Gateway or Dell?

Ned Flanders · Post by **Ned Flanders** » Wed May 29, 2002 5:03 pm

by flibble
I agree. Yamaha also do good CD-RW drives.

I concur here also. My cd rw at home is an older yamaha. I forget the model number but it maxes out at a write speed of 4 for -R and 2x for -RW. I've used it for four years and its' gotten a lot of work, been installed on four different computers, and I've nary a problem with it.

I've got two hp 9100 cd-rw in the workplace, they should stick to printers.

I guess plextor would've been a better option. I've never used one.

thantor3 · Post by **thantor3** » Wed May 29, 2002 5:26 pm

I have read good things about Plextor and Yamaha, but consistently the best rated CD-RW is the TDK VeloCD 32/10/40. Am I missing something?

Mr Sleep · Post by **Mr Sleep** » Thu May 30, 2002 6:44 am

See this article for info on the best of the ti 4000 and 4600's.

thantor3 · Post by **thantor3** » Fri May 31, 2002 4:41 am

I wanted to let you know what I am lined up to buy as far as my new system. Where relevant, I have noted why I choose that particular component, partially because in some pathetic way it seems to justify all the forlorn hours I spent trying to figure all of this out.

Monitor: ViewSonic E90fb 19" it's black, it's gorgeous, and it's huge. It has also gotten good reviews and the price is very reasonable. I looked at the ViewSonic GS790, the NEC Multisync FE950Plus, NEC Multisync FP955, SyncMaster 900NF, and the ViewSonic P95f. Price, performance, and color were big factors for me at the beginning. However, once I got it down to two final choices, I wasn't willing to pay extra cash for a white monitor. You can see how rational I was about all this…

Case: Directron SF-860B case -- I really considered a Lian Li aluminum case, but I found I wasn't all that partial to the aluminum look. Also the price was astronomical for a case that was just going to sit under my desk in the dark. The SF-860 is a sweet looking black case with a hydraulic front dust cover like the Alienware computers. Besides being totally fun, it also means that the front panels of my drives didn't have to be black, since they will be covered by the dust cover.

Power Supply: Enermax 350W Whisper PS -- top quality. I shelled out the cash without a second thought.

Motherboard: Asus A7V333 motherboard -- this was by the far the hardest decision I had to make. I liked the ABIT KR7A but decided against it because of the lack of legacy ports, the reported stability problems with both memory and SYSmark, and the fact that there were only 3 PCI slots. I understand that it is also temperamental about the way you place the sound card. I really liked the Gigabyte GA-7VRXP KT333. However, the people building the computer for me did not have much experience with this board and it does not have any thermal protection features besides an alarm, which I felt was an important flaw in an AMD rig.

CPU: AMD Athlon XP 2000+ -- definitely wanted to go with AMD, but didn't need the fastest CPU out there. Ok, ok… I didn't have the money for the fastest thing out there.

RAM: Corsair CMX512-3000C2 PC3000 -- Why did I choose this? Um…. how about because I could.

Hard Drive 1: Western Digital Caviar SE 100 GB w/ 8MB cache -- I have wanted a huge, fast hard drive for a long time. So I went for it. Next, a red Corvette….

Hard Drive 2: Western Digital Caviar 20 GB -- storage and to place a second operating system, since XP doesn't play nice with my aging peripherals. I could have simply portioned the other drive, but I had a horrible disaster once with that scenario and decided to play it safe.

Video Card: Xtasy GeForce4 TI4200 AGP 128MB DDR -- second hardest decision. I wanted dual monitor support and I am a big Nvidia fan, so I went with the GeForce4. But I didn't want to put out the cash for a Ti4600. The 4200s have gotten great reviews, are reasonably priced, and perform admirably compared to the Ti4600s and 4400s.

Sound Card: Sound Blaster Live! Audigy -- I did have a budget and since I mostly use my headphones (my computer room isn't set up well for sound and my speakers are only average) when gaming, I just went with a basic sound card.

