The following were pvt emails between myself and Tyler Hawkes tylerhawes@home.com. Since they were incredibly helpful, I asked him if I can post them. Of course he said yes. Let me do it one by one: >which cpu and case fans do you suggest? You can get any Pentium III xxxEB. Since the 1834 board supports 133MHz, there's no point in settling for a 550E which runs at 100MHz. MAKE SURE that the CPU you get has the following stats: - 133MHz FSB - 256k cache What's against common sense is that in the PIIIs currently 256k is BETTER than 512k because it is twice as fast and enhanced as the larger, slower cache. Most CPUs are designated "B" for 133MHz and/or "E" for Ehancded cache. You want both. Presently, the most affordable entry would be the PIII 533EB. (I just can't stress enough that it must be "EB". There is also a 600E and a 600B.) >also place for 600E PIII? Again, 600"EB". Just go to PriceWatch.com and type a search for "Microprocessors PC Pentium III xxxEB", substituting the appropriate MHz for "xxx". Just now I found the following: 533EB Fliip Chip, $229 (2.33 MHz/dollar) 600EB Slot 1, $291 (2.06MHz/dollar) 667EB Slot 1, $447 (1.49MHz/dollar) From the above, it's obvious that there is a threshold in value after 600MHz. The 533EB is a flip-chip, which means you'll need an adapter (~$20), which means it almost counteracts the cost savings (brings it down to 2.14MHz/dollar). Still a better value but I think the 600MHz is worth the extra cost. The advantage of going with the flip-chip & adapter is that the flip-chip is more overclockable and will work in more motherboards. However, most dual mobos are Slot 1 anyway, so I don't think that should be a deciding factor. The advantage of the Slot 1 is that it's simpler to plop in and will be a bit faster. > Did you once post that 550E just as good as 600E? No, I said that a 550E is just as good or better than a 600, not a 600E. The enhanced cache of the "E" chips makes them perform quite a bit better than their MHz peers who use old 512k slow cache. > Also, 300W PS okay or is 300W should do you fine. > If I go with M1 instead of Rex bundle, which graphics card should I get? This depends somewhat on what you want to do with it. Obviously, get a card on the compatibility list. If you want to do any 3D graphics & animation, then I suggest picking up a board based on the NVidia GeForce 256 with 32MB of DDR SDRAM. Make sure you get a plain-jane one, as some have video i/o and you don't want that for obvious reasons. I personally like the models made by Guillemot and Elsa. If you don't plan on every doing any 3D graphics, then the GeForce is still a great card, but you might consider the Matrox G400 MAX. It is a great card that will run dual-monitors, but I think only one will support an overlay (there may have already been a driver fix for this, I know Matrox is working on it). It also costs a bit less... --------------------------------------------------- The 1834 is a new model and will not be available until the first week of March. You should be able to get it within a couple of weeks, then. IMHO, the best cases are made by Addtronics. They manufacture cases for a lot of OEMs including SuperMicro, Dell and Micron. The case I recommend right now is the W8500. It is the first case to support the WATX motherboard spec, which is n ew. It still works with all ATX mobos, but starting this year mobos intended for workstation use will begine shipping with the WATX standard, which is better. So it is a future-proof option. It has excellent room, fan mounts, just plain wonderful case. Don't settle for less... Get your case fans from 3dcool.com or net-n-dude.com. There IS a difference between case fans. Mainly it is RPM, noise, and reliability. For RAM, the 1834 will support PC133. There is lots of RAM out there advertised as PC133, but 95% of it doesn't perform well at all at that speed. Lots of latency issues. I recommend you just go to www.PC133memory.com and buy what you need there. It is hands-down the fastest and most reliable SDRAM in existence. You pay a bit of a premium, but it's totally worth it. 3rd-party tests have shown this ram working at CAS3 @ 150MHz! Anyway, you can't go wrong there. BTW, go with 128MB DIMMs unless you expect to need more than 512MB total. Bandwidth is better when spread out among several small DIMMs than it is with one big DIMM. Smaller than 128 doesn't offer enough expansion, but 256s are less compatible and higher latency... Let me know if there's anything else. ---------------------------------------------------- Rich, I've found some memory I feel comfortable recommending that will be a lot more affordable. 