I'm building my very first system and I have the follow parts so far:

Soyo Dragon Platnium

Western Digital Special Edition Hard Drive with 8 MB Buffer

What I'm planning on getting tomorrow are:

Antec Full Tower Case with 300 Watt Power Supply

512 Stick of DDR 2700 RAM

AMD XP 1.7, 1.8, 1.9, or 2.0 Processor

What I want to know is, since AMD CPU's are good at over clocking if i should just get a 1.7 XP and use the money I saved to invest in some rounded cables and some good fans. I'm pretty much using this system for games only but I don't want to have to keep upgrading the CPU so should I just buy the best I can afford now or should I get a lower end and just overclock it when I need to? Will 1.8 still run any game on the market at the highest setting or does that pretty much depend on the videocard?

Also I was wondering will 300 Watts be enough for a CD-RW, DVD-ROM, and 1 Hard Drive, and a video card or should I go to the 400 Watt?

Any help would be great! Thanks in advance!

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Niko1337 on 07/05/02 06:05 AM.</EM></FONT></P>

If you're set on getting the antec case, try the 300 watt power supply before wasting your money on another one. I suggest the retail boxed cpu with 3 year warranty. As far as overclocking, I stayed in the range of 138-140 fsb and had no serious problems with my last xp system. Any of the xp's will work fine, but I would get the fastest one you can afford and not rely on overclocking too much. The soyo board is just an average overclocker. I have one for my P4.

Hey N,

Don't waste your money on the round cables. Get a Quality PSU like a Enermax or Antec 350+ watts. You can save some money buy going with a "Case only" setup & buying a larger PSU separately. The only brand of PC2700 DDR worth the price is Samsung. Get a "Good" HSF, the stock retail HSF is not very good- I like the T.I. Dr. Thermal TI-V77L(its not that loud). As far as better Gaming benchmarks(like Mad Onion's 3D Marks), a better Video card makes a bigger impact on your score.

Again, I would get the biggest, Quality Power Supply that you can afford. The best Video card that you can afford. The Best HSF based on cooling vs. loudness(the best HSF's are very loud!).

Almost all of the problems that Athlon users have is based on Weak/Poor Quality PSU's, or Generic Ram, or Heat related. If you cover your bases & do some research you will have a great running Gaming machine. Good Luck

Peace Out.................tile

god knows your entire system setup & he would answer your questions if he could just stop laughing

I agree with everything else you wrote, but I have to say the rounded cables are great. They are so much easier to deal with, air flow in your case is improved and they're really not that expensive.

To start press any key. Where's the "any" key? --Homer Simpson.

if your going for just the case just head over to www.newegg.com and pick up a chieftech case. Cheiftec makes the cases for antec, and it'll save ya some cash so you can afford that nice 80 dolla emerax power supply

2 things I would not compromise on are the case (get quality) and the power suppy (400 watts). I tried to post earlier but it didn't register!

Hey Black_Cat,

I don't see how they are much easier to deal with. They can even be a little harder to remove without damaging the cable. If the air flow in your case is improved by these cables, then you need to learn how to use a rubber band........either way just check your system tempertures before & after the round cables install( Mine didn't change one bit).

On the negative side: flat cables are free with the mobo & HDD. Round cable are easier to damage. Round cable are easier to transfer corupted data(due to the fact that all the wires are bunched together unshielded).

Again, maybe I am missing something? I don't see how they are great or even a little better than flat cables. I will give you this, if you have a Plexi-glass window, they do look alot better than flat cables. As for the cost, I won't use them again even if they were free. Just my experience with round cables, I still could be wrong, this is just based on 2 different cases, not 100's.

Peace Out................tile

god knows your entire system setup & he would answer your questions if he could just stop laughing