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Date: Sat, 10 Nov 2001 16:23:39 +1000
From: Ron Shafran <ron at hypermax.net.au>
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[ Humbug *General* list - semi-serious discussions about Humbug and  ]
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A subject guaranteed to generate discussion.

> I think that, if you have the spare cash, new computers are so cheap for
> computing power it is better value to buy a new one. Say Celeron or Duron
> 800-900 with 256 Mb RAM and a 20 Gb HDD, 52X CDROM should cost about $750
> without a monitor. I think thats pretty good value really and you get a
> warranty too!
> 
What you said about new systems, with a couple of additions:

1. Choose a decent motherboard (refer www.tomshardware.com,
www.hardwareoc.com, www.overclockercafe.com among others); stay away
from cheap no name motherboards. If the overclocking crowd recommend it
you can probably depend on it holding together past the warranty,
particularly if you don't overclock. I've had good success over the
years with ASUS & have recently installed an Asus V133-C with a 266FSB
AMD T-bird Athlon 1.0ghz CPU (the older version m/bds used slower 200FSB
CPUs).

2. If money is tight, spend it on RAM not CPU. An AMD Duron or Intel
Celeron with their smaller cache will suffice without really limiting
your performance IF you spend your CPU savings on decent 256-512mb PC133
SDRAM, prefering to buy 1 module. This way you can always swap to higher
speed CPUs and add RAM easily at a later date.

3. Good value in an AGP video card is an nVidia 32mb TNT2, as I believe
nVidia has just retired chipset production so you can get one cheap,
they're well supported across OS platforms (including Linux & BSD), and
once again you can always upgrade to a hotter card with a GPU (graphics
processor) later. Many mfrs. use the chipset to make TNT2 cards.

4. I guess an ATA100 7200rpm IDE hard drive would be preferable over an
ATA66 5400rpm, which are the cheapest ones currently being sold. I can't
tell you, however, if you'll notice the difference in I/O speed.
Personal experience & current feedback from a couple of hardware dealer
mates confirms IBMs are as good as it gets in this category.

5. 52X CDROM drives are cheap & Sonys seem to last longer than most
these days.

My tuppence. I built systems for a living from '87 to '98 & still can't
seem to get away from them.

Ron Shafran
SC Designs

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