System advise...do these look ok?

Computer Hardware
#1

Im going for one of the systems below but im scared off the Athlon because Im really going to work this thing hard with video and audio work and im bothered by the prospect of needing a thousand fans to cool it down… so at this stage Im more comfortable with the Pentium… however, i havent made my mind up so opinions would be appreciated :slight_smile:

Pentium System:
P4 1.8A
Epox 4BDA2+ Motherboard
512MB 266 RAM
Seagate 60GB ATA 100 HD
MSI G2Ti ProVT 64MB TV In&Out
Pioneer or Lite On 16X DVD
Lite On 32X Burner
Soundblaster Audigy Platinum
Windows XP

Plus I’ll have the usual stuff like scanner, printer, etc hooked into it

Athlon System:
As above, but with
Athlon 1800XP
Epox 8K38+ Motherboard
512MB 333 RAM
Maxtor 40GB ATA 133 HD (will likely bump up to 60)

Obviously the faster RAM and HD are reasons to go with the AMD but, I want a robust processor that will take a bit of punishment over a few years so… what do ppl think?

Thanks for looking :slight_smile:

#2

In cases of enormous bandwith (audio video codec , quake 3 arena ) i would suggest the p4 in this case. It’s calculations will be better than the AMD 1800+.

I do however have my doubts that the Seagate harddisk will be sufficient for data streaming.
You might look for Western Digital’s new line with 8mb cache on the IDE drives. Or better , SCSI option (which is more expensive).

#3

Don’t know if you have budget constraints, but I’d go for ASUS motherboard if I were you.

Next, Maxtor Hdds have always been my favourite.

From what I have read on this forum, the LiteOn 24x may be a better choice, or go for latest Teac.

If you plan to work with video, you might reconsider the graphics card. You will get better quality when you use a special card for Video input (Pinnacle Systems have some great cards, for both analogue as well as digital video input/output). Then you can focus on a graphics card that best suits your needs (supporting OpenGL will do wonders when working with Video and rendering).

Personally I prefer Win2k over XP, but that is just me I guess.

#4

Originally posted by Smart@$$
Then you can focus on a graphics card that best suits your needs (supporting OpenGL will do wonders when working with Video and rendering).

OpenGL is hardly a standard for video streaming.
For (3d) rendering it’s perfect indeed.

#5

I would go for Pentium 4 (my opinion). My brother has Athlon 1400XP and it boils. The case gets hot after about 30 min use - I’m surpirse it still works after 3 hours of game play. He is using standard extra case fan and it’s noisy as hell.

For video and with tight budget go for ATI’s All In Wonder models. These have built in tuner and allows SVHS in. The quality is ok- ish.

#6

Thanks for the responses everyone! Much appreciated :slight_smile:

SCSI HD’s are out of my price range, but I’ll look into other options aside from Seagate. Alot of people seem to like the Maxtor ATA133’s. Im not going to set up multiple HD’s right away but will in the furure if I find it’s needed. (some ppl say do it, others say its uneccessary so i guess i’ll have to find out for myself)

I was unsure about my graphics card. I thought the GF2Ti would be ok for the analogue video, and the firewire port on the audigy will cover digital. But most people pick up on this and say use an ATI All In Wonder instead of the GForce. Will the GeForce not do the same job (or will it just not do it as well?)

Will 266 DDR RAM be ok with a P4? Some people say that without RDRAM, the P4 just won’t reach its potential. And theres really not much point in spending the cash on it if its not going to perform at its best.
A guy at one computer store told me RDRAM will pretty much vanish soon, and another guy told me 333 DDR RAM and the P4 dont mix well (something to do with chipsets!?)

And I guess in the event that i do end up with an Athlon, what do i need to consider? ie. more fans? thermal paste (whatever that is)?

Ok firstly thanks for reading through this novel, and any help would be great. thanks.