- Joined
- Jan 22, 2003
- Location
- Tallahassee, FL
This is my first post on the forum. Not really a newbie tho, my first "real" OC was a few years ago (Cel333a -> 525).
Anyway, all the stuff for my new system should be here by Thursday! I just wanted to thank everyone here ... I did a *lot* of reading here (and everywhere else I could find a scrap of info) when I was picking my components. This is what I came up with:
From Newegg (prices = shipped):
Abit NF7-S mobo -- $128
Maxtor 80Gb 7200rpm ATA133 -- $ 99
AthlonXP 2100+ AIUHB 0301 -- $100
Sapphire Radeon 9700 Pro (refurb!) -- $249
From Googlegear:
Antec TruePower True430 PSU -- $ 81.99 (free 2-day)
ThermalTake Volcano 7+ -- $ 29.99 (free 2-day)
Corsair 512MB PC2700 CAS2 -- $149.00 (free 2-day)
From Electroseller:
Aluminum Mid-Tower (4x5.25 exposed, 4 fans including side-window fan, front USB, Firewire, Game, Audio). Just got it today and it's a great case, light as a feather, hopefully a really terrible insulator! It was regularly 100-and-something bucks (plus 15 for side-window and fan) but I found it on sale for $70 shipped.
From CompUSA:
Arctic Silver 3 -- $ 8.99
Buslink 48x CDRW -- $29.99 (after $30 rebate)
From Best Buy:
Memorex Multimedia Keyboard -- $ 0.00 (!!) (after rebate)
Memorex Optical Mouse -- $ 0.00 (after rebate -- this will go with the system -- below -- that I'm selling, so I can keep my good stuff)
I'm selling an old system for $300.00 to offset the cost of the new one. I have a 19" monitor now (that I'm keeping with my Duron system) and I'm getting a new one (from Best Buy, believe it or not) for $199.99 plus tax. Sure, I could get it a bit cheaper from Newegg or Googlegear, but I don't trust buying a monitor before I see it in action. At first everything was starting to look so expensive I was wondering if I was gonna have to sell this laptop (and maybe a few quarts of blood
) to pay for it all. But I managed to find some pretty good deals, I guess, so I get to keep the laptop.
Total Cost (after selling the old system for $300): $872.00
So, how did I do? The only things that really concern me at this point are the processor and the refurbished 9700 Pro. For the former, I wish I'd gotten a better stepping, but I figure it'll probably do at least 2100-2200, and if I can get it to 2250 then, boom, I have an XP2800+ for $100 and I'm certainly not going to complain! Even if it only gets to 2600+ speeds it'll more than double its worth, so again, no complaints. Hopefully the refurbed Radeon will be okay; if not, Newegg will be fair about it, so the most it'll cost me is time. I almost didn't get it, but the Sapphire 9700 non-pro is $236 and, yeah I know, it'll almost certainly clock up to Pro speeds with a BIOS flash -- but when I saw the chance to get a REAL Pro for $13 more I couldn't pass it up.
Also, I toyed with the idea of getting 2x256MB RAM instead of 1x512MB (to take advantage of the dual DDR) but I figured the performance diff wouldn't really be that great, and this way I can add another 512 to the second channel later and still have a slot open if I ever feel the need for 1.5-2GB of RAM.
Anyway, I'm excited and rambling, so I'll shut up now. I'm really excited. Seeing as how the Duron / Geforce2 Ti I have now can't even scrape up 3000 3DMarks, I'm sure you can see why. I might get almost (or more than!) 5 times that with the new system.
Anyway, all the stuff for my new system should be here by Thursday! I just wanted to thank everyone here ... I did a *lot* of reading here (and everywhere else I could find a scrap of info) when I was picking my components. This is what I came up with:
From Newegg (prices = shipped):
Abit NF7-S mobo -- $128
Maxtor 80Gb 7200rpm ATA133 -- $ 99
AthlonXP 2100+ AIUHB 0301 -- $100
Sapphire Radeon 9700 Pro (refurb!) -- $249
From Googlegear:
Antec TruePower True430 PSU -- $ 81.99 (free 2-day)
ThermalTake Volcano 7+ -- $ 29.99 (free 2-day)
Corsair 512MB PC2700 CAS2 -- $149.00 (free 2-day)
From Electroseller:
Aluminum Mid-Tower (4x5.25 exposed, 4 fans including side-window fan, front USB, Firewire, Game, Audio). Just got it today and it's a great case, light as a feather, hopefully a really terrible insulator! It was regularly 100-and-something bucks (plus 15 for side-window and fan) but I found it on sale for $70 shipped.
From CompUSA:
Arctic Silver 3 -- $ 8.99
Buslink 48x CDRW -- $29.99 (after $30 rebate)
From Best Buy:
Memorex Multimedia Keyboard -- $ 0.00 (!!) (after rebate)
Memorex Optical Mouse -- $ 0.00 (after rebate -- this will go with the system -- below -- that I'm selling, so I can keep my good stuff)
I'm selling an old system for $300.00 to offset the cost of the new one. I have a 19" monitor now (that I'm keeping with my Duron system) and I'm getting a new one (from Best Buy, believe it or not) for $199.99 plus tax. Sure, I could get it a bit cheaper from Newegg or Googlegear, but I don't trust buying a monitor before I see it in action. At first everything was starting to look so expensive I was wondering if I was gonna have to sell this laptop (and maybe a few quarts of blood
) to pay for it all. But I managed to find some pretty good deals, I guess, so I get to keep the laptop.Total Cost (after selling the old system for $300): $872.00
So, how did I do? The only things that really concern me at this point are the processor and the refurbished 9700 Pro. For the former, I wish I'd gotten a better stepping, but I figure it'll probably do at least 2100-2200, and if I can get it to 2250 then, boom, I have an XP2800+ for $100 and I'm certainly not going to complain! Even if it only gets to 2600+ speeds it'll more than double its worth, so again, no complaints. Hopefully the refurbed Radeon will be okay; if not, Newegg will be fair about it, so the most it'll cost me is time. I almost didn't get it, but the Sapphire 9700 non-pro is $236 and, yeah I know, it'll almost certainly clock up to Pro speeds with a BIOS flash -- but when I saw the chance to get a REAL Pro for $13 more I couldn't pass it up.
Also, I toyed with the idea of getting 2x256MB RAM instead of 1x512MB (to take advantage of the dual DDR) but I figured the performance diff wouldn't really be that great, and this way I can add another 512 to the second channel later and still have a slot open if I ever feel the need for 1.5-2GB of RAM.
Anyway, I'm excited and rambling, so I'll shut up now. I'm really excited. Seeing as how the Duron / Geforce2 Ti I have now can't even scrape up 3000 3DMarks, I'm sure you can see why.
I might get almost (or more than!) 5 times that with the new system. 
