New Comp Specs

[Nic]

Before you buy a Radeon AIW 9700 Pro, take a look at this thread ...

Radeon AIW 9700 Pro - DOA

and here ...

ATI Radeon 9700 Pro - Installation Problem

and here ...

ATI Radeon 9700 Pro - Kills XP on Driver Install

and there's more, but I think that's enough to be getting on with.

 

[XtremeEX]

What video card (extremely good one without the probs) do you guys recomend? I plan on getting a 400W PSU (power supply unit I guess but dunno what that abreviation is). Do I need anything more powerful (PSU)?

 

[Deception`]

Personally I'd wait to make any major updates, especially with new P4 and AMD processors around the corner....besides Half-Life 2 doesnt come out until Septemer (But I'm a Q3 FAN). As for AMD > P4, in some cases it is true, AMD's have been known for heat problems and/or MINOR instabilities (trust me I've had 3). My P4, on the other hand, has not given me one problem since August and overclocking could never be easier. But if you plan on overclocking the AMD you should be fine, just wait a couple of months to do a major upgrade because newer hardware will drive the price down on what's already out there.

 

[negroplasty]

As I said once before, the NV35 will more than suit your needs, all you need is a little patients as it will definitely over perform the 9700 PRO and 9800 PRO. Now I don't want this to become a debate about ATi vs. NVDIA, so let this be the end of it (before it started). In the end the decision is all up to you and I can only hope that you make the right choice to suit your requirements, remember - we're here to help.

 

[Nic]

AMD processors are NOT known for any instabilities, it is the chipset manufactures (e.g. VIA) and their *cheap* chipsets that have been the cause of some issues in the past (Intel had its own problems also). The nVidia nForce2 chipsets are ultra stable.

As regards heat issues, yes it was the case that AMD CPUs requred good cooling in the past, but the latest AMD CPUs have lower power dissipation than equivalent Intel CPUs (AMD Athlon 3000+ is 74 watts, Intel P4 3.06GHz is 82 watts).

 

[Arris]

There are problems with any hardware.
My Sapphire 9700 Pro has been nothing but a joy since the day I got it...

 

[XtremeEX]

Ok guys, heres how it goes down. I've got $1,300 to spend and I want to purchase a system now! If you guys really say what you mean, such as prices shooting to the floor and more performance skyrocketed up, then I can wait. I just need to have some proof of that such as company articles from Intel or AMD. I don't want to wait because of rumors.

 

[XtremeEX]

I'm also going for an AMD.

 

[olefarte]

I too have a 9700 Pro and haven't had the first problem with it. For the money, it's probably the best thing going now.

 

[XtremeEX]

I'm still sticking with the Radeon AIW 9800 Pro. At least this is going into a top of the line computer other than most other people complaing about compatibilty issues with their (probably) 1.1Ghz comp and their 100W PSU.

 

[agissi]

Why on earth do you want 1.5GBs of RAM!?!?!!!

--other then that its lookin' pretty spiffy to me

 

[XtremeEX]

I don't know if that's directed to me but it's what I'm getting, lol. Need lots of ram for XP.

 

[young&wild]

Originally posted by ---agissi---
Why on earth do you want 1.5GBs of RAM!?!?!!!

--other then that its lookin' pretty spiffy to me

Yeah, why 1.5GB? 512 MB RAM is more than enough, you won't find more than 40% of your memory hogged by normal applications when the memory is well managed. I doubt there is going to be a significant increase in gaming performance between a 512MB and 1.5 GB of RAM. Unless your into video editing, rocket launching(joking), 1.0GB should be a minimum, otherwise you wont require that much of RAM.

 

[XtremeEX]

Actually, for WIN98SE, I need more than 512 but it cant support more so I'm just improvising.

 

[SNGX1275]

I'm quoting myself here from within this thread.

Originally posted by SNGX1275
Actually you can make it work with more than 512Megs of RAM, but you most likely won't see a performance increase.
http://support.microsoft.com/search/preview.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q253912
and
http://support.microsoft.com/search/preview.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q146912
deal with that issue.

 

[Nic]

SNGX1275, Do you know anyone that has tried running win98 with those workarounds?

Are there any other problems apparent when these workarounds are used, or does that effectively solve all associated issues?

 

[XtremeEX]

Actually, I was reading up about systems using too much memory for win98se, causes instability, program crashes, and "Windows protection error. You need to restart your computer." Which displays indefinately.

 

[Strakian]

Originally posted by XtremeEX
Do you guys think I should shoot for the highest FSB out there for all my hardware? Or go down to 400 or something>?

Depends on whether you go AMD or Intel. If you go AMD, 400Mhz still isn't very stable with most chipsets, so I would recommend 333Mhz FSB, which you can get from newer chipsets that support 400Mhz FSB, like the KT400 and the nforce2 chipset

For Intel, I'd hover around the 400Mhz FSB, but I'm not really an Intel System Builder, I'm an AMD builder