New PC questions

kaimera

Otay...story is I'm in the process of purchasing a new PC in the near future.
However, before I do, just a few things I would like cleared up...

1) Athlon or P4??
((I've heard Athlon is better for gaming but wot's the real story))

2) OS
((I have 98SE on my old machine...ME locked up on it cos it's shíte. So with XP out, I'm unsure as to which OS to go with. Which is the most stable for gaming??))

3) RAM
((is it still cheap to purchase? I mean, would it be worth getting 128RAM and buying an extra 128 l8r?? r just go for the 256RAM at the start??))

4) Sound Card.
((At present I've got the SB 1024. Brilliant card and I'm thinking of slotting it into my new machine))

5) Graphics.
((Is the Voodoo 4/5 ne good what so ever?? Can they be linked liek the Voodoo2?? Or should I splash on a Ge3??))

6)Space
((40GB the least I should look for??))

7)Cache RAM
((whats a reasonable level of cache to have??))

Ne input what so ever would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.

Goodshape

...check out shop4memory.com for the ram.

Irish site, they buy ram when its cheap, so the prices are always low.... I got three 256mb RDRAM for IR£162... plus shiping is free!

Stephen

Eh, that shop4memory.com url leads to "struer.net" which seems to be some kind of scandinavian webhost/shell provider ( ? )

seamus

OS:= If you're happy with 98SE(I am for my budget), stick with it, as far as I have seen, ME is ridiculously unstable for an end product. If you can get a bootleg/really cheap copy of NT 4.0 server, install that, it's even less crashable, or if the Gods look upon you very favourably, Win2k. Ignore XP, I plan to boycott XP('cos of the licencing), until I can't avoid it anymore, and then I'll switch everything over to Linux.:)

Ram:= If I was building/buying a new comp, I'd stick in 256MB, and upgrade to 512MB later. As to it's cheapness, it depends on what type of ram you go for; pc100, pc133, rambus, etc, but I don' know any prices off-hand.

Gerry

Athlon or P4, well considering the athlon is on average just as fast, and cheaper, its the better choice. I'm going to be shot for saying this, but you may have slightly more problems with an athlon machine, however if you are on a budget I guess its worth it.

OS: Get win2k, and you won't have a single crash which is purely the operating systems fault, windows 9x is pants.

You should get at least 256mb of ram, and 512mb if you will be using the machine to do any serious work on.

Graphics card, well the voodoo's aren't up to much anymore, I'd get a geforce2 pro or a geforce3 if I was getting a new card.

Get a 40 gig drive, preferably 7200rpm (you don't want a super fast machine with a slow hard drive)

Cache memory these days is on the processor itself, so you don't get much of a choice On the athlon and p4 L2 cache is 256kb.

kaimera

Thanks for the input you guys.

I've heard of cooling probs. running a Athlon system, so I was thinking of liquid cooling.
Is it available here??
If so--->expensive???!!

Or am I just dreaming???

and about the OS...
Is Win2K stable enough for games???

and I know Voodoo aren't doing much, but Voodoo 4 and 5 come in 64 and 128 RAM. No matter waht you say, a card with 128RAM rocks!!
However, I'm not sure if they can be bought here.
True tha Nvidia bought out 3DFX but another company bought the graphics card section??

Red Moose

Originally posted by Kaimera
Thanks for the input you guys.

I've heard of cooling probs. running a Athlon system, so I was thinking of liquid cooling.
Is it available here??
If so--->expensive???!!

Yes expensive, you could go over £100+ for water cooler. Nice to look and talk about but generally go with solid state as it's cheaper and tends to not leak if built badly

and about the OS...
Is Win2K stable enough for games???

Stable *enough*? It's the only time you'll ever use an MS OS besides MS DOS and call it stable. The question is: is Windows 98 stable enough for games? Windows 2000 is rock solid, and probably is a bit of a safer bet than XP as it doesn't have all the added crap.[/b][/quote]

and I know Voodoo aren't doing much, but Voodoo 4 and 5 come in 64 and 128 RAM. No matter waht you say, a card with 128RAM rocks!!
However, I'm not sure if they can be bought here.
True tha Nvidia bought out 3DFX but another company bought the graphics card section??

As far as I know NVidia own 3Dfx lock stock and barrel. There are only hacke dtogether drivers for Voodoo released for XP. They are 2 generations behind the GF3/Radeon8500.

RAM doesn't really mean a whole lot in gfx cards, GF3 is 64MB FWIW. Voodoo is long dead.......if you don't want to splash out totally on new card get a GF2mx or the GF2 Titanium thing just out.

kaimera

Otay...liquid cooling is out of the equation!!!

From reading the other threads, it seems as if the Ge2mx isn't great so I'll be hoping for a Ge3.

and I'm sure I can get a copy of Win2K from some m8's in the computer business.

a Athlon is my prefered choice and with nothing here to convince me otherwise me thinks it will be a 1.5Ghz maybe higher depending on the speeds available when I go to purchase.

and you are right moose...98 is a bit poor for games. I've had games lock up and refuse to play on 98. ((but thinking bout it...it could be my machine!!))

seamus

yeah, as I said before, pump for Win2k, if not, use NT server, the network-type MS OS's are harder to cause an all-out crash on, so I've heard.

EDIT: Instead of posting again, to answer the below q, I'll just say that I'm not a huge gamer (haven't enough money/bandwidth to get any games), but I've heard of the same compatibility probs with some games and Win2k. Mayeb a gamer can shed more light?

kaimera

If I use NT, am I looking at compatability problems with some games???

