First time computer builder

[Ege]

This is my first post here at tom's. I am building my first computer and I am have a budget of $900 for just the tower (i already have the monitor, speakers, mouse, and keyboard). From the various pieces of advice i gathered from friends and family, here is the list of components I think i will be using. My hope is that this will be a very reliable machine that will last for years. I also hope to be able to play games like Half Life 2 and Star Wars Galaxies and other titles that will come out in the next 3 years or so (until its time to upgrade). I dont care about sound performance at all really, so im sticking with on board sound, which is still pretty good. Reliability is my biggest concern though, so i want to avoid incompatibilities and component conflicts at all costs.

Motherboard: MSI K7N2 Delta-ILSR

PCU: Athlon XP 2500+ (i will get this OEM i think)

Heatsink-fan: ThermalTake volcano 9

RAM: 2 sticks of Corsair PC2700 DDR

Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda V 60gb

Video Card: ATI Radeon 9500 pro

Any recommendations/advice? At another message board I was told that i was getting components that had a Front Side Bus speed that was way too low. Also i was wondering about the Nforce2 chipset... since that is made by NVidia, is it better to get an Nvidia graphics card?

To reiterate: my hope is that I can have the maximum video performance for the least amount of money while still maintaining super reliability

oh, and i don't plan to overclock, but plans could change

thanks in advance.

 

[Maverick494]

I have a suggestion:

Mobo: Abit NF7-S V2.0 (cheaper board, same features,better o/c imho. I have a Delta-ILSR and I have had a few minor issues with it)

PCU: Athlon XP 2500+ (i will get this OEM i think)

Heatsink-fan: ThermalTake volcano 9

RAM: 2 sticks of Corsair PC2700 DDR

Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda V 60gb

Video Card: ATI Radeon 9700 Non-Pro


Just a computer junky

 

[zwaarst]

If you want to do a lot of flight sims, and you like the sound of a jetengine in your room, the fulcano 9 is a good cooler.
if you want your system to be a littel bit sillent i would take an other cooler.
The collers you get with your CPU (retail) from AMD are good, if you dont want to overclock to mutch

<font color=red>duk-tape is like the force, it has a bright side and a dark side, and it keeps the universe together.</font color=red>

 

[okietex]

At another message board I was told that i was getting components that had a Front Side Bus speed that was way too low.

well, they *might* be talking about an Intel based board and that would be the newer P4 2.4+ CPUs using 800MHZ FSB. With the new mobos that are out that support them and if you use PC3200+ DDR you get the dual channel speed.

Personally, I just built a K7N2G-L and it is working fine after some minor issues (actually, they still exist but I know what to do now) but I don't know if I'd buy another one. In fact, the system I just built after the K7N2G-L is built on a ABIT IS7 mobo, 2.4 P4 w/800mhz fsb, 2x256mb PC3200 DDR etc... So, that's probably what I would do but if you want AMD then from what I have read, a lot of people have good experience from the MSI board. I'd recommend you go read their (any of the mobo mfgs that you plan on looking at) forums so you can be prepared on what *could* go wrong!!

HTH... -ot

IC7-G 1.3| P4 2.8 800 | SLK900-U / 92mm Fan (AS3) | 2x512mb Corsair PC3500C2 | 2x120gb SG SATA RAID 0 | 2x120gb WD RAID 1 | CM ATC201B-SXT | 520W | Radeon 9800 Pro | Audigy2

 

[SERVO]

You are about to make some serious mistakes. First off get the NF7-S ver2.0 forget the MSI I know I have one!!!. #2: the ram your getting is all wrong!!!! you want a matched set of at least pc3200 corsair or kingston hyper.
#3: go for a axda1700dlt3c cpu People are getting over 10X230=2300Mhz without any mods. #4 get the skl-800 HS and the Thermaltake SMART CASE FAN II.#5 I'm not so sure about the HD.#6 Video card is OK. Remember any mistakes you make now you live with. For more info try www.amdmb.com forums and read read and read!!!!!

MSI K7N2-L Delta Bio's 5.0 ver.1
XP1700 JIUHB0309UPMW
10X211=2115MHz @ v1.65
Volcano 11 Xaser H/S W/Duct mod
Vantac Copper NB/Fan SB/HS
39C/34C Idle 46C/36C load @85F
Corsair XMS3500 1X256
6-3-3-2 @ v2.7 HP 1.1
Albatron Ti4200P Turbo 128DDR
Core/Memory Clock 295/640
3D2001se 13839
WD 300BB 30gig 7800rpm
TB SantaCruz slot 4
Intel 56K modem slot 3
Win 98se
Drivers Installed
nForce
nVidia Drivers v40.72
DirectX 8.1