DVD Rom: Artec 16x DVD-ROM -- I didn't see much difference in the DVD ROMs, so I went with what the tech suggested. I didn't do a DVD writer due to cost consideration and all the competing standards.

CD-RW: TDK VeloCD 40x/12x/48x EIDE -- another hard choice. I looked at the Plextor 40/12/40A, TDK VeloCD 32/10/40, CenDyne Lightning II 32X/12X/40X EIDE, Yamaha CRW3200EZ 24X/10X/40X EIDE. Outside of price considerations, I didn't care for the Roxio Easy CD Creator software included with the Plextor writer and its performance was slower than some of the above models. It is also finicky about the media it uses. The TDK had very good performance, the Nero Burning ROM 5.5 software, good compatibility with various media, good tech support, and a reasonable price. And the blue drive panel is cool.

Network card: 3COM 10/100 Fast Etherlink XL -- again, tech suggested this. Whatever….

Teac 3.5inch 1.44 Floppy Drive
Modem: Intel 536EP Voice/Fax Modem
Mouse: Microsoft Intellimouse Optical
OS: Windows XP Home

Thank you to everyone who posted here and PMed me -- it really helped me create a great gaming rig. After having been through this ( two weeks ago I couldn't have told you what a power supply was), I have even more respect for people such as yourselves who actually understand all of this.

Mr Sleep · Post by **Mr Sleep** » Fri May 31, 2002 5:30 am

Originally posted by thantor3
I spent trying to figure all of this out.

It was fun in a way though, admit it

it's black, it's gorgeous, and it's huge.

Black monitors actually make the screen look better in my opinion

RAM: Corsair CMX512-3000C2 PC3000 -- Why did I choose this? Um…. how about because I could.

Will your motherboard run PC3000 ( not that i have heard of this

) and how reliable is corsair when it come to memory

You might have the issue i was commenting on in the other thread about having the CD-RW and DVD on the same IDE channel, worth checking this issue

Network card: 3COM 10/100 Fast Etherlink XL -- again, tech suggested this. Whatever….

Good choice, i was just reading about cards which can do 1000mbps

I must say i am impressed with the build

Also going to a local supplier is always a better idea than the large companies. With that setup you should be alright for most games for about...erm...3 months

More likely it will be top rate for 2 years (in my estimation)

thantor3 · Post by **thantor3** » Fri May 31, 2002 12:40 pm

Originally posted by Mr Sleep
It was fun in a way though, admit it

No, it was horrible... simply horrible....

Originally posted by Mr Sleep
Will your motherboard run PC3000 ( not that i have heard of this ) and how reliable is corsair when it come to memory

I will ask about this... thanks.

As to the build, I am quite happy with it. It should be coming in two weeks or so.... feels not unlike Christmas.

Ned Flanders · Post by **Ned Flanders** » Fri May 31, 2002 12:59 pm

NERO Burning ROM...thumbs up!

nice machine than

thantor3 · Post by **thantor3** » Fri May 31, 2002 1:28 pm

@Ned: Thanks!

Here is some info on the Corsair XMS3000 from ExHardware who state that Corsair's reliability and service is "legendary."

Conclusion
The Corsair XMS3000 modules are the perfect memory modules for the overclocker, tweaker and gamer. Not only did the module perform very well in the tests, it remained very stable throughout the benchmarks even when pushed to the limit. Corsair puts a good deal of effort into making quality modules and the included aluminum heat spreader helps keep the module cool when running at high frequencies. Despite that, there are still a few places which we feel could be improved. Corsair could have included a manual with the modules for users who might not be familiar with memory upgrades.

In addition to that, the fact remains that there are still very few motherboards in the market that fully support the PC2700 standard. There are only a few KT333 and SiS 645 boards out there and this could very well be a big problem in the long run. Nevertheless, if you must have the best and fastest memory module out there, the Corsair XMS3000 will fit your needs perfectly! Highly recommended!

