More New System Advice

1Racerdude1Racerdude Washington state
edited November 2003 in Hardware
I am going to try to build a system after all these years.
I already have a Koolance PC2-C case (for noise mostly),P4-3.2x800,2GB OCZ-3200,Vantec-520W PSU,Soundblaster Live card,a Soyo P4I875P Dragon 2 Plat,or a Asus P4C800E Deluxe. Both are about the same, so which is best,and the least trouble.I need to know what the difference in a ATI 9800--9800PRO--9800XT and if my untrained eye could tell the difference in them. I am not big into gaming,but I am getting there. I do some photo's and some music. I also do home movies with a lot of movement in them (racing)
Also on a DVD & CD R X RW beside Plextor what is a real good brand.
Any and all advice is much appreciated.

Larry

Comments

  • MediaManMediaMan Powered by loose parts.
    edited November 2003
    The video cards you listed are in order fast to fastest. Depends on what your wallet can afford.

    Home movies? Go raid for the storage drive and dual processors if you can. No need for the OS/Programs to be sitting on a raid but you want the media on a raid.
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited November 2003
    1. I like ASUS boards. They're reliable and stable, and they overclock decently. Not as well as ABIT generally, but certainly better than most boards.

    The 9800 is the slowest, the 9800 Pro is the middle, the 9800XT is the fastest. If you're getting into gaming, go with the best one you can afford.

    Besides Plextor, look at LiteOn optical drives.
  • 1Racerdude1Racerdude Washington state
    edited November 2003
    OK, what brand of HD would be good for the SATA.Should I get 2x80Gb OR ONE larger one for the HT system and should they be SATA--ULTRA ATA,or what?
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited November 2003
    hyperthreading has nothing to do with the hard drives. As for what would be best, get 2 160GB+ Maxtor DiamondMax 9 Serial ATA drives.
  • 1Racerdude1Racerdude Washington state
    edited November 2003
    Thanks for all the advice.It probably saved me a bunch of money trying different things.I like puting things together RIGHT the first time.
    I was leaning toward the Asus board,but is the Soyo to much trouble to fool with,if so it is for sale.I have read,after the fact,that they are a pain to set up.
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited November 2003
    Never had a Soyo board. They have a reputation for being OK boards... much like Chaintech, DFI, ECS, AOpen, Sapphire, (and a few others I can't think of off the top of my head), they're basically a generic mobo manufacturer. They aren't usually the fastest boards around, they overclock fairly well at best, not at all at worst, they may offer advanced tweaking options but they may not, but they ARE basically reliable, stable boards.

    My ranking of MB manufacturers:

    Best:
    ABIT, ASUS, MSI, Tyan (little/no overclocking though), Intel (no overclocking what-so-ever), Supermicro (little/no overclocking)

    Decent:
    ECS, DFI, Chaintech, Sapphire, ASRock (ASUS subsidiary), Shuttle's SFF PC boards ONLY, Soyo, Epox (overclock very well, reliability is somewhat questionable in some cases), Gigabyte, Biostar, Albatron, AOpen, Soltek, Via, and Leadtek.

    "Eh" (Read: They work, I guess... but I wouldn't use one):
    FIC, Shuttle's desktop boards, Matsonic.

    Avoid at all costs:
    PC Chips, TriGem, anything not listed above, unless you've read up on the board first.
  • ketoketo Occupied. Or is it preoccupied? Icrontian
    edited November 2003
    <--- sticking my hand up and voting for the P4C800-E Deluxe. A little fiddly to get right but a beautifully stable and full featured board one set up correctly. SimGuy will vote for the Abit IC7 Max3, it's also a very popular board at the high end and generally very well liked. These 2 are considered the cream of the crop for enthusiasts.

