After years of research, the ultimate gaming PC. Comments inside.

[Jank77]

Motherboard: ASUS A7M266 www.nxgenstore.com
- Decided to go with the ASUS over the MSI KT266 because it benchmarks slightly better results and I've also seen more people having problems with the MSI on bulliton boards such as this one and Tomshardware. Only thing I dont like about this board is that there's no on board RAID. Course, this isn't a problem since I dont know alot about RAID.

CPU: AMD Tbird 1.33ghz (stock cooling fan as of now) www.newegg.com
- Decided to stick to the stock cooling fan that comes with the retail CPU since I won't be overclocking it right now. I also don't know if sticking a HSF on the CPU voids the 3 year warrenty.

RAM: 256meg Crucial non-ECC www.crucial.com
- Cheap, nuff said.

Harddrive: IBM 60GXP 60gig drive www.hypermicro.com
- 60GXP is supposively better in every aspect then the 75GXPs. It's the latest line in the IBM series.

CD-writer: Plextor 40/16/10X www.newegg.com
- I can't stop hearing good things about this drive.

CD-DVD: Pioneer Slot Feed 16X www.mwave.com
- Heard this is the best DVD drive too. Still don't know whether I need a hardware encoder though or not....??? I dunno much about DVD playback.

Floppy: Mitsumi www.newegg.com
Sound: Turtle Beach Santa Cruz www.nxgenstore.com
- Heard alot about the Sound Blaster Live cards having a crackling noise when running Win2k as well as a host of other problems in general. I've never liked the live cards really either since they try and tack extra price on to the card by offering bad video games with it. I was really deciding between the Phillips Acoustic soundcard and the Santa Cruz card. Decided to go with the santa cruz card because I have a TBS montego card now and I've been happy with it.

Speakers: Kiplich 4.1 THX (Not ordered yet)
- Heard these things are the BOMB. Plus George Lucas recommends them and you can't go wrong with that. There's a set of Altec THX speakers too but I don't know how good they are.

Video: LEADTEK Winfast GeForce2 Pro 64MB GTS 4XAGP w/TV Out www.mwave.com (will upgrade to Geforce3 this fall)
- At this point, Geforce 3 cards are way too overpriced and are relatively new. I'm sure we'll see some next generaton Geforce 3 cards just like we saw when the Geforce 2 cards came out (GTS, Pro, Ultra, etc.). I'll pick up one of those "2nd generation" geforce 3 cards when the price drops. The Geforce 2 PRO card should last me alittle past winter.

Chasis: Lian-Li PC60 www.newegg.com
- Originally was going to get the Antec-1030, then I saw the Lian-Li and the Coolmaster. All 3 of these cases looked good. Antec didn't have air filter though on the fan holes and I have 2 cats and alot of dust in my room so that discouraged me alot. Also, the antec doesn't look as cool as the silver aluminum Lian Li or Coolmaster. Plus I plan on travelling with my system some and I wanted a light case. Plus the Lian Li has thumb screws which is a help since I never have a screwdriver handy. It was a toss up here. They're all good cases.

Power: Enermax Whisper 350W
- Heard this was the best powersupply on the review boards. Quiet too.

Mouse: Microsoft Optical Explorer www.nxgenstore.com
- Says it's USB or PS/2. Is there like an adapter that lets you choose? I'd rather have it be PS/2.

Keyboard: Dunno, prolly just go buy one from compusa that I can try before buy.
Operating System: Windows 2000 Professional www.newegg.com
- Was originally gonna go with Win98SE but everyone told me to get 2k cause it crashes less and is overall better with programs besides games. I won't upgrade to XP unless they do something about that anti-pirating crap.

Monitor: Too tired right now to research a good 19 or 21 inch monitor.
- Any help you can gimme will be apprechiated.


As far as upgrades:
Possibly want to get another 60 gig GXP harddrive and raid them so that they are redundant for extra speed. I don't know how to do this though....

Geforce 3 in the winter possibly.

Phillips Acoustic if I dont like the Santa Cruz card.

More RAM in the fall.

Possibly a cheap tape drive to provide backup.

So what do you think? Comments welcome.

 

[The LIdless Eye]

Dude, for the keyboard, the only choice is an original IBM 'clicky' keyboard. Theres
a place online that bought out IBM's keyboard business, and they are (or were) still
selling out the stock of those unmatched keyboards.


[edit]

Check out pckeyboard.com
Any of the keyboards that say "buckling spring" should be great.

 

[Jank77]

Why is that keyboard so good?

Is there a link to a description of it?

Stats?

 

[duragezic]

I'd get a Radeon 64 VIVO if you're going with a 19" or 21" monitor so you have good 2d quality. It has good dvd playback and the obvious VIVO if you're interested in that.

For the monitor, I'd get a Samsung 900nf (19&quot or Samsung 1200nf (21&quot.

 

[Jank77]

Also, will my CPU be able to survive with just the stock CPU fan that comes with it in the box? Do I need a hsf if I'm not overclocking?

 

[Jank77]

Right now I got a nice 19inch Viewsonic G790 i think....

