attgig

It's been a while since I've gotten all horny about the latest hardware coming out, so I'm in need of some suggestions.

I'm a moderate gamer: counterstrike, live, high heat baseball are my most often played games. I do some coding, requires decent cache. that's about it...
I'm not sure about the whole amd vs intel thing...so some good suggestions on some specs would be really helpful.
Such as, what clock speed is fast enough?
What chipset...is BX still out there??? =P
What video card is right for me?
I'm thinking at least 256 ram.
how fast do those shiny discs spin...48x?
is scsi still around?
how much hard drive space do I need?

I'm looking to spend anywhere from 1000-1500 + possibly a monitor (on a 17" right now). I'm considering a LCD(maybe dual monitor - 1lcd/1crt), so digital out would be good on the graphics card.

thanx in advance!

Grimm

A dual monitor is a good idea. You can ust the LCD for work and the CRT for games.

I would recomend a Raedon card if you are not worried about getting the best and newest video card. They have a dual output model, I hear it's good I think they run about $120.

40 gb hard drives are in a good price range right now and it should take you a while to fill it up. I always recomend IBM or WD drives. They aren't the quietest but I have found them to be reliable (WD is using the IBM internals and I havn't had a problem since the started using them). I hear the Segate has come out with a new ATA drive that is ultra quiet and very fast, I have no idea what the pricing is but you might want to look into that if that's important to you.

I would go with an AMD cpu to save a little cash. Others would dissagree and say to go with Intel for the stability. I have never noticed the difference (except for the Pentium processing error and Intel's attempt to put big brother right on your processor). You don't need the very fastest, in a few months whatever you get will be outdated any way. I would shoot for the 1 Ghz range give or take. Depending on the price point you want. Spend less on the processor and a little more on the ram and mother board. You will be glad you did.

256 ram is good, you might as well go with 512 though as it is dirt cheap now and will probably be more later. Spend a little extra and get the better ram.

As for CD-RW/DVD, decide what you need and get it. There are combo models if you need them, it's cheaper than buying both. But remember that you don't need the fastest. 16x is fast enough for a writer, you won't see much difference from a 20x. Not enough to justify the price difference. Just so long as it has Burn-Proof or similar write protection you will be ok. DVD-ROMs are fairly cheap now and if you are carefull you can find a good one on the cheap. Stay away from off-brands and you should be ok.

Good luck.

IrishSS

Here's what I just got tuesday:

Amd 1.2 266 FSB retail - $126
Asus A7M266 - $172
Morpheus GF3 - $349
(2)256 Mb PC 2100 DDR - $97
Sb Live X-gamer - $80
IBM 40 Gb 7200 deskstar - $108
Kenwood 72X CDROM- $90
Enlight 300W ATX Case - $50
Plextor 16X burner - $169 OEM, $177 retail

I already had the HD and CDROM, but the rest of the stuff, minus the vid card and mem, I got off Newegg. Excellent prices and great S&H rates. Got the mem at crucial.com, and the vid card from 3dpower themselves. Total price for everything here: $1249 + S&H.

attgig

so, i'm looking at the suggestions, and I guess the 2 biggest things that worry me are the motherboard and graphics card. I'm loooking at Irish's setup and they seem to be the 2 biggest investments. Also, in my research, it seems that these two pieces of hardware have the largest selection.

I know Asus has always been 'good'. I guess whichever way I go (amd/intel) I should just get the top of the line(evil's suggestion) asus mobo?

and as for graphics, this is where I'm terribly clueless. I'm still on my voodoo3, ignorantly playing my games.
Radeon? GF3? wha?

And as for dvd/cd-rw, i'm kinda debating on whether nor not to just plop my current pioneer scsi dvd over to my new system, and let my old system be with a 32x cdrom drive. Or, if I should get myself a new dvd drive, ditching the scsi, and going with a faster spin speed on the dvd.

IrishSS

I went with the AMD/Asus combo because of the price/performance ratio over the similar intel processors. I hate Rambus for having to have paired mem, and for the overall cost. So that made my decision for me.

