Please check my list

[saxofoner]

I'm getting ready to buy a new computer with a $1000 budget, and I've worked for a few weeks on this list. I was wondering if any of you had suggestions, comments, crits. I play games, not super high end games though. (Civ 4, Pirates, KoTOR[soon i hope]) One of my main uses is Blender3d (http://www.blender.org) which is one reason I'm going 2X on the CPU.


CD/DVD Burners (RW Drives)
ASUS Combo Drive Black E-IDE/ATAPI Model CB-5216AG - OEM


ATX Computer Cases
XION XION II XON-101 Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 450W Power Supply - Retail

Internal Hard Drives
Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 SATA NCQ 3Gb/s ST3160812AS 160GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

AMD-compatible Motherboards
ASUS A8N-SLI Premium Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail

Video Cards
eVGA 256-P2-N553-AX Geforce 7600GT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail

Power Supplies
ePOWER EP-500XP ATX12V/ EPS12V 500W Power Supply - OEM

CPU Thermal Paste / Grease
Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound - OEM

Memory - System
Kingston ValueRAM 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System Memory Model KVR400AK2/2GR - Retail

Processors
AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Manchester 2000MHz HT Socket 939 Dual Core Processor Model ADA3800BVBOX - Retail

Subtotal: $1,011.93
Shipping: $42.36
Total: $1,054.29

That'$ fine with me. I changed the XION II to the 103 which has blue lights and is CHEAPER!

I'm planning on a different PSU than that ePower thing, any sugg?

 

[harry18]

hmm, your getting a sli mobo, but only one card, are you thinking of upgrading to sli?, are you going to OC?, new conroes come out soon, might be worthwhile waiting a month?

psu wise make sure its at least 450w, aim for 500, get an antec one, probly ya best be

 

[updawg]

i'd recommend the enermax liberty 500w it has modular cable support which is a plus and has PFC. You can get it for $100 at online retailiers. And you could get yourself a non SLI board to save on the motherboard since you running a single card setup. I like the dfi lanparty, but other than that it looks good for $1000

 

[odysseus]

i'd check out cyberpowerpc.com, they're usually almost cheaper than building ur own, depends on the system tho.......

 

[saxofoner]

Thanks for all the responses. I know some people hate "n00bs", but I see you don't. RESPECT. I know I could save money buying it, but I really want to build this one. I will look into another motherboard, any favorites?

edit: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131569
how about that? It's the ASUS A8N5X.

 

[Running]

good mother board the ASUS one. and i fyou like quiet pc's def get a seasonic psu. they are using high end japanese caps in their psu's now, they are the same quality and mayb higher than pc&p. you'll be amazed by how quiet it is

 

[saxofoner]

I changed to an Antec power supply and that motherboard, $990 total, I'm cool with that. Think I should order?

-About OCing, I know nothing. I probably won't overclock, just because that Dual Core 3800 is more than I need anyway. And I figure that if the 7600 card ever becomes too little for me, I can upgrade and sell that. I would wait for a new core and all that, but I don't have that kind of money. I mean, bleeding-edge is ALWAYS a couple hundred bucks extra.

So, any last comments before I press the big red [order] button?


EDIT: Forgot to say this: I went to that cyberpowerpc.com thing. I took one of the specials ($7xx) and upgraded it to what I'm getting-- $1100+. So screw them. I want to build it anyway.

 

[ThirdLeft152]

if you get that asus board, it says it only does sata 150. so you could save some money by downgrading your hard drive from sata2.

 

[saxofoner]

Ok thanks for that tip. Anything else?

 

[AnthraX]

Spend $10 more and get this hard drive. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822136009

It has double the cache. 8mb to 16mb. Trust me, you'll be glad you bought it. It's SATA 3.0G/s, but will work fine on a SATA/150 board.