Clicky Keyboards + mid range vid card

Hi all,

Not sure where to post this, so 'cuse me if this is off topic.

I am just assembling a new machine for myself and there are two things
I'm not sure about.

1) I want a nice clicky keyboard... something like the one's that
Compaq put out a few years ago or that IBM did back when dinosaurs
still roamed the earth. Nothing branded "Microsoft" or "Nike" for
philosophical reasons. PS/2 or USB doesn't bug me.

2) A nothing-special-but-will-do-the-job AGP video card. Nvidia or
ATI? 64MB enough? More than enough? Main video use will be running
Linux on my 17" monitor and watching the odd DVD. And Warcraft III of
course.

Finally, anything glaringly obviously wrong with the following config?

Asus A7N8X (Not Deluxe) revision 2.0
AMD Athlon 2400+ (best bang for buck at the moment IMHO, can upgrade
when prices fall)
AMD Factory CPU cooling fan.
512MB single PC-2700 simm .. Kingston if possible.
Seagate (or Maxtor) 80GB 7200RPM HDD
D-LINK 10/100 DFE-530TX (2 of)
Samsung DVD Drive
Generic Floppy
Generic Case with at least 300W P/S
Three button mouse. Logitec or similar.
Clicky Keyboard as above
AGP graphics card as above.

Don't need an internal modem.. got so many external 56Ks lying around
if I need one. I've also got an external (parallel) HP cd-burner... a
bit slow but will do for the moment. I guess a bigger question is
whether the DVD CD/RW combo drives are worth it, but given I haven't
yet done a USENET search for that thread don't feel compelled to give
an opinion

Thanks for your time.

Matt

1) I want a nice clicky keyboard... something like the one's that
Compaq put out a few years ago or that IBM did back when dinosaurs
still roamed the earth. Nothing branded "Microsoft" or "Nike" for
philosophical reasons. PS/2 or USB doesn't bug me.

I would also like a "clicky" keyboard. None of the retail chains seem carry
them. I hope someone else can recomend one.

Finally, anything glaringly obviously wrong with the following config?

Asus A7N8X (Not Deluxe) revision 2.0
AMD Athlon 2400+ (best bang for buck at the moment IMHO, can upgrade
when prices fall)
AMD Factory CPU cooling fan.
512MB single PC-2700 simm .. Kingston if possible.
Seagate (or Maxtor) 80GB 7200RPM HDD
D-LINK 10/100 DFE-530TX (2 of)
Samsung DVD Drive
Generic Floppy
Generic Case with at least 300W P/S
Three button mouse. Logitec or similar.
Clicky Keyboard as above
AGP graphics card as above.

With an NForce2 based motherboard like the A7N8X you would be better off
with 2 X 256MB ram instead of 1 X 512MB to take advantage of 2 channel DDR.

get a HD with 8MB of cache for faster performance and a 3 year warranty

Don't skimp on the power supply. Get a quality name brand like Antec
TruePower.



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Schmuck wrote:
Hi all,

Not sure where to post this, so 'cuse me if this is off topic.

I am just assembling a new machine for myself and there are two things
I'm not sure about.

1) I want a nice clicky keyboard... something like the one's that
Compaq put out a few years ago or that IBM did back when dinosaurs
still roamed the earth. Nothing branded "Microsoft" or "Nike" for
philosophical reasons. PS/2 or USB doesn't bug me.

2) A nothing-special-but-will-do-the-job AGP video card. Nvidia or
ATI? 64MB enough? More than enough? Main video use will be running
Linux on my 17" monitor and watching the odd DVD. And Warcraft III of
course.

Finally, anything glaringly obviously wrong with the following config?

Asus A7N8X (Not Deluxe) revision 2.0
AMD Athlon 2400+ (best bang for buck at the moment IMHO, can upgrade
when prices fall)
AMD Factory CPU cooling fan.
512MB single PC-2700 simm .. Kingston if possible.
Seagate (or Maxtor) 80GB 7200RPM HDD
D-LINK 10/100 DFE-530TX (2 of)
Samsung DVD Drive
Generic Floppy
Generic Case with at least 300W P/S
Three button mouse. Logitec or similar.
Clicky Keyboard as above
AGP graphics card as above.

Don't need an internal modem.. got so many external 56Ks lying around
if I need one. I've also got an external (parallel) HP cd-burner... a
bit slow but will do for the moment. I guess a bigger question is
whether the DVD CD/RW combo drives are worth it, but given I haven't
yet done a USENET search for that thread don't feel compelled to give
an opinion

Thanks for your time.

Matt

http://www.fujitsu.ca/products/input...s/fkb4726.html This looks to be
a heavier "clicky" type.

An ATI Radeon 64MB 9000 Pro or a Gefore4 4200Ti based card would be fine for
your needs.
As someone else mentioned in the thread, look for a good quality 350W+ power
supply.

--
If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite
you. This is the principle difference between a dog and a man. -Samuel
L. Clemens

"Schmuck" wrote in message
om...
Hi all,

Not sure where to post this, so 'cuse me if this is off topic.

I am just assembling a new machine for myself and there are two things
I'm not sure about.

