Newbie Needs Configuration Confirmation

[fragusmaximus]

I haven?t built a system in nearly five years. A lot has changed since those days and I don?t feel a whole very confident anymore. I hope I can solicit this group to give me a reassuring pat on the back for the configuration I am going to buy. If anybody can help me spot an incompatibility or would like to recommend replacing a part, please post. Thanks!

P4 2.4Ghz 533 MHz (retail)
Asus P4S8X (retail)
Corsair 512MB DDR333 (CMX512-2700C2)
ATI Radeon 9700 Pro 128 MB (retail)
Antec Performance Plus 1080AMG w/430W power supply (retail)
Asus S/PDIF-Out Module (only the interface is included in mb)
Lite-On 16X IDE DVD-ROM (maybe an Asus 16x DVD would be better)

 

[m1ke101]

what kind of budget are you looking at?

i like all the choices you've picked for your comp except maybe the motherboard. i believe it just came out, so theres no real consensus of it being good or not. i'm not saying that its bad or anything, just that people haven't reported back to the stability, etc of the board. the board has a lot of features though. also, might i suggest you get a 40x liteon burner as well, seeing how they're dirt cheap ($40 from dell i believe) and it would be a nice thing to have in case you want to burn something or if you just want another drive to read cds.

 

[fragusmaximus]

Thanks m1ke101 for the feedback. I agree, I'm a little nervous with the motherboard. There are a lot of postings about people that have had problems with their 9700 Pro. I hope the recent patches and updates will solve this. Thanks for the tip on the burner. I didn't even look for one because I expected them to be more expensive. I'll follow up on that.

I'm trying to stick to a flexible $1100 budget. I've already gotten a WD 120 GB SE for around $150. If I decide to break the bank, I would go with a P4T533-C and Rambus RAM. I'm having trouble locating the right brand though. Googlegear lists Samsung but the SKU number is wrong. Asus says you need a MD18R1628AF1-CN9 where as Googlegear's best match is a SKU of MD16R1628AF0-CN9DF. Is this a type'o? Performance wise this is a better solution and I would like it except for the expensive RAM.

Although I'm enjoying my window shopping, I don't want to put together another computer for three years. So this one will need to last.