Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - New PC help (yes, another one of those threads!)

Mephisto2 · 08-09-2004, 06:03 PM

So I've decided to finally build a new desktop system for myself.

My old system was an Athlon 1700, with a UWSCSI 10Krpm 18Gb disk as the system drive and plain old ATA133 60Gb as data drive.

I recently bought two 120Gb ATA133 drives for US$60 when I was last in the US, as it seemed like a good deal.

I have a few questions for those more familiar with system building than me.

1) Would a RAID-0, using the two ATA133 120Gbs drives be better than a single 10K rpm UWSCSI disk as my system drive?

2) Are the new 64bit AMD processors really that much better than a P4? I was going to go for a 2.8 or 3Ghz HT Pentium, but now I'm not so sure. What exactly uses the 64bit processors these days?

3) I guess the most important question will revolve around what video card I buy. The PC will be used mostly for gaming (I'm the little boy who never grew up!), obviously some internet surfing and then some image editing (by Mrs Mephisto, who has recently emerged as somewhat of a Photoshop expert). So, I only really need the video processing power for some games. And to be perfectly honest, I'm only really interested in a few of those; Doom2, HalfLife2 and Total War Rome.

So, would a A$400 9800Pro from Powercolor be sufficient? Or should I spend a bit more and go for the 9800XT. To be honest I don't really understand the difference. Of course, I'd like to go the whole hog and buy an XT or a 6800, but I don't really know if I can justify spending upwards of A$800 on a glorified video game (which is mostly what this PC will be).

Will the 9800Pro be "out of date" very soon?

The rest of the system, for those that are interested will be as follows.

I'll reuse my aluminium case (8 fans, but I don't think I'll power them all). I'm going to buy a decent DVD burner; probably one of the newer x12 versions. I have a choice between a brand-new HP 19" TFT or a Compaq 21" flat-screen CRT. I even have another 17" TFT lying around, but I'll probably set that up as a workstation for my laptop, along with docking station etc.

Desktop, both laptops, printers etc will all be networked wirelessly. And I'll settle for a 1.5Mbs DSL link.

So what do you guys (gurus!) think?

Mr Mephisto

08-09-2004, 06:03 PM	#1 (permalink)
Mephisto2 Junkie	New PC help (yes, another one of those threads!) So I've decided to finally build a new desktop system for myself. My old system was an Athlon 1700, with a UWSCSI 10Krpm 18Gb disk as the system drive and plain old ATA133 60Gb as data drive. I recently bought two 120Gb ATA133 drives for US$60 when I was last in the US, as it seemed like a good deal. I have a few questions for those more familiar with system building than me. 1) Would a RAID-0, using the two ATA133 120Gbs drives be better than a single 10K rpm UWSCSI disk as my system drive? 2) Are the new 64bit AMD processors really that much better than a P4? I was going to go for a 2.8 or 3Ghz HT Pentium, but now I'm not so sure. What exactly uses the 64bit processors these days? 3) I guess the most important question will revolve around what video card I buy. The PC will be used mostly for gaming (I'm the little boy who never grew up!), obviously some internet surfing and then some image editing (by Mrs Mephisto, who has recently emerged as somewhat of a Photoshop expert). So, I only really need the video processing power for some games. And to be perfectly honest, I'm only really interested in a few of those; Doom2, HalfLife2 and Total War Rome. So, would a A$400 9800Pro from Powercolor be sufficient? Or should I spend a bit more and go for the 9800XT. To be honest I don't really understand the difference. Of course, I'd like to go the whole hog and buy an XT or a 6800, but I don't really know if I can justify spending upwards of A$800 on a glorified video game (which is mostly what this PC will be). Will the 9800Pro be "out of date" very soon? The rest of the system, for those that are interested will be as follows. I'll reuse my aluminium case (8 fans, but I don't think I'll power them all). I'm going to buy a decent DVD burner; probably one of the newer x12 versions. I have a choice between a brand-new HP 19" TFT or a Compaq 21" flat-screen CRT. I even have another 17" TFT lying around, but I'll probably set that up as a workstation for my laptop, along with docking station etc. Desktop, both laptops, printers etc will all be networked wirelessly. And I'll settle for a 1.5Mbs DSL link. So what do you guys (gurus!) think? Mr Mephisto