OC "Ready" system - components?

[magratton]

I am trying to put together an OC-Ready system for a friend. $500 price-cap (ugh) but I am dang close. He will perhaps upgrade some things over the next 2 years and oc a bit perhaps. Am I out to lunch here or should I just bail on the OC thought and get him somethign that is lower grade and tell him to bail and buy a new system in 2-3 years.

here is what I have so far:

• Apire x-Dreamer II - 350W PSU 2x80MM fans (one is side, one on top) - $55
• Abit NF7 OEM - Has everything but the SATA, does 400FSB - $43
• AMD Athlon Barton 2500 - 333FSB - $77
• Speeze Falconrock HSF - $11.99 (myocardia keeps recommending this, so will try)
• WD400JB - 40GB, 8MB Cache - $63
• Mushkin 1x512MB PC2700 Hi Perf Level 2 - $114 (heard this can be oc'd to PC3200 levels)
• Sapphire Radeon 9200 (128mb 128bit 8xAGP) - $65
• Lite-on DVD-CDRW 52x..., Black - $48.50
• Sony Black 1.44 FDD - $9

Shipped this tips at $510, no: kbd/mouse, monitor, cables
What (if anything) would you do differently? About the only thing I can think to do is to dump down to a AMD Thoroghbread 2000+ and/or drop the memory down to something cheap. I would save about $50 doing that.

Oh! On a slightly different topic: anyone have any thoughts as to whether I should remove a HSF before shiping a system? I have to send a system and it has a Thermalright SLK947U mounted on it.

Thanks folks, greatly appreciated!

 

[Lyfer]

YMMV with the Mushkin PC2700, get some cheap Kingston ValueRAM from mwave.com its only $86 for a 512MB PC3200 dual pack. Ditch the Desktop Barton, get a Mobile Barton XP2400, its the same price and will overclock better. The PSU with the Aspire is likely gonna limit your overclock, I would recommend getting a cheap $30 case and add a $35 Fortron/Sparkle 350W PSU or even a $38 Enlight 420 PSU. The SLK947 is huge, if it were me I would definitely ship it not installed.


BTW I hope he plans on gaming at 640x480 (800x600 @ older games) with the Radeon 9200. Tell him to save up and add a Radeon 9800 PRO for $211 and it'll be a nice gaming rig.