Building New PC, Need a bit of Advice

[cheesegoduk]

Hello Everybody!

I am building my pc in the very near future myself. I have'nt built a pc for about 2 years now, so I thought I had better ask for some advice before I order all the parts

Here is my spec, the prices(in british £) and the site,Shop I am going to buy them from.
Soltek SL-75DRV4 AMD Athlon or Duron Chipset VIA KT266A FSB266,200 5 PCI 1AGP PRO 1CNR USB 4 ATA133 (£76)(www.oemprices.co.uk)(Got 91% and Gold in PCformat)


AMD Athlon XP1800+Boxed Inc Heatsink & Fan (£75.98)(www.ebuyer.co.uk)

Inno3D GeForce4 Ti4200 128Mb DDR DVI TV-Out AGP(£129)(www.ebuyer.co.uk)

128mb DDR 2100 (£23)(www.ebuyer.co.uk)(If I have any money left I will get 2700 instead)

IBM Deskstar 120GXP 60GB IDE 7200RPM Hard Disk(£61)(www.ebuyer.co.uk)

Floppy drive(£6)(Pcworld)

Cd rom (about 25)(PCworld)

Case(Set aside 40 Still looking might try PCWorld)

IDE Cables I was thinking of using Rounded Cables around about 3quid


I think thats most of it(if not all). The sound card is a rubbish AC97 built into the motherboard, I am going to save up for a sound blaster Audigy after. I do not need a monitor or speakers at the moment. I also already have a 56kb modem. I am thinking of using Windows 2000/Xp on the hard disk alongside linux Mandrake. I also have a spare 6gb hard disk laying around for windows 98 because try as I might I can not play Final Fantasy 7 PC on NT based machines, I also use old dos programs which access the hardware direct.
I have a budget of about 450 but I might be able to go abit higher but not a lot.

Anyway What do you think of my spec? Am I missing anything? or is there anything better I can get within my budget.

Anyway thanks for any help

cheesegoduk

[DarkGuardian]

Looks good to me. My only advice is to pop it up to 256 MB RAM, instead of going to 2700. Your 128 may be a slowing point on that fast of a system.

[[4tt4ck3r]]

i would buy 256 mb ram instead of 128 mb ram and if there is some money left i would buy a 80 GB HDD instead of the 60 GB, because today there is only a little difference. all other things look good!

[cheesegoduk]

Thanks folks, Just realised I forgot to add something, What power supply strength should I use for this motherboard and processer?

[avdven]

For a power supply, see what the motherboard and processor require and purchase accordingly. Many cases already come with power supplies, so you probably don't need to worry about it. Make sure, however, that you get at least a 300 W setup because anything less and you may run into trouble down the road if you want to add more hard drives, a cd-rw, etc.

AJ

[Terr]

Uhm... you're getting a KT266A board, right? Not a KT333 chipset? I had throught that the PC2700 ram wouldn't help you that much unless you decide to upgrade your motherboard in the future.

For cases, are you thinking of sturdiness, looks, gimmics (front panel yada yada or motherboard tray) or what?

[cheesegoduk]

Ah yes I had'nt thought of that, Thanks for telling me, I would have wasted my money otherwise. I will upgrade to 256mb instead. As for the case I am looking for somethine strong and spacius, So I have plenty of room to upgrade.

[bofhandpfy]

I have a recommendation for you

Go visit a few computer fairs, the prices are pretty low, and you get to checkout the stuff before buying. Also you find many of the stall holders know their stuff, and will give fairly good advice.

You often find some real gems there as well (I bought a 21" ex display monitor for £50, and i got a 6 month guarantee.)

Steer clear of the software tho, there is still a problem with copied disks etc there.

Other than that the spec looks ok at first glance, but go with the 256Mb of RAM

Hope this helps

[ArmyOfOne]

I would also reccomend 256mb ram atleast, even for Linux it will help

[allenb1963]

256 megs, DEFINITELY..also make sure your power supply is AMD approved. the only other suggestion I would make would be a burner instead of a CD-Rom. An 8X or 12X is pretty cheap these days. Food for thought!