Computer
 

Just wondering if this is a good computer:

AMD Athlon 1800XP 1.53GHz 266-FSB Retail w/Fan
CMSpc PRO-IV Mid-Tower ATX Case w/400w USB
LG Goldstar 16x DVD-ROM IDE
Panasonic 1.44MB 3.5" Floppy Drive
Maxtor DiamondMax+ 40 GB IDE 7200rpm ATA133
ECS K7S5A SIS AMD 5xPCI 2xDDR 2xSD ATX w/Audio & LAN
Microsoft Windows 98 SE OEM CD/Manual w/System
AzenRAM 256MB PC2100/266 DDR (Lifetime Warranty)
Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live! 5.1 PCI
ATi All-In-Wonder Radeon 8500 128MB DDR AGP4x
System Assembly & Warranty (1 Year Parts & 1 Year Labour)

Yes that is a good computer.

Things I would change though:
If you have that good of a computer, why not use the latest os? Get Windows XP instead of 98

Around here, the general opinion of Sound Blaster cards is bad. You might want to think about upgrading that.

I would go for a Geforce 3 Ti something instead of an ATI Radeon. Nvidia is much better for drivers than ATI, so the benchmarks are generally higher.

that'd be good with win2k instead of 98 and no sound blaster card

you dont need the soundblaster card if your mobo has onboard audio....

also i also would recommend going with winxp instead of win98..and my one last sudgestion would be to buy a different cpu fan, those boxed cpu fans that come with the chips are shit fans....i would recommend a thermaltake volcanoe 7, its quiet, its cheap and it cools good....

Get XP, then get more RAM. XP needs at least 384 and preferably 512MB to run nicely.

(definition of running nicely: As I write this, I'm encoding a DVD to DivX, on the forums, playing mp3s in Winamp, and Outlook is in the background checking email. CPU has been at 100% for the last 3 hours and will be long after I'm asleep. XP is great.)

edit: ditch the bloody Soundblaster and get a real soundcard instead :)

Ya, since 98 probably wont support DDR ram, and if so, it will cap it at 64MB - 128MB.

What kind of sound card do you recommend?

Dich 98 upgrade to 95 or better sill 3.1:D
I dont personaly rate XP but most people like it, so ,wait for it, I will for the first and hopefuly the last time say use that.(kill me!!)

oh and lose the mound plaster. :D

No need to keep bulky Outlook open just to check your mail server. Use Popcorn, or ePrompter if you are using web-based mail.

:confused:

I have ddr and used to run 98.....It does have a cache bug if you run over 512mb, but running more than 512 on a 98 box is silly.....

The specs sound ok, I'd use an asus, msi or epox mb tho, and 512mb of ddr would be preferable. And i'd be more inclined to go with a geforce3 ti500 or a geforce4 mx440 if the budgets a little tight. I'd get the sblive too, onboard sound sux most of the time.....

How much does that prospective system in the first post cost?

done bother gettin a soundcard.....your motherboard has onboard sound and it has GOOD onboard sound, not as good as a stand alone pci card but its still good... if i were you i wouldnt bother, unless your can pick out the slightest difference in audio..i dunno...the onboard sound is good on those motherboards...

Well I changed the system, here it is:

AMD Athlon 1800XP 1.53GHz 266-FSB Retail w/Fan
CMSpc PRO-IV Mid-Tower ATX Case w/400w USB
LG Goldstar 16x DVD-ROM IDE
Panasonic 1.44MB 3.5" Floppy Drive
Maxtor DiamondMax+ 40 GB IDE 7200rpm ATA133
ECS K7S5A SIS AMD 5xPCI 2xDDR 2xSD ATX w/Audio & LAN
Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition OEM
AzenRAM 512MB PC2100/266 DDR
Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live! 5.1 PCI
ATi All-In-Wonder Radeon 8500 128MB DDR AGP4x
System Assembly & Warranty (1 Year Parts & 1 Year Labour)

$1595.95 CANADIAN DOLLAR

Anyone?

You havent specified whether or not you'll be getting a cd burner, if you are then dump the floppy drive, theyre next to useless nowdays....You can make boot cd's nowdays.

Keep the floppy. When something messes up and you can't create a boot CD, you'll be very glad you did.

