Buying a new computer

[Jeslek]

for my brother... Whats the newest scoop? I will post this on HWC too. :) BTW, we are going for AMD, so no P4s please.

[fury]

What's he gonna use it for?

[Jeslek]

games and video editing... Going with AMD 2200+ or so, 1 GB RAM. I am mainly worried about a motherboard and soudcard. The rest I can work out myself.

[fury]

Make sure that's a second generation T-bred.

For motherboards, I'd recommend a KT333 or KT400 chipset, and for the sound card, of course, SB Audigy

[Jeslek]

hm I don't know if I trust Creative that much with AMD chips.

[fury]

Why not?

[ris]

via and creative had a little niggle with the kt133a chipset i think but the newer ones should be ok

[Jeslek]

via and creative had a little niggle with the kt133a chipset i think but the newer ones should be okYes exactly, I have a Creative card, AMD chip, and VIA KT133a chipset, and they don't work nicely together on XP.

[Justintime]

yea, Kt266A-333 work well with creative. I assume the KT400 will too.

[fury]

Yeah, those problems are long gone. :headbang:

[Jeslek]

here's what i'm thinking: (Canadian $)

Attachment(s):

computer.jpg, 45.94kb

http://www.otcentral.com/forum/oldattachments/149_1032451000.jpg

[unclehobart]

Damn.. your video cards are expensive.

[PT]

It'd be a damn nice card to have, but I think you could do better, what does that translate in US dollars?

[Jeslek]

Not really, its about $380 US.

[PT]

That isn't bad, only other thing I'd look at is a 400w power supply instead of 300. Never know when you'll need the extra juice, especially with that video card, and the amount of hard drives you like.

[Jeslek]

the video card has its own power supply

[PT]

the video card has its own power supply

Huh? :confuse3:

Ok, looking it up....

[unclehobart]

I'm still plodding along on a middling 32 meg video card. I don't remember it being more than about 160-170 bucks back in 'the days'. Apparently the cutting edge stuff gets away with murder in the pricing these days.... which hurts, because I really do need new video and sound gear. All of the modern toys doesn't function worth a rip on anything less than beefed up 64 meg. Medal of Honor: Allied Assault is a horrorshow @ 32 megs.

[PT]

Radeon 9700 PRO requires connection to your PC's internal power supply for operation. A 300 watt power supply or greater is recommended to ensure normal system operation where a number of other internal devices are installed.


From here. http://mirror.ati.com/products/pc/radeon9700pro/specs.html

[PT]

I'm still plodding along on a middling 32 meg video card. I don't remember it being more than about 160-170 bucks back in 'the days'. Apparently the cutting edge stuff gets away with murder in the pricing these days.... which hurts, because I really do need new video and sound gear. All of the modern toys doesn't function worth a rip on anything less than beefed up 64 meg. Medal of Honor: Allied Assault is a horrorshow @ 32 megs.

I've only got a 32mb card too, but there are quite a few good 64mb DDR cards out there, around 100 or less. They do most stuff, but they'll be outdated within a couple years too.

[Jeslek]

Thanks Puter... ok, maybe a 400 watt one then.

[PT]

np ;)

[Jeslek]

He is going to use his existing 22" monitor (Viewsonic Perfect Flat) and 60 GB 7,200rpm disk (for booting).