Laptop sucks, time to build a Desktop PC!

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deadamc

New Member
So... my toshiba laptop sucks (celeron 1.4GHz, 512mb, 60gb, low-end vid card) & plus, it overheats and shuts off whenever I try to do more than one thing at a time! My Plan - Return it to BestBuy for store credit (because Ive already sent it off 3 times), sell store credit to someone, and build an awesome computer!

Quick Info: Budget - About $800, Used for Gaming & Work...

I built a similiar computer with the following specs for my cousion 3-4 months ago and it's been running great. I'm ready to build my own now and I need some advice on the selection of parts. I already changed out some parts that were out of stock and I upgraded the cpu from a 3500+ to a 3800+.

I also need some help with selecting another motherboard, because the one I got for him is out of stock and I'm scared when it comes to picking the motherboard!!

Guys, please tear this apart and let me know what you think & any suggestions you might have.. Also, does this look like a well balanced configuration, what would you do differently??

Thanks in advanced for all of your help, the config is below...

AMD Athlon 64 3800+ Venice 2000MHz HT 512KB L2 Cache Socket 939 Processor - Retail ($143)
XFX GeForce 7900 GT (470MHz) 256MB PV-T71G-UDF7 Video Card - Retail ($251)
Crucial Ballistix 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM System Memory - Retail ($101)
ASUS A8N-SLI ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail ($126) - Out Of Stock
Super-Flower Extremely Silent TT-550SS 550W Power Supply w/ 4 LED Fans ($40)
Thermaltake CL-P0200 Silent 939 K8 - AMD K8 solution w/ Heatpipe Cooling Tech - Retail ($35)
Western Digital Caviar SE WD2500JS 250GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM ($86)
Some DVD-ROM/CDRW Drive ($35)

Total = $817
 
I would get 2GB of ram. 2x1GB sticks. IMO it's a little unbalanced to have a GPU and CPU like that but only 1GB of ram.

What are you using it to do? If your gaming then I would definatly get 2GB of ram. I could tell a magor different in even 1GB to 1.5GB
(before i had a dual c. capable pc) while playing WoW or BF2.

Besides that the only thing i would change is get a 300GB 16MB cache, mainly for the double cache, and its not much more expensive.
Maxtor DiamondMax 10 300GB 3.5" Serial ATA150 Hard Drive - OEM at Newegg.com
or a little more expensive one that has SATA II
Maxtor DiamondMax 10 300GB 3.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM at Newegg.com
although there really isn't any noticble difference between 1 and 2 with what i read all the time.

I would at least definatly get the 2GB of ram, Even getting 2GB of DDR333 for 40$ each stick of 1GB off ebay would be better then 1GB of DDR400 IMO.(Mainly, it wouldn't increase the price, since you have a bujct of around 800$)
 
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I am going to be using this mainly for gaming & also processing video files...

Thanks for the advice on doubling the RAM, I will definitely do that! And also about the harddrive, the double cache sounds good and you're right.. its not that much more expensive for it.

Anyways, do you (or anyone else) have any suggestions for an alternate motherboard? The one I have listed is out of stock and I dont feel comfortable picking them out.

Feel free to coment on anything else as well, Thanks again!
 
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