Ok, my laptop finally stopped booting the other day. The WinXP loading screen scrolls, goes black, scrolls again, ad infinitum. So I'm looking at building a new desktop. I'm not new to building desktops, but I am new to AMD processors. So here's my question, what do you think of the following setup (all prices from newegg.com)

Processor: AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Venice 2000MHz HT 512KB L2 Cache Socket 939 Processor

Case: Spire SwordFin SP-9007B Black Metal SECC/Plastic ATX Full Tower Computer Case

MoBo: ASUS A8N-SLI Premium Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard

Power: Antec TRUEPOWERII TPII-550 ATX12V 550W Power Supply 115/230 V UL, TUV, CB, FCC CLASS B, CUL

RAM: CORSAIR XMS 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Unbuffered DDR 400 (PC 3200) Dual Channel Kit System Memory

Video: eVGA 256-P2-N553-AX Geforce 7600GT CO 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card

HDD: Western Digital Caviar SE WD2000JS 200GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive (possibly two or more of these, they're CHEAP)

ODD: ASUS Black 16X DVD-ROM 52X CD-R 32X CD-RW 52X CD-ROM 2M Cache E-IDE/ATAPI Combo Drive (CD-R)
LG Black 16X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 16X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 5X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM, 5X DVD-RAM DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2M Cache E-IDE / ATAPI DVD Burner (DVD+/-R)

Total price, before tax and shipping is $890.92.

For those who don't have time to click the links for each product, that's a black case with an ASUS MoBo, an AMD Athlon 3200+ processor (not dual core, but 64bit), an LG DVD burner, an ASUS CD burner, a 550W power supply (the MoBo requires min 450), 2x1GB RAM (DDR400, PC3200), 1-3 Western Digital 200GB SATAII hard disks, and an eVGA 256MB graphics card (PCI Express x16 interface).

What do y'all think? TYIA for any suggestions/helpful comments/postwhoring by RVertigo and Phaedrus (and possibly Pandy or AJ as well!)

Why are you getting an SLI motherboard and only one video card? 

Cant go wrong with a 3200+, I have one of those and overclock it even with stock cooling to a 3800+ speeds.

Pretty fast.

I have never, ever, ever, ever had good luck with western digital HD's.

Quote from: TragicImage on May 08, 2006, 01:23:24 PM
I have never, ever, ever, ever had good luck with western digital HD's.

Tru Dat...All three of mine died after less than a year...Then again, they were being constantly accessed since they were in my music server.

Get this case: http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16811129155
it's awesome and I've seen it in action (very very quiet).
I would also go with this processor: http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16819103539
and this memory (same as yours): http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16820145486 (with instant rebate comes to $164)

got all the links from my wishlist 

nice setup ive got that memory that psu but go with an opteron144 or 146 if you can imo amd but better lol

Looks like a great setup, I am envious  FWIW, I have always bought AMD processors. The first ones I always bought because they were cheaper than Intel, but now I buy them because they have proven themselves to me time and again. I've never had an AMD chip quirk out on me yet. I am pleased with them and I am sure you are too.

However, this is not going to be as portable as your laptop 

Quote from: Egaeus on May 08, 2006, 12:27:38 PM
Why are you getting an SLI motherboard and only one video card? 

I'm going SLI for now, because I will most likely eventually upgrade to 2 video cards. Right now, the cost is kind of prohibitive. Plus, I'm fairly certain that I read somewhere that when you run 2 video cards on your PCI Express x16 ports, it cuts both of their speeds to 8x. So I'll stick with one at 16x for now, I won't be doing massive amounts of gaming anytime soon. This will be more for music, and maybe movies than anything else. I don't have much time for video games, although I do want to try the new Morrowind.

Quote from: Phaedrus on May 08, 2006, 07:51:54 PM
However, this is not going to be as portable as your laptop

That's true, but uhh.. right now, the laptop is only a portable paperweight! 

