New Gaming Box

[TX-Rahman]

Ok peeps....  I finally decided to up my speed here and started building a new box last night.  I had to make some hard decisions regarding processors, etc...  I don't have a ton of cash to drop on this but need bang for the buck.  Before I tell you all what I bought so far, gimme your thoughts on Intel vs. AMD in the bang for buck and performance area.  I will have the funky alien looking green antec case with the cold cathode and blue led fans.  Wanted some funk in the house...heh  Keep in mind this is a gaming box....

Thanks in advance for suggestions (Not that I will use them but hey...I wanna know what you guys think!!!!)  (jUST KIDDING)


Regards,
TX-Rahman
"BLUE 3"

[TX-Zen]

I think BlackKnight is all over the Abit mobo's...he can probably hook you up on a good deal with one, bet he's shopping for a new one right now. I know that's his favorite manufacturer by far, he had a post on here with something about Abit in it. Me, I'm in Intel guy for no particular reason. Just liked the way P4 sounded I guess. I will say that I'm not too impressed with the Soyo mobo I bought...its not really falling apart but it's not as reliable as I would like it to be, although since I got the new video card the machine has stopped crashing ten times a day. Just a bunch of little problems...first the onboard sound wouldn't work, then it would, onboard network card same way, on and off for a while...read on the forums that the IDE raid controller is dangerous to your data so I disabled that as well. It's running pretty well now, but I thought I ended up working on it more just to get it stable than I ought to have, rather than spending that time tweaking it instead. BlootTX-Zen"Black 6"TX Squadron CO

[Seeker]

Just from purusing the forums, I've gleaned that at the very highest end, you cannot beat a P4 2.8 Northwood w/533Mhz FSB. The new AMD chips won't be out until early next year and the current ones, though fast and good, are limited by the slower FSB speeds and bench slightly lower than comparable P4s. Add in the price factor though, I would say that the difference in performance is not enough to justify the extra cost of the P4. So, I would go with an AMD XP2200+. My next choice would be a 2.53Mhz P4 w/533Mhz FSB.For an AMD mobo, I like the ASUS A7V8X because of the fast RAM and 8xAGP support (VIA KT400 chipset). Although some people say it's not as stable as the KT333. For intel, I'd go with the SOYO Dragon Ultra SY-P4X400.Add in a gig of Crucial DDR PC2700/3200 RAM and you've got yourself a gaming monster.Man, now I'm getting antsy--I want one too!! How much have you spent so far? I may have to bust out the credit card pretty soon. (I can't pay off the debt I've already got, what's a little more, right?)

[TX-Cage]

Well.  I can only say what I have decided to go with.  Of course I still have some time think about it. I am buying slowly, and changing LEDs and backlights to the new and will be new (buying piece by piece) cdrw, 3.5 floppy, case power LED, digital doc 5, hdd load LED and lighted fans (in the front) to fit my color scheme.  I am taking my time on this and sleeving and heatshrinking all wires, to stall me on time and make her look purty.  :)I am going to hold off on the final MOBO and CPU until the last minute.  I am going to wait it out for the AMD Athlon XP 2800 and at this point a MSI KT4 MOBO.Oh, and I have also decided to water cool.  Mostly for looks and just to do it.I am planning out 2 other systems as well.  A dual processor server (looking into refridge cooling, but not sure).  And an exact of my current project but with different color scheme for the wife.  When the hammer hits, she will get the 2800 and MOBO.I went with the Lian Li pc65 for the midtowers.  I am Looking at the Lian Li pc75 for the server.As for the choices on cooling, no logic behind them.  Just want to see if I can do it.S~TX-CageBlack 5

[TX-BlackKnight]

