Yeah my 7 year old Fossil of a PC finaly puked it's last
bits of data a few weeks ago. Actualy I beleive the Bios
just wore out and that's an easily replaceable item.
However it is just NOT worth spending any more money
to keep that archaic Pentium P5 afloat.

Here are the specs of the new system I custom ordered
from Micron and the existing Peripherals I will be using
with it.

Mini ATX Tower Case (300w Power Supply)
2 Front Side USB Ports
4 Rear Side USB Ports
Nvidea MX400 G-Force III AGP w/ 64 Megs DRAM, DVDI,TV-Out
Sound Blaster Live!
Intel Pentium IIII 1.8Ghz (256K L2 Cache)
400Mhz Front Side Bus
256 Megabytes DDR SDRAM (2 DIMM's) Upgradeable to 2.0 Gig
60 Gig 7200 RPM Super ATA-100 Hard Drive
3.5 Floppie (well Duh..)
DVD-ROM 16x48 Speed
CD-RW 24x10x40 Speed
Windows XP (Yuck) <-- I had no choice!
ATA100 Controller
Integrated 10/100 Intel NIC Ethernet

All for one easy (har har har) payment of $1,221.08

And the Peripherals I have at home are:

NEC MultiSync FD-Trinitron 17"
IBM Legal Size 32Bit Flatbed Scanner
Altec Lansing Multimedia ACS-31 Speakers (satelites/sub)
Suncom F-15E Strike Eagle Gold Flight Stick
Lexmark Z-51 1200x1200DPI Printer

I think I am going to upgrade my Microsoft Natural mouse to
the new Microsoft Optical Explorer Mouse and I may evantualy
upgrade to Altec Lansing's THX Certified 5.1 Surround Sound
speaker kit. (the SB Live! card is a Dolby-Digital 5.1 Decoder)

So whatcha think?

Looks great, Brett!

I'm assuming from you peripherals list that this is not intended as a HTPC? If it is, you might look at different soundcards -- a lot of posts I've read on HTPC forums don't like the SoundBlaster Live series.

RAM and hard drives (especially ATA-100, now that 133s are available) are cheap now. If you think you might need more of either, this would be a good time to buy. Assuming you still have any money left... :)

Enjoy! -Bruce

Bruce,

Thanks! Naw it's not an HTPC (I don't get that whole
Home Theater PC deal...) :)

It's just for me to surf,game and do graphics design
work with.

Just a few thoughts, Brett:

The Explorer is a great mouse. I have one on my Mac (I added a USB card for it), and the programmable buttons are fantastic. I have the thumb buttons set as 'back' and 'forward' for browser use.

Where's the A/V inputs cor camera and camcorder hookups? Plus, on my Mac, I have a TV tuner, which has cable capability and stereo sound, which includes the A/V inputs. Lotsa fun!

Even though I'm a Macster, I may get a PC for my next (whenever) computer, just because of the hardware-for-the-money ratio.

Larry
www.fineelectricco.com

Hey Brett

Congrats on your new purchase. Although you bought the dreaded P4 not too bad. If the AMD was an option, should have gone with that, bigger on chip cache and a faster processor overall. I have the XP 1600 and it would benchmark faster than the 1.8 P4 due to chip caches handeling of instruction sets.

You should however spend the $$ and get the approriate RAM for your system. Your 400Mhz FSB isn't really 400 unless you have the RDAM with the higher speed (800 or 400), I am going to assume that the RAM is PC133 or something along those lines ,which are much slower. The actual speed of the FSB is 100 or 133, plus the increased memory speed give you an effective speed of 400.

The only P4s worth getting, IMHO, are the new 2.0+ speeds (2.0-2.2 Ghz), increased on chip cache and changing the process core to .13 micron make it slightly faster than the much lower clock speed Athlon XP 2000 (1.67 Ghz).

How come you didn't build your own?

Tony

Wuz wonderin' where you were.

Brett: can you let me have your "archaic Pentium P5", please? Next time your History teacher is around, tell him you were only kidding when you called the new a P IIII instead of a P IV.

But seriously, folks: Brett, knowing your abiding passion for quality sound, I have to recommend two items (other than trying the Logitech cordless mouse and keyboard, which are both comfortable and extremely functional, apart from having anice new charcoal grey colour): ONE - get the Sound Blaster Audigy card. The difference in quality between the Live and Audigy is like... like... having your ears cleaned out after 50 years. It's the first time since sound cards were introduced that I can truly say "Now, that's impressive". Plus, if you get the Platinum, you get IEEE input and a front-panel input box that takes midi, optical in and out, line feeds, and more. And a "remote control" (that's why we're here , isn't it?!)

TWO - The absolute finest PC speakers ever conceived and manufactured are the Klipsch 5.1s (until the 7.1s come out!). I am not kidding here. Remember your first pair of living room speakers? Recall what they would sound like compared to what you are using now? That is how much better the Klipsch are than anything else out there.

You know I wouldn't kid or toot some favoritism horn. This is the real deal. ... Mike

This message was edited by Mike Riley on 02/09/02 15:38.03.

Brett: what motherboard did you get for this baby?

Hmmm, 3 days later and no reply. It's either fried again or he's trying to get to grips with all those darned snipers on MOHAA.

Hey guys..

Sorry the PC is NOT here yet and I am surfing at work..
I couldn't reply because this was my long weekend :)

Ttiger,

Some prefer Caddilacs some prefer BMW's.. I made the
right choice reguardless of specs. :)

It is 400Mhz DDR SDRAM BTW :)

Mike,
I am not sure what MB is in the case.. When it gets
here I will let you know!

As far as speakers go... I have Altec Lansing ACS-31's
which are by far no comparison to Altec's best THX
Cert'd system and they impress me to this day (7 years
after I bought them) Though I am sure the Klipsch are
killer also.

As for the sound card.. The SB Live! is more than adequate
for my use. This is not a gaming system... This is for
3D and 2D Artwork.

P.S the Ram is PC2100 DDR........ :)

Wotcha mean. The artwork/graphics in MOHAA (and Wolfie, if it comes to that) have got to be seen to be believed. (And I still hate those darned snipers).

Guys,

Hold me down.... I am going through Net Withdrawl!

I sure hope this blastid PC gets here SOON! I may just
go criminaly sane.. (I was already INSANE) :)

Brett: I think ttiger was talking about the DDR RAM transfer speed, to wit:

"SDRAM provides 800 MBps or 1 GBps data transfer depending on whether the bus is 100 MHz or 133 MHz. Double Data Rate SDRAM (DDR SDRAM) doubles the rate to 1.6 GBps or 2.1 GBps by transferring data on both the rising and falling edges of the clock. DDR SDRAM uses additional power and ground lines and requires 184-pin DIMM modules rather than the 168-pin DIMMs used by SDRAM." ... Mike (not that you care, especially when you don't have any immediately available to you for surfing...)

Mike,

I don't wanna sound like an arce but "I knew That" :)


And guess what..... I GOT IT TODAY!!!! OMG it's fast!
:)

Even the case is top notch with a 300Watt Supply with
a fan, Case Fan, HUGE CPU Fan, Video Card Fan, Quick
Release Side Cover, Quick Release PCI/ISA Slots, Quick
Release Drive Bays (no screws)

And much to my suprise I am actualy digging Windows XP!

Can ya tell I am stoked? :)