New PC advice

[Goberpiles]

Well been toying with this build for a month but I have set out below my forth coming purchase with Scan.

Antec P180 Advanced Super Midi Tower Case
256MB XFX *Extreme Edition* PCI-E GF7800GTX Gamers Edition *Extreme High Speed Overclock 490/1300* £319.99 £375.99
LN10970 AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core 4400+ S939 1MB (2.2) Retail inc Heat Sink Fan & 3 Years Warranty £312.44 £367.12
LN11657 200GB Samsung SpinPoint SP2004C 7200rpm, 8MB, SATA II Fluid Dynamic Bearings, 25dBA £54.85 £64.45
LN10762 2Gb (2x1Gb) Corsair DDR400/PC3200,2x128Mx64, non-ECC, 2x184 DIMM, Unbuffered, CL3, Lifetime Warranty £138.34 £162.55
LN9130 Asus A8N-SLi Deluxe, ATX, DDDR400, PCI-E, 2 x Gbit Lan, USB 2.0, 1394, 8ch Audio, 4 x SATA, Raid 5 £87.49 £102.80
LN11038 Zboard Gaming Keyboard & Battlefield 2 limited edition gaming keyset *Promo Only while stock lasts* £29.69 £34.89
LN11004 580W HiperPower Type-R Modular Blue PSU Quiet Dbl Fan aPFC ATX2.2 20/24 Pin

Undecided if I should go with:
Asus A8N-SLi Premium NF4 S939 DDR400 PCI-E SATA Raid Gbit Lan 8Ch Audio
LN7084 2 Gb (2 x 1Gb) Corsair TwinX, DDR, PC3200PRO, LED Activity Lights, Lifetime Warranty £179.99 £211.49

Seeing as this system is pretty high spec just thinking it may be worth the extra cash on the mobo and the ram. Also some advice on a dvd writer would be appriciated, have not owned one before so dont know what is good and whats not. Do you think a sound card would be needed with these motherboards?

I was thinking the:
Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS 71 THX OEM UK

Already have 5.1 surround sound with the Audigy 1 and loved it to bits, have sold this pc through so cant keep it.

Any help is appriciated, this is a going to have to last me for some time, oh I also have a Dell 2005fpw screen so thats taken care of.

[dangel]

I wouldn't bother with the flashing light ram personally. How about using the money saved for another hard drive and running RAID 0?

I *think* I heard there's a replacement for the A8N on the way - might be worth checking. It's not a perfect board (i can't set 1T timings on mine) but it is very well specced (i couldn't believe how much stuff came in the box!) and stable too. The passive chipset cooler is nice on the premium btw.

How much can you get a 3800X2 for? They're a very good buy and run, without hassle, at 2.4->2.7ghz. For gaming the extra cache makes no real difference in the benchies.

[Goberpiles]

LN11319 AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core 3800 + S939 512K (2.0) Retail inc Heat Sink Fan & 3 Years Warranty £208.38 £244.85

I cant order this until the end of october due to holidays anyhow but I thougt the 4400 would be more future proof then the 3800.

[dangel]

Here's a linky for the replacement asus board:

http://www.tweaktown.com/document.ph...review&dId=813

[dangel]

LN11319 AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual-Core 3800 + S939 512K (2.0) Retail inc Heat Sink Fan & 3 Years Warranty £208.38 £244.85

I cant order this until the end of october due to holidays anyhow but I thougt the 4400 would be more future proof then the 3800.

I had to choose between a single core, 3800x2, or a faster dual core and plummeted for my current choice. Running at 2.4 (faster than the 4400) at stock is very easy, since the ram doesn't need to be overclocked (nor anything other than the cpu in fact) so it's pretty much guaranteed. I've seen quite a few reviews with it doing 2.7, and there's a chap on here doing it too.

Thing is, the 4400 is a damn site more expensive right now and all you'll get it a bit more cache for it (as both probably overclock similarly). You pays yer money..