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ASUS A8N-SLI Premium Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard
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Ask yourself if you really need SLI.
My recommendation: ASUS A8N-E $104.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131530 Quote:
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Maxtor DiamondMax 10 250GB 3.5" Serial ATA150 Hard Drive
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Personally, I prefer Seagate drives. I know Seagate bought Maxtor, but I'm not entirely confident that the quality has traded over yet.
Seagate has (arguably) the best reliability. Hitachi is the quietest, so keep in mind is noise is more important.
I'd also suggest going with dual small SATA drives set in RAID for the OS and apps, and one large drive on IDE for storage purposes and backup of your OS partition with ghost. Hard drives are pretty cheap.
My recommendation:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...MP=OTC-B1zrat3
Buy a second drive of the same type later, then ghost your system and set up RAID for your OS and apps. Pick up a cheap after rebate IDE drive for your main storage when you can.
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SAMSUNG Beige ATA/ATAPI DVD Burner Model SH-W162C/BEWN
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I prefer either a Pioneer or Nec brand burner. Normally, when someone has a problem with either of these brand drives, it's not the burner's fault, it's because the user is useing cheap media. Make sure you use
only quality media, Taiko Yuden, Ridata, and Fuji are considered the best.
My recommendation: Pioneer DVR-110D 16X $38.95
http://www.supermediastore.com/pione...T.mc_id=cjtext
If your a modder, or tight for space in the case, Sony drives have the smallest footprint in full height drives.
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AMD Athlon 64 3200+ 1GHz FSB Socket 939 Processor
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Not a bad CPU. Make sure you get the Venice core.
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Ultra 512MB PC3200 DDR 400MHz CL3 Memory
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I don't care much for the "Ultra" brand, which is pretty low end.
Due to the way Athlon64 chips handle memory, more memory makes a much greater difference than it did with past cpu's. You want as much memory, and as fast memory as you can afford. If you want to save money, get more memory rather than faster memory.
My recommendation : 1gb patriot Timing: 2-3-2-5-T1 $109.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820220006 Quote:
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Asus GeForce FX 5200 / 128MB DDR / AGP 8X / VGA / DVI / TV Out / Video Card
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As previously mentioned, this card will not work on that motherboard. Also, I wouldn't give $30 for a 5200, the card is absolutely horrible. If this is all you can afford, then don't even buy a PC until you can afford better. I got a couple of 5200's for my kid's media centers, and it was the worse mistake I've made in a while.
My recommendation: At least a 6600.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814121180
I don't have anything against your monitor.
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Logisys CS888CL Lite Pre-Assembled Clear Acrylic Case
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I mod a lot of cases. I add internal LCD's to them, underglow effects, chrome film, windows, you name it.
A couple of important things I've found out:
1. Light's can be overdone. A low glow is preferable to a 100 watt display.
2. Cases collect dust on the insides like magnets, anything clear looks bad quick.
3. No matter how a case looks in a picture online, it looks differently when you finish setting it up.
4. If you get a clear case, you MUST plan on sleeving every cable in the machine, or it'll look like a rat's nest.
5. Acrylic scratches, breaks easily, and must be protected.
6. Clear cases only look good for a short while under normal operating conditions.
7.
Don't ever buy a clear case.
You didn't mention a power supply. The power supply is the most important component. If you put a low quality power supply in your machine, you can kiss your components goodbye.
All information I have posted is based on personal information and experiences, and should be treated as such.
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