As for the A7M266, I picked this one after reading a slew of reviews and comparisons. The A7M was the most consistent performer, had the best mem bandwidth and latency, and the AMD chipset came out on top of all the others in my opinion. It is a little more than most other boards, but imho, you should spend a little more to get a better board.

For the GF3, i took the recommendation of the crew here at G|A?, getting the Morpheus card. It does have an awesome gaming bundle, is probably the lowest priced GF3 out there, and although not a lot of things support the GF3 as of now, i am pretty sure there will be quite a few that will in the coming future. I'm also making the assumption that I wont or wont need to upgrade the card for quite a while. The whole programmable graphics processer and FSAA lured me in. I decided to spend the extra $200 now, instead of gettign the GF2 Pro now and waiting till christmas or later to get a new incarnation of the GF3.

Grimm

You don't have to buy the top of the line mother board, just stay away from the low end. I like IrishSS's solution, you should probably use the same components, except for the video card, you indicated that you were only a moderate gamer so I would go with something a bit lighter and with a dual head.

I would also skip the cd-rom and go with an inexpensive DVD player (personal preference only).

I like your rig IrishSS

attgig

about your radeon suggestion, you said that there were dual head versions of radeon, would you happen to know which ones?
also, since I am considering LCD, do radeons have DVI support?

Grimm

While I do have a Radeon LE flashed to a DDR, I really don't know much about the cards. I just saw something about them in the forums. You could do a search here to find it. Or go to the ATI home page and check out the specs.

sbp

"also, since I am considering LCD, do radeons have DVI support?" Yes. http://www.ati.com/na/pages/faq/radeon_compare.html

The RadeonVE and ALL-IN-WONDER Radeon

Due to its single pipeline and lack of T&L engine the Radeon VE is a mediocre game card.

"Such as, what clock speed is fast enough?" At least 1 Ghz.
hard drive: 40gig IBM 60GXP
dvd-rom: reuse old dvd-rom or PIONEER DVD-106S 16X


Very nice IrishSS

attgig

ok, so I thinking of getting asus a7m before, but how's overclocking? I read in toms hardware that overclocking is impossible with this board (you can't alter the FSB settings) ...but the 760 chipset is the way to go because, it does the best in taking advantage of the memory bandwith.

is it a bad overclocker?
if so, which board should i go for?
i would still think the 760 chipset is best...but if they can't overclock...i'm not to high on it....

what are the best chipsets in your opinion??

[Edited by att gig on 07-18-2001 at 08:10 AM]

cruelpupet

i hear the NForce comming out is really good. you might want to wait for that mobo. As well as the Palamino Core, you wont have to worry about heat.

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attgig

and how long is the wait for them???
and how overclockable are they...

joe52985

3 pci slots??? integrated geforce 2 mx??? good??? hehe

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attgig

don't do this to me..i'm getting so confused as to what i should buy
ok, from the next 5 people (if 5 people respond) i'm going to buy myself the most suggested motherboard....(hopefully there won't be a tie).
remember, AMD t-bird, overclockable, ddr ram....
onboard lan is a plus...

please respond and help me =)

clutchy

ok, forget the a7m it's too pricey get yourself a epox board it uses the same chipset the amd761, i think it's the 8k7a+ or something like that. Great new contender and getting rave reviews. Get crucial pc2100 ddr ram. Crucial is the best and it's not good to skimp on ram. You'll probably only need 256. The vid card is up in the air the radeon VE is dual head, but i don't think it has dvi. the all in wonder does. Both vid cards are made by ati. tbird- get the C version or the 266fsb one not the B or 200fsb one. they'll know what you're talking about when you order it. the 266 variety uses the extra bandwidth of the ddr ram you're getting and the chip overclocks better. You need a good heatsink fan if you're getting a tbird. I suggest a thermoengine from thermosonic. you can get them with the stock fan or a delta 7k fan which is hella loud but works great, however, if you don't oclock too much the stock fan should be fine. goodluck i know you'll love your AMD system. I love mine.

oh yeah 3dfx is dead sorry about you're voodoo.

and uh, you don't need to wait for anyone else to post, i've just given you MY advice, hehe it's the best you're gonna get, aside maybe hapoo and sbp.

