Critique proposed AMD base System

[Slake]

I'm thinking about comin' over to AMD after the March 5th price rollback.
Wonder what you guys think about the specs below to plug in whatever AMD cpu I decide on. And please advise on a chip costing $300.00 or less. Keep in mind that I will be using a 128Mb stick of PC133 until I can afford better. Arctic Silver is a given.

ABIT KT7A-RAID $151.00
ATI Radeon 64MB DDR AGP $188.00 .
AOPEN CD-RW 12X10X32X INT EIDE $145.00 .
MAXTOR 30.7GB UDMA100 7200RPM $121.00
ABOVE From http://www.essencom.com/parts/motherboard.htm
4Q ATX Case 300w Power supply $47.00
Philips Acoustic Edge 5.1 Sound card $89.49 http://www.pchertz.com/soundcards.html
Swiftech MC370 HS w/ Delta 38CFM $41.98

http://www.crazypc.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?

Subtotal Without CPU $783.47

Will have extra case fans from current system, plus Blowhole and 120mm side fan. I'm scared of water-cooling for the time being. Maybe later, after funds recover (and confidence).

Thanks for any pointers.
Slake

 

[XRKai]

Hello

I like this setup . The KT7A-R is the best mobo around rightnow. But that Radeon isnt too hot if you ask me , but thats just me ... Go for the GForce 2GTS.
Then the Cpu is up to you , The Tbird 1000mhz is really cheap , or maybe the 1200mhz ?

The rest of the stuff is up to you , so why not .
That Swiftec fan looks cool but why that Philips Soundcard ?


XRKai

Tbird 1000, Abit KT7Raid,Alpha 6035 GF2 GTS,Plextor CDRW,SB Live

 

[Slake]

XRKai (Feb 28, 2001 08:09 a.m.):
Hello

I like this setup . The KT7A-R is the best mobo around rightnow. But that Radeon isnt too hot if you ask me , but thats just me ... Go for the GForce 2GTS.
Then the Cpu is up to you , The Tbird 1000mhz is really cheap , or maybe the 1200mhz ?

The rest of the stuff is up to you , so why not .
That Swiftec fan looks cool but why that Philips Soundcard ?

XRKai

Tbird 1000, Abit KT7Raid,Alpha 6035 GF2 GTS,Plextor CDRW,SB Live

Yeah, those are the chips I'm lookin at. I'm new to AMD and I see a lot of success others are having with the Duron. I guess bang for the buck a Duron would be the winner. But given the amount I have budgeted for the chip, the !+Gig Tbird is the one to buy.
I decided on the Phillips sound card when I was planning a CUSL2-C Intel system. I read a lot of people with that board had compatability problems with the i815e chipset and SBLive! X-Gamer that did not occur with the Phillips. After studying the Phillips, I just sorta got my mind set on it. The Swiftech with the Delta is gonna be loud, but I can stand the noise to protect my chip. I always play with headphones anyway. (multiplayer FA-18 Falcon with Battlecom communication)
The Radeon is not set in stone, I know the GTS wins framerate contest hands-down. But not by that much, and I like the features,image quality and price of the Radeon.
Thanks for your input! ;D
Slake

 

[Monza]

radeon ewwwwwwd.... go get urself a 32mb gts, it'll smoke that radeon. radeon sucks so bad that the mx gives it hell. check out tom's or others, they'll back me up bra. essential comp, nice place, good to shop from 2 day fedex, oh as for the hs, go get a new vantec, look at it at cluboverclocker.com vantec, their cheap, but mint (delta fan equipped), quieter than the fop or comparable, love that clip and my cpu never sees 40c loaded.

good luck,
monza

tb800@1000
asus a7v133
evga geforce2 gts

 

[Slake]

Monza (Feb 28, 2001 03:39 p.m.):
radeon ewwwwwwd.... go get urself a 32mb gts, it'll smoke that radeon. radeon sucks so bad that the mx gives it hell. check out tom's or others, they'll back me up bra. essential comp, nice place, good to shop from 2 day fedex, oh as for the hs, go get a new vantec, look at it at cluboverclocker.com vantec, their cheap, but mint (delta fan equipped), quieter than the fop or comparable, love that clip and my cpu never sees 40c loaded.
good luck,
monza
tb800@1000
asus a7v133
evga geforce2 gts

Thanx for the opinions Monza. I am willing to sacrifice a few FPS for the features/ image quality & price advantage of the Radeon. I have read all the reviews but for me FPS isn't everything. I can kick serious *** on shooters even with my measley Voodoo 3 2000 in my current PII-350, running powerstrip oc'd to 170Mhz high image quality, detail on 16bit depth. ' Course I gots a cable modem,hehe.The Lord giveth and taketh away. So I will be happy with the increased FPS and 32 bit @ 1024 x 768 offered by the Radeon.

