Haven't built a system in a while

[dhallid]

Thinking of going with a system between ?Weekly Buyer's Guide: Entry Level? & ?Weekly Buyer's Guide: Mid-Range? Just want to make sure nothing here is out of whack.

Only real question I have is about memory. Life was simpler when you just bought PC100 or whatever. Is there a rule of thumb/reference that says when faster memory us useful vs. overkill?



AMD Athlon XP 2500+ "Barton", 333 FSB, 512K Cache Processor - Retail
ASUS A7N8X-X nForce2 400 Chipset Motherboard for AMD Socket A CPU -RETAIL
2x Kingston ValueRAM 184 Pin 256MB DDR PC-3200 - Retail
POWERCOLOR ATI RADEON 9600PRO Video Card, 128MB DDR,
128-bit, DVI/TV-Out, 8X AGP, Model "R96A-C3N" -RETAIL
Lite-On 52X32X52X16 Combo Drive, Model SOHC-5232K, Retail
Enlight ATX 360W P4 Power Supply, Model "EN-8361934A1" -RETAIL
Windows XP home

Undecided on the case.

Approx $620 delivered from Newegg

Going to get a hard drive locally

Reusing Monitor, Speakers, KB, mouse

 

[MDE]

If you aren't overclocking the system even PC2700 is fine. Nothing looks strange to me, although you may want to get a separate sound card or upgrade the motherboard to one with better onboard sound if you regularly listen to music or game. For a case, I like my Antec Sonata, and the SLK3700-BQE is similar and cheaper. Both come with good power supplies, so you could drop the Enlight if you get one of those.

 

[kd2777]

I agree with MDE on the RAM, pc-2700 is plenty because the barton is only 333 FSB. I would suggest however at maybe looking at 1 512 so you could add a 512 later easily.

Have you looked at the ABIT NF7-S? It is about 85 on newegg, and has SATA, SATA raid, and has nVidia's soundstorm (which is amazing if you haven't heard it).

Another thing, how long is this upgrade going to last you? If you are looking to upgrade to the 64 relatively soon you may want to go with the faster RAM because the 64 will use the 3200. But, if the upgrade is going to be a while you may want to look at spending another 10 bucks and get the 2500 mobile and OC it to 3200 speed so it will last longer.

Lastly what are you going to do with the system and what kind of budget are you looking at?


KD

ps Welcome to Anandtech

 

[nick1985]

get a mobile athlon 2400 (will overclock way better than your 2500.)
get the shuttle AN35N-Ultra 400. its way cheaper and it has dual channel DDR

 

[dhallid]

I'm way overdue on upgrading from a PIII 450MHz/GeForce2MX, don't think it will be as long before my next upgrade, but it's not going to be that soon.

I'd like to keep the hardware close to $500, really don't want to go over $600.

Going to use it for general PC stuff, MS Office and such, as well as gaming. I realize my budget limits performance, but whatever I end up with will be way ahead of what I had.

With the 2400 mobile, the overclockability outweighs the slower FSB? I'm open to overclocking, but not looking for flakeyness.

Thanks everyone for the comments.

 

[BurnItDwn]

the mobile cpus are multiplier-unlocked (you can run whatever FSB you want and just pick the multiplier that runs the speed you want it at ... you could run it at 200mhz FSB x 11 multiplier and get athlon XP3200 speeds .... it seems like most people with 2400 mobiles are getting 2.3 to 2.5ghz (I have a 2500 mobile, and the highest stable overclock i got was 2477mhz)

I also second the Shuttle board, I have it, and its been great for me so far.

Also, I think going with a single 512MB stick of pc3200 is the best option. That way when you say "I wish I had a gig of ram" it would be as simple as sticking another stick of 512mb in. (the benefits of dual channel on the ram are minimal at best)

 

[dhallid]

So you just mix and match FSB & multiplier as fast as stability allows. PC3200 RAM becomes useful at that point.

How's the onboard sound on the Shuttle?

While I'm at it, what cpu coolers do you like?

 

[kd2777]

I use the Thermalright heat sinks with a 8cm cooler master fan. Very good combo, though a tad pricey.

I don't know about the sound of the shuttle, but if it has soundstorm it will be great. I have the ABIT NF7-S and a shuttle SFF with soundstorm and it is great. I really think it is everybit as good as the soundblaster audigy2 add in cards. (I haven't heard the zs audigies yet so can't comment on that)

KD

 

[BurnItDwn]

The onboard sound is pretty good. It is the Nvidia "soundstorm" and IMO, it sounds just as good as an Audigy.
I'll really be able to put it to the test when my Zalman 5.1 channel headphones arrive (any day now)


As far as CPU coolers, I'm not too picky and I'm sorta out of the loop as to whats the best, but I have a Zalman CNPS 3100+. It keeps the CPU pretty cool and it's not very loud. If you aren't a big overclocker, then a retail CPU HSF ought to be fine.

Also, if you opt to stick with the ASUS board, it will be a great choice, it is an Excellent board, its just a tad bit more than I care to pay for a motherboard.

 

[allanon1965]

this is my setup, barton 2500 oc'ed to 3200, 512 crucial pc2700 ddr, 30gig maxtor ata133 hard drive, 20 gig maxtor ata 133 hard drive, 13 gig ibm hard drive, promise ata 100 ide controller card, for the ibm, tv card with radio and remote and capture capabilities, nic card, radeon 9200 128mb,not se, 52x cd burner, 16x dvd rom, romtec trios hd selector modded into case, thermal take blower fan and hs, 450wat PSU,2 cold cathode lights,3 lighted case fans, floppy, all this for under 550.00 with front usb and a lcd readout window for temps, fan speeds, time, hard drive active, etc....if you wish, i can send pics of it to you. it runs fantastic! running winxp pro and win98se on second drive. no problems with anything i do, nor do i expect to have any problems, the only weak part i have is the video card, but even that is doing very well for me, plays flight sims perfectly....ms combat 3, warbirds, dawn of aces, etc....the motherboard is an Asrock k7s8xe+ with onboard sound that is amazing!, onboard lan, sata raid, total of 8 usb ports, 6 rear,2 front. hell the board was only 55.00 online, not ebay either! trust me, you build something like i have, you wont be disappointed! email me at allanon1965@comcast.net for more details and pics if you want! tim