~$500 budget for PC parts.... help please.

[Pandamonium]

My total budget is actually ~$1100, but I want to pick up a DVD-/+RW after the next round of price cuts, a sub $200 iPod to be announced 1/6/04, and a 4MP digital camera... I figure after these purchases I'll have $500 left for the PC. I've already earmarked some parts that I'm pretty sure about too. I need to place the PC part order within the next ten days because I currently don't have a computer in my dorm.

Another option I'm toying with is getting an EPIA M10000 system ($160mobo, $50 memory, $130 hdd) and use that until computer platforms stabilize a little more... what would you do?

Parts I have:
Case: Antec P160
PSU: Seasonic Super Tornado 350W
CDRW: Plextor 24/10/40 CDRW
VGA: MSI GeForce3 Ti200 w/ fanless heatsink
Display: Eizo L365 15"
WIFI: Linksys PCI 802.11g-adapter

Parts I need:
Motherboard:
CPU:
>=5.1 Sound: ChainTech AV-710 (Envy 24HT-S Chipset) - $27
HSF: ThermalRight SLK 800 or 900 Series - $50
Memory: 2x512Mb PC3200 - $100
HDD: Samsung SpinPoint SP1614C (SATA) - $130

What would you get or change?

 

[dnuggett]

Looks like you have a 2500+ too according to your sig.

 

[Pandamonium]

Whoops - that was the system I just gave to my sister. All the stuff listed under parts I have is everything I have at school...

In the meantime, I'll change my sig.

 

[Pandamonium]

The forums are going crazy on me. This post didn't show up on a refresh so I ttt'd it.

 

[Pandamonium]

ttt

 

[DaveSimmons]

- with a good nforce2 mb you could skip the soundcard.
- SATA is not any faster than PATA so you could get a PATA spinpoint instead and save a few dollars.
- do you prefer slower CPU + $50 HSF over faster CPU + retail or cheaper HSF? (though I've heard AMD's retail HSFs are much shoddier than intel's)

 

[mrweirdo]

for memory i would go with eather crucial or kingston as they are good ram manufactures and seem too have prety good prices on it as well.

 

[KnightPalatine]

The hybrid (copper base, aluminum fins) Thermalright ALX-800 seems to work as well as the all-copper ones. It goes for $25 here.

Daryl

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Memory: 2x512Mb PC3200 - $100

2x256mb-$100 is more realistic unless you know of a hot deal on 512mb sticks that aren't complete junk 😉 The M10k will bonk if you do anything heavier than watch DVD, browse the net, or word process/write school papers on it. Besides unless you need the ultra small footprint you can build a far more powerful mATX sktA system for the same money, which I'd recommend since this is your primary system. On the other hand, the M10k will keep you from wasting your time gaming when you should be studying :light: 😀