Building a new system. All advice appreciated :)

[AjK]

Hiya everybody!

As the topic says, I'm building a new system. I don't have millions to spend on a new computer so I want to get the best out of my bucks.

I'm considering a setup based on:

Duron 650mhz/700mhz >>> o/c 950mhz
GeForce DDR 32MB
128MB RAM

There's a couple of things I'd like to know...

1) I've heard 650mhz Durons o/c to 950mhz. Is this a safe way to go or should I go for 700mhz? I don't want to get into a situation where my 650mhz CPU can go only up to 750mhz or something. Is this depending on the Motherboard?

2)Motherboard?
-How much does MB speed relate to my setup's overall performance?
-Is there MB's that are better for overclocking than others?

3)Monitor, 17".
Suggestions for a good 17" monitor please. And as I have limited funds I'm not buying a $600 Sony Trinitron.... I bet they're good quality but.. http://www.pcmech.com/ubb/smile.gif


Many thanks in advance!

AjK

[Charliey]

Mother Board: motherboards dont affect the system speed very much, but they do affect stability. What chipset the mobo uses does affect speed. The Abit KT7 is a great mobo, its got lotsa overclocking features.

Monitor: Go to www.pcworld.com (http://www.pcworld.com) and look in their benchmark section for a good 17" monitor.

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-Charlie

[fredwest]

Hi AjK,
For a sound card the Sound Blaster Live Value seems a good bet on a tight budget!

HTH


Yours

Declan (aka fredwest) http://www.pcmech.com/ubb/smile.gif

[AjK]

Thanks a bunch!

I will check Pcworld for monitors. One MB I'm considering is Asus A7V, it's not the cheapest though.

Fredwest, I already have a Monster Sound MX300 in my old system and I'm going to use it in the future aswell. One less component to buy and I just love that digital gameport http://www.pcmech.com/ubb/smile.gif

AjK http://www.pcmech.com/ubb/smile.gif

[Xayd]

One thing to be sure and pay attention to on the monitors is shipping. They usually cost more to ship than you save from buying online. I'd check for reviews, and then get it locally at a CompUSA or Best Buy or something to avoid the shipping issue.

As far as overclockers go, of all the overclockers I've run across, few prefer any boards but Asus and Abit.

Xayd

[LawyerRon]

Hey AjK,
The motherboard will be the foundation of your system and determine stability. Don't skimp here. The recommendations posted are tried and true. You won't be disappointed.


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"To speak ill of others is a dishonest way of praising ourselves"

[Carl Price]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Xayd:
One thing to be sure and pay attention to on the monitors is shipping. They usually cost more to ship than you save from buying online. I'd check for reviews, and then get it locally at a CompUSA or Best Buy or something to avoid the shipping issue.

Xayd<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
WWW.onvia.com (http://WWW.onvia.com) has free shipping for monitors and egghead is only $5.00. Onvia at least does not seem to jack up it's prices to cover it either.



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Carl

The dyslexic intern gave her boss a jb

I tell my son that grades are a reflection of his attitude on life. If he is willing to accept mediocrity in grades then he will be willing to accept mediocrity the rest of his life.
<A HREF="http://www.alladvantage.com/go.asp?refid=eta239

" TARGET=_blank>http://www.alladvantage.com/go.asp?refid=eta239

</A>

[glc]

Sam's Club is selling CTX 17" monitors for $170 and CTX 19" for $280. CTX is a decent cheap monitor.

[Amanita]

IMO stay away from Proview/EMC. Had two 19"...both bad. Cheap for a reason. Replaced with Samsung. I'd look at Samsung. I've also heard good things re:CTX. Both in the same price/performance arena.

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Endeavor to persevere

[RayH]

Abits are fairly reliable boards and good for clocking because they are jumperless. Asus makes EXTREMELY reliable boards. They're also pretty forgiving. But they also have EXCELLENT documentation.

[LawyerRon]

What about ViewSonic, any opinions?

