What do you think about this computer?..

  • Thread starter Thread starter Yadi
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Yadi

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I humbly request anyone's opinion on the following machine. I plan to use Egosys Wamirack and Cakewalk (possibly Cubase). Will be doing mostly audio along with some midi tracks (drum triggers) and keys. Gigasampler as well.

I know nothing about motherboards, chipsets and cpu compatibility...other than what I've picked up in these forums. I am on a budget (and this machine fits the bill) but am concerned about missing something critical.

Here it is:

Cases Mini-Mid Tower 235 Watt AT 6 Bay
Motherboards Abit VP6 Dual FC-PGA 133MHz FSB 4X AGP
CPU Intel PIII 800MHz FSB 133MHz 256K FC-PGA
Cooling Fans INTEL for P-III/P4/Celeron high speed fan
Memory PC-133 256MB 32x64 SDRAM 168PIN 8ns
Hard Drives Western Digital 30.1GB 7200RPM ATA/100

Western Digital 30.1GB 7200RPM ATA/100
Video Cards 8MB AGP VIDEO CARD
Sound Cards Creative Sound Blaster 128 PCI
Modems MOTOROLA 56K v90 FAX MODEM PCI, PnP
CD/DVD ROMs 52x CD-ROM
CDRW PLEXTOR CDRW 12X10X32 IDE INT
Floppy Drives 1.44 3.5 FLOPPY INT
Speakers Altec Lansing ACS 33 3-Piece Speakers
Keyboards Microsoft Natural Keyboard Elite
Mice Microsoft IntelliMouse PS2
Monitors 17 inch C70 .27dp; 1280x1024
Operating System Microsoft Windows 98 Second Editon+Get 3Year Parts Warranty
Total Price $1398.00

Thanks in advance for your response. I really do appreciate the input.

Yadi
 
235 Watts is not enough power for 2 HD's, DVD, CDRW, Sound and Video card. Your PS fan will go nuts, trust me. Get a 400W, you'll be glad you did. And the quieter, the better. I would also skip the Altec speakers, and get some powered monitors (but hey, thats me). 98 won't use dual processors, so get Win2000, or a single processor board, preferrably both (unless your software specifically supports them). If you're going to use it for any games at all (be honest:)) bump it up to an Nvidia Geforce2mx, it wont be much more dough, but it's a huge performance increase. If not, dont worry about that.

My $.02
H2H
 
In my humble opinion, I would also suggest to you, to purchase some reference monitors, instead of the Altec's. If, you are building this computer for music production, then you will need them. :)

spin
 
heres another view....

Ok, I priced some stuff...
your motherboard $137 on pricewatch.com
800mhz 133.... $146
256 pc133 ram $90 at crucial.com
total: $373


then, I priced this... Asus a7m266 $169
AMD 1ghz T-bird with 266mhz front side bus $131
256mb pc2100 DDR ram $110 at Crucial.com
total $410

For a $37 increase in total cost, you go from an 800mhz to a 1 ghz CPU with 266mhz front side bus (and better floating point capability, good for plug-ins) and you get DDR support which on average seems to offer about a 10%increase in performance, memory wise, and the mother board will handle 2gb of DDR ram. Everything else you are buying should fit just like normal.
Also, this just happens to be the board I have, and its one of the more expensive... I'll bet you can find another board with the AMD 760 chipset cheaper than mine, and perhaps break even, same price you originally had, but better performance.
Another 2 cents worth.
Paul
 
I wouldn't recommend looking for a cheaper DDR motherboard. If you go AMD then spend the money on an Asus motherboard with the most current chipset. Finding a good VIA motherboard is a much harder task than finding a good Intel motherboard. I guarantee that if you buy whatever Asus's flagship AMD board is at the moment, you'll have a much better shot at success.

Slackmaster 2000
 
great advice

wow...great advice guys.

SPIN and all: sorry I mentioned the speakers (that makes me look kind of rookie. I know, from all of my surfing here, that you need GOOD flat response near field monitors...I don't intend to skimp there. (I just cut and pasted these specs from some website..duh....where I used some sort of configurator...and thats how I ended up with a mismatched dual processor board). Obviously I'm in trouble.

TUBE: My concern with AMD stuff...is strictly realworld compatibility. I know EGO SYS claims compatibility with Duron/Athlon and VIA chipsets on their w-site, but I'm still skeptical (I've sent them an email with regards to the Thunderbird cpu but haven't heard back).

SLACK: are you saying "go with a premium, single processor,AMD/ ASUS board....that supports DDR?" I know nothing about DDR so I assume that it is for AMD stuff. GUYS, this is where I will get screwed up....spec'ing the right board for the job.

400 watts will definately be done (good point). I think I can put the cpu case on the other side of the wall for noise reasons.

Thanks a million for the advice...I'm sure you guys know the saying "you live and you learn"....well thats the first line from the story of my life. Been burned.
 
DDR

DDR stands for double data rate... it performs two funtions every clock cycle instead of one. It basically outperforms Intels Rambus memory, and Intel has since dropped the Rambus thing and is developing DDR boards for use with the P4. This means cutting edge, and less chance that you'll be outdates in a year, since this technology is just starting to be implemented. I highly suggest it. The thunderbird is compatible with everything that is pentioum compatible, its the chipset you must beware of in most cases. The amd 760 chipset is fine. The amd 750 chipset, on the other hand, is not. The asus a7m266 uses the AMD 760 northbridge, therefore you have compatibilty with most everything.
Peace,
Paul
 
I agree get a bigger power supply. I think (or I hope) that "AT" was a mis print, AT cases / power supplies are extinct and what you need is ATX.

I disagree about avoiding VIA chipsets, I think they are just fine (plenty of hardware sites would agree with me). Unless your music hardware manufacturer says otherwise I would not worry about that.

Other than that all of your responses are good advise.
 
Yadi, I basically just wanted to make the point that you should always buy a premium motherboard, regardless of the chipset you choose.

Not to start a big argument or anything, but I can't see justifying the extra cash on a 400W power supply, as they are quite a bit more expensive. A 300W supply that is on AMD's recommended list will be adequate.

Slackmaster 2000
 
I agree with Tubedude!

I just got my Asus A7m266 w/Athlon 1.2 and am loving it! Finally, i can record at 24/96 and do lots of effects.

I just got the stuff Monday, and have been setting it up, tweaking and mostly just playing with it the past couple of days. It seems to be very solid/reliable, and of course it's pretty fast, too.

If you're gonna run dual monitors, check out the ATI Radeon VE. It's only about $84 + shipping at gogocity and it's the best dual head video card around right now, at least I think so. Also, it has 1 DVI output if you're running a digital flat panel display. If not, it will also run 2 analog monitors. It's a real cool setup 'cause of all the xtra desktop space. I've been running my mixer and effects on monitor 2 and everything else on the main one.

Romeo
 
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