OK, the almost-final specs for my new PC

[Beware the Beast Man]

Judging from the feedback I received from my previous thread, here's what I came up with for my new machine. Like before, I'll take any constructive comments.
Once again, I really appreciate all the input. It made me re-think what I thought I new about hardware components.
Thanks!

CASE-
Aspire X-Dreamer II(Black) ATX Mid-Tower Case with 350W Power Supply, With Window, Model "ATXB4KLW-BK/350"

ADDITIONAL POWER SUPPLY-
Aspire Turbo Case Series 500W 12V Silver Aluminum Power Supply, Model "ATX-AS500-SV 12V" - I'm still not 100% certain on power supplies, but I know I'll need extra juice for my setup.

MOBO-
ASUS "A7N8X-E Deluxe" nForce2 Ultra 400 Chipset Motherboard for AMD Socket A CPU

CPU-
AMD Athlon XP 3000+ "Barton", 400 FSB, 512K Cache Processor

HARD DRIVE-
Maxtor 200GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive, Model 6Y200M0

MEMORY-
Crucial 184 Pin 512MB DDR PC-3200 8T (2 of these for 1GB total)

VIDEO CARD-
Albatron nVIDIA GeForce 6600 Video Card, 128MB DDR, 128-Bit, DVI/TV-Out, PCI-Express, Model "PC6600/128"

SOUND CARD-
I still have my eye on the M-Audio Audiophile, but I think in the mean time I'll either use the onboard audio, or my Guitar Port, which has the capability to take over for the audio card.

CD/DVD DRIVE-
Samsung 16X DVD±RW, Model TS-H552B/WRCH Black

SPEAKERS-
M-Audio Studiophile DX4 Powered Monitors - I may just get regular speakers and stick to monitoring through my headphones.

KEYBOARD & MOUSE-
Logitech Cordless Desktop LX300 Keyboard and Mouse USB / PS/2

MONITOR-
SAMSUNG 710N-2-Black 17" LCD Monitor- this thing goes off rebate in a few days, but I may get it anyway. I'm impressed with the specs.

Like I said before, if you see something that doesn't jive, let me know.
Thanks

[RoyGBiv]

1. Looks good, except ...

The graphics card you're getting is the PCI-E (Express) model. The motherboard you're getting has an AGP (8x) slot. These are not compatible. I'm not sure about that brand, but that same kind of card (nVIDIA GeForce 6600) is made in an AGP version.

Other than that, it looks good. With regard to power supplies, it is much better to have more than you need than not enough.

[Beware the Beast Man]

3. D'Oh!

I didn't catch that. Thanks.

[RoyGBiv]

7. One other thing ...

Forgot to mention this ...

Regarding the CPU you're getting, I'm not sure if you indicated you're getting the retail or OEM version. Both are the same as far as the CPU is concerned, but the retail version includes the heat sink and fan (cooling system) that you absolutely, positively must have. I've never purchased a retail CPU because the cooling it provides is bare bones, so I'm not sure if the kit includes thermal paste and/or a thermal pad to use when mounting the cooling system.

Whatever the case, make absolutely sure you are getting a cooling system with your CPU. Even if you get the retail version, which includes this, I would suggest a separate purchase of some good thermal paste. I use Artic Silver 5. It's not the best, but it works well. Newegg sells a small tube of it for about 8 bucks, I think.

If you are getting the OEM version, you need to get add to your purchases a good cooling system to go with it.

[Beware the Beast Man]

10. I just started to figure my way around "OEM."

And you make a great point. For all intents and purposes, this is just a wish list, and not my final purchase. I'm trying to buy retail as much as possible, so I can get as many driver disks and other accoutrements as possible. thanks for the heads-up. :thumbsup:

[bemildred]

4. I have a 5700LE which is AGP 8x, for example. nt

[RoyGBiv]

5. How do you like it?

I've always been an ATI person, but I'm converting myself to Linux, and nVIDIA drivers are much more friendly with the operating system. I'm thinking of converting, but I'm unfamiliar with all but the highest-end of nVIDIA cards (6600 and 6800), which I don't really think I can afford at the moment.

I have a Radeon 9600XT currently. Do you know how the one you have would compare.

[bemildred]

6. Seems to work well.

I only go there for games (Windoze), and generally have found
nVidia to be less trouble. I can usually find a setting where
things work. Had issues with ATI on some games.

