Help me pick parts for a new system for my dad... STABILITY is a MUST!

[timelapse]

Hello all, my father has decided he wants a new computer. I don't blame him, he uses our old p166 system LOL!

So i have already built various system with athlons and ECS k7s5a and everything has always been fine. I have been looking at newegg and they have the k7s5a on clearance, and also the AMD 1600 processor. Should i go with this combo? I am really looking for the MOST stable possible system. I plan on buying kingston pc2100 DDR ram, maybe Two maxtor 40Gs HD.

Another thing is that he wants to do some video editing and store all of our old home videos. So he wants a "good" video card. with video capture. Which should i get? I have a RADEON 64 DDR VIVO, should i pass it on to him or is there better, cheaper now?

Should i also get a DVD-R drive? we have LOTS of movies and he would like to store them on CD or DVD cause tapes are getting old.

Please help. Thanks

 

[DaveSimmons]

Sounds like a good system since you know what you're doing...7200 RPM drives of course

In case you didn't know about it, www.vcdhelp.com is a good site for capturing, encoding tips. I assume most of the home videos are analog so you'll need good analog capture/encoding.

 

[Siddhartha]

Have him buy a dell.

 

[Gunbuster]

I hate to say it, but get a P4 with an Intel brand mainboard

Intel does not screw around when it comes to mainboards, super stable, bios updates, driver updates, online errata listing, good warranty, no overclocking, ......

 

[TheWart]

I would go with AMD, but not with the ECS. I have had problems with this board as it seems to be very finnicky with ram and whatnot. I would reccomend the Epox 8KHA7 (I think it is that, I forgot) It is very fast, and rock stable. IMO, Intel is very nice, but just too much money.

 

[Fatt]

Intel/Intel or Asus/Intel
Western Digital
Enlight
3Com or Netgear
Plextor

 

[Gibson486]

get an Intel peocesser with an Intel motherboard. like Gunbuster said, Intel does not messa round with unique futures when it comes to motherboards. They just give a a stable motherboard that gets teh job done, nothing else. It's the reason why so many manufactures use Intel mobos.

 

[SWirth86]

Go with the AMD XP and the ECS Mobo.....built 2 systems with DDR from Crucial, no problems. As for Hard Drives, I would use Seagate Barraccuda's because theyre fast and quiet....cheap at NewEgg also. I dont know about the DVD-R drive, but for the other drive could be a Lite-On CD-RW, maybe 40X or so.

 

[Markfw]

That combo is fine. The ECS motherboard is a very good INEXSPENSIVE motherboard. (I have 2 of those in my systems), but Abit and ASUS IMO are the most dependable. On the CPU, I recommend the retail versions (didn't use to) because their HSF's are not only sufficient, but fairly quiet, not to mention the 3 year warranty. If you do stray from ECS, I love my new KX7-333 Abit board, but you have to buy sound and nic. Since I use a really good sound card, and the nic is a few bucks, I don't care. If you stay with the ECS, here are some pointers for max stability:
1) Use DDR, it works better.
2) update the BIOS to the latest.
3) Have a good PSU unit (other people in this forum say this, enough that I will add this comment, but I haven't had a problem.)

The Intel vs AMD argument in this thread may grow, so if that is of any concern, there are many other threads to read. It could go on forever...

Good luck whichever way you go.

 

[ST4RCUTTER]

I've built two K7S5A systems (one running 24/7) as an MP3 server, and it's a decent board. I have run into a few glitches but overall a stable board. I too would rather see you pick up a higher quality board such as Gigabyte or EPOX, but $108+shipping is INSANELY inexpensive for a 1.4Ghz proc and motherboard. I'm almost tempted to pick them up just to make a box and sell it to a friend.

 

[StattlichPassat]

Stable? ECS? <snicker>

ASUS A7V333 motherboard or MSI KT333 Ultra motherboard
AMD Athlon XP 2000+ (best pricepoint currently)
Crucial 512MB PC2700 DDR333 (256MB PC2100 if you must... but make that the MINIMUM)
Visiontek or MSI GeForce3 Ti200 64MB graphics or better
ONE Western Digital 80GB 7200rpm 'Special Edition' 8MB cache hard drive

DVD-R drive is up to you- they're still pricey, and you can still fit quite a bit of movies onto an 800MB CD-R with the proper compression in whatever editing program you use. In which case I'd only go with a Plextor burner.

 

[Budman]

Originally posted by: Dr Smooth
Have him buy a dell.

Yes that's the best way for your dad,no tech support for you.

 

[Bovinicus]

I think the XP 1800+ is a real sweet spot for price/performance. The K7S5A is good for it's price. I would also say go with the ASUS A7S333, just because I have had bad ECS boards in the past. However, the K7S5A has come a very long way from the board I had. A Radeon DDR VIVO would be a good choice, but the AIW Radeon 7500 would do the job nicely as well. PC2100 is best bought from Crucial. Excellent memory (Micron chips) on a 6-layer PCB. The prices are good to boot. Also, I suggest a Rhytmic Edge for the sound card. For about $50 one cannot get a higher quality sound card.

 

[FishTankX]

Intel/Gigabyte is my reccomendation. If you have infinite money.
Gigabyte has an i850E motherboard with ICH4, integrated LAN, sound etc..

Get a huge amount of RAMBUS PC800 memory (low density) and get it to hit PC1066 and your in business. 512MB is sufficent.

I would reccomend you to shun AMD in this situation, because stability is a must (Intel systems can achieve month uptimes under heavy 100% CPU/harddisk loads.) and also because of this fact.

Intel wins hands down in any situation where video editing performance is needed.

Then again, you could always get him a mac!
Just kidding..

