New AMD Rig

[Xv-Le-vX]

Hi there guys, I'm fairly new to this forum but from what I've seen so far I'm amazed with the class of the community here. Great place to read up on up to date hardware and performances, thanks! Ok, so if you havn't noticed by now, you would be thinking, "Omg, that comp of yours is a relic!" And I do say so myself hahaha. Anyways guys, I'm going to be purchasing new hardware soon and I'm going to attempt to build a pooter (my lil sis is just learning how to talk so she calls the comp a pooter, it's cute lol) from scratch.
I've read up on how to put the thing together and partitioning the hdd all that stuff etc. etc. I would like you computer guru's here to give me some input on my hardware I've selected so far.
I'm going to be running everything on stock cooling for a while. (Gonna be a while before I pay it all off, being a senior high school student doesn't give you much of a budget to spend lol =P ) Then when I have money saved up again, hopefully water cooling will become an option if the prices isn't too high =)

*note: I've been using this old comp for about 7 years now, and I don't intend on another upgrade or such for another 5-7 years atleast. All the hardware will be purchased in Canada, so hardware selection is somewhat limited. Currently, there are only two mobo's availble to me in my area, the 2nd one is the Asus k8n-e deluxe. If only newegg would ship to canada >_<

MSI K8N NEO-Platinum(MS-7030) nForce 3 Chipset Socket 745 1AGP8x/4PCI/3DDR W/Sound GB-Lan SATA Raid IEEE 1394 ATA-133
AMD® Athlon™ 64 3400+ w/800Mhz FSB 1MB Box
2x512MB PC3200 CAS-2 184pin DDR (Corsair CMX512-3200C2)
Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 120GB 8MB SATA
ATI Radeon X800XT 256MB DDR AGP8X w/TV & DVI-I Sapphire
ThermalTake Xaser III V1000A 20" Black Tower w/Side Window
Antec True550 550Watt ATX12V P4 ATX-Styled Power Supply
1.44MB Samsung Floppy Drive

Here are some concerns I would like to address:
1) Will this mobo be capable of using this ram?
2) How does this mobo/ram compare to some overclocking in the future?
3) Is there a way I can check to see what core revision I will be getting, I've read that the CG core is a slightly better over clocker and has a better memory control than the CO rev. By checking I mean look somewhere on the box that says the core rev. as instead of taking it home and installing it and running cpu-z to find out.
4) Clawhammers are the 1mb lvl2 cache and Newcastles are the 512kb lvl2 cache right?
5) How is the onboard sound on this mobo, I've read from a few ppl the sound is good, and bad. I'm confused on who to believe :S
6) Will I need to buy a new ethernet card to connect to my cable modem? Or can I use the one on the mobo itself?
7) Is there any difference between this ATI card I'm going to get from the ATI card from www.ati.com ?

Sorry if this is an inconvienient post, as you can see, I'm new to upgrading and stuff and would love to get some input from the people who really know what they're doing. Thanks a lot !

 

[chessmc]

The model# for the 3400+ clawhammer with a CG core should be "ADA3400AEP5AR" and can be found on the cpu.

 

[Catalan]

If you can find it get the Forton/Sparkle 530w. Also the Sapphire X800XT shouldn't be any different than the ATI X800XT.

 

[fateshammer]

Here are some concerns I would like to address:
1) Will this mobo be capable of using this ram?
2) How does this mobo/ram compare to some overclocking in the future?
3) Is there a way I can check to see what core revision I will be getting, I've read that the CG core is a slightly better over clocker and has a better memory control than the CO rev. By checking I mean look somewhere on the box that says the core rev. as instead of taking it home and installing it and running cpu-z to find out.
4) Clawhammers are the 1mb lvl2 cache and Newcastles are the 512kb lvl2 cache right?
5) How is the onboard sound on this mobo, I've read from a few ppl the sound is good, and bad. I'm confused on who to believe :S
6) Will I need to buy a new ethernet card to connect to my cable modem? Or can I use the one on the mobo itself?
7) Is there any difference between this ATI card I'm going to get from the ATI card from www.ati.com ?

That's a really very decent choice components you have. Your mobo definitely supports that ram. As for future OC'ing, I personally don't know how much you can squeeze out of that combo, but you can surely get something out of it. Best way to find out your revision is check the OPN (Ordering Part Number) on the processor before you slap the heatsink on. Like what chessmc said, CG cores end with an 'AR'. And you're right, CH have 1Mb L2 cache, NC's -->512Kb L2. As for the onboard sound, if you're not an audiophile, it should be good enough for most needs. Realtek has been around for quite a while in the onboard sound arena. But you can't expect it to give you SB Audigy levels of performance for gaming. The graphics card you want basically is no different from ATI's. But sometimes, 3rd-party card manufacturers bump up their clock speed and memory clocks higher than the reference ATI. Check your Sapphire model against that of ATI's to see if the core clock speed and memory speed are the same.

 

[Xv-Le-vX]

Good stuff guys, I'm pretty confident on what components to purchase now. The only thing I'm stiff iffy on is the msi k8n neo platinum or the asus k8n-e deluxe. I've read plenty good and plenty bad reviews of both of them lol. If any of you guys here can give me a good unbiased description of how well these mobo's perform it would be much appreciated.
It kinda sucks that Canada is so limited on hardware lol, no comp stores around my area carry the Forton or Sparkle PSU. Initially I wanted to purchase the Epox 8kda3+ but no one has them for sale

 

[fateshammer]

Antec is one of the better brands out there, so don't sweat it if you can't easily get a Fortron or Sparkle. What's your primary use for this rig?

And...
WELCOME TO THE FORUMS!

 

[Xv-Le-vX]

gaming rig along with school projects etc.
btw just to make sure, this saphire x800xt is the same thing as an ati x800xt - pe right?