Building rig

[bramma]

All right, guys. These are the specs of my system so far. With shipping, the total comes to about $850. What I have been thinnking about doing is not getting the monitor, which would save me almost $200 and use that money to upgrade some of the things in my system. I have an old compaq monitor that I think will do for a little until I can come back and get a nice lcd. What do you guys think?


1)ANTEC Solution Series Super Mid Tower Case with 350W Power Supply, Model "SLK3700AMB" -RETAIL
Item# N82E16811129122

$64.00

2)Lite-On 52X32X52X16 Combo Drive, Model SOHC-5232K, Retail
Item# N82E16827106930


$47.99

3)SONY Black 1.44MB 3.5inch Floppy Disk Drive, Model MPF920, OEM
Item# N82E16821103116

$11.99

4)**NON-REFUNDABLE ITEM. Exchange for same Exact Item Only!
Western Digital Special Edition 80GB 7200RPM IDE Hard Drive, Model WD800JB, OEM Drive Only
Item# N82E16822144122

$68.50

5)Microsoft Black Multimedia Keyboard & Wheel Mouse Optical Bundle PS/2 102keys -OEM
Item# N82E16823109122
Save to Buy Later

$36.00

6)?Blow Out Sale
Kingston 184 Pin 512MB DDR PC-3200 - Retail

Item# N82E16820141424

$79.00

7)NEC/MITSUBISHI FE771SB-BK 17" SuperBright Diamondtron CRT Monitor ?RETAIL
Item# N82E16824002028
Save to Buy Later

$152.00

8) **NON-REFUNDABLE ITEM.Warranty is provided through product Manufacturer Only!
ABIT "NF7-S" nForce2 Chipset Motherboard for AMD Socket A CPU -RETAIL
Item# N82E16813127166

$85.00

9)AMD Athlon XP 2500+ "Barton", 333 FSB, 512K Cache Processor - Retail

Item# N82E16819103379

$80.00

10)**NON-REFUNDABLE ITEM.Warranty is provided through product Manufacturer Only!
Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition with Service Pack SP1a - OEM
Item# N82E16837102141

$90.00

11)SAPPHIRE ATI RADEON 9600 Video Card, 128MB DDR, 128-bit, DVI/TV-Out, 8X AGP, Model "ATLANTIS RADEON 9600" -RETAIL
Item# N82E16814102289


$94.00

 

[StrangerGuy]

Some important questions:

Are you going to do some heavy gaming on the rig you posted?

and are you planning to overclock?

 

[bramma]

The only game I am gonna play is Everquest. I really don't plan to overclock because I really don't know that much about it.

 

[sisooktom]

Dump the WD hard drive, it's a ball bearing model (that's bad). Get yourself a Seagate Barracuda or a Maxtor.

 

[jpeyton]

I would make three small changes.

First, get this combo drive instead.

Second, get this CPU instead and use this heatsink with it.

Third, wander into the refurbished section on Newegg.com and look at their video cards. ~$95 will get you a 9600PRO or better.

 

[Ionizer86]

Yea, getting a Seagate would be a good idea. If you're not gaming much, you may want to back down to a Sapphire 9200. The 9600 isn't much faster, and both are passively cooled.

Even if you're not overclocking, hang onto the PC3200 ram, the Abit NF7-S, and XP2500+ for now. You'll have a free boost to 3200+ once you learn a bit about overclocking.

 

[jpeyton]

Originally posted by: bramma
The only game I am gonna play is Everquest. I really don't plan to overclock because I really don't know that much about it.

If you're not overclocking, you're wasting money on your motherboard. The model you chose is the best overclocking motherboard for the Socket A platform.

And actually, overclocking is MUCH easier than you think; usually requires changing a couple settings in the BIOS and nothing else. Read up in the CPU Overclocking Forum.

 

[bramma]

Well, I may overclock, once I get it all together and learn a little bit more about what I'm doing. That's why I want the ABIT NF7s motherboard, because it gives me the freedom in the future to do so. What do you guys thi nk about using the old monitor?

 

[jpeyton]

Your system is more than adequate for Everquest; you can upgrade the video card later if you need more performance for Everquest 2 or something.

Use your old monitor if you want, but the 17" NEC SuperBright tubes are awesome.

 

[newbiepcuser]

As for the hard drive, there has to be a best buy, circuit city, or compusa near you to get bigger drive for cheaper price after rebates of course.

As for the monitor, I've seen for 20.00 dollars more you can get decent flat screen 19 inch. You might as well spend the few extra bucks.