Critique My New system (comments will be appriciated)

[coldfuzion6]

Building a new system, what do u think?

I already got most of the components exept the Mobo and Monitor.

Will be mainly used for, Amateur Video editing, School,
Some Gaming, Movie Watching.

Processor: AMD Athlon 850mhz @ 850mhz
Motherboard: ASUS K7M
Memory: 2 Corsair 128 MB PC133 SDRAM
Video Card: ATI Radeon 64MB (w/video capture)DDR AGP
CD Burner: Plextor Plexwriter 12/10/30 IDE
CD Rom: Plextor UltraPlex 40X SCSI
DVD Rom: Toshiba 8.0X,32X read &Hollywood+ Decoder Card
2nd IDE: Promise Ultra 66 PCI Controller Card
Hard Drive1: Maxtor 40GB, UDMA 66, 7200rpm, 9ms
Hard Drive2: IBM 75GPX, 45GB, UDMA 1000, 7500rmp, 8.5ms
Hard Drive3: IBM 75GPX, 45GB, UDMA 1000, 7500rmp, 8.5ms
Removable: Iomega Zip, 250MB internal ATAPI drive
Sound Card: Sound Blaster Live! Platinum
Speakers: Creative DeskTop Theatre 5.1
Monitor: Sony CDD-G500 Trinitron 21"
Video Capt2: Dazzle Digital Video Creator DM-4100
Keyb/Mice: Logitech Cordless Desktop Pro
Gaming: Microsoft SideWinder Force Feeback Wheel, USB
Microsoft Force Feedback Flight Stick
Microsoft Sidewinder Pro USB
Wingman Gaming Mouse USB

Optional: I might dump the Radeon Card and get a Dazzle Digital Video Creator DM-4100 and a 3dfx Voodoo 5 5500.

What do u think?

 

[coldfuzion6]

typing mistake UDMA 1000 is really UDMA 100
heh

 

[Zeeliv]

Slot A is essentially dead, so why are you going that route? And if you must get a Slot A board (because you already bought a Slot CPU I assume?) then get one with the KX133 chipset, not the hybrid K7M (which I own btw).

EDIT: ah nm, forgot about the whole T-Bird in a KX133 board thing. If you must have a Slot board for your T-Bird I guess thats about as good as it gets.

 

[Celstar]

everything there looks pretty good except for the slot a config. You'll see some performance improvements with the socket a.

 

[coldfuzion6]

What mobo and full tower case do u suggest I get (links please)?

for the motherboard I'd prefer something with as much PCI slots as possible and 4 Memory slots if possible!

thanks

 

[Alphacowboy]

well if you want 4 DIMM slots a PIII ASUS P3V4X is the only board that I have found that is reliable and stable with 4 128MB DIMMS. Sorry I haven't seen a Athlon with 4 DIMMS. Also for a case... you are looking at running alot of hardware in that baby, to keep it cool and with enough power could be interesting, as you can see by the specs of my system below, I only run a 250Watt Enlight.. its not enough, I also am looking for a new case and Pwr supply, any ideas guys? ( Dual 350's would be nice but they require a server board the last time I checked!

Win98SE/Win2K/WinME/BeOs
Asus P3V4X (4DIMM,1AGP,6PCI,1ISA)
PIII 550E O/C 733MHz
-(with peltier cooler with 3 fans)
512MB PC100 SDRAM (4X128MB)
2X 20.5GB 7200 WD EXPERT
13.6GB Maxtor 7200RPM
GeForce II GTS 32MB
SBLIVE!
72 TrueX Kenwood
8x4x24 Yamaha SCSI CDRW
Adaptec 2910 PCI SCSI card
19" KDS Avitron
it also has 3 88mm fans too!

 

[Radboy]

I see a SCSI CDROM, but no SCSI adapter.

I like the CUSL2 & P3-700 @ 933, but that is merely personal pref.

I do video-editing. Addictive.

Have u checked the All-in-Wonder Radeon?