At cluboverclockers.com there is also a review of the Swiftech 370-A. It beats the FOP-38 on a Tbird 1000 oc'd to 1.1. In the Vantec review the Vantec FCE is dead even with the FOP-38 cooling a Duron 800. I have to assume the performance difference would be consistant from one chip to another and I don't mind paying a little extra for the superior cooling of the Swiftech with Delta 38cfm. Also checkout Joes review of both these units in the review section of the main page. He hailed the mounting system of the Swiftech as the BEST. The Vantec is a sweet deal though, and dollar for dollar probably is the best bang for the buck. 2 to 3 degrees is worth a couple of extra dollars to me.
Swiftech won at Tom's http://www4.tomshardware.com/cpu/00q4/001211/cpu_cooler-01.html
Rock On Dude.
8)

 

[Monza]

fill rate, poylgons, and bit mapping advantages are more the key than fps, i dont care about that much either. by the way, the vantec does come to draw with the fop. but u'll like the vantec so much better b/c of its easy clip (no tools, no sore fingers, no die cracking), and no worries of scoring replacement clips, like many have. amd doesnt care for the fop, b/c of the 20lb pressure the clip has.

good luck,
monza

 

[Monza]

Monza (Mar 01, 2001 01:27 p.m.):
fill rate, poylgons, and bit mapping advantages are more the key than fps, i dont care about that much either. by the way, the vantec does come to draw with the fop. but u'll like the vantec so much better b/c of its easy clip (no tools, no sore fingers, no die cracking), and no worries of scoring replacement clips, like many have. amd doesnt care for the fop, b/c of the 20lb pressure the clip has. swiftech isnt worth the money though, ur cpu will max out at the same point, until u go extreme. as a side note, i had a vd3 2000, they were nice. but they got hot as hell, can u heat up ur room w/urs?

good luck,
monza

 

[Slake]

Hehe, yeah Monza I think I could grill steaks on my Vodoo 3 2000. Actually though I have a temp probe lying on the backside of the PCB opposite the chip and it reports 36deg C
while displaying desktop and Web pages and 38 c running SOF Gold and Janes FA-18. Not xakly scientific measurements. I expect a prperly mounted probe would show about 5 deg higher. Have extra case cooling and an 80mm fan blowing directly on vid card.
I am starting to reconsider the Vantec as the Swifftech for some reason is being omitted from a lot of current reviews. Check it out though. It has a very unique mounting system.

 

[Nagorak]

I think Monza is being a bit overzealous in his criticisms of the Radeon. The GF2 MX is faster than the Radeon in 16 bit color. So if that's important to you... Ever since the advent of 32 bit color use in games, I have never gone back, so I frankly couldn't care less about 16 bit performance, anymore than I could care about 8 bit or black and white performance. I guess it all comes down to a matter of opinion, but I really don't think very many will agree that the GF2 totally destroys the Radeon.

 

[Slake]

Yeah, I'm firm on the Radeon. Although not the highest frame-rate in the biz, it still has a damn high frame-rate. The image consistancy and quality as well as the price make it the #1 choice for me.
How about the Maxtor HD ? Again I don't have to have the best of the best, but the specs look pretty good to me at the price.

 

[Tomas]

Go for the ati radeon coz i have got serius stability problems with 2 of my geforce card!! Also radeon aint much slower in 32bit just 16bit!! Also what the F*** should u do with 5frames more or so??? When the radeon still looks better than the geforce

 

[AKDUDE]

Get the Radeon, 84 bucks from www.newegg.com. Just need to add a fan, overclock it, and enable to hyper z with the radeon tweaker thats all over the net. Has a better DVD player, and it looks better.
AKDUDE

 

[ken257]

I own both a Radeon and several Geforce based cards. When choosing a vid card you have to look at more then just the hardware. A good video card is made by quality drivers Nvidia has this but I still have compatibility probs with the Radeon. In my opinion the Radeon has been out for long enough that it should have quality drivers and this is unforgivable! Is it wrong of me to expect drivers that are up to the quality of the hardware after spending my hard earned money?

 

[Slake]

AKDUDE (Mar 03, 2001 02:41 a.m.):
Get the Radeon, 84 bucks from www.newegg.com. Just need to add a fan, overclock it, and enable to hyper z with the radeon tweaker thats all over the net. Has a better DVD player, and it looks better.
AKDUDE

So. you don't think the 64Mb Radeon is woth the price difference? Hell looking at it in print makes me wonder why it is more than twice the 32Mb version

 

[thrack]

I believe the 84 bucks is for a Radeon LE. Don't get that. Stick with the 64mb card, just to let you know though, i have that card and several geforce2 cards and the radeon has some issues with the Abit Board, but the ASUS a7v133, is a better alternative because it outperformed the Abit. Anandtech article will back this up. Try the ASUS their customer support is much better.