Athalon 64, X2 or not

My monitor is a CTX S962G DVI/VGA 19 inch TFT flatpanel, and I love it. I have experience with Analog flatpanels, and DVI is far superior (screen lines up correctly every time, unlike analog).

Oh, in order to use Dual Processors (single or multicore) with XP, you must use XP Pro. Home will only recognize a single processor.

I chose the ASRock 939Dual-SATA2 budget mobo for my 64 bit system (I have to get everything else needed).

 

Are you still considering the graphics?
MSI graphics, same specs as the eVGA , $6 more after rebate. I think it would be a good match for motherboard:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814127095

Matt

 

OK, it is starting to happen.

Brain mush. Goo-goo, jee-jee

Matt, your are so kind. I will do the MSI just for the stability insurance. Thx

I will probably get the Samsung 940B monitor but I saw a no name for $169 that is DVi and everything:

TYRIS 19" Dvi

Your thoughts please!!

Lastly, I have abandoned the Termaltake Soprano as I didn't realize that it had a stupid door on it. Too bad. However, I have found the Codegen that looks great, too. Incredible ventilation!!

CodeGen 6097 400W

Of course there is always the CM Praetorian (gulp)

CM Praetorian Black w/o PSU

The magic is leaving me as the drudgery of last minute changes weighs me down. Hepme, Hepme! Thanks again

 

Larry:

Trying to keep it positive but am totally unimpressed with that case. If you dislike doors, perhaps you should look at something like a Chin-Ming. I prefer aluminum cases because of heat dissaption but thats your call. My original suggestion had 120mm intake, 120mm exhaust, 90mm side intake and a removable filter in the front. Moved a lot of air, very quiet and very high quality tooling and finishing. From my perspective, the direction you are heading doesn't look like the best path to follow. I'd suggest you take a closer look at the case Chiles4 suggested earlier in your thread - it looked pretty darn good and by comparison with that CodeGen, any decision becomes a relative no-brainer.

Comments are not meant to offend, just calling it like I see it. If you disagree, thats your privledge - everyone is entiled to an opinion.



edit: Your CoolerMaster link was wrong but I just checked out that Praetorian case and would call it a much better choice.http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811119035

 

Hey Rock, your comments are always taken in a constructive way and I appreciate your taking the time to look into my "ideas ". I'd really like to know what you didn't like about it. The things I noticed were lots of fans and the side panels are perforated for additional cooling. I must be missing something major. Sorry. Didn't like that monitor either, eh? Just checking out the options. Is Acer reputable? I don't know much about it. Wasn't your original case a Tsunami? Doesn't that also have doors?

What I have been hoping for has been mid-tower case, with front plugs (USB, and hopefully 1394, mic and headphones) that are not on the floor or on the top, no front doors, not silver, hot coffee dispenser, enough bays and good ventilation. I can always add a PSU if it doesn't have a big enough one. I have seen an Antec 500W for $60 at Frys. Is that an OK PSU?

Gary, I forgot to mentioned that I had looked the iStart case before. It is a full tower and is just a little too big. I just looked at a mid-tower from iStar but it does not appear to me (an unreliable source, at best) to live up to being a junior version of the big boy. Could be wrong, though.
iStar Mid-Tower

So close. Thanks a lot! I'll keep looking.

 

The main factor in looking for a Case, is the number of drives that your selected motherboard supports + 1 or more extra bays. For example, and a case in point, my 32 bit system:

Gigabyte GA-7N400 Pro2 supports:

2 FDD
8 ATA133/100/66/33
2 SATA150
-------------------------
12 Total

This eliminated so many cases. Since I had to select from one place (if possible), which was Monarch Computer, I looked at nearly every case they had. Lian Li had the best selection. I looked at a 12 bay midtower, and thought that it would leave no room for something like a live drive. The next choice was a 15 bay fulltower by Lian Li with 3 extra bays for a bit of 'just in case'. Six 5.25 and Nine 3.5 (3 exposed). Price: $195. This is the one I chose. Not the most expensive Lian Li, but it met my needs.

