Advice On New PC

[njnascarfanz29]

Hi All, I'm Building my first PC and I am looking for advice and kinda walk me thru of sorts..
I have Bought so far AMD Athlon 6400+ Black Ed. Processor, 4 memory sticks 1GB Crucial Ballistix Tracer PC2-8500 1066Mhz. And Asus Crosshair Motherboard. Will these parts work together and last. I have been told that the memory wont work with the 6400+ unless overclocked to 1100Mhz. I only get a few bucks a little at a time so I have to buy everything one part at a time.

I'll be using this new PC mostly for Designing Race Car Paint jobs using PSP8, Online Racing with Nascar Racing 2003, and using the web for project research, and Music Recording.

My current system is way too slow and hangs too much but ok for 6yrs old.
My brother built this for me:
AMD Athlon XP 1600+ 1.4Ghz. Processor
Asus A7V333 Motherboard
1GB Memory (1-512, 2-256)
250Gb 7200rpm Seagate Barracuda HD
Asus V8420 128mb Video Card
SB Audigy Sound Card
Windows XP PRO O/S

 

[Whirlwind]

Nascar Racing 2003 Season is gonna love your new pc....you will be able to draw out the whole field of cars and play at a high resolution and still have awsome frame rates.

 

[Grievearz]

I have been told that the memory wont work with the 6400+ unless overclocked to 1100Mhz. I only get a few bucks a little at a time so I have to buy everything one part at a time.

I'm not an AMD expert but this doesn't sound right at all. 1100Mhz RAM isn't required even by modern extreme series processors. You should be fine, I'd get the 800 Mhz ram that runs at 4-4-4-12, it's the same chips as the 1066 at 5-5-5-15. You can overclock the cheaper 800s to 1066s, thats what I'm doing.

 

[njnascarfanz29]

Well I guess I'll have to ebay my 1066Mhz and buy 800's..Sucked too cause I was told the bigger the better..oh well..

About Video cards and power supplys is this a good set-up?
XFX GeForce 8600 GT Video Card PSU Bundle - Two 512MB GeForce 8600 GT Video Cards, Ultra X-Pro 600 Watt (Energy Efficient) Power Supply with Active PFC at TigerDirect.com

What would be recomended as far as a good Mid Tower..I want it to have a bunch of air flow (colder the better) I don't care about noise I just want my PC to be as cold as possible without using watercooled system. Maybe i'm just paranoid but I'll never be comfortable using any type of liquid with electronics...I saw these but I'm really not sure..

Xoxide X-Sentric 250mm Professional Series Case

Newegg.com - ABS Stealth CS-05A2BL Black Aluminum ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail

Ultra X-Connect V-Series ( XVS) 700-Watt ATX Dual 80mm Fans 2024-Pin Modular Power Supply with Ultra Grid Clear Side ATX Case ULT33183 at TigerDirect.com

 

[Grievearz]

Don't get that bundle. A 8800GT or GTS (G92) will do better and cost less. Not to mention that the PSU is crap. For a very cold air mid-tower, I'd go with the Antec 900. Some people aren't a fan of the style, but you can't beat the airflow.

For a better PSU, check out the sticked PSU guide.

 

[njnascarfanz29]

I found a Power supply here locally This should be good for what I'm working with then..Right?

Brand New Ultra XFinity 600 Watt ATX Power Supply $49

 

[njnascarfanz29]

Loved the features of the Antec 900 but I would need 1 more 5 1/4 slot and a 3.5..

 

[Trotter]

The RAM should be fine. Your motherboard will downclock it to what it can handle. If you decide to overclock, the extra speed of the RAM will mean that it won't be pushed at all untill the 1077 threshold is reached... up until then it will still be underclocked.

 

[njnascarfanz29]

I Loved the features of the Antec 900 but I would need 1 more 5.25 slot and a 3.5.. Any other ideas on a case and power supply?

 

[nOcLuE98]

please do not double post. go read the stickies! so* many of your questions are answered in the stickies.

http://www.techist.com/forums/f75/hardware-stickies-index-142552/

read up on any questions you have. then post