[superflyR8]

Ok this is my first computer build. I have two or three friends that can help me out but I wanted to post my list of hardware and all to see what others thought. Any advice will help alot. I am on a budget but I would like to play video games with it, and work on the internet and do some homework for my college classes.



Case: Logisys Phantom Windowed ATX Computer Case with PSU 480W
Newegg.com $59.99

Mother Board: CHAINTECH VNF4/Ultra Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
newegg.com $92.00


CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Venice Integrated into Chip FSB 512KB L2 Cache Socket 939 Processor - Retail
newegg.com $147.00

Video Card: MSI NX6600GT-TD128E Geforce 6600GT 128MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI-Express x16 Video Card
Newegg.com $178.00

Memory: CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Unbuffered DDR 400 (PC 3200) Dual Channel Kit System Memory
Newegg.com $80.00

Hard Drive: Hitachi / 80GB / 7200 / 8MB / SATA-150 / OEM / Hard Drive
Tigerdirect.com $64.99

CD/DVD burner: Toshiba / 16x4x16x DVD+RW / 12x4x16xDVD-RW / 5x DVD+R DL / 48x24x48x CD-RW / OEM Black DVD
Tigerdirect.com $39.99

I would like to have a better hard drive with SATA2 instead of just 1, since the motherboard supports it. I have not found one yet, please help there. Also the mother board is something I ran up on today and read some review and it seems to be the best for the money. I will be running XP on this.

thanks for all of the help and time

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Here is a search on newegg for sata II. theres a couple of regular sata drives mixed in, but its a lot easier to find what you want.

otherwise, your list looks pretty good to me.

[audioboy]

Here is a search on newegg for sata II. theres a couple of regular sata drives mixed in, but its a lot easier to find what you want.

otherwise, your list looks pretty good to me.

[warriorscot]

Dont know what you have been reading but everyone else that reviews mobos thinks MSI and ABIT are the best and they are competitevly priced as well. A 6600GT = waste of money look for a x800 thats good if you cant find one by all means get the 6600GT but be aware you will have to replace it sooner than you think. Yeah SATA HDs are cheap as chips these days 160GB is the cut off where they start to get expensive. Check out Maxtor drives they are very good. The CPU is a good one, get a case with no psu and then buy a good quality psu its not worth frying your system for a cheap power supply.

[superflyR8]

I first looked at the MOBO but I ran up on the Chaintek MOBO and it supported the SATA2. But this one does not.

MSI K8N Neo4-F Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 ATX AMD Motherboard


Most of the cases that I found came with power supplies, I know I should get one from Antec, I have heard they make really great power supplies.

Antec SmartPower 2.0 SP-400 ATX12V 400W Power Supply 115/230 V UL, TUV, CB, FCC CLASS B, CUL - Retail

maybe I should look for an Antec case it might be cheaper to go that way instead of having to pay for a power supply that I will never use.


So you are saying to get this graphics card:

MSI RX800-TD256E Radeon X800 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video

I have not heard anything bad about the 6600GT.

This computer is a buget computer but once i get out of school and make money then I could see spending more.

I am still reading reivews about all the hardware.

[twotoes]

why not look around ebay and see if you can find a nice used 6600GT for cheaper.

its a great card, but depending on how serious you take gaming, it might not make sense to pay retail for something you might be upgrading in under a year.

i just bought my brother a barely used leadtek pci-e 6600gt for 110 dollars off ebay.

[warriorscot]

MSI nf4 boards have sata 2 support dont know where you are getting they dont.
There is nothing technicaly wrong with a 6600GT i just think they are really bad value for money.
I would never ever recommend buying used computer parts, you dont know what the last person was doing with it they may hav overclocked it and voided the warranty.
Not only do Antec make good PSUs they also make just as good cases which include alot of the time there very good PSUs. It will often work out cheaper, i just found a new antec pro series with a 480W antec psu for the same price i was getting a super lanboy and a 450W cheap alaska psu.

[audioboy]

good case/psu combos can be had from antec and thermaltake. I use antec myself, have never had a problem.

the 6600GT is considered the standard mid-hi end mainstream video card, averaging around $170 new. I believe the X800 is slightly more expensive, (around $30 more i think), and performs well. check out some reviews, I like tomshardwareguide.com for their extensive reviews, good comparisons, etc. Im sure they have put the x800 and the 6600gt against each other, so you can look at the scores and see how they perform for what you want to be doing.