As with my old P-133 machine I built in Spring of 96 (that was given to my niece), the Celeron 366 (OC'ed to 550MHz) first built in Jan 1999 (when it started out as a Celeron 300a OC'ed to 450MHz) started to show its age. In reality, the machine runs fine and would be more than fast for the average Joe. However, my name isn't Joe and my need for speed isn't average. With PC component prices as cheap as they are, and the insane speeds you can go at those prices, and with the processing demands of newer games, I decided it is now time to upgrade!

For a while now AMD has been beating Intel at price/performance and so I decided for the first time to try an AMD CPU for this new system. I wanted to wait until AMD's new line of Athlon XP processors came out as well as wait for a good and stable DDR chipset and motherboard to become available. Based on the reviews at the time I built this new machine the VIA KT266A chipset was currently the fastest and best DDR chipset available. The EPoX 8KHA+ is based on the KT266A chip and has gotten great reviews and that is why I decided to go with that board (the $107 price also made it attractive). Many others who have my setup are are reporting good stability with it.

This new system is a major leap in performance. In fact AMD processors outperform Intel Processors at the same clockspeed (an Athlon XP 1900 (running at 1.6GHz) easily outperforms a 2GHz Pentium 4. Considering my previous processor was a neutered Pentium 2 (an Intel Celeron), this new processor is leaps and bounds faster than my previous one. Adding to the performance is the DDR (Double Data Rate) memory the board uses as well as the video card being a 3rd generation Geforce card (a Geforce 3). The Geforce3 cards have 64MB of DDR memory onboard and a processor that has more transisters that the Pentium 4! Even the audio card I chose (A Soundblaster Audigy) takes up less CPU cycles which should help performance as well.

This entire system I am building is only going to cost me around $1100 to build. There are a few components that I am bringing over from the previous machine (the DVD-ROM and CDR drives) but for the most part $1100 got me the vast majority of it. It is downright scary the power of the machine that you can now put together at the current prices. I mean $32 for 256MB of DDR memory? (which is why I bought 3 sticks! Although as of 4-9-02 it has tripled in price.) $168 for a 1.47GHz CPU w/ HS/FAN? $107 for a great DDR motherboard? $85 for the top of the line sound card? $128 for a 60GB 7200RPM Hard Drive? Unbelievable! I did pay $239 for the Geforce3 card which is the single most expensive item in the machine but it wasn't too long ago when those cards were $400. I also spent $150 on the case, but it is a great case with excellent cooling and a 400 watt power supply.

March 23, 2004 Update: Well, it has been about 2 years and 4 months since I built this machine. Without a doubt it has been the most stable machine I have used to date (and obviously the fastest). Of course that has mostly to do with running Windows XP instead of Windows 9x as in my previous systems. I have to say that as of now, I am still happy with the performance I am getting out of the Athlon XP 1700+ CPU. Unfortunately, I really can't jump to a faster processor without moving to a new motherboard. About the only application that the machine is showing its age is gaming with the newer games such as Far Cry. But that is also a limitation of the video card I am running now (which is no slouch I must say). My previous 2 PC's have lasted me approximately 3 years before I felt the need to upgrade to something faster. I have a feeling that the same might be true of this system, and might possibly look to build a new one in the Fall of 2004. I might wait until games like Doom 3 and Half-Life 2 ship. We shall see. Of course the longer I wait the cheaper and faster things get. In the meantime I have upgraded the hard drives since I first built this machine. Currently I have a 60GB, 80GB and a 120GB drive. I had to laugh at the previous paragraph where I said "$128 for a 60GB 7200RPM Hard Drive? Unbelievable!" Because I just bought a 120GB Hitachi with 8MB cache for around $92. Stay tuned...

Here are the details of the current system...

System Case: ANTEC SX840 Workstation Tower Case w/ 400W power supply (A very sweet case, with lots of nice features)

Power Supply: Antec PP-412X (400W)

Motherboard: EPoX 8KHA+ (VIA Apollo KT266A chipset)
     Some Reviews of the 8KHA+: Review 1| Review 2 | Review 3 | Review 4 | Review 5 | Review 6 | Review 7 | Review 8 | Review 9 | Review 10

CPU: AMD Athlon XP 1700+ (Running at 1.47GHz) Has about the same performance as a Intel Pentium 4 @ 1.7 to 1.8 GHz!

Operating System: Microsoft Windows XP Professional SP-1(this has been running great and is a big leap in stability from Windows 98)

Memory: 768MB of Crucial DDR PC2100 (3 x 256MB sticks) Part Number: CT3264Z265 (CL=2.5 • Unbuffered • Non-parity • 2.5V • 32Meg x 64). Each module was $32 in Nov 2001, as of April 2002 they are $96 each!

Video: Nvidia GeForce4 Ti-4600 (128MB of RAM)

Audio: Soundblaster Audigy (Creative's latest and greatest sound card.)

Speakers: NEC Stereo Speakers & IBM Subwoofer

Hard Drives: 1 Western Digital WD600BB (60GB), 1 1 Western Digital (80GB) and 1 Hitachi 120GB HD. TOTAL Hard Drive Space: Approx 260GB

Floppy Drive: Mitsumi 1.44MB floppy Model D359M3D (Though rarely used, occasionally still useful.)

Maxtor Ultra ATA/100 PCI Adapter Card: (Adds 2 extra IDE Channels to my system).

DVD-ROM: Pioneer DVD-106S (16X DVD 40X CD)

CDR: Plextor PX-708A DVD 8X +-R/RW Drive (replaced Plextor PleXWriter 16/10/40A 16X CDROM Burner.)

Printer: EPSON Stylus Photo 1270 (unbelievable photo quality prints. Now succeeded by the 1280) Support

Scanners: EPSON Perfection 2450 Scanner (2400 x 4800 dpi, 48 bit color, Firewire connected).
                       Nikon Coolscan IV ED (2900 dpi Film Scanner) Tech Support Page

Ethernet Interface Card: 3ComFast EtherLink XL (3C905c-TX, PCI, 10/100 (RJ-45)

Cable Modem: Motorola Cybersurfer

Modem: U.S. Robotics Courier V.everything (X2 56K capable external fax modem, rarely used since I got a cable modem).

Monitor: Mitsubishi Diamond Plus 200 (an excellent 22" inch (20" viewable) flat screen color monitor)

Keyboard: KeyTronic (Has a nice click feel to it)

Mouse: Microsoft IntelliMouse Optical (cool optical mouse that works on any surface!)

USB Hub: Belkin 7 Port USB 1.1Hub

USB 2.0: USB 2.0 PCI Card.

Game Controllers: MadCatz Panther XL (combines a premium joystick with the Assassin 3D.

                           GRAVIS Eliminator Gamepad Pro (Nice USB gamepad.)

USEFUL LINKS

AMDMB.COM (excellent resouce for AMD system users!)
AMDZONE (another good source for AMD users)
ANANDTECH (great PC info source)

I've had enough, send me back to The George Cifrancis Home Page!