    With those 2 boards and many of the 875 chipset boards, you get onboard SATA RAID thru the southbridge. Basically, you run 2 (or more) hard drives in 1 of 2 configurations 1) RAID 0 aka striping - fastest RAID - 2 drives are effectively split in half so that data is read from and written to each drive at the same time. benefit = fast drawback = if 1 fails, you lose most likely lose your data 2) RAID 1 aka mirroring - the drives are each copied with the same data so that if one ever fails, you have all your data saved on the other one. benefit = safety, drawback = loss of half the size ie., 2 80 GB HD's only max storage 80GB total.

    SATA drives on the southbridge controller, even if not RAID, will be somewhat faster than IDE (aka P-ATA) drives but come at a price premium. The best SATA drive out right now is the Western Digital Raptor which spins at 10,000 RPM and is wicked fast, but it only comes in a 36 GB size, tho the 74 GB version will be hitting the market any day. The Maxtor's are getting the next best benchmark scores *that I have seen* so far, among SATA drives.

    Ur gonna have an awesome system whichever way you decide to go :thumbsup:
  • Geeky1Geeky1 University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
    edited November 2003
    I should clarify my last post a bit. The "Best" boards have a reputation for rock-solid stability, and extremely high reliability. ABIT boards generally overclock extremely well, although they can sometimes be somewhat fickle to set up and get running.

    ASUS boards don't usually overclock as well as ABIT's stuff does, but they're generally more-or-less plug-and-go. They are (IMO) the best boards available, bar none, for most people. They aren't always quite as enthusiast oriented as the ABITs, but they're easy to set up, easy to deal with, very rarely have any issues of any kind, are very fast at stock speeds when compared to similar boards, and are absolutely reliable and stable. And the higher-end models are generally pretty well loaded.

    MSI's boards are basically the same as ASUS- Reliable, stable, easy to deal with, and generally extremely feature-rich on the high-end models (MSI and Gigabyte probably cram more crap onto their boards than anyone else... this is a good thing, if you like gadgets).

    Tyan, Supermicro and Intel are generally absolutely the most reliable, most stable boards you can get. They have little to no overclocking features, and generally have less in the way of extras than ASUS, MSI and ABIT.

    The "Decent" boards, as a general rule, are essentially no better or worse for most people than the "Best" boards. They may be slightly less stable, or have a slightly higher failure rate, but the difference is absurdly small at most. They're generally less expensive than ASUS, MSI, Tyan, Supermicro, or Intel though (ABIT is generally relatively inexpensive).

    Soyo doesn't really set itself apart from other "decent" manufacturers, except for PCB colors and stuff. They're reliable, stable, somewhat tweakable/overclockable, and pretty reasonably priced.

    Gigabyte's high-end boards have more crap on them than any other manufacturer... If you want every imaginable feature, one of Gigabyte's boards usually has everything you want. However, their downfall is their reputation for awful overclocking and crappy reliabilty.

    "Eh" boards- I'm not very fond of these companies, FIC in particular. Their boards have given me more hassle than I care to think about. Shuttle's desktop boards are cheap, and there's a reason for that... they're not all that great. Matsonic I have no experience with, but the general consensus is that they get the job done, but that's about it.

    Avoid at all costs: These are the generic manufacturers- the ones that produce the boards that die a week after you buy them. TriGem OEMed HP, Compaq, and eMachine boards for a while. PC Chips is just a joke. If someone wants you to spend money on one of their boards, refer them to a psychiatrist. If you can get it for free, take it. Free stuff is free stuff. :D
  • Mt_GoatMt_Goat Head Cheezy Knob Pflugerville (north of Austin) Icrontian
    edited November 2003
    I must stress that if you put 2 HD's in a RAID-0 you need a third drive to keep your critical data backed up. It is also easier to set up your array from Windows insalled on this third drive also.
  • ThraxThrax 🐌 Austin, TX Icrontian
    edited November 2003
    Pioneer DVR-A06 for DVD burner.
    Liteon 52x CD-RW for CD burner.

    If I were to buy a P4C (Pffftahahhaah), I would be buying an Abit IC7-G or IC7-MAX3. Both are faster than the Asus board, and they overclock like a bat out of hell.
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