Take a look at my specs, please...
 

Hi All,

The time has come to get a new machine, and I've decided to build it..

Here's what I'm planning - anyone got any thoughts, or see any issues with what I've selected.
Gone for a Athlon XP processor, don't really think the 64's are worth the extra expense at the moment:

Antec ATX Entry Level Server Plus1080AMG with 430W ATX TruePower supply
AMD Athlon XP3200+ 400FSB 512Cache Barton Retail Boxed Inc Heatsink & Fan with 3year Warranty
Asus A7N8X-E Deluxe SKTA NVNorce2ST ATX 8xAGP Giga LAN, SATA, Firewire, 6 channel Audio, USB2 Dual chan. DDR +WiFi slot (up to DDR400)
Crucial CT6464Z40B 512mb DDR 400MHz PC3200 CL=3 Memory Module * 2
Western Digital WD2500JD 250Gb 8mb Cache 7200rpm Serial ATA - OEM
Sony DW-D22a 16x Dual Layer DVD R/RW - OEM Biege
XFX NVidia Geforce FX 5900XT 128MB DDR 8x/4x AGP TV-Out DVI Retail Box

TIA

Edit : oh yeah, and I'll grab a floppy drive at some point too

Re: Take a look at my specs, please...
 

Damn, thought this was a thread about spectacles. :cool:

Re: Take a look at my specs, please...
 

me too, lol i was about to say "go to specsavers!" ;)

Re: Take a look at my specs, please...
 

Thats system looks good. You've got a nice big SATA drive so thats quality.
Yours is the OEM but you shouldnt have any problems if you are using SATA connector 1, or if you do, there will be drivers on the motherboard CD but you shouldnt need them.
Plus ASUS normally include about 4 SATA cables so youl be fine there. You should also get a SATA power adapter with your motherboard but if you dont, they are cheap to buy. You may already have one on your PSU anyway.
The Crucial memory should run fine, thats what I've got in my system.
As for info about the CPU, Im an Intel person so I'l leave that to the others.

Have a nice time building it. Is this your first system build ?
Its a lot of fun :)

Re: Take a look at my specs, please...
 

looks good i agree at the moment the 64 cpu's aren't worth it yet have u checked out the new Sempron range? the gfx card isn't top of the range same as mine in fact fast card but it struggles a little with doom turned full on other wise the spec looks fine

Re: Take a look at my specs, please...
 

Yeah, first complete build, but I've taken many apart, and built back up - either way, it should be an interesting experience :)

Has for the drive being OEM, I may just swap for another retail one, the difference in prices is usually minimal...

Had a look at the semperon, but all of them seem to be 256 cache, and 333 FSB - though in the scheme of things it probably won't take too much difference.

Unsure about gfx cards - didn't want to blow 300 on a gfx card, but also wanted something that would play the most recent stuff - this one seemed an ok compromise...

Edit : oh, and to keep the rest of you happy, I'll post a picture of my glasses later :)

Re: Take a look at my specs, please...
 

If you buy a socket 754 Sempron you can change it for a 64-bit socket 754 Athlon later.

Re: Take a look at my specs, please...
 

Not worth it, socket 754 is being phased out in favour of socket 9XX.

Re: Take a look at my specs, please...
 

A couple of comments having just built a new system :

1. Microdirect have Geil PC3200 CL=2.5 512Mb sticks (with heat-spreader) for less than the Crucial memory - http://www.microdirect.co.uk/Product...198&GroupID=57

2. In a system that big I cant see that the potential cost differences between an A64 3000+ (about £110 retail) with Asus NForce3 754 mobo and the XP3200/SktA board would be significant. True the 754 may have been a stop-gap but at least it is new tech rather than the Skt A! Also, although I never built a Skt A system, putting the CPU & HSF on my A64 system was a sinch, even for a newbie builder.

3. There have been several threads around here FUDing Ebuyer's reputation (especially for RMA's) which is why I looked at Microdirect, Scan, Aria and Savastore. Settled on Microdirect even though slightly dearer, but watch http://www.cableforum.co.uk/board/sh...ad.php?t=19490 to see how they handle my RMA.

HTH

Re: Take a look at my specs, please...
 

I'll second the recommendation for the Geil memory, it's fantastic.

Re: Take a look at my specs, please...
 

SPD are quite goood. They were super fast last I used them too.
They are official ASUS distributors too.

http://www.spd.co.uk

Re: Take a look at my specs, please...
 

I would really recommend against Ebuyer, they are fine, as long as everything arrives quickly and works first time, their returns and customer support departments are dire to be frank.

Re: Take a look at my specs, please...
 

Same really for most eTailers I would only buy goods from them that are also backed by a respectable manufacturers warranty. Best bet for stuff like mobo's cpu gfx is check out the reputation for local suppliers, theres bound to be horror stories from most but thats not allways down to the retailer themselves. Still some of it will be down to poor service and all will be guilty of it at some point. And to be honest I generally buy cpu mem and mobo from the same place, that way it should all match and you will have less of a problem taking in the 3 items together if you get stumped with problems.

Re: Take a look at my specs, please...
 

I really must get my eyesight tested.I read the thread title as Take a look at my pecs please....

Re: Take a look at my specs, please...
 

I normally buy from scan.co.uk and I have to say their customer service and RMA process are absolutely spot on, but it's always good to buy goods made by manufacturers with good warranties, Iiyama Monitors have 3 years On Site which I've had to use twice for some reason :(

Re: Take a look at my specs, please...
 

I did have a site but iv lost it had a ranking system for UK suppliers im sure it was rommell or romell something or other and if I remember rightly scan.co.uk did rank quite highly there so does komplett.co.uk

If I do come across again it Ill edit and post the link ;)

EDIT:
http://www.romulus2.com/feedback/chart.php?1

of course like all online rankings they can be manipulated so dont believe just the one place.

Re: Take a look at my specs, please...
 

Well, in the end, I only bought a few things from ebuyer - the case, the memory and the processor - the rest I got from scan....

Changed the motherboard for the next version up with the wifi card, changed the dvd writer for another one, and got a 200 gb drive instead, since they were all on special on scan...

It's all arrived today... i'm all excited now :)

Re: Take a look at my specs, please...
 

We look forward to lots of 'where does this plug go' thread ;) :)

Re: Take a look at my specs, please...
 

You may laugh, but 10 years ago when I was putting an additional hard drive into a machine for the time ever - I had to call an engineer out, to 'fix' my machine, when it wouldn't boot.
It wouldn't boot even after I had removed the new drive...all that happened was it beeped when I turned it on...

Engineer came in, swapped over mouse and keyboard leads, machine booted... oh hum
:dunce: :blush: :)

Re: Take a look at my specs, please...
 

Have fun building :)

And always double check before you do your final switch on.

Re: Take a look at my specs, please...
 

Well put it together on Saturday, all seemed ok - however, had no end of problems with the sata drive - sometimes the controller would see it sometimes it wouldn't, could only format 137 gb of the drive using a seagate disc, windows just fell over when trying to do anything with it, when it wasn't losing the disc.
Ran a seagate diagnostic tool on the drive, it says there is something wrong with it, and that I should return it.

Called scan and arranged to send it back... going to go to pcworld and get a big ide drive, so i can use my system as I don't want to wait for 2 weeks - once they decide whether or not the drive is faulty, I'll decide if I want a new one or not....

Funny how it works out - of all the bits I thought I was going to have problems with, the hard drive wasn't one of them.. oh well...

Incidentally, the bios says my memory is running at 200Mhz, dual channel - is that right? or should it be higher?