About to buy a new system...

[davenp]

Alright, I'm sure there are a million of these posts, but I feel like I need to at least ask before I drop a couple of hundred bucks. I've been researching and reading these forums for the last couple days, and decided on the following for my first "built from the ground up all by my lonesome" machine (upgrading from a P4 1.6, to give you an idea of how long this has been put off):

Sonata II w/450w PSU $112.62 (newegg)
EPOX EP-9NPA+ULTRA $101.00 (zipzoomfly)
AMD Athlon 64 3700+ $210.90 (zipzoomfly)
Geforce 6800 GS $195.99 (zipzoomfly)
1 gig Corsair XMS PC3200 $100.00 (zipzoomfly)
Total: $720.51

Plus what I already have:
Maxtor 120gig SATA
Seagate 300gig ATA
Soundblaster Audigy Gamer

Before I hit "submit order".....did I screw up anywhere? Besides a DVDRW, am I missing anything (fans, etc)?

Another hundred and I could get an XFX 7800 GT. I dunno....is it worth it?

And as long as I'm asking, any decent sites with nice step by step "how to assemble a computer" tips? As I mentioned, first time doing this on my own.

 

[harobikes333]

I would go for the 7800GT but many people don't care for XFX...

 

[ub3rnewb]

Get the Sonata II from ClubIT for $99.99 with free FedEx 5-7 day shipping, with a good chance of coming earlier.

 

[tjpark1111]

all is good with your steup if you have the keyboard/monitor and everything. The 7800GT is worth it if you have a monitor that has a resolution of more than 1280x1024.(and you play current generation FPS like FEAR)All else, the 6800GS should pwn. It seems you might be overclocking since I see that you have that board plus XMS ram. If so, get a good cpu cooler/northbridge cooler for overclocking. Again, all is well, pull the trigger. Oh yeah, dunno much about the Sonata II but I'm assuming there's 1 120mm intake and 1 120mm exhaust. If you find the low setting on those Antec Tri-Cool Fans(im assuming that case has these fans) still noisy, swap em out for yate loons and unvervolt em, same applies to the gpu fan and everything else, undervolt, or buy something and undervolt.

 

[davenp]

Thanks for the advice, guys. When things go tits up, I'm totally going to come here to beg for help.

I actually don't know if I'm going to be doing much overclocking (I'll be happy if I put everything in the right way round), but oh well....I guess that's what I get for reading enthusiast boards for buying advice.

On reflection, I'm going to stick with the 6800GS; I don't want to go nuts on this thing, and once I start tacking things on, it never ends.

Oh, and thanks for the tip on ClubIT, ub3rnewb, it's the cheaper option. Looking at your sig, you must have been reading the same stuff I have, as we clearly have similar ideas on what to buy...

 

[alimoalem]

looks good to me. depending on what you play, it might be worth it to upgrade to a 7800gt but the 6800gs is a good gpu

 

[Asthmaboy]

If you're willing, you could drop an extra 100 for the 7800GT by eVGA form tigerdirect.com.
Everything seems to be good, although if you want a 400W PSU, you could get one from FSP Group for 69.
FSP Group 400W PSU