Yet another system for you experts to critique...

[vertigo_2000]

My Dad wants to put together this system... I'm not the best at critiquing, so maybe all of you can help. He's not sure if he wants to try overclocking. He's not a big gamer, at least not the FPS's I play, so he doesn't need a killer Video Card. It's a system he can play around with burning, surfing, some games, and Photshop. How good is the onboard sound?:


Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium Edition 64BIT DVD OEM $132.47

Microsoft Digital Media Keyboard & Optical Mouse Combo Black PS/2 Oem $26.78

Linksys WRT54G Wireless G 54MBPS CABLE/DSL Router 802.11G 4P 10/100 $69.19

BenQ FP222W 22IN Widescreen LCD Monitor Silver / Black 5MS 1680X1050 700:1 300CDM VGA DVI-D W/Cable $336.96

ATI TV WONDER PRO NTSC W/ REMOTE Control RETAIL BOX $110.24

EVGA E-GEFORCE 8600GTS $198.00

ASUS DRW-1814BLT Black SATA DVD+RW 18X8X18 DVD-RW 18X6X18 DL 8X Lightscribe Retail Box $50.76

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 500GB SATA2 3GB/S 7200RPM 16MB Cache Ncq Hard Drive $123.99

Mitsumi FA404M-BK 7-IN-1 Floppy Drive & Flash Reader CF/SM/SD/MMC/MS Black $26.46

Antec Titan 550 ATX Server Case 4X5.25 6X3.5INT Truepower 2.0 ATX12V V2.0 EPS12V 550W W/ 120MM Fan $174.79

OCZ ATI Crossfire PC2-6400 2GB 2X1GB DDR2-800 CL5-5-5-15 240PIN DIMM Dual Channel Memory Kit $40.00 CAD Mail in Rebate for this item $330.75

Asus P5W Dh Deluxe Atx LGA775 975X Conroe DDR2 2PCI-E16 2PCI-E1 3PCI SATA2 Gblan Sound Motherboard $260.82

Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Dual Core Processor LGA775 Conroe 2.40GHZ 1066FSB 4MB Retail $248.88

 

[yourmothersanastronaut]

The onboard sound will in most cases *never* be as good as a decent sound card.

If he won't be using the system to play games, I'd suggest getting an e4400 instead of the e6600, and get an Audigy or even an X-Fi sound card with the saved money. I have the X-Fi XtremeMusic, and it's awesome, best card I ever owned. I can't find it at newegg.com anymore, but there's other cards there that will be fine. Something like this Audigy would be perfect.

Why are you getting a Server case? The Antec Titan is big, heavy, and much more case than you need. Something like this CoolerMaster would be much more appropriate. For a power supply, you can then a nice high-end unit like this.

Has he considered getting a Retail license instead of an OEM license? It is more expensive, yes, but Retail means that he can transfer that license to any other computer as long as it's the only one currently running. All he'd have to do is install Vista on the new machine using that key, activate it, and he's good. The old computer would be deactivated. Not bad for just another $100, eh? Assuming this incarnation of Windows lasts 6 years (like XP), and you upgrade at least your motherboard once a year, it would save you a lot of money. If you stick with OEM, you'd have to convince Microsoft that your current motherboard is dead, which in the event of simple upgrade would be lying to them.

EDIT: Just noticed your RAM. Two things: you don't need RAM that expensive (as Crossfire Certification on RAM is a gimmick), and OCZ and Asus don't play nicely together usually. Corsair, however, goes great with them!

 

[ethel]

My advice would be to avoid 64 bit Vista at this time. You may face driver issues and you won't need it to address the 2GB RAM you are buying anyway.

 

[vertigo_2000]

Thanks for the replies so far...

My Dad has apparently taken them into consideration... I believe he changed the case. It's no longer a server case., I think he went with a Cooler Master Centurion 5.

He also went with an OCZ Powerstream 520W low noise PSU.

He also went with a Creative Labs X-FI Xtreme Audio sound card... that should be an improvement over the onboard audio.

He also went with Corsair XMS2 Dominator RAM.