new athlon 64 system

Jan 24, 2005
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I am putting together a new micro atx system. I am want a compact case for easy transport with more upgradeability than a SFF. I have had trouble finding a matx minitower that I like with strong enough psu to power a higher-end vga card. So far this is what I've come up with.

-MSI RS480M2-IL ATI Radeon XPRESS 200 Chipset Motherboard For AMD Socket 939 CPU

-POWMAX Silver Micro-ATX Case with 230W Power Supply, Model MATX3304-S

-AMD Athlon 64 3000+, 512KB L2 Cache, Socket 939 64-bit Processor - Retail

-Mushkin Dual Pack 184-Pin 1GB(512MBx2) DDR PC-3200

-Western Digital 80GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive, Model WD800JD

-Lite-On 16X Dual Layer DVD+/-RW Drive, Model SOHW-1673S

The included power supply is a bit anemic, so I will be upgradeing it to:

-E-POWER "Xmicro" Series 350W Power Supply, Model EP-350FX

This is so I can support these future upgrades:

-Powercolor ATI Radeon X800 XL Video Card, 256MB GDDR3, 256-Bit, DVI/HDTV, PCI-Express, Model R43C-TD3D

-Creative Labs Sound Blaster Sound Blaster Audigy 2 Value Sound Card, Model SB0400

I will not be overclocking. I found all these parts at newegg, any suggestions are welcome.
 

YOyoYOhowsDAjello

Moderator<br>A/V & Home Theater<br>Elite member
Aug 6, 2001
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Everything looks great except for those powersupplies. I haven't heard of E-POWER... is that a good brand?
 
Jan 24, 2005
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I haven't either, There just seems to be only a few m-atx powersupplies around. So, I chose this as its from newegg, where I will be buying everything else.
 

wisdomtooth

Golden Member
Dec 21, 2004
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If you want a microATX tower case that can take a full-size ATX PSU, Newegg has several:<a target=_blank class=ftalternatingbarlinklarge href="http://www.newegg.com/app/manufact.asp?catalog=7&DEPA=1">Go here and search for
"MicroATX" and "minitower" in the Advanced Search fields at Newegg</a>

You can then replace those generic stock PSUs with the most efficient, quietest, well-vented ATX PSU available: Seasonic Super Tornado 300W, recommended by Silent PC Review.

For a microATX system which will not have things like SLI, multiple hard disks or optical drives, you DO NOT need a PSU with more than 18amps on the 12V rail.

There are also many very nice-looking MicroATX horizontal-type HTPC cases available such as the Coolermaster ATC-620, Ahanix MCE301/302, and Silverstone LC02/04. I particularly like the Silverstone LC04 because it's even smaller and lighter than most microATX towers, but you have to give up two PCI slots.

HTH.
 

Promethply

Golden Member
Mar 28, 2005
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Your system looks alright.

Just make sure that the PSU has at least a total of 25 amps on the 12V rail.
 

ribbon13

Diamond Member
Feb 1, 2005
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E-power is the american distributor for Tagan. But all of thier non-Tagan PSUs suck royal dingleberries.

Get an Xclio

 
Jan 24, 2005
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Thanks, I will at least change the psu then. I will also do some more shoping for matx cases, maybe I will find something i like better (I'm afraid I am picky).