Spent the weekend researching the usual choices for buying a new computer. It will be a birthday gift for my awesome soon-to-be 14 yr old son in February. While he is not allowed to play during the school week, he really looks forward to the weekends and holidays for gaming. Currently he is addicted to WoW (yes I know this doesn't require a very demanding rig) but I got him Far Cry and Civilization for Christmas and his 2.4 Ghz 512M system won't really cut it. Today I even headed down the path of the boutique makers like Falcon, but even though I can probably squeeze the money out of year-end bonus-and I only have one child ;-) I have become intrigued with the idea of building the system together from scratch and like the thought of saving a bunch of money this way. I know just enough about hardware to be dangerous though, and I am not sure if I have the skill to do this. So I decided to find some forums to look over the components I have researched so far, and to look for advice for a first-time system builder. I plan to post this in one or two other forums, so I apologize to those who may see this in more than one place. Please tell me what else I need to buy (I am thinking I must need additional cables as I know the darn things are often not included but I can't really tell from my research) or what different parts I should be getting instead.
AMD A8N32-SLI Deluxe
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ Dual-Core 1MB Per Core 90nm (939)
ZALMAN CNPS7000B-CU 92mm 2 Ball Cooling Fan/Heatsink
Thermaltake Tsunami Dream Tower Series w/No PS Black
Enermax Noisetaker EG701AX-VE-SFMA ATX 2.01 w/SLI 600W
OCZ Dual Channel Platinum 2 GB (2 pcs 1GB) DDR (400) PC-3200
(2)-BFG GeForce 7800 GT OC (256MB)
(2)-Western Digital 74 GB SATA 10K Raptor (WD740GD)
Lite-On SOHD-16P9S 16X-DVD/48X-CD-ROM (Retail Box)
Mitsumi Floppy 7-in-1 USB Card Reader/Smart Media Internal Drive
TALON ZL-2 Serial ATA 2 Port Queuing Raid Controller (U-30244)
This adds up to $2450 without shipping (mostly prices from Monarch). I already have an SB Audigy 2 ZS and Logitech Z-340 speakers in another system that aren't really being utilized so I plan to move those over to this system.
Any help is most appreciated!
AMD A8N32-SLI Deluxe
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400+ Dual-Core 1MB Per Core 90nm (939)
ZALMAN CNPS7000B-CU 92mm 2 Ball Cooling Fan/Heatsink
Thermaltake Tsunami Dream Tower Series w/No PS Black
Enermax Noisetaker EG701AX-VE-SFMA ATX 2.01 w/SLI 600W
OCZ Dual Channel Platinum 2 GB (2 pcs 1GB) DDR (400) PC-3200
(2)-BFG GeForce 7800 GT OC (256MB)
(2)-Western Digital 74 GB SATA 10K Raptor (WD740GD)
Lite-On SOHD-16P9S 16X-DVD/48X-CD-ROM (Retail Box)
Mitsumi Floppy 7-in-1 USB Card Reader/Smart Media Internal Drive
TALON ZL-2 Serial ATA 2 Port Queuing Raid Controller (U-30244)
This adds up to $2450 without shipping (mostly prices from Monarch). I already have an SB Audigy 2 ZS and Logitech Z-340 speakers in another system that aren't really being utilized so I plan to move those over to this system.
Any help is most appreciated!