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Please check out this system

grrl

grrl

Diamond Member
Please check out this system I'm putting together for a friend. He's a pretty serious gamer but will not be overclocking. I'm trying to give him as much bang for the buck as possible and a gaming system that won't be out of date too soon. Since he doesn't know that much about computers, stability and compatibility are most important. The case and components are all black.

I plan to get almost everything from Newegg. I saw on their site all the Epox boards have a notice saying refunds are not accepted, only replacements. Are they getting too many defective Epoxs?

Antec Plus 660B w/ 2 80mm fans and 330w TruePower PS - $116 (from Str8buy)
Athlon XP 1900+/266 (retail) - $76 (from NuTrend)
Soltek SL-75DRV5 (Purple Ray) VIA KT333 (retail) - $83
Samsung Original DDR333 PC-2700 256MB CAS2.5 - $75

Maxtor 40GB Quiet Drive 7200RPM Model 6L040L2 - $79
Lite-On 16x DVD (48x CDROM) Model LTD-163 - $44
Lite On 32x12x40 CDRW Model LTR-32123S - $64
Panasonic Floppy - $13

Creative Modem Blaster V.92 56k - $19
or Diamond Supra SST V.92 56k - $14
Voyetra Turtle Beach Santa Cruz - $59
Would the Audigy be a better choice at $60? Does it have problems with VIA like the Live Series?

ATI Radeon 8500 64MB DDR OEM - $109 (looking for a lower price)
NEC 19" FE991SB - $305
MS Web Mouse - $20
MS Natural Keyboard (needs to be Korean/English, so will be purchased separately)
Back Ups Office USB 350 - $70 (buy.com, but may be gotten at a B&M)

He's willing to spend $100 on speakers. He's not looking for anything monstrous since space is a little limited. Are there any good black speakers around? I have no idea what choices there are in any color, but I've read some negative things about the quality of the Logitech Z54.

Total Before Shipping: $1240 (minus KB)


Edited to substitute a better video card
 
what OS?

I'd grab another stick of RAM if you can afford it.
I have the Turtle Beach card and unless you have good speakers its all relative.
Search around the net for a better buy of a hdd. For 80 bucks or a little more, you can buy a bigger hdd than the 40 GIG.

http://www.pricewatch.com

i bought an 80 gig maxtor 7200 for 90 bucks at a computer show and 120 gig maxtor 5400 for 130 USD.
 
I read a good review on the Soltek, I thought it was on Anand, but I can't find it now. Maybe Tom's?
 
You're talking about the Soltek 85ERV, that's a P4 board, I'm getting an AMD XP.
 
more ram would be preferable, but not neccessary if he is on a tight budget. I would really try to get a radeon 8500 instead since it is only 40 bucks more..

you should also be able to buy a much larger hard drive for that price..as others have said

stick with the santa cruz over the audigy in my opinion

also, i have a couple of friends that are running that soltek board.. it runs well, but there were just a few issues in the beginning trying to set it up because of the anti-burn shield and fsb settings..but it was worked out rather easily.. the soltek board should be just fine

looks to be a rather good system though
 
My friend usually plays Civilization and WarCraft. I'm not a gamer so I don't know that much about the hardware requirements for different games, but are people recomminding 512 MB of RAM because of gaming or Windows? I have 383 MB on my machine running 2000 and I have no problems even when using Photoshop.

I'll check around for a larger and cheaper HD, but I'd like to get ATA133.
 
Well, WinXP does like to use a lot of RAM so 512 is nice to have..and games these days tend to use a lot more RAM.

Also, don't bother with getting a ATA133 drive because it does nothing to help performance.. nothing against Maxtor drives( I use one myself) but don't buy it just for the ATA133 support.
 
Doesn't look like a bad system, but I would change a few things. First, if you really think that a 40 Gig HD is enough, then save a few bucks and go with a cheaper drive. Personally, I would make it a little more future-proof and go with an 80GB drive. You can get this Samsung 80GB 7200 RPM drive for $76, or this Western Digital 80GB 7200 RPM drive for $82, depending on your preference in drives. The cheapest Maxtor was $9 more than the Western Digital. Though I own two Maxtors, all of my recent purchases have been Western Digital, first because of the price, and second because of that ridiculous ATA133 b.s. which Maxtor is trying to pawn off as a better performing drive. Please trust us and go with a cheaper drive; ATA133 is 100% worthless unless you plan on running a 4 disk Striped RAID array.

If you do decide to save a few bucks with a cheaper 7200 RPM 40GB drive (and even if you don't), I would also recommend a GF4 Ti4200 for graphics. They don't cost much more, but they'll give you much more performance. The cheapest ATI I found was this one for $92 with free ground shipping. There were cheaper 8500's on Pricewatch.com, but they were either no longer available or LE's. You could spend a mere extra $30 and get this GF4 Ti4200 which also has free ground shipping. It's more than worth the extra $30 IMHO.

I hope this helps.
 
Originally posted by: grrl
If he is a serious gamer, why a low end card?
Click to expand...

More for price, but I'll talk him into spending more. Maybe the Radeon 8500. Something about $125 max.
Click to expand...

You can pick up the Radeon 8500 128MB retail at CompUSA for $129 after the instant saving. I think it's only for this week, so purchase fast! 😛 I'm thinking about getting it too.
 
RE:"The soltek MB didn't get that great of a review on AT. They liked the Via MB better."

The Soltek is a great board but lacks USB 2.0. No raid option. Uses dip switches.
Does use the AMD internal diode and very stable.

You can get some more bells and whistles with the Epox or MSI boards for about the same price.

The new Soltek KT400 board soon to be released has all the bells and whistles.
 
Please trust us and go with a cheaper drive; ATA133 is 100% worthless unless you plan on running a 4 disk Striped RAID array.
Click to expand...

Ilmater, I agree. I was thinking about the hype when drives went from 66 to 100 (i.e burst rates versus sustained rates) and decided 133 probably isn't worth it. I'll probably get a WD, although I've had good luck with Maxtor. I don't trust Samsung enough to gamble. I still don't think Korean QC is where it should be.

Thanks for the links. I'll look into the Ti4200. Does it have trouble fitting on some mobos?

ojai00, doesn't the 128 meg Radeon use regular memory, not DDR? I read that the performance difference between the 64 DDR and regular 128 was minimal and not worth the extra money for 128.

Macro2, he doesn't need raid, but I would like USB 2.0. I thought Soltek had that. Time to do a little more research.
 
ojai00, doesn't the 128 meg Radeon use regular memory, not DDR? I read that the performance difference between the 64 DDR and regular 128 was minimal and not worth the extra money for 128.
Click to expand...

I checked out the link that I gave you to see for sure. It says 128MB DDR. Have a looksie for yourself 🙂
 
You are right ojai00, thanks for the info. They also have the 80 gig Maxtor DiamondMax for $80 after rebates. That's a great price. He is going to try to get to CompUSA before the weekend.
 
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