Yoshi's Hunt for a New Pee Cee

**Tracer** · 23 Dec 2002, 05:57 PM

ATI is more efficent and you'll save money on the board too because you don't need a really hardcore one to make it work they way you're promised. 4200 is great, but 9500 is nearly just as good and you can squeeze more outta it. If you want overall horsepower the 9700 is tops but priced at 399.99 most ways.

ºTracer

**Rhydant** · 23 Dec 2002, 06:19 PM

bah. go with the Radeon 9700 pro. its the best videocard out on the market, and wont even have a competitor until the new nvidia card comes out. i think its called the FX or something. but be assured it will do everything the 9700 can do.... only 7 months later.

dont buy a Pentium 4. sure, they can reach speeds above 2.4 Ghz, but its a weak-ass processor. go with an Athlon. theyre cheaper, too.

DONT BUY A DELL.

skip Windows XP as well, unless you like all those pretty colors. its full of bugs and security holes.

anything over 512 megs of RAM is overkill. and unless you download lots of porn and programs, 40 gigs worth of harddrive space should do you nicely.

**Tracer** · 23 Dec 2002, 07:06 PM

THERE'S NEVER ENOUGH RAM!
Seriously though - I could use more when/if I get a digital video camera.... lots of RAM is well needed for video encoding/editing.

ºTracer

**andyrose** · 24 Dec 2002, 01:31 AM

You can get an All-in Wonder 9700 for under 400 at some places. That would have you covered for everything multimedia based, for at least a while. I recently purchased the 9000 Pro, and I wish I had just saved up for the 9500. It does kick a fair amount of ass, though.

If I was you, Yoshi, I would build from scratch. It's a lot more fun than just buying one outright.

**Despair** · 24 Dec 2002, 12:48 PM

Here is the specs for my possible new machine:

Cases: Enermax/Monarch 305-B Tower w/350W PS $89.00
Case Fan: Thermaltake 80x80x25 HP Fan $25.00
Motherboards: Gigabyte KT400 7VAXP 8X AGP RAID, Sound, Lan $108
Processor: AMD Athlon XP 2700+ (Retail Box-w-Fan)$355.00
Heat Sink Fan: Dynatron DC1206BM-L/610-P-CU $32.00
Memory: DDR 2700 - 512 MB Corsair CAS2/Htsnk CMX $169.00
Hard Drive: Western Digital 40GB 400JB 8MB 7200 $89.00
2nd Hard Drive: Western Digital 40GB 400JB 8MB 7200 $89.00 RAID Setup: RAID 0 (Zero) $10.00
CD-RW/DVD-RW: Lite-On 48x12x48 Black CD-RW $69.00
Floppy Drive: 1.44MB 3.5 inch Floppy Drive $14.00
Video Card: ATI Radeon 9500 Pro 8X AGP $180.00

All for the about $1280. Not bad.

**FirstBlood** · 24 Dec 2002, 02:06 PM

The best PC makers out there are Alienware, Falcon NorthWest, and Voodoo Computers... but their top of the line PCs cost 2500-3000 dollars

with Ibuypower, you get a very solid machine, but it's lacking in the wiring, tech support, and other little features that the big three do have. Still better than a Dell, since they have sweet case mods and are still cheaper

also... ATI can't make drivers for shit...

**Dyne** · 24 Dec 2002, 02:16 PM

Originally posted by FirstBlood
The best PC makers out there are, Falcon NorthWest, and Voodoo Computers... but their top of the line PCs cost 2500-3000 dollars

finally someone agrees with me. i kept out alienware because they're overpriced for what you actually get. man, those voodoo pc's are friggin works of art if i say so myself. i finally built my own pc the other week and now i got the "itch". never was a power pc person before but now its like crack....

**Yoshi** · 02 Jan 2003, 10:44 AM

Well, the order is in. I was given a $750 award in addition to my annual bonus at work, so I went with an AlienWare Aurora DDR system. It's basically their top-of-line AMD system.