1) I want a nice clicky keyboard... something like the one's that
Compaq put out a few years ago or that IBM did back when dinosaurs
still roamed the earth. Nothing branded "Microsoft" or "Nike" for
philosophical reasons. PS/2 or USB doesn't bug me.

The review http://www.dansdata.com/ibmkeyboard.htm may interest you. That
article suggests pckeyboard.com, which sure enough sell one
(http://store.yahoo.com/pckeyboards/ibm101.html). At US$49 they won't last
long.

Gareth

(Schmuck) wrote in
om:

Hi all,

Not sure where to post this, so 'cuse me if this is off topic.

I am just assembling a new machine for myself and there are two things
I'm not sure about.

1) I want a nice clicky keyboard... something like the one's that
Compaq put out a few years ago or that IBM did back when dinosaurs
still roamed the earth. Nothing branded "Microsoft" or "Nike" for
philosophical reasons. PS/2 or USB doesn't bug me.

Thanks for your time.

Matt

I hate the keyboards that most outfits carry. As PC's have gotten
better in most ways, keyboards have really headed downhill. The best
one I've been able to find on the net are keyboards from this company;

http://www.pckeyboard.com/customizer.html

They carry some of the older IBM style and some recent keyboards
patterened off the buckle spring technology of IBM. I still have a
Northgate, the best keyboard ever made! When it dies, should I outlive
it, I'll probably get a keyboard from the above company. If you can
track down a Northagate OmniKey, those are the best, the customizer from
pckeyboard, the second best.

--
Dennis Roark


Starting Points:
www.home.earthlink.net/~denro

My favorite keyboard is the Mitsumi $10 job.

-
SamTOja stood up, at show-n-tell, and said:

"Jas" wrote in message
...
Dunno about Gfx card, but Ive got 2 Cherry 3000 series keyboards that
click away very nicely. Theyre hard to find, I got mine at
www.dabs.com but about GBP50 so not cheap.

No topside markings, except for the keys that is!

The cost is probably why so few people make them anymore, but clicky
keyboards rock! :-)


True, true. I own a pair of ol' clickin' Chiconys which have the on
line led that drives me crazy staying on all the time, and have this
wierd switch under their "legs". I wonder what it's for... I use to
joke that those keyboards came from a bank and that that switch was
used for triggering the silent alarm in case of robbery

--
Strontium

"Please don't take my heart. It's all I have left. Even though it's
broken."

On Wed, 02 Jul 2003 15:34:28 GMT, Rotary Phone pondered exceedingly, then took
quill in hand and carefully composed...

| I like the cheap keyboards too .. it's the bounce they have.

A friend of mine went through countless high-end keyboards and complained about
every one of them. I finally convinced him to buy a $10 Smart keyboard from
Circuit City. As soon as he tried it, he went out and bought another one for
his second computer. I haven't heard a single keyboard complaint from him
since.

Larc



§§§ - Please raise temperature of mail to reply by e-mail - §§§

Schmuck wrote:

Hi all,

Not sure where to post this, so 'cuse me if this is off topic.

I am just assembling a new machine for myself and there are two things
I'm not sure about.

1) I want a nice clicky keyboard... something like the one's that
Compaq put out a few years ago or that IBM did back when dinosaurs
still roamed the earth. Nothing branded "Microsoft" or "Nike" for
philosophical reasons. PS/2 or USB doesn't bug me.

2) A nothing-special-but-will-do-the-job AGP video card. Nvidia or
ATI? 64MB enough? More than enough? Main video use will be running
Linux on my 17" monitor and watching the odd DVD. And Warcraft III of
course.

Finally, anything glaringly obviously wrong with the following config?

Asus A7N8X (Not Deluxe) revision 2.0
AMD Athlon 2400+ (best bang for buck at the moment IMHO, can upgrade
when prices fall)

Imo the XP2600+ 333 is the best value.


AMD Factory CPU cooling fan.
512MB single PC-2700 simm .. Kingston if possible.

Simm? It is a PC2700 ddr ram DIMM.
Use two matching ram sticks with an nForce2 motherboard
like the A7N8X for best results.


Seagate (or Maxtor) 80GB 7200RPM HDD
D-LINK 10/100 DFE-530TX (2 of)

Why? Why not use the one on the motherboard,
or buy the A7N8X deluxe rev2 if you need two of them?


Samsung DVD Drive

Go with Lite On instead.


Generic Floppy
Generic Case with at least 300W P/S

Get a good case that has a high quality power supply of at
least 300 watts that is a brand thand that AMD recommends.
I suggest that you buy an Antec case with Antec power supply.


Three button mouse. Logitec or similar.


Clicky Keyboard as above

Very hard to find.


AGP graphics card as above.

Which one? What will the system be used for?



Don't need an internal modem.. got so many external 56Ks lying around
if I need one. I've also got an external (parallel) HP cd-burner... a
bit slow but will do for the moment. I guess a bigger question is
whether the DVD CD/RW combo drives are worth it,

No. They are usually much slower at writing CDs, and less flexible
than having separate drives.

but given I haven't
yet done a USENET search for that thread don't feel compelled to give
an opinion

Thanks for your time.

Matt