Sorry Stone - what hardware were you considering? (I missed that post)

I'm getting 24 + 12 on the davec test, and I'm running the following hardware / software:

Athlon XP 1800
Asus A7V266E mobo
512 MB Kingston DDR PC2100 RAM
Matrox dual head G550 AGP graphics card (w/ Dual 17" monitors)
Plextor 20 X 10 X 32 IDE CD-RW
DVD-ROM / CD-ROM drive
Windows ME (YEah, "YUCK" - I'll be going back to WIN XP as soon as the XP capable version of PT LE is out of beta testing).

This system has done 24 + 16 for some users. It's been rock solid for me, and all told, I'm into it for about a grand - not counting the dual 17" monitors.

There's two threads over on the PC section of the DUC that you may want to check out: "PT Performance" and "Best system for under $900".

Oh, one more thing:

Setting up the drives properly on the Asus A7V266E board is important: Since there's FOUR IDE ports, you want to do the following:

DON'T set up a RAID, even though the onboard Promise controller supports that. Set up the C drive with the drive jumpers set in single drive mode on its own 80 pin cable to the Promise Primary and the D drive, on its own 80 pin cable with the D drive jumpers set to single drive mode on the Promise secondary. Then put your CD-RW and CD-ROM on their own cables to the standard IDE primary and secondary.

And for the record, I am using a FAST 5400 RPM Maxtor 60 GB for my C drive (OS and program files) and a Western Digital 40 GB 7200 RPM for my D drive (audio files only).

I was considering intel until I saw the thread on the DUC, but I'm still wondering which system is most stable.
I'm using

Athlon thunderbird 1.2 ghz
ECS K7vza Mobo
I think my memory is PC133, I know it's 512mb
ACER 16x10x40 cd-rw
Win98

Oh yeah, I'm getting a new hard drive soon, I think a 20gig IDE, Is there a way to use three?

Do you think I could solve my problem by getting a more powerful proccessor?

Stone
Your MOBO is the main problem. Get one with a KT133A chipset that suits your processor and you'll notice a huge boost in performance right there.

I use a removable hard drive bay for multiple drives.

Mark

Yeah, I think I'm going shopping next week. That removable bay is a good idea.

I'm trying to decide between the A7V133 and the A7V266. I currently have PC133 memory, but I might swich to DDR, that's alot more expensive right? Do I really need it for better performance?

Oh yeah, I forgot, Which costs more, the A7V133 0r the A7V266?

Stone B, for pricing, go to pricewatch.com ...