Hey all, first post as well. I've set up a first build, based on this one. I'll be buying Monitor, Keyboard, Mouse, Speakers, and Windows separately.
I'm primarily looking for feedback on the quality of the parts I've chosen , advice on when to buy, and compatibility. I'd much prefer to buy now, but if Roscoe makes the big splash it seems some people are saying it might, how much would that effect prices?
Case:
Antec Sonata II Quiet Super Mid Tower Case (Piano Black) Retail (Newegg's Sonata II's are on backorder, plus it's actually cheaper here)
Motherboard:
ASUS M2N-E Socket AM2 NVIDIA nForce 570 Ultra MCP ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
Processor:
AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Orleans 2000MHz HT Socket AM2 Processor Model ADA3500CNBOX - Retail
Video Card:
Leadtek PX7600 GT Geforce 7600GT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail
Memory:
pqi TURBO 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 667 (PC2 5400) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System Memory Model PQI25400-2GDB - Retail
Hard Drive:
Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD2500KS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
DVD Drive:
LITE-ON Black 16X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 16X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 24X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2M Cache ATAPI/E-IDE 16X DVD±R DVD Burner - Retail
It comes out to something like $800 (which seems a bit low, please tell me if I'm missing something incredibly important, I'm dull like that).
My budget for those parts (again, not including monitor, keyboard, mouse, or Windows) is about $800 bucks, give or take, so I'm doing well in that regards.
Concerns have been voiced on a couple levels about the memory, both in the areas of pqi's reliability and in their 667 timings having an adverse effect on the processor's speed. This alternative was suggested to me as a DDR2 800 alternative, without being too much more pricey:
G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM Unbuffered DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit System Memory - Retail
I would like to stick with the pqis though, due to the $30 mail-in rebate and slightly tighter stock timings. Thoughts on that?
