Advice about upgrading system

[Poop Shoe]

Hey all,
Great forum first of all. Secondly, I am doing a little upgrading and wanted peoples thoughts. Some items will be bought new in the future, some items I have from my current system, and some my wife so thoughfully picked up for me at CompUSA's black friday sale, so they can be returned if needed.

Case: Antec Sonata $69 form CompUSA

MB: Thnking about MSI "K8N Neo2 Platinum" NVIDIA nForce3 ULTRA Chipset Motherboard For AMD Socket 939 CPU -RETAIL from Newegg (or MWave budled together and tested with a processor) $138
Don't think I will need the PCI/e slot (nForce4) and my budget for video card doesn't really let me get 2 cards so I thought that I would save some money by getting the nForce3 set up and a steal on a AGP video card.

CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Processor Socket 939 Retail ~$205 (can get it mounted and tested at MWave)

Memory: Want 512MB x 2 need suggestions. . Was thinking about neweggs Corsair Value Select (Dual Pack) 184 Pin 512MBx2 DDR PC-3200 - OEM for $147 since it has a lifetime warrenty. Other choices include mwave's house brand for ~$135. I may be able to get the Outpost deal on the Kingston HyperX memory if it comes in before Xmas. (512MBx2 for $160)

Video Card: Picked up a PNY GeForce 6800 a t CompUSA for $200. (thanks wifey) Will try and unlock the 4 pipe lines and maybe boost speed a little with Rivatuner

HD(s): Wife picked me up the new Maxtor 300GB SATA 7200rpm with 16MB cache for $199.
Also have an ATA/100 Maxtor 200GB drive and a WD 80 GB ATA/100 drive. Was going to use the 300GB drive as 1st hard drive with OS on it (Probably win2000) and have the 200GB drive as a second drive to keep music/videos/pictures on. I was going to get an external enclosure and put the 80GB drive into it and use it strickly to back stuff up on. Only on when backing up. So less chance of power spikes, viruses etc.

DVD/CD: Have a lite on 4x DVD RW +/- and a 52x Lite on CD RW +/- I was going to put in till I decided to buy and Dula layer DVD burner.

Floppy: Have one...

Monitor: Have Samsung 955DF 19", looking for a good 19" or 20" thinking about the Dell 2001???

Any thoughts and help would be appreciated.

Ohhh, also, I have Windows 2000 on my current set up and my laptop, but I have a copy of Win XP Pro...should I setup my new system with 2000 again for ease of use, since I am familiar with it, and it works networked to my laptop or should I go with XP Pro???
Thanks

 

[Aeridyne]

looks like a chubby setup. although you dont need 2x vid cards right now the option of SLI in the future is nice. but if youve got an agp card there then nevermind. if it is a pci e card then you gotta wait anyway. i really wanted to get that card too but i live too far away from a compusa. The wattage on that case may not be enough either you might want to invest in a higher power supply. choose a good brand of course. as for the memory if you want el cheapo but good ram i would go with patriot dual kit 1 gb 3200. or corsair has on sale at newegg or zipzoomfly for about 200 which has tighter timings. and i would go with xp pro too.

 

[db2]

Antec Sonata is a very good case. The 380w power supply can handle a lot - try it out with what you have before you get a new power supply - you may need a bump in power.
The Corsair Value Select has a good reputation from what I have heard.
Be careful of that MSI board - I have heard of a number of people having some problems with it - I have also heard of some people that like it.

 

[boyRacer]

i would for better deals on the RAM... otherwise that setup looks good. better than mine at least.

 

[Poop Shoe]

Thanks for the replies. What is "chubby"? Do you mean Chubby, like fat, like Phat?

I think I am going to give the Antech Sonata a shot since I have read many review of people using the 6800 GT and Ultra with out a problem.

The memory is where I am still wishy-washy. Cheap memory or try for the Deal from outpost with the Kingston HyperX memory.

Also, anyone have advice/warnings on where to buy my MB/CPU combo?
Newegg has been fine for every purchase I have made, so has Mwave. I bought my last system from Mwave. One of their Barebones systems and it was nice haveing the CPU/Memory already mounted and inside the case. If I order from them they will mount the CPU in the MB and test it. If I get the RAM from them, they will mount it too.
Another place I just heard about was Monarch Computers.
They will also mount and test your MB CPU combo for you and they have a free copy of half-Life 2 and Far Cry with you purchase, sounds temping...
Thanks,
Shoe