Building 1st Computer, I'd appreciate your advice

[JDD9909]

This is my first time building a new computer, and to be honest I'm VERY new to all of this, I'd appreciate some opinions and advice on the below computer I plan on building, and if someone could tell me if everything is compatible and will work well, I'd appreciate that too. Thanks in advance!

Case: Fong Kai FK-320 Super Mid-Tower ATX Computer Case
Motherboard: MSI K7 Master
CPU: 1.4 GHZ AMD Thunderbird Processor 266MHZ FSB
Memory: 4 256MB DDR-RAM 184 Pin-Dimm
Hard Drive: Maxtor 60GB Fireball Plus AS ATA/100 Drive
DVD: PIONEER DVD-106S 16X-DVD SLOT EDIE INTERNAL DRIVE
CRW: Yamaha 20/10/40
Sound Card: Creative Lab Sound Blaster Live! 5.1 OEM
Video Card: Asus V7700 32MB GeForce2 Deluxe w/TV Out
Ethernet Card: Linksys EtherFast 10/100
Speakers: Cambridge Desktop Theater 5.1 DTT3500 Digital

 

[BreakApart]

OMG!

That's one heck of a setup for your "first" build.

4 x 256mb=1024? Ouch, 256 or 512 will be fine...
Yamaha is fine, I like burn-proof-(plextor)

Actually it looks great as-is...

Good Luck...

 

[sadb0i]

looks good...main thing is you ar ehappy with what you get...cause if you follow what someone else says and then have a bad experience then you'll be miffed about advice from peeps here...heheh...but all in all you are set!

 

[UglyCasanova]

I'm building my first soon as well. You are going to have a hell of alot of memory there. Also, for the mobo, look into the Epox DDR board. People around here seem to like it better. For the sound card, the Live! sucks IMHO. Go with the Turtle Beach Santa Cruz or the Hurcules Game Theatre XP. Anyways, good luck.

 

[Burn]

Looks like a very nice system! Unless you have money to burn, go for 512mb of Ram

 

[bjc112]

that is sweeeeeeeet....

looks good..yea save a lil money get 512..

and with that extra money, update your video card... to may-b a pro or Geforce 3..!

if you need help PM me, or come back to the board and ask! plenty of people that can help you out! !!!!

Bryan

 

[NelsonMuntz]

That is an incredible system! Almost top of the line of everything! That must be costing you a pretty penny. The 1 Gb of RAM does seem like overkill, but why not.
BTW Break-Apart, the new Yamaha does have anti-coaster technology on it too, so good choice JDD. The only thing that isn't ultimate is the video card, and maybe that's how you like it, but for $70 more you can get the 64 Mb version of the same card or go even to $450 and you are getting the ASUS V8200 64Mb GeForce 3! But that's a little pricey for my taste too. The 64 Mb version s/b a consideration though.

 

[circut16]

Maxtor sucks
get a WD

 

[circut16]

also, get a full tower

 

[MrHelpful]

The MSI K7 Master supports only 2 DDR DIMMS.

 

[MrHelpful]

And circut, shut your mouth if you don't have something to say that can be backed up. On average, WD has much more problems than Maxtor.

 

[MrHelpful]

Switch the sound card for a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz or a Philips AcousticEdge 5.1. Both have much better sound quality and don't have compatibility problems.

As for the speakers, the Boston Acoustics BA4800s are great. $115 + $15 shipping from EMSComputing.com. Get two of them, and you got yourself a 8.2 setup. Clear, nice bass, excellent speakers.

 

[dave127]

nice setup man!!! you must have a pretty decent amount of money burning a hole in your pocket...i have a few things though...instead of the sb live, i would go for a turtle beach santa cruz or herculese game theatre xp...also if you are going to be overclocking make sure to get a good quality hsf such as the alpha pal6035...and im not too fond of creative (cambridge) speakers, although im not really sure what to recommend for a 5.1 system, i like the 4.1 boston acoustics ba4800's for around 130

have fun building and good luck,
dave

 

[agg123456789]

nice setup....it i were you however, i would cut back to 256 mb of ram, and get the Game Theatre XP soundcard...

just my 2 cents....

agg123456789

 

[bjc112]

<< Maxtor sucks Get a WD >>



too bad its not april, cause that is a good april fools joke! !

Bryan

 

[bjc112]

<< nice setup....it i were you however, i would cut back to 256 mb of ram, and get the Game Theatre XP soundcard... >>



I wouldn't go as far as 256! if he was going to get 1g i would at least get 512!

Bryan

 

[Duvie]

I agree with mr.helpful's comments on the audio cards as well as go with 512mb of ram cause I thought the board only had 2 dimm slots as well and 512 dimms are expensive...with money saved bump the vid card up to 64mb pro or get low price gf3 at newegg for like 340.00.

 

[NelsonMuntz]

I totally forgot about the memory slot limitations. Duvie's right definitely got to 512 Mb. That should be sufficient for anything you need to do and it won't break the bank.

 

[db]

You gotta let your ears make the decision when it comes to speakers.
Have you heard the new Klipsch?

 

[MrHelpful]

The new Klipsch? 5.1s?

 

[JDD9909]

Wow! Thanks a lot for all of your advice, I guess I'll knock down the ram to 512, and then I'll upgrade the Video Card to GeForce3, and yes I do have quite a bit of money to burn, I just graduated, my grandparents gave me quite a bit.

And I'll look into to different speakers.

 

[JDD9909]

Oh yeah a different sound card too

 

[LuNoTiCK]

Cut back on the ram since the MSI K7 Master only supports 2 Dimms, but I would rather go with the epox, and if you want go for the kg7 which supports 4 dimms. I would also get a different sound card, preferably the santa cruz, or acoustic edge. The vid card, I would rather get like a radeon, but thats just me, I seem to like ati a lot, because of their superior 2d quality. And the speakers I would definately change to the BA 4800's.