Building a new system, opinion please.

[MAMAFUFU]

My (main components) config will be:
1. MSI KT133 mobo
2. Duron 600
3. 64MB PC133 RAM
4. IBM 15GB(7200rpm)
5. GeForce MX

The price for the above 5 items is about $550USD(I'm living in HK), and my maximum budget for them is $600.

Any suggestion for the above config? Will the CPU(non-o/c) be too slow for the video card?

 

[KarsinTheHutt]

My only suggestion would be to go with a 128 MB PC133 DIMM. This might cost you a bit more but I think the extra memory is worth it.

Don't worry about the video card. GeForce2 MX is fine in my oppinion.

 

[Ulysses]

Looks good to me. You should later be able to move up to a new Athlon Thunderbird with no problem (they're more or less interchangeable). My only concern is that there have been no comparative reviews of the KT133 boards yet that I've seen - so maybe you're buying too soon. Some of the first boards out are very simple 'reference' boards with few extra features. You might want to wait a bit and see what AnandTech picks as an Editor's Choice or something like that.

Have you seen:
http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1273
or
http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1280

The ASUS A7V has gotten a lot of attention, although it is not available yet here in the States. People here seem to be ga-ga over anything ASUS.

 

[Prodigy^]

you MUST get 128 RAM, 64 is simply unbearable these days

 

[PCAddict]

Just in case you need to hear it again:

Get 128MB of RAM! (at least)

64MB is only acceptable as the size of your video RAM.

 

[MAMAFUFU]

Thanks guys.
As you see, I can only upgrade 1 item for the above list, so 128MB+Asus A7V is out of reach for me. I guess I should choose 128MB.

Also will the Duron 600Mhz too slow(meaning, unbalance config) for other components?

 

[RSI]

DEFINITELY go for 128MB.. 256MB if you can. The Duron 600 will be fine, and if you find it is not powerful enough just overclock it to 750 or 800.. or 900 if you're daring

Otherwise it's all good, GeForce MX is nice and the HD is good too.

 

[Scifione]

The Duron 600Mhz will be match for the G-force2 MX.
I had the impretion that this is for a value gaming system.

Here are some benchmarks you can look at.

Duron reviews! Benchmarks!
http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1261&p=9
http://www6.tomshardware.com/cpu/00q2/000619/duron-08.html

This is a P3 550 but should be a good comparison for what you can expect form the Duron 600Mhz. The graphs have the video card you were looking at(G-force2 MX). Ignore the fact that it is a Radeon Review, and look at the benchmarks for the G-force MX!
http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1281&p=14

Here are a few numbers form the that review.
640x480 resilution show how CPUs will or will not limit cards.
Athlon 750Mhz 117.4 16bit 98.6 32bit G-force MX
P3 550Mhz 102.5 16bit 91.3 32bit G-force MX
There is only a 14.9 frame rate drop in 16bit and 7.3 at 32bit.
At higher resilution like 1024x768 you can expect a 1 to 0 frame lose with the G-force MX.

 

[gtd2000]

MAMAFUFU
Greetings from Tuen Mun
If you need 128MB PC133 RAM my mate has a stick he will be very happy to sell you - he bought it last week for his Intel i820 motherboard - but he's getting it replaced with a new mobo and 128MB of RDRAM under the recall programme.
I think it cost him HK$1100 roughly.
He's living in Wan Chai if you are interested - he has no use for it with the new motherboard (only takes RDRAM) - you can make him an offer and save a few $$$