IDE Dream

The IDE Dream Machine

The only limit to this machine is its IDE configuration.  Everything else is about as good as it gets,  within reason. 

• CPU:  Intel Pentium 3 E 650 or 700 MHz CPU (with a BX motherboard)
  OR:
  A Pentium 3 EB 866 or 933 MHz CPU (with an i820 motherboard)
• Motherboard:  MSI BXMaster.  Other possibilities are Asus CUBX or AOpen AX6BC Pro II. 
  OR:
  If wanting an i820 motherboard, get the Asus P3C 2000.
• RAM:  Four Corsair / Micron 128 MB PC133 SDRAM DIMMs for a total of 512 MB
  OR:
  Two Samsung 256 MB 800 MHz RDRAM DIMMs (very expensive).
• Hard Drive:  IBM 75GXP 30 GB 7200 rpm IDE Hard Drive with 2 MB cache buffer. 
• Video Card:
  Matrox G400 MAX video card with 32 MB of RAM and two of the monitors listed below. 
  OR
  Hercules 3D Prophet II GTS (GeForce II) card with 64 MB DDR RAM and Video out. 
• Case:  SuperMicro SC750-A Server Tower Case with 400 watt PC Power & Cooling power supply.
• Modem:  3Com/US Robotics External FaxModem Pro (USB/Serial). 
• Monitor:  22" Mitsubishi Diamond Pro 2040U monitor with .24 dpi Trinitron tube (very expensive).  (or 19" Sony GDM-F400 - expensive). 
• CD-ROM Drive:  Creative Labs 52x IDE CD-ROM Drive.
  OR:
  DVD-ROM Drive:  Pioneer 16x ATAPI DVD-ROM Drive with software decoding (purchase the RealMagic Hollywood Plus decoder card if desired)
• Sound Card:  Xitel Storm Platinum Gamers Pack with "Force Feedback" headphones - A PCI Vortex2 3D audio sound card.
  OR:
  Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live! Platinum
• Speakers:  Altec-Lansing ADA-880 Quad speaker setup.
  OR:
  Klipsch ProMedia v.2-400 Quad speaker setup - 400 Watts!
• Backup:  Iomega IDE Zip Drive.
  OR:
  Castlewood Orb 2.2 GB Removable Drive.
• Floppy Drive:  Teac 1.44.
• Mouse:  Microsoft IntelliMouse Explorer USB or PS/2.
• Keyboard:  Microsoft Natural Keyboard Pro USB or PS/2. 
• Printer:  Epson Stylus Color 900 (inexpensive)
  OR:
  Hewlett Packard 2000CXI Thermal Inkjet (expensive)
  OR:
  Tektronix Phaser 360 Wax-Based Printer (very expensive).

 Options:

• Game Controller:  Gravis Xterminator Game Pad.
  OR:  MS SideWinder Freestyle Pro USB GamePad (gyroscope)
  AND:  MS SidWinder Force Feedback Pro Joystick. 
• CD-ROM Burner:  IDE Plextor 8x write, 4x rewrite. 
• Scanner:  HP 6200C Scanner.
• Digital Camera:  Kodak DC290 Plus.
• UPS:  OptiUPS 650ES Battery Backup with Voltage Regulation
  OR:
  APS Smart-UPS 700Net Battery Backup (more expensive).