Opinions? (relatively long)

[TheGrandHooHa]

This is my first post on the forums, so let's see how it goes...

I saw this template suggested on a website (forget where).

Let me know what you think.

AMD Athlon Thunderbird 1ghz 266 Bus (Athlon-C)
IWILL KK266 Socket A Motherboard (1 AGP/6 PCI/ 1 ISA)
256 Megs, Athlon Compatible, CAS 2 Memory*
ATX Mid-tower Case with 340 watt power supply upgrade
GlobalWin FOP38 cooler/fan
LeadTek Winfast GEFORCE 2 Pro 64MB DDR (already own)
Use onboard audio on the motherboard **
Use a 60 Gig hard-drive that I already own
Diamond Supra Max 56k V90 Modem (no cable/DSL yet 🙁 )
Toshiba 12x DVD/40x CD drive
Altec Lansing ACS54X 5-Piece 3d gaming Speaker

Now for the *'d items (this post gets long now).

* - the CAS2 memory... should I replace this with DDR memory? If so, would I need to change motherboards
** - onboard audio from the motherboard... does this support 3d/surround sound (so that I could make use of the 3d gaming speakers)? The one site said it does, but one person in the forums said it doesn't. Does anyone know?
*** - I'm not sure what burner drive to use. Any suggestions? I'm looking for one (who isn't) that is an easy set-up. Possibly one that supports 80min CD's, but that isn't essential.

Sorry for the length and depth of this post. You'd really need to know alot to make suggestions, but if anyone has read all that and can suggest changes please let me know. Suggest brand changes or model changes or whatever would make this system better. I am trying to keep the system relatively low budget ... just enough to play Tribes 2 and/or Quake 3, but not sooo much that I can open up 4 copies of each game.

Whoo damn... carpel tunnel is setting in.


Thanks,
TGHH

 

[dave127]

Hey...good first post..its not too in depth...heres my opinions:

* if you were to buy ddr memory, yes, you would need a new mobo...its not really nesecarry now, but it does give a signifigant performance increase...if you have a few extra bux, you might consider it (its really not much more than sdram)

** i dont think that the onboard sound suppords 3d sound...even if it does, it uses cpu cycles because it is onboard...i recommend that you pick up a decent soundcard such as the turtle beach santa cruz...you can get one for around 70 bux now and it seems to be one of the best cards for the money

*** for a burner, i cant recommend anything other than plextor...all burners are the same to set up, and all models support 80 min cdr's...if you look on newegg.com, they have a pretty good price on the plextor 16x burner right now which will be the most practical for you to get

Hope this helps!!!
Dave

P.S. If you need anymore help, pm me and ill try to answer any questions...hope you enjoy your time here on the forums!!!

 

[erub]

can save a few bucks by checking out the hot deals forums for the burner and buying a 12X - will take about a min and a half longer to burn the CD. depending on how much of an issue this is to you, you may feel like you have better ways to spend the difference in cash 🙂