barebones system options

[scottsaxman]

Hello! I have been considering buying a barebones system, adding parts I already have, and having a good computer. However, I could use some input, such as possible problems with what I'm looking at, or better deals elsewhere.

I am looking on www.************.com at a box, ECS K7S5A motherboard, either T-bird 1.4 GHz ($305), Athlon XP 1.6 ($330) or Athlon XP 1.8 ($420), 512 MB DDR memory, and a 300 Watt power supply. To this I'll add a DVD, CDR, floppy, and 20 GB Western Digital HDD that I have now. I'd love to get a new monitor, but that's another story. I have Win 98SE and DSL to use with it.

Is this reasonable? I am hoping to spend less than $500, hopefully much closer to $400. Is there enough extra performance with the Athlon XP to justify the cost? I am looking for a good work-horse machine, lots of number crunching, and some gaming, internet, etc. While throughput is important to me, overall stability is a must. I would consider overclocking, but have not done so before, and as I said, it must be stable.

Thank you!
Scott

[rangeral]

Accessmicro.com has some good deals since I've dealt with them before, might as well go for as much processing power as you can afford. Epox has been making some good boards of late the 8k or hk models are good also from what I understand the ak shuttle boards are good and much cheaper than the rest considering they can be o/c as well as the higher priced ones, msi are making good stable boards for the money.