Red Moose

There are some game problems with Win2k alright. I know Superbike 2001 didn't work at all on it. Generally most new games from say 1998 onward are fine, but you never know with older ones because I have some 1995 games from Win95 times that still messed with DOS (no, really they did).

If you are a student or have parents and your brother or sister is a student you can qualify for cheapo Windows 2000. It's around £60 or so.....you need to be in full time education, or a parent can buy it on behalf of a student in full time education, or you are an educator full time (so that's Ireland's ASTI out of the equation then). I'm posting this because it was news to me when I found out a few days ago (e.g., full MS Office 2000 for £100 also)

If you absolutely need gaming, XP is a must as it can deal with a remarkable amount of old crap thrown at it, unlike Windows 2000 (e.g., you don't need to mess with stuff like VDMSound to get audio in Monkey Island 2, for example). Also, games and hardware will be designed for XP and I wouldn't be surprised if in 6 months games are XP only if/when XP doesn't sell and MS releases DirectX 9 for XP Home/Professional only (wouldn't be surprised at all).

I would say get XP but for the Product Activation, which is just irritating not be free to reinstall or configure all the time. Of course, it's piss easy to get rid of it but you are violating the EULA then (of course, to be legal, XP *must* be properly "activated", but I am not sure whether disabling the WPA after that 1st activation violates it).

Regarding RAM, get 256MB minimum as even that will only cost £35 or so from ITB Direct in Kildare (basic PC133 mind you, not flashy DDR ****).

seamus

Red Moose - any idea how to avail of this remarkable offer , or is it only a version with the bare minimum of functions. Better still does anyone know where to get a bootleg copy of Win2k Pro;)

phaxx

Avoid NT4 if you're a gamer, use 2000 instead. It's the only microsoft product I've ever praised, and that's saying something... It has it's faults, but overall they really got it right this time.

Only £60? ooh... don't suppose I can get things like adobe software cheap because I'm a student?


$600 for photoshop six.. feck off like...

kaimera

Student discounts for OS!!
KEWL!!

But I don't need them....I got certain friends in the PC industry who I can call favours on for certain things!

£35 for 256 RAM??
FFS....fúcking great.

Lets see...128 in the machine and 256 bought l8r...that should suffice!!

The tide turns in favour of XP....hmmm....

leeroybrown

YOu might as well put a decent amount of RAM in the machine since RAM prices a re dirt cheap at the moment.

Theres no point sitting there every day listening to your HDD performing memory swaps when you can throw extra RAM in for next to nothing.

And the "Flashy" PC2100 DDR memory has dropped in price a lot recently:

http://www.shop4memory.com/products/othermem.html

(site mentioned by some one above)

IR£62 incl vat and delivery for 256 Mb

But it is cheaper to buy from sites in the UK such as www.scan.co.uk (I've recently bought from them - their today only page can be very good) and www.overclockers.co.uk (Cheaper on certain items and stock more quality stuff).

The only problem is that you do need a decent size order to justify the £35 Stg shipping charges to Ireland.

Unfortunately the 1.28 to 1 Stg conversion rate does cancel out some of this good value but there's still savings to be made.

Oh and one more thing:

DDR Memory has a different interface socket to standard PC133 and wont fit in a standard PC133 socket. Also, if your motherboard supports both memory type (ie. has both types of sockets) (this is unlikely, although the boards do exist) they will not work together. Only one type of Memory can be used.

marauder

Actually,
Adobe do education discounts for students too

its still $299 for Photoshop 6 though......

http://www.adobe.com/education/purchasing/education_pricing.html

Red Moose

Ah, I think Windows 2000 is about to become a very popular OS

UK Prices, from Dabs at http://www.dabs.com/microsoft/student.asp.
Yes, this is for the UK and Ireland. It specifically says "Irish Department of Eduction". You get the license, to be filled out and confirmed by your college, or whatever, and MS send you original full versions of whatever it is you want.

Developer Tools for Students (Visual Studio)
Mfr code: 502-00129
Quicklinx: MKCWS
0 now
6 available£65.00
£76.37


Office 2000/XP Professional STUDENT Win/Mac (2001)
Mfr code: 503-00195
Quicklinx: SP6WS
0 now
1451 available£89.00
£104.57

Office 2000 Premium for Students Serv Release 1
Mfr code: 5030
Quicklinx: Q9GWS
Overdue £115.00
£135.12

Windows 2000 Pro/ME STUDENT
Mfr code: 504-00131
Quicklinx: TMCWS
8 now
143 available£42.00
£49.34

* You are a student aged 5+ years at a primary, secondary or special needs school.
* You are a student aged 18+ years registered full-time or part-time in any school/college/university or attending courses that award qualifications recognised by the UK Department of Education & Employment (DfEE), or the Irish Department of Education (DoE).
* As a parent you have children in the above two categories, and you wish to purchase on their behalf, following the same procedures as defined for students.
* As a teacher your job involves supporting IT in schools/colleges/universities, whilst being able to operate from home - expanding your own knowledge or preparing course materials.
* As a member of support staff either full-time or part-time at any school/college/university recognised by the UK Department of Education & Employment (DfEE), or the Irish Department of Education (DoE).



So 50 quid sterling for Windows 2000 makes it look pretty good. If you have a sister or brother in college and you aren't you can get your parents to purchase on "their" behalf