Help me build my new comp

[jenovax4]

Hi everyones. It's my 1st time here and i'd like some help building my new comp. I'm from Canada but i plan to buy my stuff using the pricewatch website as it is cheaper even with the duty fees and the money convertion. Those are the pieces i'm thinking right now. If you would change something tell me witch ones and why. I did make some research for the most important pieces

Motherboard: MSI K8T NEO (I've read about it and it won the editor's award, tho i'm not sure witch one to take, FIS2R or FSR, i don't know the diference. Also maybe there's a newer board that is better?) ~120$

CPU: AMD 64 3000+ ~160$

Video Card: ATI radeon 9800 PRO ~200$

Memory: 512 or 1gig depends on price (I'm not sure with the brand as i've read that amd 64 Mboard needs quality memory. I've also read that using 2 512 could crash the system and that i should use 1 512 or 1 1gig instead. Since 1 gig is expensive let's say 512) ~75$

Hard drive: Seagate s-ata 150 120gigs ~100$

Sound card: Sound blaster live 5.1 ~25$

DVD burner: Aopen DRW4410 ~65$

DVD rom: Aopen DVD1648 ~30$
(Is Aopen a good brand for dvd and dvd burner?)

17inch monitor: ~100$

Optical mouse + keyboard: ~30$

Case: ~40$

Total: ~950$US

That's about 1400$ can with duty taxes and say 100$ shipping with would make 1500$ That's the max i can pay so if you suggest me changes please try to keep that in mind )

 

[endyen]

If you buy from the U.S. you will have to pay pst and gst, so your total only allows -$50 for duty. I cant see the government giving a rebate.
Most of the better U.S. e-tailers dont ship to Canada. Newegg wont.
Qality ram for socket 754 is a waste of money. Scotchen (another Canuck, well known here for overclocking) uses cheepo samsung ram. It works fine, even OCs well.
For mobos. most here like boards with the nforce3 250 chipset. The most popular are the MSI, a couple by Chaintech, and one by Asus.
If you have an old video card hanging around, you might do well to use the Ati trade-up program at <A HREF="http://shop.ati.com/tradeup.asp" target="_new">http://shop.ati.com/tradeup.asp</A> Even an old pci, or ISA will do.
You can loose the Soundblaster card, most mobos have better onboard sound than that.
I have seen too many Aopen optical drives fail. Liteon, or LG is better, and usually cheeper.

 

[Tashtego]

go with the Corsair value select 512 Ram for the best compatability with that mobo.

Prepare for Ramming Speed!!!

 

[Crashman]

Even though it's only $25, I wouldn't buy the soundcard, the onboard sound has newer features and they both have fairly significant CPU overhead.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[georgebeee]

and I'm an amd man myself, but, the 6600gt is on the way and it's about the same price as the 9800pro.

<A HREF="http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20040812/index.html" target="_new">6600</A>

amd 2000+
gigabyte ga-7va
512mb samsung pc2700(2x256mb)
maxtor 60gb 7200rpm
LG cd-r/rw 48x24x48
soundblaster live 5.1
BBA radeon 9600xt 128mb
antec 550w true control

 

[jenovax4]

The problem with the nforce 3 MSI boards is they don't support ATA-150 and my hard drive will be 150...
http://www.msicomputer.com/product/p_list.asp?class=mb&cpu=3
So i've to choose between the K8T800 3 cards. I've no idea witch one to choose tho.
And yea the 6600 look cool but do you think it worth the wait?

 

[pat]

Chck newegg for the Soltek k8an2e-gr. Good performing board with support for 4 SATA HDD. I just ordered this board, waiting for it...

-Always put the blame on you first, then on the hardware !!!

 

[DeKamme]

You hard drive will be S-ATA 150, as you said in your 1st post? Well, I saw this board @my local dealer:

MSI K8T800 NEO FIS2R VIA KT800 SATA,Audio ->

- Intergrated dual channel native Serial ATA/RAID controller supplying 150MB/s supporting for
RAID 0 and RAID 1

Native SATA, 150MB, even with raid (if you're going for speed, take 2 smaller SATA HDD). Now, am I missing the point, or is this what you want? The board costs 113.68 € here, should be somewhat the same price in $, depending on place of purchase.

Now, just out of curiosity - is it so hard to get decent, cheap hardware in Canada? I saw a thread on ExpertsExchange forum of a Canadian guy who was looking for cheap hardware sources in Can, he found a few...
I live in a quite small country, still, we're the centre of Europe, and we got the best broadband cover in the world, so no trouble getting hardware here (the only thing you find more over here than IT stores are places where you get Fries and we DO put mayonaise on them!)

 

[jenovax4]

Yup i know that board have ata 150 but it uses the via chipset. I guess it's not such a big deal. I was saying that MSI with nforce chipset dont have ata 150. And yes the prices for hardwares are quite high here. As a exemple a 9800 pro cost 350$ CAN here compared to 180 US. I'm from Quebec and there's a bunch of people that do put mayonaise on fries too. That's discusting to me tho hehehe