Building this comp in two weeks ***LOOK INSIDE*** tell me what you think.

[Technics1200]

Critique my picks, and let me know what I should go with.

I have around 2000.00 maybe 2500.00 to spend.

-I need a DDR Motherboard (haven't picked one up yet) you can help me with this.

-AMD T-Bird 1.4 GHZ OEM from www.newegg.com

-Alpha PAL6035 w/Black Label Fan from www.2cooltek.com

-(2) Cheap DDR Ram from Crucial.com

-(2) IBM 60GXP 60 GIG HDD from www.newegg.com

-Plextor 16/10/40 CDRW (those 24x's suck!)

-Pioneer DVD Drive (Model number 106S)

-ASUS Geforce 3 Deluxe from www.newegg.com

-SBLive Platinum 5.1 from www.newegg.com

-Enlight 7237 case w/300w PSU from www.newegg.com

-Sony G520 19" Monitor from a local shop where I live

Anything I'm missing? Please give me ideas where I can get these items for cheap, or maybe what I can add/take off to my list. Thanks!

 

[TheGrandHooHa]

If you have some spare money (which I'd imagine you do), I'd scrap the SB Plat and get a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz. I've never had luck with SB's, but I always have good luck with Turtle Beach's... just my 0.02000000

 

[Frosty3799]

just a quick question, whered ya hear the 24x burners suck? i dont have one but was looking into them

 

[Technics1200]

They don't write at 24x all the time. That's why it sucks TO ME. Most people would rather have a burner that burns at a faster speed, but it's only a minute faster than the 16x. Read up on the partial cav or something. That's what the new 24x's and above are going to be based on.

 

[Frosty3799]

got a link?

 

[Technics1200]

<< got a link? >>

www.cdrlabs.com

 

[wfbberzerker]

since youre getting two hard drives, i suggest you go with the epox 8k7a+ motherboard
its very stable, and allows you to run your two hard drives in a RAID array.

for the ram, get 2 128mb pc2100 sticks - if you're running win98se. if youre running win2k or winme or winxp, get 2 256mb sticks (if you want to pay that much).

i didnt see a case listed, so my personal opinion is the enlight 7237 atx case (at newegg). also pick up an extra case fan. this should keep your system nice and chilly

if you want a good high end sound card, consider the Hercules Game Theatre XP. its sound quality is reportedly better than the sound blasters, but if you want the sb's live drive, stick with the platinum. in addition to sound card, get some Klipsch promedia 4.1 speakers

other than those things, your system looks pretty awesome. good luck in building it!

 

[fakey]

you dont *need* raid. i dont really see a use for it except in servers :\

the epox 8k7a is a very impressive board, however. id recommend it to anyone.

you probably want a 400w power supply. i dont think a 300w would cover it at all for that sort of system.

 

[fakey]

also: any particular reason for the asus gf3? pretty much all gf3s are the same, and theres lots that are cheaper then the asus.

visiontek, gainward/cardexpert, elsa are the companies id look into

 

[Floydian]

Epox Motherboard and either the Hercules GameTheatre XP or the Santa Cruz instead of the Platinum- 5.1 out as well and better quality

 

[wfbberzerker]

i said raid because if you run it in Raid 0, it tends to be faster. Raid 1 (i think thats the right number) is used for networks and what-not for data safety.

 

[fakey]

with raid 0 if one hd crashes you lose *everything*

 

[wfbberzerker]

i guess thats true, but wouldnt it be the same way if one hard drive crashed anyways? and how often do hard drives crash?

 

[Odoacer]

IMO RAID 0 is pretty unnecessary unless you KNOW exactly what you're gonna be doing with your computer, and it has to be HDD-heavy, like video or sound editing, or serious gaming. Otherwise, dont bother.

 

[goul]

Gigabyte's 7DXR is another excellent contender in the Athlon/Raid/DDR market.

you should look into it