Suggestions, please?

[stryder144]

Are you sure you don't want one of those new Dual G4 1GHz Mac towers?

http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPL...tore?family=G4

Holy cow! Dual 1ghz G4's! Wow! Now, if only they weren't so premium priced! Sweet!

[stryder144]

Hey Stryder, I think I'd stay away from a Zip Drive. *You already have a burner, why bother w/ a zip? *Y ou can backup a lot of stuff on a CD-RW, and the blanks are a lot cheaper. *I'd go with a Duron, you can always upgrade to an Athlon later, and you won't have the "Intel, we're the best" premium price to deal with.

Good suggestions. As for the zip drive, I was just thinking about how some of my friends use it. It would be nice to be able to swap disks with them. I am having a hard time justifying buying one, though. So, I might not include one.

I am a big fan of AMD, but I am thinking about Via C3's, as well. There seems to be more flexability in socket 370 motherboards. I am thinking about getting a motherboard with legacy slots so that I can use my old 28.8 ISA hardware modem until I can afford to buy a real 56k modem. Plus, I have a Soundblaster 16 PNP that is just sitting around. Unfortunately, it is an ISA card, as well. If I can use these pieces now, I can better justify the cost of the new computer to my wife (aka: commie accountant). Later on, when my wife has forgotten about the initial cost of the computer, I can upgrade to better sound/modem cards.

I know that the Via C3 line is overpriced and underpowered. I also like the thought of upgrading the AMD Duron to an Athlon at a later date. My Cyrix MII works great for what I need it to do, it's just not in a computer that is very easy to upgrade and maintain. My wife can't stand the fact that I have all these computer parts laying around, so the more that I can recycle, the better. I haven't found too many AMD boards that have ISA and lack the onboard crap.

These are just thoughts, mind you. I am open to any additional ideas. As for evilestknights suggestion to use newegg.com, believe me, I am actively watching their site on a daily basis! They have some awesome prices, indeed. Thanks, all, for your wonderful inputs. None will go unheeded.

[creedon]

When I built my current box, I bought it off e-bay. I was in the same position you are, and I knew what I wanted. I paid $405.00+s&h for a 600Mhz Duron on an MSI K7t-PRO m'board. It came W/ a case, a 10Gb. H.D., 64 megs of PC-100 RAM, a ricoh burner, a WINmodem and some other stuff. I removed the !0 gig HD, installed my 2 Maxtor HD's, put in my 256 megs of PC-133, threw away the WINmodem and replaced it with my old faithful US Robotics 56k external, and started installing OS's. I'm gonna replace the video card eventually (SiS 6326 w8Mhz vidRAM), but it works OK for now. Since I did the original setup, I've added an additional 512 of RAM, and replaced my original 40x CD-ROM drive with a 52x, but other than that, I'm pretty satisfied, and the system is upgradeable. If the aircraft industry recoverssoon, I'm gonna upgrade the processer (1.2 Athalon T-bird). You CAN do it on a budget, but know what you've got, and what you want- be prepaired to comprimise, and you'll do just fine.

[Feztaa]

5. *It must have audio (built-in is just fine with me).

I'm not an expert on hardware, but I can tell you this: Get an SBLive!. In my experience, they are by far the easiest to install and configure ('modprobe emu10k1' and you're done.)

[stryder144]

When I built my current box, I bought it off e-bay. *I was in the same position you are, and I knew what I wanted. *I paid $405.00+s&h for a 600Mhz Duron on an MSI K7t-PRO m'board. *It came W/ a case, a 10Gb. H.D., 64 megs of PC-100 RAM, a ricoh burner, a WINmodem and some other stuff. *I removed the !0 gig HD, installed my 2 Maxtor HD's, put in my 256 megs of PC-133, threw away the WINmodem and replaced it with my old faithful US Robotics 56k external, and started installing OS's. *I'm gonna replace the video card eventually (SiS 6326 w8Mhz vidRAM), but it works OK for now. *Since I did the original setup, I've added an additional 512 of RAM, and replaced my original 40x CD-ROM drive with a 52x, but other than that, I'm pretty satisfied, and the system is upgradeable. *If the aircraft industry recoverssoon, I'm gonna upgrade the processer (1.2 Athalon T-bird). *You CAN do it on a budget, but know what you've got, and what you want- be prepaired to comprimise, and you'll do just fine.

I agree. I found a site that has an inexpensive m/b with a 1ghz duron, case, ps, and kb/mouse. It is $169.00. All I would need is a modem, some ram, a couple of drives and I'm golden. They have an inexpensive agp card (sis 315 w/128mb ram for $49) that has good performance roughly equal to an ati radeon ve. With 256mb pc133 ram and a 10 or 20 gig hdd, I would have everything I want (except a modem, there are so many different models out there to research). I have been looking around a lot to see what there is. Luckily for me, I have plenty of time !

Are you sure you don't want one of those new Dual G4 1GHz Mac towers?

http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPL...tore?family=G4

Ohh baby !!!

I want one !! NOW !

Dual CPUs are 8) - RISC is 8)

-- edit --

Corrected CISC to RISC - stupid me

[noblestknight]

Ohh baby !!!

I want one !! NOW !

Dual CPUs are 8) - CISC is 8)

Apple uses RISC CPUs; x86 is CISC.

Apple uses RISC CPUs; x86 is CISC.

I know, I know.... I just always confuse them... /me is screwed up that way.

Pentium I class CPU's were the last ones with CISC cores, and they had a CISC to RISC converter. I think, so at least.

I better go read my digital design book again: "The 80386, 80486 and Pentium processor - Hardware, Software and Interfacing"
It's really a bitch to study, but very cool in a geeky kinda way