup is outstanding. Abit usually benchmarks very well.

Unless you use exactly the components that AMD has tested and reccommended, you can have severe problems running an Athalon.

Have you checked out www.pricewatch.com for the latest, best prices?
 
I know very little about the innards of these things, compared with you guys, but I do recognize and semi-understand some of the pieces-parts you're talking about. Even though I can add and replace cards and dooflopsits, I could never in a million years build one from scratch.
I am curious, though -- when you're done, and it's all perfect and everything, what kind of price tag would you be talking about?
 
DorGunR,
Sounds like you got a plan going...I would suggest nothing less than 192 megs of ram(or the possibility of expanding to that). When building a computer, you must figure for future programs and applications, that will take more system resources. No matter what, in 2 years, you'll be looking to upgrade again. If anything, get a motherboard that has LOTS of room to put cards, memory, and USB is a must.

Mike
 
As has already been said:

Scrap the Intel for an Athlon.
Scrap the TNT2 for AT LEAST a GeForce.
At LEAST 128mb RAM
At LEAST UMDA Ultra ATA 66 HDD

And if you're really GEEKY, you'll install Linux, and get a 999% increase in your PC's performance. I just installed SuSE Linux 6.4 this weekend, and didn't care much fore it. I'd recommend RedHat Linux 6.2 for newbies.

I know, I know.. save your Linux whines [all of ya], but if I can do it.. so can you! :)
 
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