Suggestions on my A64 Build

[aptlynamed]

$121 ANTEC Performance Plus Case with 430W Power Supply, Model "PLUS1080AMG"
$211 AMD Athlon 64 3000+, 512KB L2 Cache, 64-bit Processor - OEM
$45.99 ZALMAN CNPS7000A-Cu Pure Copper CPU
$135 GIGABYTE "GA-K8NS PRO" nForce3 250 Chipset Motherboard for AMD Socket 754 CPU
$146 Mushkin 184 Pin 512MB DDR PC-3500 Level One - OEM
$400 ATI RADEON X800 PRO 256MB DDR AGP Graphics Card
$100 Western Digital 120GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive, Model WD1200JD, OEM Drive Only
$76.99 NEC 8X Black DVD+RW/-RW Drive, Model ND-2500A, OEM
$10.99 SONY Black 1.44MB 3.5inch Floppy Disk Drive
$11.49 Arctic Silver 5, 3.5-gram( 1 cc. ) tube

TOTAL: $1258.46
Prices include shipping. All from Newegg, minus the X800.

I want to be able to overclock the A64 to 2.3-2.4ghz,
And naturally want to play FarC/HL2/D3/EQ2/WoW.

Any comments, ideas, or suggestions will be much appreciated.

-Matt

 

[Regs]

Looks solid. Gigabyte is a good brand and have proven themselves to have stable over clocking motherboards. I think they also come with pretty good onboard sound.

I would just get a lite on DVD burner. Other than that, pretty solid.

 

[Markfw]

And with that much horsepower, get a gig of ram, you will need it to play games that use the X800.

 

[Nickel020]

I would also recommend getting 1GB of RAM.
If you want to save some bucks drop the Arctic Silver and get a CNPS 7000A-AlCu instead of the -Cu version; you will get only about 3C higher CPU temps at the most (there is almost no measurable difference between the 7000A-AlCu and the 7000A-Cu, and 3C is the most you will get from using Arctic Silver over some other heatsink compound).
Apart form that, the system looks solid.

Welcome to the forums!

 

[aptlynamed]

Am I missing anything besides I/O (monitor,mouse, etc.)?

Been about 3 years since I built my last computer.
Some people around the office have been telling me to wait for PCI Express/939,

but when can we expect a sub $1500 PCIExpress/939 build?

If its not in 2004, then I might just get this A64 build for now.

-Matt

 

[Nickel020]

Originally posted by: aptlynamed
Am I missing anything besides I/O (monitor,mouse, etc.)?

Been about 3 years since I built my last computer.
Some people around the office have been telling me to wait for PCI Express/939,

but when can we expect a sub $1500 PCIExpress/939 build?

If its not in 2004, then I might just get this A64 build for now.

-Matt

Your system is complete. The IDE and floppy cables you need should be included with the mobo.

Your system with a 939 mobo an A64 3500+ and a PCI Express X800 Pro should be possible when the PCI Express mobo and video cards are available. The video card should be the same price, mobo slightly more and CPU no more than $450 kepping the system below $1500. It should all be available this fall.

 

[mitchafi]

If it was me I'd downgrade from an X800 to a 9800 Pro and use the extra money to get more ram and a retail AMD 3200+ (heatsink included). I think the stock heatsink is fine unless you need your cpu to be extra quiet. That case and the three fans it comes with are awesome, albeit ugly.

 

[Regs]

The extra cache on the 3200 compared to the 3000 has shown worthless as of late.

Edit, Oh, you mean the original 3200 Barton. Why? There around the same price last time I checked :/ With a large performance margin I might add.

 

[Algere]

I'd probably pay $6 more for this black Lite-On DVD writer just because it has faster CD-R/RW speed. If that's not a concern then yea, good pick on the DVD writer.

 

[mitchafi]

Originally posted by: Regs
The extra cache on the 3200 compared to the 3000 has shown worthless as of late.

Edit, Oh, you mean the original 3200 Barton. Why? There around the same price last time I checked :/ With a large performance margin I might add.

Actually I mean the Athlon 64 3200. Why you ask? Well, the only knowledge I have about CPU's is what I have read on here, mostly different people's (including yours) answers to my questions. I have read mostly everywhere that 3000+ has the best price performance ratio, but I have also read that as far as processing goes, you should get the fastest cpu you can afford. I probably wouldn't have reccomended the upgrade from the 3000+ to the 3200+ at all If I didn't see the video card he had selected. I can't justify spending $400 on a video card when the excellent 9800 Pro can be had for sub $200 USD, so I just assume downgrade to that, and put the extra $200 or so to better use somewhere else. Perhaps it is not put to better use with the 3200+, but definitely with 512 more RAM. However, to each his own, maybe he wants the uberest, most cutting-edge video card out there and is willing to spend whatever it takes to get it