Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Hardware and Software => Topic started by: RDSaustinTX on November 14, 2001, 06:05:00 PM
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Man there's a ton of expertise on configuration issues and video cards here.
I'm new to AH, played AW for years (but still suck).
Right now I'm driving a 933 PIII W98 with ATI Rage LT Pro. I get about 15 fps tops.
We do good business, but our accounting is primitive. I need to spend $2.5-3K on a new CPU/monitor before 12/31. We have been buying lots of equipment from systemax, support has been OK, but just.
Using their configuration CGI, looking at:
2 GHz P4 - 512megs pc800 RDRAM
nVidia GeForce 3 w/ "nfiniteFX engine" - 64 megs DDR
Soundblaster 5.1 Live
Cyber Acoustics spkrs/subwoof
2x60gig 7200 rpm drives
DVD/CDRW
XP Pro but no crappy bundled MS package
19" Trinitron
yada yada
This thing gonna work good for AH?
Any recommendations / alternates?
I assume video will be the limiting factor. Picked the GeForce 3 only cause I think I read somebody raving in here. (?)
For a vid board, the thing is pricey (+$300).
Any recommendations appreciated. I gotta use this thing for work too ya know (pesky IRS).
Thanks in advance,
Russell
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Oops. this machine uses
850 Chipset Socket 423 P4 ATX Motherboard
(no idea what that means, bet ya'll do)
Russell (lost in Austin)
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Welcome to AH!
Yup the 423 is bad, very bad ;)
Look for the 478 P4, the 423 is a dead chip. Also DO NOT stick the 478 P4 on an SDRAM motherboard, thats also bad, very bad. stick with rambus(pc800) or DDR.(PC2100 PC2400 PC2700).
You will get plenty of suggestions, these are just a few with regards to the P4.
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Why a P4? There are faster and cheaper solutions available. If you are dead set on a P4 for whatever reason DO NOT get one with the i845 chipset. It will perform terribly. You should also not buy a socket 423 P4, as that socket is no longer supported by the future P4 speeds. (In other words the processor couldn't be upgraded.)
I strongly recommend you look at www.anandtech.com (http://www.anandtech.com) and www.tomshardware.com (http://www.tomshardware.com) for P4 vs Athlon XP benchmarks.
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The Athlon xp 2k is going to be comming out in a couple of weeks. with the money you save getting that you can get a 21" monitor instead :-)
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Pssstt...get an Athlon :)
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Don't listen to Bloom, he's right!
(reverse psychology..?)
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Well sorta stuck on the Pentium, cause we run big CAD stuff and some esoteric hydrology modeling software. The technical s/w guys all pretty much seem to hate AMD setups.
What about the vid board? Should i find a GeForce Ti 500 instead?
Thanks,
Russell, Lost in Austin
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If you have to spend the money then yes get the GeForce Ti500. But I have seen CAD programs running on the newer AMD chips with no problems at all. The only thing with that is my guess no one wants to support AMD other than us gamers.
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Athlons are faster for CAD work due to their much stronger FPU.
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I dunno, but I read lots of tech s/w problems that get attributed to AMD, real esoteric math/vid processor stuff.
Hmmm. Man, I'm learning alot (that will be useless in what, 6 months?)...
I doubt I'll go upgrading this chip, so socket 423 might be ok, I read and agree about i850 better than i845 chipsets, same for ddr vs sdram.
Wife (watching all this) thinks mebbe I should buy a box for the company, then build a stripped hot rod for gaming. I don't relish the idea.
Sigh,
Russell
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Just to smear the topic...
Read about Alienware on another thread. Turns out their 'ultimate gaming' P4 machine is about $400 less than the comparable systemax. Prolly order this tomorrow.
Now for monitors, reading that NEC has faster refresh than sony.
Vrooom
Russell (lost in Austin)
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(not trying to convince you to get AMD but..)
check the benchmarks and compare the prices... you get more for the $$'s...
and, the Athlon's got more cache, or am I wrong? well, if it does then it would help in both the CAD stuff and while gaming...
btw. if you're not limited by money, consider getting an Intel Itanium 64-bit processor. :cool:
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One thing is a given.. that system is more than fast enough to run anything out on the market today.
So quit bragging ;)
AKDejaVu
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HELP ME SPEND $$$$ PLEASE!!!
Send check or money order to:
Raubvogel
c/o LuftJagerKorps Inc.
PO Box 190A8
Knightlandia
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On the monitor, if you go with the FP series of NEC you are correct about the refresh rates. They now clock up to 200Hz vertical,....but, check to see what your video card will max out at.
I beleive the current NVidia chips/boards are peaking at 160Hz, whilc ATI is running at 180Hz.
Anywho, the NEC FP's are about as good and fast as you can get today.
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Raubvogel:
Mailed the check. Came back invalid address.
Honest.
Russell (lost in Austin)
We're gonna order an Alienware 'Area 51'
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Thud. Here's the spec:
~ Case: Dragon Full-Tower Case (340-Watt PS) ~ Processor: Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor 2.0GHz 400MHz FSB
~ Memory: 512MB RDRAM (PC-800)
~ Hard Drive: 60GB HD 8.5ms seek time, 7200RPM, UltraATA
~ Secondary Hard Drive: 40GB HD 9.0ms seek time, 7200RPM, UltraATA
~ SCSI/IDE Controller: Promise Ultra100TX2
~ Video Card: NVIDIA GeForce 3 Ti 500 w/64MB 4X AGP
~ Video Cooling: KoolMaxx Video Cooling System
~ Sound Card: SoundBlaster LIVE! 5.1
~ DVD-ROM: 16X /40X DVD-ROM Drive w/Software MPEG-2 Decoder
~ Speakers: Altec Lansing ACS54 5-Piece Surround Speakers & Sub
~ Ethernet NIC: Intel® PRO/100 S Desktop Adapter
~ Operating System: Microsoft® Windows® XP Home Edition
They said 2-3 weeks. I'll post frame rates.
Russell (slightly lighter in Austin)
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<drool>
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Originally posted by RDSaustinTX:
Raubvogel:
Mailed the check. Came back invalid address.
Honest.
Russell (lost in Austin)
We're gonna order an Alienware 'Area 51'
LOL!!!