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In the Forums... |
Posted: July 29, 2000 Written by: Tuan "Solace" Nguyen The Power Supply [ PC Power & Cooling TwinPower 850 ATX: $ 769.00 ]  - Power: 425watt x 2 Hot swappable - Cooling: 44CFM (ea. TC425 ATX) - Alarm Indicators: Audio alarm and LEDs - M/B Connectors: 20-pin ATX, 6-pin - Drive Connectors: 8 - Agency Approvals: UL, ULC, CE - MTBF: 5,000,000 hrs. (system) - Optional Enclosure: Solid-Steel Tower - Warranty: 5 years For the ultimate case comes the ultimate power supply. Also from PC Power & Cooling, the Twin Power 850 offers a secure solution to an expensive investment. Like cases, PC Power & Cooling is known for designing and manufacturing excellent power supplies. The 5-year warranty shows that there is quality inside these babies. The unit houses two hot swappable 425-watt redundant power supplies jimmied together to give you a consistent flow of 850 watts. That’s pretty much overkill for the average computer. But this isn’t the average computer. This is Tweak3D’s. One of them breaks down on you? Simply pull it out and jack in another. It’s important to notice that each one is 425 watts. Because the system only runs on one unit at any given time, we’ll need a good 425watts of sturdy power to keep our insane system going without blacking out. For a more down to earth system, try to stick to a power supply that offers at least 300watts of power. You don’t want any power issues when the upgrades start pounding for power. Now that we have enclosures and power issues solved, what will be the brains of this computer? It was a very difficult decision. The Processor [ Dual Intel Pentium III 1GHz: $ 1,952.00 ]  Our original choice was an AMD 1GHz Thunderbird. But something really important left our flying hero out in the cold -- Symmetrical Multi Processing (SMP). Yes, the Thunderbird is a power user’s dream processor. And it is our preferred processor too. But the ultimate computer must be a workhorse as well as a rampaging gamer. As of currently, 1Ghz Coppermines give you extreme gaming performance already and knock the Athlon out in many benchmarks. Why are we going with dual processors if Windows Millennium only supports a single processor? Because Windows 2000 supports SMP configurations and people are beginning to contemplate on Windows ME and Windows 2000. Games will begin to take advantage of SMP. There are games out there that take advantage of MDU (Multiple Display Units), so games that take advantage of SMP are sure to come. Besides gaming, this system is also suitable for graphic artists and videophiles. These folks will either be working in Windows 98SE/ME or 2000, but more likely 2000. Photoshop, AutoCAD, 3Dstudio MAX will all support SMP configurations. And Windows 2000 is the best place to do productivity work. Since this is the ultimate computer, you'll ALSO want the most insane OS - Linux. Every tweak junky needs a copy of this fine OS on their system besides having Microsoft's regular onslaught of crashes. If you’re purely for games, perhaps a single processor solution will do you just fine. In that case, I suggest a direct catch of the AMD 1GHz+ Thunderbird. On-die L2 cache and soon to be released DDR chipsets surely causes you to drool. But, keep the SMP option open, as you’ll want that for many other needs, and of course to prepare for the future. Alternative Solution: AMD 1GHz Athlon Thunderbird Now that we have our processor(s) ready, we’ve gotta insert them somewhere right? That’s right, time to lock down on an insane motherboard. |
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