OK Boys and Girls

[FlyingAttackSquirrel]

This is probably the system I have settled on. Any further comments before I take the plunge?


CASE: Platinum XP 400w with Window $147
MEMORY: Mushkin 232 1GB Kit (2x512) DDR400 $666
CPU: AMD XP 2500 Barton Retail Box $188
MOTHERBOARD: Asus A7N8X-X $159
SOUNDCARD: Creative Audigy ES $100
FDD: Panasonic Black $22
CDWR: Asus 52x CDWR $94
DVD: Asus 16x DVD $84
SPEAKERS: Creative 2500 2.1 $82
VIDEOCARD: Triplex Radeon 9600 Pro 128MB $385

TOTAL: $1927 incl GST

[Joshsti_NZ]

Drop to a 512 (2x256) smeg kit and use the extra for a better vid card - 9800pro or something.

[swiftynz]

joshsti, the A7N8x-X uses the NF2 400 chipset (not ultra) and thus doesn't have dual channel support. thus there's absolutely no performance increase to be gained by using two sticks of ram. my reccommendation would be to drop to 1x512mb, and upgrade the graphics card llike josh said. :)

1gb of ram will become worthwhile in the near future but at the moment 512mb is the optimal amount of ram to have (in terms of price/performance).

nice new computer! :)

[Joshsti_NZ]

Originally posted by swiftynz
joshsti, the A7N8x-X uses the NF2 400 chipset (not ultra)

ackbar, sorry :o

[bob_dole_nz]

agreed, don't spend one third of your system on ram, and not get decent cooling.

Drop one stick, get a decent psu, and an slk900 or similar. Also, you could switch mobo to a soltek frn2-l. for another 30 bucks.

Also, you MIGHT want to add a hdd in there. They are kinda handy. You could also get some headphones too. lemme see now.

Also, a monitor is handy too.

So...

Enermax 350 Watt ATX 139.50

3R System Neonlight (Black) - No PSU 104.21

Liteon 52x 24x 52x Cd Writer 113.63

LiteOn 16X / 40X Dvd Rom Drive 90.00

Thermalright SLK900 heatsink + 92mm Sunon KD1209PTB1 Fan 121.50 (as long as the soltek has mounting holes.

Athlon XP 2500+ (oem without fan) - Barton core (333FSB) 198.00

Black 1.44 Mb Floppy Disk drive 31.50 (really though, who needs a floppy drive)

Seagate ST3120022A 120GB 7200.7 200.00

Chicony KB-9900U Mutil-media Keyboard with palm rest USB 37.13

TwinMOS 512M DDR-400, 32Mx8 CL2.5, 16 chips 189.00

Soltek SL-75FRN2 -L NVIDIA nForce 2 Socket A, Dual Channel 400/333/266MHz, 200/266/333/400 FSB, 3x DDR Dimms, Agp 4x/8x, 5x PCI, ATA 66/100/133, ATX Form Factor, Onboard Sound, Onboard Lan, USB 2.0, 168.00 189.00

Genius Netscroll Optical - PS2 30.00 33.75

Power Color XF98-C3L Radeon 9800 AGP 8X, 128M 256-bit DDR, CRT+DVI-I+S-Video Out 646.88

Creative Audigy with Firewire ports 155.00 174.38

All for 2262.81. Of course you could drop down to the 9600 again. And that would be 2007.

With that setup you should be able to get a very nice OC out of it, as I doubt you would maximise the dual pack mushkin with the stock cooler.

And that slk, it should purr along nicely.


All priced from starlyte.

[NTBlowz]

That spec looks fine to me..

But change the mobo to normal A7N8X or Abit NF7-S or Epos 8RDA+, as like the other guy said A7N8x-X only support single channel only

Also the ram can change to a cheaper one (Twinmos is quite good), and get a better HSF if u plan to oc

[FlyingAttackSquirrel]

Cool.

I have a HDD and a monitor hence I didn't include either in my prices. Its a WD800JB and I have a 19" AOC that I picked up from a mate for $200, as he upgraded to a 21" trinitron monitor.
Thanks everyone for your help. Time to make the plunge now I feel.

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