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

To: mowa who wrote (6901)	3/30/1999 7:17:00 PM
From: Spots	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 14778

Ok, you asked for it <g>. Here are my comments: >>57.00 Enlight EN-7230 mid-tower case (4 exterior 5" bays) Probably a good case, but I REALLY like my InWin Q500A ATX 300W (94.00) lots and lots of interior room and good fan areas. Quiet built-in fan. Will hold 5 internal drives and doesn't suffer the lousy drive placement of some other full towers. Sides come off separately. Only about 4-5 inches taller than many mid towers. >>$115.00 Abit BX6 2.0 mother board (P III support) My choice; what can I say <gg>? >>$75.00 Celeron 300A @ 450mz (anyone know of any other vendors besides Minotaur (out-of-stock) selling pretested 300As? Oh? Wonder where you'll get it. Nice choice but maybe not available now. I don't have a good recco here. >>$45.00 Glacier 4500C + Arctic Cap (quad on-cpu fan) I bought some 26/27db quiet fans at Fry's (thanks to ZP) at 9 bucks each w/ball bearings (at least they claim) and have been very satisfied. Cool cpu, though I'm not monitoring. These Celerons run very cool overclocked. >> ??? 128 mb Looking for a memory type / manufacturer recomendation, price / performance I bought Mushkin's ECC 128mb CAS 2. Maybe CAS2 not worth premium, but I'm still glad. ECC is worth the premium, IMO. >>$374.00 CTX-VL 950S USB 19" monitor (short depth, w/USB hub) Personally I've had crummy luck with CTX but my experience is too old (several years now) to be worth anything. >>$130.00 ATI RAGE FURY 32 mb AGP (32 bit 3D, DVD-handling / Tom's Hardware reports it runs hot!? Hmmm...) I got Matrox G200 AGP and it's quick but 3d sucks to my limited experience, which is VERY limited. >> $220.00 IBM 14GXP 10gb @7200 rpm (that Maxtor is a definite possibility ZP) I have had good performance from 17g Maxtor's, but I can't get Partition Magic to work nor can I boot from large partitions as others report. Fast, though. >>$78.00 Imation LS-120 floppy (I always debate this one) No experience. >>$160.00 Adaptec 2940UW SCSI card I've had great luck with the Mylex Flashpoints, but have not put them to much of a test. Less than half the price, but not wide. I don't want wide. >>$105.00 Plextor UltraPlex 32X SCSI internal CD-ROM My choice again, what can I say?? >>$70.00 3Com 56k V.90 faxmodem internal No comment. >>$55.00 SBLive! value (I know some here are bullish on the Ensonics, should I be as well?) My choice again! I paid $79, though :( >> $105.00 Altec-Lansing ACS-48 PowerCube Plus (stand back, this thing is lit) No opinion >>$41.00 Logitech cordless mouse Wish they had a cordless trackball. Till they do I'll stick with the trackman wheel mouse. >>$25.00 MS Natural keyboard Hate it myself, but a matter of opinion. I use IBMs @ 29.95 from Compusa.

To: mowa who wrote (6901)	3/30/1999 11:53:00 PM
From: Zeuspaul	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 14778

$374.00 CTX-VL 950S USB 19" monitor (short depth, w/USB hub) Is it time for USB? I still have the best luck when I disable it in the bios..probably a resource issue. It may be alright if keyboard and mouse are USB..but products still in short supply or expensive. I have a monitor with some kind of USB capability..but I do not make use of it. $57.00 Enlight EN-7230 mid-tower case (4 exterior 5" bays) I would go full tower if you have the room. Extra bays are not really extra if you consider you need space between some drives. $220.00 IBM 14GXP 10gb @7200 rpm (that Maxtor is a definite possibility ZP) Maxtor has a 22 gig 7200 RPM drive..(not easily found) Actually I have had trouble finding most of Maxtor's new line of 7200 RPM drives. The 5400 RPM 17 gigger is down to $245 at TJT. I weigh the extra space more than performance. The convenience of loading entire programs and ancillary disks is a plus. Still can not go overboard. Corel draw and Corel Graphics Pack II came with 10+ CDs. That one combo can take a chunk out of 'big' drive. I am with you on the removables...convenience. If only more internal components had external access:( The Maxtor has the edge for removables. The jumper on the master does not have to be changed..same for slave present and slave not present. My IBM drives do not work this way. $78.00 Imation LS-120 floppy (I always debate this one) Biggest problem IMO is the loss of an IDE channel..Sony's drive (still vaporware I think) is supposed to work on the floppy controller. $160.00 Adaptec 2940UW SCSI card I followed Spots and Sean to the Mylex drive. I have had no problems. I bought the single channel controller. Next time it is the dual channel Mylex for me. Good price for fifteen IDs..none of the 'useless' greater than 7 IDs found on the wide controllers. Also has built in RAID..have not made use of it yet. $25.00 MS Natural keyboard If that is the bent keyboard..I agree with Spots. I have one and DO NOT like it. I type with four fingers and the big space between the keys makes for SLOW typing. It also takes up too much room on the desk. Zeuspaul

To: mowa who wrote (6901)	3/31/1999 11:19:00 AM
From: Dave Hanson	Respond to of 14778

Mowa, I'll just add to Spots and ZP here: SB Live is the choice if you'll run games, esp with a 4-speaker setup (Creative's 4-point speakers or desktop theatre are quite good for this for the price.) If not, ensoniq audio PCI is more than enough with slightly more mature drivers (and a net -$1.05 price tag!) ATI Fury should be a great choice. $30 rebate, too. I'm running the Xpert 128 with the same Rage 128 chipset. Drivers not quite optimized yet, but still I detect no noticable errors for work in NT or 95. Note that if you don't care about TV-out, the Xpert 128 is more available and $50 cheaper with the same rebate. The buy.com pricing on this and the ensoniq may not last. HDDs: if you use space like ZP, the 17.2 gig or new 7200 RPM model (once available) is a good bet. If you're like me and use less space, consider the 10.8 OEM gig Maxtor drive. They're down to $150+, and have the same larger cache size. Good luck, Dave