upgrading computer, need input (+ a few questions)

[Disc13]

Alrity, I've been racking up the paychecks and have decided it is time to upgrade. Tell me what you guys think. After replacing some of the old stuff, the final product would come out to be...

Soyo KT333 Dragon Lite (don't need all the extra crap that the Ultra has- but does anyone know if performance between the two are the same? I'd assume the Light would run better because it wouldn't have to support the other stuff)
512MB DDR PC2100 Unbuffered ECC ram
Some sort of Athlon- probably sitcking with my 1.33GHz
Western Digital 40GB HD (7200RPM)
Lite On 40X12X48 CD-RW
Lite On 16X DVD ROM Drive
Turtle Beach Santa Cruz
Gainward Ti4600 (I would wait for the 9700 from Ati, but I want a dual DVI connection and the Ati probably won't have one)
Chieftec Server tower DX-01SLD (that's the silver one )
SMC Ethernet card
ENERMAX EG465P-VE(FC) 431W Power supply
Klipsch ProMedia 5.1s
Samsung 151P LCDs (designed by F.A. Porsche... ooh!)
Random fans, keyboard, mouse, WinXPhome, floppy drive

everyone look a-ok? am i missing someting?

another quick question: does the Santa Cruz have true 5.1?

also, can someone recommend me a good small digital camera?

thx a bunch!

 

[VicYoung]

Soyo is an okay manufacturer, personaly I'd go with an ASUS,Abit or Gigabyte mobo.

Why go with PC2100 ram? You're getting a KT333 chipset so why not make use of the memory bandwidth and get PC2700 ram? Corsair,Crucial,Mushkin,Samsung Stay clear of OZC the company is crap!

The old Athlons are fine. I'd overclock it a few hundred Mhz so you can avoid buying an XP cpu.

WesternDigital is okay but I'd buy a nice fast but cheap ATA133 Maxtor quiet 7,200rpm drive.

Why do you need a 40X cd-rw? You could get a 32X Lite-On that comes bundled with a lite version of Nero for alot less and the 40X drive doesn't come with Nero (atleast from newegg that wasn't the case) My personal view is it's now worth it to spend all that cash so you can say I have the fastest burner out there. Also the fact is there is no real differnce between the two drives except for the 40X might be a little bit faster but not by much.

Panasonic makes better DVD drives in my opinion but the Lite-On should be fine as a DVD player is a DVD player reguardless

Turtle Beach Soundcard? I'd opt for a 5.1 Creative Live value card cheap and adequate

Gainward makes good videocards so that card is fine.

If you are buying the Chieftec for it's custom paint job then I can understand but if color isn't an issue with you then why not save alot of money and by a real Antec case with a 420w PSU for far less than it will cost for a seperate Power supply and case bought seperatly?

Never used an SMC Ethernet NIC so I'm not sure but 3com and Intel NIC's have never failed me. Stay away from (D-link & Netgear cheap ass NICS)

Enermax PSU units rock! but they cost a pretty penny, your choice

Personally I have bought the Klipsch speakers and they do not sound as nearly good as every says they do. They are far over rated for the price they cost. However I cannot suggest anything in that price range that you might want to buy.

Samsung makes good moniters, I think that is a good choice but if you are a gamer then I'd opt for a nice 19" or 21" crt from Sony

As for fans I'd get Vantec stealth 80mm case fans X 4

Microsoft's Natural Keyboard pro keyboard can't beat it

Cheap Logitech Optical usb mouse

I'd opt for WinXP pro and not WinXP Home but that's a toss up, either will do fine

Any generic floppy will do allthough Sony makes very quiet 3.5" floppies

Last but not least I'd do all your shopping at newegg.com and pick up the stuff you can't get from newegg locally.

Nice computer though

 

[Disc13]

thx for all the input!

yeah, i already have some of the stuff like the monitor and stuff.
as for some of the other stuff...

Crucial.com apparently doesn't have PC2700 RAM in the 512MB size for this particular mobo. Perhaps i'll check out the other memory vendors...
i already have (in/on my current comp) the hard drive, keyboard (a Logitech), mouse (a Kensington), WinXP Home, the SMC, the 151P (it's beautiful! planning to get another sometime), and the floppy.
I'm going for the Turtle Beach cuz in theory it's a lot better than the Creative, and also it for sure won't have any problems with the WinXP.
I figure the price difference between the 40x and the 32x CD-RW drives isn't great enuf for me not to buy a 40x.
And yes, I'm buying the case for the color hehe.
For the speakers, i can't find any other ones that has the 5.1 setup and looks nice (like physically looks nice)
and yep, i'm shopping at newegg =)

thx much for all your other comments, especially about the fans. I'll check into em.