I am also building a new system from scratch. I read up on the new technology a bit mostly on the Tom's site. I used the Tom's bizrate search on the top left corner of Tom's home page to track prices and check out consumer reviews over the last few months.I have gotten many tips and ideas from the helpful people on this forum. I have also looked over various ratings and review sites, buyer reviews on the new egg site and so forth.
What people have referred me to on this forum regarding my questions about athlon xp/athlon 64/p4 motherboards:
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athlon 64- As a little added enticement zipzoomfly and new egg both throwing in a free copy of the game "far cry" with athlon 64 cpu + select board purchase:
<A HREF="http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/showcase/AMD_showcase.jsp" target="_new">zipzoomfly</A> msi k8n neo platinum is on this list-as well as the more economical and also highly recommended chaintech vnf3 250 and
<A HREF="http://images10.newegg.com/uploadFilesForNewegg/farcry.htm" target="_new">new egg</A> has a simular offer. Another company that also gets good ratings, mwave, has one too.
athlon 64 3400+ too pricey in my book. The athlon 64 3200+ is $136 less. The athlon 64 2800+ is $100 less than that.
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p4-- <A HREF="http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=240121" target="_new">abit is7</A> board
Nice price, features and performance on this board.
2.8c (northwood core 800mhz fsb) seems to be in the "sweet spot" for p4s as the 2.6/2.4 are about the same price and in some cases even a couple $ more.--
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xp: 2500+ mobile barton (and ocing? to 3200+ performance?)
abit <A HREF="http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=240109" target="_new">abit nf7-s</A> version 2 :also
or
asus a7n8x-??? I can't remember which version was recommended.
-not sure on the memory-looking at this <A HREF="http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=80097-17" target="_new">corsair xms c2 platinum</A> but still asking questions and looking at review sites. That memory is about $259 I was also looking at some ozc 3500 eb which is even more expensive. Ask others about memory for your specific usage and see if it matters.
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<A HREF="http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-161-109&depa=1" target="_new">video card</A>
<A HREF="http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=27-152-012&depa=1" target="_new">dvd</A>
[<A HREF="http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=21-103-116&depa=1" target="_new">floppy</A>
<A HREF="http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=35-100-007&depa=1" target="_new">arctic silver</A>
you also you might want to check this out. <A HREF="http://forumz.tomshardware.com/hardware/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=168861#168861" target="_new">cpu guide</A> also this
<A HREF="http://www6.tomshardware.com/cpu/20031223/cpu-guide-21.html#game_index" target="_new">tom's cpu guide</A>
re:video card
<A HREF="http://forumz.tomshardware.com/hardware/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=363095#363095" target="_new">graphics cards faq</A>
<A HREF="http://www.hisdigital.com/html/index.html" target="_new">HIS Intro page</A>
<A HREF="http://www6.tomshardware.com/firstlook/20031210/radeon_9800-01.html" target="_new">here</A>
<A HREF="http://www.digit-life.com/articles2/radeon/his-1.html" target="_new">here</A> .
<A HREF="http://www.hisdigital.com/html/profile.htm" target="_new">HIS</A>
dvd rw listed above $ 72
floppy $ 12
artic silver 5 $ 7-11 (website has instructions)
If you need a mouse and keyboard there are many. I like this logitech one I got with the optical tracking (wired-probably simular/same as one you mentioned) and a microsoft natural keyboard. Not a big fan of generic keyboards.
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