System Upgrade - opinions?

[adrian12]

I'm planning to upgrade a computer system I have at home to -

AXP2000+ - £77.85 from http://www.komplett.co.uk

Leadtek Twinforce2 (Nforce 415 + Ti4200) - £154.44 from http://www.ebuyer.com

300W PSU Sparkle - £41.13 from http://www.overclockers.co.uk

256Mb PC2100 Cas2.5 Crucial - £52.88 from http://www.overclockers.co.uk

Quotes are a few days old.

this comes to £326.30
I will need to add in a cooler of some sort, of maybe I'll get a retail CPU with the HSF.

I don't intend to O/C at all, since my bro will be using it and I am trying to cut the costs but maintain a decent gaming system)

A few questions though.

1. Since money is an issue, can anyone get those pieces for significantly cheaper? (I'm not worried about a few £'s difference)

2. I've heard horror stories about generic PSU's but there is a 400w PSU from ebuyer @ only £15.59 which is quite cheaper than that one from Sparkle. Any reason not to get a generic PSU?

3. What about performance difference from an AXP1600+ and an AXP2000+? since the 1600+ is at least £30 cheaper.

 

[Soulkeeper]

i would get a better psu than 300watt get atleast 350 400 if possible
if yur trying to cut costs then going with an xp 1600+ isn't a bad idea atleast you'll know where yur bottleneck is (and you'll be able to fix it) for future upgrades
i dunno what that twinforce is but nforce boards don't come with TI4200 graphics
stores are pushing out their old nforce1 boards in anticipation of the nforce2 which should be out anytime now
If yur gonna skimp on things i would skimp on everything but the motherboard
cause that is the base of all future upgrades
get a good psu too
and if you can get pc2700 mem or atleast mem that can handle that speed just incase you end up upgrading later

xp1600+ to 2000+
256mb pc2700 mem
350 or 400 watt psu

as far as video cards go the onboard nforce stuff is like lowend gf2 mx performance I wouldn't consider that decent gaming
look into a radeon 8500, a GF3 ti200, or if you got the money a GF4 (not the MX stuff)
you could prob get a kt333 motherboard pretty cheap, but there is nothing wrong with nforce either (just not the integrated graphics ones)
make sure yur board will support future 166fsb athlons before you buy it

 

[adrian12]

Leadtek Twinforce2

its a Leadtek Nforce 415D plus a Leadtek GF4 TI4200 retail package

its only £154 which i think is quite good since a Leadtek GF4 Ti4200 is around £115 online, I don't think I can get a decent mobo for the remaining £39, so its a great price!

Only crap thing is it doesn't come with manual (or bios) multipliers, so if i decide to overclock it a bit, I'll need decent ram and lots of luck.