Hardware to go with 8K7A

[FishDog3]

I am planing on getting the EPoX board and was wondering what your thoughts were on these other components and how well they work with the board and O/Cing.

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[#]Elsa GeForce2 Ultra
[#]Crucial PC2100 DDR RAM
[#]Maxtor Diamond max plus 60, 40GB
[#]Water cooled
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Other questions:
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[#]IBM or Maxtor
[#]Sound card sugustions, I'd like a nice one but would like to keep it around $80 if possable.
[#]Case sugstions, I am planning on making water cooled system, but I don't mind putting the radiator/pump external so I don't need a huge case, just a nice one that cools well.
[#]Is the RAID version worth the extra $30?
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Thanks you guys, and BTW this forum treats its newbies like me very well, its apreciated.

fd

 

[Da Whip]

Welcome to the forum FishDog3. Hope you enjoy your stay.
Back to the questions at hand.
Personaly I like IBM, the new 60gxp series is resonably priced and performs well.

Get a SBLive value card for under $50. You can't go wrong there.
Here is a good Antec case;

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As far as Raid goes, I think for $30 it is well worth it, if you don't use it now, $30 is cheaper down the road than the $ for a separate Raid controller.
Good luck in your system shopping.

 

[vampiro]

First, I would say go ahead and get the RAID version. It just gives you more choices for expansion.

For the hard drive, I would go with the IBM 60GXP series. I have one myself, and they work great.

For the sound card, I would say look at the Hercules Maxi Gamer or Phillips Acoustic Edge. I have an SBLive!, but have been very disappointed with the sound quality.

Finally, I must recommend a Fong Kai case. I have had mine for almost a month, and it is awesome. It is all plastic on the outside, and thus VERY quite. No more leaf blowers! They are hard to find, but I have had good luck from Directron.

I hope this helps, and welcome to the forums!

 

[Valid]

Going to agree with Vampiro here and say that I love my Fong Kai case. (I have the FK-320). I have an EpOX-8K7A and am currently running it alongside an OEM AsusTek V8200 GeForce3 and an SbLive! X-Gamer. Was a little worried about the SBLive because of the VIA686B south bridge (heard some other people were having problems). I have had none, hardware went together smoothly and it's running decently, though I haven't tried playing with the CPU multiplier jumpers yet. (I have, however, raised the fsb to 140mhz and I've also upped the GeForce3 to 220/500.) Just letting you know that these seem to work together fine. Hope that helps some.