Would these parts make a good computer

[fenris]

I am about to purchase a new system and I have settled on the following components. Are there any issues that I should be aware of, or should I swap something out?


amd athlon 1.4 ghz 266 fsb

abit kt7a motherboard

2x512Mb pc133 sdram (totaling 1Gb of Ram)

NVIDIA GeForce2 MX 400 w/4ns (I am looking for a good all around graphics card. It doesn't have to be the best at games, but it should be good at 3d rendering and CAD stuff)

ibm desk star 75 Gb drive 7200 rpm

Pioneer 16X DVD / 40X CDROM

Troy Williams B.Eng.
fenris@hotmail.com

 

[hotfusion]

What O/S are you going to use? If Win98SE then don't have more than 320Mb of RAM installed as it could lead to instabilities. I would also get the hard drive partitioned into several partitions - this not only reduces the cluster size leading to better use of the space, but you can then keep data and programs separate. Graphics card seems more than adequate for your needs. My suggestions are what I would try myself. If incorrect, I welcome corrections to my rather limited knowledge. Andy.

 

[Eguy]

Hi Troy;

Allow me to make a few suggestions.

Go with the kt7a RAID board.
Go with 2 smaller IBM HD's and set them up as RAID 0
1 GB of RAM may be overkill. But with memory prices what they are... go for it!

Whatever Video you decide on make sure its for tha AGP BUS.
Get a good case with plenty of fans. I am using the Antec file server case w/the 2 optional fans

I am using the kt7a RAID & amd athlon 1.2 ghz
and 2x20.5mb hd's as RAID 0 & 512mb ram

So far I'm just as happy as a clam in white sauce.



Please let me know if the sugestion(s) I provide are helpful to you.
Sometimes your the windshield... Sometimes your the bug.

 

[dakota81]

Looks fine, though I would suggest checking into DDR board & RAM. The cost difference is really not much at all, and having DDR RAM will be better for upgrading later on. Best deal I've seen is at

http://www.crucial.com

for DDR memory, plus you'll be getting top quality from them. If you do go DDR, motherboards based off of the AMD 760 chipset perform better than the KT226 chipset. Myself, I'm using the FIC AD11 board and am very happy with it.

And your choice of DVD drive is top, Pioneer is the best performing drive I've used (I've used the Toshiba 16x, Creative Labs 12x, and Pioneer 16x). Just make sure the drive you get is ATA/66 compatible, which would be part number 106 for slot and 116 for tray. The ATA/33 version is part number 105 for slot and 116 for tray.

The graphics card is a good choice, just go with a good brand, MSI, Visiontek, Asus, Creative Labs, Hercules to name the best companies. Even a cheaper brand is not so bad thanks to nVidia's universal drivers.

As for raid setups, just be aware that if one drive goes bad, you can lose access to both drives.

 

[fenris]

Thanks for the input it is much appreciated! I am planning on running windows 2000 server so memory issues shouldn't be a problem.

The only reason I have not gone with the raid board is because I don't have much experience with scsi equipment and most of the work that would done on this computer is engineering calculations and such where the processor and the ram are the bottlenecks, not the storage.

As far as the ram goes I figured I might as well get a gig, then I won't have to upgrade the computer for a long time.

Thanks for the input....
Troy Williams B.Eng.
fenris@hotmail.com

 

[ceh4702]

My kids keep pointing out they want a CDR/W drive. It is nice to be able to copy CD ROM's. If you do not like my post feel free to point out your opinion or my errors.

 

[Ma3x323]

Hey fenris,
WAIT FOR THE NFORCE MOTHERBOARDS! Just a suggestion. Seems pretty interesting and you wont have to buy as much stuff. That's what I'm doing. -Feryl
--> Just a silly software engineer wannabee.

 

[jdrake]

Troy,

I could be very wrong as I just looked into the new Abit RAID MB's a little. But from what I saw there is nothing SCSI to worry about. You simply have 4 IDE connections on the board and you can setup 2 or maore drives in a RAID configuration. I read about this at

http://www.tomshardware.com.

If I am wrong....................OOOPS...........

Jerry

 

[fenris]

I have been doing a little more research into the items I had listed previously (mainly because I can't seem to find a place that has good prices and seems trust worthy!)

I have another motherboard that I am looking at, the asus A7A266. Would this board be a better choice coupled with 1024 Mb of DDR SDRAM?

Also would anybody have links and opinions of good Canadian retailers of custom systems? I would also be interested in links to American retailers as well? I more concerned with quality than with price. I have found a couple of sites (2 American and 1 Canadian) that have given me quotes. After exchange and S&H and taxes the prices are pretty comparable.


