STILL building first ever rig...

[bramma]

Hey, guys. After careful consideration, I have narrowed down the choice of my components to these. It comes to about $860, still under my $900 budget. However, I still have a few questions and would welcome any input that would help a firstimer.

Is there anything I left out? What can I do to avoid static electricity while playing?

Is this video card dx9 compatible? The only game I will mainly play is Everquest, and i know that you have to have a dx9 compatible video card.

Are these parts cohesive and are they good choices?

Is the ram suitable for my motherboard? Also, does this montherboard have to have at least two sticks of ram or can it operate on just one stick?

well, any help is greatly appreciated.


1)ANTEC Solution Series Super Mid Tower Case with 350W Power Supply, Model "SLK3700AMB" -RETAIL
Item# N82E16811129122

$64.00

2)Lite-On 52X32X52X16 Combo Drive, Model SOHC-5232K, Retail
Item# N82E16827106930


$47.99

3)SONY Black 1.44MB 3.5inch Floppy Disk Drive, Model MPF920, OEM
Item# N82E16821103116

$11.99

4)**NON-REFUNDABLE ITEM. Exchange for same Exact Item Only!
Western Digital Special Edition 80GB 7200RPM IDE Hard Drive, Model WD800JB, OEM Drive Only
Item# N82E16822144122

$68.50

5)Microsoft Black Multimedia Keyboard & Wheel Mouse Optical Bundle PS/2 102keys -OEM
Item# N82E16823109122
Save to Buy Later

$36.00

6)?Blow Out Sale
Kingston 184 Pin 512MB DDR PC-3200 - Retail

Item# N82E16820141424

$79.00

7)NEC/MITSUBISHI FE771SB-BK 17" SuperBright Diamondtron CRT Monitor ?RETAIL
Item# N82E16824002028
Save to Buy Later

$152.00

8) **NON-REFUNDABLE ITEM.Warranty is provided through product Manufacturer Only!
ABIT "NF7-S" nForce2 Chipset Motherboard for AMD Socket A CPU -RETAIL
Item# N82E16813127166

$85.00

9)AMD Athlon XP 2500+ "Barton", 333 FSB, 512K Cache Processor - Retail

Item# N82E16819103379

$80.00

10)**NON-REFUNDABLE ITEM.Warranty is provided through product Manufacturer Only!
Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition with Service Pack SP1a - OEM
Item# N82E16837102141

$90.00

11)SAPPHIRE ATI RADEON 9600 Video Card, 128MB DDR, 128-bit, DVI/TV-Out, 8X AGP, Model "ATLANTIS RADEON 9600" -RETAIL
Item# N82E16814102289


$94.00





Product total: $808.48
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Total (Before tax): $ 856.48

 

[Nickc19]

Sounds very similiar to the one I'm getting ready to build.

-Nick-

 

[Mike2002]

Everything looks like it should work out well. One stick of RAM should work fine for you and it's a great price that you were able to get it at with the RAM prices going up like they have been recenlty. One thing that I would recommend is getting Windows XP Professional which is about 140 dollars. If you get this you should be able to stay under your 900 dollar budget and it not then just a few dollars over it. Everything other than that looks good and the video card is Direct X9 so it should be fine with the games that you play.

 

[crimson117]

If you do still have a little breathing room in your budget, upgrade to a WD 160gb drive, for only $22 more. It's unlikely that you'll be able to add 80gb for $22 in the future should you need it, so it might make sense to invest a little now rather than to shell out another $68 and another drive bay when you want more down the line.


EDIT: took out alternative 80gb drives, didn't notice you had already chosen the WD Special Edition.

 

[Mullzy]

If you're playing EQ, upgrading from 512MB to 1GB of RAM will make a noticalbe performance difference. I recently fired up a friends account (I've been clean for 1.5 years!) to see how the engine has changed and noticed a lot of choppiness due to texture loading (running quickly through large zones I'd get frame stutter whenever some new objects/textures/spell effects were loaded). This is with a P4 2.8@3.2 and a 9800 PRO too so I was a bit surprised.

I recently upgraded to 1GB and noticed that frame stutter disappeared. Actually, a lot of my other games are smoother as well.

Anyway, if you shave $20-$30 off some other part of your system you should have enough for another stick of 512.

Good luck!

EDIT: Or better yet, get a bigger HD like crimson suggested and wait 3-4 months to buy some more RAM.

 

[nick1985]

go for the mobile athlon 2500, WAY better OC

 

[sisooktom]

I'd up your video card to a 9600XT. Also, it should be a crime to pair a nice new system like that with a 17" CRT.

 

[txxxx]

I'd sacrafice something or just pump in more cash to squeeze a 9800 Pro in. Might as well get a Mobile 2500+ cpu, they run at a lower voltage at default which in turn means they can be overclocked nicely. Even if you dont overclock, its still runs cooler than a normal 2500+