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[Outdoor Miner]

I had decided long ago, sooner or later that i was going to have to get over my fears, and start building a pc. That time is now, as the gf is in need of a pc for WoW.

Looking to spend $800 tops. This does not include video card, which will be purchased at a later date. Not looking to create a speed demon here, or anything really future-proof, just something that can run todays games (including HL2) comfortably w/o breaking much of a sweat.

I've been able to come up with a few things so far:

RAIDMAX Silver 10-bay Case with 420W Power Supply, Model "Scorpio 868" -RETAIL
Item# N82E16811156139

$46.00



ASUS "K8V SE Deluxe" K8T800 Chipset Motherboard for AMD Socket 754 CPU -RETAIL
Item# N82E16813131490

$95.00


AMD Athlon 64 2800+, 512KB L2 Cache, 64-bit Processor - Retail
Item# N82E16819103452

$142.00


$283.00 Total

*Is PC3200 (400mhz) really that much better than PC2700 (333mhz) from a price/performance standpoint?

*Anyone have any good tips/walkthrough's for 1st time builders? Any advice is much appreciated.

*I really don't think an adequate stand-alone sound solution is in my budget, should i try and get a mobo based on the nForce3? I've heard great things about the nForce2 onboard audio, and wanted to know if the nForce3 continued that tradition.

*Only thing the $800 doesn't cover is a video card, which'll be looked at closer to the WoW release in mid-November.

 

[Slo]

The first thing that stands out at me is that case and power supply is probably junk. DO NOT SKIMP ON THE POWER SUPPLY. You can destroy the rest of your system. By Antec or Enermax, maybe a few other brands that others can vouch for.

 

[Outdoor Miner]

The first thing that stands out at me is that case and power supply is probably junk. DO NOT SKIMP ON THE POWER SUPPLY. You can destroy the rest of your system. By Antec or Enermax, maybe a few other brands that others can vouch for.

Appreciate the honesty Slo, i'll look into getting another case. Do cases with those brands you listed come with decent PS? Or am I looking at having to get a separate PS no matter what?

 

[rastex]

I'm not too impressed with my K8T800 chipset mobo, might be worth the extra cash to go for an nForce3 based mobo.

 

[Fixed2BeBroken]

the Antec case i bought didnt come with a power supply...

had to buy my antec ps seperate....but the case is sweet tho.

 

[Slo]

Coolermaster cases are very popular but pretty expensive. I have an Antec SOHO case w/ a 400W Antec PSU, I bought it off of newegg for about $90 and I like it a lot. It's very sturdy, and I feel very comfortable with my purchase.

Seriously, I've bought a lot of $40 case/powersupply combos and you can really tell how cheaply they are made. The case feels like it's held together with twisty-ties and the power supply is usually pretty shady. I've had several supposedly 300W+ powersupplies that are unable to power a circa 2002 gaming system, and I've had more then one crash and die within 6 months of purchase, sometimes taking a motherboard and a stick of ram with it on it's way out. Even if you're trying to build this on a budget, I would say that the PSU is not the place to skimp on.

 

[Sander]

RAIDMAX Silver 10-bay Case with 420W Power Supply, Model "Scorpio 868" -RETAIL
Item# N82E16811156139

$46.00

I checked Google to so what kind of power supply it is and saw it delivers 13A on your 12V line (your CPU uses this among other things). If that is correct it is really, really low. I would strongly advise against using this PSU with an A64 system. For comparison: I have a Tagan 380W which delivers 22A on the 12V line. Of course my PSU was more expensive than that case+PSU

*Is PC3200 (400mhz) really that much better than PC2700 (333mhz) from a price/performance standpoint?

Aren't PC2700 and PC3200 about the same price? Anyway default Athlon 64 memory speed is 200MHz/DDR400/PC3200. You can of course use PC2700 and run it at 333, but you will lose quite some performance. So the answer would be yes.

*I really don't think an adequate stand-alone sound solution is in my budget, should i try and get a mobo based on the nForce3? I've heard great things about the nForce2 onboard audio, and wanted to know if the nForce3 continued that tradition.

Unfortunately, the Nforce3 chipset does not have the same APU the Nforce2 has. The alternative onboard sound offerings (Realtek, C-Media) on most motherboards are adequate for gaming though.

 

[ravingloon]

I have this case and can vouch it's nice. It's big, and heavy, and probably more than you wanna spend, but includes a nice power supply. As others have stated, you need a PS that doesn't skimp on the 12V rail. And most cheap cases either don't have a PS or it's crap. Case looks the same as Slo's but PS is a little bigger and the side fan is definetly nice to have.

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=11-129-115&depa=1

Edit: And it's power supply is TrueWatt, which is a plus.