budget question

[jaltiere]

I could use a few opinions about the parts I picked out for my first build....

I'm going with an AMD Athlon 64. I'm just a little over budget, and if I have to make a cut which should I do?

I could either replace the 3400+ with the 3200+
or
I could replace the 9800XT with a 9800 Pro

Also, I chose the Asus K8V motherboard, although I've gotten mixed vibes about that board in my research. Is there another mobo I should consider?

I set my budget a roughly $3000, here is what I have picked out:
Coolermaster case, model ATC-201B-BXT ($142)
Asus K8T800 Chipset Motherboard for AMD Socket 754 CPU, Model "K8V" ($126)
ATI Radeon 9800XT ($439)
Antec 430W power supply ($67)
AMD Athlon 64 3400+ ($416)
Mushkin 184 Pin 1GB(512MBx2) DDR PC-3500 Level One Dual Pack ($239)
Mitsumi Black 1.44MB 3.5inch Floppy Disk Drive, Model D359M3D/D359M3B ($11)
2 X 76GB Western DIgital Raport drives ($426)
Logitech Cordless Comfort Duo BLACK USB/PS2 ($75)
ViewSonic G90FB 19" PerfectFlat CRT Monitor ($219)
Plextor Black 52x24x52 CD-RW Drive, Model PX-W5224TA-BPS-BL ($50)
Plextor Black 8X DVD-RW/+RW Drive, Model PX-708A/SW-BL ($168)
Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS Platinum PCI Sound Card ($164)
ZALMAN CNPS7000A-AlCu Aluminum + Copper CPU Cooler ($36)
Creative GigaWorks 5.1 S700 Speaker ($326)
KINYO KY-100 5.1 Channel Headphone ($50)
Microsoft Windows XP Professional with Service Pack SP1a - Full Version ($135)

That puts me over by almost $100 before shipping, so my thought was that I could come under budget by getting a Radeon Pro or the 3200+. If you guys have any other suggestions I'd love to hear them. Maybe the stock heatsink is good enough? I'm up in the air about the case too, I want one that's built nice and also looks cool. I do want to keep the headphones though, so I don't want to cut them.

Thanks for any input.

 

[bluewall21]

The stock heatsink should be sufficent if you're not going to overclock much. I would drop to a Radeon 9800 Pro because it won't make a big difference, even in games. However, you might want to wait for the new video cores from ATI and nVidia.

 

[jaltiere]

yeah, I'm thinking about waiting..the problem is that the computer I have at home is old and slow. It's to the point now that I can't even play some of the newer games because my computer doesn't meet the minimum requirements. I'm not sure if I'm patient enough to wait.

 

[MDE]

Dump the 9800XT for the 9800 Pro, there isn't much of a difference. I'd also consider dropping the 3400+ down to a 3200+ anyways to save some more cash, there are other ways to spend your money you know . That is one smokin' system either way.

 

[Matthias99]

I'd ditch both the 9800XT and the 3400+; you always pay too much for the absolute top-end equipment and the performance delta is small. Also, most 9800Pro cards can be overclocked to 9800XT speeds, and you can probably do the same with the 3200+.

Also -- two 74GB Raptors? Why not one Raptor (36GB or 74GB) for OS/program installations and a much cheaper 7200RPM 100-200GB drive for bulk storage?

Wait at least a week for more news on NVIDIA's new NV40 card; it probably won't be available for a month or so, but if there are actual performance numbers and prices in a few weeks, that could change the video card market considerably. Socket 939 is also coming (supposedly on May 25th), and if you want to keep this system for more than a year or two, it's worth waiting for that as well IMHO. But, of course, there's always *something* to wait for.

 

[jaltiere]

I was going to put the Raptors in a RAID 0 array, mostly because I read all the arguments and I just want to see for myself.....and I've never done it so it should be fun to set up.

By the sounds of things maybe I will drop the video card down a notch, maybe even the processor too. Maybe I'll just sit for a few weeks and at least see if a more solid timeline for the new graphics card is available. I don't know if I want to wait until the end of May though for socket 939, but maybe I will. I'm just getting impatient.