Please, help me with my system build.

C

CaineX

n00b
Joined
Aug 26, 2004
Messages
48
This is what I've got so far.

CASE: Antec P180
- http://www.techonweb.com/products/productdetail.aspx?id=B73523&src=FG
116.20 + 21.65 = 137.85
- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811129154
135 + 15.99 = 150.99

PROCESSOR: AMD 64 3000+ Venice core
- http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=A64-3000BP
120 + 0 = 120

VIDEO CARD: X800XL (Connect3D)
ATI (Connect3D) Radeon X800 XL 256MB DDR/PCI-E/TV-Out/VGA/DVI (OEM)
- http://www.monarchcomputer.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=M&Product_Code=190527
259 + 0 = 259


MOTHERBOARD:Epox EP-NPA+ ULTRA
- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813123236
107.50 + 3 = 110.50


RAM:
1 Gig of 2.5 CAS RAM
Corsair VS 1 GB (2 DIMM) RAM
- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145440
80 + 3.83 = 83.83

How is this RAM for non-hardcore overclocking? Should I go faster?



HSF: XP-90 Thermalright
- http://www.xoxide.com/thermalright-xp-90-cpu-cooler.html
32 + 5.80 = 37.80

Panaflo 92 mm
What’s the dif between:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835180088
and
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835180089
?
15 + 5 = 20

PSU: Fortron AX500
- http://actbuy.com/details.asp?item=FS17500%2D2%2E0
78 + 0 = 78

OPTICAL DRIVE: NEC 3540A DVD BURNER
OEM
- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827152047
42 + 0 = 42

Someone said this has no cables... is that true, and if so, isn't it cheaper to get cables seperately since this drive is so cheap?... if so which ones... and does the retail version of this burner have cables?

Does this come with any software or would I need to get some seperately?

HARD DRIVES:
Samsung Spinpoint 80gb SATA
- http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=101012
61.25 + 0 = 61.25
Samsung Spinpoint 200gb SATA
- http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=101015
107 + 0 = 107

ACCESSORIES AND EXTRAS:
Thermal Compound (Arctic Silver 5)
- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835100007
7.99 + 5 = 13

Floppy
- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16821103203
8.99 + 2.50 = 11.50

Mouse (MX518)
- http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=211125
40 + 0 = 40

Keyboard (Saitek eclipse)
- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16823175103
47 + 7 = 54

Wireless card (Gigabyte)
- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16839121008
23.50 + 2.50 = 26

OS: Windows XP Home (home right? pro is waste of $?)
- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16837102151
89 + 1 = 90

MONITOR:
Dell 2005FPW. Question... I mean, I’d order this now but I wouldn’t have computer parts to test it on (except my old 733 celeron with a GeForce 4 MX420)... so should I just pass up this current coupon round and wait for the next sale? Considering if it isn’t right I’ll need to return it for another one...


Ummmmm, so what else am I missing and needing?


Any idea on what to cut costs maybe or is it fine?

EDIT: Stock case fans are cool right?

This puts me to (currently) [H]$1292[/H] excluding the monitor (but including shipping of all other parts).
 
THIS is much better, and ALL from newegg.com. Its Fairly Silent, Will run cool, You can OC it a little bit, play all the newest games, stable power supply, faster CPU, double the RAM you had, and overall uh, better...

NEC Black IDE DVD Burner Model ND-3540A - OEM

Antec Performance I P180 Silver Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail

Maxtor DiamondMax 10 6L200M0 200GB 7200 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive - OEM

HITACHI Deskstar 7K80 HDS728080PLA380 -0A30356 80GB 7200 RPM Serial ATA II Hard Drive - OEM

ABIT AN8-ULTRA Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail

GIGABYTE GN-WPKG PCI Wireless Adapter - Retail

ASUS EAX800XL/2DTV/256 Radeon X800XL 256MB DDR PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail

ePOWER EP-450XP-P2B ATX12V 450W Power Supply - Retail

Saitek PZ30AU Black USB Wired Standard Eclipse Keyboard - Retail

Logitech MX518 931352-0403 2-Tone 8 Buttons 1x Wheel USB + PS/2 Optical Mouse - Retail

Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound - OEM

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

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

Subtotal: $1,245.18

You dont need an XP90 if youre mildly OCing. ASUS video card as opposed to GECube. Plus i added in your mouse and keybaord, floppy and AS5.

