Decent build? Hack it to bits...

Dancer · 29 Jun 2006 at 16:02

Have a look at my spec. Tell me if you like it. You hate it. You would change it. I should wait, because of reason X.

I've commented on my build below the spec. I'm tearing my hair out deciding if I should buy now or wait another month or three...

CP-121-AM AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego 90nm (Socket 939) - Retail £79.95
MB-087-AB Abit KN8 Ultra nForce4 Ultra (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard
£51.95
HD-070-WD Western Digital Caviar SE16 320GB 3200KS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM
£64.95
GX-044-CO Connect3D ATI Radeon X1800 XT 256MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail
£144.95
MY-000-MK Mushkin 2GB DDR XP4000 Extreme Performance Dual Channel Kit (2x1GB) CAS3
£120.95
CA-004-TG Tagan TG480-U22 480W ATX2.01 2Force SLi Compliant Silent PSU £54.95
CA-039-AN Antec P180 Advanced Super Midi Tower Case - No PSU (Silver)
£64.40
OS-002-MS Microsoft Windows XP Professional Edition inc. SP2 - OEM - 1Pk
£81.95
Subtotal £664.05
VAT £116.21
Total £780.26

I'm trying to do this on a budget (already overspending so if you can see any cuts...). I have several old PCI cards (hence mobo with 3 PCI slots) and 2 IDE HDs that I want to use (hence 2xIDE for drives + DVDBurner & CD Player).

I use my computer for
1) watching movies
2) home stereo
3) some light gaming, mostly World of Warcraft and the odd strategy game now and then.
4) Word Processing, Web and some light photo editing
5) Potentially Programming (although realistically I get enough of this at work)

I have been doing a lot of research and I know AM2 is the future for AMD. Still I've had my old PC for something like 4 years now and if this one lasts me 2-3 then standards will probably have changed completely again anyway. The reason I have for going 939 is a) I save about £50 and b) AM2 motherboards generally have only 1 IDE connector which would add further cost to add my old hard drives.

Thanks for any feedback.

Dancer · 29 Jun 2006 at 16:21

Thanks, you are probably right that it's overkill, but I figure requirements will increase over the next two years and I don't see myself buying a new computer for the next 2-3 years.

I did know about the Conroe from my research but I didn't think it would have such a huge impact. Your advise prompted me to do a check on the web.

According to
http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=2800
AMD plans to make cuts between 30-50% on the 24th of July. Which is the day I come back from my weeklong summer holiday (miss those school summers).

Considering that I think I will indeed wait. The only downside I can see is that I might have a problem connecting my IDE drives, but since I plan on running a SATA drive as the OS drive I suppose I can always buy a PCI IDE-card or an external USB-HD caddy. Ideas?

Dancer · 29 Jun 2006 at 16:42

Tetras said:
Commenting on what you listed, I'd replace the Ultra with the KN8 SLi, tis an extra £10 but the passive cooling is worth it.

Why is the passive cooling worth it? Quieter or cooler or both? I assume this would be the "supports AMD CPU Cool 'n' Quiet Technology".

Úlfhednar, I did look at several AM2 motherboards and all of them had only 1xIDE. That means I have to either connect my 2xHDs or my 2xDVD/CD Burners, not enough connectors for both. Since I want to keep my DVD/CD burner that means I'd have to connect the IDE HD another way...

As I said I'll wait now for the Conroe to come out and see how it changes the landscape. Maybe then I can afford to get a dual core CPU or the 939 I looked at might have dropped even more than its current very good offer.

Dancer · 29 Jun 2006 at 16:44

I see several of you already replied to Úlfhednar about the IDE HD/optical drive conflict. Must type faster!

Dancer · 29 Jun 2006 at 16:56

Well glad I can bring up something new, even something as trivial as IDE connectors.

Yeah, I might stick with 939. Do you think the price reduction will make dual cores as cheap as the current offer in my spec or that that processor will drop in price. Pure speculation I know... just one last little devil on my shoulder saying I should buy now rather than wait to get that offer on the CPU and the nice Mushkin memory....

Dancer · 29 Jun 2006 at 16:58

Thanks for the clarification Tetras. That does seem like a bonus.

Dancer · 29 Jun 2006 at 18:39

Yeah I need to push the price down as much as possible or I might be eating porridge for the rest of the year so I'll probably stick with the 939 solution as well.

Úlfhednar are you still going to wait for the Conroe considering the price drop or are you buying now? I guess I need to do a price comparison, but I'd much prefer one of you to just tell me that I'll save £100 on my spec if I wait or some such.

Dancer · 30 Jun 2006 at 08:31

I think I've managed to brush all the little devils of my shoulders for now. I'll wait until prices drop, its only sensible when it's likely to happen in a months time.

Thanks for the tip on the DFI LanParty NF4 SLI-DR EXPERT, looks gorgeous and after reading some reviews and checking the DFI site I want one! Whether I actually get one depends on the pricing and state of my budget in a months time. But although it sounds very futuristic and cool, what the hell is a "Magnetic-levitate fan on chipset heatsink". Magnetic-levitate???