My Computer, and your opinion

[pahn]

To be built.

My budget is about 3000 bucks so...

Currently as it stands, it's about 3200 bucks, but I figure I can give or take, and go to other sources than NewEgg. Probably I'll go on pricewatch to try some cost cutting.


All the prices are on the newegg site.

CASE
Ahanix Platinum XP Mid-Tower Case - 69
Pic 1
Pic 2



OPTICAL DRIVES
Optorite 52x32x52 CD-RW - 39
Optorite DVD+R 4x, DVD+RW 4x, DVD-R 4x, DVD-RW 4x, DVD-ROM 12x, CD-R 40x, CD-RW 40x - 8MB Buffer -195



CPU HEATSINK
Thermalright Copper P4 Heatsink (Socket 478) SLK-900U - 47




FLOPPY
Standard Sony Floppy Drive - 7



HARD DRIVES
Seagate 160GB Serial ATA HDD 8MB Buffer - 163
Seagate 160GB Serial ATA HDD 8MB Buffer - 163



KEYBOARD
ORtek Wireless Keyboard - 45



MEMORY
Corsair XMS Extreme Memory, 1GB (2x512MB) PC3700 w/ Heat Spreaders - 319



MONITOR
Sony 19" LCD Panel, Black - 600



MOTHERBOARD
MSI i875 Canterwood Chipset 800FSB - 145



MOUSE
Microsoft Wireless Intellimouse - 35



POWER SUPPLY
PowMax 500W - 70



PROCESSOR
Intel P4 3.0GHzC @ 800MHz FSB - 400



SOUND CARD
Creative Labs Audigy 2 Platinum - 167



SPEAKERS
Creative Labs MegaWorks THX 5.1 Surround - 216



ZIP/BACKUP
Iomega 750 MB Int. Zip - 90



VIDEO CARD
ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 256MB - 500




Recommendations? Comments?

 

[mechBgon]

Random thoughts:

• You mean 2 x 512Mb modules, right?
• I would steer clear of MSI for now and go Asus or Abit.
• 15000rpm Ultra320 SCSI would be nice if you didn't mind trading capacity for snappy seek times and good performance under heavy I/O loads. Fujitsu MAS-series, baby
• Quality is important on power supplies, so I would skip PowMax
  
  and get an Antec TruePower unit, if it were me.
• You mean Thermalright SLK-900U, and that's a nice choice Don't forget a fan for it, if you don't have one lined up already
• Truth be told, that case looks a little cheap and a little underwhelming on the ventilation, considering it'll have one of the hottest-running desktop CPUs in existence. Note the skimpy vent slots on the bezel. Personally, I'd be considering a case with dual 80mm exhaust (Antec 800-series or 1000-series or their equivalent) or else a 120mm exhaust, and enough ventilation slots to let the fans work without a lot of resistance.

Just my 2c worth, hope it's food for thought

 

[T3C]

DAMN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

that is a hell of a machine, NICE the only thing that i would NOT put in is the zip drive, back up to cds.
but other then that damn nice!

 

[neutralizer]

Wireless mouses are crap imo, horrible for games. I would drop the zip to save some money and maybe get regular Audigy since your speaker system will be only 5.1. Other than that, all I can say is... holy crap...

 

[XBoxLPU]

Not all wireless mice are bad. I really like my mX 700

 

[mechBgon]

Ooops, forgot to say "welcome to the Forums pahn "

 

[pahn]

hey thanks.. and it's pahn.... but that's ok.

You mean 2 x 512Mb modules, right?
yea, sorry about that.

I would steer clear of MSI for now and go Asus or Abit.
why? is it because of the whole automatic overclock?

15000rpm Ultra320 SCSI would be nice if you didn't mind trading capacity for snappy seek times and good performance under heavy I/O loads. Fujitsu MAS-series, baby
really, that's really expensive, no? I like having so much storage on tap, I've always been short of storage.

Quality is important on power supplies, so I would skip PowMax and get an Antec TruePower unit, if it were me.
yea, the psu should be quality... so I will probably change it out.

You mean Thermalright SLK-900U, and that's a nice choice Don't forget a fan for it, if you don't have one lined up already
yes thank you, I did mean thermalright. and I do have a fan for it, but do you have any suggestions?

Truth be told, that case looks a little cheap and a little underwhelming on the ventilation, considering it'll have one of the hottest-running desktop CPUs in existence. Note the skimpy vent slots on the bezel. Personally, I'd be considering a case with dual 80mm exhaust (Antec 800-series or 1000-series or their equivalent) or else a 120mm exhaust, and enough ventilation slots to let the fans work without a lot of resistance.
Yeah, I just threw a case in there for the sake of sake. I was thinking about a high end lian-li aluminum... and then taking a dremel (sp?) to it for fans.

btw, I plan on custom paint with the case... as demonstrated in this post;
Post
this will be later on, so it isn't figured into the price of the comp.


as for backing up... i just realized, I have a friggin DVD+RW drive... why not backit onto DVDs? Good thanks.


the wireless mouse thing... I will use a wired twin optical for gaming.. whcih I already have.



and finally, the speakers/sound card. Well I want the 24KHz quality on the Audigy 2 DVD playback... even if it is for 5.1


Thanks!

 

[mechBgon]

Ooops, sorry about your name.

I would steer clear of MSI for now and go Asus or Abit.
why? is it because of the whole automatic overclock?