Don't use the SB card, but don't go with the onboard sound, either. I'd recommend trying a Turtle Beach Santa Cruise. I've heard nothing but good things about them, and I've heard too many complaints about Creative. (My soundcard from Creative is absolute crap.)

I've heard bad things about LG Electronics drives. (One of my friends has an LG drive, and it's got problems. The company hasn't provided a firmware fix, either.) I'd recommend getting an Acer, or AOPEN, or Pioneer, or Plextor, etc. All those are good brands.

P.S. I've never actually used a Turtle Beach card. I've just heard really god things. I plan to buy one sometime.

Almost a good computer. Here is the computer I am currently building for myself:

Case - $55 0107 Lavita Mid-Tower ATX
Motherboard - $140 ASUS A7V266E VIA KT266A DDR W/ RAID
Processor - $290 Athlon XP 2100+
Memory - $150 3D Memory - DDR 512MB
Storage - $20 3.5" Floppy(any one that will work correctly)
Storage - $100 Yamaha CRW2200EZ 20x/10x/40x EIDE
Hard Drive - $190 IBM Deskstar 120GXP 120GB DMA/ATA-100 (Ultra) EIDE
Network Card- $15 10/100
Video Card - $115 PNY Verto GeForce3 Ti 200
Sound Card - $80 Santa Cruz 6-Speaker PCI Sound CardP
Keyboard - $50 Microsoft FPP Natural Keyboard Pro
Mouse - $50 Logitech iFeel Mouseman
Speakers - $105 Altec Lansing ACS 56 - 3D Sound - 70 Watts
Monitor - $175 Elements 19"
Printer - $100 Printer/Fax
OS - $100 Windows XP Home

Total - About $1735 US

Keep the floppy there a useful (if outdated) device to have

I myself have a LG its a bit slow but other than that it works a treat.

i have an lg drive and i have no problems with it...definatly stay away from creative drives though.....

also about your soundcard..definatly drope the SB sound card...but i wouldnt necessarly go out and buy another soundcard...the onboard sound on the mobo is just fine for an average user...if your going to be doing recording or hooking up instruments than that is a different story, but its up to you....whther or not you want to spend another 50-100 bucks on a soundcard when you really probably dont need one....

ack!!! $20 for a floppy drive! I'm staring at the price tag on mine(it's still in the computer, but I have a pair of front panels out to provide better airflow) and the price tag is $6, and I bought it a year ago. tell me that the prices did not go up.

I also have an LG drive, and have had no trouble with it, even when I upgraded to XP

i could take 20 floppy drives from my school and i dont think they would care, or notice!

You can buy a floppy online for about $3. It'll cost about $20 in most stores, though.

I'd definitely not use onboard sound. Onboard sound is always crap (unless, perhaps, if you have an nforce chipset, but you don't.)

I would choos a Slower Pentium above the AMD. AMD is cheap, good, fast and verry, verry HOT. So you need a good cooler to keep it running. And the problem with coolers is that the make Noise.

but thats only my 2 cents.

Pft.

You don't need a huge heatsink and fan to cool an Athlon. Any decent heatsink and fan will cool an Athlon just fine.

Go to Cooler Master and look at their HS/fan combos. They have plenty of different ones that will suffice.

the problem with the coolers is the noise they make.

I've got a T-bird at home and If I knew it whould be this noisy.....
...I still would have bought it.

Make sure to find a relative silent cooler.

Hercules Game Theater XP, or the slightly cheaper Hercules Muse XL (both: by Guillemot)

More info/cards here:
http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?threadid=57617

eg. Philips Acoustic Edge, Terratec DMX Xfire 1024, TB Santa Cruz (US) / Videologic Sonic Fury (Europe), etc.

btw, are you sure 40Gb HD is big enough?
It might seem a lot now, but a few 1000 MP3's and videos later you'd be wishing you got something bigger ;)

You've just got a crappy fan. You could just buy a better one. :)

I'm sitting in a room full of Athlon PCs (I'd guess at least 50), and the air conditioner is making a lot more noise than all of them put together.

Edit: I didn't see the HD size. Get a 100gig, unless you plan on upgrading in a year.

windows xp cuts the lag/ping time down to 1/2 the win 2000/98 ping. Becides that, you have a great box.








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