Critique my Athlon64 setup

[imported_NovaSword]

What better topic for my first post than my first build?

I will be putting this system together in a couple weeks. As I said, it will be my first build, so for now I am not planning on any OCing, at least not until I have a little more experience and confidence. The primary use will be gaming. So far I have:

AMD Athlon 64 3400+, 1MB L2 Cache, 64-bit Processor
MSI K8N Neo Platinum
OCZ Enhanced Latency Series Platinum Edition 184 Pin 1GB(512MBx2) DDR PC-3200
Antec 430W Power Supply, Model "TRUE430"
ATI (Sapphire) Radeon X800 Pro 256 MB DDR/8x-AGP/VIVO/DVI
Western Digital Raptor 74GB 10,000RPM SATA Hard Drive
Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS PCI Sound Card
ViewSonic G220fb 21" PerfectFlat CRT Monitor
Lite-On Black 52X32X52 CD-RW Drive
Logitech Z5300 THX Certified 5.1 speakers

At this point, I haven't chosen a case.

Comments and suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[chadomaly]

I have that monitor. Love it. Good choice there.

 

[Regs]

I like Anantechs High End pic for the Coolermaster Pac T01 Case. Same one I got.


5 fans, alum. reinforced casing, and a very clean and organized set up.

Anandtech

Everything else you picked is right on the money except I would add more storage. Games these days range from 2-8 Gigs a piece. Maybe a 120 Gig Western digital 8 MB cache or even the 80 GIG se model or equivalent performer.

 

[imported_NovaSword]

Originally posted by: Regs
I like Anantechs High End pic for the Coolermaster Pac T01 Case. Same one I got.


5 fans, alum. reinforced casing, and a very clean and organized set up.

Anandtech

Everything else you picked is right on the money except I would add more storage. Games these days range from 2-8 Gigs a piece. Maybe a 120 Gig Western digital 8 MB cache or even the 80 GIG se model or equivalent performer.

Thanks for the suggestions. I am seriously considering that case. As for the other, I thought about adding a second drive, but on my current machine, I have a 80GB drive which, after 3 years, is only about 1/2 full. I realize that games are bigger now, but the 74GB Raptor should still hold at least half a dozen average sized games, and I can always delete the old to make room for the new. Appreciate the suggestion, but for me it wouldn't justify the extra cost.

Still looking for more feedback, positive or negative. Anyone else?

 

[Pete84]

You mentioned having an 80 gig right now - you might want to use that for mass storage for bulky mp3 and divx's, if you have such items. Unless you have a large and growing collection of music and movies, I think that a 74 gig Raptor would be enough. Took me a very long while to load my 120 gig WD up with movies and music, even accross a speedy network. Have to RMA it now, and have naught but 32 k dialup so I won't be needing more space for a VERY long time.