Hi guys, I need some opinions from you people. I'm putting together a new computer on the cheap, $500 or so, I'm willing to go a little bit above it if it's really really worth it. Please consider that right now I'm using a pIII450, tnt 16mb, 96 ram, 98se; so pretty much any upgrade would be a great upgrade for me.
My main concerns:
CPU/Motherboard/Hard drive:
2500 barton or 1700 tbred for cpu.
Right now I'll buy one single 80-120 gb HD but later on I'd like to add a second one and reconfigure the system with RAID0. Am I set on RAID0? yes, certainly. Where I work we have lots of hardware and I've conducted several real world tests and RAID0 is something I really want. Now, I'd like a motherboard that already has a RAID controller. I've narrowed it down to 2 options:
1-Epox Motherboard for AMD Processors 8RDA3+ Retail $90 at newegg. The plus is that I hear it's a good mobo and it overclocks fine, even though I'm not looking for any particularly crazy OC, a 200mhz fsb for a 166 cpu is fine with me (according to what I've read at newegg this is very feasible, specially with rev.2 mobos). I also like the round ide cables and included SATA power connectors. The downside is I'm forced to sata hd for the RAID later on. I'd like to get a WD hd, but the cheapest one is at ~$150 for 120gb. So that leaves me with seagate at ~80+ for 80gb. Personally I've never had a bad experience with seagate but these barracudas don't seem to be that fast, rather slow actually.
2-Gigabyte Motherboard for AMD Processors MODEL GA-7N400PRO2 - RETAIL $113 newegg.
It looks like a good mobo but the only real reason I'd like to use it is that it has an IDE RAID function, nice pluses are: 1000ethernet, dual bios chip. However I'm not sure how good it is, and I wonder if I'm better off getting a regular mobo (A7N8X-X @$73) with no RAID at all and buying a cheap RAID ctrler later on. However, the cheapest one I find is HighPoint RAID Controller Card RocketRAID100 Retail $44, so I don't know. What do you think?
What do you know of this A7N8X-X mobo, is it as good as the deluxe minus the extras? Will it OC to 200mhz FSB?
EDIT: I just found the AbitNF7-M, with integrated video, what you guys think of it? /EDIT
Memory
I think I'll get 2x256 chips, kingston probably. I also thought of getting 1x512 and adding a second one later on, however I might have problems finding the exact same RAM. I'm guessing I'll need PC3200 for OCing a little bit, or do you think 2700 will do 200mhz?
Video
Anything is way better than my tnt. Actually, if I could find a good mobo with gforce4mx, I'd go for it, what do you think of the A7N8X-VM? @$98? something steers me away from microATX mobos though. Later on I could get a better card. But it looks like there aren't many choices there, so I was considering a 9100 or a ti4200. I even started pondering a 9600pro, but it depends on the final outcome of the rest of the parts. I'm open to suggestions.
Sound
Whatever comes in mobo is fine
OPtical
I'd like at least a 2x dvd-r drive. I'm thinking of getting the NEC 1300 for $107. Do you think it's worth it to get the Pioneer 106 at $131?
I already have a 19" trinitron and my altec340s will have to do for a while longer. BTW, I'm not in the States, so I'll buy the case here. Also I probably won't buy from Newegg, for some reason they won't ship anything to the mailboxes address I have in Miami, so I have to try a diff. vendor, any suggestions?
Thanks a lot in advance,
<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by xlodo on 11/17/03 07:57 AM.</EM></FONT></P>
My main concerns:
CPU/Motherboard/Hard drive:
2500 barton or 1700 tbred for cpu.
Right now I'll buy one single 80-120 gb HD but later on I'd like to add a second one and reconfigure the system with RAID0. Am I set on RAID0? yes, certainly. Where I work we have lots of hardware and I've conducted several real world tests and RAID0 is something I really want. Now, I'd like a motherboard that already has a RAID controller. I've narrowed it down to 2 options:
1-Epox Motherboard for AMD Processors 8RDA3+ Retail $90 at newegg. The plus is that I hear it's a good mobo and it overclocks fine, even though I'm not looking for any particularly crazy OC, a 200mhz fsb for a 166 cpu is fine with me (according to what I've read at newegg this is very feasible, specially with rev.2 mobos). I also like the round ide cables and included SATA power connectors. The downside is I'm forced to sata hd for the RAID later on. I'd like to get a WD hd, but the cheapest one is at ~$150 for 120gb. So that leaves me with seagate at ~80+ for 80gb. Personally I've never had a bad experience with seagate but these barracudas don't seem to be that fast, rather slow actually.
2-Gigabyte Motherboard for AMD Processors MODEL GA-7N400PRO2 - RETAIL $113 newegg.
It looks like a good mobo but the only real reason I'd like to use it is that it has an IDE RAID function, nice pluses are: 1000ethernet, dual bios chip. However I'm not sure how good it is, and I wonder if I'm better off getting a regular mobo (A7N8X-X @$73) with no RAID at all and buying a cheap RAID ctrler later on. However, the cheapest one I find is HighPoint RAID Controller Card RocketRAID100 Retail $44, so I don't know. What do you think?
What do you know of this A7N8X-X mobo, is it as good as the deluxe minus the extras? Will it OC to 200mhz FSB?
EDIT: I just found the AbitNF7-M, with integrated video, what you guys think of it? /EDIT
Memory
I think I'll get 2x256 chips, kingston probably. I also thought of getting 1x512 and adding a second one later on, however I might have problems finding the exact same RAM. I'm guessing I'll need PC3200 for OCing a little bit, or do you think 2700 will do 200mhz?
Video
Anything is way better than my tnt. Actually, if I could find a good mobo with gforce4mx, I'd go for it, what do you think of the A7N8X-VM? @$98? something steers me away from microATX mobos though. Later on I could get a better card. But it looks like there aren't many choices there, so I was considering a 9100 or a ti4200. I even started pondering a 9600pro, but it depends on the final outcome of the rest of the parts. I'm open to suggestions.
Sound
Whatever comes in mobo is fine
OPtical
I'd like at least a 2x dvd-r drive. I'm thinking of getting the NEC 1300 for $107. Do you think it's worth it to get the Pioneer 106 at $131?
I already have a 19" trinitron and my altec340s will have to do for a while longer. BTW, I'm not in the States, so I'll buy the case here. Also I probably won't buy from Newegg, for some reason they won't ship anything to the mailboxes address I have in Miami, so I have to try a diff. vendor, any suggestions?
Thanks a lot in advance,
<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by xlodo on 11/17/03 07:57 AM.</EM></FONT></P>