Lunk April 9, 2003 Share Lunk Member April 9, 2003 I would like to hear some suggestions on good mother boards. I'm working on building a new gaming only pc. I would prefer suggestions on mobo that use RDRAM/Rambus. But, I'm open for ones that use DDR also. Don't want any boards that have built in graphics. My head just starts spinning when I look at all the ones out there Would also like some suggestions on a good vid card. Preferrably Nvidia cards. And any other helpful hints would be great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
[VI]ROosTEr April 10, 2003 Share [VI]ROosTEr Member April 10, 2003 Well Lunk, I am usually the #1 proponent of Nvidia graphics cards, but I will have to say that they have really dropped the ball lately. The 9800 Pro absolutely crushes the FX5800 Ultra. As far as Mobos go, EpOx, SoYo, and Asus are all fine manufacturers. I will not recommend a particular board, because I have no experience with the types of boards you are looking for. Check Tom's Mainboard guide for some great information and reviews. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
[Mmmm]Homer April 10, 2003 Share [Mmmm]Homer Member April 10, 2003 It's not necessary, but if you want the most performance you can go with a RAID 0 setup, many mobos offer it as an option. I have also had good luck with Abit mobos, in addition to Asus. I agree with Rooster with his take on nVidia's video cards, however it sounds like their nForce2 chipset for AMD is top-notch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dwEEziL April 10, 2003 Share dwEEziL Member April 10, 2003 I was going to suggest the nForce2. It is supposed to be a really good board. It does have onboard video but it also comes with an AGP slot to upgrade. As for video card. I am a diehard nVidia fan and I am getting ready to buy an ATI 9700 Pro (maybe the AIW) because nVidia just shot themselves in the foot (not to mention other body parts) with the 5800. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
[VI]ROosTEr April 10, 2003 Share [VI]ROosTEr Member April 10, 2003 I agree too, on the RAID 0, as long as you have faith in your initial setup and the quality of your drives. If one drive goes out, you lose the data on both. Now, I know this isn't always the case, but RAID 0, while being more efficient, is less secure. I used it for a while, and honestly the performance increase was not worth the security risk to me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dwEEziL April 10, 2003 Share dwEEziL Member April 10, 2003 By less secure, you mean no fault tolerance right? Cuz I wouldn't call it less "secure" in a security-focused point-of-view. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
[VI]ROosTEr April 10, 2003 Share [VI]ROosTEr Member April 10, 2003 Of course that was what I meant. I was speaking of data security in the sense that it is insecure due to equipment failure. I did use the wrong terminology, so I guess it's time for my spankin' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
[Mmmm]Homer April 10, 2003 Share [Mmmm]Homer Member April 10, 2003 I have an Abit AT7 mobo with HPT RAID and two Western Digital 80gb Special Edition drives (8mb cache, 7200rpm) in RAID 0. Western Digital's SE drives are about the only ones left with a 3 year warranty, and they have been flawless for a year so far. But I don't trust RAID 0 100%, not because of the WD's but rather that I had IBMs that were dropping dead randomly. I've built a few systems in the last 1.5 years and was putting Maxtors in them, and I've had 2 of those go out. So right now WD is the only choice for me. At the same time, for backup I have a removable drive bay with 2 trays. In one tray is a 40gb drive and the other is a 60gb. I use these for backing up my data. The last 3 systems I've built I've put in a tray and extra drive for backup. It's really an elegant solution, I suggest a mobo with more than 2 IDE connectors so that the tray can be setup as cable select so there are no confilcts with other drives. Burning many CDR's has no appeal to me, and a DVD-R setup is more expensive and time consuming than a spare drive or two. The removable drive trays all have a locking mechanism, and I just keep the tray in the bay with it 'unlocked' unless I'm backing up. To back up I just 'lock in' the tray, reboot, copy, 'unlock', and reboot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgt.St3d4nk0 April 10, 2003 Share Sgt.St3d4nk0 Member April 10, 2003 I just built my new computer.Id suggest asus p4g8x deluxe or the a7n8x deluxe.They are both nice but only one(p4g8x) supports the hyperthreading technology of the 3.06+.Or the gigabyte ga-8inxp.Also i must add that Nvidia cards run open gl graphics better than the ati cards.And CS runs best in open GL.My geforce 4 ti 4600 runs faster open gl graphics than my radeon 9700 pro.But the radeon smashes it in direct 3d etc.Also Radeon cards have trouble with games in open gl.Im kinda waiting for some new drivers to come out so i can exit CS and return without the system stopping.=( If i had to do it over again i would take the reliability of the nvidia card over any small performance factor the radeon card might have..And since nvidia runs open gl graphics better.CS should run better with Nvidia. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
[VI]ROosTEr April 10, 2003 Share [VI]ROosTEr Member April 10, 2003 I agree on WD hard drives. I use them exclusively. I have dual 120GB JB editions. They run flawlessly. I have never had a WD drive go out, and these 2 make #4 & 5 for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RiZad April 11, 2003 Share RiZad Member April 11, 2003 Well if u only have 1 drive and it fails what do u end up with? the same result if u have 2 drives in RAID 0. if u have 2 drives and 1 fails, what then? either u have no os or u lost your porn. Its all about the speed. A little gain is better than no gain. words of a tru geek. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RiZad April 11, 2003 Share RiZad Member April 11, 2003 ROosTEr,Apr 10 2003, 03:54 PM] I agree on WD hard drives. I use them exclusively. I have dual 120GB JB editions. They run flawlessly. I have never had a WD drive go out, and these 2 make #4 & 5 for me. U are one of the lucky ones then. I have worked on way 2 many systems with the same problem. what is the problem u say? well let me tell u, it these hard drives by a company called Western Digital. They fail under little to no use. i mean hell, I know playing solitare and listening to MP3s is soooo ruff on hard drives. I have had about 10 or so harddrives. 3 of which were wds. All meet with the fate. FAILURE. I will get off my rant on wd drives now. U know there is a reason they went to 1 year on most drives. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dwEEziL April 11, 2003 Share dwEEziL Member April 11, 2003 Dude, you sounded like Max there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
[Mmmm]Homer April 11, 2003 Share [Mmmm]Homer Member April 11, 2003 Rizad, were the ones that went out standard BB models, or the special edition JB series? I'm curious since I run JB's. What brands have you had luck with? Also, it's true that having 1 drive go out is as bad as 1 in a pair on RAID 0, but the RAID 0 system is putting in twice as many hours, thereby doubling the possibility of a drive going out. There is always RAID 0+1, which is what I was running with 4 40gb IMB's until 2 had gone out (different instances), then the 2 replacements went out, and then I gave up with them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
[VI]ROosTEr April 11, 2003 Share [VI]ROosTEr Member April 11, 2003 I'm talking about some RAID 1 Rizad. I'm not the most performance minded person when it comes to my machine. I get 100 FPS in counter strike, and everything runs good, but all of the databases and school progs/portfolios CANNOT be lost. Therefore, I keep an exact clone of the important stuff on both drives, while using my non-OS drive for Pron, stuff like that that can easily be replaced. If I get the money anytime soon, I will probably go RAID 0+1. I dunno, like I said, I saw little to no performance increase with RAID 0. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RiZad April 11, 2003 Share RiZad Member April 11, 2003 (edited) i know raid 1 is nice if u feel like getting half of what u paid for. God made cdrws for poop that u want to back up aka school poop and progs. Edited April 11, 2003 by RiZad Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RiZad April 11, 2003 Share RiZad Member April 11, 2003 I have had alot of luck with Samsung (which i have right now) and Seagate. as far as i know the standard models are the ones that went down to 1 year. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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