But really, for video editing, the P4 route is the best. And all i850E boards are rock solid. Even ECSs! You just can't go wrong with the i850+RAMBUS chipset. Or you could go i845G with DDR333, but RAMBUS just simply creams everything when it comes to any form of video editing.

Thus, my reccomendations are as follows.

2.53GHZ P4
The Gigabyte i850 board with itnegrated six channel sound, LAN, and USB2.
2X256 low density PC800, which should have a 90% chance of hitting PC1066 (This will push it's video editing performance into the stratosphere!
an 80GB 7200RPM harddrive (100$ at this point, either the cuda' IV or the D740X will do fine.)
An All in wonder 7500 will do fine. in the recent priceawtch for videocards some place was selling it for half it's normal price, or around 75$. Pick it up fast!
The rest is really up to you.

 

[Amused]

I suggest an Intel or Asus mobo.

Here is what I would build someone for stability:

Intel D850EMV2 +512MB PC800 RDRAM +P4 2.53GHz

Or

Asus P4TE533-C + 512MB 1066 RDRAM + P4 2.53GHz

If you feel you HAVE to use DDR, I'd do this:

Intel D845EBG2L + 512 DDR 2100 + P4 2.53GHz

Or

Asus P4B533 + 512 DDR 2100 + P4 2.53GHz

I'd also be very picky when it comes to your power supply too. I basically trust only Antec power supplies now, since they've never caused me a problem, and come out on top in nearly every review I've ever seen.

I've built a number of Asus i850 and i850E based systems, and the stability has always been rock solid. No tweaking or anything. It's solid from the minute you load Win XP.

Just stay away from the 32bit RDRAM solutions right now. (Asus P4T533 [no "c"]) They're having big problems.

Also, if stability is your main concern, forget doing any overclocking.

 

[timelapse]

ok guys, after reading both all your posts (thank you) i have the following to say:

- I might have considered intel if the prices were a tad lower
- No more dells for us
- I read up on anands via333 motherboard roundup and well he mentioned there were no big stability problems except with some boards when their ddr slots were full.

So right now what i have on my cart is this, i have tried to put a little to please everyone... LOL

Athlon XP retail 1800+
MSI KT4 Ultra2 mobo
crucial 256mb pc2700
WD special edition 80gb HD
lite on CD-RW
lite on DVD drive
floppy

the only thing missing is the vid card, why?

because i am going to give my dad mine and try to get a better one

All i want you to tell me is what is the cheapest card that will let me play decently doom3? Thanks a bunch and if you have any recomendations on the system please do tell me.

 

[Jmmsbnd007]

Just one thing: Don't let anyone convince you that an Intel CPU is more "stable" and "reliable" than an AMD.

 

[timelapse]

you know, i have always been pro AMD, but when a lifer or golden member tells me intel/intel is better, its kinda intimidating....

Bullies love to push me around

but its gonna be AMD!

i feel protected by the thousand miles of fiber optic cable that separate us! LOL

 

[Amused]

I have nothing against AMD processors. Just the long history of questionable stability in the chipsets that run them.

Look at any tech forum, and tell me how many posts you see that say "this Intel mobo is unstable!!"

Add that to my personal experience with Intel mobos and it's a no brainer for me.

At any rate, don't let my member status fool you. Much of that was gained by debating poltics in the Off Topic forum.

BTW, the Intel D845EBG2L + PC2100 + P4 2.53 combo I suggested is NOT much more expensive than a top end AMD solution.

It can be had for $474 from Googlegear. With the onboard LAN and audio, you'll save another $80 or so.

 

[owensdj]

timelapse, for stability you can't beat an Asus motherboard with an Intel chipset. I'd suggest the Asus P4B533 motherboard + Intel 2.26GHz P4. A 2.54GHz P4 is only about $30 more if you want more speed.

Why are you planning on buying 2 40GB hard drives? You can get 1 80GB drive for less than two 40GB drives.

I have the Radeon 64MB DDR VIVO card. It's pretty good for capturing video from my VCR. I used to have stability problems from ATI's capture software or drivers, but I think they've fixed that now. ATI now has cards like the All-In-Wonder Radeon 8500DV that can do analog and digital video capture as well as let you watch cable TV on your computer. I don't know if the analog video capture on this card is any better than on the older VIVO card. Maybe someone who has used both could tell us for sure.

Getting a DVD RAM drive might be a good idea for your father. He could make his own DVD movies from his old video tapes and also use it to do backups. They've come down to about $300 now.

 

[Insane3D]

BTW, the Intel D845EBG2L + PC2100 + P4 2.53 combo I suggested is NOT much more expensive than a top end AMD solution.

It can be had for $474 from Googlegear. With the onboard LAN and audio, you'll save another $80 or so.

I beg to differ..

Epox 8K5A2+ with 6 channel audio, Onboard LAN , and 6 USB 2.0 ports - $101
Athlon XP 2100+ - $125
512mb Samsung PC2700 - $125

Total : $351

I would consider $123 a significant difference...one could buy a 128mb Radeon 8500 with that much.

 

[kgraeme]

Originally posted by: timelapse

- I read up on anands via333 motherboard roundup and well he mentioned there were no big stability problems except with some boards when their ddr slots were full.

Unfortunately, Anand isn't always right. I bought the Iwill KK266-R based on his recommendation and it was an amazingly awful board.

I have no problems with AMD vs. Intel. I have built systems with both and I like both. But if it were a life and death situation, I would go with Intel.

Of course, not all Intel chipset mobos are perfect either. My ASUS P4B533 was trouble-free from the start. But the Epox 4G4A+ would lock up on boot because of the HighPoint controller.

 

[BD231]

N-Force chipset for the Athlon, Intel chipset for the Intel chip.