Power PC must haves ???

Conquest Frontier Wars.

 

A true POWER Computer must have an Athlon XP

Anything less (Intel) is just not going to cut it . . .

What kind of graphics card did it come with? Max Payne is a worthwhile game, and if you want something similar (with great graphics as well), pick up "American McGee's Alice". Good RPGs include Baldur's Gate II and my favorite: "Planescape: Torment".

As far as non-gaming software is concerned, CloneCD and StarOffice are great!

 

solitaire

 

Whatever you get, get it and use it fast, 'cause that processor will be middle-of-the-road in a few weeks. lol.

 

Get a cable modem in place of the 56K and you're in business. That's a kick-butt system you got there, OS.

 

The only weak points in the system I see are the amount of memory and the MX video card. It's a good video card, but lower-end by today's standards. And yeah, for pete's sake get a broadband connection, dude... this is the 21st century.

 

Add RD Ram and the P4 to the list of weaknesses

Anyhow, I'd do what I could to get some more RAM ASAP. Make absolutely sure that you get the faster RD RAM -- and make sure it's RD RAM. Rambus is expensive, but <a href="http://www.puicorp.com">PowerUp!</a> has it. You could buy it online from <a href="http://www.pricewatch.com">Pricewatch</a> for the best price. Make sure you get the PC800 stuff though. I've never built an RDRAM system, but as I understand it, you must have spacers in the slots that aren't being used (so it would look like you're full with RAM, but you aren't). There may also be some issues with using RAM in equal sizes, but I don't know.

A SB Audigy or even a Live! would be a worthwhile upgrade as well, but you'll need to disable the onboard audio. The SB Live is only like 30 bucks -- if you've got nice speakers, you'll notice the WORLD of difference.

 

I'd get a DVD burner. You can get a system maxed out from Gateway, 1.8-2.0 Ghz with 512mb of Ram, 120gb HD, and a 64mb nVidia graphics card & 17-19" monitor, amongst other accessories - plus a DVD-RW and CD-RW drive for just over $2000.

It'd be cool to be the first on the block with one - and the price ($600-$800 in stores) is only going to come down.

But for games? NBA Live 2001 with all of the settings maxed out. Great game to play and kill an hour.

 

I have to disagree here. People buying DVD burners now are just playing roulette with about $500-$700. Until one of the 3 pseudo-standards becomes de facto, there's no point in buying one of these things. They're also slow as hell. Many take 35-40 minutes to burn a dvd. If you happen to buy the standard that doesn't become the "true standard", then you're stuck with a $500-$700 paperweight. There are hybrids that will burn using 2 of the 3 types of standards, but again... slow and playing roulette. Now if you have money to burn, be my guest.

 

old school.... i've been looking into getting a dell as well.. saw some on tv a few weeks back on sale etc.. if you dont mind me asking.. how much did that one end up costing with tax and all..

 

I wish I had the money!

All I've really seen, though, is DVD-RW and DVD-RAM, with most of the drives supporting both.

For the size and transfer rate, 35-40mins to burn an entire DVD at ~4.7gb is comparable to 15mins for a 650-700mb CD. Of course it'll get faster in time, but someone always has to have the newest and coolest...that's how CD-RW's got going.

 

There are actually about 4 or 5 standards to be honest... off the top of my head : DVD-R, DVD-RW, DVD-RAM, DVD+R, and DVD+RW. Here's the beauty of all this... many current DVD recorders won't even play some of these standards. So you may be burning discs that won't play anywhere but on the recorder you happened to burn them on. Oh boy.

 

a person in our office recently got a new black/grey p4 dell...
it is so sweet.

have fun Old School!!

I'll be getting one soon enough... heheh

rH

 

Instead of minutes, let me put it in a more straightforward way :

DVD discs are burned at 1x - around 2.4x speeds.
CD writers now burn at 24x

1x DVD rate is about 9x CD-R rates.

The cost of a DVD disc is about $10-$20 per disc.

I'll leave the math to you.

Hang in there... within a year or so, we should see some settling down. The price isn't what I'm concerned about. It's the standards.

 

Honestly though, what are you gonna do with a DVD Writer anyhow. Let's assume that you picked "the right" standard, what are you gonna do then? Rent DVDs and then copy them? The amount of Data will take a while to do that. Download RARs and burn to DVD?

I dunno, I just can't see the value of buying a DVD Writer for 600 bucks, when you can buy a computer comparable to mine (Athlon 1800/786MB 2100 DDR RAM) for the same price . . . I'll take 2 PCs over a DVD Writer . . . or buy a removable bay, and 4 60 gig HDs