Pretend it's your birthday...

[Anonymous]

I might have some extra cash this summer (I'm in the states), and this is one of the best sites I've found for this kind of thing. At any rate, I'm trying to decide 'where' to put my money, here's what I've got right now:

AMD Athlon 850
Jabil Kodoka mobo (holds up to a gig thunderbird, heard it will do more but not much more :)
768mb SDRam
GeForce 2 mx400
SB Audigy
17" Viewsonic 17ga w/ built in speakers
10gig HD
WinME

I've got no complaints about it, I know plenty of people who have hotter boxes but outside of my incompetence it's been the most reliable and stable box I've ever had. NO problems, and I mean none. As great as it is, I've got a hunger for more but I don't know as much as you guys about parts and pieces, I'm a graphic designer :) right now I can get my hands on a P4 1.7 for super cheap, but then I'd need a new mobo and memory...I wouldn't mind a flatpanel monitor or 20-30gig HD...The GF2 is ok, I don't play games much at the moment and since the only anime I do is for the web I don't really 'need' a GF4. Although I was thinking of going up to the mx econo line of GF4s, but I don't think it would be much of an improvement for the $80-100 it would cost. Ah well, whatever...any input would be much appreciated! and by the way I'm traditionally a fan of AMD...

[Andy]

well first, tell us about how much "extra cash" you have

judging by what you have put in oyur system specs, i would get another harddrive and a different OS

[Anonymous]

probably around a $1000 US...I was thinking a new OS as well, but I really don't feel the need to get XP and I don't know enough about 2000pro to make a judgement; although logic tells me that 2000pro would probably be a good choice. HD is near the top of the list, 10gigs just doesn't last when you deal with 30meg+ images.

[JediAgent]

I have done graphic design myself, and I would recommend a new KT266A or KT333 mobo and PC2700 DDR ram. Try to get DDR with CAS 2. 512 would be perfect, you really dont need that much more. More is always better thou. Keep the Athlon 850 until TBreds come out, and then decide if you can afford a TBred. If you cant, their release will immediately push down the cost of XP's, and that is the next logical buy. Make sure the motherboard is top notch because slightly overclocking the proc by way of FSB will increase the effectiveness of your RAM. And that always helps, and i have seen it aid my side graphics work, so...

Get the mobo with a built-in RAID option, and later you can buy two new hard drives and RAID them together. That will help OS load up times and any program load u0p times as well as file opening times. Which helps if your working with a 50mb photoshop file.

Right now, the Mobo and RAM could be around $180 to $250.
I would buy a KT266A board because i would be satisfied by the stability expressed by websites online and the performance is not nearly bad. Excellent is more like it. A KT333 board will officially support the RAM, and is probably better performing, but its new, and as someone who needs a PC, im skeptical so far. Thats prolly becasue there is no "A" revision yet, and i know VIA's history with that.

If you want the HDD's now, that could be another $180-$400 depending on exaclty how big and who makes it. A RAID deserves all the performance you can give it. So ATA100 and 7200rpm is my minimum buy, you may feel differently.

A CPU may be what you really want, so if you feel you truly need it, the best XP buy is the XP1700 or XP1800 i think. Check Pricewatch.

Have fun upgrading. And if you have less than $180 im sorry fer posting so much.

[Beefy]

Personally, I'd got for a good, solid stable KT266A MB + DDR for starters. Overclocking isn't really necessary if you are mainly going to be using it for graphic manipulation, as you want your system as stable as you can get it. DDR will be a great boost to speed as well.

You can either keep your existing CPU and upgrade that later, or go for a cheap XP 1600+ or something now.

A new HDD is definitely the way to go. Graphics programs make a lot of use of 'scratch disks' to store all the temporary information, so either one very fast drive, or a couple of drives in a RAID array is the way to go.

As for video, I'd almost be tempted to go for a Radeon. The 2D visual quality is slightly better compared to the Geforce line, and if you get an All-In-Wonder card, then you've got video input / output... which is always fun to play with.

I wouldn't worry about upgrading the rest. 17" is plenty enough, even if it is CRT... With the Audigy you can't get much better at the moment...

Hope that helps somewhat..

[JediAgent]

Oh 1000$! Do it all, and save money for the proc later on when TBred comes out. You could even get a new case and power supply, as well as another vid card (GF3Ti200) Then you could build another PC later with the parts. Right when you do the upgrade, the old PC wont have a CPU or Sound, but that can be down later, and used as a game or internet PC.

I would'nt get a flat panel LCD monitor, rather, buy a flat screen 19" like the VAIO 17" i have. They are fun, but find a deal, cuz monitors SUCK when you have to buy them.

