new computer specs

[sukhwinder21]

Im going to be building a new computer very soon. Are there any good retailers with low prices in the Vancouver, Canada region? All the prices in this post are from A-Power. Does newegg ship to canada?

Here is the parts that i think i will use.. I already have the following:
ATI Radeon 7500 Video Card
Maxtor 60GB ATA/100 Harddrive


New Parts:

$243 AMD® Athlon?XP 2400+(2.0GHz) w/266Mhz FSB Box
$225 Asus A7N8X-Deluex nForce2 Chipset 5PCI/1AGP8x/3DDR w/Sound Dual Lan SATA Raid USB 2.0 Socket A & ATA-133
$175 512MB PC3200 400Mhz 184pin DDR (Samsung/Infineon)
OR $123 512MB PC2700 333Mhz 184pin DDR (Samsung/Infineon)
OR $105 512MB PC2100 266Mhz 184pin DDR (Micron/Samsung)
$86 LiteOn 52x24x52 IDE int CD Writer w/Software OEM
$139 MS Wireless Optical Desktop Pro Keyboard & Mouse Combo (Retail)
$375 Samsung 19" 957MB .22(H) 1920x1440 Magic Bright

Questions:
Will there be any conflicts between these parts that i have chosen?
Will my ATA/100 Harddrive work with this system?
Is the Asus a7n8x onboard sound exceptional ? Im not going to be playing games much.
About the RAM. is there a huge difference between PC2100, 2700, and 3200 ? Which one should i buy. If the performace gap between the 3200 and 2700 isnt too much, I would rather buy the 2700 to save some money.
Also, Ive heard that the Samsung 957MB is a great monitor. Anyone used this monitor and is it good?
Also, I need suggestions for the following things:
Case
Heatsink Fan (unless there is one included with the 2400+, and provided it does the job well)

Thanks in advanc for your help.

 

[sukhwinder21]

bump

 

[magomago]

If you are going to spend 250 dollars on a chip...get one of thte 333mhz Athlons.


And ditch the 52x burner.....get a much cheaper (for nearly 30 dollars less) 40x burner or a 48x because you won't notice that extra 10 seconds...

And I sy get the 512pc3200 and run it at ddr333 with tight settings




Questions:
Will there be any conflicts between these parts that i have chosen?
No, there shouldn't be

Will my ATA/100 Harddrive work with this system?
Yes. Definitely.


Is the Asus a7n8x onboard sound exceptional ? Im not going to be playing games much.
The Deluxe version is VERY good...you will enjoy it VERY much

About the RAM. is there a huge difference between PC2100, 2700, and 3200 ? Which one should i buy. If the performace gap between the 3200 and 2700 isnt too much, I would rather buy the 2700 to save some money.
HRmm...check the benchies. I'd personally just get pc3200 running at 2700 with more aggressive timings. But if price makes a difference go with pc2700

Also, Ive heard that the Samsung 957MB is a great monitor. Anyone used this monitor and is it good?
Sorry Don't know

Also, I need suggestions for the following things:

Case - try to get a aluminmum case (i'll help with a newegg search) and a good PSU

Heatsink Fan (unless there is one included with the 2400+, and provided it does the job well - If its retail it'll come with one...Else the SLK-800, Volcano9, Volcano 7+ are all popular (though the SLK-800 will do the best job undoubtdly...)

 

[Cerb]

Unfortunately I don't think newegg ships to Canada :disgust:

Newegg:

AMD ATHLON XP 2400 /266 FSB PROCESSOR CPU - RETAIL $160
Asus Motherboard for AMD Athlon/XP/Duron Processors, Model# A7N8X Deluxe Retail
dual NICs, onboard video, etc. $145
KINGSTON KVR333X64C25/512 512MB 32x64 PC2700 DDR RAM (better than 2100 2400) $82.50 +$6s&h
Samsung Original DDR333 PC-2700 512mb CAS2.5 - OEM Version $103.50 +5s&h
CORSAIR MEMORY 512MB PC2700 VALUE SELECT. DDR RAM - OEM $121
Sure get the stuff, but your prices are a bit high there (unless you go PC3200...nothing cheap there).
Cyberdrive 52x24x52 CDRW CD-RW Drive CW092 RETAIL BOX $51+$4s&h
(I've been quite impressed with Cyberdrive burners...they can read some really beat up discs that even the previous stand-by Lite-on DVD reader couldn't)
Lite On 52x24x52 CDRW Model LTR-52246 Retail $54 + $6s&h
The keyboard I have no clue about, as, IMO, anything that doesn't have a Model M sticker on the bottom isn't worth getting, and the monitor is definitely worth the money.