Quality seems to be inconsistent with MSI lately, plus the P4 gurus around here seem to approve of Asus & Abit's boards a lot. I'm not the expert so I trust their word.

15000rpm Ultra320 SCSI would be nice if you didn't mind trading capacity for snappy seek times and good performance under heavy I/O loads. Fujitsu MAS-series, baby
really, that's really expensive, no? I like having so much storage on tap, I've always been short of storage.

If I had $3200 to spend on a computer, I would be going with the SCSI route, but I don't use a lot of storage capacity, I just want quick response and resistance to it slowing down when the going gets rough. You know your needs best, so do what you feel is the right thing for you.

Truth be told, that case looks a little cheap and a little underwhelming on the ventilation, considering it'll have one of the hottest-running desktop CPUs in existence. Note the skimpy vent slots on the bezel. Personally, I'd be considering a case with dual 80mm exhaust (Antec 800-series or 1000-series or their equivalent) or else a 120mm exhaust, and enough ventilation slots to let the fans work without a lot of resistance.
Yeah, I just threw a case in there for the sake of sake. I was thinking about a high end lian-li aluminum... and then taking a dremel (sp?) to it for fans.

That sounds awesome I was looking at the PC-6x models and it looks like there would be room to put a second 80mm exhaust right below the existing one, if you wanted to.

 

[Kartajan]

my $.02:

MB: I like the Asus P4P800 Deluxe. Solid performer, no pointless expense.

RAM: PC-3700? I honestly doubt that you will be able to fully use that. I personally would get the C2-3500. If you think you will get full use from the 3700, go for it.

Zip Drive: Just plain silly..

Sony LCD: Did you check it out in person? Your monitor is your "eyes" into your computer. I always recommend a personal look wherever possible. Since it is one of the most "upgrade resistant" parts of your machine, always make sure that it is the best that you can afford to get. I personally use a viewsonic VX800, but your opinion/ eyes may be different.

PSU: I second the motion for the antec tru480.

I wish I had 3k to blow... (insert jealously here)

 

[T3C]

ya, what is the reasoning of the zip drive? when you could burn your data for a backup?

 

[GaryShandling]

Your going for the gusto, so you might aswell get the Creative megaworks 6.1 THX setup. They sound amazing hooked up with the audigy 2 platinum. As for the LCD, that monitor isnt reccomended, I would consider either the Samsung 192T if you can afford it, or the planar px191.

 

[jacktesterson]

go with a regular audigy that sound card will be kinda pointless for those speakers and wont improve sound much if any. drop the zip drive, and go with a CRT monitor.....if your into games then you'll see why. I personally like Samsung monitors. Get a 21'

and yes SCSI would be the way I'd go...what the h e double hockey sticks are you doing with all that storage? massive porn? ;-)

and for fun Id run Windows 95 on that machine haha

 

[Acanthus]

The MSI Neo2-FISR is a real nice board, i highly reccomend it.

I avoid abit like the plague after my SA6R woes back in the day. (board got rave reviews, after making a massive sale to a business with over 40 units, over 50% of the boards died within a year. Abit happily RMAd them, but the RMA boards didnt last long either.)

I stick with Asus, ASrock for value, and MSI whenever possible.

Edit: I'd also ditch the zip drive, there is no need for that for sure. (unless there is a reason you need it of course)

Definately go with the highest quality power supply you can, im a huge a fan of the Antec Truepower series.

Also i reccomend getting a 9700 Pro, and using the money you save on it to save up for a next gen card. None of the cards out today are going to be able to Push DX9 games that come out next year. And you definately dont need anything faster than a 9700 Pro today. I've also heard about problems with 256MB cards from both ATi and NVIDIA.

 

[beatle]

I'd definitely be going scsi if I had the bucks. I had to settle for a raptor and some ide drives for mass storage which still suits my needs well. You might consider a fast scsi drive and a large IDE drive instead. It may cost you a bit more, but it'll be much faster. Drive prices are always falling, so I'd just pick up another one when I got short.

Chuck the ZIP. I still have a scsi zip drive from my college days (before usb pen drives and affordable cdrws) and now it's not of much use. I recommend a Coolermaster case since you have the dough. Excellent ventilation and some of the best looking cases around IMO.

I also agree that a quality CRT should be in your budget. For $600 you can get a great 21" or 2 good 19's (my preference).

 

[Macro2]

For $3000 you can do a lot better.

First thing i'd do is drop Optorites and the Case. That case is flimsy compared to an Antec.
May well go SCSI.
Asus mobo is better than MSI, IMHO.
I happen to like Zip drives but they are dying out.

Really need to know what you are doing with the computer. Looks like gaming?

 

[Lonyo]

I thought MSI was aimed a bit more at the budget end, like EPoX, but lower?

Abit/ASUS would be nice.

As people have said, Zip drive is stupid with a DVD +-R/RW

Why a wireless keyboard, unless you plan on using the computer from a distance/it comes as a set with the mouse.
A wireless keyboard is a little silly if it's just going to sit on a desk.

The heatspreaders on the RAM probably won't do much, if you could save a few $$ by getting some RAM without heatpsreaders, you might as well, and maybe buy a fan to blow over them instead .

 

[pahn]

yea, gaming primarily... and of course the web/email. AIM and then the image editing.


beyond all that, i plan on hooking the comp. up to a KVM so I can switch between TV and Monitor as display devices. Good for those late night AIM chats with a little zepplin in the background. That's why I need the wireless keyboard.


As for what u get for 3 grand, please tell me where I could do better....