Building a computer

I'm thinking of building one this time. I will be playing games and running 3D Studio MAX on it. Will it work? Any conflicts? Any ideas?

AMD System

Abit motherboard $150
AMD Processor 1.2 Ghz $220
Kingston Technology Memory 512MB PC133 SDRAM $290
Segate Cheetah 10,000rpm SCSI Hard Drive 18.00 GB $260
HP 32x8x4 CD-RW Drive $150
GeForce 3 64Mb Graphics Card $500(approx.)
Sound Card $75
Sony Floppy Drive $15
Mis. cable's and parts $150
Case $150

Total: $1960


Intel Sytem Same components but the motherboard, Ram and, Processor

Intel Motherboard $190
Intel Processor P4 1.3 Ghz $310
Samsung RDRAM 256MB $350

Total: $2150

Make sure you have enough juice to feed everyone. But for a $150 case I guess it is sufficient...

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This site is cool.

don't go with the p4 it isn't worth buying right know becuase it gets beat up and down thee street. the nextgenartion should be better thoe but you prob. want a system sooner then september

Make sure the M/B comes with onboard scsi adapter, if it doesn't then u will need to get one! I agree with arrow about the extra CDROM it won't cost you much and it will make life alot more easy you could even go DVDROM. Also if you r going to go the scsi route make sure the CD + CDRW are SCSI with the CDRW incorporating BurnProof or Just Link technology as this will lower the chances of buffer underruns.
Unless u going to be really thrashing the machine i would just go for an IDE HD you'll save cash that could be spent on the CD/DVDROM.

(wipes drool from lip...)

Nice system... However, I would change a little for bang for buck reasons...

Consider going with ddr, it is worth the money and not only gives you the performance, but it is cutting edge and will keep you going longer. The only drawback to the Asus a7m266 (what I have) is it only has 2 ram slots and I would also recommend getting 2 256mc pc2100 ddr dimms as opposed to the single 512mb stick for price reasons (and availability for ddr, 256 is the biggest I've seen so far), $100 each, and you will have more tweaking options as well (interleaving etc.). Even with the pc133, 2 256mb sticks is the way to go. Also make sure your Athlon is the C class chip too, those are the ones that run at 133/266 and pc133 or pc2100 will be a waste of money otherwise unless you plan to overclock.

Hp burners are awesome. At that price, you can't go wrong. I have a 10x4x32 and it has never wasted one disk. If you can get burnproof, get it. It doesn't lessen the chance of buffer under-run, it nullifies it from what I've heard. They can stop burning, and resume without crashing the disk. Also, I'm a little confused with the comment about access times with a cdrw, the 32x read from my HP actually rips audio and transfers data at over twice the rate of my regular 40x cdrom. What's the point of a faster access time (if it is) if the transfer rate is slower?

Cheetah makes an awesome drive, no doubt about it, but I'd probably go with a raid solution and two ata100 7200rpm drives. You could probably get 40 gigs for the same price, and roughly the same transfer rate if you stripe them. From what I've heard about the noise level with the Cheetah's, it'd be a lot quieter with the raid too...

$150 for a case? Make sure it has extra cooling and at least a 400watt power supply for that price. I paid $52 for a generic full tower with a 300watt psu at a show, then put another $70 in fans into it. I'm very satisfied and could have actually gone with a lot less cooling. (That's another story, a little fixation/obsession thing I've been having with cooling, saved for another thread!) But if that one is nice and you want it, by all means, go for it.

Gf3, drool again, I'm envious!

Lastly, make sure your $75 sound card is an SB Live!. You can't do better for the money, or for more as far as I'm concerned. And with gaming being one of your goals, those cards bring the games to life.

P4? Nope. I wouldn't. Not worth the money - yet - and going through a transition period. Would really be a waste of money. If that kind of cpu speed is what you're after, get the fastest Tbird you can afford and overclock it.


That's my take on it, sorry of it was a little long, but I hope it was at least (a little) interesting!

All this talk about building new systems has me looking at the old bank account wondering if I can get a new one... and my current box is only a year old! Damn technology, keeps on getting faster and better but I can't afford to keep up.

"Dave, my mind is going. I can feel it. My mind is going. There is no question about it."

All my prices are from pricewatch and I dont put down the cheapest one. I also add a couple bucks for shipping. The case is an FK-320 mid-tower. Will I really need a 400W power supply? I'm keeping my old monitor,keyboard, mouse and speakers. If it is cheaper but same performance for 2 hard drives on RAID than I will do that. DDR I could do that. I want to spen around $2000. Does anybody use 3D Studio MAX on an AMD computer? Any problems? Thanks for all your feedback.
DWG

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