Ok so Ive been checking some things out and have goten myself totaly confused. :confused:
I am not finacialy ready to put together a top of the line system so some comprimises will have to be made. Im confident that I can plugg everything in fine and get the OS installed etc. It's just the component types/buzzwords etc.
Motherboards?
Ok so I have read elswere on the list the Abit and Asus are A+. But which ones? I know you recommend no onboard sound/video. These seem hard to find these days. I will get a PIII 1ghz. I have been seeing something about "clock multipliers" what do I need to know about this if I am going to build my own? Also some boards allow you to set "memory bus frequency" to 100mhz or 133mhz. Why not just crank that puppy up all the way?
One board I saw even allows you to set the voltage suplied to the CPU. How does one know what to set it to ?
Memory?
SDRAM PC100 vs. PC133 what is the difference?
Also the difference between DDR & SDRAM? (which is better?)
If a system says 3 DIMM/512MB how does one devide up the memory between the 3 slots if you want all 512MB?
Hard Drives?
It apears that Ultra ATA/100 is what to do if I'm not going SCSI?
To "Raid" or not to "Raid"? (no clue what this is)
are (2) 20GB HDs enough to get started?
Is 7500rpm ok?
Video?
I want two monitors, what do I need?
Video memory? (this machine will be for music ONLY no games or internet)
Power Supplies?
Why 300 watts and not 250?
Thank You!
Martin Barringer
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Yes, Asus and Abit are the top of the line...I would go for the
Yes, Asus and Abit are the top of the line...I would go for the Asus CUSL2..has optional onboard audio so you can get one without the onboard items. Plus you can get it pretty cheap these days..I think I saw one on Pricewatch.com for like 110 bucks or so. Clock multipliers are settings in the BIOS that can make a 1ghz clock at say 1.5 or higher..but I would leave it to the default setting as setting the clock rating higher can or may cause the processor to overheat! With the Asus CUSL2 board it can handle PC133 RAM...SDRAM that is..if you use a PIII 1Ghz you have PC133 ram..no need to crank it up..if you have a processor that only has PC100 ability then you cant crank it up..yo cant speed something up that doesnt have the ability.
To know what to set is to know about computers..voltage settings are for the advanced user and a beginner should not worry about it.
Memory is memory ..whether the motherboard excepts Sdram or DDram is what you should buy..stay with what the motherboard and processor reccomends..I would stick with SDram as it is cheaper and still reliable. 128MB+128MB+256MB=512MB
ATA100 drives are fine for what you are doing..Raid is for people that need to do HUGE amount of tracks..like 70+..plus that means finding a motherboard and or a controller card for Raid..plus more hard drives etc etc...
stick with two IDE drives...one 20GB and antoher around 40 or more GB...7400RPM is fine for the drive speed
Matrox G450 card..16 or 32MB TOPS!!! do not go any higher as the more ram for video you have the more it's going to take away from your audio processing or interrupt it and cause glitches and so forth....Matrox card has two video outs..one for each monitor..all you need
Go with a 300watt power supply..always a good thing to have that extra boost!!
Peace
Opus