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jscott

03-12-2004, 05:16 AM

Hi guys,

Been out of the hardware loop for a while. I need to build a low end system to last me until I land the next good job. Right now I have a P3 1ghz 512 ram w/GeForce4 4400.

Please comment on system components or other stuff I may have missed. I'm not real confident in my MB and RAM choices. Also does anyone know how to find out if the MB I/O lines up with the back of certain cases? If it doesn't align that would be a real bummer.

CHIEFTEC Black Server Case with 450W ISO Power Supply, Model "AX-01BLD" w/3 80mm fans
CoolerMaster "Neon LED" Purple 80mm Case fan, Model "TLF-R82-EP"
ASUS KT600 Motherboard for AMD Socket A CPU, Model "A7V600-X"
AMD Athlon XP 2500+ "Barton", 333 FSB, 512K Cache Processor Retail with Heatsink and Fan
Mushkin Blue Dual Pack 184 Pin 1GB(512MBx2) DDR PC-3200
Western Digital 120GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive, Model WD1200JD
Lite-On Black DVD-RW/+RW Drive, Model LDW-411S BLK
Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy 2 PCI Sound Card, Model "SB0244" w/1394 Firewire

Total $722.24 US from Newegg.com

Intended OS Win. 2000 or maybe XP Pro. System will be used for gaming and general CG use...Photoshop, Illustrator, Maya, & EI Universe.

I am planning to continue to use my GeForce4 4400 for now to save a few bucks on the system build. It's an easy upgrade later.

Thanks,

-jscott

GregHess

03-12-2004, 10:52 AM

Replace the Asus board with an nforce2 one, and your good to go.

Nforce2 is by far the platform of choice for the athlon socket A cpu's, no contest.

Going with the A7N8X Deluxe would also give you nvidia's soundstorm solution, which IMO is far superior to anything creative labs has produced in the past 5 years, in both cpu utilization, and sound quality.

(Plus you'd save money not putting in a POS creative card)

bmwolf

03-12-2004, 06:24 PM

I second greg! Nforce 2 is the only way to go with the older athlon xp. Plus you'd save money by just using the onboard audio(0 performance loss compared to most onboard audio) .

I'm not sure about the power supply though. maybe look into the antec with the power supply included. pretty much the same case if i'm not mistaken but with a great power supply. the antec only comes in grey and the older ones come in black. A little more money but you tend to get what you pay for with power supplies.

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=11-129-115&depa=0
and
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=11-129-120&depa=0

jscott

03-12-2004, 07:36 PM

Thanks for the comments guys. You are right Greg the A7N8X-E Deluxe MB is a much better choice. It adds 1394, Dual Channel support, and audio for less than the other board I was considering with the Creative card. Plus it has an AGP pro slot

More features for less money...can't go wrong with that.

Thanks,

-jscott

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