Yshania · Post by **Yshania** » Fri May 31, 2002 1:46 pm

Originally posted by Ned Flanders

NERO Burning ROM...thumbs up!

nice machine than

LOL!

I received a CDRW for Christmas and only used it for the first time (to burn anything with) a couple of weeks ago. I use Nero 5.5, though I haven't tried others to compare, this is so easy to use

@Than - nice pc!!

Mr Sleep · Post by **Mr Sleep** » Fri May 31, 2002 2:01 pm

Originally posted by Yshania
LOL! I received a CDRW for Christmas and only used it for the first time (to burn anything with) a couple of weeks ago. I use Nero 5.5, though I haven't tried others to compare, this is so easy to use

You got it working? Well done

What got it working?

Mr Flibble · Post by **Mr Flibble** » Fri May 31, 2002 2:42 pm

@thantor3, nice system. I want one!

@Yshania, Nero is definitely the easiest to use. There are a few other programs that do the job, but none as easy to use or as reliable.

Yshania · Post by **Yshania** » Fri May 31, 2002 5:10 pm

Originally posted by Mr Sleep

You got it working? Well done What got it working?

LOL!

I decided to give it some concerted effort - reading the manual helped.

It just looked harder than it actually was!

@Mr Flibble, I found my way with Nero, and will stick with it

thantor3 · Post by **thantor3** » Sat Jun 01, 2002 1:10 am

Originally posted by Yshania

@Than - nice pc!!

Thanks! *hug* Now instead of sending you pictures of my cat, I will start sending you pictures of my computer.

Gwalchmai · Post by **Gwalchmai** » Sun Jun 02, 2002 12:50 pm

Originally posted by thantor3
Thanks! *hug* Now instead of sending you pictures of my cat, I will start sending you pictures of my computer.

Perhaps you can send a picture of your cat sleeping on top of you new computer.....

dragon wench · Post by **dragon wench** » Sun Jun 02, 2002 2:36 pm

Originally posted by Gwalchmai
Perhaps you can send a picture of your cat sleeping on top of you new computer.....

A good reason, amongst others, to get a flatscreen monitor.....
One of my cats won't stay off my monitor, and I am seriously afraid that one day she and it will go crashing down to the floor....

sorry for the spam

Mr Flibble · Post by **Mr Flibble** » Sun Jun 02, 2002 4:03 pm

Originally posted by dragon wench

A good reason, amongst others, to get a flatscreen monitor.....
One of my cats won't stay off my monitor, and I am seriously afraid that one day she and it will go crashing down to the floor....
sorry for the spam

I'd be just as concerned about cat fur getting into the monitor. That could be... bad.

dragon wench · Post by **dragon wench** » Sun Jun 02, 2002 6:00 pm

Originally posted by Mr Flibble

I'd be just as concerned about cat fur getting into the monitor. That could be... bad.

yes, that is also a concern, I am debating between a water pistol and cat repellent as deterrents..... since I don't want to damage the monitor in the process....

thantor3 · Post by **thantor3** » Mon Jun 03, 2002 12:45 am

Originally posted by Gwalchmai
Perhaps you can send a picture of your cat sleeping on top of you new computer.....

LOL!

Better yet, let's convince DW to send us a picture of herself petting her cat while the cat is sleeping on top of her computer.

Gwalchmai · Post by **Gwalchmai** » Wed Jun 05, 2002 11:59 pm

This is my first post from my new computer!

I'm still setting it up, and I haven't played anything on it yet, but so far everything is pretty cool. Windows XP will take some getting used to....

Ned Flanders · Post by **Ned Flanders** » Thu Jun 06, 2002 7:23 am

Indeed, Gwally, Indeed. I still have problems with the Teletubbies interface. I still much prefer the interface of win2k pro.