Custom Rig - any suggestions?

[cluelessnewbie]

Antec Full Tower SX1240 Performance Case - 400W power supply - $220 w/ shipping
EP-8k7a - Retail Box - at newegg for $130.
2 sticks of 256mb pc2100 CL=2.5, unbuffered, non-parity - at crucial for $59.39 each.
Athlon T-Bird 1.4ghz 266mhz bus - OEM - at newegg for $184.
IBM 60GB 7200RPM Deskstar 60GXP - Ultra ATA/100 8.5ms - drive only - at newegg for $173.
Toshiba DVD Rom - 16X DVD, 48X CD Rom - Drive only - at newegg for $55.
Plextor - 16x10x40x CD RW Plexwriter Interal EIDE CDRW - Retail - at newegg for $178.
Hercules gaming theater XP - at newegg for $137.
Win98SE.
CPU Fan - Thermalright SK-6 - at coolerguys for 49.95.
Artic Silver II - 3 grams - at coolerguys for $10.

Only problem now is which speaker, video card, and Ethernet card to get.... Could someone offer any suggestions on these parts? and also, changes and suggestions to the parts I've already decided would be helpful too.. thx for reading.

[Imperion1]

If you're building a system like that, I'd go with the GeForce3. Guillemont, Visiontek, and ASUS appear to make the best cards. I didn't say Leadtek, even though they usually make good cards, because the heatsinks on the GPU and memory are enclosed, no fins. Also it doesn't seem to OC as well as the others. ASUS makes 2 different versions.
This link tells you about the Deluxe Version. http://www.asus.com/products/addon/vga/agpv8200d/index.html
They also make the standard version.

How much more are you willing to spend after this? Speaker prices vary depending on what you want. Klipsch has a Promedia 5.1 coming out in July. http://www.klipsch.com/index.asp?path=/main.asp?frame=y&id=&line=&1
Net cards, for some reason, depends on the system built.
But Linksys, D-Link, and 3-Com make some good cards. Be sure to get a 10/100 with Full Duplex of 200, so in the future when you network your computers (you will probably build more than one) the network will run at its fastest speed.
Toshiba DVDs are good, but if you don't mind paying about $14 more the Pioneer 106s DVD is a slot loader. It just looks cool.
Here's a link for it. http://direct.mwave.com/mwave/ProdPIONEER.hmx?UID=&CID=&updepts=MM-CD&DNAME=%3Cb%3ECD+ROM%2FDVD%3C%2Fb%3E&Back=ProdPIONEER.hmx?

Everything else you have is pretty darn good.

I also have the Epox EP-8k7a mobo, I have not had any problems with the motherboard at all. The biggest but dumbest problem with it is the User's manual. It doesn't go into detail about what is what in the bios, and there were some things I never heard of. It also doesn't tell you what programs (drivers) you need to install for the motherboard.
And so you don't have problems at first boot up. Disable the KBPO jumper (don't need it unless you really want to turn your computer on with the keyboard), disable power loss recovery (jumper JP5), for some reason the jumper (JCLK1) for CPU clock was at 100 instead of 133, have CPU multiplier Dip Switches all set to off (auto detect).

You will also need 24" and 36" ATA66/100 ribbon cables, the IDE ports are too low on the motherboard for standard 16" cables to reach higher than the 3rd from the bottom 5 1/2 bay.

Any other questions, just ask.

[spidey_joe80@hotmail.com]

I could name all top of the line parts as could anybody else probably here, but do u have money to burn? your gonna have to state exactly what your gonna use the comp for and give a price range. I remember asking u this before and u said u wanted to keep it at around 16-1700 and were a semi casual/hardcore gamer (whatever that is http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif) either way still need some more info before i can recomend parts.

EDITED cuz of stupidity http://www.sysopt.com/forum/wink.gif

[This message has been edited by spidey_joe80@hotmail.com (edited 06-20-2001).]

[cluelessnewbie]

one thing, I already have a monitor so that helps my spending. That's why I went for very good parts for my PC.

Basically, this comp will be for, web serfing, photoshop, and games.

also, so far the parts only add upto 1257 without shipping and Im guessing with shipping it'll be around 1357 or so.
And all i have to get now is speakers, vid card, and ethernet card.

Basically Im willing to shell out another 350-400 for speaker, vid card, and ethernet...

i think that's all the info you asked... help me!! hehe =P

[This message has been edited by cluelessnewbie (edited 06-20-2001).]

[This message has been edited by cluelessnewbie (edited 06-20-2001).]

[spidey_joe80@hotmail.com]

your right i estimated the remaining items and added but that was including a monitor (which i priced at 400) http://www.sysopt.com/forum/frown.gif
Didn't you have a topic on speakers?
I tried to find it with no luck so
the main choices were
fps2000 about about $150
SoundMan® Xtrusio™ DSR-100 about $150
and another which i forget. i suggest you go with the soundman ive heard that the fps are a little underpowered.
As for the vid card either get a g2 pro or radeon. there about the same price, around $170 retail (the radeon is a little cheaper). They differ cuz the pro is just blazing fast and can overclock to ultras performance. And the radeon has slower performance actually its alot slower but it has vivo for video capture and good dvd and 2d performance, both better than the pro. Only get the radeon if its features interest you alot. cuz as i said its alot slower. As for ethernet card i have no idea and am awaiting the others opinions.

[cluelessnewbie]

spidey which geforce 2 pro do you recommend?? Leadtek, Hercules, and etc... which one makes the best geforce 2 pro?

[hallam2003]

Leadtek, MSI, and a few others are all pretty good brands for the G2, I'd get the MSI StarForce 831, GeForce2 Pro, 64MB DDR over at newegg.com, it's listed at 142.00, but it's not in stock right now, when it comes back, it'll probably drop a few bucks. also, you might be kinda choosy when buying from newegg, make sure the price is pretty low before you buy there, or if they have free shipping in that item, their shipping will kill ya, i use mwave.com too, they are just a little more espensive on most stuff, but their shipping is little better to deal with. BTW, newegg has the ASII for like $8, better that the $10 at coolerguys, yeah, i know, i just found it.

[spidey_joe80@hotmail.com]

i would probably go with msi like hallam said only because the leadtek cards at pricewatch only come with 5.5ns memory as opppsed to 5ns. I have read reviews on the leadtek 5ns version so i guess it does exist and they got the card to cloack extremly high 430/480. But if you can find a leadtek with 5ns definately go with that. I have emailed leadtek twice but they havnt got back to me to where i can find a 5ns version so I guess the only way to get an answer is to "give them an offer they cant refuse"
Are you ok with speakers or want more options?

[cluelessnewbie]

ok thx for all the help, I think i've decided on all the parts now... just a matter of ordering them now and hopefully putting together a working computer

heh.. my first time building comp. Hope it doesnt blow up =P