AIW Radeon

 

[Doggiedog]

Kind of similar to my system:

Processor: AMD Athlon 1000mhz Classic
Motherboard: Abit KA7
Memory: 2 Corsair 128 MB PC133 SDRAM
Video Card: GeForce DDR AGP
CD Burner: Plextor 8x CD-R SCSI
DVD: No name 12x DVD
HDD1: Seagate 9.1GB UDMA33, 7200rpm
HDD2: IBM 30GB, UDMA 66, 7200rpm
Sound Card: Sound Blaster Live! Value
Speakers: Cambridge Soundworks
Monitor: 2 Sony CDP-G500 Trinitron 21"
Network: 3Com Etherlink XL
Video Capt1: Iomega Buz
Keyb/Mice: Microsoft Explorer Optical
Gaming: Microsoft SideWinder Force Feedback Joystick, Microsoft Sidewinder Pro USB

I've had trouble with the Corsair memory. One stick was defective and they won't do CAS2 stably.

I like the flatness of the G500 but I've got lots of geometry problems with them.

I like the fact that you bought the IDE CD-RW. I still get a lot of IRQ conflicts with my SCSI CD-R wanting to take either my vid card, network card or Soundcard IRQs. I settled for the lesser of 3 evils with the network card.

What I'd be aware of is with such a loaded PC you have to make sure you don't have IRQ conflicts, the SB Live is notorious for not wanting to share IRQs (needs 2).

 

[rockhard]

Enermax 430watt PS would be ideal but pricey
The 500watt model might be overkill
Rolls Royce of PS's tho

Enermax Info

rockhard =)

 

[steelthorn]

Yeah I would dump the radeon if it was me and go with the voodoo 5500 and the video editing card. I have the voodoo 5500 and it is the best card I've ever had. Just my two cents.

 

[Shagga]

Gunna run out of IRQ's!

 

[Alphacowboy]

I had all my PCI slots full and no problems at all...

Slot1-NIC1 (will be for Cable modem)
Slot2-SB LIVE!
Slot3-NIC2 (for network)
Slot4-SCSI ADAPTEC 2910
Slot5-TV card (Gave to my brother, didn't need anymore, got a 36" Toshiba TV! )
Slot6-Promise ULTRA66 (took out when I removed my 2 other HDD's)

 

[Yoshi]

Don't waste your money on the DVD decoder card, it will just screw up the image of everyting else. Especially if you run at 1024x768 and above. Trust me on this, it is a common problem with DVD decoder cards using analog overlay. Use software decoding instead, that is why you have a fast CPU and pay top dollar for a good video card.

 

[Yoshi]

OK pardon my harshness, but why the hell are you buying a Zip drive if you are also installing a CD burner. Zip drives suck, the media is overpriced and I really don't know many people who use them.

 

[ColdTech]

The only things I dont like about it is that I would have gone with a a7v MB & a thunderbird

Also

I would have gone with the plextor 12x4x32 cdrw scsi

 

[ColdTech]

1 other thing for a full tower I would sudgest a tornado 2000 from 3dcool

 

[bcterps]

Why go SCSI on the CDROM, but not SCSI on the burner or anything else?
At the very least I would get a SCSI burner...

--Ben

 

[Tweakin]

Honestly, I can't understand why you wouldn't go scsi all the way...say an Adaptec 2930U2W (Ultra 2 SCSI 80Meg) which will save some money over the 160, grab a couple of 9.1Gig IBM LVD drives, a Plextor 8/2/20 (cheap now), a scsi dvd/cd-rom of your choice, and if you have to have the zip...go scsi in a 100Meg version. Your overall cpu utilization should drop allowing the cpu to fully crank out the math computations needed in editing. As for a case, Chenbro all the way...try a Genie on and you'll never go back

 

[Noriaki]

I'd use Mushkin or Micron RAM over Corsair I've had troubles with Corsair building PCs for other people, but my Micron's been great, and ditch the Radeon for a Voodoo5 or a GF2.

I'd personally take the V5 for several reasons:
- it seems to do better in D3D (UT specifically) and obviously Glide

- with the Molex (4pin hard drive style) power connector you don't have to worry about not having enough power thru your AGP slot

- I've had many problems with a TNT2 (actually had one before my V3, I traded it in after 2 weeks of hell) and I have yet to have a problem with my Diamond Voodoo 1, my Creative Voodoo2 or my Voodoo3. I know many people that use 3dfx cards and they seem to have no trouble with compatibilty. The nVidia cards are nice, but they have to many compatibilty/reliablitiy issues. Some people rag on 3dfx for not having a full AGP implementation...I rather like it that they don't, there cards have less associated problems.

I'd take the V5, but the GF2 would stil be better than the Radeon IMO.