[Edited by clutchy on 07-19-2001 at 01:07 AM]

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thanks X

attgig

hee hee =P
thanx clutchy...

got the crucial (512 =P)
definitely lookt at the C version...
and not sure about that delta fan..
as for the vid card....thinking all in wonder, but wondering about the price =(

and epox 8k7a...or something....i'll tally it up for one vote. If i get confirmation from hapoo or sbp, i'll go for it..cause it doesn't look like anyone's replying =(

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coleslaw

Epox 8K7A+ is the way to go. Excellent stability and overclocking ability, 6 PCI slots, DDR RAM, and nice bonus features. Also, get either a Zalman Radial Fin HSF, or the Thermalright SK6. Both surpass the Thermoengine in performance.

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harveye

Wait another month and you will spend a lot less since Intel
is going to slash P4 pricing another 50%. Then buy AMD when they are forced to cut their prices. Also, Nvidia Nforce
motherboards are due end of August or start of september and
you will be able to get versions with either 5 slot ATX or
3 slot microatx not that it makes much difference to a light
gamming user since the MX-400 graphics chip on board runs at
AGP 6x instead of the 4x it would run if it was a separate card. This MB has the first scheme that will make DDR memory 2-3 times faster than any other memory controller out there. Also, I understand the on board audio is 5.1 surround sound and I heard that the motherboard implements wireless lans.

I would opt to lan your old pc and run it separately instead
of dual heading your system. And I would get a 19" flat crt
for the system that runs the games.

Also, I would see if all the money saved waiting from price drops that are coming could buy me one of the new Seagate Cheetah Scsi hard drives that run at 15,000rpm ( see review
on Storage Review.com) it is blazing fast.

Remember you can't run anything on a pc until the os boots
and the application loads, and while a CPU is nanosecond faster than another cpu every disk access with the Cheetah save 3-5 millisecond and faster transfers of data and scsi
command Queing also saves time. You can buy a cheaper uw80 scsi controller without hampering performance.

clutchy

First of all hapoo, has the 8k7a+ or whatever the hell it's called. So yeah both of those other hsf's do surpass the thermoengine true, but they can't do it quietly they both use the delta 7k to get the performance marks they achieve, i'm not saying they're not good the sk6 is one of the best, it's just the thermo does well with stock fan, and it's only 30 bucks or less.

agp 6x i doubt would make a difference. since the diff between 2 and 4 is almost negligible. onboard lan is great and so is vid card if that's what you want... come on 2-3 times faster you've got to be joking. no way no way and no way. i doubt they could even double the speed of current ddr right now. let alone 2-3 times that, get real. nvidia is not a miracle worker. Now if they had mr. scott working for them maybe...

i'd have to agree with you on the processor, hard disk thing the main bottleneck is becoming the HD, who knew?
yeah gotta love those seagate's. two of them in raid... smoking...

[Edited by clutchy on 07-22-2001 at 01:41 AM]

attgig

yeah, hd's are the bottlenecks, always been like that..but i'm not ready to dump 3-4 hundered bucks on scsi drives and a scsi raid controller....not happening...

so, I'll wait a month or so (end of the summer), and get by system cheap...
but if i do do that, won't the new chipset be out for AMD?
and then wouldn't it be worth waiting ANOTHER month for the new chipset to come out????
this waiting could go on forever...

GraingerGuy

exactly....if the price cuts were going to happening next week then I would tell you to wait....but when these price cuts are happening I don't know. If you find out that they are in just a little while....then wait. But if not...just get your system. Whatever you get above 1 ghz is going to hold you over over a while. got my 1.2@1.4 and it's going to last me for quite a bit.

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ken

for moderate gaming, get what I got, a asus geforce2mx 400 with dual vga and dvi outs. I gave up on having 2 monitors. Its too hard in win2k.

If you insist (just swapping monitors is alot easier) then do the following:

Get an agp 3d video card for your primary CRT monitor.

Get a pci dvi video card (good luck!) for the second monitor.

attgig

That seems so perfect, but why is it too hard????
what problems have you run into?