Suggestion on new system

[cluelessnewbie]

Alright I did some research on PC parts and i've decided to get :
Motherboard : ASUS A7A266 - mainly because it got good reviews and i read from 2 sources that when athlon 4 comes out, this motherboard will most likely support it.

CPU : not exactly sure but somehwere from Athlon Thunderbird 1.2 - 1.4 (266). If someone could offer suggestions on which, it'd be great. For the cooling I'm deciding on a Thermaltake Volcano II Heatsink.

RAM : PC2100 256mb. most likely 2 of these to get to 512mb. Also, is there a pc2100 512 by any chance b/c i couldnt find any....

Sound Card : Sound blaster live X-Gamer 5.1

Monitor : NO CLUE ... need help here.

Video Card : GeForce 2 Ultra (is this a good choice?)

A 3com 10/100 ethernet card.

CD burner : Plextor (most likely the latest one)

Cd-Rom or DVD : I'm not sure which is better so suggestions here would be good as well.

PC Case - most likely i'll get a full tower.

Also, one last question. What is this thermal paste or whatever which cools the CPU and how does it work?

thx for all the help =)

[cluelessnewbie]

oh ya i had one more question, I was wondering if someone could suggest a good PC case brand name. thx

[spidey_joe80@hotmail.com]

I can answer a few of your questions
first of all where are you shopping if its not pricewatch you probably paying too much
about the ram your not gonna want to get a 512mb stick trust me they cost over $400 the 256 only cost about $70 dont buy generic.
How much do u wanna spend though? gonna need that info before i can recomend anything.

[cluelessnewbie]

well basically I have about 1500 to spend on this system...

so do you think I should get 2 pc2100 256mb ram??

[AndreRIO]

case:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?sku=C455-6005%201

video card: i recommend a geforce3 OR radeon all-in-wonder (it got dvd decoder + tuner card + video card, all in one)

monitor: i recommend the sony hmd-a400 19" (it is expensive but it is also the best i think)

[cluelessnewbie]

one question though. I saw that the retail version of any of hte t bird comes with a heat sink but how do i know what kind of heat sink it is? I've tried to find out but there was no info on what it was. All it said was that the cpu comes w/ heat sink.. any help?

[spidey_joe80@hotmail.com]

i think that to start you should only get `1 stick of 256mb you can always add later. Do u need a full tower case? the enlight 7237 has 4 5.25 bay and 3 3.5 bays comes with 300watt power supply. You should probably get an athlon 1.3ghz the 1.4's are alot more expensive and you only get like 66 more mhz I think all 1.3 are 1.33ghz. About the vid card a geforce2 pro oc'ed can get pretty much up to ultra's speed and its a lot cheaper. Forgot to ask what do u want to do with the comp are you a gamer? video editing?

[AndreRIO]

if you are going use windows 2000 on this system than get the extra ram (cause win2k is capable of using that much), but if you are going to use windows me, than 256 is enough memory. http://www.sysopt.com/forum/frown.gif

[AndreRIO]

what os are going to use on this system?

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[This message has been edited by AndreRIO (edited 06-11-2001).]

[This message has been edited by socalgal (edited 06-11-2001).]

[cluelessnewbie]

oh sorry, Im not sure if Im really a hardcore gamer but I can be.

I havent used my comp for games from 1999 to end of 2000 but recently became addicted to Halflife CS. So in a sense I guess Im a hardcore gamer. But basically I want a system which will last me a few years and will work well on the internet and with a few games...

so to answer you qusetion spidey, casual/hardcore gaming and internet is what i want. thx =)

[spidey_joe80@hotmail.com]

no speakers?
For the monitor i suggest it be the most expensive part of the comp. cuz if its good i will last through maybe your next 3 compters unlike a good vid card now which will be outdated in about a year.

[spidey_joe80@hotmail.com]

found a good review of a whole bunch of ddr boards (one sdram) http://www.neoseeker.com/resourcelink.html?rlid=35283
if you want to find more reviews for yourself go to www.neoseeker.com (http://www.neoseeker.com)
it searches the web for reviews for you it can save alot of time. Keep us posted http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

[cluelessnewbie]

can ya recommend good speakers? I dont really need great sound system, just a system good enough to play mp3 well.