1)Will there be any conflicts between these parts that i have chosen?
2) Will my ATA/100 Harddrive work with this system?
3) Is the Asus a7n8x onboard sound exceptional ? Im not going to be playing games much.
4) About the RAM. is there a huge difference between PC2100, 2700, and 3200 ? Which one should i buy. If the performace gap between the 3200 and 2700 isnt too much, I would rather buy the 2700 to save some money.
5) Also, Ive heard that the Samsung 957MB is a great monitor. Anyone used this monitor and is it good?
Also, I need suggestions for the following things:
6) Case
7) Heatsink Fan (unless there is one included with the 2400+, and provided it does the job well)

1) Shouldn't be.
2) Yes.
3) Yes, but there is significant bass roll-off. Check the firingsquad on it.
4) Getting RAM faster than your FSB will help. Not in benchmarks as much as responisveness...you can have programs hogging it all over the place and barely notice any slowdowns switching apps (I'm OCing my Centon to 166). I can't see getting PC3200 helping much on an AMD unless you get a chip that uses the 166MHz FSB.
5) Not that specific one, but I have yet to see a bad Samsung or CTX monitor, so I say go with it.
6) IMO, Evercase or a Chieftech. the Evercases are cool, the Chieftechs are just deisgned big so they don't have to be as innovative (you have to use screws everywhere, but it isn't bothersome because you never have to do any of the wierd screwdriver angles, bending into the case or any of that).
To answer the question not asked...
Antec TruePower 330w would probably be the best thing you could get for that thing, and would probably last a few upgrades as well (I'm all for saving money, but with a $150 mobo, CPU and memory...it's worth $20 extra over a lesser PSU).
7) It should do fine. If not, though, there is a wealth of info the in the cases & cooling section to be searched on this topic.

 

[Duvie]

I may be smoking something and plain wrong, but isn't the nforce2 a dual ddr chipset??? Isn't it worth getting any of those options in 2 sticks instead of one??? Or does it mainly only help if you are using the onboard video??

 

[sukhwinder21]

Duvie, im not sure about that. Can someone reply with an answer ?

If that is true, then i will just get 2 * 256MB sticks.

 

[sukhwinder21]

Originally posted by: magomago
If you are going to spend 250 dollars on a chip...get one of thte 333mhz Athlons.

These are in Canadian dollars:

$243 AMD® Athlon?XP 2400+(2.0GHz) w/266Mhz FSB Box ($159 US)
$392 AMD® Athlon?XP 2600+(2.13Hz) w/333Mhz FSB Box ($257 US)


There is a huge price difference between those two processors. Can't i just overclock the 2.0GHZ to 2.1GHZ and achieve the same performance ?

 

[tbates757]

yes, you can. he was confused and didnt realize you meant CDN$

 

[compudog]

Originally posted by: Duvie
I may be smoking something and plain wrong, but isn't the nforce2 a dual ddr chipset??? Isn't it worth getting any of those options in 2 sticks instead of one??? Or does it mainly only help if you are using the onboard video??

The nForce2 is a dual DDR chipset and the board will run in dual mode without the IGP (integrated video.) As for a performance improvement Duall DDR vs. DDR. I can't honestly say that things are much faster. I have mine set to Dual DDR (Asus A7N8X Dlx) but I've tried it in both modes. It "seems" more responsive in Photoshop with multiple images open in Dual DDR. YMMV.

If you are going with an nForce 2, I would still say to get two matching sticks and run it in Dual mode. The nVidia Soundstorm is great, though if you do a lot of wavetable stuff (midi's) SB's Audigy may be better.

 

[Cerb]

NForce2 is dual-DDR, though the benifts aren't that much unless you're running specfic benchmarks, so if it is cheaper to get 2x256MB sticks, go for it (and sometimes it is!).
Also, yeah, part of me saw you mentioned canada, and it didn't get through to the part that would tell me costs should be higher up there based on the currency.

 

[BHeemsoth]

ditch the lite on burner...go to staples today or tommorw and get the bus link 52xcdrw for 19.94 after rebate. (It's a rebadged liteon, the same exact drive your paying $89 for) Make sure the box says smart burn on it.

 

[sukhwinder21]

Im thinking about getting the following case:

$149 Antec SX835II 20" ATX case w/350 watt P4 power supply (8xbays) ($100 US)

Will the 350W be enough for this build?

Also, any other sugguestions for good cases? I cant use newegg because they dont ship to canada.
You can check out www.a-power.com or www.ncix.com.
These are local shops, and I will be buying this case from one of these two.