Recommendations for a new system

[ggupta]

I am looking to build a system for under a thousand dollars. so far i have:

-athlon fsb 266 1.33 ghz $130
-asus a7a266 mobo $140
-512 megs ddr 2100mHz ram $80
-60 gig ibm deskstar $160
-ricoh 12x10x32 burner $77
-hitachi 12x dvd rom $33
-msi Starforce 881 geforce 2 64 ddr pro $148
-CL sounblaster live $46
-3com 10/100 nic $32
-fonk kai 603 $75
-CL ct7160 dvd decoder card $30
-i have a modem sitting around
-----------------------------
total 950

i was just wondering if anyone had any input on what i might getter a better deal with. i am comfortable with the price range, but i want to see if i can get anything better for that price. thanks.

 

[heffe734]

i would recommend that you get the epox 8k7a mobo...it's a yummy board.

 

[FlippyBoy]

great choices, all around. are you going to be overclcking? if so, you may have better success withthe 8k7a. otherwise, it sounds like quite a formidable system i can see you are also into movie watching. just make sure you dont put too many fans in your case, especially those high-powered 60mm cpu fans (those make a lot of noise that will probably make watching movies somewhat annoying)

 

[Ollie98]

heard that hitachi dvd drives suck.

 

[Gibzilla]

Nice setup.

I just want to recommend either Gigabyte 7dx or Asus A7m instead of the Asus A7A. You just want to stay away from Ali, Sis and Via as much as possible. Besides, who knows more about AMD CPU's than AMD?

 

[Wind]

Good setup. Epox K7TA recommeded if you plan to O/C (agressive). Otherwise, proceed with the system building..

 

[ggupta]

well i dont plan on overclocking anything because i think that there is enough juice in the system to begin with and i prefer to just have a nice stable system. what exactly are the differences between the mobo's that you guys have recomended? the asus a7a vs. a7m vs. epox 8k7a vs. that gigabyte one? i mean everyone has a recommendation, but why one over the other?

 

[ggupta]

oh yeah. is a 250 w power supply going to be enough for all this? it is an amd approved one.

 

[FlippyBoy]

probably, if its a quality one. but id go with a 300, just to be on the safe side.

 

[DarkMajiq]

Go with the EPoX 8K7A for a motherboard. Make sure that either your processor is a retail version, or you buy a heatsink/fan unit seperately if it's an OEM processor. Oh, and you'll definitely want a 300W power supply, 250W could do it, but why gamble? You've got a fair amount of peripherals there, which means more power needs...