Opinions: Hardware options

[Raggy]

I’m actually a lil bit giddy. I’ll be starting to build my first PC (a gaming PC) in three weeks when my tax return comes in. My goal is to spend under $1,500 (£800?) but I’m not sure on what hardware I want to get. I’ve narrowed things down a bit, but I’m not sure, any suggestions? Here is what I’ve gathered together thus far and why.
(I’ll be buying from newegg.com)
Mother boards:
ECS "KV2 Extreme"- VIA K8T800 Pro Chipset, socket 939. A decent over clocker, questionable quality given past boards, lowest price of about $115 (£62?).
EPoX "EP-9NDA3+"- NVIDIA nForce3 ULTRA Chipset, socket 939. OC’ing shouldn’t be an issue with this one, and the company has a name for itself, but it does have issues and may not be worth the extra money at $126 (£67?)
ASUS "A8V Deluxe"- VIA K8T800 Pro Chipset, socket 939. Quality isn’t really a question here, but overclockability is along with it’s higher price at $134 (£72?)

With the mother boards it’s mostly coming down to sound and LAN connectivity because they’re all seemingly really good boards and I’d just like some input because it’s hard to make this choice that mostly comes down to preference with no real experience.

My other two real hang ups are Memory and a good PSU. The PSU is really pretty much been narrowed down to one, but any subjections are more than welcomed.

Ram:
Kingston HyperX Series- 1GB(512MBx2) DDR400 PC3200. Good stuff from what I know, 2-2-2-5 timings but needs a bit more power not to mention being more expensive at $238 (£127?)
Patriot Dual Channel Kit- 1GB(512MB x 2) DDR400 PC3200 w/ XBL Technology(?). Once again low latency at 2-2-2-5 timings, although not as well knows as Kingston, it’s cheaper. $225 (£120?)

PSU:
E-POWER "Cheetah" Series 450W Power Supply. Looks good, quality company, a lot of power, hard to argue with it. I’ll most likely get this one. $65 (£35)
This ones so pretty though
OCZ ModStream 450W Power Supply with OCZ EZMod technology, SATA Connector What can I say, same company, same quality, just prettier.. and it cost more. $90 (£48)
My other system specs (most likely) will be as followed, and help/ points/ needed insults will be appreciated.
Processor- $300 (£160)
Athlon 64 3500+ (Winni)
Hard Drive- $180 (£ 96)
Western Digital Raptor 74GB
Video Card- $380 (£202)
X800 pro, or a 6800GT which ever one is cheaper and bundled better at the time. They’re both about equal and all around GOOD cards
Case- under $50 (£27)
Honestly, I am clueless here. I’m going to keep an eye out for something really cheep that I can mod the heck out of for both utility and looks
Cooling- under $100 (£54)
Every case I’ve looked at I’ve been able to cool for under $100 although I will most likely be using this nice Thermalright Heatsink in combination with a nice fan. (about $60/£32)
CD-RW and Floppy- under $35 total (£19)

Highest total: $1,507 (£801)
Lowest total: $1,450 (£770)

Sales and prices change daily on these, but $35 should be more than enough from the prices at the moment.

Thank you everyone who takes the time to read this VERY long post and help. I’ve grown to respect everyone on this board and there for will hold any advice in high regards.

[chriswood_7]

Hey mate

My suggestions:

CPU: Winchester based 939 core is the way to go
Mobo: ABIT are good boards and highly overclockable, I have an AV8 3rd eye, really good but try to get a PCI-E based board
Mem: Geil is good for the money, shop around and find something good
PSU: OCZ or Enermax at least 500W
GFX: Id go for a PCI-E card like an X800, but then again I prefer ATI cards to nVidia

Good luck hope this helps

Chris

[RDL]

Get the Patriot RAM. It is the fastest PC3200 out there. Kingston HyperX is expensive and nowhere near as good. Floppy's only cost £3 and a CD/RW isn't expensive either. I would recommend spending a little more on the case and getting decent quality. If you can stretch, consider spending £70 on a decent case, such as the Akasa 62 Eclipse. Especially if you want to overclock. Get a Delta fan with the XP120 for cooling, and get the A8V as it is the best out of that lot, and a very good overclocker.

[Raggy]

Thanks for the input, any more?

[weebroonieuk]

yes dont waste your time with a cdrw get a dvdrw ! youl kick yourself if you dont the only avantage i can see is being able to burn a cd slightly faster with a normal cdrw but the difference will be seconds rather than minutes so defo go for a dvdrw

spend a few bucks on arctic silver too as it will do for not only your cpu but your gfx and northrbidge on the mobo and future ones too