INFERNO2000 0 Posted April 4, 2001 One of my dad's friends is in need of a computer. As badly as I wanted to build a system for him, he wanted HP or dell. I'm not making much direct contact, unfortunately.. Basically the need was this: 19" monitor fast 3d not important here's what I gave my dad to give to the guy as a guide. What do you think?(other than I wasted 1 and a half hours) # a note. I did this all off the top of my head with no research. If there's any mistakes I made, let me know. ****************************** CPU “IBM Compatible” = x86 x86 = 186: 8086/8088 286 386 486 586: Intel Pentium/Pentium MMX, AMD K5, Cyrix 5x86 686: Intel Pentium Pro/2/3/Celeron, AMD K6, K6-2, K6-2+, K6-3, Athlon(also considered 786 through extended architecture), Cyrix MII, Samuel,6x86 786: AMD Athlon/Duron(also considered 686), Intel Pentium IV L1 Cache-first memory chunk a CPU accesses L2 Cache-second memory chunk a CPU accesses. 256bit for intel, 64 bit for AMD Overclockable-through either the use of multipliers(AMD) and front side bus(intel & AMD), the speed is increased. This voids warranty, but increases performance. PERFORMANCE PROCESSORS 1. AMD Athlon(Classic{No longer offered} / Thunderbird) Available in Tbird-B(200mhz theoretical, 100x2 actual) and Tbird-C(266mhz Theoretical, 133x2 actual) [double-pumped] In the future, the Palomino chip(Tbird-d) will be a usable upgrade to a good motherboard. Expansion/uprgadability/overclocking is best. Tbird-C is supposed to be SMP compatible, but AMD’s 760mp SMP chipset is not yet available(some time in May) Overclockable by multiplier and front side bus 128k L1 Cache 256k L2 Cache Offered in 600mhz-1200mhz(Tbird-, 1000mhz-1333+(Tbird-C) 2. Intel Pentium IV Available in 400mhz theoretical, 100x4 actual [Quad-pumped] New architecture is coming out this summer that is incompatible with current Processor. Requires RDRAM, a very expensive RAM manufactured by RAMBUS, who is currently suing on copyright infringement and being counter-sued on allegations of racketeering. Performance is lacking. A 1.5ghz P4 is outperformed in most tests by the 1.2ghz Tbird-b. Little software is available that takes full advantage of the new architectures of the P4 vs. the standard x86 processor. The first TRUE 7x86. Overclockable by front side bus only. 8k L1 Cache 256?L2 Cache Offered in 1.3ghz – 1.5ghz 1.7 on the way. 3. Intel Pentium III(Katmai(Slot1{No longer offered} / Coppermine) Currently the proverbial favorite by consumers. Available in in e(100mhz), and eb(133mhz). End of the intel 686 line of processors. This summer, the Tualatin will be released, but is slated for the mobile(laptop) market. Currently at the peak and end of its speed increases(1ghz). SMP capable, making it usable in dual CPU systems. However, a dual Pentium III 1ghz does NOT equal 2 ghz, as the processing is done in parallel, not series. Not many software applications utilize dual CPUs, so it’s not advisable to the average consumer. SMP compatible Operating Systems such as NT, 2000, XP(all except personal), Linux, etc. can utilize this. Windows 9x(ME, 98(se), 95) cannot run SMP mode. 1 CPU will be unused. Programs utilizing SSE will perform better with an intel P3 than comparable speed Athlon. Overclockable by Front Side Bus only 16k L1 Cache 256k L2 Cache Offered in 550mhz-1ghz BUDGET PROCESSORS The following are like their counterparts above, but have 128k L2 Cache instead of 256, and are clocked to a slower speed. 4. AMD Duron Available in 200mhz(100x2) Double-pumped. Rumors of 266 coming soon. Easily upgradable(to Athlon). Performance is very much on par with Pentium3. MUCH better than a Celeron2. Overclockable by multiplier and Front Side Bus. 128k L1 Cache 128k L2 Cache Offered in 600mhz –900mhz 5.Intel Celeron2 (Celemine) Available in 66mhz, and 100mhz. Easily upgradeable(to Pentium 3 ) Highly overclockable, sometimes doubling speed(many 566 made it up to 1.1ghz). Performance is lacking in comparison to Duron. 16k L1 Cache 128k L2 Cache Offered in 533mhz-766mhz 6.Cyrix VERY POOR PERFORMANCE. Highly Unreccomended. Nothing more needs to be said. Recommendation: Athlon RAM 1. DDR(Double Data Rate) Double-pumped SDRAM(though not compatible with SDRAM). Offered in PC1800(200mhz 100x2) and PC2100(266mhz 133x2). C2400(300mhz 150x2)(?) is scheduled for release this summer. Compatible with intel systems(P4 support this fall) and AMD systems 2. SDR(Single Data Rate) The current standard. Offered in PC100(100mhz), PC133(133mhz), and PC150(150mhz). Very cheap in today’s market, prices may increase soon though. The new KT133A chipset by VIA(for the AMD) provides performance within 5% of DDR systems 3. RD(RAMBUS) Intel’s high end standard. Offered in PC600(100mhz equivalent) and PC800(133mhz equivalent). Very expensive RAM with minimal performance increase over SDR/DDR in most programs. High bandwidth RAM that is proprietary to intel at the moment, and whose future in computers is not certain, as intel is trying to get away from it’s contractual binding to RAMBUS and support DDR for the P4. Recommendation: 256MB PC133 or better OS BSOD-Blue Screen Of Death 1. Windows 2000 (Pro) This operating system will get you prepared for XP, scheduled for release this summer/fall. Based on the NT kernel, Windows 2000 is stable, fast, and less prone to crashes than Windows 9x. BSODs are less common. Uptime is much longer than 9x, due to Windows 2000’s superior memory management. 