They each do the same thing, just different companys. I prefer VMWare because it is NOT biased to Microsoft products. It allows you to run a virtual computer on your computer. For example, My physical computer here is named Hydra. It runs XP 64bit and has VMWare, system drivers and games loaded. Nothing else. I also have a virtual machine, In this case named Hydra-XPVM that is its own seperate machine, but runs inside of VMWare. As far as Hydra is concerned its a seperate PC on the network. Hydra-XPVM uses the same video, sound, USB, CD and hard drives as Hydra. I can set how much of Hydra's RAM is set aside for Hydra-XPVM. If I plug in a USB device or put a CDROM in the drive BOTH Hydra and Hydra-XPVM see it. When I install a virtual machine I can set aside as much or as little real hard disk space as I need for the virtual machine's hard drive. So in actuality Hydra-XPVM is nothing more than a 40GB file on Hydra! And in my case I have currently 5 virtual machines, all of them can run at once inside of Hydra but as far as Hydra or any other network user / device is concerned I have 6 seperate PCs running.

Here's the best part - a VM is hardware INDEPENDANT. If Hydra breaks down (unlikely) I can simply take it's hard drive to my wife's PC, install VMWare (I own a copy) and use VMWare on HER machine to fire up Hydra-XPVM. Even though her machine has completely different hardware. Get it?

Check it out, they allow a free 30 day download and purchasing it is less than $200. http://www.vmware.com - you want to get VMWare 5 Workstation. THere is a version for Windows host and a different one for LINUX hosts.

Edit: I realize this sounds like a VMWare advertisement but I have no affiliation with them. I only know so much about them because I spent months researching their products for an article I am trying to have published

 

Heres what I got......

Win XP PRO

Gigabyte GA7VAXP Motherboard

AMD 2000XP overclocked....

Maxtor 60 Gb Hard Drive

1024 of RAM

500w Power supply

works good but needs to be upgraded...getting slow compared to others

 

I <3 Unreal tournament LAN parties. ahhhh, the enjoyment of redeeming people. ummmmm.

 

The most fun we have is Viper Racing on the lan...

 

No way - the flak cannon is the ultimate "redeemer"!

 

BF2 is really fun, comparing it to cod iss like comparing apples and oranges, its a game that you may not like when you first try it but after you play it one or twice you will be hooked.

 

Ah yes, the flak cannon, most banned weapon of UT competions everywhere.

 

It is only banned by those that don't appreciate how to use it but in those instances give me the chain cannon with at least 200 rounds!

 

Old thread, but oh well

Im about to start building up my own from scratch First things first...ima get me one of those kewl towers with the blue leds and 450W of pure power

Now, do you guys buy your cases with the motherboard in it already? I'm not, so I gotta find me a motherboard that will fit good in there.

On the motherboard, im gonna install a P4 cpu. Whats the fastest FSB they got out there? 800mhz?

Then I'll get the IDE drives and expansion cards. I think a 40GB HD will suit me right...I dont need anymore. Dual DVD-Burners too, of course. I'll think about Audio/Video/Wireless cards later. And of course, i'll buy 2 512MB sticks of RAM.

The OS will be XP Home Edition SP2. Im probably missin something cuz Im getting too far from myself. Lol, I havent ordered any of thes parts yet.

What do u guys think? Im missing something? Recommend something else?

 

Actually you buy the case to fit the motherboard, not vice versa. So if you are buying a P4 motherboard, you have to ensure that the case you buy supports that form factor (ATX, mini-ATX, etc). The fastest Pentium FSB is 800MHz, unless you want to overclock. If you are going to overclock you neeed a board that supports it. A good motherboard will let you run over 1100MHz FSB. RAM needs to match, make sure you get good, fast RAM otherwise you have a system bottleneck. I forget which RAM you want for 800MHz FSB, I think it's PC533 - if I'm wrong someone will correct me. Hard drives - why go with IDE? Any mboard you buy will likley have onboard SATA support, I HIGHLY recommend getting SATA drives. They run MUCH faster than standard IDE, and make the cabling inside the case a lot cleaner. A lot of boards have audio and some have wireless on board already, saving you the trouble there. As for video, some say this can be about the most crucial piece you put in a system. Before buying a video adapter you need to know what you will use this PC for. Desktop Publishing and regular internet browsing / office apps? Any card will do, be sure it is AGP and has at least 32MB RAM. Now if you want that plus the ability to play some light gaming, make sure the AGP card has at least 128MB RAM. Into heavy gaming? I strongly suggest getting the motherboard with the new PCI express (PCIe) and getting a card to match with at least 256MB. These get pricey, the ATI x850 I bought back in June ran almost $500.


Hope that helps! Feel free to PM me if you want any advice or suggestions.

 

Ohh, that makes more sense, motherboard before tower...durr me lol

No heavy gaming. A 64MB AGP card is fine for me. I have heard of PCIe, and will look into it, but SATA is a new term...What is it? Do CD Drives have supports for this as well?

I like techy conversations

 

sata is becoming the standard, i havent used it yet, but 2 of my mother boards support it, just have to get a hd for it. supposed to be alot better then ide though. let us know on what you go with. i just got a new 2.93 gig pro, and am starting to build a water cooling system for it to overclock it a bit. gonna at least hit 3 gigs, permanently, and temp bump ups. just got to get a better heat disapating case.

 

Ok, just read some info on SATA. Sounds good, and will get that instead of IDE HD's.

Oh yea the cooling. How do you guys do liquid-cools??? MRKnight, your first post mentioned u have it...u got any pics of that mad setup? I was just gonna use a bunch of fans with some TEC modules since I have that already. My PC would sound loud tho with like 4 cooling fans on it.

 

actually, my main comp, its running 7 fans, and is pretty loud, but i shot for quiet fans, and, i made 4 of them switchablem if it wernet for the front bubble lights, and the hdd light, with my lighted fans off you wouldnt know its running.
.

 

What do guys prefer, Pentium or Celeron? I've used Celeron for the past 5 yrs and its been great.