New System - Want Feedback

[Andy Littlefield]

I am getting ready to buy a new system and this is what I have picked
out, any feedback on it and possible alterations would be appreciated:

Case: Antec Performance 1 P-160 with window
PSU: Antec True Blue 480
CPU: AMD Athlon64 FX-51
Motherboard: ASUS SK8V
Memory: Corsair TwinX ECC Registered 1 GB
Hard Drives: 2 Western Digital 74GB Raptors
Mouse/Keyboard: Logitech Cordless MX Combo
(MX700 Mouse, Elite KB)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon 9800Pro 256Mb
Sound Card: Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum
DVD Drive: LG GCC-4520BB Combo DVD/CDRW Drive
CD Drive: LG GCR-8523 52x CD
Floppy: Teac
OS: Win XP Pro

I am planning on keeping my existing monitor for now.
I am also thinking about keeping my Audigy 1 Platinum for the present

Thanks Andy

 

[Aaron]

I am getting ready to buy a new system and this is what I have picked
out, any feedback on it and possible alterations would be appreciated:

Case: Antec Performance 1 P-160 with window
PSU: Antec True Blue 480
CPU: AMD Athlon64 FX-51
Motherboard: ASUS SK8V
Memory: Corsair TwinX ECC Registered 1 GB
Hard Drives: 2 Western Digital 74GB Raptors
Mouse/Keyboard: Logitech Cordless MX Combo
(MX700 Mouse, Elite KB)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon 9800Pro 256Mb
Sound Card: Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum
DVD Drive: LG GCC-4520BB Combo DVD/CDRW Drive
CD Drive: LG GCR-8523 52x CD
Floppy: Teac
OS: Win XP Pro

I am planning on keeping my existing monitor for now.
I am also thinking about keeping my Audigy 1 Platinum for the present

Thanks Andy

wow, quite a system. why no dvd burner? if your spending all that you
might as well have one of those in there. also you might want to
consider having another raptor as your primary boot, and the other 2 in
raid 1 for data protection. that is, if you have alot of data that you
feel is critical and need more than just on a cdr or dvdr.

Aaron

 

[jeffc]

Sound Card: Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum
I am also thinking about keeping my Audigy 1 Platinum for the present

Yeah, I just don't see the advantages to the latest and greatest sound cards
(like I do for video cards). Unless you're doing some multimedia doodling
with a feature that you specifically want in the ZS, I think I'd pass.

 

[Dave C.]

wow, quite a system. why no dvd burner?

Actually, I was wondering what the CD-Rom drive was doing in that mix.
CD-Rom drives are almost as useless as floppy drives, now. IMHO I don't
know whether the OP needs a dvd burner, but why buy a CD-Rom drive when a
DVD-Rom drive is the same price and just as fast for reading CDs? -Dave

 

[Aaron]

Actually, I was wondering what the CD-Rom drive was doing in that mix.
CD-Rom drives are almost as useless as floppy drives, now. IMHO I don't
know whether the OP needs a dvd burner, but why buy a CD-Rom drive when a
DVD-Rom drive is the same price and just as fast for reading CDs? -Dave

umph, point taken. didn't think of it that way, I was just thinking of
having it as a way to copy from cd-cd on the fly, but I forgot that if
he ended up putting in a dvd burner, it'd make more sense to have a
dvd-rom.

 

[petebrannon]

Get the sound card, its much better than anyonboard sound.

I've got that exact same sound card, what a difference it makes. The
drivers at first didn't work well with windows xp, but it seems like witht
the newer drivers i downloaded its working much better.

sounds like a nice pc
good luck

 

[jeffc]

Get the sound card, its much better than anyonboard sound.

I said what I said because he said he's already got an Audigy 1 Platinum.

 

[Bob Adkins]

I am getting ready to buy a new system and this is what I have picked
out, any feedback on it and possible alterations would be appreciated:

Case: Antec Performance 1 P-160 with window
PSU: Antec True Blue 480
CPU: AMD Athlon64 FX-51
Motherboard: ASUS SK8V
Memory: Corsair TwinX ECC Registered 1 GB
Hard Drives: 2 Western Digital 74GB Raptors
Mouse/Keyboard: Logitech Cordless MX Combo
(MX700 Mouse, Elite KB)
Video Card: Sapphire Radeon 9800Pro 256Mb
Sound Card: Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum
DVD Drive: LG GCC-4520BB Combo DVD/CDRW Drive
CD Drive: LG GCR-8523 52x CD
Floppy: Teac
OS: Win XP Pro

I am planning on keeping my existing monitor for now.
I am also thinking about keeping my Audigy 1 Platinum for the present

Unless you are going to do some heavy-duty network serving, 1gb of RAM is
mostly wasted. I have ran 1gb and compared with 512mb on my high end apps,
and I swear I could not tell the difference. Un zipping large files did not
improve, running PhotoShop filters, no help. Get 2x256 sticks of good Cosair
and plug them into slot1 and slot 3 for dual channel implementation.

