Another Comp Build Post

[Sean D]

Well, I'm gonna buy myself a new computer for Christmas this year, and have tried doing research on everything before I buy. I have never built an entire computer before, just the basics; video card, cd burner, hard drive, etc. But I don't foresee that being too much of a problem. I am on somewhat of a budget, but I already have monitors, and a couple other things I can use from my current computer. I'd like to keep it below $1000. I play games occasionally, not enough to need a $350 card. I mostly just play poker, download music, etc. So here are my current components, I'd like feedback on how it looks. Thanks



Thermaltake Soprano VB1000SWS Silver Chassis: Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

SOLTEK SL-K890Pro-939 Socket 939 VIA K8T890 ATX AMD Motherboard

AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Venice 1GHz FSB Socket 939 Processor

MSI NX6600GT-TD128E Geforce 6600GT 128MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card

ASPIRE ATX-AS520W BLACK ATX 520W Power Supply

Kingston ValueRAM 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System Memory

Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 ST3250823AS 250GB 7200 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive

LITE-ON Black IDE DVD Burner Model SOHW-1693S Black

Microsoft Windows XP HOME Edition With Service Pack 2

[MikeTexas]

Looks pretty good. The only thing I would change are perhaps the power supply and the motherboard.

More wattage isnt necessarily better then stability and although the Aspire PSU's tend to give you a lot of wattage for the buck they tend to fail more then some other brands. Look into an Antec, Seasonic or OCZ for PSUs.

I frequent an overclocking forum and Aspire PSU's are generally frowned upon quality wise. They look nice and all, but appearances can be deceiving.

And as far as your mobo, Soltek makes great ones. I've owned one and it was very nice. However, from what I understand Soltek is no longer manufacturing mobos so it may be difficult to get driver/bios support for their mobos in the future. Thats the only reason I suggest you may want to look at other manufacturers.

I would definitely ditch the Aspire PSU though.

-Mike

[Terry]

[ QUOTE ]
The only thing I would change are perhaps the power supply and the motherboard.

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree.

My personal choices are Antec for power supply and Asus for motherboard ... but there are other good ones.

[Sean D]

Thanks for the resposes. I've changed it to an Antec SmartPower 2.0 500W PSU. As far as the motherboard, that is the one thing I wanted to keep. From a lot of the reviews I've read, it is one of the more stable, and easy to set up boards. I don't plan on OC'ing, and I think I'll be fine with the Soltek board. Unless someone can truly convince me otherwise. Thanks again.

Also, what about the RAM, I can get Corsair ValueSelect and Geil Value RAM for roughly the same price. Reviews for all three were very good. Any preferences?

[Nomad84]

[ QUOTE ]
Also, what about the RAM, I can get Corsair ValueSelect and Geil Value RAM for roughly the same price. Reviews for all three were very good. Any preferences?

[/ QUOTE ]

I'd recommend reading the motherboard manual to see if any particular brand is prefered by the mobo manufacturer. In my case, I use an Asus A8N-SLI Premium. I'd read about a few issues with RAM incompatabilities. I had planned to buy the Corsair ValueSelect RAM. I downloaded a copy of the Asus manual and the Corsair RAM was not listed in their approved vendor list. It may have worked fine, but I went with the Kingston cheap stuff instead since it was specifically listed as compatible in the motherboard manual. Also, as you mentioned, the price was about the same.

[Sean D]

Well, I've done some more research on the board, and a few people have been using the Corsair Value Ram with no problems. The Kingston would probably work too, but I'll be on the safe side. Also, are there any advantages/disadvantages with going with a single 1G stick, rather than 2x512mb sticks? The price is the same, actually a couple bucks cheaper for the single stick. Plus that would leave 3 empty slots for future upgrades. The only noticeable difference is the CAS latency for the 1g is 3, while the 2x512 is 2.5. Thanks again.


Edit: Also, is there a big advantage in getting the AMD 3700+ San Diego processor over the 3200+ Venice? The only noticeable differences to me are the operating frequency runs at 2.2ghz rather than 2.0, and the L2 cache is 1mb rather than 512kb. Would it be worth the $75 to me?