On 14 Aug 99, at 23:28, Cesar Mendoza wrote:

> Hi. I am going to buy a new PC next moth. Could you help me? Please.
>
> This is my list so far:
>
> - Pentium III 500MHz. What is the difference between a Xeon and a non-Xeon
> P3?

  Xeons are optimized for performance in dual-, quad- and 8-CPU server
configurations.  The few published comparisons suggest a single Xeon is
actually a little slower than a regular PIII.

> - Intel 440BX. I am looking for motherboard without sound or video. Any
> idea?

  I just got a Tyan S1846S Tsunami, partly because it offers 5 PCI slots.
It appears to have a BIOS bug that prevents booting from the floppy drive,
but other than that I'm very pleased with it.
  I would also look at Asus's P3B.

> - 128MB Pipelined Burst Static RAM

  SDRAM is "Sychnchronised Dynamic RAM".  Static RAM is used for cache,
because it's fast, but it's also prohibitively expensive to use more than a
megabyte or two.  I know of no boards which support its use for main RAM.

> - 17" or 21" Monitor. Any preference (model)?
> - Mitsumi CD-ROM. I am looking for a Mitsumi drive that can read
> self-recorded CDs. Any idea?
> - 56Kbps Modem. Any idea?

  Ordinarily, I'd recommend a Best Data "SmartOne" external.  However,
they've recently re-designed it, turning a useful little box into an unusable
paperweight, and priced it almost as expensively as a USR -- so you might as
well go USR and save yourself the hassle.

> - AGP Video Card. Since I have a Monster 3D 2 (and I am very happy with it)
> I will not require a 3D accelerator, but a robust 2D card. Any idea?

  If you can find the Matrox G100 Productiva, "robust 2D" pretty much sums it up.

> I will also keep my Hard Disk and my Sound Card. So don't worry about them.


David G

                  Visit our website regularly for FAQs,
               articles, how-to's, tech tips and much more
                  http://nospin.com - http://nospin.org