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Woohoo! New computer


Ancharon
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Yes! My dad officially gave me permission to start ordering the parts for my new comp. Finally no more 7 average fps, even in space.

Here's the specs:

[*]MSI K7T266 Pro2 (MS6380 v2.0), Socket-A, Via KT266A-chipset based for Athlon and Duron PGA CPUs with Built-in Sound Controller

[*]AMD Athlon Socket-A PGA 1200 (1.2 GHz) using 200MHz FSB w/128k L1 full-speed cache and 256k L2 full-speed Cache. (I'm most likely gonna be selling this one to a friend and getting an Athlon XP 1700+ )

[*]256MB DDR SDRAM CD2100/DDR266

[*]InWin ATX-Style S500 w/300W power supply (I'll probably bump that up a bit if I get the 1700+, though)

[*]40GB Western Digital internal EIDE hard drive

[*]Mitsumi 1.44 MB 3.5"

[*]AOC 17" flatscreen monitor (16" viewable, .25mm dpi, 1600x1200 max resolution)

[*]GeForce 2 PRO 64 MB DDR video RAM w/ RAM heatsinks

[*]Lite On 16X DVD/48X CD-ROM

[*]CD-RW 16x10x40 EIDE/ATAPI (haven't decided which brand to get yet...there are two I'm leaning toward, though)

[*]56K Zoom Fax/Modem PCI Internal, Model 1120M, V.90 OEM version. (no cable or dsl in my town! )

[*]Windows XP

[*]Some speakers (Other thing I haven't truly decided on yet...although I saw a nice 5 piece set a couple days ago.)

[*]All the necessary fans.

I haven't totaled up the final price, but at last check it was somewhere in the range of $800.

[ 11-25-2001: Message edited by: Ancharon ]

[ 11-25-2001: Message edited by: Ancharon ]

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Spend the extra $$ and get a 350w PSU and at least a Athlon XP 1700. An Athlon 1800 would be better.

Do some real searching and get a better v-card -GF3 minimum. Why? Because the v-card will be your bottleneck and the weakest link.

TTFN

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I'm getting this stuff from a multitude of sites... Ask me on AIM, Nova, and I'll give you links to a few of 'em; don't wanna list 'em all here. Heh.

Gallion: The G2 is just a temp card 'til prices on the G3s drop enough for it to fit my budget. I had to keep this comp under $1000, and that G2 was only $100 total (I already bought it last week to upgrade my current system a bit...didn't think I would be getting the new one so quickly), so...I'll "suffer" for now.

Hey, nearly anything's better than the comp I have now: PII 350 with a Voodoo 3 16MB card. I give you permission to wince.

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quote:

Gallion: The G2 is just a temp card 'til prices on the G3s drop enough for it to fit my budget.

Kinda sucks when $$ get in the way of things. How well I now that and know the feeling regarding temp equipment. Sometimes they become permanent

quote:

Hey, nearly anything's better than the comp I have now: PII 350 with a Voodoo 3 16MB card. I give you permission to wince.

Dont feel bad, I started the Beta with a Voodoo5 5500. Which was great for when the beta was Dx7.x but once the Sc went Dx8 the v5 lagged big time. Broke the kitty to get a GF2 GTS Pro - which is now my backup card for the backup system I'm gonna build

Since ye has all that covered, get the 350w PSU. AMD XP cpus are power hogs - I have a 1800 myself with a 350w PSU

Cooling - dont forget about cooling

TTFN

[ 11-25-2001: Message edited by: Gallion ]

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Oh, on the matter of cooling... I wasn't really sure what fan to get. I was thinking about this one: http://www.tcwo.com/cgi-bin/webc.cgi/st_pr...1gi2Ty0HOCiiA7f

Edit: This is just the CPU fan, obviously I'm going to get other fans for the rest of the comp...

It says it supports up to 1700+ on that page, but if you go to one of the Athlon CPU pages (specifically the 1800+ and up pages..) it says that that fan is recommended. How in the world does that work?? Well, it shouldn't matter too much, since I'll probably get the 1700+ (I dunno, though... That 1800+ is mighty tempting. )

Sidenote: Check out the spiffy new thing at the bottom that lets you scroll through the page! That must be brand new, and I like, I like.

Edit #2: (*sigh* I should really think these messages through a bit more 'fore I post 'em... Oh, well.) On the bottom of the posting page, that is, not the regular thread page.

[ 11-25-2001: Message edited by: Ancharon ]

[ 11-25-2001: Message edited by: Ancharon ]

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A fan/heatsink combo is a requirement for any of the CPUs available today, especially AMD CPUs.

The cooler o nthe link looks ok. Make sure that you get a NON-conductive shim. And be very careful installing that puppy. AMD CPUs are notoriously fragile criters

TTFN

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Gallion: Yeah, I know, that's why I'm having a friend who builds computers for a living help install the fan for me.

