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Pastimes : Dream Machine ( Build your own PC ) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Clarence Dodge who wrote (711)	5/20/1998 1:21:00 AM
From: LTBH	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 14778

Boy you sure are tough on a guy that needs to get to bed. I'll have to stretch my memory a bit. This gets a bit complicated. First there's a PC100 spec which among other things identifies the number of layers on the MIB (8 I believe), the method of part marking (might want to check Anandtech for the part marking info) and a certification by Intel. Here's where it gets interesting. Only one manufacturer is currently certified by Intel. But the mem doesn't fully comply with the spec. Need 6 ns chips to properly comply but only 8ns chips currently available. Another PC100 problem is that a number of vendors have incorrectly coded the Eprom on the MIB, this causes inefficient use of the RAM best case (read as slower than it should be) and sometimes it flat won't work on some MBs. My rip off comment meant to convey that a number of distributors sell SDRAM as PC100 when they don't even meet the part marking spec let along the MIB construction etc. So you pay extra for naught. Abit is a good MB and is favored by the overclock crowd. Acer/A Open is a good MB favored by the reliability crowd, its a tenth of a point or two slower than Abit but is rock solid stable. But you need to do your own homework here and check out the features of each and see which suits your preferences. Networm

To: Clarence Dodge who wrote (711)	5/20/1998 1:49:00 AM
From: Zeuspaul	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 14778

PC100 RAM and the PII 266 You do not need PC100 RAM for The PII 266. PC100 RAM is for PII 350/400/450 CPU's. If you ever want to upgrade to the faster CPU's then you should go for the PC100 RAM (maybe). From a cost point of view, by the time you upgrade your CPU, if you do, the PC100 RAM will probably be quite a bit less $'s than it is now. If you opt for the PII 333 you may never find the need to upgrade your CPU. The PII 333 runs cooler than the 266 and 300 MHz CPU's and still does not require PC100 RAM. The PII 266 that is quoted is OEM. I believe warranty policies are different for OEM CPU's. I know they are substantially different for Intel OEM motherboards. The difference in cost is minimal. Expect NT 5.0 sometime in 1999. Zeuspaul

To: Clarence Dodge who wrote (711)	5/21/1998 12:39:00 AM
From: Zeuspaul	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 14778

>> Would you suggest the Millenium? Use PCI or AGP? 4MB enough or spring for 8MB?<< The Millenium II is one of the best 2D cards around. Matrox has a good reputation for maintaining updated drivers. ( NT and Win95) It has been the standard. Newer cards are starting to hit the market but the improvements are not related to 2D. The new cards have 3D, TV, and video capture capabilities. The amount of RAM depends on the number of colors you want to see and at what resolution. I do not know the specs off hand but you can find them on the Matrox site. If you are working with a 17 in monitor there is no way that you will be able to use 8MB RAM. 8 MB RAM would be for a 21 in Monitor at 1600 X 1200 and millions of colors. This would be for graphics types of applications. AGP or PCI? You will not notice a performance difference. The decision here is based on your available slots. If you are getting a BX board get the AGP ( verify that the board has an AGP slot first, I have seen a couple server cards that do not have AGP). You will pay a few dollars more for the AGP but you will save a PCI slot which you may need for something else. Zeuspaul