My recommendations:
KT266A Mobo $100-160
PC2700 CAS2 $75-160 (Depending on how much)
2x 40Gb ATA100 7200rpm HDD $180-220
GF3Ti200 $125
19" Flat Screen CRT Find a deal

[JediAgent]

I was advising to OC because that proc runs on the 200DDR FSB and rasing that to 110 (220) would be a nice and very stable jump for a bandwidth hungry graphics system.

And Beefy is prolly right about the Radeon. I was being brand loyal, and didn't realize it.

[Beefy]

I can't say i've ever seen a Radeon myself, but it just seems to be the general opinion of people that they have a very nice 2D image quality... Thought it might be a good idea.. :)

[JediAgent]

That means Beefy was demonstrating what is stated in his sig.

[Anonymous]

Do it all!? haha...I'll try! I don't know much about RAID, how would that set-up work software wise? OS on one and everything else on the other? Would you folks recommend 2000pro or would I really see a huge performance boost and increase in stability over ME? I would go the Linux route but my feelings on that are mixed, I've run redhat and mandrake off and on but I just don't trust my files to it, plus it doen't support 90% of the software I use. As for a case, being a designer I'm a bit of a fashion snob but I also want function...I've been eyeing the LianLi aluminum cases, which would be great since I live in the middle of a desert, but I've heard the aluminum cases can be kind of 'weak'...Coolermaster looks nice but at $300 it better empty my cat's litter box too...

[JediAgent]

Dont buy one of those expensive custom cases. Not worth it. I've got a guy locally that sells me cool looking no name case for 50$ that have USB front access under an alum bezel and stylish alum boardering stuff on it. Find a deal. Cases and Monitors and mouses and keyboards and heatsinks and speakers and fans and anything else that doesn't have PCB in it. OK maybe not speakers. But find a deal on what you like, or if you find some no name something that you think would fit your needs, buy it. You can get alum no name cases at PC shows for sub-$100. At $300 a case should perform routine sexual favors to be worth what you paid.

A RAID setup is completely on the mobo and acts as one real fast double size hard drive. 2 40Gb drives make one real fast 80Gb under RAID. Set that up before you install windows and always backup important files to CD just to make sure. And make yourself familiar with rebuilding your computer. Remember the aim is to make a stable high performing machine, but that doesnt always happen the first time.

Get Win 2kPro or XP Pro and get used to a new OS, you'll be doing it in 2-3 years anyway. I didn't say this, but get it for free. Whether by friend or internet. I didnt say that thou.

[Anonymous]

I would probably go 2kpro, I've heard you have to call and 'activate' xp, that's not something I want to do...I've also heard of massive hardware and software problems, again, not something I want to do. KT266a chipset sounds about like what I was looking at, you guys recommend a brand? I was looking at an ASUS earlier but I've heard Gigabyte isn't bad...

[Beefy]

ahem.. pretend you aren't listening to this.. *you can get a version of XP that doesn't need activation* I'd have to definitely suggest you try for XP if you can. It's such a nice operating system to use, especially for a new PC like yours will be. There's not really that many software / hardware problems either. most of them got ironed out pretty quickly when appropriate drivers / patches came out that supported XP properly..

There's a lot of good motherboards out at the moment. IF you have a look in the Motherboard threads here on TT, you'll see some suggestions that other people have made, or boards to avoid due to problems. It all comes down to personal preference in the end.

[JediAgent]

Yeah, i'd go with Win XP Pro (Pro = no activation)
I never had fun with 2kPro and im actually backing up files as we sp[eak to put it on, but ill prolly go back to XP Pro soon. I HATE the way XP handles cd burners, they still work, but i dont like the way it works all the time. You have to use the XP built in software for my burner, and that never burns above 4x for me. Sony CRX145e. Other than that, you have to get those damn burn popups to go away (fairly easy after first time) and I dont think it runs internet as fast as it could (bandwidth smaller than i think others might run) but then again there might be registry key additions to change that. Thats just my experience, i might be doing something wrong. That happens alot, right Beef?

[Beefy]

Ummm... can't say it does.. sorry.. Must be the user on this one.. :)

In my experience, I've used the inbuilt burning software twice, once with my Sony CRX140e, and once with my 24x12x40 Lite On. Both worked fine. But I prefer Nero / Clone CD to burn with anyway. There's no reason why these shouldn't work on your system as well...

Those 'burn popups', or the pop ups in general, are there to be helpful. If, like most people, you don't like them, then they are easily turned off.

As for the Net, since upgrading my downloads have been actually 1kB / s faster on average.

Jedi, did you do a fresh install or upgrade from something else? A few people seem to have niggling little problems from upgrading.... which fix themselves after a clean install...


Anyways, something else I forgot to say last time.. I've personally got two PC's running on MSI boards, and I've found them to be very stable. so there's one personal statement about a motherboard to buy.. :)