03-17-2003, 10:40 PM
Okay, this will probably just degenerate into a post where I list my hardware, but I'm pretty happy with what I have, so here goes:
Motherboard: ASUS make really good motherboards, in my opinion. Very stable, good for overclocking, and with good documentation. Mine is the P4B266SE, although I expect newer and flashier models are now available.
CPU: Intel all the way. I know AMD has a great reputation, but my experiences with them were less than cheery. They run far too hot and require excessive cooling, whereas my Pentium 4 runs fine with just the stock heatsink that came with it and no additional case fans. Mine is a 1.8 GHz, which is great for most things, although not quite enough for some of the very intensive games like Unreal II (which isn't a particularly good game anyway!).
RAM: DDR-RAM, definitely. 512 MB should do you fine, although if you can get more for a reasonably good price, by all means go for it.
Video card: If you're buying primarily for gaming, this really is one area where you should go the whole hog. ATI Radeon 9700 Pro all the way! If it's for gaming only, don't bother with the All-in-wonder. A lot of people swear by Nvidia, but again I prefer ATI. The "bad drivers" legend is in the past now, and as Dani says, nowadays it seems to be Nvidia cards that are a liability with drivers.
Sound card: There are loads of decent sound cards. I have an Audigy Gamer, which is more than adequate. With the Audigy 2 out now, you could probably find the original Audigy for a pretty reasonable price. Some people dislike Creative, but in my experience I've only ever had problems with them on motherboards with a VIA chipset.
DVD-ROM drive: Pioneer. Mine is the DVD-117, region-free, but really you can't go wrong with any recent Pioneer model.
Hard drive: Maxtor, Western Digital, Seagate, etc. 40 GB is adequate, 80 GB is better ;) Many people swear by IBM, but personally I've avoided them after one model (can't remember which one) a couple of years ago had an inordinately high fail rate.
PS. Do yourself a favor, and make sure you get an optical mouse.
Motherboard: ASUS make really good motherboards, in my opinion. Very stable, good for overclocking, and with good documentation. Mine is the P4B266SE, although I expect newer and flashier models are now available.
CPU: Intel all the way. I know AMD has a great reputation, but my experiences with them were less than cheery. They run far too hot and require excessive cooling, whereas my Pentium 4 runs fine with just the stock heatsink that came with it and no additional case fans. Mine is a 1.8 GHz, which is great for most things, although not quite enough for some of the very intensive games like Unreal II (which isn't a particularly good game anyway!).
RAM: DDR-RAM, definitely. 512 MB should do you fine, although if you can get more for a reasonably good price, by all means go for it.
Video card: If you're buying primarily for gaming, this really is one area where you should go the whole hog. ATI Radeon 9700 Pro all the way! If it's for gaming only, don't bother with the All-in-wonder. A lot of people swear by Nvidia, but again I prefer ATI. The "bad drivers" legend is in the past now, and as Dani says, nowadays it seems to be Nvidia cards that are a liability with drivers.
Sound card: There are loads of decent sound cards. I have an Audigy Gamer, which is more than adequate. With the Audigy 2 out now, you could probably find the original Audigy for a pretty reasonable price. Some people dislike Creative, but in my experience I've only ever had problems with them on motherboards with a VIA chipset.
DVD-ROM drive: Pioneer. Mine is the DVD-117, region-free, but really you can't go wrong with any recent Pioneer model.
Hard drive: Maxtor, Western Digital, Seagate, etc. 40 GB is adequate, 80 GB is better ;) Many people swear by IBM, but personally I've avoided them after one model (can't remember which one) a couple of years ago had an inordinately high fail rate.
PS. Do yourself a favor, and make sure you get an optical mouse.