Need help picking pieces for my new pc

[IKLIPTIC]

I am new to the forum but have been reviewing it for several weeks now on and off, lots of good information. Well down to my problem. I am wanting to spen $1000 american dollors on a new pc preferably { amd 2000xp - gefrorce 3 card(still debating with the discussion i read about the n35 soming out next fall) at least 1+gig of ram - 100 gig hard drive }.

My problem is I want a nice looking case I realy like the atx dragon but am unsure of what are good choices. I want to get a black case but also know that dark colors absorb heat and that may become an issue. I have read many peoples sigs and opinions on mobos but am still unclear of what is good and what is bad. I am not curently an overclocker but am interested in learning and maybe later attempting it, but I want to make sure that what I purchase is all compatable and will allow me to o/c them and not have compatability issues.

The things I need are processor, mobo, vid card, sound card, nic card, hard drive, cd-rw, case, power sourse, fans, and ddr ram.

My ideal sys would be as is below but am unsure of best palces to shop. I have been to both pricewatch, ibuypower.com, pchertz.com, and many others but am still well over budget. Could use some advise and guidence. Thanks sorry so long winded and being all over the place.

amd xp 2000
1 gig+ pc 2700
100 gig hard drive 7,600 rpm
geforce 3 video card
sound blaster live 5.1
32 x 10 x 40 cd rw
(dont know what mobo to use, and I'm unsure if win xp home edition will alow more than 1 gig of memory, I beleive it only allows 512 but could be mistaken, am considering win xp pro if it will allow for extended amount of ram- what ever the mobo will allow for. I am also unsure of what I may need as far as fans and how much power for this configuration. I have read by many posters that 120mm is better than 2 80mm so my best guess would be 2 120mm 1 in front and 1 in rear and a 400, 450 or 500 watt power supply but I have also read that you can have to much juice runing. Please help me. I'm losing it.)

Also the system will be primaly used for gaming, web design, and 3d animation if this helpsand i am on the pc for minimum 10+ hours a day. I am also reasearching with no luck on how to install the os without any of the extra crap that isn't nessesary like ms paint bla bla bla.

Thanks again and sorry for all the time and space i chewed up.

[Kendle666]

welcom to the forums ............................well with windows XP I would go with the pro version and be done with it . as for MoBo's Abit and Asus both will handle more than 1 gig of memory ................as long as ya use registered memory ..............unless ya use 1 1024 meg or 2 512 meg sticks .............

[NeoMoses]

I'm somewhat confused. Do you only want to spend $100 american? That won't buy much, possibly only a motherboard or some ram. Anyway, The shuttle AK31 will hold up to 4 GB of RAM (a little excessive right now, but a nice option.) It's a nice stable board.

Also, you'll get very similar speeds with a 24X and a 32X CDRW due to the burn proof technology kicking in, so you might save some money and just go with the 24X (just a thought.)

[HugoHenry]

Fong Kai has a black case and is the 2nd best cooler on the market next to Coolermaster priced at 250$ wher as the Fong Kai is only 90$ at newegg.

[reidroach]

i agree w/ kendal66 on the mobo, but onlu 100 bucks? wow that wont get you much at all! a geforce 3 is well over 100, i would go to pricewatch.com and look at that as they have the best prices no the web in my opinion, all of it is new too!

[juliendogg]

if you want an xp2000, (and imo you'd be better to go with the 1600 or 1700 xp, they'll overclock to almost the same speeds from what i've seen, check out the cpu database on the homepage) gf3, and a gig of ddr, i think (or hope) your talking about $1000 not $100.....
but back to the point, both the shuttle ak31 and epox 8kha+ are good buys for the money, xp 1600 is just over $100 (i don't think the price performance margin is worth it to go much higher. maybe an 1800 xp at most especially if you want a good fsb overclock) and this of course is just personal preference but i'd take the radeon 8500 over the gf3......
as for the gig of ram. i'd stick around half of that amount at most at least till the prices (hopefully) go down a bit.....
*edit*

oh yeah, i definately think you can't go wrong with an abit or an asus, great and stable boards. i was on a budget so i went with the shuttle:)

