Very Computer

Guess it's time for me to upgrade my computer, and I could use all the
hints
and advice I can get...

First of all, the bits and pieces I can/want to salvage from the old
system:

  - BusLogic BT958 SCSI controller (PCI), with all the SCSI stuff hangig
off
    of it :)
  - LinkSys 10/100 Ethernet PCI card (sweet thing, Linux is even
mentioned on
    the box :) )
  - Ensoniq AudioPCI soundcard
  - ISA modem (old fashioned, with jumpers, slow but good for what I
need it
    for... :) )

I think I need to get the following:

  - Dual CPU motherboard + 2 processors. Here is where I need your help:
I
    remember reading somewhere a while ago about an ASUS board that was
capable
    of taking two 300 Celerons (or something like that) and allowed you
to use
    them both, and to overclock them directly from the bios without
jumpers.
    Could you please tell me what I'm REALLY looking for (i.e. how to
get a
    sales droid at your average mail-order joint to send me the stuff I
really
    want :) :) :)

  - A new video card. If the mobo has AGP, should I go for an
AGP-enabled
    videocard, and which one ? This is the area I'm most terribly out of
date
    at... I want to play the Linux version of Quake 3 when it comes out,
and I
    want it to kick ass. So go ahead -- I'm taking votes... :)

  - I want a full-tower 300W-powered ATX (I guess that's what the
motherboard
    will be, right? ) case. It should be nice, whith sliding panels and
stuff,
    and plenty of room to keep my lard-ass old-fashioned full-height
SCSI drive
    from catching fire :)  I've looked at cases, and they can cost
anywhere
    from $50 to $500 :) My range would be from $70 to $90 :) :) :)
There's
    got to be a case in that price range that's not just a 6-faced box,
and
    actually has some thought put in its design about how the air will
flow
    on the inside... :)

Any other suggestions or reasons why the above wishlist is smart/stupid
are
welcome.

Thanks,

Gabriel

PS. Faked my email to ward off spam. In case you want to email me
personally,
    please remove all UPPERCASE chars from my email address...

Quote:>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Original Message <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<

Quote:> Hi, folks...
> Guess it's time for me to upgrade my computer, and I could use all the
> hints
> and advice I can get...
> First of all, the bits and pieces I can/want to salvage from the old
> system:
>   - BusLogic BT958 SCSI controller (PCI), with all the SCSI stuff
hangig
> off
>     of it :)
>   - LinkSys 10/100 Ethernet PCI card (sweet thing, Linux is even
> mentioned on
>     the box :) )
>   - Ensoniq AudioPCI soundcard
>   - ISA modem (old fashioned, with jumpers, slow but good for what I
> need it
>     for... :) )
> I think I need to get the following:
>   - Dual CPU motherboard + 2 processors. Here is where I need your
help:
> I
>     remember reading somewhere a while ago about an ASUS board that
was
> capable
>     of taking two 300 Celerons (or something like that) and allowed
you
> to use
>     them both, and to overclock them directly from the bios without
> jumpers.
>     Could you please tell me what I'm REALLY looking for (i.e. how to
> get a
>     sales droid at your average mail-order joint to send me the stuff
I
> really
>     want :) :) :)
>   - A new video card. If the mobo has AGP, should I go for an
> AGP-enabled
>     videocard, and which one ?

        Currently the C366, or the PIII450 are the favored o/c'rs.
C300's that will do 450 are gettin hard to find. Most all C366 or
PII450's do 550, lot's make it to 600 mhz and higher.  I have a
PII 350 at 467 mhz (10 months now, rock solid), ~500mhz is the
upper level for PII's.

         I'd suggest you read  alt.comp.hardware.overclocking  for a
while.

        Video card, HDD caution.  The main concern with o/c'g is non
standard pci and agp speeds.  Current BX motherboards often support
pci dividers as required to keep the pci bus speed in, or close to
spec, but not the agp bus.  For example, I have an Aopen ax6bc
running my PII350 at 133.6 mhz, FSB.  The pci is ? divided back to
the spec 33mhz, but the agp bus is 89mhz (66 is spec).  Few agp
cards will run this far out'a spec (for long anyhow), so I use a
pci V3 (o/c'd to 178mhz in Windows, not Linux). Few HDD's (and no
scuzzy's) will tolerate a pci bus too far out'a spec, data loss is
the biggest risk.  IBM and WD drives are favored, stay away from
Maxtor.