Quote from: subc on May 08, 2006, 02:36:55 PM
Get this case: http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16811129155
it's awesome and I've seen it in action (very very quiet).
I would also go with this processor: http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16819103539
and this memory (same as yours): http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16820145486 (with instant rebate comes to $164)

got all the links from my wishlist 

I like all those options.. but that puts me out of my price range. $900 is pushing it already. Besides, I just found out that I did really shitty in my classes, and I'm pulling a 1.5 GPA... so who knows if I'm going back to school? God, I'm retarded.

Laptop won't boot into XP eh? I bet this will fix the problem.  There is something horribly wrong with my CPU and it just won't run XP anymore.  I haven't used XP in about 3 weeks now, and honestly I don't care and am in no hurry to get a new CPU.

We have 64-bit AMD Linux machines in our VLSI labs and they are freaking awesome.  Make sure you get a 64-bit OS!

As for Western Digital drives, eh, they're ok, not the best... I've had one fail, but I left it in my garage all summer so I blame it on myself.  Now Maxtors REALLY REALLY suck, every Maxtor I've seen failed.

Quote from: NiceGuysFinishLast on May 09, 2006, 11:15:06 AM
...Besides, I just found out that I did really shitty in my classes, and I'm pulling a 1.5 GPA... so who knows if I'm going back to school? God, I'm retarded.

what a better reason to get an awesome system. You will be able to play the latest videogames, surf the web faster and indulge yourself in a world of multimedia after a day of hard physical labor work.

I think you should send me the laptop as a gesture of good will. 

Quote from: subc on May 09, 2006, 03:31:13 PM

Quote from: NiceGuysFinishLast on May 09, 2006, 11:15:06 AM
...Besides, I just found out that I did really shitty in my classes, and I'm pulling a 1.5 GPA... so who knows if I'm going back to school? God, I'm retarded.

what a better reason to get an awesome system. You will be able to play the latest videogames, surf the web faster and indulge yourself in a world of multimedia after a day of hard physical labor work.

Bwahaha... it's true, it's true... I'm actually doing construction this summer, about 60 hours a week, starting tomorrow, to pay for tuition for next semester. My plan is to lower my course load to about 10 hours a semester, and pull several 4.0 semesters, to bring that GPA back up. I should be close to a 2.75 at the end of next semester, and even closer to a 3.0 after that.

And phae... well, I'm thinking I might be able to fix it for the cost of a new CD-ROM... but if I get rid of it for cheap, you'll be the first to know.

If you want crazy speed, you might want to consider 1 WD Raptor drive.  Then you can get a couple of those 200's and raid them together for extra speed.  so many people only look at RAM and CPU when it comes to speed and forget that HD makes a huge difference.  IF you put your SWAP file onto a 10K drive instead of 7200 drive, it's amazing.  PLus if Windows and other apps are also on that drive...

Quote from: pizzleboy on May 09, 2006, 09:19:55 PM
If you want crazy speed, you might want to consider 1 WD Raptor drive.

better yet, get one of these:



4GB RAM HD and install 'BIG' apps like photoshop, flash or whatever takes a while to open. Also set the swap file in there.
Photoshop installed in this RAM HD takes less than a second to load after double click 
Transfer rate is 1.5GB per second and connects to a PCI slot and an onboard SATA conector.
Data stays in place after shutdown and even if you disconnect the outlet, since it has an onboard battery.

oh yeah, I forgot.
This is the page for the product:
http://www.giga-byte.com/Products/Storage/Products_Overview.aspx?ProductID=2180&ProductName=GC-RAMDISK
you still need to buy 4 GB of ram memory DDR400 1GB each.

that is awesome... i wonder if you can boot from it, cause that would be even more awesome

Quote from: LimaXray on May 10, 2006, 03:14:56 PM
that is awesome... i wonder if you can boot from it, cause that would be even more awesome

yes, you can boot from it, but remember it's only a 4GB sata HD.
The *only* proven downside so far, is that ghosting programs will not see the 'unit' when trying to restore an image (backup). Norton ghost and many others (including my beloved acronis) fail on this, and that's really a bummer, since you could make a quiet and awesome/superfast web server with this little thing and restore the system anytime if needed.

Way to jack my thread guys... In other news.. that thing is FREAKING SWEET!