College Computer

[adm88]

I'm going away to school next august, so I'm in the market for a new computer. I think I want a desktop (but I'm open to suggestions for reasonably priced notebooks), as the laptop I have right now is in pretty good condition: pentium 2.4 ghz, 512 MB RAM, ati radeon mobility 9000, 40 GB hard drive. My budget is $1,000, give or take a little. Below is my newegg wishlist, please tell me what you think. I want the most bang for my buck, so suggestions are more than welcome.

-NEC 16X DVD±R DVD Burner Black IDE/ATAPI Model ND-3550A - OEM
-Linkworld 431-08-C2628 Black & Silver Steel/Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 430W Power Supply - Retail
-Western Digital Caviar SE WD1200JBRTL 120GB 7200 RPM IDE Ultra ATA100 Hard Drive - Retail
-POWERCOLOR 1900XT512MB Radeon X1900XT 512MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail
-CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System Memory Model VS1GBKIT400 - Retail
-AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Manchester 1GHz HT Socket 939 Dual Core Processor Model ADA3800BVBOX - Retail
-Gigabyte GA-K8N Pro-SLI Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail

$1,038.97

Edit: New Specs

2x -NEC 16X DVD±R DVD Burner Black IDE/ATAPI Model ND-3550A - OEM
1x -ASPIRE X-Navigator ATXA9NW-SS/500 Silver Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case ATX 500W dual 12V (Ver. 2.03) Power Supply - Retail
1x -Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 ST3250823AS 250GB 7200 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive - OEM
1x -Acer AL1711FB Black 17" 12ms LCD Monitor - Retail
1x -POWERCOLOR 1900XT512MB Radeon X1900XT 512MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail
1x -Diamond XtremeSound XS71DDL 7.1 Channels PCI Interface Sound Card - Retail (boycotting creative because of the shiat they pulled with Doom 3)
2x -Patriot Signature Series 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System Memory Model PSD1G400KH - Retail
1x -AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Manchester 1GHz HT Socket 939 Dual Core Processor Model ADA3800BVBOX - Retail
1x -Gigabyte GA-K8N Pro-SLI Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail

$1,663.00

 

[john3]

for ram go with OCZ, Crucial, or G.skill 1gb dual channel ram. or if you want Corsair, get the Corsair XMS.

excellent motherboard, but you have an ATI card thats crossfire and yet you get SLI, i suggest the DFI Lanparty UT Ultra-D, its not crossfire, but i would also suggest not wasting your money on SLI or Crossfire, just get like 20% Max performance boost.

everything else is great. have fun. and if you wanna have faster load times get a 36GB Western Digital Raptor for the system programs and keep the Caviar for Storage.

 

[slick_tech15]

While the 36 GB raptor would make things faster, Its just not worth the money. Im a bit hesitant about that PSU, since its only 430 watts and generic crap. You can get a much better one for around 50 bucks:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817148008

 

[MrZucchiniHead]

i would buy a bigger Hard Drive for the notebook too.

possibly this.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822144379

 

[old_geekster50]

I would suggest looking at the AMD Opteron 148; 2.2GHz:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103596

It is higher quality, higher speed and if you ever decide to OC, it will do that far better than the X2 3800+; 2.0. The X2 3800+ is dual-core, however.

I agree with Slick, also. The most important part of a computer is the PSU. I would definitely re-think your choice.

As for memory, I wouldn't buy "value" any brand. If you decide to upgrade your computer, you are definitely limited. You could buy the least expensive step up and it would be better. The three brands mentioned by John3 are all good. If you want to try OC'ing, OCZ would be best.

 

[adm88]

Thanks for the replies guys. Actually, my budget just got upped to $1,700. I revised the list considerably. Check it out now.

2x -NEC 16X DVD±R DVD Burner Black IDE/ATAPI Model ND-3550A - OEM
1x -ASPIRE X-Navigator ATXA9NW-SS/500 Silver Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case ATX 500W dual 12V (Ver. 2.03) Power Supply - Retail
1x -Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 ST3250823AS 250GB 7200 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive - OEM
1x -Acer AL1711FB Black 17" 12ms LCD Monitor - Retail
1x -POWERCOLOR 1900XT512MB Radeon X1900XT 512MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail
1x -Diamond XtremeSound XS71DDL 7.1 Channels PCI Interface Sound Card - Retail (boycotting creative because of the shiat they pulled with Doom 3)
2x -Patriot Signature Series 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System Memory Model PSD1G400KH - Retail
1x -AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Manchester 1GHz HT Socket 939 Dual Core Processor Model ADA3800BVBOX - Retail
1x -Gigabyte GA-K8N Pro-SLI Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail

$1,663.00

 

[slick_tech15]

That looks nice, I'm still hesitant about that PSU since it comes with that case. I mean, the wattage is enough, but PSU's that come with cases are normally not good (except for the Antec ones). Wait, are you planning on buying 2 (1 GB kits)? You should go with a 2 x 1Gb kit instead.

 

[adm88]

Thanks. I just replaced that case with this one and this power supply.

Yeah, I'm going for 4 sticks of 512 instead of two 1GB sticks. It's less expensive.

 

[john3]

k as for power supply go with this one
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817103933

and for the 4x512mb, dont do it, if u get 2x1gb, you can utilized Dual Channel, which is MUCH better.

everything else looks great.

 

[adm88]

Thanks, I didn't know that. What do you think of this ram?