The next factor is ventilation. This Lian Li comes with Four 80mm fans installed, and room for 2 more (above the PSU).

My 64 bit mobo supports a total of 9 drives, so a 10 bay midtower would work well.

 

LarryB:

Antec makes excellent power supplies - considered one of the best.

As to cases, I'll try to look around this evening if I get some time (kitchen pass needed from the bride as I'm doing an installation all day today). My problem in making a quick call is that I have pretty much been silver all aluminum for a few years and thats what I know off the top of my head. Have to look at pictures and specs on others unless the ones I am familiar with have a black cousin. That was the case with the Thermaltake Tsunami.

Lian-Li referenced by Sarissi is absolute top shelf and worth checking out - all of their stuff is good. Personally, I'd try to focus on something with 120mm fans in front and rear because of the air they move and the low noise factor.

Acer has been around for a long time and is an excellent company. I didn't find anything wrong with the monitor you referenced and my lack of commentary shouldn't be taken as a vote of no confidence. I wanted to open the door for others who have strong preferences for specific monitors.

Good Luck - keep the questions coming and keep doing your homework.

 

Hi, I took a look at the Lian-Li cases and found what looks to be a nice one. The jacks are by the floor but at least they are covered, and it does tea instead of coffee. It has 2 120mm fans!

Lian-Li 70BPlus11

and I am looking at this Antec 500W Antec 500W. How do I know if this PSU is the right one for an AMD X2 board or the case? I noticed that some have fans on top, too. The Lian-Li box does not appear to have a grille on top.

How'm I doing?

 

That Lian Li is a 9 bay case. Does that meet the 'number of drives supported by mobo + 1 or more for Just in Case' equation?

Antec Power supplies are quite good. Mine is an Antec True 550 (in my Lian Li fulltower).

"24-pin power connector with detachable 4-pin section "

Does this mean that I can use this with a mobo that has the ATX 20 pin power, and the square 4 pin power connectors? The ASRock 939Dual-SATA2 mobo has that power connector setup, rather than the 24 pin that most other 64 bit mobos have.

My hdd storage needs are greater than I suspect most people have here. I use a number of 3D CGI applications, of which the scene files get huge, very quickly, plus all of the Content files.

 

HI Sarissi,

Thanks for you input. My needs are for 2 CD/DVD drives, 2 SATA II HDDs, a Floppy and maybe my old Zip. This is not going to be a business or serious hobby/gaming computer. So, my Just In Case is based on need, as opposed to the mobo capacity. I am sure that the mobo will do much more than I will ever ask it to do.

AS far as the PSU and Mobo are concerned, I do not know how to tell what PCI-e plug it needs. When Antec says that the SP-500 has a PCIe connector, how do I know that it is for x16 and not x1, or x4??

I did look at the mobo specs and I was wondering if you think that it supports SATA II (3.0 Gb/s) HDDs?? It does not appear so to me. Specs for MSI K8N Neo 4 Platinum mobo-

[SIZE= "1"]On-Board IDE/SATA
• An IDE controller on the nVIDIA nForce4 Ultra chipset provides IDE HDD/CD-ROM with PIO, Bus Master and Ultra DMA133/100/66 operation modes.
- Can connect up to 4 IDE devices
• NV RAID supports 4 SATA ports (SATA1-4). Transfer rate is up to 300MB/s.
• NV RAID (Software)
- Supports up to 4 SATA plus 2 ATA 133 Hard drives
- RAID 0 or 1, 0+1, JBOD is supported
- RAID function work w/ ATA 133 + SATA H/D or 2 SATA H/D
• Silicon Image's SATARAID5 supports another 4 SATA ports(SATA5-8). Transfer rate is up to 150MB/s
- RAID 0 or 1, RAID5, RAID10, and JBOD groups are supported
- Support up to 4 SATA devices connected to a single controller [/SIZE]

Thanks

 

LarryB:

Opted for a couch pass, skipped the kitchen - long day. The PCIe connector is fine and yes your board does support SATAII - 300mbs as per the spec you posted. That Lian-Li would be a good choice and thats a great PSU.



edit: Something else I was checking on got me thinking so I just visited MSI's website to make sure - the basic MSI Neo4 won't handle SATAII but the Platinum version will.

