R4CK3R
11 Dec 2003, 01:16am
My boss is going to allow me to build an Athlon 64 rig for my desk since I’ve been such a good employee.:D Since we normally order through dell,(blah!!) he would like for all the hardware to be ordered from a single site. (preferably newegg) I’m not going to go nuts with the schools funding (yes, I’m a tech at a school) and go all out with all the top stuff so this purchase is going to be kind of on a budget.
As for the motherboard I have always gone with Abit but the K8T800 is about $180 and from several of my friends experience I would like to stay away from Gigabyte and maybe even MSI. (I like MSI but my friend has RMAed his NF2 board for the 2nd time) The Soltek board seems great but never ran one, and the Asus board is write up my alley but if the Soltek will due ok then I will choose it.
As for RAM, I have always used Corsair but I think it is way to much for this system so what else is good for the money? I'm still not sure if I want 512 or a gig. I’m leaning towards 1gig but I want some good, affordable RAM.
HDD - want SATA 80gig+
PSU - how’s a 400w Antec sound? Do I need any more wattage?
Video – I want something ATI, DX9, DVI for my LCD, and in the $100 range.
How's the Asus 9600SE sound?
And the case – My boss said that it has to look cool.
That about sums it up except for sound card, I’ll use the onboard, and the NIC, we have a few 3com gigabit cards we are currently using as door stops around. Oh and I don’t think I need any help choosing anything like the CDRom, Since I’m not paying for this computer I probably won’t risk overclocking it so what is a good HS/F? Something other than stock that just looks good through a window.
Please give your input on the specs...
As for the motherboard I have always gone with Abit but the K8T800 is about $180 and from several of my friends experience I would like to stay away from Gigabyte and maybe even MSI. (I like MSI but my friend has RMAed his NF2 board for the 2nd time) The Soltek board seems great but never ran one, and the Asus board is write up my alley but if the Soltek will due ok then I will choose it.
As for RAM, I have always used Corsair but I think it is way to much for this system so what else is good for the money? I'm still not sure if I want 512 or a gig. I’m leaning towards 1gig but I want some good, affordable RAM.
HDD - want SATA 80gig+
PSU - how’s a 400w Antec sound? Do I need any more wattage?
Video – I want something ATI, DX9, DVI for my LCD, and in the $100 range.
How's the Asus 9600SE sound?
And the case – My boss said that it has to look cool.
That about sums it up except for sound card, I’ll use the onboard, and the NIC, we have a few 3com gigabit cards we are currently using as door stops around. Oh and I don’t think I need any help choosing anything like the CDRom, Since I’m not paying for this computer I probably won’t risk overclocking it so what is a good HS/F? Something other than stock that just looks good through a window.
Please give your input on the specs...