The Beast

[Snarfleez]

First, much appreciation goes to iisbob for helping me out with this project.

I think I've done enough research, and have sufficient knowlege to begin ordering parts for my first DIY PC. In fact, I was about to make some phone calls and begin ordering parts this morning, when I did something horrible. I added up the prices, and looked at the total cost. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/eek.gif Needless to say, I'll be streamling the project, and getting the necessities now, and adding on the fun bits later.

Anyway, I wanted to let you all know the components I ended up going with. I'm hoping that, many of you being far more tech-savvy than myself, you might be able to point out the land mines to me and let me know if I've got any compatability issues, or just horribly bad choices on the list.

And so, without further fondue, I give you "The Beast"!


Case: Skyhawk Aluminum Silver Mid Tower
Power: Sparkle FSP400 60GN (400w)
Mobo: ABIT KR7A-RAID
CPU: AMD athlon XP 1900+
RAM: 512MB PCI 2100 DDR
Video: Hercules Prophet III Ti 200
Sound: Soundblaster Audigy


That's the basics, anyway... so whaddya think? Are these safe choices?

[welshboy]

sounds pretty good to me.....

HOWEVER
you might want to check what make the USB controller is....

I've got an Abit KT7A with a VIA USB controller and I am having a nightmare of a time trying to get USB devices to work comfortably under Win98.

If your gonna put XP on it you should be OK but you might want to check out this website to be sure www.usbman.com (http://www.usbman.com)

I found it quite handy and thought I had the problem licked until i tried to run a patch for Win98SE, which I thought I had, but it told me it was not for my version of windows!! oh well back to the drawing board as they say!

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I Love Heavy Music

[iisbob]

Thank you very much for the compliment Snarfleez. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif


The only suggestion's i would make are; lose the sound blaster audigy-Turtle beachs' Santa Cruz is a much better sound card, less expensive-and won't give you neart as many headaches with IRQ's/resource conflicts. Do you really need a a RAID system? You can pretty much do any storage/usage imaginable with standard modern EIDE controllers-and with single EIDE drives up in the 100> GB's range, a couple of them i believe would more than suffice for anybodies needs, lessening the cost of your main component-the motherboard.

Other than that, can't think of anything else you need.

Oh,...broadband access. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif



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iisbob

Computer-Show me the Enterprise; no bloody A, no bloody B, and no bloody C-just the original...Mr Scott { from a STNG episode }

[Snarfleez]

Hey, thanks again you guys.

I will indeed be running Win98SE, so I'll have to check out that USB site you mentioned, welshboy.

Good point, iisbob. I really don't need RAID, so I'll have to check into that, and see if it doesn't drop my price a bit. I'll check into the Santa Cruz as well. Thanks for the tips.

- Snarfleez.

[Snarfleez]

Sorry about the double post guys... apparently there's a time limit on editing. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/rolleyes.gif

I've done a bit of research, and found that the GeForce4 Ti4200 64MB far outperforms the GeForce3 Ti 200 I had originally planned to buy, and for a slight increase in price. However, the only Ge4 I've found at this more-than-reasonable price is made by Prolink, a company I know nothing about. Does anyone have some insight here? I'm seriously considering buying this card, but are all GeForces truly created equal?
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- Snarfleez.