Help New mobo/processor

[srfdude]

I am setting up a new office machine, Acad/DVD/mpgs primarily. No gaming required, but stability a must. I browsed through this site, and came away confused as the choices are overwhelming. I don't think I need more than ~700-800 mb processor, thinking about an Athlon but unsure. Will one of the MBs w/built in video be adequate for this? I will be driving a 19" monitor, 1280-1024 should work. Are there any major changes right around the corner, or only incremental in the near future? I will be using a 20-30 G HD, prefer to avoid SCSI, a friend recommends RAID (?) for HD control. I can wait a while, but need something fairly soon. Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

 

[Ulysses]

Check AnandTech's High-End Buyer's Guide and Value Oriented Buyer's Guide. RAID probably isn't necessary - it will cost more and is most beneficial if using high-end "professional" apps with large files. SCSI also isn't necessary. Both the items are contra-indicated by your question regarding integrated video, which I wouldn't recommend. Maybe consider instead a Matrox Millennium G450 with dual head output.

P.S.
I would definitely recommend the Microstar K7T Pro2A motherboard. The heart of a stable system is the mobo, and Anand finally saw the light and dropped his recommendation for the Abit RAID board.

 

[Dark4ng3l]

No socket a or slot a motherboards have integrated video so I guess you wont need it.

 

[BigLance]

Overall Intel based machines are more stable. Especially if you get an Intel Motherboard. (No OverClocking but its a trade off with stability IMO).

 

[ElFenix]

the only major change worth note is to DDR ram, there is some confusion as to whether it will improve performace or not, mostly due to anand testing out a very beta reference motherboard. if your acad files are huge it should make lots of difference in your performance as long as they fit in the RAM size. of course, if you have to get less RAM by going the DDR route and your files are large enough to use the hard drive it will be slower. DDR won't help the pentium 3, however, since the p3's FSB will be the bottleneck.

 

[Bignate603]

properly set up, AMD can be just as stable as an intel machine. I would reccomend an A7V for this setup,nice fairly cheap board. GEt a decent vid card, maybe a matrox because 3d isn't a huge deal.

 

[cockeyed]

I think your best bet would be to buy a Dell Demension system. They use an Intel motherboard (i815)in it, and with a PIII CPU, it would be stable. They would provide you with a solid system for probably less then you could build it yourself. You could get a system delivered from them in about a week or 10 days.