Will anything else speed me up?

[James Brown]

I have just ordered the following system:

Intel Pentium 4
2.6Ghz (512K, 800mhz Bus)
1GB Ram DDR 400mhz, PC3200
200GB Western Digital Drive (7200rpm, 8MB Cache, 8.9ms)
ATI All-In-Wonder 128 Radeon 9600 Video Card
LG 52X CDRW
LG 8X DVD/RW
Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live (my current card)
Panasonic 1.44 Floppy
ASUS 478 Socket Intel 865PE Motherboard
(8) USB 2.0, (1) Parallel, (1) Serial
10/100/100 Ethernet
300W Power Supply
Microsoft Internet Keyboard & Optical Wheel Mouse
Black Mid-Tower Touch Systems Case

I want to use this box to convert my VHS home movies to DVD, and have a
great gaming PC for the kids. I hope I have made the correct choices, and I
have 1 week to change any items.

Any thoughts from anyone? (any way I look at it, it will be better than my
PII 450 w 256MB Ram)

James

 

[James Brown]

It is actually the ATI All+in+wonder 128MB 9600 PRO card

 

[Phil]

That's a nice system, but I would get a real good 400W PSU for that rig.
Never underestimate the benefits of a good anf powerful PSU. Antec and
Enermax make great PSU.

 

[James Brown]

Is there a really big difference between 300w and 400 w?

 

[Strontium]

Depends on how it is distributed, among the rails. Definitely suggest an
Antec, either way.

-
James Brown stood up at show-n-tell, in
[email protected], and said:

 

[James Brown]

Are their problems if I do not have a 400W?
What is the disadvantage in not doing it?

 

[Uncooked meat prior to state vector collapse]

Are their problems if I do not have a 400W?
What is the disadvantage in not doing it?

I would start here for an *idea* of what my PSU requirement would be

http://www.jscustompcs.com/power_supply/


I have an Antec power supply and it is supreme in every way. I could only
suggest buying an Antec, or googling some PSU reviews if Antec is not an
option. Keep in mind that wattage is not everything, a low quality 500W
power supply will not stand up to a high quality PSU of much less wattage.

 

[jdc1]

Are their problems if I do not have a 400W?
What is the disadvantage in not doing it?

Why have a kickass system and only a 300w supply?
It's a no brainer. Think of the future needs.

 

[Darthy]

I would start here for an *idea* of what my PSU requirement would be

http://www.jscustompcs.com/power_supply/

Seen this "calculator" - its very inaccurate, generalized and in the
end - useless. It's also on a SELLING site.

I have an Antec power supply and it is supreme in every way. I could only
suggest buying an Antec, or googling some PSU reviews if Antec is not an
option. Keep in mind that wattage is not everything, a low quality 500W
power supply will not stand up to a high quality PSU of much less wattage.

A good quality 300 watt PSU will handle the load. I've setup servers
with the following hardware in a single box:

PIII CPUs x 2
4 sticks of RAM - 1GB
5 x 15,000 RPM Drives
SCSI RAID U160 Controller (About $500)
3 x Server NICs
Video card
CD-ROM/Floppy

Powered by a 300watt PSU.

When my Antec350 watt PSU died and I waited about 1-2 months to RMA
it, I used a 3year old 300watt PSU by Enlight. I had also noticed the
system was more stable than with the Antec for the past few weeks
before it blew. Today, still using 350watts with fairly high power
demands.

Antec, enermac, ThermalTake, Fortran and most anything over $50 is
best.

 

[Darthy]

While 300~350 watts are fine for most users... but considering the
budget you have and the cost, I'd go for a good 400watt PSU.

Price should be about $10~25 more.

Read this article, choose a PSU... based on TRUE power, noise and
reliablity.
http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1841

For price and high rating, the Forton looks good. Friend bought it
for $60 (400watts) from www.newegg.com Don't get the typical $20
junk 420watt PSUs such as TurboLink - these blow up alot.

PSU can die, cause system instablity, drive errors and of course smoke
your whole system (rare).

I have some questions.
1 - What kind of case are you getting? A good case will have good air
flow... a junky one can have heat build up problems and/or noise.

2 - What ASUS board are you getting? They make a dozen different
models for the P4 alone. You want one with ON-BOARD Firewire... I
suspect you may have a DV-CAM... these things ROCK with firewire!

3- If youre not happy with the video editing software, try out
SoundForge (know Sony) MovieBlast! its about $100.

4- When you convert to DVD, consider these things. MAKE BACKUPS.
I *DO NOT* know the reliabity of DVD-R Media, bet there are issues
with CD-R Media's life span. When some cheaper media can start to
"decay" within months. Get good DVD-R discs, like TDK or SONY -
locate a review site for this. So when you burn a DISC, make at
least 2... at $3-5 each, these are cheap.

