Need Suggestions on My RIG.

[TheMinion]

Will build my proposed rig, hopefully this friday.

Proposed $1,000 Rig Plus Monitor:

CPU: AMD T-BIRD 1GHZ $180-$190
MOBO: MSI PRO2A $120
MEMORY: 256MB PC133 $105
HD: IBM GXP75 20GIG $120
SPEAKERS: Creative Labs FPS2000 $100
OS: Win2k
TOWER: Suggestions? MID-Tower Under $100.
VIDEO: Hercules 3D Prophet MX $110
SOUND: Soundblaster Live! MP3+ $85
MONITOR: 17" Suggestions? Right now, Samsung 700NF
CD-ROM: Sony 48x $40

 

[nightowl]

Unless ATI has changed their Win2k drivers for the better, the Radeon is not the best card for gaming under Win2k. Their cards typicaly take a performace hit when playing games. Other than that everything looks good.

 

[ToxicMussels]

<< TOWER: Suggestions? MID-Tower Under $100. >>



You can get a Full Tower for under 100 bones.
This week I got my InWin Q500 full tower. I love it! Lotsa room and I stuck in 3 Panaflo's 80mm for better cooling.
I would get a full size ATX case, just so you have room to breathe!

 

[Wizkid]

The best way to pick a case is to go to a local store that sells them and have a look at them yourself. Be sure to take them apart and check how much room is inside, look for sharp edges, and of course make sure it looks cool

If you don't need the software that comes with the MP3+ then just get the live value, the cards are the same.

I have never used a radeon, but if the win2k drivers suck then you might be better off with a gf2mx.

Otherwise, the system looks good

 

[Shooters]

Here's another vote for the InWin Q500. Great case for the price. I'll be getting one in the near future. Also, make sure you get a good power supply. With that setup, I would suggest at least a 300 watt. I've heard Sparkles are pretty good.

 

[Dan]

Your system looks good, although I echo the cautions about the ATI card. GeForce 2 MX is the way to go, IMHO.

Also, a word of caution about full-tower cases. Unless you absolutely must have all those extra bays, stick with a mid-tower. I say this because I just finished working on a couple of systems in full (AT) towers. Man, were they beasts! Heavy and a pain in the rear to move around. (Plus, there's all that extra real estate you have to clear on your bench before you can work on them.

Take a look at the Enlight 7237 (with a 300Watt power supply). It's reasonably priced, roomy, very easy to work in and a great case if you want to do any modding.

 

[sparkle]

For the case consider the Enlight 7237. should be able to get it around $60 shipped

 

[RogerCK]

I wouldn't go with the Radeon. For a good gaming card that will do a good job under Win2k, I would go with the MX and not the Radeon.

BTW, Win2k is great.

 

[TheMinion]

MX was my second choice. I guess i will change Radeon to MX. Thanks.

 

[Shu8]

for tower, i would HIGHLY recommend the antec sx830 or the 1030 [if you need five drive bays]. the monitor is good, but if you find the viewsonic ef70 for same or less price, go with that. for video...go with a geforce2 gts. you can look around for an elsa gladiac for 130 [try buy.com w/ coupon if still available]

 

[TheMinion]

gts is just too expensive for me right now. lowest i have seen would be around $170 using $30 from buy.com (gladiac). Right now i am going with MX (not willingly). Does anyone know when the price will change for the GTS (drastically) like sub 150.

 

[Shooters]

You can get a Geforce2 GTS for less than $150 from Untamo here. He's got a reputation as being one of the best traders in these forums.

 

[Syborg1211]

sx830b or sx1030b. Both great cases, the sx830 is the mid tower version and can be had for around 80ish. The sx1030b is a full tower and I have this one. I love this case and all its features. I got mine for 98 bucks. Another cool thing, they are both black

 

[Tigris]

try for the SB live! value. pretty much the same card with different software.
I dont think the drivers are as nice, but thats about it..
and you dont get all those cool mixing programs.

 

[rhinox99]

For the 17&quot; monitor have you considered the iiyama i70a
It's got the most amazing image quality you can imagine and has won NUMEROUS awards.

For the HD, you should probably go for something bigger than 20gb, I bought the 45gb 75GXP for around $150 which is only $30 more than you are planning to pay. You may think that you won't ever use that much space but think in terms of the future (broadband connections, programs that take up more and more space etc..)

 

[InsaneMorphius]

* If your running Win2k, definetly bump the Ram to 512MB

* Radeon/GeForce is all a matter of opinion, I've had both and liked them both for different reasons

* 300w Power Supply

Everything else looks super

Morphius