Hi, any help here would be immensely appreciated!!!
I would like to construct my own PC. I have reviewed books and surfed the internet (anandtech, toms harware, etc.), but I always manage to get back to square one in terms of whether I think its worth it to construct my own, and, what to use if I do construct my own.
With the system I have now, I have added (on my own) an ethernet card, firewire, and CDRW drive, so, although I know it will be considerably more complicated to construct my own PC from scratch, I think I can do it. The system I have now is a PIII, 500Mhz, 4x DVD (40x CD???), Yamaha 8/8/24 CDRW, 200W power supply, I assume an ATX case (?), a 20GB HD IBM Deskstar 7200 (60GXP???), Voodoo3 16MB 3000, SoundBlaster Live Value, running Win2K. I bought it from Gateway. My opinion of Gateway could take up an entirely different thread, however, this system has been very stable for my uses.....I use Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere, Toon Boom, Bryce, etc. As you can see, I primarily use 2D graphics programs (some 3D), and DV editing. On occassion, I play a game. ...........I would like to upgrade to a 1.4 AMD or 1.8 P4 system. If I construct this thing on my own, my main concern, besides wanting to see a huge difference in processing speed and multi-tasking, would be stability, and, I would like to keep the construction simple - "plug n' play" if at all possible, if you know what I mean. I do not need to overclock. I would like to keep costs under $1,500.00 and use some of my old hardware. Lastly, I should point out that I know nothing about fans and heatsinks (except for the reviews).
Any thoughts are appreciated. Also, I would like some opinions on:
Asus P4T mobo with P4 1.8 (retail or OEM?)
IBM Deskstar 7200 60GXP 40-60GB HDs (can I install one along with my 20GB HD?)
Samsung or Kingston RDRAM - Do I need to purchasee ECC?
Opinions/compatibility with Hercules 3D Prophet 64MB?
Case make/model with 300 or 400+ watt power supply?
If anyone can help or has suggestions, thats great! If you have suggestions on a reliable retail vendor, that would be great, too. I am impressed with VooDooPC's apparent customer service, but the prices are very high.
Sorry so long! Marc
I would like to construct my own PC. I have reviewed books and surfed the internet (anandtech, toms harware, etc.), but I always manage to get back to square one in terms of whether I think its worth it to construct my own, and, what to use if I do construct my own.
With the system I have now, I have added (on my own) an ethernet card, firewire, and CDRW drive, so, although I know it will be considerably more complicated to construct my own PC from scratch, I think I can do it. The system I have now is a PIII, 500Mhz, 4x DVD (40x CD???), Yamaha 8/8/24 CDRW, 200W power supply, I assume an ATX case (?), a 20GB HD IBM Deskstar 7200 (60GXP???), Voodoo3 16MB 3000, SoundBlaster Live Value, running Win2K. I bought it from Gateway. My opinion of Gateway could take up an entirely different thread, however, this system has been very stable for my uses.....I use Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere, Toon Boom, Bryce, etc. As you can see, I primarily use 2D graphics programs (some 3D), and DV editing. On occassion, I play a game. ...........I would like to upgrade to a 1.4 AMD or 1.8 P4 system. If I construct this thing on my own, my main concern, besides wanting to see a huge difference in processing speed and multi-tasking, would be stability, and, I would like to keep the construction simple - "plug n' play" if at all possible, if you know what I mean. I do not need to overclock. I would like to keep costs under $1,500.00 and use some of my old hardware. Lastly, I should point out that I know nothing about fans and heatsinks (except for the reviews).
Any thoughts are appreciated. Also, I would like some opinions on:
Asus P4T mobo with P4 1.8 (retail or OEM?)
IBM Deskstar 7200 60GXP 40-60GB HDs (can I install one along with my 20GB HD?)
Samsung or Kingston RDRAM - Do I need to purchasee ECC?
Opinions/compatibility with Hercules 3D Prophet 64MB?
Case make/model with 300 or 400+ watt power supply?
If anyone can help or has suggestions, thats great! If you have suggestions on a reliable retail vendor, that would be great, too. I am impressed with VooDooPC's apparent customer service, but the prices are very high.
Sorry so long! Marc