suggestions for a new computer

[estesflyer]

hiya, buying parts for a new comp here, got any suggestions?

my plan is to buy an amd athlon 950, and overclock it to run it at 1.3 - 1.4 ghz. i will be using a piezo cooling chip running off of a spare 250 watt atx power supply. going for a pc 133 512 meg memory card, and i will have a 128 & a 64 also in the slots.

planning on running windows inside of linux, think this might work?

btw, any suggestions on a motherboard?

 

[Karl Blessing]

I would recomend you dont overclock right now
This is what I Can recomend, fitting around your needs (I'll recomend a mobo that is typically good for overclocking if you chose)

AMD Athlon 1Ghtz Thunderbird - 131$
Asus A7V (Best motherboard, for stability and performance) - 102$
about 256 Megs of PC133 memory - 42$
if you are going to get a Tbird, dont use the 250Watt Powersupply, get a good 300 or 350 watt sparkle powersupply from Monarchcomputer.com, typically 40$ very clean power.

but all in all, check pricewatch.com for prices, check socketa.com for motherboard reviews.

I personally like Asus A7V it is a real good performer, has four IDE Channels (2 for ATA/100 , 2 for all others), etc.

The Soyo K7VTA-B (which is what I am currently using as a replacement since I blew up my duron 800 from O/C) , seems to be a good board, it only got 8/10 where as the Asus A7V got 10/10 , the reason the soyo looks good is that you can modify it's multipler with the jumpers, you can do the same on the Asus as long as you dont get the one with onboard sound.

but what I am recomending you is a
Tbird 1Ghtz 200FSB
Asus A7V
256-512Meg PC133
Sparkle 300/350 Watt PSU

you can get the 266 FSB 1Ghtz if you want, the Asus Supports it, although I dont know how much greater performance it gives.

Stay away from the DDR boards for now, none of the chipsets (AMD 750, AliMagik, KT266) seem to have more than 5% performance over boards that use PC133.

while you are looking at pricewatch.com, look at resellerratings.com to be sure you are buying from a company that wont give you such a hassle (like bad shipping, poor salespeople, etc) Karl Blessing aka kb244{fastHACK}

 

[xscape]

I do totally agree with kb244, but I'd also recommend the Abit boards. I'm running a KT7A at the moment and its been really stable. It's also excellent for O/Cing as it's uses Soft Menu III. This is a brilliant part of the BIOS that allows you to change nearly every setting for the CPU. If you need to, you can get the RAID version for a bit more but it's cos it can support more IDE devices. Highly recommeded for O/Cing.

 

[Karl Blessing]

hmm I Forgot all about Abit's SoftMenu, I had the ABit KA7 for Slot A Athlon, basically for all around performance/stability/quality

SlotA = Abit KA7
SocketA = Asus A7V

though they are right next to each other often marginal difference. Karl Blessing aka kb244{fastHACK}

 

[swayda]

Hi. Running Windows 4.x inside Linux isn't quite ready for prime time yet, though it seems to be coming along. I've toyed with wine, but I think developers got tired of trying to convert all those dll calls to system calls and decided it may be a lot easier to run Windows 4.x inside a virtual machine. Don Swayser
swayser@optonline.net

 

[Karl Blessing]

um, I'm sure you mean Windows NT 4.0.

in any case, you should try Win4lin (win4lin.com) and/or VmWare(vmware.com) Karl Blessing aka kb244{fastHACK}

 

[Karl Blessing]

just wondered why that post was even posted in this thread? Karl Blessing aka kb244{fastHACK}

 

[CitrixEngineer]

I'll just add my vote to ABIT, ASUS or SOYO (in that order) for choice of mobo. Otherwise, good choice of parts - go for Kingston or Crucial memory, especially if you're o/cing.

GeForce graphics card is essential if you want to put the icing on this god-box cake.

Keep it cool, though - I mean REALLY cool (35 C is nice). Additional fans are a good idea - I keep one reverse wired for steady airflow.

Or try this...LOL

http://www.envador.com/Photos/PVCII/OpenedUp1.JPG

 

[Karl Blessing]

for me It's Asus over Abit when it comes to socketA

right now I'm stuck with a Soyo board, because thats the best CompUSA had at the moment, this Soyo board seems nice, it's stable, but doesnt quite hit the performance rating I'd expect from an Asus A7V which I used when I had a Duron 800 (until I killed both the board and cpu messing with it too much) Karl Blessing aka kb244{fastHACK}

 

[thadwalt]

On the motherboard it just depends on how much money you want to spend. Set the winows and linux up as a dual boot.

 

[ITdoctor]

As far as Motherboards are concerned, here is my
order of Preference:

Asus
Gigabyte
Matsonic

 

[frag]

I can't recommend buying a GeForce3 right now.
There is no game on the market that supports the extra power/features the new GeForce will provide.
I don't know the prices in the USA but over here in Germany you have to pay about 450$ (1000 Deutsche Mark) for this new NVIDIA-board. Stick to your old card (if it's fast enough) or buy a GeForce 2 MX and wait for a big drop in prices!

:-( I want a new computer too!! :-(

cya

frag patrick.metz@epost.de