Very First Build - help!

[akassasin]

hey everyone.
I've decided to build myself a new computer for the first time. I don't know a whole lot about the hardware out there so I was hoping to get a little advice from you guys. Heres what I have picked out so far, any recommendations would be very appreciated.
($2,500 budget) but dont want to waste any money.

Case - CoolerMaster Wave Master - $143.00
Power Supply - PC Power and Cooling Turbo Cool 510 Express - $229.00
Harddrive - WD Raptor 10,000 RPM 74 GB - $180.00 (not sure about this one)
Motherboard - MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum Nforce4 Ultra - $169.00 (not sure about this one)
CPU - Athlon 64 3500+ Winchester - $350.00
Sound Card - Soundblaster Audigy2 ZS - $91.00
DVD - NEC 16x double layer CD/DVD burner - $63.00
Monitor - Samsung SyncMaster 19" - $186.00

Things I'm not sure about:

Video Card
RAM

I basically took a stab at all those as this is my first time doing this... any advice is appreciated.
thanks

 

[Patrick Wolf]

Where do you plan on buying your parts?

 

[Blain]

At least you're going with a different PS than the rest of the herd. :laugh:

 

[Waylay00]

For the Hard Drive, ditch the Raptor. Yes, it is the fastest, but you can get a Seagate Barracuda SATA drive that will be almost as fast (not really noticeable) and with much more space. So you could get a Seagate Barracuda 120GB SATA for $100. For the motherboard, I would strongly suggest waiting till there are some good reviews of all the NF4 boards, then pick one. The DFI LANPARTY UT Ultra-D NF4 looks promising. IF you aren't seriously overclocking, pick up some Corsair Value Select 1GB (2x512). You can even overclock with this RAM. For video card, I would strongly suggest getting an ATI X800XL. These cards have a very low MSRP ($300) and perform just as good as a 6800GT. You should start seeing these more available in the next month or so. They actually perform better than the 6800GT in games such as HL2 and Battlefield Vietnam. The PC P&C is very good, but OCZ makes very strong PSU's also, for less the price.

 

[AndyBogard]

Originally posted by: Waylay00
For video card, I would strongly suggest getting an ATI X800XL. These cards have a very low MSRP ($300) and perform just as good as a 6800GT. You should start seeing these more available in the next month or so.

They do have a low MSRP and they perform in most cases as good as a 6800GT, but are you going to be able to find one at or near MSRP, NO, not unless you got in on ATI's preorder. Some places currently carry them, but wide availability won't be for some time though, and I would expect the price gouging to continue for at least another 2 months.

I was going to get that card, but then got tired of waiting, not only for X800XL, but also for Nforce4. I got a Sapphire X800XT AGP RETAIL card for the same price as these places are gouging for the X800XL, and obviously the XT will perform better.

 

[Chosonman]

Case - CoolerMaster Wave Master - $143.00 (NICE)
Power Supply - PC Power and Cooling Turbo Cool 510 Express - $229.00 (VERY VERY EXPENSIVE, GET ONE FOR $100 OR LESS, You can get an OCZ, Antec for about $80-$120. $229 is just rediculous)
Harddrive - WD Raptor 10,000 RPM 74 GB - $180.00 (not sure about this one) (VERY EXPENSIVE, GET A 160 GB SATA for $100, you wont notice an $80, 90 GIG difference in performance)
Motherboard - MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum Nforce4 Ultra - $169.00 (not sure about this one) (VERY EXPENSIVE, look for an Nforce3 for around $100, but if you insist on an Nforce 4 get it for no more than $150)
CPU - Athlon 64 3500+ Winchester - $350.00 (VERY EXPENSIVE, GET A 3200 INSTEAD $220 and overclock it to 3500 speeds)
Sound Card - Soundblaster Audigy2 ZS - $91.00 (DON'T NEED motherboards have great onboard now adays.)r
DVD - NEC 16x double layer CD/DVD burner - $63.00 (NICE)
Monitor - Samsung SyncMaster 19" - $186.00 (NICE)

You forgot memory. Get 1 GIG of Value RAM for $140

Trim those expensive parts
$100 for PSU = -$129 Savings
$100 for Hard Drive = -$80 Savings
$100 for Motherboard = -$69 Savings
$220 for CPU = -$130 Savings
-$91.00 no sound card

Total Savings: $499

 

[akassasin]

I plan on buying my stuff from newegg.com.

I dont know about this waiting game though. I was looking at doing this last summer but everyone said "wait til PCI-Express comes out, dont waste your money!" Now I'm here looking again. It seems that there will always be something to wait for.

Thanks for the feedback. Heres some questions I have:

What is so good about the DFI motherboard that would be worth waiting for??
Is downgrading from a 3500 to a 3200 really worth the $100 savings?
Still confused on the video card. Is the X800XL really worth waiting for over the 6800GT?
Last, would it be worth it to pitch an extra $20 to get the Neo4 SLI board?


thanks

 

[akassasin]

bump

 

[Waylay00]

Yes, I would wait for the DFI. DFI makes very stable well performing boards.

If you have the money by all means, get the 3500+.

The x800XL performs a tad bit better at games such as HL2. Now if the X800XL's are actually at MSRP when they are released by ATI (the ATI branded ones), get the X800XL. If they are overpriced because of low supply though, get the 6800GT. Basically, get whatever is cheaper at the time.

SLI is a waste of money. By the time you want to add another graphics card to your SLI setup, there will be a midrange next gen card that is just as good as your two older graphics cards in SLI.

 

[Blain]

Dump that crap OCZ PS and get your first pick.

 

[PurdueRy]

the sound card might be worth it depending on your needs

 

[Wadded Beef]

I'd wait for an sli board. sure a future midrange card will be as good as your 2 old cards, but you can sell those on ebay and put two of those new midrange cards in there! plus the 939 boards will support dual core cpus.