Suggestions for a stable, low cost, decent performing PC....

[Dick Malchik]

Hello group!

I was in Europe for two years, and left an old Abit-BP6 based desktop
system behind in the U.S. When I built it in 2001, it was a good(not
great) performer with 512 mb and dual celeron 500s.

For a couple years in Europe, I've used a laptop with a P-4 2.2 ghz.
I also had a 2 ghz celeron based system on a giga-byte board in Kiev
the last year.

Back home in the US now! My old twin 500mhz BP6 is slower than
molasses! Video files skip, Agent takes forever to sort/update new
groups, so on.

What's a good performing board/CPU/memory configuration at a
reasonable cost? I've been out of touch with new developments in
hardware, and the number of selections are overwhelming. If possible,
I want to salvage as much old equipment as possible.

Needs/system:

Not into games, but I do some amateur video editing with large files.
Also, I often work with/analyze large data files for research. WinXP
preferred OS.

Current equipment I hope to salvage: ATX case/power supply, Matrox
Marvel AGP 4X TV video, 2 WD 80 GB EIDE/ATA 7200 HDDs, Turtle
Beach/Voyetra Fiji sound card (ISA)

Suggestions?

Thanks,

 

[Chris Hill]

Hello group!

I was in Europe for two years, and left an old Abit-BP6 based desktop
system behind in the U.S. When I built it in 2001, it was a good(not
great) performer with 512 mb and dual celeron 500s.

For a couple years in Europe, I've used a laptop with a P-4 2.2 ghz.
I also had a 2 ghz celeron based system on a giga-byte board in Kiev
the last year.

Back home in the US now! My old twin 500mhz BP6 is slower than
molasses! Video files skip, Agent takes forever to sort/update new
groups, so on.

What's a good performing board/CPU/memory configuration at a
reasonable cost? I've been out of touch with new developments in
hardware, and the number of selections are overwhelming. If possible,
I want to salvage as much old equipment as possible.

Needs/system:

Not into games, but I do some amateur video editing with large files.
Also, I often work with/analyze large data files for research. WinXP
preferred OS.

Current equipment I hope to salvage: ATX case/power supply, Matrox
Marvel AGP 4X TV video, 2 WD 80 GB EIDE/ATA 7200 HDDs, Turtle
Beach/Voyetra Fiji sound card (ISA)

Sound card is trash; isa is long dead. The power supply isn't likely
to work very well in a modern system, chuck it and replace with a good
one. Drives are okay, unless they have a lot of use on them. A drive
over three that has been used for a lot of hours would be suspect at
best. If your requirements aren't that great I'd probably buy a nice
board from Epox, Asus or similar with an amd xp 3000 chip and a gig of
ddr-400. The performance increase will be worth the money. Throw in
a good Antec power supply of around 450w, a nice Seagate sata
drive(Last time I looked Seagate was the only one with the five year
warranty) and you should be good to go.

 

[Roy Coorne]

Sound card is trash; isa is long dead. The power supply isn't likely
to work very well in a modern system, chuck it and replace with a good
one. Drives are okay, unless they have a lot of use on them. A drive
over three that has been used for a lot of hours would be suspect at
best. If your requirements aren't that great I'd probably buy a nice
board from Epox, Asus or similar with an amd xp 3000 chip and a gig of
ddr-400. The performance increase will be worth the money. Throw in
a good Antec power supply of around 450w, a nice Seagate sata
drive(Last time I looked Seagate was the only one with the five year
warranty) and you should be good to go.

Not AMD XP 3000 but AMD Athlon 64 3000+ (or better) on a MSI or Asus
(or ASRock) board, otherwise FACK - may be OP keeps the 2 WD HDDs.
A problem, indeed, is the ISA sound card...

Roy

 

[Dick Malchik]

Sound card is trash; isa is long dead. The power supply isn't likely
to work very well in a modern system, chuck it and replace with a good
one. Drives are okay, unless they have a lot of use on them. A drive
over three that has been used for a lot of hours would be suspect at
best. If your requirements aren't that great I'd probably buy a nice
board from Epox, Asus or similar with an amd xp 3000 chip and a gig of
ddr-400. The performance increase will be worth the money. Throw in
a good Antec power supply of around 450w, a nice Seagate sata
drive(Last time I looked Seagate was the only one with the five year
warranty) and you should be good to go.

