The Ultimate Computer...A proposal from Anand's BBS
The following is a post and responses found on the forum on Anand's Tech Site.
anandtech.com
>>>>I posted the ultimate computer a few days ago, and here is the second revision of that computer:
Pentium II 300 MMX Processor OEM $400
Abit LX6 rev. 1.1 $127
Mitsubishi 128MB SDRAM DIMM w/EEPROM $263
Seagate Medalist Pro 6530 6.5 gig 7200 RPM $275 ?
Diamond Fire GL 1000 Pro AGP 8MB $169
Canopus Pure 3D II (not released yet) $250 ?
ASUS CD-S340 CD-ROM 34X U-DMA $79
Ensoniq AudioPCI S5016 $36
USR Sportster Internal 33.6 Modem $65
Teac 1.44MB Floppy Drive $20
MS Intellimouse $21
PC Power & Cooling PII Heatsink/Fan $24
InWin A500 ATX case $73
Windows 95 OSR 2.1 $75
Total so far: $1877
Prices are from www.pricewatch.com. I tried to post the latest prices here.
Looks pretty good, eh? I went with the lx6 instead (of the asus p2l97) because all the other reviews said the abit was the best (both for performance and overclock stability). I DO want to overclock, so I won't get on-board SCSI.
About the video card: it was a tough decision. It was between the revolution 3d, millennium II, Fire GL, and STB Velocity. I do graphics, so I ruled out STB, and the Fire GL had the best 3D out of the rest, and the 2D performance on those were very close, so I chose the least expensive, the Fire GL ($169 compared to $200 for an 8mb millennium and $150 for a 4mb revolution 3d). I guess we'll see how it does.
Also, the hard drive was a tough choice. I want the fastest out there (UDMA, not SCSI), so it was between the Seagate, an IBM Deskstar 8, and a Maxtor DiamondMax 1280. I still don't know for sure which one to get so any suggestions are welcome.
Other considerations:
Pentium II 300 retail + fan $530
Pentium II 333 retail + fan (same price as OEM) $604
Corsair 128mb 3.3v, 10ns 100mhz $410
Hyundai 2x64MB SDRAM 10nS with EEPROM $264
Generic 128 MB (2x64) SDRAM $210
Asus P2L97 $138
AOpen AX6L $170
Chaintech 6LTM $143
Maxtor DiamondMax 1280 5.1 gig $200
Seagate Medalist Pro 9140 9.1 gig 7200 RPM $375 ?
IBM Deskstar 8 6.4gb $229
Millennium II 4MB AGP $140
Millennium II 8MB AGP $200
Number Nine Revolution 3D AGP 4MB $150
STB Velocity 128 3D 4MB AGP w/TV Out OEM $127
Creative Labs 3D Blaster Voodoo2 12MB $200
Toshiba XM6202B 32X EIDE CD-ROM $70
Does it sound good? Any problems that you see with overclocking? Any other suggestions?
Response
Personally, I don't like Seagate drives. I would recommend the IBM DeskStar, which is a great drive, but people have had problems overclocking to an 83 Mhz bus. So, personally, I'd pick up a Quantum Fireball instead, which is very overclock friendly.
As for the CPU, again since you stressed you would like to overclock, I'd pick up the 333 Mhz instead which runs MUCH cooler than the 300 Mhz, so you could overclock it much further much more easily.
Also, since you are overclocking, you may want to check out some of the PC100 spec SDRAM which will work at 100Mhz bus speeds. If your SDRAM isn't PC100, it may or may not work as bus speeds increase.
On a last note, I have an Abit LX6 here and love it, but have seen a decent amount of defective boards around. Interestingly, they're not failing after a couple months, but the 'dead on arrival' percentage seems a bit high. I've used the Shuttle HOT-637 which is a great, comparable board, so you may want to consider it instead.
Good luck.
Response
I have to agree with Kremlar on the hard drive matter: definitely go Quantum. I have a Fireball8.4 UDMA that totally whips ass. It cost me about $370 from Dirt Cheap Drives, and it took them four days from the day I put in my order on the net to the day I received it. I am unfamiliar with the Abit LX6 simply because I haven't built a computer in the last year and haven't kept up with what they all offer, but make sure the onboard bios supports UDMA, otherwise you may find
yourself purchasing a controller card, and wasting a PCI slot.
As far as the video card goes, I am perplexed with your choice of the Diamond card... I have heard many complaints that Diamond doesn't update their drivers as well as they should. This isn't, however,
something I know from personal experience. You say you picked the FireGL because it has better 3d performance, but if you're adding a Pure3dII (very good choice by the way), I would definitely go with
the Millenium II (8MB AGP), because it is tops in 2D. I can tell you from first hand experience that Matrox releases new drivers literally at least once every 2 weeks. They are very good with support of
their products, even if the Mill II may not have good 3D performance. It is, of course, up to you, though.
I would also go 333 if you have to build one now... but if you haven't seen Intel's pricing schedule for the coming months, you may want to check out www.tomshardware.com as Anand suggested recently to see just how much they'll go down in the months to come.
Hope the advice helps.
Response
I have that seagate and love it. overclocking it is good.Do yourself a favor and get the 333. I got the 300 and am still kicking myself for not spending the extra $150-$200. my friends 333 overclocks much easier and cooler.of course its faster also.<<<< |
