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vsp · 07-01-2001, 04:50 PM

The system I described does come with an ASUS A7V133, not an ATV133. Ts and 7s on a spec sheet look fairly similar at one in the morning. (I'm not even sure if there is such a thing as an ASUS ATV133.)

Actually, I just checked the web site and I'm not sure if this comes with the A7V133, A7A266 or A7M266. It's the A7V133 at a minimum (that's what was in the previous ad), and with the prices being similar it may pay to upgrade to the A7M266 even if I don't splurge for DDR memory right off the bat.

I looked on PriceWatch, and ye gods, you're right -- PC133 memory is going for a song these days. Hell, it'd probably cost me more than that to get two 32MB Fast Page SIMMs for my current machine to bring it to its maximum capacity. (Gotta love Packard Bell architecture -- four SIMM slots, but two are permanently-welded-in 4MB SIMMs and the other two max out at 32MB apiece.)

The concept of building it myself is tempting, but I don't trust myself that much with hardware. I'll probably be sweating enough just adding my AHA2940U SCSI card to it, let alone tinkering with the whole system at once. I feel better buying it assembled and getting a year's worth of oh-hell-there's-black-smoke-pouring-out-the-back support; I'm saving at least what I'm spending on that by not paying for shipping and MS software (beyond the OS).

Same deal with overclocking. As fast as this sucker's going to be, what the heck am I going to be running where I'll need extra speed any time soon?

My problem with the SBLive is that it's notorious for being buggy when used with many common Win32 games (such as MAME32 and Visual Pinball) -- there's an incompatibility with some VIA Southbridge chipsets that causes crackling, scratchy sound in games and occasional BSoDs when burning CDs. It's some sort of latency issue; apparently VIA grudgingly admitted it's a flaw in their chipset, but the problem's been reported with lots of SBLive setups. My dad bought a P3-800 last year with WinME and an SBLive and the crackling drove me nuts. Unless I know for sure that the A7V133 will play nice with the SBLive, I'm hesistant to order the combination.

DVDs don't impress me... yet. Are there any region-free DVD-ROMs out there anyone knows of? Without that capability, I'm just not interested at least as far as movies go, and (right now, anyway) what else would I use it for?

jeff. DVD rack systems are pretty cheap and I can watch it on my living-room TV if I feel the urge.

07-01-2001, 04:50 PM	#7
vsp Syndrome of a Down Join Date: Jun 2001 Location: West Chester Posts: 1,367	As usual, Jeff can't type The system I described does come with an ASUS A7V133, not an ATV133. Ts and 7s on a spec sheet look fairly similar at one in the morning. (I'm not even sure if there is such a thing as an ASUS ATV133.) Actually, I just checked the web site and I'm not sure if this comes with the A7V133, A7A266 or A7M266. It's the A7V133 at a minimum (that's what was in the previous ad), and with the prices being similar it may pay to upgrade to the A7M266 even if I don't splurge for DDR memory right off the bat. I looked on PriceWatch, and ye gods, you're right -- PC133 memory is going for a song these days. Hell, it'd probably cost me more than that to get two 32MB Fast Page SIMMs for my current machine to bring it to its maximum capacity. (Gotta love Packard Bell architecture -- four SIMM slots, but two are permanently-welded-in 4MB SIMMs and the other two max out at 32MB apiece.) The concept of building it myself is tempting, but I don't trust myself that much with hardware. I'll probably be sweating enough just adding my AHA2940U SCSI card to it, let alone tinkering with the whole system at once. I feel better buying it assembled and getting a year's worth of oh-hell-there's-black-smoke-pouring-out-the-back support; I'm saving at least what I'm spending on that by not paying for shipping and MS software (beyond the OS). Same deal with overclocking. As fast as this sucker's going to be, what the heck am I going to be running where I'll need extra speed any time soon? My problem with the SBLive is that it's notorious for being buggy when used with many common Win32 games (such as MAME32 and Visual Pinball) -- there's an incompatibility with some VIA Southbridge chipsets that causes crackling, scratchy sound in games and occasional BSoDs when burning CDs. It's some sort of latency issue; apparently VIA grudgingly admitted it's a flaw in their chipset, but the problem's been reported with lots of SBLive setups. My dad bought a P3-800 last year with WinME and an SBLive and the crackling drove me nuts. Unless I know for sure that the A7V133 will play nice with the SBLive, I'm hesistant to order the combination. DVDs don't impress me... yet. Are there any region-free DVD-ROMs out there anyone knows of? Without that capability, I'm just not interested at least as far as movies go, and (right now, anyway) what else would I use it for? jeff. DVD rack systems are pretty cheap and I can watch it on my living-room TV if I feel the urge.