How's my box? suggestions?

[Photon]

Midnight Wind Case w/ blue neon lights
Asus A7V333-Raid
AthlonXP 1900+
300W CodeGen Power Supply
512megs Corsair PC2700 RAM
Two 80 gig Maxtor 5400 rpm drives w/ 2mb cache on raid 0
One 36 gig Maxtor 5400 rpm drive w/ 2 mb cache (for backup purposes)
my Promise card if necessary (i haven't built the box yet)
Gainward Geforce4 Ti4200 64mb
SB Audigy
Lite-On 32x burner
Lite-On DVD
Viewsonic GS790 19" Monitor
Swiftech MC462A Athlon Cooler
Linksys 10/100 Nic
Intellimouse Explorer 3.0
Floppy
My nice boston acoustic speakers

any comments/suggestions/criticisms?

EDIT: 350w codegen psu

 

[Duvie]

I would seriuosly consider looking into a 350watt PS....I know, I know...some can get 300watts to work...BUt, with an xp 1900+, plus multiple drives, power hungry GF4...I would think peace of mind....

Otherwise a great system....

One comment though...ARe you going to oc??? If so then definitely listen to the statement above...Also most things I read show that unless you oc the system bus of the athlon chip the pc2700 ddr is virtually worthless. The athlon at 266fsb can only deliver bandwidth to that of pc2100 memory. Hence all the reviews awhile back that show no real performance enhancement (usually less then 5percent)...Now if you oc the fsb you can increase the bandwidth and the ram can be more effective. Unfortunatley if you can't oc the chip to 166 (highly unlikley) you likley wont get true pc2700 performance.

 

[Photon]

yeah, i plan on overclocking. what does the process of unlocking an athlon entail?

 

[Duvie]

well it is more entailed then unlocking a tbird...With the tbird the l1 bridges were simply laser cut and required nothing more then connecting those bridges with some conducting material...However the xp's are laser cut plus the packages is somewhat cut forming a valley. I beleive there are some visual guides that can be more helpful, but it basically requires filling in that valley with a non-conductive material then ontop of that close the bridges.


I would recommend unl;ocking the chip then taking the default 12x133 and going with a minimum 10x166 for 1660mhz then work from there. This will allow you to run the memory and cpu fsb sync and avoid many of the asynch issues.


Edit: check this thread out for additional info: http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=28&threadid=793745

 

[Photon]

mmk, thanks.
anyone else?

 

[Photon]

oh, for anyone who's in a dorm at college.. do you use an lcd to save space? and does it really help?

 

[LordAccord]

Cool looking case, I kinda like it....

I also agree to consider a higher wattage PSU... they really arent that much more expensive, even for a 400w... look at the Antec TruePowers or Enermaxs....

Why 5400rpm? Slow and hardly a price difference.

I dont like Viewsonics, but thats a personal opinion based on a few poor experiences with them dying.

Other than that, nothing really sticks out to me....

LoRdAccord

 

[Photon]

the 5400's are b/c i already have those drives. i have one 80 gig and one 36 gig. i'm gonna get another 5400rpm 80 gig drive b/c it is the same as the first one, so that's better for raid. besides, this box is gonna be in my dorm so i want something quiet. the monster i have now is so loud...
what monitor would you suggest?

 

[Photon]

have you guys had experience with any of these parts or any tips?

 

[LordAccord]

I prefer Sony and Samsung... thats pretty much all I sell with new systems anymore... CTX I have had no problems with, and My ADI monitors have all been good, but havent really bought anything new of theirs recently.

LoRdAccord

 

[Photon]

i've got one sony upstairs and man, the thing takes forever to actually become active. is it just me or do some sony's take a good 10-15 seconds to become fully functional after turning them on?