Buying a new Computer

[SmoothCorn]

This is the place where I get the prices:
http://www.canadacomputers.com/

I have $1600 CDN to spend on this computer.
The monitor is not included in the $1600...
Motherboard: ASUS A8V Deluxe VIA K8T800Pro $161
CPU: Athlon 64+ 3200 $241
RAM: 2 sticks of KingMax 512MB PC-3200 DDR400 SDRAM $210 ($105 each)
Video Card: SAPPHIRE RADEON 9800 PRO 128MB $266
Hard Drive: Seagate 200GB w/ 8MB cache $143
CD/DVD: LG GSA-4160B 16x DVD+/-RW, Dual Layer $86
TOTAL: $1107....

Can you please recommend a case guys... Also, what do you think about this system? Am I forgetting anything?

maybe I should go with MSI K8N Neo 2 Platinum....

One more question, does my motherboard support the ram that I've listed? Also, would you recommend that ram. Kingmax seems to be a good company.

Thanks in advance

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by SmoothCorn on 11/25/04 07:07 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[earthling]

as for motherboard I recommend a nForce3 chipset instead of via, go for a MSI K8N Neo2 Or GA-K8NS Ultra by gigabyte, choose whichever you feel comfortable with, thas a $177
for the CPU yeah A64 3200+ is good, and for the ram you'd better stick with what mentioned in the Mobo's manual, try to go for Corsair, you'll add like 5 extra dollars to each stick
and the VGA get a nvidia 6600GT but I don't find any of that with AGP slot on the site, but that's what i recommend it's better than the 9800pro but if you can't find it go with the 9800pro
for the hdd get the seagate 200GB SATA with 8MB cache for $157
for the DVD write i recommend asus although i can't find it in the site, so if you can't get it go for the LG
and don't forget a PSU, get an antec Trupower 480 Or 550 ($111-135)
and for the case get some aluminum case by Antec or enermax, but try picking one with no PSU, Or get an antec with a truepower and skip the previous step =) ($100-150)
TOTAL: $1377

 

[scottchen]

The K8T800pro chipset is decent but i'd still go with an Nforce3 250ultra based board, such as the K8N Neo2 platinum, i myself just purchased the gigabyte GA-K8NSNXP-939 which is a very expensive board but when it comes to overclocking it beats the MSI board. And do take my hint, don't buy LG stuff, i've had many trouble with them in the pass of not being able to read many discs. Go with Liteon, they whould be the same price.

 

[scottchen]

The K8T800pro chipset is decent but i'd still go with an Nforce3 250ultra based board, such as the K8N Neo2 platinum, i myself just purchased the gigabyte GA-K8NSNXP-939 which is a very expensive board but when it comes to overclocking it beats the MSI board. And do take my hint, don't buy LG stuff, i've had many trouble with them in the pass of not being able to read many discs. Go with Liteon, they whould be the same price.

 

[SmoothCorn]

ok, I see that some companies offer some memory kits like OCZ...

Is there a point to that? If I buy 2 separate sticks of 512, the double data feature would work properly, right?

also, if I get the MSI K8N Neo 2 Platinum motherboard, will it support SATA drives? I am planning on getting a normal IDE drive, because I do not know anything about SATA...

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by SmoothCorn on 11/25/04 10:48 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[scottchen]

SATA really makes no difference, except it's easier to organize your cables since the SATA cables are so small. the MSI board natively supports 4 SATA drives. Allowing Raid0, Raid1, Raid0+1, and JBOD.

 

[earthling]

but SATA hard drives are supposed to be way faster, I'm not experienced with SATA anyway but i thought they are way faster than the IDE

 

[jammydodger]

Hard drive are limited my thier machanics. Although SATA offers a trasfer rate of 150MB/sec (as opposed to the 133MB/sec offered by PATA drives), the hard drives themselfs often struggle to produce more than 50MB/sec.