i really dont know much about building computers(this will be my first). so i was looking for something around $500-550(heh...) and this is what i came up with. does it all work? is there something better i could get for the same price? tell me what you think. Case - RAIDMAX Scorpio ATX-868WSP Silver 0.8mm SECC ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 420watts PS2 ATX12V Power Supply http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16811156139 Motherboard - MSI K9N4 SLI-F AM2 NVIDIA nForce 500 SLI MCP ATX AMD Motherboard http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16813130071 CPU - AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ Windsor 2.2GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket AM2 Processor http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16819103747 RAM - A-DATA 1GB (2 x 512MB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16820211064 GFX Card - XFX PVT84JUDD3 GeForce 8600GT 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 SLI Supported Video Card http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16814150229 CD Drive - SAMSUNG Black 20X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 12X DVD+R DL 20X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 20X DVD±R DVD Burner http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16827151153 Hard Drive - Western Digital Caviar RE WD1600YS 160GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16822136062
swap the card(more powerful in most situations and has about as much overclock potential) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16814186013 get a real power supply(I actually own a case/PSU from the same series. The psu is utter garbage, if you check every other review states so too) http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=PS-E5140GH potential case(though take your pick) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16811119115 net result is it should be somewhat cheaper, have a moderately faster video card(the 8600s use a CHEAP 128bit bus and that kills performance on them) and the PSU should be a fair bit better, and a hell of a lot more reliable. Last thing you want is for the PSU to die and for the rest of your system to go with it. one thing to consider though http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16822148261 $5 more but a fair bit more capacity.
and yet the drive i chose still wins in most performance benchmarks... the cache on harddrives is really slow FYI, nothing like the cache on CPUs.
actually the cache is quite fast... its just the hdd itself cant move the data to the cache very quickly, the cache is the only reason SATA2 drives can reach the so called 3.2gb/s burst speed.
and yet the drive i chose still wins in most performance benchmarks... the cache on harddrives is really slow FYI, nothing like the cache on CPUs. [/b][/quote] actually the cache is quite fast... its just the hdd itself cant move the data to the cache very quickly, the cache is the only reason SATA2 drives can reach the so called 3.2gb/s burst speed. [/b][/quote] compared to the harddrive yes. compared the the fraction of a 0.1 nano-second latency cache used by CPUs it's slow. and I've yet to see a drive pull 3.2GB/s burst. that's the interface max. http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showth...ighlight=hdtune
actually the cache is quite fast... its just the hdd itself cant move the data to the cache very quickly, the cache is the only reason SATA2 drives can reach the so called 3.2gb/s burst speed. [/b][/quote] compared to the harddrive yes. compared the the fraction of a 0.1 nano-second latency cache used by CPUs it's slow. and I've yet to see a drive pull 3.2GB/s burst. that's the interface max. [/b][/quote] theoretical max... i never expect anything in technology to reach its maximum theoretical throughput. and yes it is nowhere in the vicinity of the speeds of the cache on the cpu, then again the need for the speed is not there considering the nature of the medium involved speed is not an issue. EDIT:: Spelling
It appears i was slightly mistaken, I must have been thinking about the SAS specs not SATA however I wast too far off. <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(http://www.serialata.org/3g.asp)</div> SATA is only 3.0gb/s whilst SAS must be 3.2gb/s.
I would say: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16822145129 it has 320 gb 16mb cache but in the reviews it seems that it is a bit noisey it's this one or yours edit: also if i were you i'd consider taking 2GB ram especially if you are going to run vista onother edit: take this dvd burner: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16827248009 it's cheaper
