What do u think?

Hi guys, I'm planing to upgrade my PC with the stuff below..... any comment? or anyone know any conflict of those stuff?

Thanks for your time and knowledge.

Epox 8 Ep-8kta3

256 Mag RAM KingMax PC150/Kingston PC133

ELSA Erazor III TNT2 M64 32Mb

ThunderBird 850Mhz

Nice...but the TNT2 is kinda outdated. You would be better off with a GeForce 2MX or GTS. The TNT will hold your stats back.

A GeForce 2 MX should be your minimum, but you should go for a 32MB Radeon, GeForce 2 GTS or better to complement that setup.

A TNT will just hold you back. Its OK for a server with no GUI or a word processor, but noone puts a TB 850 and 256Meg of RAM in a word processing machine.

You might be better of waiting another month (if possible) and get a 1ghz for not much more then the 850, prices are really slumping at the moment, i have lost £50 on my T-bird 1Ghz in less then a month!!

Thanks to nelly and Liquid_N2 .

I would like to give more details on my upgrade, so that maybe u guys can help me better.

I would like to upgrade my PC as following mainly for web development purpose, like JSP, ASP, ColdFusion, Ms SQL Server, Oracle, PHP, Windows 2000, Photoshop, Flash, JAVA, Ms IIS, Apache and Linux as well. ( my budget is quite tide )

here is some of my question in my mind maybe u guys can give me some opinion:

1. Do I need Geforce since I'm doing programming & graphic Design only? ( not playing much game and I'm using 14" monitor)

2. Should I take PC133 or PC150 RAM?

3. Is 256Mb RAM is a wise decision? ( since I invest more on RAM in stead of processor ) should I invest more on RAM or processor? should I go for Duron to cut down cost?

4. I'm wondering maybe in stead of getting a 30gig hardisk, I use the money to get a CDR-W and stick on my old 8gig Quantum Fireball ( probably ATA-66 ), what do u think?

5. Should I use the Epox's onboard Audio or my ancient ISA SB 16?


ThunderBird 850Mhz
Epox 8 Ep-8kta3
256 Mag RAM KingMax PC150/Kingston PC133
ELSA Erazor III TNT2 M64 32Mb

with my old:
8Gig Quantum Fireball
36x BTC CD-Rom
14" PnP monitor

I'm currently having:

AMD K6-200
Asus Mobo with Sis Display onboard
32Mb of SIMM RAM/ 30Mb after taken by display
(yes it's SIMM, not EDO, coz my EDO spoilt and I use the RAM from my previous 486 system)
14" PnP monitor
a really cheap sound card
4.0 Quantum Bigfoot AT
36x BTC CD-Rom

Thank you so much for your time and knowledge.

If you are doing graphic design then a better video card would be worth it. Also a better monitor is probably a good idea. KDS and Viewsonic make some reasonably priced 17" monitors that work well.

PC133 will do nicely for you.

RAM is the cheapest thing you can get that gives you the best improvement in performance, A.K.A. More bang for the buck than other upgrades. Having said that, you can get 128 and add more later. Do not get less than 128. Also if you are doing graphic design then some of those aps want more than 128.

I dislike Quantum hard drives. If that is what you have it should work. Again, graphic design aps and pictures are huge and can fill that 8 gigs.

The onboard sound is probably better than a SB 16.

Fermium (May 23, 2001 01:00 p.m.):

I would like to give more details on my upgrade, so that maybe u guys can better.

I would like to upgrade my PC as following mainly for web development purpose, like JSP, ASP, ColdFusion, Ms SQL Server, Oracle, PHP, Windows 2000, Photoshop, Flash, JAVA, Ms IIS, Apache and Linux as well. ( my budget is quite tide )

1. Do I need Geforce since I'm doing programming & graphic Design only? ( not playing much game and I'm using 14" monitor)

As you are doing a lot of Graphic apps, the Gforce is a better bet as it can be modifed to display as a Quadro which is a professional quality graphic card http://www.tweakhardware.com/guide/quadro/ for more information

2. Should I take PC133 or PC150 RAM?

PC150 is not an approved or agreed standard it is infact PC133 tested to run that high, quite where this puts your guarentee I dont know, I would suggest Crucial 133 mhz CAS2 RAM as this is good quality. Avoid DDR RAM as the slight performance gain does not warrent the increased price at this time

3. Is 256Mb RAM is a wise decision? ( since I invest more on RAM in stead of processor ) should I invest more on RAM or processor? should I go for Duron to cut down cost?

Win2000 is quite RAM hungry and would run quite well on 256 mb and is what I would choose if using graphic intensive apps. The Duron is a good CPU and should not be discounted as its performance loss over its bigger brother is not exceptionally great when you consider the price, and if this is a consideration, A Duron should be considered

4. I'm wondering maybe in stead of getting a 30gig hardisk, I use the money to get a CDR-W and stick on my old 8gig Quantum Fireball ( probably ATA-66 ), what do u think?

Although you may be able to run everything on 8 gig I would suggest a larger drive, but why not try to get both.. look on ebay.com and overclockers.com classifieds and see if you can pick up a second hand CD-RW (someone may wish to upgrade to a faster model) and reasonable size hard drive (at least 10 gig and use the 8 gig as a slave)
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Duron 800 @ 1050 with Global Win FOP-32 (140 x 7.5)
Abit KT7A-Raid Mobo
512 mb (Crucial Stuff CAS 2)
Hard Drive Cooler
Elsa Eraser X2 Gforce with Blue Orb (modified to display as a Quadro and overclocked http://www.tweakhardware.com/guide/quadro/ )
Sound Blaster Live Value
Full Tower with 5 (120 mm) case fans with seperate PSU