How's this for a new system?

[HyunYu]

I'm doing research to buy components to build my own PC. Here's what I have so far--I would very much appreciate any comments, feedback, warnings, etc. Thank you.

Antec Performance II SX604II case w/ Antec 300W PS
Asus A7N8X Deluxe motherboard
AMD Athlon XP 2500+ Barton Retail Box
Arctic Silver Premium Silver Polysynthetic Therman Compound
512MB Corsair XMS TWINX512-3200C2 with Heat Spreader
Powercolor ATI Radeon 9600 Pro w/ 128MB
Maxtor 120GB 7200RPM SATA
Sony CRX225E1 52x/24x/52x CDRW
Lite-On XJ-HD166S 16x DVD-ROM

Total: $735 plus shipping from NewEgg.com.

I don't plan on overclocking the 2500+ CPU. With the components listed above, will the 300W PS be enough?

Question: how much difference is there between Radeon 9600 and Radeon 9600 Pro for someone who won't be doing any 3D gaming at all, but will be using system for mostly digital photo editing??

Thanks very much in advance!

 

[The Green Bean]

nice IMO....

the pro is faster thn a non pro

 

[HyunYu]

<bump>

 

[CarpeDiem99]

congratz:beer:

 

[Aganack1]

if you are doing no gaming go for the np... unless you can get the pro for about the same price... i have used both the pro and non pro and there is a small difference in games but i dont think you will knotice anything for digital content creation. but everything looks fine... the only question i have is the hard drive... the truth of the matter is you don't need sata and unless its a raptor there really isn't any reason to get it... you may find setting up sata drivers more of a pain then just going with a ata drive. But if it is the same price and you dont mind a little head scratching... i say go for it.

 

[MDE]

The 9600 Pro is probably worth it, just in case you get adventurous and start gaming, or want to sell the card down the road.

You'll be better off with one stick of RAM, rather than the TwinX kit, dual channel doesn't do much on AMD setups.

A regular ATA-133 hard drive is fine, SATA just complicates Windows setup a bit, there aren't any real benefits other than thinner cables at the moment (unless you're using Raptors).

300W should be fine, but I'd look for 350W+ to be safe. Where in the world are you HyunYu?

 

[The Green Bean]

lemme gess....Japan, China or korea (no offence ment)

 

[Zebo]

I would change the case to antec SLK3700AMB for the quiet 120mm rear fan and higher powered power supply.

I would get a combo drive to save money.

I would get an Epox mobo probably the 8rda-3+ because I like Keyboard power on and keeping my case in the closet which asus does'nt support.

Other than that it's perfect.

 

[een]

If you are not gonna overclock ever, get the 2600+, it's 300mhz faster and only a few bucks more ... although with less cache, but it is still faster without overclocking... (correct me if I am wrong)

get arctic ceramic instead, it's non conductive -> safer, better performance, and abit cheaper or the same proce I think

Again without overclocking, you don't need pc3200 corsair twinx that's overkill without any difference in performance, get kingston or kingmax pc2700... doesn't make a difference if you don't overclock.. and you safe money which you can use to buy 9800 pro or some fans, lights whatever

Think about getting a DVD burner instead, they are cheap now and from the money you safe before, it's worth it

And definitely get a better psu if you can... -> higher watts

get a cheaper mobo, I agree with 8rda+

 

[thraxes]

A higher PSU is not a must, or why can Shuttle XPCs run in ridiculously fast configs with just 200W? [Quality -> Quantity]

Kingston HyperX RAM is enough if there isn't going to be any OCing, I can absolutely recommend Kingston for this purpose.

A Radeon 9600NP would be more than enough if you are only into light or no gaming.

With the money saved invest it in an area wher it makes a difference when doing heavy photo editing. Bump the RAM to 1GB so Photoshop won't give you a hard time.

Or, if you think that 512 is enough for what you do, replace the DVD drive with a DVD burner. I would prefer to have a normal fast CD burner and a DVD burner than just rely on the slow DVD burner when I need to do a regular CD-R.

My 0,02$

 

[HyunYu]

Thanks everyone for the replies! Much appreciated.

I finally ordered the following:

Antec Performance II SX835II case w/ Antec 350W PS
Asus A7N8X Deluxe motherboard
AMD Athlon XP 2500+ Barton Retail Box
Arctic Silver Premium Silver Polysynthetic Therman Compound
1024MB Corsair XMS TWINX1024-3200C2PT with Heat Spreader
Connect3D Radeon 9600 (non-pro) w/ 128MB
Maxtor 120GB 7200RPM SATA
Lite-On 48x24x48x16x CDRW/DVD Combo Drive
Samsung 955DF-T/T 19" monitor

I went with SATA anyway--figured it'd give me room to grow when I want to add additional IDE devices. What different steps are involved in setting up Windows with SATA than regular IDE?

Looks like I overkilled a bit on the memory part--I did want to go to a gig, but maybe the XMS stuff wasn't necessary. Oh well, better than buying subpar memory. IF I ever did want to try overclocking the 2500+ CPU, then I'm sure the memory will come in handy. From what I've read, the Barton 2500+ chip is quite suitable for overclocking.

I'm in sunny California (except it's not sunny, weather-wise or politically or economically)--doing my part to lift the local computer businesses! *Only* cost me $86 in sales tax ordering from NewEgg.com... I originally was going to have Monarch Computers build me a custom setup, but buying the components and doing it myself saved me about $200.

For those interested, the whole setup cost me $830 from NewEgg.com before the monitor and speakers and keyboard/mouse were added... spectacular deal, IMHO.

Thanks again, everyone.

 

[Regs]

For 740 that's excellent. Whoops, for 1,000 that's good. 1 gig of Xms is very pricey but it will last a good amount of time. It will even be good down the road if you so decide to get a athlon 64 set up.