Good to go...
 
Hm, thanks...
...but, that X800XL I linked is 260 w/free shipping... how much better can that ASUS be? Is it a lot better for the 24 bucks extra? Originally I had looked at this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102538
but then I was told that the whole reason the X800XL was good value was because it was much cheaper than the 6800GT so I figured why not go with the best deal of X800XL, especially since they all use the same drivers and all, right? or wrong?



... and you're basically recommending the same RAM but just double? That's a good suggestion, but for now I think 1 gig will suit me fine and when I need to I'll just toss in another 2 DIMMs, because that's basically what you're suggesting but just all at once.

Different mobo... I'll consider that. Anandtech people recommended me the Epox, but I'll look into the ABIT too.

Different hard drives, sure, that doesn't matter to me too much, so I guess I'll do that if you say so...

I'm fine with the Fortron PSU, it's good for the money and seems reliable.

People tell me the 3000+ Venice OC's just the same as the 3200+ Venice and one is 70 whole dollars cheaper. Is the performance difference worth 70 bucks different..?

The reason I chose multiple online stores is because the prices vary... I know NewEgg is great and all but a deal is a deal, right?

But my RAM speed is okay enough then?
And no need for any more fans or cables and stuff?
Thanks for the suggestions so far.
 
CaineX said:
Hm, thanks...
...but, that X800XL I linked is 260 w/free shipping... how much better can that ASUS be? Is it a lot better for the 24 bucks extra? Originally I had looked at this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102538
but then I was told that the whole reason the X800XL was good value was because it was much cheaper than the 6800GT so I figured why not go with the best deal of X800XL, especially since they all use the same drivers and all, right? or wrong?



... and you're basically recommending the same RAM but just double? That's a good suggestion, but for now I think 1 gig will suit me fine and when I need to I'll just toss in another 2 DIMMs, because that's basically what you're suggesting but just all at once.

Different mobo... I'll consider that. Anandtech people recommended me the Epox, but I'll look into the ABIT too.

Different hard drives, sure, that doesn't matter to me too much, so I guess I'll do that if you say so...

I'm fine with the Fortron PSU, it's good for the money and seems reliable.

People tell me the 3000+ Venice OC's just the same as the 3200+ Venice and one is 70 whole dollars cheaper. Is the performance difference worth 70 bucks different..?

The reason I chose multiple online stores is because the prices vary... I know NewEgg is great and all but a deal is a deal, right?

But my RAM speed is okay enough then?
And no need for any more fans or cables and stuff?
Thanks for the suggestions so far.
Click to expand...

Oh, go for the other X800XL then, thats the cheapest newegg has, i thought youw ere gonna get the gecube for 10$ more at newegg.

And if you wanna play battlefield 2, you NEED 2 gigs of ram, or 1gig of ddr2 at like 667mhz. Go for the 2GB of ram now, it will be standard in a few months anyway.
 
General rule of advice for HDD's. Never pay more than $.50 a GB. You see them all them all the time in ads with some crappy MIR but you do eventually get your money back.
 
Don't worry about buying from multiple retailers, soemtimes they ARE much cheaper than newegg. Some people haven't realized that Newegg is starting to gouge on their prices and shipping. It IS the lowest option for some things, mostly perephrials like cases, mice, keyboards, and speakers, but also RAM. I bought from 7 different sites myself for my recent computer.

Dillusion you must have added wrong. There's no way you went to Newegg for everything, got more expensive parts, AND made his total less. Maybe you didn't include shipping and the GPU or something? :p

You are paying $160+ for 280gbs of HDDs, when you can get a 300gb here for $155, AND not worry about raid:
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=100719-4

O, and order HDDs from Zip Zoom FLy or such ALWAYS, never Newegg. Newegg ships HDDs in bubblewrap, which allows them to be damaged in shipment sometimes.

Maxtor's are good because they have 16 mb of cache (some of them, make sure you get the right one. The one above is the right one), so they are faster than 7200.8 drives, only ones faster are the hooribly expensive WD Raptors (biiiig waste of money there).

