buying a new computer

[Ghosth]

Prices look very good RWY.

I'm a fan of the Abit KT7A Mboard. Mine has been very stable, easy board to work with.

Have to agree with skurj though, translucent case, EWwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.

[qts]

I'd go for a lead crystal case  

[airspro]

ammo , airreapr is fixing and making comps as a side business right now
 http://www.computerenhancement.org/

Give him a e mail and see "how much" . I know he's going to be building my next pc for me for sure .

take care
spro

[-ammo-]

OK great responses fellas. Thx for the links contacts and advice.
heres some more questions-- l;ooking at Roberts, Tacs, My buddy Ghosth's and other suggestions,i am guessing the T-bird processor is teh way to go. I ahve seen bloom say as much also. was looking here at sam's and configuring machines and the prices seem right.

difference between DDR ram and SDRAM, benefits of either?

Motherboards and Power supplies for T-Bird chipsets? whicjh ones are good, bad, compatible. Asus, Abit, etc?

How much memory? 512K? Sdram or DDR?

Which AMD processor, Tbird or athlon MP?

Hard drive should be IDE or SCSI?

Should i have the manufacturer install an Operating system or can I do that myself? I may have a copy of Win 2K real soon. would save money but then again if it is warranty'ed how would that work if I did the install.

any other questions I should be asking

[Ghosth]

DDR ram is faster, SDRam is dirt cheap. How much do you need? Well I'm running smooth on 128mb. Go with 256 if you can afford it, 512 is I think WAY more than the average person will ever need. Considering your tight budget I'd say go with 256k of SDRam.

Abit KT7a is a good proven performer and an easy board to work with. (no jumpers)
Ozark recently built a puter with the Asus board with good results.

You'll want a case with good cooling and at least 300w power supply. Personally I've been happy with my enlight case. Although I did add a 2nd 80mm fan in the back. There are cheaper cases out there however.

You want the T-bird processor, the older athlon is a slot 1 processor and won't fit the current boards. Right now the 1ghz looks to be a bargain.

As to OS, there are benefits to going both ways. Installing your own & adding the cards one at at time you will truly LEARN your system. You'll know it inside & out by the time your done. OR, let them install the OS, and save you time & headaches. That really is a decision only you can make ammo.

As to hard drives, I really don't see the benefit with modern drives in going scsi.
It's one less card in the slots, one less headache. Modern ide hard drives have quick seek times, ATA/100 support, and most Mboards will handle up to 4 drives.

Are you going to move your video over from the old machine? Hard Drive? DVD? CD-Rom?

OR, get the new machine up & running on new parts & tinker with the old one till you get the conflicts worked out? Tough choices to make ammo, and only you know how deep your pockets are.

[SKurj]

Asus boards are great, I did hear of some stability issues with the Abit KT7 board in the past... perhaps they have been resolved...
I run an A7V KT133A, jumper free and not had a problem with it. This board supports both RAID and ultra 100. (plus the manual lists which slots are shared lol+)

TBird would be my choice, as fast as you can afford if clocking is not a concern.

I run an Antek 1030 case, its a good size with lots of bays.  It comes with a 300w PS and i believe you can get it in black and I think with higher rated PS.  It comes with 2 exhaust fans as well as 2 ports for 2 more intake fans.  Probably the best case I've ever bought.

Might as well get as much ram as you can afford.  I have no experience with DDR so I won't say anymore +)

I don't think SCSI is really worth the money for a home gaming system.  You have a harddrive now.. I dunno how old it is, but do you NEED to buy a new one?

Whenever you buy a motherboard you can usually buy an OEM copy of an OS.  WHich is often less than half the price of a boxed OS, and there is NO difference between the retail and OEM version of the OS.

You can install it yourself, its fairly straightforward.  
When I install on a blank HDD, once FDisk is complete, partitions set etc, I will copy the OS disk to the harddrive, and then install from there.  Its much faster, and you never have to go scrambling for your windows disk when installing some drivers or hardware ever again.
If you have the store install the OS for you, just make sure you get the disk! and the legal stuff.

My thots

SKurj

[Jochen]

btw fast Athlons need lots of power. Be sure you got at least 300W, preferably 350W powersupply.

I got my TB 1400 running yesterday with my old 230W power! Do not stare only the power output rating, most important factor is the current at +5 volts the power can supply.

Also the watercooling works great! I played WWIIOL for three hours and temperature rised from 37 to 43 celcius degrees. That was because the water in bucket got warmer  

[SKurj]

A watercooling system.. and 230w PS.... anyone else see something wrong here? +)

300w PS cost ya less than $50..


SKurj