New Computer for College

[funkmasta_k]

This is my first time building a computer, and I've been doing alot of research for awhile now. I don't plan on buying the parts until the end of summer, so hopefully the prices will drop. Anyways, I've compiled a list of parts, it's not concrete, I just wanted some feedback on anything, like compatabiliy with memory and the motherboard. I found all these items on newegg, not necessarily purchasing them all from there. I will be using this comp for gaming mostly i.e. counterstrike. My price range is around $2000, anyone willing to help would be greatly appreciated.

1.Antec Performance I P-160WF Silver 1.2mm Anodized Aluminum ATX Mid

2.ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard

3.ATI 100-435500 Radeon X800XL 256MB GDDR3 PCI-Express x16 Video Card

4.ENERMAX EG565AX-VEFMA2.0-SLI ATX12V 535W Power Supply

5.AMD Athlon 64 3800+ Newcastle Integrated into Chip FSB Socket 939 Processor Model ADA3800AWBOX

6. (2) Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 SATA NCQ ST380017AS 80GB 7200 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive

9.Rosewill RB-321 Black IDE Combo Drive

10.Rosewill RD-162 Black IDE DVD Burner

11.acer AL1715smd Silver/Black 17" 12ms LCD Monitor

12.SCYTHE ACS64U 90mm Cooling Fan

[Avg]

Instead of the 3800+ newcastle, get a 3700+ san diego, it has twice the cache and should oc higher then the newcastle. Do you plan to run a sli setup, if your not there is no need to get a sli board, also take a look at the DFi lanparty boards they have a lot of overclocking options. Just so you know the TR xp series seem to be the prefered hs but will also cost more then that scythe.

[BrutalDrew]

Why go with an SLI board if you are going ATI? Get yourself the DFI non-SLI board. You could bump the X800XL up to a eVGA 6800GT if you wish too. It will easily clock to Ultra speeds and it has other things like PS3 so overall it is worth it.

Also go for the 3700+ San Deigo.

Are you planning on running those drives in RAID-0? If that was what your planning I wouldn't suggest it.

If you haven't gotten the hint by now, we'll spell it out for you: there is no place, and no need for a RAID-0 array on a desktop computer. The real world performance increases are negligible at best and the reduction in reliability, thanks to a halving of the mean time between failure, makes RAID-0 far from worth it on the desktop.
http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=2101&p=11

I'd also get the NEC burner at neweg. I forgot the model number, but it is really popular so I am guessing it is the one with the most reviews.

Also for cooling get yourself an XP-90 with this panaflo fan.
http://www.sidewindercomputers.com/pa92ulhisp.html

You also have no RAM listed in your original post. OCZ VX would be perfect, unless you want to pay more for Mushkin Redline, but they don't perform much better.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820227206

Hope I helped :D

[nealric]

changes I would make.

Get a 16mb cache 250gb drive. (both maxtor and wd make one, but the wd is a bit more expensive and just came out so may be hard to find) Maxtor can be found for about $140. If you want to go all out, get a 10k rpm raptor to go with it for $170.

Personally I think a 19inch monitor is well worth it, especially for college if you are planning to watch movies/tv on your computer. Acer makes a nice 16ms one that can be gotten for around $330

I think your cpu choices should be either the 3200+ venice or 3700+ san diego. Personally, I would save the $ and get the venice, then possibly trade it in for the x2 when they become reasonably priced.

[qwertyuiop]

It would be good to know if you plan on overclocking this rig. Even though this is OCForums it seems that many of the people who post potential rigs on this site have no interest in overclocking which changes the parts I would recommend. Either way I would look at some TCCD RAM instead of UTT, just my opinion. I like the NEC drive but also recommend Pioneer and if you want the best - Plextor. You can save money on RAM and motherboard if you are not going to overclock.

For the PSU...I would recommend getting a Fortron 500W Blue Storm, they can be had for as little as $69, definitely worth it.

[BrutalDrew]

I agree with nealric about the 19" LCD. If you go with a cheaper CPU you could afford it too. If you do plan on getting a 19" this would be my recommendation.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=24-179-014&depa=0

[funkmasta_k]

Sorry about forgetting the ram, i meant to have

How about this for Ram and a Mobo
CORSAIR XMS 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered Model TWINX1024-3200XLPRO

DFI LANPARTY UT nF4 Ultra-D Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD

I actually don't know anything about overclocking, but I want to learn. Thanks for the tip on RAID.