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"Maxx Pc, Processor and Officejet Info"

Does anybody here own a Maxx pc?

Basically being quite open considering i'm on SR ;) I am half and half between a Maxx Pc or a Dell Pc. The only pointer moving me away from the dell is the slightly higher pricing I suppose...So has anyone on here got a maxx pc and how has it been?

I am also half and half on the Athlon 1400 or the P4 1500. Not sure which is the best choice.

I would build my own pc but 1) I can't be bothered 2) I don't get trade price anymore. Unless someone can persuade me otherwise :)

I am also interested in the officejet and am wondering how good that is?

All info very welcome :)

PC2100 memory, altho the brand might turn out to be cack, it was cheap :)

I haven't a clue on bench testing the pc sadly! hehe

cheers for your help guys :)

2x 512mb DDR? What brand/speed?

Anyway, nice rig, be very interested to see how it benches. Any plans to unlock that XP? Check what week it it, some xp1800s going well over 2GHz.

That'll be a very nice rig when you get it running. If you need any help me + reaper are always around and more than willing to help.

I have finally ordered all of my components...

AMD Athlon-XP 1800+
A7V266-E Motherboard
2 x 512mb DDR RAM
Elsa Gladiac 920
40gb Quantum Fireball 7200rpm HD
Soundblaster 5.1 Live
Samsung DVD/CD-R combo drive
Panasonic Floppy/Rockwell 56k Modem
Full Tower ATX Case
4 Fans

These bits have set me back around £1080.00!

Monitor, speakers, mouse and keyboard I have already

Officejet v40 to be ordered still

I also run the A7V and I'm incredibly happy with it. Its very easy to use, very stable, and has loads of features. My current favourite features are the way it shuts down (safely) whaen you press the power button, and the way you can make it turn on at a set time. I'm overclocking my CPU at the moment and that was incredibly easy to do. Its also very easy to set up, as it has the asus jumperfree feature. I just plugged the stuff in and turned it on, it only needed a few tweaks!

Yes, AGP 4x Pro. I'd still recommend it, the on-board sound quality it surprisingly good, I'll blame my little incident on some other component. Aside from that, the Epox board has been very well recieved, as has the update of the asus board, the A7V266-E. Abit should have their new line out by the end of the year, and I think some kt7a's will support the XP with a bios revision - check the AMD recommended motherboard page on amd.com

Would you still recommend the Asus A7V266 following your incident?

Whats the on board sound like with it?

It has got an AGP slot i take it? :)

Go with XP or 2k pro - I'm not a great fan of XP, the benefits of it don't interest me enough to warrant the upgrade, and it's certainly not as revolutionary as microsoft would like us to believe. I'd swap that RAM for some DDR, compliment your processor much better - £23 for 256mb crucial cas-2.5.

As my other topic says, I managed to smoke my cpu last night, so don't even consider running it without thermal compound (arctic silver) and an Alpha 8045 or ThermalRight SK6 with a high spec fan..

I put this spec together from different sites (if the maxx pc had the Athlon1700 I might be tempted...)

Atx Tower £28.67
AMD Athlon-XP 1700 £166,38
Samsung DVD/CD/CD-R £110ish SR
Quantum 40gb 7200 RPM Harddrive £102.52
512mb pc133 RAM £32.53
3D Blaster GeForce 3 64mb AGP £241.12
56k v90 Modem £10.37
Not Sure on The Motherboard yet
Soundblaster PCI 512 £31.17
Yamaha Sub and Speakers £33.69
Panasonic Floppy £10.15
Keyboard £15.93
Mouse £5.00
OfficeJet £200.00
USB Cable £6.99
Fans - Undecided
15" Philips Monitor £79.17

Total Price £1146.69ish

But thats with no operating system. Haven't decided on that. xp maybe?

My only doubts on the self build is the time i have to personally put into getting it up and running (specially with any fault finding on dodgy parts).

My mind is so torn...arggggghhhh!

Depends on your budget really mate; The best graphics cards around at the moment are still the GeForce3 Ti500s, but as with the normal range, which model you get is very much up to you. They all have an identical chipset, resulting in very similar performance, the exact speed is much more dependant on luck - not all cards are the same, so sometimes you get lucky, and sometimes you don't.

For pure power, go with the GeForce3 Ti500, retailing for around £350 at the moment. Its release has caused the original GF3s to drop in price to around £280, and it's still a damn fine card. For budget options, I'd go with a GeForce2 GTS (preferably an Ultra), should be able to get one for about £100, and it's the best you'll find of the last generation.

Only other alternatives I can think of would be the Kyro II for a budget card, £130 or so last I checked, with performance similar to (but not quite at the same standard as) the GTS. The new Radeon chipset is out soon too with the 8500, but I'd avoid them due to a history of driver issues and compatibility problems. I'd say stick with a GeForce, really.

As for an Athlon motherboard, I've just bought the Asus A7V266, and it's very nice - slightly more expensive than Epox options and supposedly not as good for overclocking (although it does include full multiplier and fsb settings via the bios), but a good package. It's very stable, has 3 DDR slots, 5 PCI (but no ISA), on-board sound and support for UDMA100; everything you'lll need for most uses. Currently goes for about £130, compared to £100 for the new Epox, the EP-8KHA+ DDR. Very similar specifications, only noticeable difference for me is the ability to use the new alpha heatsink (PAL 8045), the Asus board doesn't have room, as I found to my cost.

If you need any more help, I'm around here pretty much constantly..