Why all the horsepower and cash wasted a high end sound card? Even a cheap
sound card plays MP3's as good as they can possibly be played. I have no
problems with my onboard sound on my Asus motherboard. It sounds just as
clean and powerful as my SB Live!.

A CD Reader is wasted money. Your system is so fast it can create ISO's in a
minute and burn it in another 3-4 minutes max. That $30 can go toward better
hardware.

Why 2 Raptors? Going to use RAID? If not, consider getting a 1.2gb WD1200JB
for a backup drive instead of the Raptor. Ah. You probably like the SATA. It
is nice!

Spend the money you saved on an Asus P4C800E-Dlx and a 3.4ghz Northwood.
Nothing will touch that combo for many months to come.

Bob

 

[Aaron]

Bob Adkins wrote:

Unless you are going to do some heavy-duty network serving, 1gb of RAM is
mostly wasted. I have ran 1gb and compared with 512mb on my high end apps,
and I swear I could not tell the difference. Un zipping large files did not
improve, running PhotoShop filters, no help. Get 2x256 sticks of good Cosair
and plug them into slot1 and slot 3 for dual channel implementation.

well, what if he is playing games? I know that I have 512megs(upgrading
to another 512 stick soon!) with battlefield 1942 that it hits the swap
file during the game, which does impact gaming somewhat, trust me!
otherwise, you are right if he's just surfing the net and word
processing and stuff. but considering he's getting an FX51, that doesn't
seem to be his goal.

Aaron

 

[Andy Littlefield]

umph, point taken. didn't think of it that way, I was just thinking of
having it as a way to copy from cd-cd on the fly, but I forgot that if
he ended up putting in a dvd burner, it'd make more sense to have a
dvd-rom.

I have an external Firewire DVD Burner at work so I was figuring to
just take it home when I wnated to burn something. Original reason
for the second cd was if I wanted to copy on the fly. Plus I figured I
would leave the CD burner for burning not simply playing discs. Now I
am thinking I will make the second drive a CD/DVD if I get one. How
much faster / better would an internal EIDE DVD writer be over the
external firewire one? IT guy at wokr prefers the external firewire
ones.

 

[Andy Littlefield]

wow, quite a system. why no dvd burner? if your spending all that you
might as well have one of those in there. also you might want to
consider having another raptor as your primary boot, and the other 2 in
raid 1 for data protection. that is, if you have alot of data that you
feel is critical and need more than just on a cdr or dvdr.

Aaron

I am planning on placing the two raptors in Raid 0. I am not that
worried about data protection. Anything important is backed up
regularly, so teh most I would lose owuld be some saved games.

 

[Andrew Littlefield]

Unless you are going to do some heavy-duty network serving, 1gb of RAM is
mostly wasted. I have ran 1gb and compared with 512mb on my high end apps,
and I swear I could not tell the difference. Un zipping large files did not
improve, running PhotoShop filters, no help. Get 2x256 sticks of good Cosair
and plug them into slot1 and slot 3 for dual channel implementation.

Why all the horsepower and cash wasted a high end sound card? Even a cheap
sound card plays MP3's as good as they can possibly be played. I have no
problems with my onboard sound on my Asus motherboard. It sounds just as
clean and powerful as my SB Live!.

A CD Reader is wasted money. Your system is so fast it can create ISO's in a
minute and burn it in another 3-4 minutes max. That $30 can go toward better
hardware.

Why 2 Raptors? Going to use RAID? If not, consider getting a 1.2gb WD1200JB
for a backup drive instead of the Raptor. Ah. You probably like the SATA. It
is nice!

Spend the money you saved on an Asus P4C800E-Dlx and a 3.4ghz Northwood.
Nothing will touch that combo for many months to come.

Bob

Since I first posted this I have already received quite a bit of
feedback and decided to go with an AMD 64 3400+ with an ASUS K8V Deluxe
and 2 512mb sticks of Mushkin PC3200 222 Special low latency memory.

The cd reader was for cd to cd copying. I am now thiking of a CD/DVD
drive and either a DVD or CD burner. I have an external Sony Firewire
DVD writer at work I can take home whenever I want so I could skip the
DVD writer for now and save some money there.

If I get a new Audigy I will probably go with the regular Audigy 2 ZS.
I have an Audigy 1 Platinum now and have only used the front drive a
couple of times. I may simply keep my current Audigy for a while.

I am planning on putting the two Raptors in a RAID 0 setup.

I also am thinking fo going with the BFG GeForce FX 5950 now instead of
the Radeon 9800Pro. I have had good luck with NVidia for quite a while,
plus my parents hvae stock in nvidia.

Andy

 

[petebrannon]

oh ok, thats koo. srry jeff