hokay, got the new system under way, is

amd athlon xp-2500+ 1.8ghz, barton 512k l2 cache 333mhz fsb

gigabyte 7VAXP kt400 agp 8x

eVGA GeForce FX 5600 256MB DDR, AGP 8x w/ CRT, TVO, DVI

maxtor 80Gb 7200 ATA 133 - to go with the one I have already, so RAID 0 should make my slowest transfer speed anywhere the 266 from the hdd's, right?

512mb ram from kingston

now all I need is more ram and the most affordable video editing software that will let me produce broadcast quality ouput.

the digital camcorder is next, probably in about 3-4 months, thinking of the canon zx-4, so far the cheapest model with miniDV format and memory stick - which will make the firewire not so necessary for the 30-60 sec of material I would be working with.

see anything obvious in this setup that I am missing? - I will keep my old dell 17", was debating picking up an old cheap 15" monitor to use the multi-out so i can still work while compiling, but a friend said just use the s-video plug in my 27" TV to make that my 2nd monitor - what have your experiences with using multiple displays?

[ 05-12-2003, 05:30 AM: Message edited by: Ziroc ]

hmm,
how about connecting them with lan :D .. that way you can invite someone and play games hours on end... if you want that.

It aint the size of your rig that counts, it's what you do with it ;)

Seriously though, the only thing I can think of is the vid card choice. From what I have read, ATI seems to provide the best bang for your bucks atm.

although i'm an ati man myself, there is nothing wrong with the geforce fx, just it was too little too late.... its still a great card, prices over here seem roughly the same for competing cards...

but using a tv as a second monitor is probably not a good idea if you want to work on it... most tv's don't have the resolution needed to make text pleasant to read, just get a cheap 15"er...

Geforce FX is a card I would never touch. I got a better look at one today, and that heatsink is obscene. Given the operating temperature, the heat that thing puts out must be immense. If you lose the fan your probably going to lose the entire card very quickly. And the noise is a bit much as well. It does have a variable fan though, so it will be quiet enough when not gaming.

Use a TV as secondary display - but only if you want to produce stuff for display on a TV screen. TV resolution and picture sharpness are both vastly inferior to a SVGA monitor - its just designed for a different purpose. If you actualy want to work with the secondary, get a proper monitor.

The thing that I would add is make sure you got a good power supply. I would go with nothing less than 450 Watts of power supply. Also, get the biggest case you can afford. I'd be curious on how your video card works. Have you considered the FX 5800?

JJ, I just came across an article at Tom's Hardware Guide on the new FX 5900. You might want to check it out.

Is this an invitation to come round and steal your computer or are you just showing off to make people with worse computers feel jealous? [img]tongue.gif[/img]