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a good setup? (need some quick opinions)

M

minus1972

Platinum Member
just wanted to get everyone's opinion on this setup I'm thinking about putting together. the system is mostly for screwing around (gaming, mp3s, etc.) but it also has to run some compilers and your basic word processing programs regularly. my main concern is that when I turn it on, it boots without problems (i.e. I don't have to mess with it every week to keep it running consistently). thanks for your input.

I'm planning on running a RAID 0 setup using the two HDDs. Already have a case, PSU, keyboard, mouse, etc. taken care of. I'll be using Win98SE for now, mabye XP in the future, and I'll also include the prices I've found to make sure I'm not getting screwed anywhere (these are all without shipping FYI).

$99 Abit NV7-133R NForce 415 DDR RAID/LAN
$93 AMD Athlon XP 1800
$32 AOC EC-CUC-610A Copper Base CPU Cooler
$110 512 MB Corsair DDR 2100
$240 VisionTek Xtasy 6964 (Nvidia GeForce3 Ti500)
$65 Creative Labs Audigy 5.1 OEM
$144 (2x) Western Digital 40GB U100 7200RPM 2MBCache
$26 Samsung 52x CD-ROM IDE OEM
$719 NEC MultiSync LCD1700M

EDIT: already have a Toshiba burner from a previous upgrade that I'll be using as a CD-RW drive, thinking about going the extra $19 for a GeForce4 Ti4400 128MB.
 
I would get a GeForce4 card. For $240, you can get a 4400- same price, better performance. The 4200 would be even cheaper (~185) and would still be better than a GeForce3. I would also spend a few extra bucks and get either a DVD-ROM or a CD-RW instead of a CD-ROM.
 
IF your not overclocking that system is pretty good already, but if I were you I would grab a i845G + DDR333 + P4 1.6A combo instead.😀
 
Think I will bump up to the 4400, and I should have mentioned that I'm using a Toshiba burner that I already have as a CD-RW drive (i just need another drive for faster copies). thanks.
 
heh, yeah...I've put in my time with OC and I'd be happy with a nice stable (cheap) AMD system. The 2.4GHz insanity is tempting though. 😉
 
If you want a stable system that you don't have to mess around with, the RAID 0 might be a bad idea since it doubles the risk of data corruption. For$120 you can get an 80 GB WD800JB that is a bit faster than the WD400BB you're looking at. It might not be as fast as the RAID, but it's half as risky.
 
I've been wanting to give RAID a try for some time now, but I've been hearing mixed things about the stability. I'm willing to put up with a format every once in a while, but I don't want something that's going to shut me down every few months....
 
Nice setup! Your NV7-133R should be stable since Abit is among a top-notch manufacturer who makes stable boards.
I've never seen your CPU cooler, so I can't say anything bout that.
I second getting a WD800jb drive since it's really fast, almost as fast as scsi drives like the Seagate Cheeta x15.
Aside from that, it all looks good 🙂
 
my additional $.02

If you don't have a brand preference for the 4400, the MSI 4400 is a pretty good deal. Newegg has it for $229, and it comes with VIVO, WinProducer 2.0 (for editing movies), No One Lives Forever, Sacrafice, and Aquanox. It also has a DVI-VGA adapter for dual monitor. (I'm biased- this is what I bought, so of course I thought it was a good deal).

Also, if you look at the first threads of any of the sections, there's a link to TCWO.com selling the Augigy OEM to anandtechers for $55 ($10 less then what you had posted).

Finally, you may not want to use the RAID for an array, but I like the option of having a possible 8 IDE devices (I don't have an array, but have 6 devices hooked up)
 
alright...after reading into the nForce chipset a little more, I'm thinking that I don't even need a sound card...is there any benifit to buying one? I saw that ad, but couldn't get the price drop to go through; and no, I have no brand preference, so I'll be stopping by newegg later. any more RAID thoughts?
 
If you don't want hassles, stay away from RAID and if the mobo has a VIA chipset I'd stay away from Creative cards.
 
The more complicated a set-up gets, the more likely complications are to happen. I had one of two IBM 75GXP's fail on me in RAID 0. Once one goes, all is lost.
 
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