Get the 3000+. That's a great deal, especially with a good CPU cooler like an XP-90 or watercooling. Get the XP-90 btw. Here's a good site for it ($27 with nothing, but Arctic Silver and Panaflo fans, which are the best, are available for cheap as extras):
http://www.jab-tech.com/customer/product.php?productid=2921
$38 w/ Ceramique and a Panaflo. (I'd get AS Ceramique over AS 5 b/c 5 is slightly capacitive, could fry your stuff, and it's cheaper).

Keep the monarch deal on the vid card, it's a good one.

Your mobo, since you say you are gonna be overclocking, you might want to go with a DFI. I did. Here's a non-SLI one for $89 shipped:
http://www.monarchcomputer.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=M&Product_Code=110248
If you want SLI, DFI's cheapest is ~$170 shipped:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813136157

I'd definitely go with fortron for the PSU over ePower of all things. There are a lot of crappy PSU makers out there, and I'd say ePower is one of them. What's the amps on that Fortron's 2 12v rails? If you want to go something with ultimate quiet, efficiency (80%+), AND at a low price, here's the Seasonic S12-500 (500w) for $105:
http://www.case-mod.com/store/seaso...-500-watt-atx-power-supply-p-1579.html?src=fr

The lowest price at other stores is about $20 more, in case you were wondering about the quality of that deal.

Now, the rest...

CASE:
Nice case.

PROCESSOR:
Good! Best value proc too! (With good cooling and OCing.)

VIDEO CARD:
GOOD! That's the best value pci-e card I can think of.

MOTHERBOARD:
For OCing I'd get DFI. For stability Abit or Asus.

RAM:
Boo on the ram. Corsair is HORRIBLE for OCing.
If you absolutely HAVE to get 1 GB, get Crucial Value: $45 for 512mb
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820146532
MUCH better OCs than Corsair VS.

HSF:
Much cheaper where I linked to it.

Panaflo 92 mm
Probably speed. low, medium, and high. look at the cfm ratings. The XP-90 I showed you has CHEAP panaflos available as a bundle with it. GET THEM.

PSU:
Your choice, but I'd get the Seasonic, it's very stable.

OPTICAL DRIVE:
not sure. I've heard a lot of good about this drive. Google for your questions.

HARD DRIVES:
Get the Maxtor. ALL Maxtor 16mb cache.

ACCESSORIES AND EXTRAS:
As I said, you can get AS 5 or AS Ceramique with that XP-90 I pointed out, but cheaper.

Floppy
ok.

Mouse
ok.

Keyboard
ok.

Wireless card
ok.

OS:
Home's good, much cheaper than pro. I use home myself.

MONITOR:
Get the 2005 now. ~$400 is really cheap for it. And these are Dell's end of quarter/month (can't remember which) sales, they are the best you'll see for a while. And you need a good monitor, so why wait?
 
I'd listen to what russ is saying. Those suggestions are really good.

I'm getting the retail version of the NEC because it comes with NERO software. It's only about 10bucks more.

On the other hand, Russ why dont you like corsair VS? Could you link me to some places that were having trouble Ocing it. Just trying to see if i wanna spend the extra 15bucks and get crucial because I have heard good things about the corsair VS.

Ninja edit: Seems today they boosted the price of corsair VS 1gig stick about 10-12dollars. I'm getting the crucial now. :p
 
Well, it also seems that Mushkin and Crucial have recieved price boosts! Mushkin is now $105, and my sticks don't seem to be the Micron chips that eclipse has on his Crucial. Crucial Value is $110. In this state Crucial Value is now a better buy!
 
Can you link me specifically to which Crucial value you are talking about? Most cheap crucials I saw were CAS 3, while Corsair VS was CAS 2.5, does that matter or what?
 
You can change ram timings yourself, 2.5 and 3 isn't that much different at all, since they are talking about stock speeds. Specs on the web (read: Newegg) don't give the whole picture. I'm talking about this ram:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820146545

Crucial Value will tighten up form it's default timings at stock speeds, or will OC pretty high above at stock timings (3-3-3). Corsair will do no such thing.
 
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