It was editors choice on cnet.com so I bought it about 2 years ago.

 

[Duvie]

The only thing I would think you may want the decoder card for is if you want to send out the vid signal to your tv and ac3 audio to home theater setup...if you have standalone dvd-player this would be useless.

As for playback on pc my 750tbird plays it flawlessly even while doing other acticites like burning and downloading off the net. The 1.333 should be able to do this with very minimal cpu utilization...I also have a radeon with hardware assistance onboard vid card but find I like the powerDVD software better and I see no problems...

 

[MCS]

I second the Samsung 900NF notion - superb monitor!

 

[Bluga]

Lian-Li case are awesome, i've one sitting beside me

 

[MrHelpful]

Take a look at this thread

And this one too

There's lots of juicy info there.

 

[GoldenTiger]

<< CD-DVD: Pioneer Slot Feed 16X www.mwave.com >>

You don't need a hardware DEcoder, because your computer is plenty fast to handle the job on-the-fly. Usually 128mb ram, v3/tnt2u, p3/athlon 600 and up are plenty fast to handle the job, especially with a good dvd drive .

 

[Yoshi]

Also, will my CPU be able to survive with just the stock CPU fan that comes with it in the box? Do I need a hsf if I'm not overclocking?

I have never done the italics quote thing before, but I just could not pass this one up.

No, I would order a water cooling system the is liquid nitrogen enhanced. Make sure you have at least 3 10&quot; cooling fans on the radiator just to make sure things don't overheat. Oh yeah don't forget to put a cookie sheet under your computer to act as an evaporator pan for all that condensation!!!!

Seriously, being an engineer myself it pisses me off when people ask questions like this. Think about it, do you really think the people who designed the cooler did not go through the trouble to make sure it's powerful enough? Additionally, if the HSF you bought is on the AMD recommended list for your chip then you know someone else went through the trouble of double checking the original engineers.

Enjoy your system, it should be a screamer! Also, those Klipsch speakers rock. I bought the 2.1 set for my girlfriend's system. They are some serious speakers for a computer!

 

[Jank77]

Yoshi, can you say &quot;OVERBOARD&quot;?

Seriously man, I don't want no friggen vapochilled device running my CPU at -200 degrees celcius if I an't overclocking it.

If anything, I want something that's easy to install and not noisy.

 

[MrHelpful]

SCSI Setup

From Newegg.com

AMD Thunderbird 1.33GHz - $221 + shipping ($10)
Plextor 16X10X40X Internal EIDE CD-RW - $198 (free shipping)
Leadtek Winfast Geforce2 Pro GTS 32MB - $155 (free shipping)
Maxtor 80GB 5400RPM ATA/100 - $220 + shipping ($10)
Mitsumi 1.44MB Floppy - $9 + shipping ($4)
Iomega 250MB Zip Drive Internal - $89 + shipping ($10)
3com 905CX-TXNM PCI 10/100 network card - $40 + shipping ($8)

From Spartantech.com

MSI K7 Master-S - $270 + shipping ($13)

From Crucial.com

(2) 256MB PC2100 DDR Unbuffered Non-Parity - $208

From Mwave.com

Turtle Beach Santa Cruz - $70 + shipping
Seagate 36GB Ultra160 SCSI HD - $490 + shipping
Pioneer 16X Slot-load DVD - $79 + shipping
Microsoft Intellimouse Optical PS2/USB - $29 + shipping

From the Taisol store

Taisol CGK760 - $50 + shipping

From 2cooltek.com

Arctic Silver II - $9 + shipping

From Directron.com

Antex SX1030B w/ Antec PP303X PSU - $100 + shipping

From Onvia.com

Boston Acoustics BA4800 - $143 (free shipping)

From Outpost.com

Samsung 900NF - $400 + shipping ($9) - $30 rebate Print this out

Total - up to $2682 (the reason I say 'up to' because I calculated shipping for each and every individual item and +$10 on each item whose shipping price I couldn't find - if you ship them altogether at once shipping cost should decrease dramatically)

BTW, if you buy $500 from Newegg.com now you save 10% on shipping, and $1000, 20%. Right now it comes out to $902 from Newegg.com, so you can add something that's worth $98 if you want that extra 10% off. Just to let you know, I didn't calculate the -10% shipping that you are eligible for.

 

[emjem]

<< Mouse: Microsoft Optical Explorer www.nxgenstore.com >>



Mine came with a PS2 adaptor

 

[Mikewarrior2]

Yoshi,

That doesn't explain the Orb heatsinks, which were supposedly designed by engineers. Notwithstanding is the fact that if you go from retail t-bird to C-orb it is much more of a downgrade in hs/f units.


Mike

 

[Jank77]

Why do you need the artic silver II goo?
I thought the taisol doesn't require it, look at the installation instructions on thier website. It looks like it automatically bonds to it with it's shape changing surface.

 

[Jank77]

I just ordered the Taisol...it is a supposively quiet unit which is what i wanted.

Plus it looks easy to install. Still not sure why he bought Artic Silver II goo when the taisol site looks like you dont need it....

