About to get a bonus at work....need suggestions

[graff]

Hey guys. I'm supposedly getting a bonus Friday at work. Should be substantial, and i'd like to upgrade my ole PC. I am not having any problems right now and I'm happy with it, but I know how much faster it could be. I'll be doing alot of 3d work with Maya and Graphic Design stuff. WHat would you guys buy to upgrade or change my previous system.

Enlight 7237 Case (I think thats the one)
Abit BP6
Celeron 366 @ 550
ASUS V6800 Pure Geforce 256 DDR
Hollywood + Decoder
Sound Blaster Live Value
Rockwell 56K modem
Adaptect 159x SCSI
SMC network card 10/100
256 MB Generic RAM
Toshiba MD-1202 DVD
Smart and Freindly 6x4x24 CDRW
Maxtor 30 GB 7200 ATA/66/100
Western Digital 20 GB 7200 ATA/66
Floppy
External Zip
Epson Stylus Pro XL (This will be fine for my work, the lab has an Epson 3000 if I need it)
Artec AT6 Scanner (Need a new one, but it can wait)
Kllipsch Promedia's

How much faster can we make my baby go? Athlons? Dual p3's? You name it.

Have fun!

Thanks

 

[Vegito]

First, what did you tell them at your year end review?

 

[graff]

Huh? Regarding the bonus? We finished a big project and we were promised it at the beginning, like 2 years ago. I'm a co-op student, at Mississippi State University. I have gotten a bunch of cool stuff from my company (awards and such). I work for Litton Marine Systems. I was given a "superior" rating by the director. I don't have to do the other stuff the real employees do, review-wise I mean.

is that what you were wondering?

 

[Ulysses]

Well here's what I did recently. Next week I'm going to set up an IDE RAID 0.

If you are using Win 98 you probably have enough RAM, but with Win 2K you may need more. Dual monitors are very nice in a work situation too. And broadband is always great.

 

[dadx2mj]

I would say upgrade the CPU the faster the better

 

[graff]

I think I want the 1.2 Tbird...with the KT7. I may get the RAID for future use. BUT, I love having SMP, so maybe dual PIII 800 or 933's.....too many options.

 

[Vegito]

Well, the rumor is dec 14, or something, price of 1ghz amd drop from 350 to 182.. I would just get single AMD till the dual comes out

 

[roc919]

Get yourself a Thunderbird 900 w/Asus or Abit mobo. and o/c it to 1Ghz+

 

[eyor]

Get the MSI K7T mother-board.

 

[graff]

So it look slike you guys would go for a single athlon before a dual pIII ?
What is the speed difference, dont worry about cost.

 

[BoberFett]

You've got a BP6, is that dual 550s? Unless you went with dual P3s, I don't know how much faster your system is going to get. That machine isn't really that far behind. Have you thought about a nice 21" monitor?

 

[graff]

Yeah I have the 550's. I know. Not too shabby, but I'm a power freak.

I already have a 19in Samsung which is working great. I am running 2000 so another vid card and monitor is a good option....

thanks for all of these ideas...keep em flowin

 

[PCResources]

I would say, go with the MSI K7T PRO2 instead of the ABIT board, it is much more stable and has the same functions except for the RAID wich really isn't that good, lot's of people have problems with it.

If you want a RAID in the future, get a good HW RAID controller instead.

Patrick Palm

Am speaking for PC Resources

 

[Vegito]

dude, blew away my review, got 30k bonus + 10k raise... damn... dodge viper.. here I come...

 

[nuttervm]

the tbird 1 ghz is now $195 and 1,2 is 285, so i strongly suggest you look into that. great bang for the buck