Hello all you experts out there can you help me by telling me if the following things i have choosen are good for a top notch computer (along the same basis)
AMD Athlon XP 3000
ATI Radeon 9800/GeForce FX 5800
Epox 8RDA+NFOrce 2 Motherboard
80 gig Western Digital JB SPecial edition Hard drive
Terratec sound card
Creative speaker system
Logitech keyboard and mouse
Xaser 3 V2000A Aluminium Series
8RDA+ has SoundStorm features (should be better than Terratec) which I don't see a need for soundcard but if you feel like having one is ok. WD800JB is a good hdd, but you can also consider Seagate SATA. And which Creative speaker system you opting for? Inspire 5700 is a good one, or DTT3500 is not bad also. But when you can get your hand on Athlon XP 3000+, Radeon 9800 would be a better choice.
My PC has gone to hell... because it's a killing machine...
If what you want is top-notch, then I´d suggest Intel over AMD, without even thinking about it. Top-notch now would be a 3.06Ghz P4 w/HT, which outperforms the XP 3000+ and even costs a little less. But then, the i850E-based mobo would probably cost you a little more too. You´d then need 2x256MB RDRAM (PC-1066), which should cost you about the same as high-quality, low-latency DDR. It might be possible that the whole thing would cost you a few dozen dollars more, but it´s well worth it in this case. The XP 3000 is not a good choice right now (just read some reviews) - it´s surprisingly close to the 2800+ in quite a number of tests.
About the video card, the R9800 is the best choice amongst reviewers, but I think it´s not widely available yet. Neither is GeForce FX, but R9700 is excellent and has been available for some time now.
Also, your HD is good, but I don´t know about your sound card. Never heard about terratec. Might be just my ignorance, though, as I´ve only had cards from creative. Anyone help me out here?
yes i think the p4 3.06 would be the better choise it outperforms the 3000+. RDram on the other hand??? its fast but not very future oriented, better take a granite bay mobo with dual channel ddr and some nice ram, and i also think the radeon 9800 is the best choise it outperforms the FX with the radeon 9700 in second place i read a review with a 9700 on 9800 drivers and it performed 5% better so that is the same as the FX and you won't be stuck with a cooler the size of a house on your videocard...
Yes, well, maybe he´s right. Some features of granite bay are not present in i850E (it´s relatively old). Granite bay performs mostly on par with i850E.
Also, you might consider the SiS 655 mobos. They support not only dual-DDR266, but dual-DDR333. I´m not so sure about it, but dual-DDR333 should be faster (haven´t seen any benchmarks... it would run asynchronously...)
Nothing like the sound of canterwood, though... I can´t help but wonder how good it´ll be... 800Mhz, synchronous with dual DDR400, plus PAT...
So are you saying that this sound storm on chip joobie is better than a dedicated sound card....latency issues and such. I own a Terratec 6-fire sound card 24bit/96 heZ in and out bang on with 5 inch breakout box with all me doobries for dig in/out etc..surely they arent making on board mobys that are that quick, dont answer that I,v already bought it, also was it sis655 you said was as quick as 850e rambus using XMS doobries....thats thrown a spanner in the works, please elaberate on this issue if you wish..oh the p4 3.o6 as well mate....just give it a few months..smax1
Soundstorm is as good as or better than pretty much all PCI audio cards with the exception of Audigy 2, and the very newest, highest-end solutions from the other sound-card manufacturers. nVidia learned a lot while making the hardware for XBox, and they put that technology into their nForce chipset. I've heard Soundstorm on 3 different systems, and if I hadn't already bought an Audigy Platinum, I would have been more than happy with the Soundstorm. That's one of the sort-of secret ways that AMD platforms can give good value--you are getting sound that is as good as $100 sound card.
Mastermind: If highest-end graphics and speed are the order, then P4 3.06 ghz is the most powerful processor out there. The overall cost of the system will be a fair amount higher though. I like your choice of graphics card very much, though you will likely have to wait a few weeks to get one.
Let me put it this way: If you built the system exactly as you listed it, you will have a very powerful, very fun system, but you may be spending a little more than you ought to.
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<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Twitch on 03/08/03 05:25 PM.</EM></FONT></P>
Actually the currently available 655 boards support dual-DDR400. The setting was included on the chipset but SiS never made it "official". Board manufacturers have still gone to the extra lengths of making their boards stable with it. And BTW, that's 6400MB/s.
<font color=blue>Watts mean squat if you don't have quality!</font color=blue>
Unless you absolutely have a use for the fastest and most expensive processors out, I would suggest backing down a notch and saving a few hundred dollars.
The GeForceFX is a lemon, so buy a Radeon 9800.
If you have a broadband connection, 80GB will not be enough. If you are on dialup you are fine. The JB's are great.
I have no idea what sound card you mentioned, but something like the A7N8X has excellent onboard sound.
For cases, get whatever rocks your boat. Try to find something with lots of space and no sharp corners/edges. I like Antec cases.
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<A HREF="http://kevan.org/brain.cgi?dhlucke" target="_new">The French are being described as cheese-eating surrender monkeys.</A></font color=red>
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