5- Keep finished video projects on HD for backup... HDs are cheap.

6- Also, for additional backup - you can get a Firewire EXT HD 160GB
drive for about $150 nowadays. Good place to store a backup of your
system VIA Norton's GHOST - but also your video files. In case of
fire, grab that drive or store it in a fire proof safe.

 

[Jerry Hunnicutt]

I just migrated my old stuff (amd 2100 and 9700pro)
over to my daughters case with a 300w ps. Sure enough it would boot but
locked up just trying to open folders in windows. We went immediately and
bought another ps (420w) and all problems are gone. The 9600 will be ok but
I would look around for a 9700pro or a 9800 instead.

 

[DaveW]

The 300 Watt Power supply, especially if it's not a great brand like Antec,
is not going to cut it in that system.

 

[James Brown]

I have some questions.
1 - What kind of case are you getting? A good case will have good air
flow... a junky one can have heat build up problems and/or noise.

(A) I haven;t decided yet

2 - What ASUS board are you getting? They make a dozen different
models for the P4 alone. You want one with ON-BOARD Firewire... I
suspect you may have a DV-CAM... these things ROCK with firewire!

(A) ASUS 478 Socket Intel 865PE Motherboard P4P800

 

[James Brown]

I have been told the 9600 is far better than the 9700. I didn't want to
spring the extra for the 9800. Almost every article I have read pointed me
to the 9600.

 

[J. Clarke]

I have been told the 9600 is far better than the 9700. I didn't want to
spring the extra for the 9800. Almost every article I have read pointed me
to the 9600.

I've never seen anything that suggested that the 9600 was "better" than the
9700 in any regard but power consumption and possibly fan noise. There is
very little performance difference between the 9700 and the 9800--the only
real change between the two was an improvement in the pixel shader. The
9600 replaced the 9500 and didn't bring any real improvements, just
hard-locked the performance at a level lower than the 9700/9800s--some
9500s could be soft-modded into full 9700s, but the 9600 can't be modded
into anything but a slightly faster 9600.

 

[Darthy]

I have been told the 9600 is far better than the 9700. I didn't want to
spring the extra for the 9800. Almost every article I have read pointed me
to the 9600.

Who told you that? The 9600, not even the 9600XT is in the same class
of a 9700 or 9800 cards.

 

[Darthy]

(A) I haven;t decided yet

Look around.... check this out:
http://www6.tomshardware.com/howto/20030804/index.html

I've worked on this case myself, in agreement. I want it for myself
as well!!

http://ap.terrabox.com/rpc This Enermax case rocks, its about $60 now
on www.newegg.com

(A) ASUS 478 Socket Intel 865PE Motherboard P4P800

Okay..

PS: I forgot to include a LINK comparing various cards... 9700 vs 9600
vs 9800 etc is included:

http://www6.tomshardware.com/graphic/20031229/vga-charts-13.html#unreal_tournament_2003

 

[Dark Avenger]

It's quite simple... the 9500 Pro is extreemly hard to find on the
market. It's big brother isn't being made anymore and slowly follows
the 9500 Pro into the 2nd hand market. Most 9700's you can buy know
are on the 2nd hand market... telling to me. Remember they are still
great cards.

The 9600 is a slighly upgraded version of the R3xx chipset, with a few
extra function.

The 9600 pro has in many cases the same performance as the 9500 Pro,
remember the 9500 pro is the smaller brother. The 9700 Pro is
considerable faster as both the 9600XT and the 9500 Pro, but depending
on the location also can cost quite more.

The 9600XT will suit you fine, though its updates and has a few more
functions inbuild as the R300 versions the differences are not like
going from black to color television.

Performance wise is the 9700 Pro still faster, though the chipset on
that is definitly older as 1 year.

 

[J. Clarke]

It's quite simple... the 9500 Pro is extreemly hard to find on the
market. It's big brother isn't being made anymore and slowly follows
the 9500 Pro into the 2nd hand market. Most 9700's you can buy know
are on the 2nd hand market... telling to me. Remember they are still
great cards.

The 9600 is a slighly upgraded version of the R3xx chipset, with a few
extra function.

No. The 9800 is a slightly upgraded version of the R3XX. The 9600 uses the
RV350 (or RV360 in the XT) which is made using a different process from the
R300 chips and does not even have the silicon to implement certain
capabilities that are present on the R3XX chips.

The RV chips are deliberately crippled with comparision to the R chips
specifically to prevent modding the boards to R standard.

 

[James Brown]

Remember it is the All-In-Wonder 128 9600 Pro I am getting. not jus the
regular 9600 Pro.