[IKLIPTIC]

Thanks for all the help guys I am still researching but I think with your help I am closer to a full system now this is what I have come up with and where

Antec sx1040b 400watt black case atx $ 107.00 www.emscomputing.com
VISIONTEK XTASY 6564 AGP 64MB NVIDIA GEFORCE3 TI 200 $ 174 www.newegg.com
AMD ATHLON 1900+ XP 1.6 GHZ PROCESSOR $ 225.00 www.accessmicro.com
Soyo SY-K7VDragon+ KT266A Athlon(XP) Duron DDR Skt A ATX Motherboard $ 145.88
1024mb PC2100 DDr Memory Kingston Tech$ 399.00 www.pricewatch.com
Acer cdrw 24x10x40 $ 83.00 www.accessmicro.com
MAXTOR DIAMONDMAX PLUS D740X 80GB UA133 8.5MS 2M 7200RPM OEM $ 158.00 www.accessmicro.com
MICROSOFT WINDOWS XP PRO OEM $ 146.00 www.accessmicro.com
CREATIVE SOUND BLASTER LIVE 5.1 $ 36.00 www.accessmicro.com but also found it cheaper on pricewatch for $26.00
1.44 MB FLOPPY DRIVE BLACK $ 18.00

Its still over my 1k budget but its getting down there, just may need to cut back on some of the things I have listed but think its a prettysolid direction so far.

Please continue with your feed back I appreciate it.

[turok]

Need we remind u to buy from TRUSTED online vendors if you are purchasing with a credit card. Remember, and we all who have been scammed can verify, you need to make sure they are at the very least legitimate. Reputationwise, i use newegg.com Besides fedexing everything, their prices aren't too bad. Beware the lowest prices advertised...Some are scams...

[Yodums]

Originally posted by IKLIPTIC
Thanks for all the help guys I am still researching but I think with your help I am closer to a full system now this is what I have come up with and where

Antec sx1040b 400watt black case atx $ 107.00 www.emscomputing.com
VISIONTEK XTASY 6564 AGP 64MB NVIDIA GEFORCE3 TI 200 $ 174 www.newegg.com
AMD ATHLON 1900+ XP 1.6 GHZ PROCESSOR $ 225.00 www.accessmicro.com
Soyo SY-K7VDragon+ KT266A Athlon(XP) Duron DDR Skt A ATX Motherboard $ 145.88
1024mb PC2100 DDr Memory Kingston Tech$ 399.00 www.pricewatch.com
Acer cdrw 24x10x40 $ 83.00 www.accessmicro.com
MAXTOR DIAMONDMAX PLUS D740X 80GB UA133 8.5MS 2M 7200RPM OEM $ 158.00 www.accessmicro.com
MICROSOFT WINDOWS XP PRO OEM $ 146.00 www.accessmicro.com
CREATIVE SOUND BLASTER LIVE 5.1 $ 36.00 www.accessmicro.com but also found it cheaper on pricewatch for $26.00
1.44 MB FLOPPY DRIVE BLACK $ 18.00

Its still over my 1k budget but its getting down there, just may need to cut back on some of the things I have listed but think its a prettysolid direction so far.

Please continue with your feed back I appreciate it.

I would either go with the Epox 8KHA or the Shuttle AK31 board.

Change the Maxtor to a Quantm or Seagate they are better quality brand.

The Athlon 1600+ XP overclocks better than the 1900+ I believe where it will hit 2000+

And with the spare money from 1600+ and 1900+ use it on a water cooling rig or a good heatsink + case fans

I seriously wouldn't buy 1gig of ram its a waste of cash especially while the RAM price have boomed.

Go for 512DDR MAX.

