Building my new Rig, please look

[InfectedVoice]

Ok, Here it is. Feel free to comment on it, but my budget is pretty limited.

1.3 Ghz Tbird (266 FSB) **Thanx 1.4 for dropping the price of the 1.3's
Asus A7V133 KT133A Chipset
GlobalWin FOP 38
Antec SX1030
Elsa Gladiac 920 GF3 (Already Own it)
SB Live Value 5.1 (Im not a huge sound guru, so this should suffice)
2 HDD ( Primary = Maxtor 7200 RPM 30 Gig and Secondary = Maxtor 7200 RPM 20 Gig)
512 MB PC133 Cas2 Ram (Micron)
Panasonic CDRW 32x8x4 (Cheap burner, dont care as long as it works)
Microsoft Natural Elite Keyboard
Microsoft Optical Wheel Mouse
Viewsonic 17" Monitor (Already Own)
Win 2K Pro (Already own)
Floppy (duh)
D-Link Network Card

So does this look good for an SDR system. Im avoiding DDR for now, because the KT133A is comparable to current DDR boards/chipsets and it costs a little cheaper.

One question, should I go RAID ?? Im still not that familiar with the concept of RAID, so I have to do some more reading on the subject...Unless anyone wants to sum it up quickly

Thanks for taking a gander

 

[sohcrates]

nice mob / processor combo. are you getting a retail or oem processor?

i'd not worry about raid for the time being.

 

[InfectedVoice]

oem proc

 

[acexg1]

Looks good to me, but I think if you RAID it with those 2 hard drives, you'll lose 10 gb's, as I think the size of the smallest hard drive multiplied times the total number of drives equals the big RAID drive's size. You're budget doesn't seem that limited to me. Try building one on $450, and then we'll talk on limited.

 

[Dan]

InfectedVoice: Looks like a good system. Two suggestions come to mind:

1. I'd add a CD-ROM to your set-up. It's quicker and nicer to burn CD-to-CD.

2. Go with the RAID version. Like you, I'm not interested in RAID per se. On the other hand, the flexibility of the extra IDE channels is important. You can configure your HDD's, burner and a CD-ROM on different channels and take full advantage of each component's access and transfer rates, etc.

 

[tyski]

looks good, wish i even had a budget to build a system like that, gotta wait awhile, as for raid, i believe the newest article under storage will tell you everything you'll need to know about raid

 

[InfectedVoice]

I read the article and still havent made up my mind. If I were to go with the RAID setup, I would get two 30 Gig Maxtor's instead of the one 20 Gig and one 30 Gig.

Right now Im leaning away from it, but that article by Matthew Witheiler was really interesting.

I have 4 days till I build, so Ill ponder the idea.

 

[InfectedVoice]

BTW- Is 512 Ram overkill ??? Ive had 256 in other systems (running Win2K) and that seemed like more than enough.

I tend to multi-task somewhat. I usually use Photoshop, while browsing with a couple of IE windows, using winamp and maybe a couple other programs. 256 has always been enough. What is Win2k's sweet spot ??? How about 384 ????

Thanx

 

[snow]

With XP coming up I'm going with 512 just to be sure (they up requirements every other week).

 

[gygheyzeus]

I love how you say "limited budget." Its amazing what a limited budget can get you these days for a computer.

 

[Rafael]

You gonna go with SB Live? Gonna take this risk with KT133A and SB live?
Why not a Turtle Beach or Game theater XP?

Raf

 

[Playmaker]

I'm building a similar system only DDR based, and I was wondering if you are going to run the stock SX1030 PSU? or are you going to upgrade it?

 

[Rodders27]

If you go for Raid you will lose 10 GIG if you use Striping or mirroring. The hard drives should be identical in size and speed to gain the full benefits of raid. There is however a considerable performance gain to be had if you set it up correctly, I have used it for a year now and would not change back due to the increased speed during boot up and loading using striping.
To tell you the truth if I was you I would walk the DDR route as it is no more expensive for DDR PC2100 memory than normal pc133 anymore and if upgrading later the new Palamino athlon will use the extra bandwidth more.

MDJ

 

[Andy22]

I would heed Dan's advice and add a 30-40x cd-rom. You can prematurely wear out your burner by also using it as your main cd-rom. Not to mention it is generally slower and makes copying CD's a royal pain.

I have the same motherboard and have had no problems with my SB Live!...I seem to be in the minority but I love my Live! card. Make sure you download and have on hand the 4.31 4in1 drivers from Via which supposedly fixes any issues with said card.

 

[MrBond]

I'd definatly go with the version with the extra ide controller on it. I'm not using RAID, but I like having the ability to hook up to 8 devices onto it.

I'll second that sound card thing. If you order it by today, you can get a Turtle Beach Santa Cruze (better then the live, and less problems) for $63 shipped from Dell Small Business with the 20% off code. Check Hot Deals forum for more info on that, but the code expires today sometime.

 

[Neo666]

I agree with andy22...I have a soltek sl75kav (KT133A) mobo and a SBLive! sound card, and I have never
experienced any problems even with the drivers that comes along with the sound card and mobo...

About the processor I would probably go for an Athlon 1200/266 MP, because it's very excellent to overclock..
speeds in excess of 1600Mhz has been reported... also it's 5-10% faster than an equally clocked T-bird in some cases..
But other than that it looks like a pretty good system..

 

[mchammer187]

i really think you should reconsider a DDR setup unless u already own the memory then u should go ahead but a Tbird 1.33 and a GF3 a DDR board would surely help u and will last you a lot longer the Epox 8k7a $132 and guaranteed to work with desktop Palominos vs $114 for the ASUS. 512 MB of DDR is $103 plus tax from crucial so I see no real reason to use SD unless you do own >= 256 MB or ram