Help me Design/Build New PC Please

[iamskew]

Ok everyone, here's the situation: I had a computer and it was killed in a lightning strike. The insurace company is giving me $1997.69 to replace it. Just the PC, not the monitor, speakers, keyboard, or mouse. I want to buy everything from newegg.com if possible, but I'll use zipzoomfly.com or any other reliable source if newegg does not carry or have in stock a certain part.

Here's what I've put together so far:

Lite-On White 52X32X52 Internal EIDE CD-RW
SONY 16X DVD-ROM Drive
Mitsumi 1.44MB 3.5Inch Floppy Disk Drive
Western Digital Raptor 74GB 10,000RPM SATA Hard Drive The WD drive would be for the OS and any programs installed.
Seagate 160GB Barracuda 7200.7 7200RPM SATA II with NCQ Hard Drive
This drive would be for storage.
Corsair Value Select (Dual Pack) 184 Pin 1G(512MBx2) DDR PC-3200 - OEM
MSI nForce3 250 Chipset Motherboard for AMD Athlon 64 Socket 754 CPU, Model "K8N Neo Platinum"
AMD Athlon 64 3400+, 512k L2 Cache
Microsoft Windows XP Professional with Service Pack SP1a - OEM
This Windows XP Pro will be replaced with a bundle from my school with Windows XP Pro and Office 2003, for about the same price. I just put this here to remind me I didn't have the money to spend.
High Tech ATI RADEON 9800PRO Video Card, 128MB DDR, 256-bit, DVI/TV-Out, 8X AGP
I have no idea about this company, I just like the big fan on the board, running cool is important, and it's one less mod for me to try.

With these parts, and with shipping, the total is $1,314.92.

I have a case from the dead computer that looks pretty similar to this Lian-Li case but it has plexiglass windows on both sides and 5 or 6 case fan spots. It doesn't have a power supply or any instructions with it, so it's kind of in pieces and I'm not sure I could put it back together properly.

I need to decide on a case first and foremost (or just a power supply). I don't need anything that looks pretty, plain is preferable. I'd like to get the cheapest thing I can get with at least a 400w power supply. (maybe this would be cheaper to buy in real life?)

Here's a bunch of links to cases I thought would be acceptable, but the more fan ports the better. I'm not as worried about noise as everyone else, 5 fans blowing won't upset me. If I have the money later I'll try my hand at water cooling, but I'm looking for performance now.

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=11-154-013&depa=1
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=11-128-110&depa=1
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=11-129-120&depa=1
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=11-133-141&depa=1
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=11-200-018&depa=1
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=11-124-061&depa=1

I don't need a sound card, I have no problems with onboard sound. I have no problems with onboard ethernet either. I know I need some better grease for the heatsink and the fans and mabey a few cables, but that's not a big deal. I'd take computer performance upgrades over vid card upgrades because I only game occasionally, and it's usually counter-strike.

So, would you all help me spend the last $682? It would be greatly appreciated, and I thank you for reading through all of this.

thanks,
skew

 

[oneshot47]

Another hard drive to match either of the others in raid 0....dvd burner maybe.....

 

[mechBgon]

Remember, noise that might not bother you could still bother your roommate to heck

I'd put dual monitors on my list of ways to benefit yourself with the leftover money, as well as a good surge supressor that covers your network cable too, and maybe even a good APC uninterruptible power supply in the 800VA+ range. Nothing like losing a few hours of progress on your homework to an outage...

Power supplies: quality is important, don't settle for just anything. Enermax, PC Power & Cooling, Antec and Fortron are some reputable brands you can get at Newegg.

 

[Mik3y]

i say get the 16x pioneer dvd+/-rw drive for $100 at newegg. i say screw an extra harddrive for raid 0 and get a better video card. as for a psu, stick with a name brand one, like antec. quality > quantity. note that a quality 300W psu can power up your whole system fine, and since you cant to spend as little as possible on one, i say get the antec 430W or 480W one at newegg for like $65-80. its well worth it. if you really want to get water cooling, i'd have to recommend you the cooler master aquagate. it'll fit in 2 5.25inch drive bays or can go external for a price at $200.

 

[iamskew]

Thanks for reading guys/ (gals?).

oneshot - raid0 is too scary for me, but a dvd burner is a possiblity now that the price of media is coming down.

mech - Dual monitors could be a possibility, but I don't know if my insurance company would flip or not if I bought a monitor with the money. The surge suppressor is a possibility, but I don't know a whole lot about them so I'll have to look around. I saw that you have to spend quite a good bit of money for the battery backup ones to actually have enough backup with 400w to shut down properly. This computer won't be going to school though, I just use a laptop at school because the dorms are always crapped and desk space comes at a premium

thanks,
skew

 

[oneshot47]

Originally posted by: iamskew
Thanks for reading guys/ (gals?).

oneshot - raid0 is too scary for me, but a dvd burner is a possiblity now that the price of media is coming down.

Maybe raid 1 then? If youre really needing to spend that last hundred or so...

I run a raid 1 array, i like it.

 

[Kishan]

why don't u get a better chip and go the 939 route and get the asus A8V? and how about a vid card from the nvidia 6800-u could find one for around $250. Also if you WANT to upgrade your monitor, dell has a very nice 2001fp-check out that one.

 

[iamskew]

The 939 route could be a possibility, but with a case I'd be getting pretty close to my limit. Does anyone have any reccommendations for any of the parts? I'm not married to any of the brands, even the amd processor, so I could be persuaded to go with different parts.

Where can I find a 6800 for 250? If you give me a link, and it's not some fly by night company, then I'd be more than willing to go for the 6800.

 

[iamskew]

mik3y, sorry i missed your post. The DVD burner isn't a bad idea, but I'm not sure that I would use it all the often unless I was backing up old DVDs.

 

[everman]

I'd get a 6800GT, dvd rw.
I still think the raptor is a waste of money unless you really can justify it in your particular case.
And I bet you could get away with a monitor too, lots of people can't even distinguish between the monitor and the case. (heh if they give you a hard time just start referring to your monitor as the "cpu, or computer" and the case as the "modem"

 

[iamskew]

Basically, the raptor would just make the os and programs run faster and help me spend the money that i'm required to spend. You don't really think it would speed things up noticably?

 

[n7]

I never understand why people think they need two optical drives.

Unless you do a ton of CD copying or writing, a DVD-/+RW will suffice.

If you think you will never need a DVD-/+RW, just get a DVD/CD-RW combo drive

Looks like a very good system overall though.

Edit: Ah, i need to read closer...since you have all this extra money to spend, get a DVD-/+RW & a CD-RW

 

[iamskew]

good call n7. It's getting late, I'll be back sometime...well...sometime later today.

skew

 

[everman]

Originally posted by: iamskew
Basically, the raptor would just make the os and programs run faster and help me spend the money that i'm required to spend. You don't really think it would speed things up noticably?

From all of the benchmarks I've seen the raptor was around 2-3 seconds faster at loading game levels such as in UT2K4 and Farcry. So I think money is more well spent on a higher end video card, or another big HD to put in raid. Tv card might be nice too.