128MB PC133 CAS2 Athlon-tested Infeneon SDRAM DIMM at Memman is just $154 after S&H. ---------------------------------------------------- > Did you once post that cpu's have to bought together and from the same batch if possible? Sort of. In order to run dual processors, aside from needing a dual mobo and OS, the processors must at least be the same model. Any major difference in them will keep the computer from running. For example, you couldn't combine a PIII600 and a PIII600E, because of the cache differences. The CPUs wouldn't be able to maintain synch. Beyond producing different models of CPUs, Intel has minor revisions or "stepping levels". Some BIOS will display the stepping level of your CPU, especially dual boards. Windows NT shows you the stepping level when you open the System Properties panel. There are 3rd party utilities that can do this. Anyway, it's unpredictable whether different stepping levels of CPUs at the same speed will work. It depends on what was changed in the latest revision. What is for sure is that it can only harm you, resulting in instability issues or perhaps even keeping the system from running. The problem is that stepping levels change from time to time on what's available. Intel doesn't broadcast this, and most likely the reseller won't even know the stepping levels of CPUs they have. They often will have new stock their selling of a newer stepping level than older stock they have and not even know it. This is mostly a non-issue, because most dual-processors CPUs are built by major OEMs that have systems in place to deal with this. > If I get the dual board, but for now want to buy only one chip is that okay? Can I buy the other in a few months? That would be nice. Yes, you may be able to find a CPU of the same stepping level in a few months in which case you're home free. You may also get a CPU that's a different stepping level but works OK with yours. But you may get one that won't work at all, or makes your system unstable. The problem is that this is mostly a luck of the draw thing. I'd suggest you try finding a vendor who might be able to tell you stepping levels before you order, but I'm not even sure there are any. If you buy local, you might persuade the guy to pop the CPU in a machine real fast and check. Probably not though. For these reasons, it is best to buy both CPUs at the same time from the same place, and make sure to have them guarantee that both CPUs are coming from the same batch (it would be uncommon for them to receive a shipment from Intel or whoever that was mixed, due to the way the distribution system works). > Can I mix speeds on the same board ie: 600EB and 700EB? Definitely not. The only way this might have a chance of working is if you took the faster CPU and set it to the same multiplier as the slower one, in effect turning the 700EB into a 600EB. Alas, this is even possible without extensive work, as the multipliers are locked in the hardware. A closing thought of mine is that processors are very affordable now. If you can't afford duals now, then get a satisfactory single processor to buy you some time and then buy the dual processors later. You can either sell the old single CPU or reuse it in a second machine for yourself, which is what I'm doing. You're going to be able to get into a PIII 750EB for under $300 in May, and the 933MHz PIII should be out in May as well... you'll have options. A later note from 2/28/00 Don't get RDRAM! Unless you are mister moneybags and can afford the same amount as you would have gotten anyway. It's much better to have more SDRAM at this time. Tyan is shipping their 1834 this week, and you should see it for sale by middle march. It's a dual processor board using the VIA Apollo Pro 133A chipset (the first dual with this chipset). Tyan is known for extensive internal testing and excellent stability. I am going to get this board and load it up with PC133 CAS2 SDRAM from MemMan.com and dual PIII 600EB processors. This will be much faster than the same CPUs in an i820 with SDRAM using the MTH. RDRAM 800MHz is not equal to SDRAM 800MHz. The bus is faster, but it's also narrower, so the resulting increase is not corresponding with the higher numbers. Also, RDRAM has higher latency than SDRAM, which is not good. RDRAM is showing performance benefits of 5% - 20% vs. the same MHz with other RAM, but this is not enough to justify the money unless you are getting the best of everything (dual PIII800EB, 512MB RDRAM, etc.), because otherwise your money is better spent on other things like faster CPUs or more SDRAM. Later note from 4/13/00 In addition to Tom's, also checkout SharkyExtreme.com and AnandTech.com. Between the three of them, you pretty much get saturation coverage, but Tom alone doesn't cover everything I need. Hardware recommendations abound in the history of this forum. The basics are to go for Dual PIII "E" chips on a 440BX board (the dual 133A board is slow in coming), 384MB PC133 CAS2 SDRAM in 3 DIMMs, the fastest storage you can afford (if you can afford SCSI, I'd do it), 21" monitor, etc. Everyone has their own preferences, but that's where I personally would start.