 

IF I read that correctly, that is 14 to 16 drives maximum on that mobo. I like to take everything into consideration in the beginning, cause it saves money in the long term.

 

The Tyris 19" DVI? I will put myself in your place as a prospective buyer. The reviews at Newegg are good, but each has a "con ", some things (they mention the stand) are a little ordinary. Still, it looks like good value and that is a reason it is rated highly. See how that dead pixel policy rates among the others.
Another thing I would consider is what their support is like if you have any problems. Do they have a support website, FAQs, downloads (like the manual if you misplace it) and maybe email support for questions.
You don't know the quality of the internal parts and therefore how long they will last.
It is worth considering, but since it is a lot lower in price you may have to accept the risk and also accept that you will have to live with anything that is not "perfect" about it.

The monitor is pretty much a "consumer item ", like a television, a fridge or a washing machine. It does not interact with the rest of the computer so you can really only go by others saying it did the job or it didn't. If the specifications are the same as the others you may only be able to go by those reviews.

If I get to a stage where there are three or four choices, I pick one with an attribute that is important to me.

Maybe this does not help much, but it may explain why we(?) cannot give you a definite yes or no about the Tyris.

Food for brain-mush

Matt

 

Well, as of this morning, the $60 Tyris monitor rebate is gone. So, through attrition, my mind is clearing. Would I spend $230 on a Tyris monitor, I think not!

Matt, thanks a lot for your insights. Based on the evidence presented, a consumer would have to be willing to take a gamble on a product like that. As they say in wine circles, it appeared to have a good QPR (quality price ratio).

Lar

 

When I was choosing the base components for this computer, I had a selection of flatpanels, and 1 preferred monitor, which at the time, I considered to be cheap for a 19 inch DVI flatpanel: CTX (Chuntex) S962G at $435.00. (The family trust was buying the base parts that I needed. Anything else was up to me to get.) The trust agreed to the CTX monitor.

Knowing that dead or wonky pixels are always possible, I got lucky. I got a perfect monitor. I am totally pleased with my CTX monitor. Flatpanel prices have dropped since then. (ram was most expensive component at $485 for 2 x 1 GB for nForce2 chipset)

LarryB, I never go by rebates when buying stuff, since most of the time, you won't get the rebate check.

 

Thanks again for the info on the CTX monitor. It seems to be pretty nice (and comes with a exc recommendation). There do not seem to be many retail outlets for it and at $330, puts it into the middle of the road for pricing. The Samsung 940b can be had for $300. So, I will keep looking and I will consider your recommendation.

Since Newegg changes day to day, I have taken to checking their sale section often. A rebate from a respected company is pretty solid in my experience. Hoeever, your comment about rebates is well taken, esp for a firm like Tyris.

Thanks, Larry

 

Larry, it usually is not the company, but the rebate center that is the problem. Most companies contract out to rebate centers, who find all sorts of excuses to not send the rebate check when you have fulfilled the requirements.

I'll take $10 instant savings over $10 rebate any day.

 

Me too!!

Interesting about the rebate centers. The rebate request for the Tyris (it's back!) goes to the Newegg Rebate Center. Is that bad? I noticed that the offer is too new for the reviews to reflect any rebate problems.

Lar

 

Never dealt with newegg rebate center, since I have not yet bought anything with a rebate from them.

 

OK, so LarryB ............

Enough about the cordial responses regarding rebates. How are you coming along regarding the real nitty gritty? I'm going to be traveling for a while and just can't stand not knowing what your current status is. You haven't gone underground to that basement workshop, holding us in suspense until this monster breathes real life have you?



not abandoning ship - I'll still be trolling this thread even while out of pocket next week.