Cry for opinion

[hoffman-log.livejournal.com]

So I have a computer that's been running very well for many years now.  I'm starting to feel it's time to update the puppy.

By update, I mean the major things (System board, processor, video card)

Hard drives, expansion cards and other periphials will not be changed.

So, in the interest of getting the opinion of my fellow colleagues, I propose the following question to you:

What motherboard, processor, and video card would you recommend?
I'm looking to keep the price of the motherboard and chip under $600, and the price of the video card under $200.

- Don't care what brand or socket type the processor is (just so long as it matches what the motherboard supports)
- The video card must support dual output (preferably VGA and DVI, though 2 VGA is acceptable)

The hard drives will remain.  They are three 80-gig drives running on ATA133 EIDE.  They are not running RAID, but I have been contemplating RAID 0, unless RAID 5 now supports IDE (last I knew it was still only SCSI).

There are 5 EIDE devices (3 HD's and 2 CD/DVD/CD+RW/etc), so whatever motherboard you select for me, must have at least three IDE controllers.

So.... what do the fine people of the techsupport community recommend?

_MaH

Added challenge:  I have 10 docking areas on the front of the system (yes it's a big tower).  Currently 8 are filled with CD-ROMs, Hard drives, fan bus controllers, etc.  Suggestions for the other two?

Comments

[lrdjester.livejournal.com]

There are several IDE RAID 5 options out there. I have a Promise card that I bought. I have yet to get it set up but it has gotten some good feed back.

[lrdjester.livejournal.com]

For that budget, I would go with an AMD based board and chip. You can go 64-bit.

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=19-103-405&depa=1 (processor)
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-131-465&depa=1
(motherboard)

That is under $400.

I would go with an nVidia for a dual head, although I lean towards AMD myself. Perhaps there is someone else to tackle the video card problem.

[zig-mover.livejournal.com]

For the two docks on the front, how about the cigarette lighter? It's on newegg i believe, someone posted it here before.

[thecrazyfinn.livejournal.com]

MB: Asus P4C800-E Deluxe or P4P800-E Deluxe
CPU: Fastest P4 you can afford
GPU: Radeon 9600 Pro or Radeon 9800SE, depending on current pricing.

RAID support depends on the controller, not the drive interfaces. You can get RAID 5 IDE controllers, but they ain't cheap.

As to the other drive bays, I'd add a pair of WD 74Gb SATA drives, in a RAID 1 array, for the fastest Boot drive setup on the market.

[wanusmaximus.livejournal.com]

i've got a pentium 4 w/ 833mhz bus which is nuts. i kinda like the hyper-threading feature, which i've noticed helps alot when multi-tasking on my dual monitor's... as for vid cards, most come standard with dual heads. if you're still in the gaming scene, i highly recommend getting one of the newest cards, but that usually means like dishing out $300-$400. if you can afford it, check the the ati 9800 pro 128mb. of if budget is concern, nvidia 5900 128mb. (moral, you don't need 256 unless you want to play doom3 on ungodly textures) not too sure about raid 5, but raid 0 has some slight performance gains. (make sure it's onboard and not a expansion card) personally, i'd look into serial-ata, which i've got in my current system and am very content with. it looks alot cleaner. send me pics of this new system when it's done! _W

[valiskeogh.livejournal.com]

ditto to above, liking the asus boards

i'd go with one of the promise raid controllers, i have a couple, one fastrack giving me 8 possible ide devices on this puter, and another in a raid 1 array in the back for security (two 120 gig ide drives)

[sammycofacts.livejournal.com]

I've gotten good performance out of my Soyo Dragon Platinum, which has built-in RAID and SATA, and my AMD 3200+ CPU.

[hoffman-log.livejournal.com]

I feel like i'm out of the loop for asking this, but then again I am.

Does SATA stand for Serial ATA? If so, am I correct in assuming that SATA is not compatible with ATA133?

_MaH

[dmsalem00.livejournal.com]

Yes, and no.

Serial ATA = SATA, ATA133 = IDE(cables that look like seatbelts). Not all that compatible, but they can coexist on the same board.

[hoffman-log.livejournal.com]

Gotcha. So an ATA133 device cannot be connected to an SATA interface?

I say this as somebody who has not seen the connector for SATA. I wouldn't be surprised if their physical connector was a different type.

_MaH

Yes it can.

[coyoteden.livejournal.com]

You need to get a 'Seriallel' adapter, about $25. It just converts a standard ATA-100/133 drive to a SATA interface.

The SATA connector looks kind of like a USB or Firewire connector, supports hot-plugging for non-RAID/non-boot drives and can indeed be used for external devices.

There is also a different power connector on SATA devices to satisfy the safe hot-plug requirements of SATA, but don't worry too much about that, as you will either have a molex-to-SATA power adapter with the drive, a standard molex on the drive as well, or if you buy a good new power supply, SATApower plugs already on it.

Just as an aside, as affordable as A64 is, if you don't want to spend the $ for A64 or P4, get a standard Athlon XP 2500+, a nForce2-Ultra400 or VIA KT600 based board, and PC3200 RAM. Then, when you set up the system, just set the FSB to 200/400 instead of 166/333.

As far as I know, every single AXP 2500+ out there will run at 400 MHz FSB (up from the standard 333MHz), making it a AXP 3200+. Best of all, it will do it at stock voltages and temperatures, and with the stock heatsink, so the usual dangers of overclocking are pretty much a moot point.

[dmsalem00.livejournal.com]

Very different.

there's a small straight plastic connector, and another small L-shaped plug. I can never remember which is power and which is SATA, but they're nowhere near compatible. You can't even plug them into the wrong port by accident

[sammycofacts.livejournal.com]

You're right, it does stand for Serial ATA. As for its compatibility with ATA133, I'm not sure. But it would stand to reason that if it's not directly compatible, an adapter of some sort could fix the problem.