PCA Forums

Since I came to college computers have taken a backseat in my life to say the least. I recently came across some money and wanted some input from you guys, comments are suggested.

New System:

MB: ASUS A7N8X
CPU: Athlon XP 2600+ Thoroughbred
HS/Fan: ???
Memory: ???
HD 80 gig: ???
Monitor: ???
Vid-Card: ???

I have an antex sx830, cd-drives, and everything else. Just looking for a little more speed and some stability. I also wanna install Linux to learn a little more. I'm in the process of trying to figure it out on my own but I can only read so many hardware reviews .

Thanks alot guys you're awesome.

im asuming you already have the mb/cpu?
Im not the bartons are getting cheap

Other then that- we would need to know your budget so we dont go uber overboard on the specs

Well I recieved $1000 from a court settlement, but I don't want to spend all of it. I'm looking for a 17 - 19 inch monitor. I hardly play any games anymore but I need to replace my tnt2 ultra because it's giving me problems. Probably 512 mb ram would be good, and I really want a system that is rock stable.

Thanks

I have the A7N8X Delux, great board...


I don't have a 2600+, I only have a 2500+



I am using Kingson PC2700


I recomend getting two sticks of what ever you get so you can use the dual chan on the board

for a good dx-9 compatible vid card look at the ati 9500/9600 pro - good enough for anything

memory is cheap right now and if you're not overclocking you can get a gig of quality pc2700 for around ~ $100 - i just got a stick of corsair pc2700 for about $55 from newegg

both my main rigs have a gig now and it makes a noticeable difference from 512


look at the cpu reviews on this site - the slk 800 is a favorite - i am running a drthermal with a 5k fan on a 2100+ @ 2333 - you don't have to spend a lot if you're not into extreme voltage

the onboard sound should be fine

for a monitor, check the deals pages daily - i have a 19" samsung flat screen in my main rig which i got from dell on one of those coupon deals for about $300

also, the 17 gaming quality lcds are coming down sharply in price - around $400 for the dell 17" now

HS/Fan: Either the SK7, SLK800 with something like a ys tech 80mm fan. You can go faster if you have a fan controller, unless you can stand noise. And as John mentioned, dr thermal makes good ones too. Best value is the sk7 and maybe the dr thermal ti-v77L.

Memory: Corsair, mushkin, samsung, hyperX and crucial come to mind. Newegg has some deals on them.

HD 80 gig: Seagate barracuda IV is very quiet. Maxtor is good too and western digital.

Vid-Card: best you can afford. At least a 8500, next up the 9500, 9700 and 9800

I've been away from computing for a while so I might ask some trivial quesitons. 2700 over 3200? You have to have two sticks to do dual channel?

OH yah, no I don't have the cpu/mb yet, that's what I was thinking about getting, whaddya think?

Originally posted by Magexx9
You have to have two sticks to do dual channel?

yes, two sticks of the same

If you are working in linux, you won't need directX so you don't need to put a lot into a video card. A Geforce 4 Ti4200 128MB should suit you nicely which run about $100 online, opposed to a Radeon 9500 which costs at least $150. Go ahead and get the two sticks of ram... with linux you will be compiling a lot so get as much as you can. You don't need to buy the best ram, but by no means don't buy generic ram. Generic ram goes out after 6 months, and finding generic ram with a warranty isn't likely. Getting a Barton core would make more sense than getting a tbred... the Barton 2500+ is running about $90 online which is pretty good. I would suggest getting a massive copper heatsink (SK7, SLK-800), and put a Vantec Stealth 80mm fan on it unless you are like me and can't sleep without a loud humming noise. As for hard drives, I would stay away from Maxtor. They are known to go bad a lot, and even if they are under warranty it is a pain in the ass. I would go with Western Digital, because they are the least expensive and most of their drives have 8MB cache which is great.

Will the 300watt power supply that came with my case be sufficient? I think it's an antex pp303x, pretty good one when I bought the case. Thanks

It might be a little low for that nice board, but just turn off all the onboard features you won't be using (parallel, serial, sound, NIC, etc). I have a very solid Enermax 350W PSU running my Abit NF7 nForce 2 and I is not stable at all with some of these features drawing power. I know Tbird and early XP boards will run fine on a 300W Antec though.