more critique/building fun!

[djCN]

Building a system to take away to college (mmm...), and i just have a few questions.
I'm still deciding between AMD and Intel.
If i go AMD, it will probably be with an XP 2000+, because its pretty high up there, but still for a good price.

If i go intel, will probably get a 1.8ghz. I can oc to near 2.53ghz levels and still be stable with stock cooling.
The other main question is motherboards for each. I don't want onboar-anything, I don't think. No sound or video (heavens no!), or LAN. am i missing a common feature?

So far, this is what i have and plan to get:
Noblesse case
400/431 watt psu (antec or enermax...whichever is quiter)
toshiba 16x dvd-rom
plextor 24x10x40 cdrw (had it for 6 months...it still works wonders)
audigy oem
linksys network card ($5 after MIR at office depot 🙂 )
chaintech geforce 4200 'GT21' special edition card (good reviews, price)
120gig WD special edition (after the hopeful price-drop from the 200gig release)
*probably around 512mb of crucial ddr (maybe more? i mainly game. and i'm guessing the speed will depend on whatever cpu i settle on)
i've heard good thing about panaflo's, so i guess i'll get those.

I think that about does it.
Any and ALL feedback is appreciated!
Thanks ahead of time

 

[RJ77]

For AMD, I'm running Abit's KR7A-RAID board. Rock stable, and very overclockable if you're thinking of doing that. Best of all, they're dirt cheap now (<$80 on newegg), so you can maybe put a bit more $ into the proc, a nice monitor, or something. Make sure you get the KR7A-133 so you can fully utilize the ATA133 standard. What sound card are you using? The rest looks good to me.

 

[jdogg707]

As far as motherboards go:
Intel = Epox 4G4A or 4G4A+ with RAID, awesome feature set, great for OC, and support for PC2700
AMD = Epox 8K3A oor 8K3A+ with RAID, excellent for overclocking, lacks unwanted extra features

Might also want too look at some Samsung DDR333 memory or something from Mushkin for the best performance for either platform.