TheInvincibleMustard
Senior member
So, my current machine (listed below) is starting to really show it's age, and this summer I'm going to be going "all-out" (within reason) on a new system for myself. I've already done a lot of research and reading on this stuff (and believe me, there's a lot out there), but figured that I'd shoot the plan across you guys before I settle in for actually going through and buying the stuff. Some of it I already have (ie, stuff that I can try out on my current system, like the LiteOn and the case fans), and others I'm going to be getting in the next couple of days here. Any suggestions/comments (within reason) will be carefully considered.
CURRENT SYSTEM (I told you it was old):
Slot 1 PIII-933mHz
ASUS P3V4X Mobo
1024mB PC133 SDRAM
Hercules 3D Prophet 4500 (64mB Kyro II AGP)
SoundBlaster Live! X-Gamer
Maxtor 60gB HDD
Maxtor 30gB HDD
Toshiba SDM12 DVD-Drive (no regional encoding)
Plextor Plexwriter 12/10/32A (top-of-the line at it's time)
Some el cheapo modem
Linksys 10/100 Ethernet
Boring Beige Box (tm)
WinXP Pro
FUTURE SYSTEM (what I'm currently building):
AMD Athlon XP 2800+ Barton Retail (see below)
Asus A7N8X Deluxe Mobo
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128mB (see below)
Enermax CS-3181L-BBS (newegg Product Description)
Corsair TWINX 2700LL 1GB
120mB Maxtor HDD w/8mB Cache
Lite-On 52x EIDE CD-ROM (black) (see below)
5x low-noise case fans (4x 80mm blue LED, 1x 120mm blue LED ... mostly for the lighting effect)
MCX462+ Heatsink (product link) (see below)
Thermaltake 80mm Smart Fan (stick it on the heatsink, good CFM with low dB(A))
1) 2800+ Barton --> It's retail, cuz I like the warranty (and not much more expensive). So you're probably wondering "Why's he not get the 2500+ and OC' that bizatch?" ... well, mainly because I have had very bad luck with overclocking. A 1.1ghz Athlon went to about 1.11ghz before it pooped out and wouldn't go higher, and I managed to literally fry a 1700+ T-B (yes, it had proper cooling, yes it had good voltage, yes I have no idea what went wrong) ... so I'd rather spend the little bit extra and get the one that's rated to go at that speed. If you can really convince me otherwise, I might try it, but you'll have to push hard)
2) Radeon 9800 Pro --> Has PowerColor got their speeds on this thing correct by now? I had read somewhere that it wasn't originally clocked at full R9800 speeds ... since PowerColor is much cheaper than others, and has a good software bundle, I'd rather go with that but will get a more expensive one if it means I have to go through the trouble of making the card the right speed ...
3) Lite-On 52x CD-ROM --> Don't care much for DVD writers, have a great DVD player hooked up to my 5.1 stereo and TV, and my current machine can make a legally archived backup copy of any game I throw at it (inc. UT2k3, NWN, and GTAIII), so why get all fancy and more expensive with stuff I don't want/need?
4) The mammoth heatsink --> Even though I'm not overclocking, and the retail HSF is plenty good, I want this. Why? One, it allows me to have lower-speed fans throughout the case and still get good temps, and two it screws through the motherboard, and doesn't attach to the socket. Since I move my machine around a lot (LAN parties, college, etc.), I want something that's going to stay put -- the makers of it dropped it off of a two story building without the core suffering damage from the heatsink slipping ... that the type of stability I'm looking for. Plus, it just looks damn cool.
Like I said, I'll appreciate any and all suggestions/comments/etc. with regards to this new bad boy.
CURRENT SYSTEM (I told you it was old):
Slot 1 PIII-933mHz
ASUS P3V4X Mobo
1024mB PC133 SDRAM
Hercules 3D Prophet 4500 (64mB Kyro II AGP)
SoundBlaster Live! X-Gamer
Maxtor 60gB HDD
Maxtor 30gB HDD
Toshiba SDM12 DVD-Drive (no regional encoding)
Plextor Plexwriter 12/10/32A (top-of-the line at it's time)
Some el cheapo modem
Linksys 10/100 Ethernet
Boring Beige Box (tm)
WinXP Pro
FUTURE SYSTEM (what I'm currently building):
AMD Athlon XP 2800+ Barton Retail (see below)
Asus A7N8X Deluxe Mobo
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128mB (see below)
Enermax CS-3181L-BBS (newegg Product Description)
Corsair TWINX 2700LL 1GB
120mB Maxtor HDD w/8mB Cache
Lite-On 52x EIDE CD-ROM (black) (see below)
5x low-noise case fans (4x 80mm blue LED, 1x 120mm blue LED ... mostly for the lighting effect)
MCX462+ Heatsink (product link) (see below)
Thermaltake 80mm Smart Fan (stick it on the heatsink, good CFM with low dB(A))
1) 2800+ Barton --> It's retail, cuz I like the warranty (and not much more expensive). So you're probably wondering "Why's he not get the 2500+ and OC' that bizatch?" ... well, mainly because I have had very bad luck with overclocking. A 1.1ghz Athlon went to about 1.11ghz before it pooped out and wouldn't go higher, and I managed to literally fry a 1700+ T-B (yes, it had proper cooling, yes it had good voltage, yes I have no idea what went wrong) ... so I'd rather spend the little bit extra and get the one that's rated to go at that speed. If you can really convince me otherwise, I might try it, but you'll have to push hard)
2) Radeon 9800 Pro --> Has PowerColor got their speeds on this thing correct by now? I had read somewhere that it wasn't originally clocked at full R9800 speeds ... since PowerColor is much cheaper than others, and has a good software bundle, I'd rather go with that but will get a more expensive one if it means I have to go through the trouble of making the card the right speed ...
3) Lite-On 52x CD-ROM --> Don't care much for DVD writers, have a great DVD player hooked up to my 5.1 stereo and TV, and my current machine can make a legally archived backup copy of any game I throw at it (inc. UT2k3, NWN, and GTAIII), so why get all fancy and more expensive with stuff I don't want/need?
4) The mammoth heatsink --> Even though I'm not overclocking, and the retail HSF is plenty good, I want this. Why? One, it allows me to have lower-speed fans throughout the case and still get good temps, and two it screws through the motherboard, and doesn't attach to the socket. Since I move my machine around a lot (LAN parties, college, etc.), I want something that's going to stay put -- the makers of it dropped it off of a two story building without the core suffering damage from the heatsink slipping ... that the type of stability I'm looking for. Plus, it just looks damn cool.
Like I said, I'll appreciate any and all suggestions/comments/etc. with regards to this new bad boy.
