How does this sound for a medium end PC?

[Ethernet]

- Microstar Mobo with AMD Thunderbird 800 Mhz
- GeForce 256 Annihilator Pro
- 256 Meg PC133 Ram
- 15.5 GB Maxtor HD (7200)
- Diamind MM MX300 Sound Card
- 50x Generic CD Rom

I want this to last me about two years before I need to upgrade... will it last that long? I will be running Windows ME.

 

[OverclockMe]

Oh sure itll last 2 yrs but ya wont like it much after a while, here are my suggestions.

First of all, ditch the maxtor and get yourself a 45gig IBM 75gxp, arguably the best ide hdd there is for about 145 or less if you dig
Great sound card by the way.
Second ME BLOWS so get 98, 2k pro, or wait for whistler
I think the ram is good enough.
Dunno much bout AMD mobo's but hey if you can overclock it, you better do it
Next the Geforce 1's no offense, lick. At least get a Geforce 2 GTS DDR, I got a Creative Labs GTS 32 DDR for 150, and you can get them for less now too!!!!
Lastly I dont really care bout you cd-rom, but also look into getting a burner to, cos those ALWAYS come in handy!

Well good luck!

 

[Ethernet]

Well I'm not big on using HD space, I have a 13 gig now with only 4 gig used with games + mp3s, does IBM make smaller drives that are just as good? I don't know allot about HD's.

The Annihilator Pro has 32 meg DDr and is only 100 bucks... so.. I don't have allot of cash to spend.

 

[office boy]

As for HD, look for a drive that uses 20Gb platters (that will generally be the fastest) and of course 7200 Rpm, good options are out there from Maxtor, IBM and Quantum.

You might want to spend some money on a good cd-rom (like an Asus or something that will be quite) 2 years can be tough listening to jets take off every time you put in a CD.

The rest is ok, But I would also get a GF2, they have much lower power consumption, and won't cost much more at all, if price is an issue, you can get a plain MX w/32mb for $100 easy.

And you better look at video cards... I'd suggest the Creative SBLIVE OEM ($48 (mwave)) over the Diamond, because diamond has never really been know to have good drivers, and who knows when they might change their business focus again, and your soundcard support is gone.

 

[office boy]

And for a hard drive deal, look in this thread.

 

[A2KLAU]

That sounds like a well equiped system and with an 800 T-Bird you could get alot out of it! I am not too sure about the 2 year thing, because the way computer technology is moving forward at such a pace then it should only last about 1 and a half years if you still want it to be a normal PC. But compatability wise with software it should last about well over 5 years I should say. The hardware will become out of date in about 1 year i will think but still very usable. And the sound card is pretty good but get a set of speakers which would suit the card.

Good Luck with bulding the system!

SKY.

 

[OverclockMe]

Yeah, well ya dont use much hard drive space huh? well its always good to get more than you need on hdd's well if I were you I would definately stick with IBM's. They have good support and their 75GXP is the best. As for maxtor, they suck, well some people like them but dont get it. As for quantums, they are stable, but man are they loud!!! Oh yeah as for the mx300 I have it, and I konw diamond doesnt have drivers for it anymore, but I found a site that has newer drivers than diamonds, but if you want the site, you will have to wait, because my system is in pieces at the moment.

 

[JimMc]

FWIW, I just put in a Pro2/Duron combo and tried to reuse my MX300 on a fresh install of W2K--could not get it stable. Any game, even MusicMatch, would crash the sound. Tried different PCI slots, reinstalled the drivers, turned off hardware acceleration, tried the beta drivers, fresh W2K install, etc., same problem.

Finally uninstalled the card and enabled the on-board sound and that is working great. That may just be an anomaly with my setup, but I'd stick with a SB Live or the onboard sound.

Edit: Ooops, forgot to rant about Diamond's pitiful support, you will never see any support out of them for a MX300.

 

[zzzz]

sound card might not be compatible with your mobo. Get soundblaster live. If you are lucky, you might get one at your local office depot for $50-15 coupon. (search fatwallet forum)

 

[meister]

Will be a fine PC,

a few things,

1)ibm has several gxp's in the lineup, beginning with a 15 gig, go up to 60 gig.