WAtercooling. hmmmmmmmm gotta lvoe it :)

Yodums

[Rezman5]

Go for a 24x burner.
Go for the shuttle AK31
Go for 512MB crucial DDR
Go for max RAM settings in Bios
Go for the AMD athlon XP 1800+
Go for GeForce 3 Ti200
Go for a nice Lian-Li PC65 USB
Go for new fans from sidewindercomputer (3x Sunon High Speed 80mm)
Go for Swiftech or Alpha HSF
Go for new cooling on Vid card
Go for whatever sound card you want.
Go for Seagate HD
Go for Sparkle 400W PSU
Dont bother with so much RAM, and get windows XP pro if you can. This system should be a little under $1000 if you know where to look (here (http://www.newegg.com) and here (http://www.crucial.com) and also here (http://www.crucial.com) )

[juliendogg]

i agree totally with rezman.
that'd be a sweet setup and for a good price...
definately don't buy all that ram man. it's way too pricy right now. 512 will be great and even better if you get to sticks of 256...
my only change would be from the gf3 to a retail 8500.

guess if i had a thousand to drop on a new system, i spend alot on case and power, midrange mobo(shuttle, epox), save on the processor... 1600xp or maybe a t-bird(that's the easiest thing to upgrade later) at least 256 mgs of some really good ram

and of course the 8500 (but i already have that:D)

the last thing i wanna have to upgrade again would be the case... needs to be easily used in a watercool system and plenty of fans and room....

[scoobydoo]

Originally posted by IKLIPTIC


Acer cdrw 24x10x40 $ 83.00 www.accessmicro.com

MAXTOR DIAMONDMAX PLUS D740X 80GB UA133 8.5MS 2M 7200RPM OEM $ 158.00 www.accessmicro.com

1.44 MB FLOPPY DRIVE BLACK $ 18.00



The 24x10x40 Black Lite-On drive at www.newegg.com is only $80

You could also get the Black Teac Floppy for $17 and an 80GB Seagate HD for $152 at Newegg.

That would save you a few bucks. The more you can get there the better since there is a discount on shipping with the more you buy:)

[Arkaine23]

OK, I see an ATA133 HDD and PC2700 ram... so you should probably get a motherboard that uses those. Iwill, Asus, and MSI(I think) just released new DDR333 motherboards. These use the higher DDR 333 bandwidth and (the Iwill anyway, not sure about the others) have faster ATA133 data transfer rate.

PC2700 is good on a 266 DDR board if you're overclocking but it's meant for a DDR333 board. And PC2100 from Crucial is cheaper and almost as good if you're going with the current crop of KT266 motherboards. Don't sell yourself short, either get the DDR333 board for use with PC2700 and an ATA133 HDD, or get one of the DDR266 boards and get Crucial PC2100. Unless you plan to upgrade later.

Brand suggestions: Quantum or Seagate HDD, Kingmax PC2700, or Crucial pc2100. As I said the DDR333 motherboards are brand new so I don't know much about them. Like a lot of new tech, they may have a few bugs, but they're still gonna be better than the older KT266 motherboards. If you're going the KT266 route, then get the Shuttle AK31 r3.1, it's only like $80 (but if you want to fill up all 4 dimm slots with ram, you'll have to use registered DDR which is slightly slower than non-registered).

Also RAM prices have been going up... so 512 rather than 1024 might be a better idea until the prices go back down.

Other: You might be happier with an ATI 8500 video card... the image quality is better. Also, the OEM versions cost about the same as the GF3 Ti200. With either of these cards, I'd recommend spending a little extra for good cooling so you can overclock them (ram heatsinks, Arctic ALumina paste, 1U low profile heatsink and fan). This way you can get either of these $180 cards to perform like their top-of-the line $300+ cousins.

Don't neglect case cooling (fans) or a good heatsink. These will keep your temperatures low and improve stability, as well as allow for future overclocking if you're interested.

The biggie: CPU. I'd get an XP 1600+ and just overclock it up to the 1800+ or 1900+ range. It's way cheaper than those higher-end models. By the end of the year, perhaps T-breds will be out and reasonably bug free. If you cut costs now, then you could upgrade then.

