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KT-7 RAID, Athlon Thunderbird Gaming System Build
by Len "Viking1" HjalmarsonSound and Video
Hercules 3d Prophet II
Your choice for sound hardware may be determined by application, especially if you have a decided preference for A3d vs EAX. The future of Aureal's sound technology is in doubt, however, so the SoundBlaster standard is looking more attractive every day.
On the other hand, the overall performance of Turtle Beach products has been excellent in the past two years, with their Montego II Quadzilla the best sound board I ever had. With a rock steady game port, four speaker support, and the Vortex II chipset for A3d and around a million voices in hardware, and low CPU utilization to top it all off, it came along at just the right time for me. (Montego lovers note: you'll need the driver revision for Athlon compatability. Go to
Driver Revision Note: there are no WIN ME drivers for Montego and the Santa drivers are beta only).
Turtle Beach recently released their latest board, and abandoned Aureal's chipset in favor of a digital signal processor (DSP), the Crystal 4630. At 420MIPS the power output is significantly less than Creative's EMU10K1, but in practice this doesn't make much difference. Sound quality, software and other features should decide your direction here. All the expected hardware support is on board, including S/PDIF input for CD-ROM drives supporting digital connection. Add 6 speaker support and the Santa Cruz was perfect for me.
When building a TURBO system price is not the object. The hot new video choice has just arrived in the form of the GeForce 2 ULTRA. OK, I couldn't afford that option, so this system is built around my GeForce 2 with 32MB. It's the fastest horse on the track at the moment anyway, and onboard T&L has suddenly become important. Both CFS2 and B17 II support transformation and lighting in hardware, and the difference is obvious.
Avenger in CFS2
If you're on a budget, consider the GeForce 2 MX. Using cheaper video RAM, the MX version is much cheaper to purchase and almost matched in power with the standard GeForce DDR. But on a .18 micron die instead of the .22 micron die, overclocking becomes that much more desirable.
GeForce Properties
Why not go with 3dfx? The V5500 measures 4000 3dMarks compared to the GF2 GTS at 6400. The raw horsepower of this board is unbelievable. The only clear advantage for 3dfx is the T-buffer, but games that support T-buffer features aren't on the shelves yet. Both boards support FSAA (full screen anti-aliasing), with Nvidia also sporting a HDVP processor (High Definition Video) which enables 720p and 1080i HDTV decoding. All you need is a HDTV tuner card, and your monitor becomes a HighD TV.
3dMark 2000
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