I had a Radeon a few years back that would not run some games
right.

Outside that, for normal usage it works great, but so did ATI.

But I'm no expert, I just hack till I get what I want.
But I'm happy with the 5700LE. And it is fast. YMMV.

[LiberalUprising]

2. I got a Samsung SyncMaster 710v a couple months ago

I love it, the picture is amazing, I looked at many others at Frys (outpost.com) and the Samsung by far had the best picture in the price range and was better than some that were a couple hundred dollars more.

Small bezel, clean lines, looks great.

Paid a $400 and got a $50 dollar rebate which I already recieved.

Frys now has them priced at $399 with a $70 rebate.
http://shop3.outpost.com/catreq/3378

The 710 N is now $369 with no rebate at Fryes.

The rest of your system looks good, can't beat Asus mobos.

[Sgent]

8. I would

look at upgrading the motherboard and processor -- to at least a 754 nForce3 and a Sempron. Preferabbly a Athalon 64 and 939 (also with nForce 3).

The Socket A and Athalon XP are dated technology -- verging on obselete. It uses a larger amount of power, is more ineffecient, and it runs slower than either of the above at the same speed.

The Sempron and Athalon 64 both include onboard memory controllers which increase the speed fairly significantly. In addition, the Athalon 64 in the 939 layout includes technology which effectively doubles the speed of your ram. Finally, the 64 includes the 64 bit extensions which will make the computer faster at multiprocessing and certain data intensive items.

Take a look at Anandtech Midrange Guide for a good review of the best in class items for someone in the 1000-1500 pricerange. That being said, everything else looks good.

[RoyGBiv]

9. Of Motherboards and CPUs

First, a Sempron in and of itself is not an upgrade to an Athlon XP. As far as performance is concerned, a low-end Sempron 64 bit may not perform any better overall than a high-end 32 bit Athlon XP combined with the right motherboard and memory. Semprons are crippled in much the same way Intel Celerons and the previous AMD Durons were. If one is giong to take the leap to the 64 bit processor, one should not, imo, start out with an inferior version of the chip.

Second, I disagree with the idea that Socket A technology is bordering on obsolete. To tech junkies, heavy gamers, number crunchers, and those who do reviews and sell the things, yes, they are beyond current interest. Socket A is not cutting edge, for certain, but in some ways this can be a good thing. The ASUS motherboard mentioned here is among if not the most stable, full-featured, and powerful of the Socket A motherboards made. It is still commonly used in benchmarking setups and will be as long as Socket A boards are still popular.

That said, the AMD 64s are of course better than the older 32 bit XPs in terms of raw processing power, power consumption, etc.. But, the motherboards have not matured enough to suit my satisfaction, and applications that utilize their true potential are still not numerous enough to justify the increased cost in my mind. In addition, a number of people have problems with the 64 bit CPU and running some commonly used applications. In many cases, the 64 bit power is simply wasted.

All of us who build our own systems wrestle with this debate, whether to move to the cutting edge and swallow the cost and potential problems or go with stability and simplicity. I am in no way saying you're wrong because you're not. However, based on the original thread, I am more inclined to suggest stability over cutting edge technology.

Your mileage may vary, of course.

[Sgent]

11. All the reviews I've seen

show that the 90mm sempron has better performance than the XP at the equivalent speed/cost. The 64 bit extensions are disabled, as well as some of the onboard cache. However, the on board memory controler gets around many problems in the XP architecture. Finally, I think moving to a sempron would allow the use of a 300 watt power supply (or at least no more than 400) as the sempron and XP use about 50% of the power compared to the XP. It will also result in a quiter computer as the fan won't need to run as much.

[bemildred]

12. FWIW

I have an Athlon 64+ (3000) on an Asus K8N w. the 5700LE and a 350W PS.
Only one hard drive, .5 G memory.

This was a piece of cake to get up (as these things go) and has
not given me a lick of trouble. It's been in daily use for
a bit over a month now.

It is fast, too.

You are entirely correct about the lack of true 64 bit support,
that seems to still be in the hacking stage, but I run 98SE
so it's hopeless anyway. The FreeBSD I run off the Unix partition
will eventually give me true 64bit, so will Linux I expect.

It was a bit more pricey, a bit over $300 for MoBo/CPU/Memory.