Will this work fine ?

[Matth]

No AGP - Intel claim they can't be mixed with PCI Express, but either VIA or Sis went an did it anyway.

http://uk.asus.com/prog/spec.asp?m=P...eluxe&langs=11#

The board has one large Graphics card slot, 3 small PCI-X slotes (have you EVER seen anything for them?) and 3 standard PCI slots - now I though the idea was that they were working on something backward compatible, but it sure doesn't look like it!

DDR2 - more expensive, and available in speeds that are not recognised standards for DDR - not a great advantage though.

You CAN find, apparently, boards with both AGP and PCI-express, but they will not have an Intel chipset.

I'm biased towards an AMD 64, actually - a great CPU for 32 bit mode, and future expansion to 64 bit use, whil not being much more expensive (for the basic socket754 models) than the top of the range socket A solutions.

[Halcyon]

That shouldnt be a problem now as I will not need an AGP card.
Ive been looking at the Sapphire Radeon X600XT PCI Express 256mb DDR RAM graphics card and that connects through PCI Express.


That ASUS board has the Intel chip set and has the new DDR2 memory as you mentioned.
It is quite expensive and thats why I'l be only putting in 512 memory, in two lots of 256 to make it dual channel.

I have put all the parts I want with their specs in a Word document so if anyone could check it out and see if this stuff is OK, I'd really appreciate it.
I'm going to be running the Hard drive in SATA.

I think its best I go for this board to make sure I'm ready for the future.

Thanks for all your help. It has been great.

[Aragorn]

Halcyon,

I'll add my two pennies worth as I've just been specing up a new system from ebuyer.

Personally I'm sticking with AMD - had an XP1600+ for two years and will prob go A64 - much better value than Intel.

Are you going to re-use your old case or did you just leave it out of your Doc? I'll be going for the Antec Sonata - designed for quiet computing with 120mm fan and variable fan speed according to case temp.

Why no DVD-RW? You can get a decent DVD-RW for only £30 more than your CD-RW and still write your MP3 CD's. I would also go for a second optical drive (DVD-ROM) so I can copy direct from CD to CD and for the extra ten quid I would still put a floppy drive in (good for recovering dead OS's!).

I could be wrong but I think you need 'Orignal Matched' DDR to use dual channel mode.

Finally, unless you are a confident PC builder, I would recommend going to a reputable local PC shop (ie not PCWorld ) to get them to assemble the new beast - mine quoted £50, much better than several hours of frustration !

[Halcyon]

Thanks for the help.
I havent forgotten those little extras. I've just not included them as they are standard parts I'l be adding.
I'l also be putting in a new soundcard to replace the onboard sound as I'm Im into music producing.

Its good your reminded me about another optical drive though. I'l have a look around for a DVD drive and as you say, it is useful for copying from disc to disc.