 Free Scan: Update Your PC's Outdated Drivers to Optimize Performance 
October 21st, 2002, 12:30 AM
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#1 (permalink)
| | Junior Member
Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Los Angeles
Posts: 2
| GeForceTi or ATI & more Help!
I am trying to get my 2 sons great units, mainly for online gaming, school work, a little video editing but I don't know which components are best within reason. So here it is. . . help me im ignorant! give me the do's and don't
Motherboard:
Do I need to stay away from the cheap ones?
Is the bus speed the most important factor?
Suggestions: Asus or...
Processor:
Probably going with the XP2000 or close unless P4 are better for gaming
Memory:
DDR 512 or do I need more?
Is 266 ok or get 333MHz?
Cheaper brand to avoid?
Drive
80G 7200 good enough?
Video card (the big question!)
knowing it is one of the key parts for gaming I know I will have to spend $ so:
Should I look only at the 128mb?
Should I get one of the better GeForce Ti of ATi:
Or is it overkill because the capabilities of the card exceed human perception (fps & more)
Sound card: ?
Network card:
Is there a performance difference between a $15 and a $45 one?
beside DVD, CDRW, USB2, Firewire, 300 wts pwr sply, any other important parts I am forgeting
So you have it: HELP me not make mistakes I will regret so I dont have 2 tell my 2 boys it's your fault!
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October 21st, 2002, 01:03 AM
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#2 (permalink)
| | Member
Join Date: Nov 2001 Location: Tokyo-Japan
Posts: 3,949
| Quote: |
Do I need to stay away from the cheap ones?
| Cheap ones are doing great work now, but if you can afford better ones you will not regret it. Quote: |
Is the bus speed the most important factor?
| Bus speed is important for general system performance including Gaming. Epox or SOYO Quote: |
DDR 512 or do I need more?
| 512MB should be enough, most games will not take more than 100MB~200MB from system memory while playing them. I recommend the VIA KT333 chipset. Don`t bother with the 400FSB coz the performance difference is negligible. Non brand!! .. avoid them.
Crucial Kingstone Corsair are among the best makers. It is a fast drive. Look after Western Digita brand, i have it and i love its performance. Quote: |
Should I look only at the 128mb?
| Newer games will need this amount of huge memory for the big texture. So 128MB is better, IMO. Quote: |
Should I get one of the better GeForce Ti of ATi:
| The best card in the market now is ATI 9700 ..
But i will still recommend Nvidia over ATI, GF4 Ti4600 should crunch any game you through at it with a nice FPS and all eye candy enabled. Maybe creative Audigy. I use the on board sound as i don`t care for high quality sound. Quote: |
Is there a performance difference between a $15 and a $45 one?
| Better card will take a little CPU utilization. i recommend Intel network cards. Quote: |
beside DVD, CDRW, USB2, Firewire, 300 wts pwr sply, any other important parts I am forgeting
| Nope, just a big nice 19" flat screen.
PS. take a good 350W PSU at least, 400W is better and safer incase you wanted to add more parts.
Welcome to TechIMO 
Regards
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October 21st, 2002, 01:30 AM
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#3 (permalink)
| | Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: Michigan, USA
Posts: 998
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What KenKun said, but...
If these are going to be going with the the kids you might want to look at modems. I know that broadband is great, but it costs and is not always going to be available.
Otherwise looking good. (Real good, can I have one?)
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October 21st, 2002, 01:30 AM
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#4 (permalink)
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Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: Midwest
Posts: 145
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I really like the Asus A7V333 board. The onboard sound is awesome. If you can't afford the Corsair XPS stuff, go with Kingston or PNY Optima. The worst thing that you can do is buy generic memory. I also like the TI4200 with 128MB. If you're going to spend more than $100 on a video card, make sure it's 128MB. I like the Gainward card for around $200. Don't forget about fans. This AMD system is going to run pretty warm. The more case fans, the better. With all of those extra fans you'll need something bigger than a 300 watt power supply. I reccomend the Antec Tru 550. It's been great. My 2 cents. | |
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October 21st, 2002, 02:09 AM
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#5 (permalink)
| | Ultimate Member
Join Date: Oct 2001 Location: PA
Posts: 1,442
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All the above Comments are pretty good- I would also look at MSI MotherBoards with onboard NIC... you might also consider onboard sound. If both your sons live with you- I might assume that you wont want both them blasting the Volume of their games or music continuously. A couple of the nicer (around $110) MSI boards have onboard NIC and 6.1 sound. I have run several different boards and more and more I like the MSI boards. I have always been a BIG fan of Gigabyte Titan Boards, still am- but MSI is right there with Titan... IMO. Another Runner up is the Albatron boards- they are speed boards and seem to be getting popular with the OverClockers (relatively new to the Market). I have never used or installed one, so cant speak of them firsthand.
Speaking of Albatron... I just ordered the Albatron Medusa Ti4200P Turbo from NewEgg. They are a little more pricey (around 180-190) than normal Ti4200's but incorporate Ti4600 Architecture and Components (as well as use the ddr 3.3 speed ram). They boast Ti4600 performance at Ti4200 cost. All the reviews and benches I have seen prove this- Stock, there is only a 5% performance difference between the two classes. Also, the Ti4200P Turbo will overclock almost as far as the 4600's to 315/700 with the stock HeatSink/Fan setup. Very nice, very impressive. Just a way to shave money without losing performance.
GoodLuck,
Mortis | |
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October 21st, 2002, 02:14 AM
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#6 (permalink)
| | Senior Member
Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Austin Tx.
Posts: 604
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I just put this system together for my son. And it's a rockin'. It's handlelin' any game I throw at it, even UT2K, with settings at Medium..
I was on a budget so that's why I went with the SD Ram, insted of DDR. The Mother board has onboard LAN, and Sound. Sound is good, but to low when usin' head phones. But I'm still VERY happy with this system.
Hope this helps.
Specs: (All from Newegg)
Amd 1600
Volcano5 HS/FAN (I'll get a better fan)
ECS K7S5A SiSŪ 735 SOCKET A MoBo
Gainward 645mb Geforce3 Ti 200
WD 40GB HDD
FoxConn Case
Lite On CD-ROM
Samsung Floppy
512 pc133 (from Frys)
Total 480.00 This with the Ram from frys. | |
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October 22nd, 2002, 01:38 PM
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#7 (permalink)
| | Junior Member
Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Los Angeles
Posts: 2
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Thanks to all of you out there for helping me figure things out, when ordering the PCs I will pick the brains of the suppliers a bit more on the video cards: all that overclocking is foreign 2 me :-(
ABSPC (vendor) seems to be recommended and has improved their customer services: we'll see
Any other comment is welcome
ps:
and I hope my 2 boys will blast their music/sound because they actually "borrow" my CDs (linkin prk & ...) they seem to disappear from my office until I hear them in their bedrooms!
kids are cool!
Thanks again 4 Ur help
VR | |
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October 22nd, 2002, 01:59 PM
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#8 (permalink)
| | Member
Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Caribean Skies (P.R., D.R, etc.)
Posts: 198
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October 22nd, 2002, 02:00 PM
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#9 (permalink)
| | Member
Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Caribean Skies (P.R., D.R, etc.)
Posts: 198
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BTW, Welcome to Techimo!!
Enjoy your Stay!!  | |
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October 29th, 2002, 05:25 PM
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#10 (permalink)
| | Ultimate Member
Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: southampton, pa
Posts: 4,792
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For sound i would go with Turtle Beach Santa Cruz.
BM | |
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