OK...Double post coming up...

  • Thread starter Thread starter Neil Barras
  • Start date Start date
N

Neil Barras

Hi all,

1) Is it worth going with AGP still? How long has the tech got left? I
want to get the ASUS P5S800 as it seems like good value for money, and I
am trying to put a PC together for ~£350.

Rest of system to be:

P4 prescott LGA775 @ 3Gig
512 DDR400
80GB Maxtor HDD
128MB 6800LE (Is this really a card to go for or not? How likeyly is it
that I can mod to 6800 Vanilla?)
CDRW/DVD Combo
Novatech PC Case with 350w PSU inc.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

2) OT: I want to leave a file/print/ftp/email server, modem and router
running 24/7. The router is a Linksys WRT54G, and the modem is a cable
modem from NTL, the Ambit 120. The server consists of:

HP Vectra VE Series 7 case
333MHz Slot 1 P2 w/ HS, no fan
256 RAM
36GB SCSI Drive
CDROM
200w (I think) PSU

Reason for sayin this is my wife is the paranoid type of thinking that
they are likely to burn the house down. It sounds like a stupid
quesion, but how likely is it to happen?

Thanks,

Neil
 
Neil said:
Hi all,

1) Is it worth going with AGP still? How long has the tech got left? I
want to get the ASUS P5S800 as it seems like good value for money, and I
am trying to put a PC together for ~£350.

AGP is dead technology. That doesn't mean it isn't an excellent, proven
graphics subsystem. How long has the tech got left? The future is
definitely PCI-e, however, you can still buy plain vanilla PCI video
cards and that technology has been dead for years. Having said all that,
were I building a system today, I would opt for PCI-e.
2) OT: I want to leave a file/print/ftp/email server, modem and router
running 24/7. The router is a Linksys WRT54G, and the modem is a cable
modem from NTL, the Ambit 120. The server consists of:

HP Vectra VE Series 7 case
333MHz Slot 1 P2 w/ HS, no fan
256 RAM
36GB SCSI Drive
CDROM
200w (I think) PSU

Reason for sayin this is my wife is the paranoid type of thinking that
they are likely to burn the house down. It sounds like a stupid
quesion, but how likely is it to happen?

Your wife needs to find something real to worry about. There are
millions (perhaps billions) of computers all around the world left on
24/7/365 and they don't burn anything down. I myself have four desktops,
two laptops, and two servers (as well as various and sundry routers,
waps, switches, etc) that stay on pretty much 24/7 (and have for years).
No fires yet, lol.
 
Hi all,

1) Is it worth going with AGP still?

For a value-priced system, yes. For mid to high-end, no.
For a gamer, no.
How long has the tech got left?

One video card purchase- this purchase. It'll be
hit-or-miss whether you'll ever be able to get another cost
effective video card later should you decide one day that a
6800 isn't fast enough anymore (which seems likely, since a
6800 is a gamer's card you must be a gamer and games WILL
continue to be ever-more demanding as always). You should
get a good year, maybe two though, depending on your choices
of games (sorry but my crystal ball with the game
predictions isn't reliable).
I
want to get the ASUS P5S800 as it seems like good value for money, and I
am trying to put a PC together for ~£350.

Rest of system to be:

P4 prescott LGA775 @ 3Gig

Bad choice to build a system on a budget, particularly since
that budget is stretching to get the video card, P4 just
isn't as good at gaming. If you're NOT a gamer, don't get
the 6800 video card.
512 DDR400

Get minimum of 1GB memory.
80GB Maxtor HDD

Also a bit on the small side these days, generally a good
value size would be about 160GB. It'll be faster too since
you can have the files on the faster first portion of the
drive.
128MB 6800LE (Is this really a card to go for or not? How likeyly is it
that I can mod to 6800 Vanilla?)

I wouldn't count on moddin' it, more like icing-on-the-cake
if you can. If you "need" 6800 vanilla performance then get
one, and if IT can be modded even faster, so much the
better. If the budget isn't stretching that far then I
suggest going with an AMD Sempron skt 754, though I've heard
rumors there are now Sempron 939 OEM, just hard to find but
if you could find one that might be a great way to start a
budget PCI Express based system.
CDRW/DVD Combo
Novatech PC Case with 350w PSU inc.

Sounds like an accident waiting to happen, a generic PSU not
sufficient to power a Prescott and a 6800. I'd not even
recommend a decent name-brand PSU for these two components
togeather, as 12V amp necessity will be rather high for
anything less than a 400+W name-brand PSU unless you don't
mind risking, having the PSU burn out sooner rather than
later.

---------------------------------------------------------------------

2) OT: I want to leave a file/print/ftp/email server, modem and router
running 24/7. The router is a Linksys WRT54G, and the modem is a cable
modem from NTL, the Ambit 120. The server consists of:

HP Vectra VE Series 7 case
333MHz Slot 1 P2 w/ HS, no fan
256 RAM
36GB SCSI Drive
CDROM
200w (I think) PSU

Reason for sayin this is my wife is the paranoid type of thinking that
they are likely to burn the house down. It sounds like a stupid
quesion, but how likely is it to happen?


Very unlikely, less so with no monitors left on while you're
away. No guarantees with electrical parts though, just
consider that if they were often bursting into flames then
every block would need it's own fire department.
 
Thanks guys, I've made my mind up.

I'm going to wait a while to see if my budget can go any further and
keep looking out for price drops.

The server has just been switched on, and ain't going off! :P

Thanks again,

Neil
 
Back
Top