2)I second getting the oem sblive

3)nothing wrong with winME or 98, whatever you like.

4)change you video card, for $100 you have many different options, from ati, nvidea, or 3dfx.

It will last you two years, however you will feel like it is old just because of how things change.

I would suggest the msi k7t series, you'll be happy with them.

Mark

 

[zbalat]

Get rid of the MX300. Even if it is compatible with your MB Aureal(out of business) and Diamond(suck ass support always) do not offer good (or any) support. Get a Sound Blaster Live! Value or X-gamer.

 

[marines]

don't know exactly which MSI board you are getting but i think there should be a build-in soundcard already... for a medium end pc, that's good enough for now....

 

[slpaulson]

I would change the soundcard to a phillips acoustic edge.
Aureal is dead so no new drivers for your mx300.

 

[mcveigh]

great system

I have a mx300 great sound but the company is gone.
no support or future
I'm switching to a Soundblaster live value when I get a deal

 

[Ethernet]

well I my friend has an MX300 and a3d 2.0 in half life is just well - jaw dropping compared to my current eax/sblive-value setup. I dunno though if the support it really that bad I may just go with the sound blaster again.

what video card would you guys recomend over the Annihilator Pro... my general conception was that the GF2 MX was a tad slower than the original DDR GeForce... I'm not looking for super large FPS, I just wanna play Half-Life with all the goodies turned on at 1024/768... maybe some Jedi Knight and Doom 3 when it comes out...

thanks for the imput guys... btw how well will my T-Bird overclock?

 

[AmdEmAll]

OverclockMe: You oviously dont know what your talking about. Maxtor is just as good or better then IBM. In benchmarks the maxtor is just as fast and it is very quiet. Ive never had a problem with maxtor.

The 15gb maxtor would be fine for you. Also you can get a GF2 for only $172 so your better off getting that. And they consume much less power. Also I would get a Toshiba or asus cd-row because most likely a generic one would be very loud and not very good at reading damaged or certain kinds of cd's. I would get an SBLive value for the soundcard because of the excellent driver support and it is a great card. WinMe would be a better choice then Win98 IMO so keep that.

 

[micron]

Great System.

 

[Ethernet]

thanks

 

[divinemartyr]

All in all this system looks great. Let me mention something about this card that everyone is concerned with. Aureal made some GREAT sound cards, and while the SBLive is a good card, the reason people recommend it are for compatibility and drivers! Personally, I'd rather own something that does certain things VERY well, like the Aureal card! They have some great effects you can do with that card. Stick with the one you've chosen, how often do you update soundcard drivers anyhow? hehe I mean seriously... I update drivers in two situations, when I first install the OS and when I have a problem with a device, which is almost never.

The thing I WOULD upgrade is your motherboard. The MSI K7T Pro 2a board seems to be the favorite among TBird owners, definitely go with this board.

Second thing, make sure you buy decent RAM, it's all very cheap right now, but don't buy the cheapest stuff available, you can ruin a perfectly good system with bad ram, get cas2 brand name ram, such as Mushkin, Crucial, Micron, Corsair, Infineon, or Kingston, not the value ram though.

Third, if you plan to play any games with this system (and I can't see why you would not with an 800 mhz machine) then upgrade to an NVidia GeForce2 MX card, at the very least. This will last you probably 1 1/2 years, but anything less will be obsolete before 2001 is overwith, if you plan to watch any 3d graphics.

Lastly, make sure you get a brand name Cd-ROM! Unless you want jets taking off from your PC's case, then get a Plextor 40x or something similar, I know that particular drive is FAST and quiet. =) Not to mention just about everyone who owns it, swears by it (and no I don't own one, so I'm unbiased, just seen it in action).

You choice of processor and hard drive are definitely on track. Stick with what you've chosen.

divinemartyr

 

[Ethernet]

Thanks for the info.. I'll post a revised list in a lil while