This helps narrow the choices considerably.

TYVM!

Rich

 

[Dick Malchik]

Not AMD XP 3000 but AMD Athlon 64 3000+ (or better) on a MSI or Asus
(or ASRock) board, otherwise FACK - may be OP keeps the 2 WD HDDs.
A problem, indeed, is the ISA sound card...

Roy

This helps, thanks!

Rich

 

[Chris Hill]

Not AMD XP 3000 but AMD Athlon 64 3000+ (or better) on a MSI or Asus
(or ASRock) board, otherwise FACK - may be OP keeps the 2 WD HDDs.
A problem, indeed, is the ISA sound card...

Roy

I meant 64/3000. I'd also consider a Sempron if the apps aren't all
that cpu intensive. . I'd rather have an epox than MSI; last msi
board I had was problematic and I never once saw a bios upgrade for
it; It'll be a while before I buy their stuff again.

 

[jaster]

Not AMD XP 3000 but AMD Athlon 64 3000+ (or better) on a MSI or Asus (or
ASRock) board, otherwise FACK - may be OP keeps the 2 WD HDDs. A
problem, indeed, is the ISA sound card...

Roy

Sempron 3000/3100 are lower in cost than AMD64 3000 but with almost the
same performance, higher performance when oc'd. And the 754 socket
Semprons are SSE2, 32/64bit processors.

Frys/Outpost.com has weekly sales of Sempron 3000/3100 cpus plus
ECS motherboard (10/100 lan, 5.1 audio, 4-6 2.0 USB) for $90 with another
$20 for the cooler. 350 watt would work, 380 watt insurance, 450 watt
overkill.

ATI X700, nVidia 5500 or better.

 

[Chris Hill]

Sempron 3000/3100 are lower in cost than AMD64 3000 but with almost the
same performance, higher performance when oc'd. And the 754 socket
Semprons are SSE2, 32/64bit processors.

Frys/Outpost.com has weekly sales of Sempron 3000/3100 cpus plus
ECS motherboard (10/100 lan, 5.1 audio, 4-6 2.0 USB) for $90 with another
$20 for the cooler. 350 watt would work, 380 watt insurance, 450 watt

Depends on how much stuff you add later and how much manufacturer is
lying. I wouldn't touch another ecs board with a 10-foot power cable.

 

[jaster]

Depends on how much stuff you add later and how much manufacturer is
lying. I wouldn't touch another ecs board with a 10-foot power cable.

I like them. I'm on my second, an ECS 755-A2 and the other is the
infamous K7SA5, v1 I think. I did the bios update thing on the K7SA5
while they were putting out updates. But I don't have problems with these
boards. I missed the nforce version of the board by a week and I would
have liked a boxed AMD64 3000 but with the $20 CoolerMaster it keeps that
box quiet.

 

[Peter]

I like them. I'm on my second, an ECS 755-A2 and the other is the
infamous K7SA5, v1 I think. I did the bios update thing on the K7SA5
while they were putting out updates. But I don't have problems with these
boards. I missed the nforce version of the board by a week and I would
have liked a boxed AMD64 3000 but with the $20 CoolerMaster it keeps that
box quiet.

Still got a K7S5A in one of my computers and, despite all possible,
available BIOS updates, it still loses its BIOS settings once in a
while. Fortunately, I've had to reset them enough times now to know
them off by heart.

 

[David Maynard]

Still got a K7S5A in one of my computers and, despite all possible,
available BIOS updates, it still loses its BIOS settings once in a
while. Fortunately, I've had to reset them enough times now to know
them off by heart.

<waving hi> mine too.

 

[Dick Malchik]

Hello!

From the replies, I've learned I should shop for an ASUS that uses
AMD64, and will accept my Matrox Marvel GTV-400 AGP-4X card. My audio
and 3Com cards are un-needed because of being obsolete. A gig of
Corsair or Kingston memory should do., 400 FSB or faster.

Thanks to all!
Rich