2. Windows 98 (Second Edition) This operating system will yield you the most compatibility with programs and hardware. Based on the 9x kernel, it will die out with the release of XP. BSODS are (in)famous with this operating system. Uptime can be increased through freeware programs that free up the RAM. Anything above 128MB is not properly utilized. 3. Windows Millennium Edition (ME) This operating system was geared toward the new user, and is “considered most user-friendly”. Opinions are scattered on this system. Personal experience shows it to be less stable, and far slower than the same system running Windows 98SE. This is the standard on a new system bought from manufacturers consumer end(low end) systems. Recommendation: Windows 2000 Video BUS: 1. AGP – current standard for video cards. Performance is best. Available in 2x and 4x. 2. PCI – old standard for video cards. Performance tends to be good. Used mostly when there is no AGP, or as a secondary video card. 3. Onboard-with few exceptions, this is inferior to either of the above 2 options. Found predominantly in intel systems, due to the integration of the 810e video controller on the 810 and 815 chipsets. Although they will advertise it as an AGP, if it does not have an AGP slot, it will usually not accept a new AGP video card. Upgrades can only be PCI in such situations. However, the intel i815& 815e chipset has both onboard AGP graphics, AND an AGP 4x slot. The 815ep lacks the onboard graphics in favor of just the AGP slot. Recommendation: AGP slot, no onboard. Manufacturer: 1. nVidia – the current superpower of the consumer graphics industry. Best support for drivers for Windows. 1. GeForce2 – High end to budget end graphics card, with VERY respectable performance. MX is available in twinview- allowing 2 monitors to be used simultaneously. 2. GeForce256 DDR – older high end card, better for gaming. Compatibiliy with older AMD systems was problematic due to power draw(twice that of a GeForce2) 3. TNT2 – OLDER video card. An inferior choice for machines greater than 500mhz *GeForce3-brand new card. Too expensive for consideration, and not enough of a performance increase to warrant purchase at this time. Especially for 2d. 2. ATI- older OEM(provider to companies such as Compaq, etc.) superpower. Known for compatibility with systems across the OS spectrum(i.e Linux, Windows, etc.) Not as good a performer in 3d as the GeForce2, but much better 2D than nVidia. However, ATI’s history with driver support is not great. 1. Radeon – Offered in many version, VE/LE being low end. This is a neutered card that lacks HyperZ, making it less powerful in 3d graphics applications. However, 2d is relatively unaffected. 2. RAGE 128/Pro. See TNT2 3. Matrox-the leader in 2d performance. Not offered in many consumer end systems due to a lacking OEM presence. Also offers Twinview (although with a different name). Recommendation: If Offered, Matrox G450. Otherwise, GeForce2 MX HDD (Assume IDE as SCSI is not usually offered in consumer end) 1. Spindle Speed. Sacrificing Size for Speed would probably be a wise decision. Current drives are 7200rpm. This makes access much faster than the 5400rpm or slower. 2. UDMA/ATA transfer speed. Actually, this relates to the motherboard as well as the harddrive. UDMA100 allows the potential of 100 megabytes per second, whereas UDMA66 allows only 66. UDMA33 is low end, and only offers 33 at best. While the difference between 66 and 100 isn’t usually that large, you might as well take the best you can get. 3. Manufacturer: IBM, Maxtor, Western Digital are the best drives out there. Seagate, Quantum, Fujitsu aren’t as well liked. 4. Size. Nothing needs to be said. Recommendation: IBM(75GXP) or Maxtor(DiamondMax 45) - 45gb (UDMA 100, 7200 rpm) Monitor 19” was a requirement. 1. Flat screen Viewsonic and Sony offer flat screen monitors. These are NOT flat panel. These are still CRT(cathode ray tube), but they use thin foil strips instead of a shadow mask(?) for their display. This makes for a crisper picture than a SM CRT, and has less distortion. 2. SM. Cheaper than Flat Screen, the standard. These have curves to them both vertically and horizontally, like the regular tv. Peripherals(mouse, keyboard, printer, scanner, etc.) Go for USB whenever possible. Due to expandability, with the purchase of USB hubs, 127 devices can be supported. NIC 100 base TX Ethernet controller. These can be bought for 20 bucks as an upgrade. Modem V92 is the new standard. Doubtful you’ll see anything but V90 in systems yet. *************************** not sure if it'll help anyone or not, but oh well. ------------------ My PC is warm. I think our fire wall is acting up. Will Work For Bandwidth What You Say? All Your Base Are Belong To Us [This message has been edited by INFERNO2000 (edited 04 April 2001).] Share this post Link to post
pimpin_228 0 Posted May 3, 2001 Yea that was worth it that a good guide but how much is he willling to spend though Share this post Link to post
INFERNO2000 0 Posted May 3, 2001 He went with a P3 system he didn't listen oh well. he does no gaming, but they convinced him to get a GF2GTS or GF2Pro *sigh* oh well Share this post Link to post
