Author Topic: looking at new box listed (opinions ) (Read 341 times)

Pollock · « **on:** July 05, 2002, 09:51:12 AM »

Looking at a strict gaming box this quote seems high but I am through with overclocking and tweaking. Obviously the best for AH is the goal. I have built 3 systems thus far but may be going plug in and go now. herees the quote:

Code Product Quantity Price/Ea. Total
800001 Custom PC $45.00 $45.00
Cases: 100014 - Mid-Tower ATX USB w/350W PS $69.00 $69.00
Case Fan -: 100510 - Add-On Fan for Enlight 7237 and Fulltower $15.00 $15.00
Motherboards: 110018 - Gigabyte GA-7VRX KT333+ DDR $85.00 $85.00
Processor: 120502 - AMD Athlon XP 1900+ $117.00 $117.00
Heat Sink Fan: 130107 - Cooler Master DP5-6G31C $6.00 $6.00
Memory: 140832 - 256 MB DDR 2700 Corsair CAS2/ Htsnk CMX $89.00 $89.00
Hard Drive: 150106 - Western Digital 40 GB 7200 $69.00 $69.00
2nd Hard Drive: None
RAID Setup: None
CD-ROM: None
DVD: 160806 - Lite-On 16x DVD 40X CD-Rom $54.00 $54.00
CD-RW/DVD-RW: None
Floppy Drive: 170101 - 1.44MB 3.5 inch Floppy Drive $14.00 $14.00
More Storage: None
Sound Card: None
Video Card: 190734 - MSI GeForce4 Ti4200-TD TV-Out/DVI 128MB $175.00 $175.00
Modem: None
Operating System: 210400 - Windows 98 2nd Edition $109.00 $109.00
Network Card: 280203 - D-Link WOL 10/100 PCI $19.00 $19.00
Add On Card: None
Warranty: 800007 - 1 Year - Parts & Labor - Barebone
Total: $866.00

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Staga · « **Reply #1 on:** July 05, 2002, 10:27:56 AM »

I prefer bigger cases; More space for your hands when needed.
Heatsink/Fan: My next heatsink/fan combination will be Zalman with 80mm fan. Nice and quiet combo; Not like one I have now...

btw usually 64meg GF4Ti4200 has faster memory than 128meg version = Better for over clocking. With little work it's as fast as Ti4400.

capt. apathy · « **Reply #2 on:** July 05, 2002, 11:08:56 AM »

I like the full tower cases myself. plenty of room to work in and a lot more room in there to get air moving.

eagl · « **Reply #3 on:** July 05, 2002, 12:00:30 PM »

I suggest 512 meg memory. I think you need 2 sticks of memory to run it interlaced which can give you 10% memory performance speedup. Dunno if that's true with all mobos though.

Why not a CDRW also? Make it easy to back up your AH folder... You might also consider a newer hard drive, maybe one of the 8 meg buffer western digital ones. Some WD drives have these new ultra-quiet fluid bearings, might help quiet that sumbeetch down. I picked up a cheapo 30x10x8 CDRW for about $50 online and it works just fine. Get "Nero Burning Rom" software instead of Adaptec...

If you're not overclocking, don't worry about some ultra high performance heatsink/fan. Most "stock" type heatsink/fan combos are pretty quiet already.

Why no sound card? Soundblaster Audigy is apparently the best out there but many purists don't like creative due to their business practices and some compatibility issues. Still, most reviews I've read say they sound very good.

Pongo · « **Reply #4 on:** July 05, 2002, 01:34:35 PM »

Asus A7V333 mother board
Windows XP

AKDejaVu · « **Reply #5 on:** July 05, 2002, 03:41:27 PM »

Yep... 512M memory should be a minimum for all new built systems. I highly recommend Win XP too.

I'd comment on the motherboard and processor, but I'm biased;)

All in all.. looks like a decent system for the bucks.

AKDejaVu

eagl · « **Reply #6 on:** July 05, 2002, 07:55:13 PM »

Not trying to start a holy war, but right now I recommend win98SE over any other windows version for gaming. win98SE has full driver support and none of the other BS microsoft crammed into XP like defaulting resolutions to 60hz, making you re-register every time you take the case off of your computer, or having to dig into the OS options to turn unnecessary crap off.

I was playing AH last night with 14 days uptime on my win98 machine. Sure it doesn't come close to my win2k firewall which had 2 months uptime before I downloaded a security patch and had to reboot, but that's pretty darn stable for a home version of windows.

YMMV of course, but I have found no compelling reason to use winXP and many reasons not to. I even went so far as to buy a brand new "complete" license of win98SE for my gaming rig just so I wouldn't have to start with win95 and upgrade from there. It works and it works well, which is all I really want from an OS.

IMHO of course. Lots of others have good experiences with winXP, fun stuff like registry hacking to get refresh rates, lack of joystick support, you know, that sort of good experience

Haha just serious... Again IMHO.

Staga · « **Reply #7 on:** July 06, 2002, 04:07:28 AM »

Refresh rate fix for Radeons (Win2k/XP) and same thing for Nvidia cards (Win2k/XP).

I don't know about latter one but first one for Radeons works great.

Staga · « **Reply #8 on:** July 06, 2002, 04:16:14 AM »

btw IMHO dual-boot rocks. I'm using WinME for gaming and XP Pro for more serious activities

Pollock · « **Reply #9 on:** July 06, 2002, 09:38:26 AM »

Thanks for all the input. I may stick with main components here reduce the price by keeping existing hd and cd burner. win 98 only option now thanks for that saitek.

bloom25 · « **Reply #10 on:** July 06, 2002, 04:57:48 PM »

I'm not 100% certain, but it seems like some of the 1.0 revision Gigabyte Ga7Rx series boards might have troubles with GF 4 Ti cards. There's a new revision that is supposed to be ok, but I'm still not completely convinced there isn't something going on...

To be honest, I'm not totally convinced that there isn't a flaw in the nVidia GF 4 Ti (NV25) reference board design. It seems that there are a LOT of reported issues with graphics corruption and lockup problems on both Intel and AMD supporting chipsets. (The only one without a load of problems is *SURPRISE* the nForce, which is made by nVidia... ) I have my own opinion on what the problem is based on the symptoms and the problem I've got with my GF 4 Ti 4200 card. (I think the cards have a board layout problem, specifically I think they are running into what is known as "ground bounce / Vdd droop" to engineers, and that is causing instability problems. The GF 4 cards are some of the first video cards to use 1.5V for their core voltage, as per the AGP 2.0 specs, and I think they are failing to initialize properly because of bounce/droop issues keeping the core from getting the proper voltage. My thoughts seem valid, considering a lot of people have gotten the cards to work by upgrading to a 350W+ supply and boosting the voltage to the AGP slot.) All I can say is make sure you've got a powerful power supply if you plan on using a GF 4 Ti.