Need opinions for Gaming Computer MB & Processor

[Brian R.]

Going to build my son a computer for UT, Q3A and HL - maybe others. Online gaming to my new server. I don't feel the need to build him a state-of-the-art computer, just one that's competent and upgradeable.

Need some Ideas for MB/Processor combinations. Cheap is good, but stability is more important. I don't want to troubleshoot over the phone.

[Wombat]

Have you considered going with an AMD Duron? They're a great value, running about $60 for the 700MHz versions, last I heard. And people seem to like the Asus motherboards when stability is of high importance.

[Fat Tone]

Brian
I recently (2-2.5 months ago) built a departing student of mine a gaming rig. He wanted best bang for limited bucks, and stability. Here's what I did:
amd k6-2-550 on Asus p5a-b (I know you won't do that, but I had it to hand). I'd recommend a T'bird 800 on a K7T Pro, or a Duron on the same board to save some bucks.
128Mb, 30Gig IBM 7200 UDMA66, PCI128 (very cheap and quite effective, but I'd go with the Live player 1024 now), FPS 1000 speakers. Already had a DVD drive.
Monitor was a 2nd hand 17" Compaq 75 for £100.
Graphics handled by a Creative Anihilator Pro 32 DDR for £140 - I know, I know, it's not Matrox, but he wanted fps above all and its way ahead of the G400 for that.

The whole thing cost under £700. He says a friend with some Piii-650 is jealous of his performance, so he's a happy customer.

Good Luck, Tony.

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K7Pro(110), Athlon 900(750)@8.5,105fsb, G400 32 DH@max, 1.6BIOS and latest drivers, SB Live Player 1024, 256Mb PC100 CAS-2, Pioneer 103S DVD, 20Gig IBM 7200 ATA66, LS120, MS forcefeedback pro, CL WebCam III etc etc

[This message has been edited by Tony Andrews (edited 27 October 2000).]

[Brian R.]

Thanks for the input guys. Anyone else with opinions?

[Maggi]

Hi Brian,

yesterday I had my hands on an ASUS CUV4X, sporting a P3-800EB ... nice rig, pretty fast and rock stable, although he has quite some stuff in there:

G400 32MB DH
Hauppauge WinTV Theatre
SB Live! something with 5.1 DolbyDig set
Mustek Scanner with bundled SCSI controller
IR keyboard & mouse
IDE CD-RW
IDE DVD
IDE UDMA HD

Guess what ... no IRQ sharings by default !!!



So my recommendation would be that MoBo, plus something like P3-600E and crank the latter to an EB, i.e. 133MHz FSB ...

Cheers,
Maggi

[Brian R.]

How stable is the 600E at 133 MHz? Sounds like a potential problem...

I guess I would prefer the 800EB setup of those two.

[Maggi]

Originally posted by Brian R.:
How stable is the 600E at 133 MHz? Sounds like a potential problem...

I guess I would prefer the 800EB setup of those two.

Nah, don't think it'll cause probs these days.

I guess Intel's production is pretty much matured and they now focus on EB-CPUs so that they take those and stamp 'em down to E, i.e. most 600Es are downstamped 800EBs.

To be honest, I don't see any new Intel CPU failing at speeds below 800MHz for a couple of weeks now.
www.overclockers.com has a really nice database, and there you can grab the neccessary info in which plant those CPUs @ 1.5GHz (!) were built in and it seems that Malaysia pumps out the best OCers ...

Cheers,
Maggi

[Marwyn]

I recomend ASUS A7V + Duron 800. is stable on 1Ghz and have excelent performance ! 3400 MIPS and 1400 MFLOPS. It`s good enough for gaming 8-) and is no expensive.

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ASUS A7V | || Duron 800@1010 | || TITAN Majesty -> cooling unit | || 128Mb PC133 | || G400 DH MAX | || SB Live! 1024 | || IBM 25Gb | || HP Writer 7100 | || DVD AOpen 1040 (flash Pionner) | || Win2k
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Only one thing is missing in my life. Save button. (bad English I know...)

[Brian R.]

Thanks for the opinions, keep them coming. Maybe, I can reach a decision based on the majority opinion...

[SteveC]

Intel BX mobo (I may sound like an old fart, so bite me! )
Intel P3-700+ Processor

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Cheers,
Steve

"Life is what we make of it, yet most of us just fake"

[DentyCracker]

AMD Duron 700 (circa $71), MSI K7TPro 2 (c. $113), 128 MB PC 133 SDRAM. Get a good thunderbird HSF (c. $9) and arctic silver too ($13)