hey guys and dolls,

i'm going to be buying a new computer soon and i'd really appreciate any advice you guys can offer. i was going to try to build it myself but the more i thought about it, the more i realized i'd only end up a. destroying it, or b. burning or electrocuting myself. kinda incompetent over here...

anyhoo, i've settled on a nemisis from monarch comuters and it goes a little something like this:

case: Thermaltake Xaser III V1000A Black w/no PS
pwr: Ultra X-Connect ULT31556 ATX 12V 500W (shiny...ooh)

mthrbrd: Asus A8N-SLI Deluxe nForce4 (there's a platinum edition for about $15 more, does anyone know if there's a big difference?).

cpu: amd athlon 64x2 3800+ (should i go with the fans that it comes with or the given option of greasing and then slapping one of those thermaltake a1772 thingies on it?).

mem: 2 pieces 1gig OZC dual channel platinum
hd1: WD Caviar SE 200 GB SATAII 8MB Cache 7200 RPM
hd2: WD Caviar SE 200 GB SATAII 8MB Cache 7200 RPM

raid controller: what is this? i've no idea if i need one of these or not.

video card: eVGA GeForce 6600 GT 128MB (not a big gamer so... yeah... this shoud do right?).

along with all the other what-not's and hoo-ha's: mouse, speakers, keyboard, cd-rw drive, dvd+-rw drive, floppy drive (can't give 'em up yet... to me the have become- precious), 3yr warranty, operating sys, etc. etc., this is going to run me around 1900 without the monitor. good seeing as how i really want to stay under 2000 but still get a good machine.

once again, any help/opinions you can give is greatly appreciated.

well here are my thoughts, you probley dont need a RAIR CARD, as i'm pretty shure you most likely wont be useing it. RAID stands for Redundent Aray of Independint/ Inexpensive Drives. It serves as a type of fault tolernce, so when your hard drives die, you can rebuild with little to no trouble.

for the mother board, the only differnce is that the delux realy only has one PCI-E x16 slot, cus when you use SLI they get down speeded to x8. The plain ATA controler on the delux is rated at ATA 133, while the platinum is only rated at ATA 100. those are the only thing that stood out to me on my quick look on New Egg. also a nother reason you dont need a RAID card, is because your mother board has built in RAID.

as far as video cards go, being that your not a serious gamer, it look good to me.

well thats about all i can say on it, with out going realy far out on a limb. so if i got anything wrong hopefully one of the other guys can correct me.

-Bre

NANANA NANANA NANANA BREEMAN BREEMAN

UltraX PSU's have had some problems by users on this forum.

Have you looked at Antec's TruePower series, or Fortron Powers line of PSU's. I believe either of these brands are better than UltraX.

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cool! thanks for the help guys!

i'll definately up the motherboard to the platinum version then. and as for the psu, i had been reading that the cables were too stiff but i found that the company had addressed that. i'll probably go for one of the recommended ones though seeing as how they've got a antec true power series one for just a buck more.

the explanaiton of the raid controller was helpful and it saves me a bit of cash that'll cover the upgrades you guys recommended.

once again, thanks for your help guys!

What price range are you in?

And reconsider building yourself... its not that hard, you dont plan on customizing or overclocking so things should go smoothly. Make it yourself using new egg retail parts... you'll get warrenties on each part and save 200-300 dollars over paying some half ass company to build it.
You've got a few billion people on these forums that will hold your hand as you put it together. And, once you have you'll be proud that you made your own computer and your cpu cherry will have been popped!

---and do grab a name brand power supply.. bad current can cause untraceable problems. Antec Smartpower is good.

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Switch495 on 08/05/05 09:28 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

Item:.........................................Monarch build..Newegg

case: thermaltake xaser iii v100 ..............125.00...136.00
psu: enermax eg565p 535w......................89.00.....88.99
board: asus a8n sli premium nforce4.........179.00...165.00
cpu: amd athlon 64x2 3800+...................409.00...405.00
mem: 2gig ddr ocz dual channel platinum...273.00...269.95
hd1: wd caviar se 200gb sataIi 8mb 7200..112.00...102.00
hd2: wd caviar se 200gb sataIi 8mb 7200..112.00...102.00
cd/rw: lite-on 52x32x52 cd/rw..................29.00.....22.99
dvd/rw: nec dual layer dvd+/-rw...............49.00.....46.99
floppy: sony 1.44mb 3.5".........................19.00.....11.00
video: evga geforce 6600 gt 128mb.........175.00....169.00
sound: creative audigy 2zs 24bit...............93.00.....93.00
os: xp home edition with sp2....................89.00.....91.00
kbrd: logitech media keyboard ps/2............20.00.....19.95
mouse: logitech mx510............................30.00.....28.00
wrnty: 24/7 tech support 3yr onsite..........99.00.....varies
build fee:..............................................59.00......pain
----------------------------------------------------------
total: (as i would build it).....................1961.99..1750.87

monarch freebies:
far cry full dvd.........................................0.00....39.99
half life 2................................................0.00....29.99
----------------------------------------------------------
re-adjusted total:...............................1961.99..1820.85
----------------------------------------------------------

-these are basically all the parts of my new computer to be and the prices for them, (identical item's with identical model #'s on both monarch and newegg, oem-oem, retail-retail). with the games added in, (i'm guessing that they're probably crappy games but hey, it's still free!), the price difference is $141.14, not that huge seeing as how i get that 3yr onsite warranty.

-there are one or two things that i left out, (like the heatsink), because i did not find the exact same one on newegg.

-i'm also looking at that enermax psu, because it's sli ready and i read good reviews about the company here on the psu page, as well as on different forums. if you've got any opinions on it, please let me know!

thanks,
(btw, i wanted to keep the price of the computer, monitor not included, under $2000)