I'm heading to college this fall, and I've decided to go the build it route for my computer, partly to build a quality machine, partly to have something different than a Dell or HP, and partly just for the experience. This will be a large amount of the entertainment in my dorm room, as I plan to use it for gaming, music, and probably some movie watching in addition to normal stuff like web browsing and school work. I'm willing to spend a fair amount of money to make sure I get quality parts that'll work well and last a while, so my budget ceiling is approximately 2000USD. This is for a complete set up though, i.e. speakers, monitor, printer and everything else. That said, here is the line-up that I'm pretty set upon, but I thought I'd expose it to everybody's comments and suggestions.
CPU: AMD Athlon64 3500+, stock HS/fan
MOBO: Asus A8N-e NF4-U
RAM: pqi 512x2 DDR400
Video Card: Powercolor X800XL
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 200GB Serial ATA150
Monitor: LG L1980U
Case: Thermaltake Tsunami
Power Supply: Antec TRUE430
Speakers: Logitech Z-3e 40w (low wattage bc I don't need to disturb my neighbors too much)
In addition to the main components, a SB Audigy2 ZS, a 16x DVD-Rom and DVD burner, and other things like mouse and printer bring the total to 1900USD with shipping included, all from newegg (I realize there are other dealers, but newegg's service and prices are very hard to beat). Also, I'll be using a 9 dollar copy of windows xp pro through my school for the os.
One additional note, I don't really plan on overclocking this, so I'm getting parts that will meet my performance needs without worrying about losing part life and such, which is also why I'm using stock cooling and such.
So, please offer any comments or advice on anything from part quality and performance to pricing. Thanks in advance!
CPU: AMD Athlon64 3500+, stock HS/fan
MOBO: Asus A8N-e NF4-U
RAM: pqi 512x2 DDR400
Video Card: Powercolor X800XL
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 200GB Serial ATA150
Monitor: LG L1980U
Case: Thermaltake Tsunami
Power Supply: Antec TRUE430
Speakers: Logitech Z-3e 40w (low wattage bc I don't need to disturb my neighbors too much)
In addition to the main components, a SB Audigy2 ZS, a 16x DVD-Rom and DVD burner, and other things like mouse and printer bring the total to 1900USD with shipping included, all from newegg (I realize there are other dealers, but newegg's service and prices are very hard to beat). Also, I'll be using a 9 dollar copy of windows xp pro through my school for the os.
One additional note, I don't really plan on overclocking this, so I'm getting parts that will meet my performance needs without worrying about losing part life and such, which is also why I'm using stock cooling and such.
So, please offer any comments or advice on anything from part quality and performance to pricing. Thanks in advance!
