What do you think of this build?

[letaaj]

Hi guys, I'm intending to build a new gaming rig in the next couple of weeks. I am on a budget however, so I think I've had to cut a few corners. Anyway, I wanted you opinion/advice on this set up. I having a hard time settling on one motherboard tho. Right now I have selected an Asus A8N-E Ultra, please advise if I can do better.

Ok, here's what I want to use:

COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 CAC-T05-UW Black Aluminum Bezel, SECC Chassis ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail $49.99

ASUS A8N-E Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail $115.00

ATI 100-435513 Radeon X800XL 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail $283.00

COOLER MASTER Real Power RS-450-ACLY ATX12V 450W Power Supply - Retail $78.99

AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego 1GHz FSB Socket 939 Processor Model ADA3700BNBOX - Retail $269.00

Patriot 512MB (2 x 256MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System Memory Model PDC5123200LLK - Retail $66.95

OCZ Performance Series 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System Memory $111.93

MITSUMI Black USB2.0 & FDD Digital Card Reader/Writer W/FD (Black)INTERNAL - OEM $22.99

Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 ST3250823AS 250GB 7200 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive - OEM $111.00

SONY Black IDE DVD Burner Model DWQ28A - OEM $39.99

Creative Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS 70SB035000000 8 (7.1) Channels PCI Interface Sound Card - Retail $93.00

Subtotal: $1,241.84 (S/H) not included

All this is from newegg.com. Any advice would be helpful, though I really need to keep the price under 1,300. Thanks for your help!

 

[letaaj]

Oh and i'm a first time builder

 

[Alex81388]

Ok, first of all what is with the two sets of memory?? Are you putting in two different sized pairs? Dont. Stay with the OCZ's or another set of 2x512's. That will be good for you.

Spend 10 dollars more on the harddrive, and pick up the western digital verson of it, that way you get 16mb Cache instead of only 8 .

Don't get an Asus motherboard, especialy for an AMD system. People here will say DFI and clog your butt with all about them, but to to the industry justice I say go with an Abit or MSI. They are bothe very solid, can overclock well, and will be easy for yo to work with.u

 

[PZEROFGH]

1 get a DFI or MSI
2 get a 6800GT
3 hdd is good
4 theres also no need for a soundcard really.

 

[pgp_nc]

i've heard the HD cache mentioned here.... what's the deal with that it??

 

[letaaj]

Alright, get rid of the patriot memory. I was thinking, since I had a little extra money I could beef up the memory a little, but I wasn't sure about using a different company/model and all. Thanks for warning me away.

Ok, Asus out. I wasn't sure about this myself. I'll look at an MSI, ABit, and DFI boards, but what do you think of this EPoX board?
EPoX board

Last, I've heard/read that seagate is the most reliable HDD out there, so I'll be sticking w/that. Especially since I'm buying OEM

Thanks guys, keep it coming

 

[PZEROFGH]

epox are relatively cheap, and use cheapy components. i would stay away from them. if you are looking for a cheap reliable board that can do resonable amounts of OCing i would look into the MSI K8N NEO4-F
if you want to do some serious OCing then i would look into a DFI nF4 ultra-D
if you dont want to do any OCing i would recommend gigabyte.

 

[letaaj]

I think I'll be going MSI then. This is what I'm looking at:

MSI board

I apologize for my indecisiveness, but I'm just trying to get the most bang for the buck here. Also, I want a system with some longevity. So even though the 6800s and X800s are the previous generation, which of these lines will best be able to handle upcoming games? Plz I don't want a debate, just a poll.

 

[PZEROFGH]

why dont you just wait uintil the X1800s come out tomorrow lol. if you want awesome gaming get the 7800GTX eVGA

 

[letaaj]

I would but for the fact that they will be priced way outta my range. In fact I'm kinda counting on the intro of X1800s to perhaps reduce the prices of the X800s