As you can see, your budget gets you a lot of pretty decent hardware.
mD
0
Geeky1University of the Pacific (Stockton, CA, USA)
edited June 2003
The seagate sata drives aren't as fast in most cases as Maxtor's 8mb ata-133 or sata drives btw...
you want a case that's got at least 2 80mm/92mm or 1 120mm intake fans, with at least 1 of those blowing across the hard drives, and 2 80/92mm or 1 120mm exhaust fan above the atx io plate if you don't plan on overclocking. If you are planning on tweaking/overclocking, 2 120mm fans isn't going to be sufficient (I speak from experience here) You'll need at least 2 80/92 in and 2 more out. If it's a mid-tower, you may have to make a blowhole in the top of the case, depending on how it goes. Also make sure you don't get a POS case with those ultra-restrictive stamped grills like these:
because they'll do nothing but increase temps. and make it noisier... unless of course, you're willing to cut those fan grills off, in which case it doesn't matter....
The Cheiftec/Antec case is fine, 4 80mm fan mounts, 2 front, 2 back, and if you get the windowed side panel, these usually have aother 80mm fan mount. Thats more than enough fans.
The Antec/Cheiftec doesnt have those lil holes, and you can easily cut the metal grills off with pliars like I have done.
Hers my idea; all items at newegg
Abit NF7-S 123$
AMD Barton 3200 442$
Vantec power supply 520w 120$ (very important)
Thermlaright SLK-900 heatsink 46.99$ (no fan)
Wetern Digital hardrive Raptor 36GB Sata 10,000 rpm
8 mb hardrive 138$ each get at least two for raid 0
Thats a start maybe a Lian li case too of coarse this
list will change maybe you should wait on a hammer?
Comments
If youre gonna OC tho, get a Barton 2500 and OC that, saves you some $$$.
mD
MB-Asus A7N8X $125.00
AMD Athlon XP 3000+ R $288.00
MEM-512MB PC-3200 400Mhz DDRAM Samsung x2 $166.00
HD-Seagate 80GB SATA w/ 8MB, 7200 rpm $148.00
VC-ATI 9800 PRO $550
for $1277.
What case do I want?
BMF(2)
The true power PSUs are decent aswell. You can really go wrong with them.
mD
-Drew
If you want to spend <$2200, I'd recommend as a starting point:
ASUS A7N8X-Deluxe
AMD Athlon XP 2800+ or higher
2x 512MB PC3200 (or faster) quality DDR (Samsung, Corsair, PNY, Infineon, Kingston, etc.)
ATi Radeon 9800 Pro 256mb
2x 80GB+ Maxtor Diamondmax ATA-133/SATA 8MB 7200RPM HDDs
LiteOn 52/24/52 CD-RW
LiteOn 16x DVD
Floppy
Antec SX-1080 case w/430w TruPower PS
5x Tt SmartFan2 80x25mm case fans
1x Tt SmartFan2 80x25mm fan for CPU heatsink
Thermalright SLK-800a heatsink
2x Antec "Cobra Cable" A26 ATA-133 Round cables
1x Antec "Cobra Cable" F16 Round floppy cable
Craig
mD
you want a case that's got at least 2 80mm/92mm or 1 120mm intake fans, with at least 1 of those blowing across the hard drives, and 2 80/92mm or 1 120mm exhaust fan above the atx io plate if you don't plan on overclocking. If you are planning on tweaking/overclocking, 2 120mm fans isn't going to be sufficient (I speak from experience here) You'll need at least 2 80/92 in and 2 more out. If it's a mid-tower, you may have to make a blowhole in the top of the case, depending on how it goes. Also make sure you don't get a POS case with those ultra-restrictive stamped grills like these:
because they'll do nothing but increase temps. and make it noisier... unless of course, you're willing to cut those fan grills off, in which case it doesn't matter....
The Antec/Cheiftec doesnt have those lil holes, and you can easily cut the metal grills off with pliars like I have done.
mD
Abit NF7-S 123$
AMD Barton 3200 442$
Vantec power supply 520w 120$ (very important)
Thermlaright SLK-900 heatsink 46.99$ (no fan)
Wetern Digital hardrive Raptor 36GB Sata 10,000 rpm
8 mb hardrive 138$ each get at least two for raid 0
Thats a start maybe a Lian li case too of coarse this
list will change maybe you should wait on a hammer?