New System, parts list what do you think?

[John2583]

Hello everyone. I didn't see a "building systems" place so I gues this is the best place to post. I am about to build my first personal system. I have built systems before. I am not a big gamer but I will play some games occasionally. Here's my list of parts I've picked out: I plan on ordering this stuff from newegg.com in the next few days. What do ya'll think about my choices? I don't plan on overclocking big time, but I'll probably experiment a little if all I have to do is change mulipiers in the BIOS I don't want a bunch of fans running all the time, too much noise. I already bought a very nice Dell E171FP 17" LCD.

Motherboard: Asus Motherboard for AMD Athlon/XP/Duron Processors, Model# A7N8X Deluxe Retail $153
CPU: AMD Athlon XP 1800+ Thoroughbred /266 FSB Processor CPU 1800+/ 1.53GHz -0.13 micro OEM, AXDA1800DLT3C $78
Hard Drive: Maxtor 80GB 7200RPM Hard Drive Model # 6Y080L0 - OEM, DRIVE ONLY $99.00 (Was $108 a week ago)
CD-RW Optical Drive: Optorite Black 48x16x48 IDE/ATAPI CD-RW Model CW4802 OEM $54
DVD-Rom Optical Drive: ARTEC Black DVDROM 16X IDE DHM-G48 Retail $38
Video Card: ABIT SILURO GF4 TI4200 64MB DDR TV/DVI RETAIL $121
Memory: CRUCIAL MICRON 512MB PC 2700 DDR RAM 184-Pin, CL=2.5-Unbuffered Non Parity 2.5V, CT6464Z335 $147 (Was $149 a week ago)
Case: EVERCASE E4252W005A(Black) 10-bay Case Retail*** $23(screwless, very nice evercase.com)
Power Supply: Antec 380W Power Supply TRUE380 $73 (recommended by Tomshardware guide.)
Mouse: Microsoft Intelli-Mouse Optical - PS2/USB - OEM $21(nice 4 button ergonomic mouse)
DELL Keyboard: 104 Keys, PS/2 Interface, Midnight Gray $19
Anti-Static wrist strap $5.00

Total Price: $831 US Dollars

shipping: $33 from newegg plus whatever Dell.com charges for shipping of the keyboard

 

[Placer14]

Dude, you've got my SAME EXACT core system. Same mobo, memory, proc, and vid card. It runs VERY sweetly. You'll like it. Although, you probably could've gotten some of the stuff a little cheaper. Actually, i got 2x256Mb chips instead of 1x512. Same brand though. Will give you a wider bus, not much change in performance though...

 

[Maleficus]

why only 1800+?

 

[FoBoT]

sounds like a weiner

 

[hans007]

if you arent completely set on AMD

you can pick up a ASUS p4s533 and a p4 2.4B for around $250. sure its $25 more, but also a lot faster.



and if you do stay with the nforce, i'd recommend buying 2 256mb pc2700s instead of 1 512mb , since the nforce2 supports dual channels.


i don tthink paying $73 for a power supply is worth while though, especially with your components. you could easily use a $30 or so delta or liteon power supply. i use a $20 FMI compusa power supply and basically have a very similar system to you (well i have a p4 2.26, but most of the rest is pretty close) .

you could invest the $50 you save on well say a faster CPU , like a xp2200 or 2400. or buy a case that has a power supply in it already , most good name cases have decent power supply, just buy an enlight or inwin or antec case. an antec case like a sx630 would cost less than the power supply alone and you'd still have a 300watt.

 

[Spikey217]

Originally posted by: Maleficus
why only 1800+?

I was thinking the same exact thing. Every CPU up to the 2100+ is still very cheap.

 

[John2583]

Why will having 2 sticks of 256MB DDR be better than one 512MB stick? I don't really wanna spend $73 on that power supply either, but I want a good one that will shut off if I draw to much current. Tomshardware.com did a review of 21 power supplies and found problems with a lot of them. That $73 one they liked. They also liked a herolchi(sp) that costs $50 but newegg.com doesn't have that. Thet Athlon XP 1800+ seems like it'll be fine, I figured I'd get that one for cheap and wait until the better ones were much cheaper, in 6 months to a year to upgrade.

 

[Lonyo]

As someone said, the NForce 2 motherboard supports dual channel DDR, so 2 sticks will give increased performance on this motherboard than one stick. If you get 2 sticks make sure they are the same (speed, size and prefferably brand).

 

[hans007]

Originally posted by: John2583
Why will having 2 sticks of 256MB DDR be better than one 512MB stick? I don't really wanna spend $73 on that power supply either, but I want a good one that will shut off if I draw to much current. Tomshardware.com did a review of 21 power supplies and found problems with a lot of them. That $73 one they liked. They also liked a herolchi(sp) that costs $50 but newegg.com doesn't have that. Thet Athlon XP 1800+ seems like it'll be fine, I figured I'd get that one for cheap and wait until the better ones were much cheaper, in 6 months to a year to upgrade.

if you buy an antec case, it will still come with an antec power supply that will still shutoff. most brand name cases will have a powersupply the can do that.



not to mention, you will never draw anywhere near the max of the power supply. not with any conventional system and especially that system (you could load that sytsem up with far more things and it still wouldnt tax a decent 300 watt power supply), the toms hardware test was based on a theoretical bunch of resistors and things that drew the current not a real setup.