Troy Williams B.Eng.
fenris@hotmail.com

 

[fenris]

I did a little more research and found the asus a7v266 which seems more along the lines of what I would want.
Troy Williams B.Eng.
fenris@hotmail.com

 

[dakota81]

Don't worry so much over which brand of motherboard you're choosing, pick your motherboard first in terms of what chipset you want. I recommend finding a DDR board that uses the AMD760 chipset, performance tests have shown the AMD chipset to outperform VIA's chipset in speed, and I'd also factor in the problems VIA has had in the past couple years with faulty chip shipments and other issues. ALi's chipset just does not offer any worthwile speed improvement with DDR over regular SDRAM, so that's not worth buying at all.

Then decide on what manufacturer to go with. Here's basically how I consider different companies:
Asus - Best Quality
FIC - Best Prices, Less PCI Slots
Epox - Best Service
Abit - Has ISA slot (does their DDR board have it?)
MSI - High Quality, Low Price, _NO_ Support

Myself I went with FIC's AD11 board and I've been happy with it so far. You're going to be happy with whatever board you get really, they all are reliable - just a long as you avoid the company PC Chips, don't even come within 100 yards of any of their boards.

 

[fenris]

Thanks, I think I'll check out the FIC boards.

What I am looking for is a good stable board that will allow me to get the most out of my system. I am not really interested in overclocking as such because I have never really seen any performance improvements. Besides with the really fast chips heat is too much of an issue.


Troy Williams B.Eng.
fenris@hotmail.com

 

[ceh4702]

I have purchased items from

http://www.axiontech.com

including motherboards. They actually have a helpdesk and will test the motherboard for a fee. I dont think they are into assemble though.

I have purchased Micron memory from

http://www.crucial.com,

and they have free shipping on some items in the US and offer a 10% net discount. I don't know about Canada.

I have also purchased other parts like network cards from

http://www.computers4sure.com.

They have a pretty large inventory of computer peripherals like harddrives CDROM, networking supplies etc.

You might try just buying a Dell computer. They let you custom configure the computer. Maybe at

http://www.dell.com

is the right web address.

I am sure someone else knows other locations. You have to be careful about some places that do custom computers. Sometimes they overcharge for their limited shipping and costly memory upgrades. If you pay much more than $60.00 for 256 MB of memory you have been ripped off.

Try Pricewatchers.com or some other comparison web site. If you do not like my post feel free to point out your opinion or my errors.

 

[dakota81]

I've put together seven new computers for people this year, which is far more than typical. 3 have been with Abit motherboards because I wanted to use the ISA slot so we didn't have to change out some components. The other 4 have been with FIC motherboards, purchased for their low costs. Each computer runs solid, and I know any other top manufacturer's board will suite you nicely. The one thing with the FIC boards is you will have to push on some capacitors a little bit to install the cpu's heatsink. It's something to be aware of before purchasing one, though it's not as bad as it sounds, the capacitors are put on strong, unless you hit at them hard they will not break off.

I mean so if you're willing to deal with the capacitors, you can find the AD11 board for $110, and if you hunt I've seen it as low as $90, which is saving $50 or $60 compared to the Asus board.

 

[shmiller]

Check out the ECS K7S5A motherboard. It's one of the first boards with the SiS 735 chipset. It's new but so far, it's outperforming all the other Socket A DDR chipsets, including the AMD 760. And you can get one for $65. Its a lot cheaper because it's a single chip instead of a north bridge/south bridge. Whatever board you decide on, check out

http://www.newegg.com.

They have some of the best prices and have a good reputation. And if it was me, I would stay away from OEM and stick to retail. It's worth paying a little more to know if you have a problem, you've got a warranty.

 

[n0795]

Hi is there any reason you are planning to go with windows2000 server and not pro.
Unless you want to run a web server or RAS, DNS then I would suggest going with PRO instead of server.
I use both and I dont think I would want to use Server as my work station.

Nick
Techical Support Dallas Tx
MCP A+
Good luck

 

[fenris]

Nick, any particular reason why you wouldn't recomend server over workstation?

The main reason I want to use it, is to learn about it. So far I am having no trouble with it.....

Thanks for the input though... Troy Williams B.Eng.
fenris@hotmail.com

 

[n0795]

Windows 2000 server uses a lot more system resources I have just always used servers as servers and nothing else.
Unless you want to learn active directory or DNS I would stay with PRO this is just a personnal pref.
I guess if your happy with it stay with it.
I use a win2000 pro work station and it does me fine and I use 2 WIN2000 servers for my MAIL,DNS,IIS5

If you want to learn about this stuff server is great but the problem is if your still learning you may mess things up and if its your work station as well you may lose data.
Just a thought.

Nick
Technical Support
Dallas
MCP A+

 

[fenris]

Thanks for the tip. But I am not to worried about my data as it is stored on a secondary drive.... Troy Williams B.Eng.
fenris@hotmail.com

 

[n0795]

Ok good luck .
I would advise you to install sp2 and any patches IE:code red