What do you think of this system?

[whizler]

AMD: DURON 600, SOCKET A, 200MHZ FSB, 192K CACHE

AOPEN: MK33, VIA KT133 CHIPSET, SOCKET A, DURON, AUDIO

TOSHIBA: SD-R1002, CD-RW/DVD COMBO, 4X/4X/24X, EIDE

CREATIVE LABS: MODEM BLASTER, 56K, V90, PCI, FAX/DATA

MAXTOR: 31536U2, 15.2GB EIDE UDMA 66, 5400 RPM, 512K

NEC: 1.44MB-3.5", FLOPPY DISK DRIVE

ASUS: V7100, GEFORCE2 MX CHIPSET, 16MB SGRAM, AGP

ENLIGHT: 7237, ATX, MEDIUM TOWER, 250W

LOGITECH: MOUSEMAN+WHEEL, 2-BUTTON, SCROLL WHEEL

ACER: 52TB, WINDOWS 95 KEYBOARD WITH PS/2 CONNECTOR

CRUCIAL TECHNOLOGY:128 PC/100, CAS 2, MICRON CHIP

JUSTER: AIRWAVE 861, 2-SATELLITE, SUBWOOFER, 700 WATTS


No plans to overclock. It's a home system I'm building for a friend. I'm particularly curious if there are any problems with the video card and DVD drive for DVD playback. TIA

 

[ERJ]

If you have no plans to overclock you might not need to get that memory. Might I suggest the SyncMAX memory that was listed in hot deals ($179 for 256Mb of PC133). That should do you fine. You might also consider a higher clock chip (if you don't plan to overclock $50 for some extra Mhz might be worth it). Also, get the 32mb MX. Doesn't make sense to go with the 16mb to me. The MX works fine with software DVD.

ERJ

 

[Wingznut]

If not overclocking... Maybe up it to a Duron 700. I believe they are only like $35 more.

And I'd really recommend a larger HD. You can pick up a Maxtor 30g 7200rpm UDMA100 drive for about $120 from buy.com.

Using generic RAM instead, could offset the cost enough for the upgrades. And it would be a better PC overall.

Sorry I couldn't offer any insight on the DVD/MX compatibility, as I have no experience with that combo.

 

[Niege]

I'd agree with a slightly faster CPU, slightly lower quality RAM, and a 32 MB graphics card. I also wonder about 700 watts of subwoofer power? I hope that's a typo. If not, my hunch is that you could use a whole lot less and put some of those $$ toward the above. For my main home sound system I'm using a 400 watt subwoofer and it's too much when cranked way up. Other than those nit picks, it sounds like a great system.

 

[Wingznut]

Juster advertises those outrageous numbers. I'd strongly suggest a smaller, yet better quality speaker setup.

And definitely a 32meg MX card. I didn't notice earlier, that it was only 16meg.

 

[whizler]

Thanks for your comments guys!

The Crucial Tech CAS2 memory was an excellent price - $129. CAS3 wasn't much cheaper, so I decided to go for it.

Price was a factor and I had to skimp on some areas, especially since they particularly wanted the CDR/DVD drive. I wanted to get a Live! card, but had to settle for the onboard audio. 600Mhz was easily fast enough for their needs. Besides, if they want to upgrade the CPU in the future, it should be rather easy, not to mention cheap.

What will going to a 32meg card do for them? They got a 19" Trinitron monitor and don't play a lot of 3D games like Quake III. AFIK, if the card itself runs out of memory, it will go to main system memory via the AGP bus, ergo, the 128mb of CAS 2 (but obviously at a hit on performance) That said, if the consensus strongly favors going to the 32mb card, I'll do it.

The speakers were cheap Another not really important item.

The total cost for all of this, including shipping, was about $922. Purchased from Axion Technologies (www.axiontech.com)