Gaming System - Please review and comment

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Glad you are finding adequate help. Sorry that much of my information was redundant. I neglected to read the other responses.

I just wanted to add that I am a big advocate of retail hard drives unless I really <b>know</b> the vendor will honor his own warranties. Just had too many hard drives fail over the years, some after a few months and some after a couple of years.

I personally, like Fujitsu drives because Fujitsu was the first to offer 5 year warranties. I've since decided that 3 year warranties are good enough because I'm likely to replace a hard drive well before 3 years have passed. Still, warranties are security blankets.

I failed to mention that I too like MAG monitors. I own an old DX-15T, great little monitor but it's time for something bigger. My eyes will thank me. I'd like to go with a flat panel display for browsing and a CRT for games but the flat panels are still too expensive.
 
Phsstpok:

Your information was very helpful, not redundant,... confidence building would be more accurate, I think. Re-enforcement is a confidence builder for the poorly informed, like myself ... and most people provide different "slants" on similar themes ...

My Fujitsu just simply refuses to give up it's position as my primary drive. So I spent a lot of time trying to get it to understand (unsuccessfully) the meaning of "secondary drive". Eventually I discovered the problem was actually with my Maxtor that I was trying to install as the primary drive. The Maxtor has a delay function that needed to be disabled ... but by that time the Fujitsu had won, and I had resigned myself to having it as my primary drive.

As to the Mag Monitors, if I have to get this one for my son, then it will probably be the Mag 16V 796 FD, which has a high refresh rate, and is only about $15 more that the 85 mzh refresh model. When I checked these, I was surprised about how low the refresh rates were on the Sony models that were on the same site.

Thanks again.

<i>If everything seems under control, you are just not going fast enough. </i> Mario Andretti
 
17 inch monitor 130
abit kt7a raid mobo 150
512 megs pc133 cl 2 memory 220
2x ibm 75gxp deskstar 30 gig harddrives(for raid 0)280
geforce 3 videocard 400
case 80
plextor plexwriter 16x 220
dvd rom 80
56k modem 30
sb live(great soundcard) 40
amd 1.33ghz tbird c 220

1850 bucks, 150 to spare for mouse keyboard anything extra, that is a power system right there.

forget the ddr and DONT EVEN CONSIDER P4 SYSTEM
with the 150 extra to spare you can play around with extras or do upgrades on what ive listed.

~Matisaro~
"Friends don't let friends buy Pentiums"
 
"DONT EVEN CONSIDER P4 SYSTEM"

Seems a little biased there. Wait until you see the price drops later today.

-Raystonn

= The views stated herein are my personal views, and not necessarily the views of my employer. =
 
Unless intel plans to cut prices in half again, the amd will still be a better price vs performance chip, not to mention the additional cost of rambus(always a problem) and the p4 mobos, ADD to that the fact that amd will match any intel cut(they can go lower due to smaller die sizes) and you have one fact, DONT EVEN CONSIDER A P4 SYSTEM.

PS: I gave him the best system he could get right now, waiting for price cuts is irelavant, because i could say well wait till next year when x costs x less etc, right this second, amd is the better buy.

PPS: this is a gamer system, unless his son is gonna play quake 3 only, then the amd is a more powerful chip, even given geforce 3's bottleneck, all of toms bench's show the amd chip with like 1 fps lead (tiny and non important but a lead none the less)when the vid cards bottle neck is reached, that does that tell you?

PPPS: Thats a lot of ps's heh

~Matisaro~
"Friends don't let friends buy Pentiums"
 
"they can go lower due to smaller die sizes"

Intel's using 300mm wafers. AMD's using 200mm wafers. The largers wafers allows more CPUs to be created with less cost.

Intel will be using 0.13 process as of Northwood. AMD is not yet using 0.13 either I believe. Both are using 0.18 process.

From where did your above statement come?

"not to mention the additional cost of rambus"

RDRAM is cheaper than PC2100 CAS2 DDR.