SC: Sound isn't that big of a deal for me. If I do get the 5 piece speaker set (not sure yet) then I'll probably get a decent sound card, but if I don't and just go with some generibrand speakers the integrated one is good enough for me.

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My mistake. It doesn't matter, anyway. I've made up my mind to get at least a 3, most likely 5 piece speaker system, and 'cause of that I'll be getting a sound card to go with it. If it doesn't work, I return the card and get a different one until it does.

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I just found out why my video hasn't gotten here yet: they ran out of stock for that card. However, they offered a GeForce 2 Ti with TV out for only $15 more, so I'm getting one of those now.

Not too much of an increase, to be sure, but it's still one step better than the G2 Pro. Besides, a G2 Ti for $115 (shipping included in that price) isn't bad.

[ 11-27-2001: Message edited by: Ancharon ]

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EEEK NO dont' get the ti... it's just an MX400, i.e. gf2mx NOOO

You can find a gf3 ti200 anywhere for 160... but don't get the gf2ti... don't do it

Also, that's not a very good heatsink fan... go to HardOCP and read up on there latest HSF round up.

That'll give you some good perspective.

Also, the best place I've found to buy HSF's is Plycon. They've got fair prices and know what they're doing in the cooling arena

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quote:

Originally posted by Akira:

You are correct... the ti is a nudge faster than the gf2-pro... however, that doesn't change my argument in the slightest. Get the gf3-ti200, you'll be better off

Not to mention that with some replacement cooling on the card you can get it running close to (if not above) the normal core/memory frequency of a non-titanium GeForce3. I just helped a friend of mine install a new heatsink/fan and some ramsinks on his GF3 ti200 and overclock it to 195mhz core. It runs almost as fast as my regular GeForce3 did stock. Anyway, if you get the extra cash I'd also recommend the Radeon 8500. I bought one a few weeks ago and it's a great card.

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Akira: Yeah, I know. I'd like to have a G3Ti, but it's a bit late now. The card's already shipped, and I haven't got the money not the time to return it and buy a newer card now. Oh, well. I'll wait 'til the GeForce4 is out and get one of those.

Also, thanks for the fan info link. The CPU fan has probably been one of the biggest worries I've had while putting this thing together... Not too much experience in that matter, at least with AMD fans.

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My computer's been down for almost a year. If not for my laziness, I could easily have replaced the outdated hunk of metal by now. It's a great computer, but the CPU overheated, the RAM overloaded and crashed, and the motherboard was FRIED all in the same second. I might be able to save the hard drive, but I could upgrade my computer to a 1.7 Ghz BEAST with a new motherboard for just 200$. Haven't you guys ever heard of pricewatch?

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Argh. So many choices. Does anyone have any suggestions on which fan to get to support an Athlon XP 1800+ (yeah, I decided to go with it)? I've found everything but that, now. There are tons and tons of choices, but a lot of the little blurbs about the fans don't say what speed they safely support up to...

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quote:

Originally posted by Ancharon:

Argh. So many choices. Does anyone have any suggestions on which fan to get to support an Athlon XP 1800+ (yeah, I decided to go with it)? I've found everything but that, now. There are tons and tons of choices, but a lot of the little blurbs about the fans don't say what speed they safely support up to...

If I were you I'd stick with a 3DCool fan. They're a little pricey, but they will definitely drastically improve the performancwe of your CPU. They're at 3DCool.com i think

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Remember something - the heat sink you choose and how it contacts the cpu is just as important as the fan. Probably more so. I'd recommend picking up some Arctic Silver II Thermal Epoxy (any cooling site should sell it and I've seen it at CompUSA and Circuit City). It'll help the heat sink contact the cpu and result in better heat transfer (ie, better cooling). The thermal goop alone made about a 3 C difference over the thermal pad I was using.

You have lots of heat sink choices. Right now I'm using a MCX370 heat sink along with a Delta 50CFM fan. The combination keeps my cpu pretty cool even when overclocked almost 200mhz over its stock setting. Still, I wouldn't recommend the fan unless you have an insane tolerance for noise. It's no exaggeration when I say my computer sounds a lot like a train when I turn it on .

Good luck, and enjoy the new computer.

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Whoo! I spent $894.92 last night, and I'm feelin' fine. My DDR RAM (all 512MB of it... I decided to upgrade a bit. ) just came today (gotta love free 2-day shipping ) and my video card should be here on Monday or so. The rest of the stuff late next week or early the week after.

I decided to just go with the Taisol CGK742092. Not the best, perhaps, but AMD recommends it up to 1900+ and the price is nice. If it doesn't work out too well (i.e., if my comp continually suffers from heat problems), I'll just get a better one.

Thanks for all the help and support, guys. Putting these things together can be a hassle sometimes, especially with so much new stuff on the market (trying to learn all the improvements in computers since '98 [what my current computer is] can be rather overwhelming...).

[ 11-30-2001: Message edited by: Ancharon ]

[ 11-30-2001: Message edited by: Ancharon ]

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