A question: Do you already have a monitor? That'll add a few hundred $'s to you're system if you don't already have a good one.

Newegg.com has really great deals and low shipping costs. I think you'll find it highly recommended.

[Yodums]

Originally posted by Rezman5
Go for a 24x burner.
Go for the shuttle AK31
Go for 512MB crucial DDR
Go for max RAM settings in Bios
Go for the AMD athlon XP 1800+
Go for GeForce 3 Ti200
Go for a nice Lian-Li PC65 USB
Go for new fans from sidewindercomputer (3x Sunon High Speed 80mm)
Go for Swiftech or Alpha HSF
Go for new cooling on Vid card
Go for whatever sound card you want.
Go for Seagate HD
Go for Sparkle 400W PSU
Dont bother with so much RAM, and get windows XP pro if you can. This system should be a little under $1000 if you know where to look (here (http://www.newegg.com) and here (http://www.crucial.com) and also here (http://www.crucial.com) )

Well if you want to rebuild the whole system then heres my go:

DangerDen Maze 2 WaterBlock - 42.00
Maxi-Jet 1200 pump - 20.00
DangerDen Cube Radiator w/ fans to cool off the radiator - 80.00(With the fan)
The tubbing.. 10-15 dollars

Thats the cooling setup and although it may seem pricey you can cut it back in the system but together that cooling system design your system to overclock very well and get a full potential out of it.

Water Cooling - 150.00 Max - DangerDen
Shuttle AK31 - 80.00 - PriceWatch
Athlon XP 1600+ - 111.00 - PriceWatch
Crucial 256 DDR PC2100 CL2.5- 75.00 - Crucial
ATI Radeon 7500(Seriously great quality and only 100 bucks while the Ti200 is like 200 bucks, better quality too bang of the buck) - 91 Dollars - Price Watch
GameTheatre XP Sound Card(Has its own amplified stuff great for surround sound and such if your an intense gamer) - 92.00 - PriceWatch
Enermax 465watt - 79.00 - Price Watch
Seagate 40gig 7200 RPM w/ 3 year waranty - 80.00 - Price Watch
Plextor 16x Burn Proof - 109.00 - Price Watch

Thank me for doign the calc for you ehhe

Total=867.00 + Shipping(Roughly over 100 I'd bet)



Thats probably

[IKLIPTIC]

Thanks for the help with pricing, I'm not sure I want to water cool since I am very new to this but have copied your quote and ur to the den for future upgrading. I think your set up is as close as I can get to my budget except for the case and I need minimum 512mb of ram so thanks alot. All of the advise has been helpful. ! question though. On all of the above mobos there is onboard sound will I need to bypass it like on board video or will it not effct it if i add a pci card? And my final question is anyone aware of wether or not newegg will build this system for me and compete with these prices? If so I may go that route so I wont tear anything up. Realy all I'm worried about is messing up the processor while putting the heat sink and fan on it and placing it on the mobo correctly, everything else is easy and I have doe before. Thanks again

[Kendan]

You have to turn off the onboard sound in the bios. I don't think newegg will build it for you. Just take your time and be carefull and you will see that putting on a heatsink is not that hard. It just takes patience. There is an advantage to doing it yourself and that is the learning experience and the knowledge you gain from it will help you if a problem comes up later. And you have the best resource in the world, Overclockers.com and it's members. Enjoy your new rig and enjoy putting it all together:D

[Arkaine23]

disable onboard sound in bios. No, newegg doesn't build. Doing it yourself may be nerve-racking the 1st time, but is definitely worth while. Just be sure you're grounded and work slowly and carefully. If Heatsink installation scares you, you could always buy a CPU shim. Advice can be gotten 24/7 here in the forums. And if it doesn't work and no one here can quite figure it out, you can always RMA a part and get newegg to send a replacement. They're very good about RMA's.