The P4 is actually a great buy after the price cuts today. It is designed to take advantage of the applications of the future, meaning your investment will last much longer. A P3 or Athlon system will go obsolete much more quickly as new applications are released. If he's the kind of person who upgrades his CPU every 6 months then I suggest waiting for the Northwood, otherwise it doesn't matter. Those who upgrade every 3 years or so (normal Joe) will always have to upgrade their motherboard with their CPU no matter what.

-Raystonn

= The views stated herein are my personal views, and not necessarily the views of my employer. =
 
From what I understand of the cpu's die sizes, amd can fit almost as many die per wafer as intel can on its larger(and more expensive) wafers, but your point is well taken.

I was talking the price difference between my suggested pc133 cl2 ram and rambus, and the ddr cl2 ram will come down in price once its readily available.
The current crippled p4 is in no way a processor for the future, it is a stop gap which will not be supported once the northwood comes out. He also said that his soons computer was to be expected to stand alone for just a year, I highly doubt the tbird core will be obsolete in a year given the fact that software is always slow to adopt special optimizations such as sse2 etc.

~Matisaro~
"Friends don't let friends buy Pentiums"
 
since i get such a kick out of pricing systems, here's my latest attempt, from mwave

Asus A7V133, w/o audio -137
AMD Tbird 1333 -238.50
Super Orb Cooling fan -15
Optiquest 17" -171
Elsa Galadic Geforce 2 Ultra -288
SB live Value -47
512mb pc 150 SDRAM -204
Panasonic 12xdvd/40x cd -69
Plextor 12/10/32 -169
1.44 Floppy -13.90
Mid Tower w/300w ps -69
us robotics 56k -35

grand total comes to -1601.40

That leaves you with almost 400 for shipping, a keyboard and mouse, plus a few games, since after all, it is a gaming system
 
Rob:

The system you posted looks good. A couple of things.

Neither you or Matisaro who has also posted a "sample" system, are using trinitron monitors. Not being a gamer, I just assumed that the clarity and resolution of a trinitron would be a + on the mid/high end systems. Is this a $$$$ saving move, or does it not really make much difference to gamers?

Also - on the Plexor drive. That price is almost $20.00 below my quote on it. If that was from a site, could you please send me a link?

Finally - Matisaro suggests a raid - I have not really considered that .... but it is certainly possible in the price range we have here. Any comments????? (I still have to look at the Fujitsu solution that was posted yesterday).

Thanks

Graylocks

<i>If everything seems under control, you are just not going fast enough. </i> Mario Andretti
 
Okie, the system looks quite fine BUT there are some changes that I recommend you to change...

Actually there's really no need for 430 watt case, u won't need to use that much. A 300-350 watt would be very good. Also, I would recommend that u get a better graphics card like the GeForce 2 Ultra since u have the budget. It would be a waste to accompany a 1.3 Athlon CPU with a Radeon 32MB. Yes the GeForce 3 is too expensive and it's everything but a must buy. It's a much better combination, in ur case, to get a 1GHz Athlon and use the remaining cash for the GeForce 2 Ultra. The 1GHz/Geforce Ultra combo will win over the 1.3GHz/Radeon 32MB combo. A good CPU is NOT the only determining factor of a good system. Memory and graphics card have a much better impact for today's system.

If I did not read wrongly, u wanted to get 3x512MB Ram??? That not a very wise choice. There's a 4% increase in performance level if the RAM is upgraded from 64MB to 128MB and for an upgrade from 128MB to 256MB, there's only a 2% increase in performance. From here, we can see that 128MB is normally enough but a 256MB is definitely recommended if u have the cash but further than 256MB is going to be a waste unless u do plenty of intensive 3D graphics, movie editing or imaging. For gaming, 256MB is heaven already. Buying more won't make ur gaming performance better than heaven... =)

For the OS, I would recommend u to get Windows ME. I am a user of Windows ME and a hardcore fps gamer except that I don't have the cash, otherwise I would have the GeForce 3 instead of my current GeForce 2 64MB Pro. Windows ME is built on the 9.x architecture and supports most game that runs on Win98 and Win95. I cannot deny that Windows 2000 is more stable because it is built on the NT platform, but it doesn't support a lot of games. New device drivers for Windows 2000 will also be much more difficult to find and have to wait longer before it releases partly because not many use Windows 2000.