1. The 333 chipset is actually faster and more stable than the 400. Who'd a thunk it?2. 8X video cards are a waste. You increase the bandwidth but memory wont handle it. Another trick they are trying is to lower the actual clock and then times it by 8. The same as if they left the clock alone and times it by 4. Another gimmic.3. I have two soyo dragon lite boards KY-333 ( mine and my daughters ) and have no problems with them. The Ultra I did have problems with. But the more they add on to a motherboard, that is what happens. Like those stereo setups with everything in one. I prefer my sound cards and Ethernet adapters seperate. Nice to be able to remove items seperate to troubleshoot.4. Unless you are over clocking like a mofo OR running a 24/7 server water cooling is a waste of money. I just picked up my "Zen" cooler for 100 bucks. My processor runs at 32C, my MB runs at 32C. My best friends water cooled setup runs at 36C. He spent almost 400 bucks. That 300 bucks I saved will buy a lot of beer.5. I have 1GB PC2700 Corsair CL2 memory. My games and everything else run faster with only 512 MB in it. Windows only addresses 256MB BTW.6. P4 costs anywhere from 2 to 4 times as much as an Athlon XP. I'm sure that there are some out there that feel the extra 200-300 bucks for the 7 nanosecond increase in how fast your programs opens is money well spent.7. Best money spent is on a good ALUMINUM case and plenty of case fans. I have 5. 2 input, 2 exhaust, and one blowing down across the video card heatsinks. Plus each HD has its own fan.8. A MIN of a 400W p/s is needed. 300 too small. 350 pushing it. 5 and 12 Volts are really put to a drain.9. Throw out the ribbon cables that come with the motherboards and the drives and get rounded cables. Better airflow. Better cooling.10. WHATEVER MB you choose, make sure it has a decent BIOS. One that has a lot of things you can tweek manually. Those turn it on and forget it bios's are a joke.11. RAID. More problems than it's worth. You can have two hard drives and set up windows to backup when ever you want. Automatically. Do I really need a backup of my downloaded porno ?12. Make sure your case is open for ventilation. By that I mean, don't shove it down in one of those cute roll around computer stands with the built in cubby for it. Let it have good ventilation. Computer hutches with the door that your case hides behind is a bad thing. All those fans are going to do then is push the nice hot air that builds up around the case back in and around again. Kinda like putting an ice pack on your leg and then covering it with an electric blanket.My 3 cents ( due to inflation )TX-BlackKnightBlack 2

[TX-Rahman]

OK guys....this is where I stand so far...The pics I'm providing here are stock pics and I will post completed pics as soon as all the parts arrive and are assembled.Case:  I decided to go with a case with a window and do the whole trick my PC out thing.  I went with the Antec looking case....funky green, kinda alien looking case.  I've always had standard looking gear and I think it's time for a change.Keyboard & Mouse:  Same here, same old bland, blah blah....going funky this time. Motherboard: After looking through all the options I decided on the Gigabyte 7VAXP motherboard.  I read Anandtech's website and the reviews on that board and others and this one seems to be out perfoming the other similar boards on the market.  Check the Anandtech review out here.Processor: I decided on the AMD 2200+ XP proc.  I wanted something faster but the 2400 and 2600s are not out yet.  I'll upgrade later to a faster proc when price and availability warrent it...  I wanted an affordable gaming box, something that would not cost me $1700 like a friend here just spent on a P4 2.8 system.Memory: I went with a 512 mb stick of the DDR333 ram.  The DDR400's perfomance is not very significant for the increase in cash that they're asking.  I may add another stick depending on system performance once the box is up and running.Sound: Why do all boards come with onboard sound now days?  Hardware that they've added that I'm paying for and do not need.  I'm pulling my Audigy MP3+ card in the system from my current 1ghz Athlon system.Video: Here I also have an existing card from my old system.  I have an Xtasy GEForce4 Ti4400 128MB that I will drop in the new system.  The old 1Ghz will get an old Geforce2Mx that Zen donated to me way back when I was down on my luck.HardDrive: I decided to go with the Western Digital 80gb drive with the 8MB buffer (even though I don't particularly care for WD). CDrom/CDR: Dropping in an old 16x TDK burner for now.  Possibly a purdy new blackface burner or DVDR sooner or later?!?Misc:  Other stuff I will have in this case:  2 blue cold cathodes, quad led blue fans (4 leds per fan) which 2 will be located in the front of the case to shine through the grill on the front and possibly one on the cpu.  I also ordered blue anodized thumbscrews to make things look a bit better.  Ummm what else?  A black faced floppy drive.  Clear rounded floppy and IDE cables. Ummm....that's all I can think of immediately.COST:  So far I have around $850 tied up in this.  I only wanted to spend $400 or less but could not justify buying crap as my framerates will suffer.  I could have gotten cheaper or equal prices off of pricewatch but just ended up doing it all locally with the exception of the LED fans and some accessories.Send me your thoughts on my decisions....  I usually do homework before I make any purchases which I kinda did this time, but just not as much as I usually do.Regards,TX-Rahman"BLUE 3"

[Seeker]

TX-DreggsWhite 3

[TX-Cage]

Just a quicky from memory.  I was on pricewatch.com couple days ago and they have listings for the XP 2400.  Just thought you'd might want to check into it, since you said you might want to get one.  I didn't read up on it.Its sounding sweet to me....look forward to seein' the final.S~TX-CageBlack 5

[TX-Zen]

Black 5 !?!?!?! He lives !?!?!?!?!TX-Zen"Black 6"TX Squadron CO

[TX-Cage]

HeHe.Finally got things squared away at work.  Should be back on a regular basis now.  Of course spending a little time on my own rig as well ;)S~TX-CageBlack 5