🚀 go-pugleaf

 Thanks for taking the time to read this article, and any info will be
greatly appreciated.

 I'm looking to upgrade this outdated 486/33 to some sort of pentuim
based P.C. .  However, i ask the help of all you "experts" to overcome
the vast number choices available. 
(i live in a small town, and it's almost impossible to get the
computer shoppers magazines)

First, i'm probably limited to only around $1500-1600 max for this new
system. I own a NEC 4FG 15"  mult. monitor, and although it is 3 years
old it still works very fine and i'm happy with it. 
(it can do 1280*1024 i believe)

Now, i'm not going to b.s., i'm upgrading for one main reason..games.
I tried the 32-bit consoles and i'm pretty damn disappointed with
their games lack of gameplay and imagination, and with being a _huge_
"doom" style game fanatic (ie..Doom, Rott, Nuke-3d, Hexen, ect..) the
network-modem and wad capabilty of the P.C. games are both cheaper and
last much longer. Plus, with my numeriuos hours spent using the
newsgroups-WWW and learning new programming languages, i just don't
have the time to play these video game anymore. 

Anyway ((rambling mode off :) )), here's what i consider important for
my P.C. purchase.

1) I _need_ a system that is a quiet as possible. I have problems with
even mild noises (consentrating, headaches,ect), and even this 486
desktop is annoying the heck out of me. It is _imperative_ that i get
a mini-tower system and keep it as far away from where i sit as
possible.
Any suggestions of which types of machines are the most quiet?  

2) A pentuim c.p.u. running anywhere from 90mhz to 150mhz. If a 90 mhz
system can produce 15 fps-full screen, in games such as Nuke-3d, then
i'll be very satified. But if it is a p90 it _must_ be upgradable on
the motherboard to at least a p133.
What would you personally suggest, is a P120 or greater a _must have_?
And how much of a difference in cost, is there between a P90 and P133?

3) I will of course need the fastest PCI video card possible, for
games that is. You see, although i do some graphical designing, it's
not impotant if the board is fast in Windows 3.1 or 95'. 
I heard alot of good things about a board called the #9GXE64 and how
it speeds up dos based games. 
Is this a good choice, or are there faster boards available?. 
Also, it seems 2mb-4mb of dram on the video card is pretty solid,
however is the 2mb to 4mb difference that big a deal?

4) I'm still using a 14.4 modem, and it's just plain too slow to
access those web pages.
So of course, a 28.8 modem seems the logical choice, but should i stay
with the U.S. Robotics type or are there easier-better modems around?

5) I will need at a 1gig. hard drive, as my present 340mb hd is just
not enough anymore. Other then posting,articles, the o.s. system,and
sharewhare software, i really buy all other stuff on cd.
Will a 1 gigabyte hard drive hold be over for the next 18-24 months?
Oh...also, can i throw this 340-ide hd into a pentuim system, or is it
too slow..or just not worth it?

6) 16mb of edo ram seems like a good choice..or will the latest games
(Quake, Duke-3d,ect) require 20-24 mb to get the best
detail..speed.ect?
(btw: how much faster is edo ram then the my 60ns 486 ram?)

7) It seems that quad speed drives are now the new entry level cd
drive, and it seems the speeds of them only make a difference in FMV
games..however it would be nice to have FMV that runs more smoothly :)

Which quad speed drives give the fastest access times, and do any of
these come bundled in some of the big name systems (ie..dell, zeos,
compac, pack. bell, ect..) ?

8) I still have a decent sound setup with an old pro-audio 16 sound
card and a Roland Lapt-1 music card. And while i'm a musician myself,
i don't care much for music in a game..just as long as the sound
effects are crisp enough.
The pro-audio card i believe, does produce up to 44mhz in it's sound
effects, but if there's a very good sound card that is reasonably
priced i'm open for suggestions.

I know, $1500-$1600 max can not get me my "ideal" system, but is this
configuration possible?

P120 that's upgradable to a P150,ect.. , or at least a P90 that's
fully (ie..P133,150,ect) upgradable. 
16mb edo ram (i can always upgrade the ram in the future)
PCI #9GXE64 , video card w/2mb of dram
28.8 baud modem
1 gig. hard drive
4x cd drive - decent speed (i can do without a cd-drive if needed)
Mini-tower, that is pretty quiet.

I really don't need additional sound boards, as long as my pro-audio
16 can internally connect to the cd-rom drive..or won't slow down the
system.
And if i have to i can still use my 2x cd-rom drive, and upgrade it
later, and forget the 4x drive..to get the other things.

Can i afford a system like this?

Or can you suggest a system that i can afford that comes close?

Thanks for reading and any info will be _greatly_ appreciated,

Phil...