System I'm Building...Comments?

[thephew]

Lian-Li PC-68+USB Case Bought for $205..its beautiful
AMD Athlon TBird 1.4 GHz Waiting until last minute to buy
ThermalTake Volcano II HS+Fan Not gonna OC for at least a year
Epox 8K7A Mobo 135 bux, great performance
512 MB PC2100 DDR RAM Fill up those 2 memory slots on the MB
Gainward GeForce 3 Never thought i'd pay 350 for a VC
IBM 40 GB 7200RPM 60GXP Hard Drive 125 from newegg...good deal
Pioneer DVD-106S Slot loading,painting silver to match case
Phillips Acoustic Edge 5.1 for music, games, and DVDs for 70 bux
Klipsch Promedia 5.1 Speakers Not out til jul 15...grr
Enermax EG365PVE PSU Is 350W enuf? hope so, cus i already bought
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Total Shipped: $1768.42 now, probably $1700 by the time I buy everything

Already own a 21" Sony Trinitron and a CD-R. I've already purchased the case, Mobo, HD, DVD, and PSU, so don't thrash my choices there. Someone please make me feel better about dropping so much money for the GeForce 3; especially since GF2 Pro is 200 less. It just seems like the programmable GPU is the future for games. I'm also considering waiting until August to pop in a Palomino at like 1.6 GHz, but I think the 1.4 Tbird is just such a sweet deal now. Thanks for your comments

 

[InfectedVoice]

Damn, thats a sweet rig. Im building a similar one....but not as good as that !!!

I would however suggest replacing the Volcano 2. Even if youre not going to oc, a better HS would drop the temp by a couple of degrees. And if you do ever get the urge to oc (most people do), then you may be facing some heat problems with that V2.

Anyway, everything else looks stellar

 

[thephew]

Yeah Infected, the HSF is obviously the weakest link now. Can you recommend a good HSF that won't cost more than like 35 bux? Low noise is more important to me than clock speed (read: no Delta fans), although I'd like to hit 1.6 gHz sometime.

Thanks

 

[Athlon4all]

I disagree, Volcano II is a good HSF. It looks like a good system, there's no guarrentee that Palomino is supported by the Epox mobo so. Personally I would have gotten K7 Master but still, heard good things about the Epox board. If you're into games then get GeForce3, but if you're into Office apps, then getting a GeForce2 Pro and then setting up a RAID array ($100 for the RAID card I'd say and a 2nd. Desktar Hard drive). For more info read Anand's article on RAID. and yeah 350W should be enough, 400W would have been better but you should be fine.

 

[InfectedVoice]

Any alpha HSF is a good buy.
The Taisol CGK760092 comes highly recommnded (dont know how loud it is tho)
The GlobalWin FOP38 is the best bang for the buck, but it is LOUD. I think the FOP32 is a little quieter since the fan run slower (4800 RPM I think).

Anyway, do a search for HSF in Anandtech's databank.

 

[thephew]

I went ahead and bought a Thermalright SK6 heatsink with a 30 CFM Delta (only 39 dB as opposed to 46 dB for the 38 CFM), along with some Artic Silver II. Set me back 60 bux shipped, but that HS is pure copper, and www.frostytech.com loved it. I'm thinking I can hit 1.6 GHz with this setup, and it won't sound like a jet taking off.

 

[ProviaFan]

/* but if you're into Office apps, then getting a GeForce2 Pro */

The Geforce 2's have lesser 2D quality than a GF3, ATI Radeon, or Matrox card, so why would you want one of those for 2D office applications?