Looking 4 comments on building this system

[Marmot]

Processor :AMD Athlon 64 3000+ w/ 512K Cache (Socket 939 - Retail Box ) 1
Motherboards :Asus A8N-E w/ DualDDR400, 7.1 Audio, Gigabit Lan, SATA2.0,
PCI-E x16 1
Memory :OCZ 1GB PC3200 Gold Edition 2-2-2-5 Dual Channel DDR Kit (2 x 512MB)
1
Case :Antec P180 Advanced Super Mid Tower 1
Power Supplies :Antec TruePower 2.0 380W 1
Hard Drives 1 :Maxtor 250GB DiamondMax 10 7200RPM Serial ATA w/ 16MB Cache 1
Optical Drive 1 :BenQ DW1625 16x Dual Layer DVD+/-RW, Black w/ Lightscribe 1
Video Cards :Asus Extreme N6600 128MB PCI-E w/ TV-Out, DVI 1
Operating System :Microsoft Windows XP Professional (OEM) 1

I am currently looking at my first build. I want it to be cost effective and
leave lots of room for upgrades. This M.B. will support a duel cpu. I feel I
will never use SLI, therefore not an SLI motherboard. The system seems a
little expensive, where would you cut a couple of hunder dollars?

Thanks Danny

 

[Ruel Smith]

Processor :AMD Athlon 64 3000+ w/ 512K Cache (Socket 939 - Retail Box ) 1
Motherboards :Asus A8N-E w/ DualDDR400, 7.1 Audio, Gigabit Lan, SATA2.0,
PCI-E x16 1
Memory :OCZ 1GB PC3200 Gold Edition 2-2-2-5 Dual Channel DDR Kit (2 x
512MB) 1
Case :Antec P180 Advanced Super Mid Tower 1
Power Supplies :Antec TruePower 2.0 380W 1
Hard Drives 1 :Maxtor 250GB DiamondMax 10 7200RPM Serial ATA w/ 16MB Cache
1
Optical Drive 1 :BenQ DW1625 16x Dual Layer DVD+/-RW, Black w/ Lightscribe
1
Video Cards :Asus Extreme N6600 128MB PCI-E w/ TV-Out, DVI 1
Operating System :Microsoft Windows XP Professional (OEM) 1

I am currently looking at my first build. I want it to be cost effective
and leave lots of room for upgrades. This M.B. will support a duel cpu. I
feel I will never use SLI, therefore not an SLI motherboard. The system
seems a little expensive, where would you cut a couple of hunder dollars?

Great system, but I have two comment:s First, consider using either a
Seagate or Western Digital hard drive. I used to be a loyal Maxtor buyer,
but recently I've seen a lot of stories about premature failure on Maxtor
drives. I even had a friend that was getting considerably more bad blocks
than he should be getting and it caused him to have to reinstall everything
once. I'm now using Western Digital exclusively and like the.

Besides, 16MB cache hasn't shown much, if any improvement over 8MB cache.

Secondly, maybe you're not interested in SLI, but you might be interested in
using 2 monitors with 2 graphics cards in the future, really opening up your
desktop and gaming experiences. Also, SLI boards are more expensive and
feature laden, plus use more premium components. It's just a thought.

Kudos for getting a quality power supply like an Antec. I can't tell you how
many people I see in here spend lots on the components and get some crappy
power supply. I'll never skimp in this area, as it's too important.