At 04:52 PM 05/22/2001 Leigh Jennings wrote, in pertinent part:
>
>I'm finally getting a new system. It will be used
>for high end graphics, web design, gaming etc....
>
>MOBO:   ASUS A7M266 (socketA) AMD 1.333 Gig
>RAM:    256 meg DDR PC2100
>Video:  64 meg Geforce GTS DDR
>Sound:  Creative Live PCI
>Modem:  Netcomm external (serial or usb ???)
>CDR/RW: Ricoh 32/8/8 ide kit
>OS:     Win ME


Leigh

What graphics software will you be running?

Your choice of software will dictate the optimal platform (in fact, if you
haven't bought the software yet and you are serious about graphics, get a
Macintosh -- okay okay heresy)....  If your main interest is gaming, the
proposed components are excellent.

For high end graphics software on a PC, I would use Windows 2000 on a
Pentium 4, and I would use a video card designed for high end graphics, not
games, with dual video outs. Verify every component is on Microsoft's HCL.
Tuned and updated video drivers are vital.

Along with your video card, your monitor is more important than your CPU in
a graphics system. Get a larger-than-needed tube (really) with a high
refresh rate, accurate color and fine dot pitch. Get a smaller tube for the
other video out. Use the smaller monitor for your desktop and the larger
one for the graphics. I prefer Sony but there are better deals out there.

Get an external modem so you can punch the power switch to reset when it
hangs, and also to avoid PCI/PnP resource conflicts. I would recommend only
US Robotics; less conflicts, better line noise handling (though, I haven't
seen their V.92 modems). Verify that it is not a winmodem but has onboard
hardware-based processing.

Spend the extra $100 for the Creative Live Platinum so you have digital I/O
for multimedia.  I would get a Plextor or Yamaha CDR/RW.

Good luck.

John Chin

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