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February 24, 1997
I haven't updated this for a *long* time. I also don't remember how to do italics in HTML. Tis sad, but true. sigh. Umm, I got my Hercules Thriller 3D the end of January, and it even worked for a while. I'll outline the problems I've had with the card soon. Don't get me wrong, when it worked, it was great. It has excellent 3D image quality, very good 3D performance, and good 2D performance. Of course, it also has v 0.74 drivers and a whole lotta problems. When I get to reformatting this page, I'll expound on this a bit more. As it stands, however, I probably should have saved my money and gotten a Riva 128. The only real problem with the Riva 128 is the 4MB RAM limit, and the new Riva 128ZX fixes that... The image quality is a *little* worse, but it more than makes up with it in terms of performance and the robustness of its drivers.
January 4, 1997
This page just has some computer information and links. The links are primarily where I find computer information and where I buy my hardware/compare prices. The information is primarily stuff that I gathered in making a new PC purchase over the past few months.
NECX
Below I have the price I paid for the component as well as a description of why it fit my needs the best and caveats. Most of my system was purchased from GrumpMicro. This includes the case, mobo, chip, heat sink/fan, ram, floppy drive, and mouse. The service was good and prompt for the most part and their prices were very good. I ordered my sound card, speakers, and surge protector from NECX. Where I got/am getting my video card(s) is complicated.
$125 | Shuttle HOT-603 Mobo - I needed a Socket 7 board, and this was hyped to be the best. Running with the AMD 640 chipset (AMD's version of the VIA VP2) it had all the best features of Intel's HX and TX chipsets. Unlike the FIC PA-2007, the Shuttle board also claimed to support 83 MHz bus speeds. It's a good board. It's stable at 66 MHz bus speeds and has 3 DIMM slots. Even with only one DIMM slot occupied, it's flakey unacceptably flakey at 75 and 83 MHz. The 1 MB of cache is nice, although I guess I wouldn't really notice it. It has sort of been bastardized by Shuttle, however, and drivers/ support seems scant. For some reason, my PCI bridge drivers seem to require IRQ 9. I have not yet tried the VP2 bus-mastering drivers. Otherwise, it's a good board. |
$200 | AMD K6 200 MHz - I wanted to save a few hundred dollars and get good performance. The K6 has been very good, and ran well at 225 MHz at 2.9v core. Of course, this can probably be attributed to adequate chip cooling |
$25 | Heat Sink / Fan - GrumpMicro calls this the "HUGE" heatsink/fan combo. I can't really disagree with the description. It is a very large Thermoalloy heat sink mounted by a large fan. I knew I wanted a good heatsink/fan combo, and the only thing I could think of that might be better would be the IERC unit available at SDS Mark. |
$250 | NEC 64 MB 10ns SDRAM DIMM - I had thought I was only getting 2 DIMM slots (I got 3) so I wanted to make them count. At the time, 32 MB DIMMs were going for about $110-$115, and 64 MBs were going for about $350, so when I spotted this for a hundred bucks left I went for it. Supposedly a single DIMM would be better for overclocking as well, but I was getting a host of irregular blue screens. |
Shuttle HOT-603
Mobo from GrumpMicro or an FIC PA-2007 from TC ComputerPossibly an Inwin Q500 or Q500A...
Elsa
GLoria Synergy 8MB $299 $289.44(TV in and out) orand either an AVerMedia
TV-Phone $132 or a Hauppauge
Wincast/TV (401 or 452) $$127 or a Quadrant Buster $199 or some
other PCI tv-card
ATI XPERT@Play 8MB
w/ ATI-TV-Tuner $225 + $85
Sound Card (Reviews at 3D Audio):
**** Guillemot Maxisound Home
Studio 64 $262
***_Mediatrix 3D-XG $269 (sbpro)
**__ AWE 64 Gold w/ extra 4 MB expansion $180 + $??? (sbpro)
*___ AVM Apex$269.95 (sbpro)
____ Terratec EWS64 XL (sbpro) "
Speakers (reviews at 3D
Audio and bootNET:
Yamaha YST-M15 ($65) and Cambridge Soundworks PC Works ($90)
Jensen/Advent AR AV570 speakers $250 at USA Flex
Cambridge Soundworks Microworks $290
Cambridge Soundworks Soundworks $180
Midi keyboard:
Kaysound MK-4902
119.95 at Sound ChaserMy new computer (probably from Codata):
Shuttle HOT-603
Mobo $ 130 from GrumpMicro or an FIC PA-2007 $99 from TC ComputerPossibly an Inwin Q500, about $115
Elsa
GLoria Synergy 8MB $299 (TV in and out)and either an AVerMedia
TV-Phone $132 or a Hauppauge
Wincast/TV (401 or 452) $127
Sound Card (Reviews at 3D Audio):
Speakers (reviews at 3D
Audio and bootNET:
Yamaha YST-M15 ($65) and Cambridge Soundworks PC Works ($90)
Midi keyboard:
Kaysound MK-4902
119.95 at Sound Chaser
Viewsonic Opti-UPS 650E PNP $214.95 at necx
APC Surgestation Pro 8 Tel/TV