Building first gaming PC, review please

[_dave_]

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What's the difference between these 2 kinds of memory?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145488
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145576


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These are very similar memory modules, second one listed has slightly faster timings, which will make it perform a little quicker than the other stuff.

Scroll down the newegg pages to the "Tech Spec" section to see the difference, the cheaper memory is rated for 3-3-3-8, as opposed to 2-3-3-6 for the more expensive stuff. The lower the timings, the fewer clock cycles it takes to access the memory. If memory speed is important (and it certainly can be for games, given a fast enough video card & CPU), then the slightly faster memory will be an improvement. The Athlon64 CPU certainly likes low-latency memory, due to it's on-chip memory controller. Low latency memory is less of an issue with P4 processors, but they too will work better, only not such an improvement as the Athlon64.

For interest's sake, the fastest DDR modules i have seen run at 2-2-2-5 timings - these were somewhat expensive.

It is important to note that while I talk about improvements in speed, they will be marginal at best. The difference between 3-3-3-8 and 2-2-2-5 can be clearly seen when testing the memory with Memtest86, but it only gives a few extra FPS (if that) playing games.


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Is this the right motherboard?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131524

Good DVD drive?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827135043

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Good motherboard - I like the A8N-SLI. Not the best at overclocking, but fast and stable at standard settings.

I've never used an ASUS DVD writer, but this should be fine.

dave.