Next thing is about the speakers, it's a much better choice to get a 4.1 point surround speakers or better still, the 5.1 surround speakers. The main feature of a Creative Sound Blaster Live! is its excellent 4 point surround sound and the EAX effects. It's best to accompany this card with a good speakers like those from Creative.

The whole idea of a good system is not neccessary based on it's processor alone. A lot depends on the graphics card, motherboard, sound card, speakers and the most important, software drivers. Do not underestimate the other components. They help a lot in performance too. A good lead actor without a good backstage support can't do anything. Try to find a perfect combination of all the components and form the "perfect" system!!! =)

Good luck in ur config... =)
 
I've just gone that way because i don't know much about trinitron monitors, to tell you the truth. I do mostly Photoshop work though, so i'm used to mostly still images, I just like a good refresh rate, and something that doesn't hurt the eyes to look at for hours on end. lol, the most I can tell you about my personal preference and extent of knowledge in monitors, is that bigger and cheaper is better, as long as I'm not frying my retena.

the link for the burner, as well as the rest of the items included in my sample were from Mwave. It seems to be general concensus around here that mwave has the best all round prices of any mail order outfit around. you might find something cheaper somewhere else, but as a whole, Mwave is the best.
<A HREF="http://www.mwave.com" target="_new">http://www.mwave.com</A>
 
Ok, here's my two cents:

Wattage: overkill. 300 should be enough. there's a hefty price premium over 300. Look at the Enlight 7237 300W case ($50).

CPU - good choice

Asus is a good choice, I'm not too sure on the model numbers and all that, but do get a DDR system, they're not much more expensive, and you'll get some extra (20%) performance out of it.

Memory. I recommend 512MB PC2100 DDR ($240). Yes, most things will run fine on 256 now, but especially with Windows XP coming out, you'll want the extra memory. I got 192mb 18 months ago when 64-128 was the norm, and now I'm suffering.

Video Card - Can't beat a GeForce 2 GTS. If you can spare the cash, get an ultra or a Ge3. I think the video card makes or breaks the gaming system. I have a friend with an 850mhz cpu (to my 550) but an SDR GeForce (to my DDR), and I get better framerates at everything.

Monitor - don't waste your money on trinitron. Instead of getting a 17" trini, get a 19" regular. Size does matter 🙂

SB Live...unless you have 5 speakers, get a SB Live Value ($35). It's cheap and the quality is nice

harddrive. Maxtor does rule. Get size though, especially if your son is into mp3's and the such. I just bought a 60GB 7200RPM Maxtor drive from Best Buy for $250. And it came with a free controller card which I sorely needed (I already have 2 hdd's and 2 cd devices in my system).

CDRW. 2mb buffer is pityful. Get a decent 8xsomething plextor. It's better than any 12x10 AOpen or whatever else you can get. I have an AOpen, and trust me, it'd be faster overall if I didn't have to make a damn coaster every third CD.

Modem - hardware based

Keyboard & Mouse...get cordless! For about $70 you can get a logitech cordless keyboard and mouse combo. Stay away from the new cordless optical mouse. I bought one, and it sucks, especially for games.

speakers...don't know anything about those. Might want to get him some fat over-the-ear muff type headphones too, so he doesn't bother you with the constant bang bang 🙂

CD or DVD....get a DVD drive, definitely. They're as fast, and some games are starting to come out on DVD now, just due to their size. If you plan on watching movies on the thing, get a Sigma Designs Hollywood Pro DVD Decoder card. It looks a LOT better than any software-based DVD rendering.

You seem to have left out one major component....the Network Card. I'd get one, even if you don't plan to use it...it'll come in useful eventually.

~Crapple0

"the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist"
 
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