Wesy Posted December 22, 2000 Share Posted December 22, 2000 I just bought my wife a new Dll 4100, but am afraid that I won't have enough of a time slice to play cm. SO I'm considering building my own box - a first for me, though I've added peripherals in the past with no issues...If you have built your own box, could you comment on the stability of your box? Im considering the following...the most hardware intensive app, that I'm going to run is CM, but I don't want to break the bank either ($1100 not including monitor) Any comments on the below would be appreciated thanks! AMD Tbird 800-1GHz Abit KT7 MB or Gigabyte 7ZX Most likely onboard sound, but may get a Sound blaster live OEM 128MB Ram 32MB Geforce 2MX 20-30GB Hard Drive 16x DVD Drive 10/100 NIC ------------------ If all men are brothers, like the seas throughout the world; So why do winds and waves clash so fiercely?" - Emperor Hirohito (1940) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blanar Posted December 22, 2000 Share Posted December 22, 2000 I built an almost identical box back around 3 or 4 months ago. AMD Tbird 800 Gigabyte 7ZX-1 (the one without the sound card) 128Meg RAM 20 Gb hard drive SBlive value sound card 10/100 NIC still using just CDs, no DVD And a Voodoo5 5000 (Yes, it was probably my decision that put 3dfx over the edge) The system has been running great and handles large scenarios in CM easily. The latest version of Gigabyte's Easy Tune III software has it running at around 900mhz using auto-optimize without any problems. Originally, I installed Win2K but couldn't get CMBO to run. I know others have gotten it running there but, since I needed a fix bad, I backed off to Win98SE. I'm still on Win98SE and still happy. Make sure you get a case with at least a 300 watt power supply and you should be all set. Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Croda Posted December 22, 2000 Share Posted December 22, 2000 I'd suggest heading over to forums.anandtech.com and reading up on the systems people are running and the problems they're having. It's a fantastic source for building your own machine. I built one in February (PIII 500e @ 720) and it runs fantastic. Building your own is certainly the way to go. ------------------ WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! - THIS SIG FILE BELONGS TO A COMPLETE FOO. MR T WOULDN'T BE SO KIND AS TO WRINKLE AN EYEBROW AT THIS UNFORTUNATE BEING. PLEASE OFFER HIS PARENTS AND COHABITANTS ALL SYMPATHY POSSIBLE. MAY BE CONTAGIOUS. CONTAINS ARTIFICIAL SWEETNER, INTELLIGENCE AND WIT. STAND WELL CLEAR AND LIGHT WICK. BY ORDER PETERNZ Damn Croda. That is one funny sig!!! must suck to be you - Hiram Sedai Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wesy Posted December 22, 2000 Author Share Posted December 22, 2000 The only thing that scares me is installing the Heatsin/Fan on the Tbird. I'll check the other forums. Was it pretty easy to do? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Compassion Posted December 22, 2000 Share Posted December 22, 2000 WIth Geforce 2 GTS cards down to 150-175 range, I'm not sure that if I had the cpu ccles to burn (as in the 700-1 gig area that you are thinking of) I would't go for one of them. Slightly more expensive, but the bang for the buck seems larger. And you'll thank yourself for the beefier card when you have your CM dir bloated out and extra 200 + megs with all the hi-res mods and yet gameplay is still silky. Also think seriously about onbaord sound.... the Chrystal Wave integrated 3d chipsets are ok and should serve fairly well, but the SBLIVE Values are only about $40 and the explosion sounds really let you know that stuff was blowed up good! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IntelWeenie Posted December 22, 2000 Share Posted December 22, 2000 <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Wesy: If you have built your own box, could you comment on the stability of your box? Im considering the following... <HR></BLOCKQUOTE> I have always built my own PCs and have almost never had any stability problems. Just be certain to do your research thouroughly and things will be OK. I have heard that the T-birds do generate quite a bit of heat, so make sure you get a good cooling system and case with good airflow. In addition to anandtech, I would recommend checking out toms hardware and sharky extreme. ------------------ "It's a boy!" - My wife's OB/GYN Nov. 8th, 4:45am Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maximus Posted December 22, 2000 Share Posted December 22, 2000 Yes, definately make sure you get a 300 watt power supply. Someone else on here mentioned that you'll have lock-ups while running CM with those fast chips if you don't. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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