Suggestions for building first system

[Daltry23]

I am looking into building my first system for around 2,000 give or take a couple of hundred. Here is what I'm planning on building, I was wondering if anyone has any tips, suggestions, or if I'm overlooking something. I feel pretty confident about my processor, video card (plan on going sli in 1-2 years when it is actually worth it), hard drive, and dvd burner. My biggest concerns are getting a decent psu, case, and memory.

Processor: Athlon 64 x2 4400

Motherboard: Asus A8n-sli Premium socket 939

Graphics: BFG Geforce 7800 gtx

Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar SE 300GB 7200 RPM IDE Ultra ATA100

Burner: NEC 3540A

Case: Thermaltake Tsunami VA3000BWA Black Aluminum ATX Mid Tower

Power Supply: Thermaltake PurePower W0023R ATX 560W

Memory: 2 CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200)

This all comes to a total of a little under 2 grand. Thanks for any suggestions!

 

[phungilax]

Looks like a solid build. Only thing I would change is the power supply (maybe an OCZ powerstream) and some better RAM. Otherwise everything looks good.

 

[WhyYouLoveMe]

If you're not going to overclock, the Corsair VS will be excellent. Your HDD could use an improvement, however... That's gonna be a BIG bottleneck with the other specs. Look into the Raptors (for blazing speed) or the new Maxtor SATA II 16mb cache drive (for good speed AND storage).

 

[forumposter32]

I read SATA hard drives are more difficult to install for beginners. I've also seen messages from people on the Anandtech technical support forum saying they had problems with their 3540. I got a 3520 and had no problems except the fact Roxio 5 would not burn a DVD. However, Nero was able to.

 

[WhyYouLoveMe]

I read SATA hard drives are more difficult to install for beginners.

Where u read dat? If you can install a PATA, you can install a SATA. You plug in power, you plug in data. Stinkin' simple, man.

 

[Daltry23]

Well I don't really plan on doing too much overclocking, so I'm glad to hear that that RAM should work well. If that HD will work a lot better, it's around the same price, and I have a friend that's built several computers if I should need help, but I think i'll be fine.

 

[kevinf]

Where u read dat? If you can install a PATA, you can install a SATA. You plug in power, you plug in data. Stinkin' simple, man.

i think he meant the drivers

 

[Phranq]

I read SATA hard drives are more difficult to install for beginners.

Yah, Windows installation can be a pain...just get a floppy drive and the drivers from your motherboard's website and put em on a floppy.