Is this spec any good

[Neutrino]

Originally posted by ACCORD EX
so it 's an ASUS !
go and get it !

MIKE

Guys please tell me you're joking. Just because the board is a ASUS doesn't mean he should get it LOOOK AT THE CHIPSET. If the norbrige is a piece of junk doesn't matter who makes the board. Please stop giving people bad advice.

[ACCORD EX]

take it easy man ! he said it's ALI Magick 1647 !! another thing i wanna say to you ! i was working in system integration for 2 years ! and ASUS is the best ! never got problems installing or after that ! i have been buying ASUS since its 386 MODELS ! so when i say get it ! i lerned it the hard way after trying all the other shit !
long live the ASUS !! :ylsuper

sorry if got a little pissed ! peace ok !

MIKE

[ragt20]

...it is Ali magik 1647....wot is norbridge ......but the thing that makes the big difference is that that is the top motherboard they sell at the moment...waitin for them to launch the new 333 mhz mbs is anyones guess at how long that would take.....other manufacturers don't come close in spec/price comparision...and even if they may have a better motherboard...the price difference doesn't justify going to them...
so its either bite the bullet and go for this one, or wait (for don't know how long) until these guys get the new MBs out....

[Polygon]

Well I must address a few things here.

ALI is an Aladdin chipset, and they are some of the worst EVER! I have gone through about five different ASUS boards with Aladdin chipsets and I have had nothing but problems. I ended up with an FIC on that system and it would without a hitch.

ASUS may have been a great motherboard manufacture a while back, but they aren't anymore. I used to work for a computer store where we built systems for corperate clients, so I build A LOT of computers. We used ASUS, MSI, Intel, and Tyan motherboards. ASUS had the highest fail rate of all four. I don't buy ASUS anymore, I stick with MSI and Tyan.

Boards with the 333MHz system bus are already out. Check MSI's website. You can buy them as we speak. Also Nuetrino mispelled that, he meant northbridge.

Now for what I think on these specs:

AMD Athlon XP2100 (266MHz).
1024 PC2100 DDR Ram.
80 GB Hard Drive.
128 MB nVidia GeForce 4 Ti 4600.
24x10x40 CD-RW.
16x DVD-Rom.
XP Home Edition.
Network Card.
Creative Audigy 5.1 Platinum.
DTT2000 5.1 channel speakers.

These are good specs, but there are some things that you may want to change to save you a little money. The processor choice is good, a nice fast AMD XP will do anything you probably need it to do. The first problem I see is with the RAM. Do you think you really need 1 GB of RAM? You would only need that if you were doing a lot, and I do mean A LOT of video and or audio editing/manipulation. I do a lot of both and graphics editing and creation in various programs and I get by just fine with 512 MB. I would cut that in half if I were you. Eighty GB hard drive, good size, I would stick with Seagate or Maxtor on the HDD. All the other brands seem to be unreliable right now. Good video card. Fast CD-RW, who make it? I would stick with Plextor, TDK, or HP with the CD-RW. Fast DVD drive, once again I suggest only Toshiba, they are the best. Here is the biggest problem, XP Home. For the system you are running you are going to want XP Pro NO QUESTION! XP Home is like 98 but a little more stable, FAT32 is not great with large hard drives like this and there are a lot of limitations with home. I HIGHLY suggest you get XP Pro. A NIC, once again, what brand? I would go with Intel, 3Com, or Netgear. Great sound card, you can't go wrong with the Live! series. Those are just my thoughts and suggestions.

[Neutrino]

Polygon is exactly right.

[Chris]

I got a nice Shuttle AK31A Rev. 3.1 mobo. It uses the KT266A chipset (second newest, other than KT333), it uses the VIA VT8366 chipset. Its got 5 PCI, 1 AGP, 1 CNR, up to 4 GB DDR RAM (PC1600 or PC2100). All that for $72 American. Then I bough a Thermalquake 7 heatsink locally for $20 American. So it is possible to get an almost top of the line system for really cheap.