biulding new PC, feedback on spec

[phlip]

Am nearly ready to order, bascially just want to know if there are any parts that you would strongly advise against. Thanks


Monitor: £499.00 ----- Samsung Electronics SM172T 17" DVI SXGA LCD
Case: £57.58 ----- Enlight Endura EN-7250 (250W PSU) (CA-000-EL)
PSU: £49.94 ----- Enermax EG365AX-VE(G)(FMA) 350W ATX Power Supply (CA-003-EN)
Motherboard: £81.08 ----- Epox 8K5A2 (Socket A motherboard) (MB-014-EP)
CPU: £83.60 ----- AMD Athlon XP 2000+ (Socket A) OEM (CP-019-AM)
RAM: £69.91 ----- Crucial 256MB DDR PC2700 CAS-2.5 (MY-008-CR)
Graphics Card: £91.65 ----- 128Mb ATI Radeon 9000 Pro Retail
Sound Card: £0.00 ----- Sound Blaster Live! Audigy
Hard Drive: £72.85 ----- Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 60GB (OEM) (HD-007-MD)
DVD ROM Drive: £31.73 ----- LiteON LTD-166s 16x DVD-ROM - RETAIL (CD-002-LO)
CD-RW Drive: £46.47 ----- LiteON LTR-48125W 48x/12x/48x CD-RW - Retail (CD-007-LO)
Modem: £33.49 ----- Creative Modem Blaster V.92 PCI (MD-001-CL)
CPU HSF: £19.98 ----- Akasa AK-821 2Q Silent Cooler (HS-003-AK)
Case Fan: £4.70 ----- YS-TECH FD8125 SILENT 80mm fan - 4 Pin (FG-008-YS)
Case Fan: £4.70 ----- YS-TECH FD8125 SILENT 80mm fan - 4 Pin (FG-008-YS)
Thermal Compound: £5.64 ----- Arctic Silver III (OA-002-AC)

TOTAL = £1,152.32

 

[Markfw]

If you do any 3d games, I would recommend the Radeon 8500 over the 9000. It is much faster and only a little more money. Make sure you get the 128 meg version , and NOT the 'LE'. I think it should run about $110 US. The only thing you lose is DX9 compatability (I'm pretty sure, please someone correct me if I am wrong)

 

[CurtCold]

I dunno about Creative Modems, I have had some problems with them in the past. Maybe the new one's are better. I would just go for a Rockwell, or any WinModem. Might save you some dough there.

Also do you really need the Soundblaster? Personally onboard sound is fine for me, some people prefer the soundcard, but unless I was doing audio editing or something to that effect, I can't see why something like C-Media onboard won't suffice.

Other than that, you can take the money shaved there, and get the 8500 Radeon. Shouldn't cost much more, and it's faster than the 9000. Also if you do game, I would definately recommend some more ram. Like 512MB. New games are ram hogs.

I'm not knockn' what you have picked out, that's all just personl preference from me.

 

[thorin]

Get 512MB RAM. And get a HD that still has a 3 year warranty and has a 8MB cache (ie: WD Special Edition).

Thorin

 

[optimistic]

Maybe get a bigger hard drive? 80gb only cost $10USD more. And you might eventually want to get 512mb RAM. - Everything just seems to run much smoother with 512.

And how about noise? Are you a noise freak like me?

The LiteOn drives -when not in use are quiet obviously, but during read / write operations get pretty loud.

Try the Sony 48x12x48CDRW if your concerned about sound.
Not sure about DVD drives, but I KNOW the Pioneer Slot Load 106s is quiet, but performance not that great.


Side note: So how much is the exchange now from pounds to usd dollar? Looks like 1 to 1 almost. And your sound card says £0.00, maybe you missed adding that one up.


edit: dang, thorin beat me to it

 

[optimistic]

Oh and Seagate makes the quietest hard drives.

 

[phlip]

I'm not much of a gamer, just wanted a decent+cheap card with DVI!

Ok, 512 RAM then.
I'll have a look around at other Hard/Disk Drives and modem. Wanted to try and get most of the parts form the same place.. I'll see.

Oh yeah, sorry forgot to put that in.. I'm salvaging the sound card from my current system.

forgot to say, quieter is definatly better! noise freak here too