Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Hardware and Software => Topic started by: -ammo- on September 03, 2001, 07:12:00 PM
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In My position, where although with a little luck and more time (and less kids) I would probably build a machine. But lets just say I would rather buy the thing the way I want it. Nice components, centered around flight sims, where or who would you go to to buy it? Who offers the best value? would you go with the newest and hottest vid card, processor, etc.. or would you buy a geforce 2 AGP, a Pentium 3 or celleron, (or whatever processor is competing with intel.
opinions? I am seriously considering this. My current machine will ahve to be fixed of coarse and that is another matter altogether.
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Build your own and buy a big honking monitor with the money you saved. ;)
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I just built a AMD Athlon (Thunderbird) 1,4Ghz computer for myself and I'm quite happy with it.
Pics One, (http://www.kolumbus.fi/staga/cpu_bench.gif) Two (http://www.kolumbus.fi/staga/memo_bench.gif) and Three (http://www.kolumbus.fi/staga/multim_bench.gif)
Right now AMD gives best bang/bucks ratio and only one thing gave me gray hairs: My old SbLive's gameport did not work with Asus A7M266 motherboard I bought (Others have this problem too with SB-Live products) but after I changed that SB to Terratec 512i my problems were wiped away :)
(Only issue with Terratec 512i is it uses more CPU than SB-Live thought difference is not too big)
In Videocards my guess is GF2Pro could be good choice, Quite cheap now but still more than enough power with half of price of GF3 (At least in here).
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yea that would be cool...if I had $1500 sitting around. However I will need to borrow, steal and beg. I would love to build though. It saves money, but not my headaches ;)
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Ammo,
Check private messages.
[ 09-03-2001: Message edited by: Ozark ]
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staga, you have to disable onboard sound via jumper and bios. Your SBlive wouldve worked
I also have that mbd and my sblive xgamer works fine.
One thing though, lower the voltage for your ram, the A7M266 was shipped with the ram jumper set to overclocked setting, this causes most ram types to overheat and lock the system up.
The VI/O1 Jumper is default at 2.7V for the DDR memory, however, usually DDR memory is designed for 2.5V. This could cause system instability and cause crashes during heavy memory load. This is especially true when I played 3D games. The fix is to remove the VI/O1 jumper, which set the voltage to 2.5v, I don't understand why Asus doesn't even give the option for 2.5V for the jumper setting, and yet clearly stated DDR RAM uses 2.5V in their OWN MANUAL!
Remove that jumper if your system crashes for no reason, constantly.
go to www.lostcircuits.com (http://www.lostcircuits.com) and look for the article on that MBD. Tells you whats with it.
What I love about it is that it will support the Palomino chip :)
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Originally posted by Tac:
staga, you have to disable onboard sound via jumper and bios. Your SBlive wouldve worked
I also have that mbd and my sblive xgamer works fine.
One thing though, lower the voltage for your ram, the A7M266 was shipped with the ram jumper set to overclocked setting, this causes most ram types to overheat and lock the system up.
The VI/O1 Jumper is default at 2.7V for the DDR memory, however, usually DDR memory is designed for 2.5V. This could cause system instability and cause crashes during heavy memory load. This is especially true when I played 3D games. The fix is to remove the VI/O1 jumper, which set the voltage to 2.5v, I don't understand why Asus doesn't even give the option for 2.5V for the jumper setting, and yet clearly stated DDR RAM uses 2.5V in their OWN MANUAL!
Remove that jumper if your system crashes for no reason, constantly.
go to www.lostcircuits.com (http://www.lostcircuits.com) and look for the article on that MBD. Tells you whats with it.
What I love about it is that it will support the Palomino chip :)
Quit Hijacking :)
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Personally Ammo, I would go to a local retailer, preferrably a small place, and have them build what you want. If u can't build yourself. You maybe able to hang onto several of the components u have, monitor, ethernet card etc. By doing so you can likely get 1ghz+ for under $1000 easily
Oh yeah.. as far as components go..
Well you have an SBLive, you have a Geforce(2?), keyboard, mouse, speakers etc etc, you can likely pick up an AMD 1.4 with a mobo for $3-400 and a harddrive for $100, oops and a case of course. $600 and you are up and running. For now you could hold onto your current GeForce and replace it when you have the cash, the same applies to the monitor and SBLive!
SKurj
[ 09-03-2001: Message edited by: SKurj ]
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Ammo,
I am building a new computer. the specs are:
1.33 GHz Athlon T-Bird
Epox 8k7A DDR Motherboard
512Mb Curical PC-2100 RAM
1.44 Mb floppy drive
Seagate Barracuda 40.1Gb hard drive
MSI GeForce2 PRO 64M
Hercules Game Theather XP
Lite-On 16x/40x DVD
Lite-On 16x/10x/40x CDWR
Taisol CGK720092 HeatSink Fan (30CFM)
Antec SX830 case with 4 fans
All for about $1075 shipped.
Using the 19" monitor I already havea nd a network card given to me by Roadrunner.
I know prices have already gone down on the CPU, DVD, CDRW and RAM since I have ordered. I've seen better deals on the HSF I bought. If you need to know more, send me an e-mail. I would be glad to help in any way.
<S>
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Thanks Tac but I already did use my weekend by playing with bios, IRQs, jumpers and different slots and reading about dozen tech-sites but nothing did help. When I installed that new soundcard it worked like a dream :)
Reason could be my Live! is made in '98 and as far as I know Creative changed components later.
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btw fast Athlons need lots of power. Be sure you got at least 300W, preferably 350W powersupply.
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lol ammo. You may be getting *that* mbd anyway! Its the only ASUS mbd that currently will support the palomino and its performance is great. :)
So gimme back my gun copper! ;)
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Ammo
I've been looking at this for a longtime now. Every day the prices get lower and lower.
Abit KT7a mainboard: $106.00
AMD CPU 1.4ghz 266mhz $116.00
big hitter fan $ 37.00
256MB PC2400 DDR Memory Module $ 80.00
Translucent COLOR Mini-MID ATX CASE
WITH 300W $ 32.00
Total $371.00 includes shipping. 08/31/01
RWY
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translucent case... EEEEEWWWWW......
SKurj
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Originally posted by Robert:
Ammo
I've been looking at this for a longtime now. Every day the prices get lower and lower.
Abit KT7a mainboard: $106.00
AMD CPU 1.4ghz 266mhz $116.00
big hitter fan $ 37.00
256MB PC2400 DDR Memory Module $ 80.00
Translucent COLOR Mini-MID ATX CASE
WITH 300W $ 32.00
Total $371.00 includes shipping. 08/31/01
RWY
RWY,
Where you getting prices from? I'm ready to upgrade now.
Mav
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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.
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I'd go for a lead crystal case :D
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ammo , airreapr is fixing and making comps as a side business right now
http://www.computerenhancement.org/ (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
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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 (http://www.samscomputersonline.com/config.asp) 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
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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.
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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
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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 :D
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A watercooling system.. and 230w PS.... anyone else see something wrong here? +)
300w PS cost ya less than $50..
SKurj