Author: Dan Andersson
Date: 15:05:09 02/21/05
There have been more than a few threads about putting together a monster chess system. And some more about taking a more budget constrained approach. I've been looking around for what might be used to build a more middle of the road system. It should IMO be using: A rock solid chipset. Sport reasonable specs. Be upgradable. But it should also be allowed to cut some corners. The setup that I've found approximating my vison goes as follows: MSI RS480M2-IL S939, Bulk ATI Xpress 200,SATA,LAN,PCI-E,m-ATX,VGA http://www.msicomputer.com/product/p_spec.asp?model=RS480M2-IL&class=mb AMD Athlon 64 3000+ 1.8 GHz Socket 939, 512KB cache, BOXED Corsair Value S PC3200 DDR-DIMM 512MB Kit w/two matched Value Select 256MB Samsung DVD-player IDE 16x/48x Bulk black Samsung SpinPoint P80 80GB IDE ATA/133 8MB cache 7200RPM Q-Tec Mini/Desktop tower TC-Micro TC-Series, m-ATX, 300W PSU The reasoning is as follows: The motherboard is a PCI-e one and has a reputation for solidity. Also the GPU, Audio and on board networking are good. The GPU is a usable DX9 part far outstripping any other current IGP. Good Dolby 5.1, Not Gigabit Ethernet but good anyhow. USB and SATA are a bit lower performing than some other mobos. And you can plug in next generation s939 CPUs and state of the art PCI-e graphics cards later. The next stepping of the CPU will feature SSE3. The IDE drive is for safely booting OSs. Add SATA for expansion. The case is the only part that is a bit lacking. Only two USB out, no Firewire out. And a bit weak PSU. But there should be better ones available. Suggestions welcome. MvH Dan Andersson
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Last modified: Thu, 15 Apr 21 08:11:13 -0700
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