Which computer/motherboard combo is best?

[WarLocke]

posted 01-11-2002 03:41 PM
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I need help choosing between these two computers. I don't have time to build my own, and don't trust local vendors to do it for me.
Please note my main concerns are speed coupled with stability. Also take into account that this is strictly a gaming rig, so I will NOT be adding other components, nor will I be overclocking. Obviously, my main concern is the motherboard:

1) HYPERSONIC PC

AMD 1900+
Asus A7V266-E (KT266A)
Thermaltake dragon Orb cooler
256 mb Micron PC2100 DDR
40GB IBM Deskstar 7200rpm ATA-100
Sony 52X cd-rom (black)
Nvidia Geforce3 Ti500 64mb
Innerworks Active cooling w/video optimization
Soundblaster Audigy
300Watt PS
Windows XP

FINAL COST(including shipping)= $1575


2) MICRON PC

AMD 1900+
Nvidia Nforce (420 chipset,MSI's K7N420 Pro)
256mb Micron PC2100 DDR
60 GB Western Digital HD 7200rpm ATA-100
16x/48x Pioneer dvd-rom
Visiontek Nvidia Geforce3 TI 500 64mb
-onboard sound
300 watt PS
Windows XP

Final Price (with shipping): $1352


For those of you who may not know, Hypersonic is a direct competitor to falcon Northwest and Alienware. They specialize in gaming rigs. I've never owned one, but reviews around the web give them glowing praise (resellerratings.com, to name one.)

Micron PC is like Dell or Gateway. I've owned four of their computers, and always been satisfied. The company, however, recently changed owners, so I can't speak for the current quality of their systems, although they still seem to get good reviews.

Which would you choose, and why? thanks, everyone.

 

[MoFunk]

If those are the 2 your are going with, then to me it's a toss up. They both have disadvantages and advantages over the other.

If you really want DVD you only have one choice, the Micron
If you don't want onboard sound then you have to go with the Hypersonic.

I guess you may have to flip a coin. I myself would go with the Hypersonic.

 

[ThrashMan]

Man, i was gonna piece together my own, but the hypersonic's ROCK!!

 

[Duvie]

If you are piecing these system together with their configurator I have some opinions:

1) toss that 52x cd-rom...Might as well get a dvd-rom like lite-on 163 which I imagine is just as fast in data transfer and I bet would smoke that thing in dae ripping...www.storagereview has the liteon has the 3rd fastest ripper out of all the drives and the only dvd-rom in the top 5.

2) toss that pioneer dvd-rom as well..Have you read reviews on it??? It is slower compared to the liteon and a few more drives...Other then the ata66 drive they market it is not considered a top performer at all in the field of 16x dvd roms.

3) why even consider the nforce if you want to toss in a GF3 anyways...Then I see you are looking at an asus and I figure you were going to pay a lot for a board regardless...

 

[Daovonnaex]

<< 3) why even consider the nforce if you want to toss in a GF3 anyways...Then I see you are looking at an asus and I figure you were going to pay a lot for a board regardless... >>

Higher performance due to several nForce features.

 

[Tom]

I'd say either computer would be great, the issue I would look at is which company offers you the best warranty and how confident you are they will be around to honor the warranty. I have no dealings with either company so I have no personal opinion but that is what I would look at.

 

[WarLocke]

Well, I can definitely swap DVD or CD-ROM drives, and many other components. The motherboards, however, are the only choices offered by each company respectively. Hypersonic only uses the ASUS, and Micron only has the NFORCE.