OT: Need some solid advice............

[RAMWolff44]

Hi all [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

YUP, I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna build my own computer. Tonight I bought the tower and a 512 Mb stick of DDR RAM.

What I need from you guys is solid advice on Motherboard and hard drives from folks that can use the 'brushes tool' with out crashes! Folks that have a solid system that rarely gives them any problems.

I have a new Yamaha burner (does the T@2 burning too!! Haven't tried that out yet!!) that will go in there!! I love my Creative Blaster sound card and my Matrox G550 video card is a dream too!!

The DDR RAM stick, from what I've been told by "my guy" at Fry's is that it's a better form of RAM memory, better than DIMM, so I guess I'm set there.

I'm going to get a Pentium IV micro chip. So that's all good and on the list too! But I am worried about the Motherboard and the hard drives! [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_confused.gif[/img] I honestly think that these areas definitely have something to do with the quality of how the system functions. I'm certainly not in the neighborhood to buy a $400.00 motherboard but I see the prices VERY reasonable at the moment, under or about $100.00 for a really good one. Soyo was one brand that he was enthusiastic about (any opinions about Soyo?).

I'm kinda lost when it comes to the hard drive area. I want 2 40 Gig'ers for sure, but the brand is important, not too expensive but good quality with a solid rep.

Any advice is very much appreciated!! [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img] With it being "that time of the year, AGAIN" I will be raking it in $$ and so with prices down everywhere for just about anything, it's now or never to do this!! [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]

Thanks muchly!! [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

Richard [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]

---Wolff On The Prowl---

[This message was edited by RAMWolff on November 23, 2002 at 23:15.]

[RAMWolff44]

Hi all [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

YUP, I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna build my own computer. Tonight I bought the tower and a 512 Mb stick of DDR RAM.

What I need from you guys is solid advice on Motherboard and hard drives from folks that can use the 'brushes tool' with out crashes! Folks that have a solid system that rarely gives them any problems.

I have a new Yamaha burner (does the T@2 burning too!! Haven't tried that out yet!!) that will go in there!! I love my Creative Blaster sound card and my Matrox G550 video card is a dream too!!

The DDR RAM stick, from what I've been told by "my guy" at Fry's is that it's a better form of RAM memory, better than DIMM, so I guess I'm set there.

I'm going to get a Pentium IV micro chip. So that's all good and on the list too! But I am worried about the Motherboard and the hard drives! [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_confused.gif[/img] I honestly think that these areas definitely have something to do with the quality of how the system functions. I'm certainly not in the neighborhood to buy a $400.00 motherboard but I see the prices VERY reasonable at the moment, under or about $100.00 for a really good one. Soyo was one brand that he was enthusiastic about (any opinions about Soyo?).

I'm kinda lost when it comes to the hard drive area. I want 2 40 Gig'ers for sure, but the brand is important, not too expensive but good quality with a solid rep.

Any advice is very much appreciated!! [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img] With it being "that time of the year, AGAIN" I will be raking it in $$ and so with prices down everywhere for just about anything, it's now or never to do this!! [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]

Thanks muchly!! [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

Richard [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]

---Wolff On The Prowl---

[This message was edited by RAMWolff on November 23, 2002 at 23:15.]

[Ross Macintosh]

I've noticed in ads for high performance pc's that Asus brand motherboards are frequently spec'd. Might be worth cheching out their site.

Regards, Ross

<a href=http://www.designstop.com/>DesignStop.Com</a>

[raffon]

Richard,
Building custom computers for Engineers and Architects is what I do for a living. With that said, I strongly recommened an Intel motherboard. The D845GEBV2L is the latest and greatest for the P4 processor. Here is the Intel website link for that board:
http://developer.intel.com/design/mo.../bv2/index.htm

With this board in the "BOXED" version(Part number BOXD845GEBV2L), you get a 3 year warranty.

As to hard drives and other parts, I have been using Western Digital HDs but you have to make sure they are the "Special Edition" with the 8meg buffer and the 3 year warranty also. For more info :
http://www.wdc.com/products/products.asp?DriveID=38
There have been some quality control issues with all hard drives as they have become just a commodity lately. My advice, get 2 and set up "Second Copy 2000" to backup your files to the second HD, http://www.centered.com/.

A video card with lots of on board memory is something to consider also. I have no suggestion.

If you have any questions when you start building, email me and I might have the answer.

Ich bin ein New Yorker

[jjkohler]

Try Tom's site. Some of the best info on the net for motherboaards and other hardware.

http://www.tomshardware.com/

JOhn

[mike engles]

Hello

Go Intel. I am considering the Intel D845PEBT2.
A variant of this has firewire, but no graphics as the D845GEBV2L. Intel boards are not the fastest, but they are the most stable.

Seagate Barracuda IVs are supposed to be fast reliable and very quiet.

Mike Engles

[RAMWolff44]

well, while I appreciate all the feedback so far I was asking for specs on recent (forgot to add that in the first post) builds that fellow XaraX/TalkGraphics users have running and that are NOT experiencing constant application CRASH issues.

What I'm trying to do is weed out motherboards and hard drives that are connected with systems like my own with applications like XaraX, PhotoPaint, PhotoImpact Word, WordPerfect and other intensive applications that seem to always crash when they get slightly stressed out. It's one of the things I'm quite certain is, at this point, a motherboard or hard drive or both type of an issue.

I don't want to take the time and money and build something that is so similar to what I have going only to end up with the same issues!! Does that make any sense??

Since I have replaced my video card, sound card, upgraded the RAM to over 500 Mb and completely reloading the system from scratch (XP Pro, slipstreamed with SP 1) only to still be plagued with these types of applications crashing on me (still can't use the brushes very much (XaraX) with out getting an 'access violation' error and an abrupt close afterwards) that I KNOW it's gotta be something like the hard drive or the motherboard contributing to whatever is causing this type of stress in the system!!

That's what I get for believing Gateway is tops, it's not. Dell is probably better at this point of the game, but it's my belief that building it yourself, in the end, is the way to go!! [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]

So that's what I'm looking for, stable, recent systems specs that are not plauged with stuff like that!!

Any body else??

Thanks very much!! [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]

Richard [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]

---Wolff On The Prowl---

[This message was edited by RAMWolff on November 24, 2002 at 14:01.]

[Egg Bramhill]

Be VERY CAREFUL !!!
Here is a photograph of my recent attempt at building my owm iMac. These self build machines can have inherent defective genes and very quickly mutate.
(I hope this informed opinion assists you in your search)
Egg

[RAMWolff44]

[img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

Still gonna do it myself!! [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img] [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_biggrin.gif[/img]

Richard [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_wink.gif[/img]

Rootbear chugs to ya man!!

---Wolff On The Prowl---

[raffon]

Richard,
Why not post a file that causes your current system to crash and those of us with power systems can see if it causes ours to fail also.
Maybe a tip on what you are doing when it crashes too.
Couldn't hurt.

I don't do alot of brushes so I haven't had a XaraX crash in a long time.

FYI, my system is:
Intel D850MVL
P4 2.0gig
512 RDRAM
WD 40 and 20gig HD
Matrox G450 w/RR capture card
CD and CDRW
Window 2000 Pro

On 24/7

Ich bin ein New Yorker