About to upgrade, what do you think?

[Szap]

I will be using this computer next year in college(going into computer science) and alot for gaming. Any opinions or suggestions are much appreciated.

MSI K8N Neo4-F Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
$86.00


CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System Memory Model VS1GBKIT400 - Retail
$78.55

ATHENA POWER AP-P4ATX50F12 ATX12V 500W Power Supply - Retail
$53.50

AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Venice 1GHz FSB Socket 939 Processor Model ADA3200BPBOX - Retail
$199.00

Rosewill Radeon X800XL 256MB GDDR3 PCI-Express x16 Video Card - Retail
$279.99

Subtotal: $697.04
Shipping: $19.80

Total: $716.84

 

[Dillusion]

Get this PSU instead:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817101513

Its MUCH better, athenateck is crap.

 

[Szap]

Get this PSU instead:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817101513

Its MUCH better, athenateck is crap.

Really? I had read that the Athena is a rebadge that uses parts similar to those in OCZ psus which come from Topower I believe.

 

[SaViOr-]

What are you upgrading from if i may ask ?

 

[Szap]

Shuttle AK35GTR
Athlon XP 1800+
Radeon 8500
256mb Ram

I was watercooling it, and I think my pump got clogged up, stopping the flow of water, and I think frying the socket on the motherboard. I've been without my own computer for a few months now, saving up. I've been using my dad's computer.

 

[Szap]

Get this PSU instead:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817101513

Its MUCH better, athenateck is crap.

I see the problem. You took Athena Power to be Athenateck, but they are two different companies. Newegg sells Athena Power cases and Athenateck cases that come with PSUs however they only sell Athena Power PSUs individually. And it looks like the ePower PSU that you posted is much like the Athena Power in that they both use parts from Topower.

 

[burningrave101]

If your overclocking then i would go with the DFI NF4 Ultra board and do yourself a favor and spend a little more on the PSU. A Fortron Blue Storm 500w isn't that much more and its a much better power supply.

 

[Szap]

Ok, I'm going with the DFI Lanparty nf4 ultraD so I have more room to overclock. Now, I need help picking some ram to go with my setup. I would like to get 1GB of ram, I'm really just not sure what to go for. I'm guessing that Corsair Value Ram won't be very good if I want to overclock. I'd like to keep it under $115 though. Any suggestions?

 

[Andrew_Carr]

Hmm.. might want to send eclipse or someone else a pm about ram if they don't respond here. I just remember a few ppl in the amd forum always suggesting twinmos sp iirc, saying that it oc's well and is affordable. Or you could go vx or redline, and spend as much on the ram as on everything else

 

[Szap]

Well, I looked up some info on the Twinmos SP, and it sounds good. I'm going to get 2 sticks of 512mb Twinmos SP from Newegg for a total of $99.76. Thank you.