Building a comp, help chosing hardware

[GN85]

Hey guys, I am building a computer for my brother, and have come up with the following list of components. I am buying all the hardware at Microbytes.

Motherboard: Asus A8N-SLI Premium
Processor: Athlon64 X2 3800+
Memory: Kingston KVR 400MHZ DDR 2048M kit
Hard drives: 36 gig raptors (2 drives set as RAID 0)
Graphics card: Leadtek GF7 PX7600GT (1 for now)
Case/PSU: Antec TX1050B Black 500W

Now I got a question:
For the memory I picked the cheapest 2 gig sticks, by Kingston. There are some that are much more expensive, for example an OCZ kit which is over a hundred dollars extra. (you can view the list here). What is the difference between them? Would it be more worth going for a higher end 1 gig kit than a 2 gig value kit for example? Would I see a huge difference between 215$ sticks and 330$ sticks? I am not planning to overclock btw.

Besides that, how does the system look? It's not a gaming machine but more like an all round fast computer that won't keep my bro watining for anything

If you have any comments or suggestions for other hardware feel free to post em

Oh and will 500W be sufficient considering that in the future there might be 2gigs ram, maybe 3 HDs, 2 optical drives, 2 video cards and a floppy drive?

 

[Nukem]

Looks good, but save your money on the raptors... get a couple of sata II's and RAID em'. You'll get as much performance out of them as a couple of raptors and more room to boot. you can use the extra money to buy a better gpu when the new ones come out, or get a 7900GT

http://www.microbytes.com/computer/ordinateur/product_info.php?cPath=2050300&products_id=21595

I would look into a better CPU cooler than stock... I have a zalman 7700 on mine and it dropped the temps very nicely. but over all stock sucks...

Arctic cooling is another good brand.

I would say the memory is fine if your brother is not going to OC or get into gaming big time then I would go with what you have.

 

[NathanM]

The differences are in the memory bandwidth, the timings, and overclockability. You can overclock value RAM little to none. The higher performance RAM usually gives tighter timings or a higher bandwidth, as well as being more capable overclockers. If you (or should I say your brother) don't want to overclock, I'd say get value RAM or 1 step higher from a brand like G.Skill or OCZ preferrably. 1GB of RAM is sufficient, but it's nice to have 2GB for some of the newer games out there that just eat it up. And yes, a 1GB increase in this case will be better than higher performance 1GB RAM.

If I recall correctly, a 74GB Raptor is cheaper than two 36GB. You might want to check that. If you need more space, get: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822144701

The 7600GT is a great card to fit that type of budget, but I don't know much about the Leadtek brand. I assume they'll be ok.

Last thing, could you provide a link to the case/PSU?

 

[GN85]

http://www.antec.com/us/productDetails.php?ProdID=61050

That's the case.

Great feedback guys, might just change a few things

edit: NathanM i wanted to get 2 hard drives for the speed (raid 0), the hard drive size doesn't really matter, although what Nukem is suggesting is interesting.

 

[tommycompton]

a suggestion perhaps, instead of the a8n sli premium go for the a8n sli 32 deluxe only probably a few bucks more but a much nicer board and you might as well go am2 the chip set and board won't be much more, just your ram will.

 

[GN85]

Well from what I've read the AM2 CPU + DDR2 ain't gonna give me a real big performance increase, and anyways with the parts I listed (with 2 160 gig HDs instead of raptors) I'm already at 2k CDN with tax, and that's my bro's maximum budget.

 

[tommycompton]

that is true for now. i'd definitly give the a8n sli 32 deluxe a look at even if you ain't going am2. still a better board than the premium.

 

[dafunkmon]

hey so with the new edited parts you guys suggested could i play bf2? and if not what more could i invest in to play?