Which system should I put it in or drivers I should use?

[Tony Seattle]

Told I should ask this question in the hardware section...soooo

I have a choice of which system I can put the G400 DH in, although the Geforce and K7 seem to have some problems... might narrow it down! These are the configurations I am considering. Rebuilding them now since I just got some new parts.

K7-600 P3-600EB P2-333
SE SE/Beos SE

MB
FIC-SD11 Abit VA6 Matsumi LX

HD
WD Expert 27.3 IBM Deskstar 13.5 X 2
Maxtor 6.4

Mem
256 PC100 SD 128 PC133 SD 96 -66mhz SD

Video
Gulliemot Prophet DDR Matrox G400 HD
Matrox G200

Sp.Vid
Canopus Pure 3D II Hollywood Plus MPEG
----

Snd
Aureal Vortec 2 Quad Creative SB Live! Value TB Montego A3DXstream

CD
Sony-CD-R/True 72X Hatachi DVD/56X 32X
Mitsumi CD-RW USB

NIC
3 Com w/wake-up PCI Intel PCI Intel PCI
Mice
Razor 2000 Intellimouse-eye Logitec
Marble FX

Storage
Int. Zip-100 Ext. Zip 100 Optical 250

Case
Tornado 2000 300w Tower –300w Tower 250w

Spkrs
Klipsch Pro-Media THX SW 5.1 Digital DDT2500
NEC 5 piece

CPU Fans/Heatsink
Alpha HO-K7/ Alpha HO-P3/ Card cooler
Lasagna cooler Lasagna cooler

HD coolers
Bay Heatsink/Fans 2 X HD Bay Fans none w/Heatsink

Temp
Digital Doctor II Digital Doctor I
Misc
Promise RAID Card NEC Bay
Amplifier


P200 Win2K Server

[Targon]

For the CPU, I'd go with the Athlon, pick the speed. For motherboards, you MAY want to wait for reports about how stable and fast the new KX133 based boards go for(within the next month or two you should be able to find out). If you MUST buy now, avoid the FIC SD11 like the plague, this board has WAY WAY too many problems, both from personal experience, and from other reports. The Asus K7M is VERY stable with either the 1007 or 1209 BIOS on it.

I can't tell you about the hard drives, since I run SCSI only in my systems.

Memory is a bit tough, for the current batch of Athlon boards, only PC100 is supported, but the KX133 chipset supports PC133, and will give a nice performance increase.

I'd go with the G400 MAX, or you can wait a couple of months to see if the G450 shows up.

I'd save my money on the "Special video", since it's not really needed. G400 does a decent job.

I like the SB Live, though there are a few annoying things, it's a fairly well supported card. The A3DXtreme is the old version. If you choose to go with an A3D card, go with the Montego 2, same basic card with the next generation on it from what I remember reading.

For Ethernet, I personally like the 3Com cards, but I find they have serious driver problems. The problems can be worked around, and once it's up and running, it's a solid card. The Intel cards on the other hand install well, but it's hard to describe them without using language that would get me in trouble with the moderators.

For the rest, I won't go into specifics, though you should choose a case that has room for extra case fans, as well as at LEAST 3 5.25 inch drive bays.

[Tony Seattle]

Thanks! These are my current systems, I just have to match each part up to create to nice Gaming machines, the 3 as a "Ok" gaming machine and the P200 as a Win2K server.

Unfor. I have already purchased the SD-11, had to replace the first one...