new system

[jmycal]

Thanks for the info on the ga-7dxr mobo. what do you guys think of this system i am going to put together?
giga-byte ga-7dxr mobo with on board raid - $180

1 gig amd 86x processer w/266 bus- $130

2 wd 40 gig caviar 7200 hard drives- $130 x2, $260

3 256 ddr micron pc 2100 ram sticks - $78 x 3, $234
1 cd rom x48- existing
1 hp cdr- existing
1 mid tower w/ 300 power supply



le roi est mort vive le roi

 

[mpjesse]

What OS are you using? WinME freaks out if there's over 512megs of RAM- so does Win98.

-MP Jesse

"Signatures Still Suck"

 

[jmycal]

i guess that is a good ? i was thinking windows 98se

le roi est mort vive le roi

 

[mpjesse]

You'll have to do some modifications then. Windows has problems with systems over 512megs- but there is a work around. Expect error messages until you fix it. The fix is on M$'s website- i think the fix is to disable virtual memory or something. Check out technet.

-MP Jesse

"Signatures Still Suck"

 

[Guest]

I would strongly recommend against the WD hard drives, always have had bad experience and they are rated the slowest drives, if you can go with an IBM newegg has the 40GB deskstar at 126 a piece.

 

[mpjesse]

Ensure you reply to the original poster of the thread- not me. That way the person your trying to tell about the WD drive will get the message and not me =) Just a little advice.

-MP Jesse

"Signatures Still Suck"

 

[Toejam31]

No, that is a "bad". You don't need more than 256MB for Win9x. Anything else is really a waste of cash. If you want to install that much memory, use an operating system like Windows 2000 Pro which CAN use that much memory.

I also agree ... Western Digital hard drives are junk, for the most part. Stick to IBM.

Toejam31

<font color=purple>If there was a reason for everything, having faith would be redundant.</font color=purple>

 

[Guest]

go w/ the IBM deskstars...

Old addage: "Users never prosper" ) Long live the tweakers

 

[btvillarin]

If you play a lot of games, perhaps if you have both Win98 and Win2K, create a dual boot system. So when you're working with games and music, use Windows 98. When you're doing serious stuff, that's very important, use Windows 2000.

Plus, I'm using an IBM Deskstar. I think you should get it, since all the reviews rave about it. I'm also pretty satisfied with it's performance.

As for systems with RAM over 512MB, I'm not sure how to tweak Windows 98 to recognize all of it.

<i>OC...unless your computer's cheezy (is that a good rhyme?)</i>

 

[tartarhus]

Western digital drives may be very slow, but they are rock solid. The drives work flawlessly forever. That said, get the ibm drive. Much better performance, strong tolerence for overclocked boards, and they're quiet too. That's too much memory, save your money. Anything over 512 is an overkill for a client pc right now. Disabling virtual memory with 756MB, however, will make your pc fast as hell. But unless your editing pictures with photoshop all day, it's pretty much unnecessary. As an aside, windows 2000 is a horrible gaming OS. Also, the most important part of your setup is missing -- video card. That will deturmine what your setup is capable of. By the way, that giga-byte board should kick ass. They make the best amd chipset platforms, very stable. I have personally setup up a few ga-7dx computers. They run flawlessly. Be sure to ask a lot of questions on installing an OS on these boards. Until windows XP, you will need to setup everything in the right order, and configure your cards correctly, otherwise you will run into stability issues.

-- Chaos is the better order.

 

[SERVO]

Your power supply my not be enough. I would suggest at least a 350w or better still 400w. Problems my arise without enough power!!!!!

 

[jmycal]

thanks guys for the info, i am exchanging my drives for 2 40gig 7200 ibm drives

le roi est mort vive le roi

 

[Guest]

No need to scare people. The latest WD drives are pretty good. In fact, IBM and WD have an agreement to share hard drive technology. And besides, if you look at all the latest 7200 rpm IDE drives, it would be really hard to detect any *noticeable* difference, other than plus or minus a point or two points in a benchmark (which would be well within a margin or error and individual drive variation, anyway). We have reached the point at which all comparable drives are pretty much the same.

For more info on drives, I recommend you check storagereview.com. They have a most excellent database of benchmarks, for easy comparison.

Leo