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"To speak ill of others is a dishonest way of praising ourselves"

[theENiGMA]

ViewSonic's are fairly good. I owned a 15" monitor from them. No complaints. I sold it with my old K6 233 system. Still works to this day, as far as I know. I sold it to a friend. If you had money to burn, which no one does, go for the monitor I have. It's a Mitsubishi Diamond Pro 900u. 19" Flat screen, meaning trinitron style. Very, VERY nice! I bought it as a factory refurb on uBid, but of course the auction is over now. Just like new! I got it for $312 after shipping. From Mitsubishi it's over $600 new. Just a thought. I'm sure that's a ways out of your price range.
-KEiTH


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Well, I'm off to go look for myself. If I should get back before I return, tell myself to wait for me.

[This message has been edited by theENiGMA (edited 08-12-2000).]

[WJWheels]

As with many other brands, a Viewsonic isn't just a Viewsonic. They make monitors of varying quality and price ranges. It's not much different than you asking, "Is a Gateway computer any good?".... well, it depends which model you're talking about.

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In Cyberspace no one can
hear you scheme...

[Gintaras]

Monitor. Go to ADI (Http://www.adiusa.com).

[AjK]

Thanks a lot, all of you http://www.pcmech.com/ubb/smile.gif You've been very helpful! I knew it wouldn't be for nothing to come post over here http://www.pcmech.com/ubb/smile.gif

I wish we had such good internet shops over here in Finland as you do in US. The prices here are the same as in store so it doesn't justify the shipping costs... and shipping from US to Europe... no thanks http://www.pcmech.com/ubb/smile.gif

AjK

[padgettj]

One internet site I've found invaluable for my computer shopping experiences has been www.pricewatch.com. (http://www.pricewatch.com.) It's an excellent site that gets prices from hundreds of different resellers and also includes information from each about shipping and handling. You really have to check it out. I saved a couple of hundred dollars building my system. I ordered everything from dealers listed on this site.

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Jason Padgett
padgettj@mindspring.com

[This message has been edited by padgettj (edited 08-15-2000).]

[Chhhhh]

I don't know how much you can pick one up for, but I've had good experiences with the ViewSonic GT775. Its a little bit pricy though.



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Real programmers dont use documentaion. If it was hard to write, it should be hard to read!
Error: Sector not found -- search behind couch? (Y/N)
Application has reported a 'Not My Fault' in module KRNL.EXE in line 0200:103F

[jotto84]

hey man, I know you allready chose the duron but think again, the amd athlon with perforance enhancing cache(or something like that) aka thunderbird is cheap, almost as cheap as duron and if your looking at the asus a7v, check out the asus k7v its the thunderbird version of that duron crap your thinking of, and if you're into overclocking, the $150 (cheapest price) thunderbird 700 can be overclocked to 950 stabily. And to check out the cheapest prices i find that tech review puts them together better than price watch, (tech review reorganizes them from pricewatch) so go to http://www.tech-review.com/page.pl?title=Cpuprices these will give you some idea of how cheap you can get your thunderbird, updated every tuesday

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[dondrd]

http://firingsquad.gamers.com/hardware/monitors17in/default.asp

here's a review of low cost 17 inchers.

Viewsonic E770 has good reviews at other sites too. That's what I'm considering. My Princeton just passed away.
http://www.amdzone.com/index.cfm

This is a good starting point for AMD stuff.

Also might want to look at the Overclockers.com cpu database to see what people are using and what results they 're getting. http://www.overclockers.com/
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No job is too difficult for the person that doesn't have to do it.

[This message has been edited by dondrd (edited 08-23-2000).]

[uwmbear]

I have the CTX 17". Got it for a pretty good price and haven't had any problems with it yet.

[DarkAgeTat2]

I replaced a mainboard and got a 24% increase on 3dmark 2000 benchmark without changing any settings whatsoever. Save yourself a headache and get a quality mainboard. It is the guts of the whole computer.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Charliey:
[B]Mother Board: motherboards dont affect the system speed very much, but they do affect stability.

[archie]

As for monitors, the Samsung gets my thumbs up in the lower priced monitors. BTW, the Sony has a thin horizontal line across the bottom 2/3rd of the screen which you may find annoying.