How does this rig sound?

[olddood]

Hi folks I hope to be ordering my parts sometime next week, and wanted to see what yuo all thought.

I already have the case, an Antec Performance II SX1000II with a 400w psu. Itcame with two 80mm fans in back which I'm going to move to the front. For the back I'm getting two Galaxy technology verible fans.

The mobo is an Abit AT7 MAX2 with an AMD Athlon XP2700+ CPU covered by a Thermalright SLK-800U, and topped off with a Vantec Tornado. For memory I want to try 2x OCZ pc3500 512 gig sticks.

I already have a decent OnLite cd drive, and a samsung 40-12-40 burner that I'm taking out of my old rig. Also I'm thinking about 2 120 gig Maxtor HDD's. I figure on going round cable all around.

Right now I have some other goodies planned, a Leadtek TV2000XP multimedia card, an ECS 6 in 1 card reader, and a KDS 15" LCD monitor.

I've done a lot of studying on this, but any thoughts would be appreciated

[SnakeAnarchy]

Nice


if you are looking for a video card you can go for a not so expensive card like a gefroce Ti4200 or 4400 but if you want the best there Ati radeon 9800 pro is in top as far as i know but it is hella expensive.

Yeah im going with round cables here too, its better for the airflow and it looks better if the case has a window.

[olddood]

Right I forgot the video card. I'll be using my old GEForce4 MX420, but I have my eye on the Leadtec version of the ti 4200 when my wallet gets better. I origonally was going to go with Abit, but the reviews were terrible. Oh yeh, Meant to mention, going New Egg all the way

[NUTNDUN]

Sounds good, only thing I would recommend is staying away from maxtor HD's, I've seen alot of people lately having bad luck with em. I have always used Seagate and I have yet have one go out on me.

[LPDad]

You are going to be really smoking with that setup!!!

I especially like your choice of the Thermalright HSF...That is all I have ever used and I have never had an overheat, and with the big fans you can keep things pretty damn quiet (short of putting in watercooling)

I have to AGREE with NUTNDUN on the harddrives. Go with Seagate (I have 5 of them and 2 of them are over 3 years old and still going strong-- I have gone through 3 small Maxtor drives on my wifes puter in the past 5 years.) Seagate may not have the fastest seek times, but they are clean, they are completely sealed and they are quiet.

I too, like NewEGG...Great service, and they deliver my orders the very next day, provided I order before 10am.

[TrueInsanity]

Why do you need 2x 512 OCZ pc3500, you do alot of encoding?

[LPDad]

Originally posted by TrueInsanity
Why do you need 2x 512 OCZ pc3500, you do alot of encoding?

Hehe...he is probably using his hard earned Cash to purchase memory instead of spending it on DRUGS. (just think of the RAMDrive that memory would support...ohhhh, makes me all tingly inside just thinking about it LOL)

[olddood]

Thanks for all the input folks. Yep, this baby should really fly. As for why the gig of 3500 memory, I've been told you can overclock with lower settings (cooling?), and I want to do a lot of high res photo work, and am tired of taking 10 or 15 minutes on a scan, or 5 or so minutes a print. Plus I have a whole mess of VHS tapes I'd like to convert to cd if they look any good after I try a couple.

As for the Maxtor drives, I'm a little supprised you are down on them, all the reviews on New Egg are 5 star. I have bought Western Digital in the past, and am satisfied how well it worked with my old rig. Personally I'm a little leery about Seagate (came origonal with the old one), I downloaded their seatools disc diagnostic, and it claimed the drive was sick enough that I should send it in for repair. For a twenty gig drive thats probably far beyond warrenty, it would likely becheaper to buy new. The only reason I wanted to go with Maxtor is they, and IBM are the only ones that seem to support the ATA 133 transfer rate. Forget IBM, I haven't heard anything good about them. I hate to get a card that will give me ATA 133, and then not use it. If any on knows of another brand that will support it please let me know.

[Cirga]

I have to agree about the Maxtor drives not being the best choice.. I went through three Maxtor drives in a year.. they just kept failing .. then I purchased a Western Digital drive and I have been using it for 3 years without a problem.

Just something to keep in mind.. I am sure you can find a WD drive of the same capacity without having to pay too much more than a maxtor woudl cost... andi f you are going all out to get this PC best possible.. never hurts to ensure your data is going to be safe on your drive.

OH and. never hurts to have too much RAM --- Especially if you are an avid Computer gamer

[olddood]

Although my experience with Seagate is less than first rate, your comments about Maxtor has me thinking. I noticed Seagate has serial ATA drives, which My board will support. Will juat need another cable, and a couple of power adaptors. Of course I will have to go elsewere to get them in 120 gig. Any thoughts?

[webe3]

Originally posted by olddood
Right I forgot the video card. I'll be using my old GEForce4 MX420, but I have my eye on the Leadtec version of the ti 4200 when my wallet gets better. I origonally was going to go with Abit, but the reviews were terrible. Oh yeh, Meant to mention, going New Egg all the way

Good thing you are not going with Abit Siluro! I bought a brand new Abit Siluro Ge Force 4 Ti 4200 video card and the framerates were OK, but when I wanted to REFORMAT my hard drive, the stupid thing did nothing but give me a big black screen! I called their tech support group and they were about as helpful as the devil himself! So what I had to do for awhile if I wanted to reformat my drive, was to take OUT my Abit Siluro card from my system and put in a cheap VGA card just until the reformat was comnplete and I had my new OS loaded back on! Then I had to open back up the case and put back in the Abit Siluro card.....well nedless to say I finally SOLD IT! I will NEVER buy another Abit Siluro card as long as I live! I try to warn others about their products as well!