building a new computer - thoughts/discussion

[McSweeny]

I'm putting together a new computer for myself. It's been quite awhile since i've been involved in something like this so my knowledge isn't up to par. I'm looking to put together a pretty good computer for around 800-900 bucks. I've already got a nice flat pannel monitor. I don't really care too much about running all the latest games with the settings maxed out, i would however like to play Total War, Football Manager, and maybe a first person shooter or two all at reasonable speeds.

So anyway, here's what i have put together on my own so far. Any thoughts or discussion would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

ASUS "A7N8X-E Deluxe" nForce2 Ultra 400 Chipset Motherboard for AMD Socket A CPU $86

AMD Athlon 64 3000+, 512KB L2 Cache 64-bit Processor $155

ANTEC Black Solution Series ATX Mid-Tower Case with 350W Power Supply, Model "SLK3700-BQE" $75

Western Digital 80GB 7200RPM IDE Hard Drive, Model WD800BB, OEM Drive only $57

CHAINTECH nVIDIA GeForce FX5700LE Video Card, 256MB DDR, 128-bit, DVI/TV-Out, AGP, Model "SA5700L" $95.99

Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS PCI Sound Card, Model "SB0350" $85.99

SAMSUNG 16X DVD Drive Black, Model TS-H352A/WBGH, OEM $23.99

SONY Black 52x32x52 Internal IDE CD-RW Drive W/ CD Maker Software, Model CRX230ED-B2, OEM $27

2x Rosewill 184-Pin 512MB DDR PC3200, Model RW400/512 - Retail $70 each

also some rounded cables to make putting it together a little easier. Total comes to $750 plus shipping. I'm considering added some more RAM as well. Everything look ok?

[The_herd]

Looks good to me. Should be a solid system that will run anything out there right now. The processor is the same one I was looking at. The only thing I would change is possibly bumping the hard drive up to 160GB.

I finally started buying parts for my own computer and I want to hijack this a little bit to ask whether or not the 939 socket processors are worth the money or should I just stick to the 754? Is this a potential compatibility issue down the road as 939 becomes the standard?

[daedalus]

Based on what I've heard, the 5700LE maybe on the light side if you'll be doing 3D. I would consider spending a little more on that and, perhaps, consider temporarily holding off on the Audigy since I've heard many on-board sound can be acceptable. Unless you're a music buff, in which case that goes out the window.

One recommendation I've seen floated on GoneGold (RIP) and its Console Gold/Octopus Overlord descendents is going with an ATI 9800 PRO-based card. A refurbished one can be found on NewEgg for ~140, if you are okay with refurbished items. The alternative, if you're not in a hurry to build the system, is to wait for the nVidia 6600, currently only PCI-Express, to come out in AGP. Apparently, that should be in the ~199 area.

Otherwise, looks spiff. Oh, that and don't forget a copy of XP, which adds some to the bill. Unless you have a copy available or another OS in mind already.

[sterlingice]

I'll second daed. That 5700LE is a bit on the light side. Not that it's bad but it will be your bottleneck and the thing you need to replace first. If you can still find a Radeon 9600 Pro, that's the price spot to hit. Cheap (~$100-$120) but hard to find.

SI

[Godzilla Blitz]

McSweeny: In case you're interested, I've got a one-year-old ATI 9600 Pro that I don't need any more. I'd sell it at a decent price. I just upgraded to a 9800 Pro, and was planning to put the old card up on E-bay this week.

Drop me a private message if you are interested, and I can give you details about the card.

In either case, good luck with the computer. I'd second the recommendation to at least see if you'd be happy with the motherboard sound. I built a computer a year ago and held off on the sound card; the motherboard sound has been great. Any money I spent on a sound card would have been wasted.

[McSweeny]

thanks for the feedback guys. I'm looking into 9800 Pro's now, and i can get a pretty decent price on the 128mb version. I'm looking into the onboard sound support and if it looks pretty good i might just use the 85 bucks to beef up my video card or another 512 megs of RAM.

[Ryan S]

Are the motherboard and processor compatible with each other? I thought Socket A was just for the Athlon XP.

[McSweeny]

Are the motherboard and processor compatible with each other? I thought Socket A was just for the Athlon XP.

yeah i noticed that, it's the socket 754 that works with the Athlon 64