 

[MrHelpful]

MSI K7 Master-S: a motherboard that uses the AMD761 chipset. Extremely stable (haven't seen reviews yet, but there shouldn't be any doubt since MSI's stability across all of its boards is near legendary).

Seagate SCSI HD: SCSI setups are generally faster than their IDE counterparts, and sometimes even when their counterparts are set up in RAID.

Taisol CGK760/Arctic Silver II: Just in case you plan to overclock. The Taisol CGK760 is the second best heatsink right (the first is the Swiftech MC462), but the Swiftech costs upwards of $70. The Arctic Silver II is the best thermal compound for your processor.

512MB Crucial PC2100 DDR: RAM is so damned cheap you'd be stupid not to get as much as possible.

Boston Acoustics BA4800: These speakers rival the Klipsch 4.1s in almost every way. I think these are a better value since they're not as expensive as the Klipsches.

 

[MrHelpful]

After you've removed the thermal pad from the base of the heatsink and can no longer see any traces of it, you might want to smooth out the base of the heatsink.

The purpose of smoothing out the base of the heatsink is to promote optimal transfer between the CPU core and the heatsink. The function of thermal paste/grease/goop/what-have-you is to fill in the gaps, but perfect heatsink base-to-core contact conducts heat much better than a rough heatsink base and thermal compound filling in the gaps. However, a perfectly flat heatsink base (much less a perfectly flat CPU core) is near impossible, so thermal compound and sometimes sandpaper is used to achieve the best results possible.

A mirror-like shine on the heatsink base is good. One way to do this (after the base has been suitably prepared by rough- to medium-grit sandpaper) is to apply some toothpaste to new paper towel and rub vigourously. Follow up with a water-only wash, and rub off any impurities like dirt or metal filings with a wet, clean cloth. Dry off with clean paper towel, and apply a pencil tip eraser-size glob of Arctic Silver II (when I say pencil tip, I mean the eraser itself and some of the metal 'wrap'). Use a new shaving razor (no aloe or whatever) and spread the compound over the heatsink center several times (don't apply new compound).

Finally, seat the CPU into the motherboard socket if you haven't done so already, and attach the heatsink on to the ZIF socket (CPU socket) and over the core by hooking one side of the clip under the socket tab, and then bring the heatsink to rest on the core (DO NOT TWIST THE HEATSINK). Take the free end of the clip and pull over the side to position under the tabs on the same side. Wiggle the heatsink slightly to check for a tight fit - if not, redo. If the compound is no longer in good 'placement' (for lack of a better word), reapply a thin layer (read above).

After the heatsink is on tight, hold up the motherboard and check for any gaps between the heatsink and core through which light can shine through. <- This step optional.

 

[gotincon]

Make sure and get the updated version of the 4.1's. They retail for 299 now, not 250. Don't be fooled that your just getting an awesome deal. THe new version has a head phone jack, and easy way to tell.

Bryon

 

[MrHelpful]

IDE RAID Setup

From Newegg.com

AMD Thunderbird 1.33GHz - $221 + shipping ($10)
Plextor 16X10X40X Internal EIDE CD-RW - $198 (free shipping)
Leadtek Winfast Geforce2 Pro GTS 32MB - $155 (free shipping)
(2) Maxtor 60GB 7200RPM ATA/100 5T060H - $388 + shipping ($20)
Mitsumi 1.44MB Floppy - $9 + shipping ($4)
Iomega 250MB Zip Drive Internal - $89 + shipping ($10)
3com 905CX-TXNM PCI 10/100 network card - $40 + shipping ($8)

From Spartantech.com

MSI K7 Master-S - $166 + shipping ($13)

From Crucial.com

(2) 256MB PC2100 DDR Unbuffered Non-Parity - $208

From Mwave.com

Turtle Beach Santa Cruz - $70 + shipping
Pioneer 16X Slot-load DVD - $79 + shipping
Promise FastTrak100 PCI RAID card - $75 + shipping
Microsoft Intellimouse Optical PS2/USB - $29 + shipping

From the Taisol store

Taisol CGK760 - $50 + shipping

From 2cooltek.com

Arctic Silver II - $9 + shipping

From Directron.com

Antex SX1030B w/ Antec PP303X PSU - $100 + shipping

From Onvia.com

Boston Acoustics BA4800 - $143 (free shipping)

From Outpost.com

Samsung 900NF - $400 + shipping ($9) - $30 rebate Print this out

Total - up to $2577 (the reason I say 'up to' because I calculated shipping for each and every individual item and +$10 on each item whose shipping price I couldn't find - if you ship them altogether at once shipping cost should decrease dramatically)

BTW, if you buy $500 from Newegg.com now you save 10% on shipping, and $1000, 20%. Right now it comes out to above $1000 so just get the 20% off shipping. Just to let you know, I didn't calculate the -20% shipping that you are eligible for.

 

[Yoshi]

My point exactly!!

BTW, Arctic Silver = Wast of Money IMO. Use whatever comes with the taisol and send the Arctic Silver back.