Well, I'm looking at building my first system and the specs look a little like this:
MB: MSI K7N2 Delta-L
Next Generation nForce2 Chipset + nForce2 MCP
200/266/333/400 MHz FSB, Socket A, AMD Athlon / Athlon XP 3000+ or up
Ultra DMA 100/133, 3 PC266/333/400 DDR up to 3GB, Support Dual Channel DDR
ATX Form Factor, 5 PCI, 1 ACR, AGP 4x/8x, 6 USB 2.0
Ethernet 10/100 LAN, 6 Channel Audio
Live Update2,i-Speeder, D-Bracket2
CPU: Athlon 2500+
Cooling: Thermaltake Volcano 9 Heatsink Fan
RAM: Corsair PC3200/400MHz 1x 512MB or 2x256MB, DDR SDRAM.
GFX: Sapphire Radeon 9600 256MB DDR 8X AGP
or, ATI Radeon 9600 128MB DDR 8X AGP.
Case: Antec SX630II
HD: 80 GB Western Digital SE 7200 Rpm 8MB Buffer
I've managed to find these at very good prices so that I can put a whole system together including all the usual necessaries (speakers, monitor, peripherals etc), for about $790 (500+ sterling).
I still have a few questions in my mind though, if any of you can throw some answers my way, I'd appreciate it!
First of all, and probably the most stupid of my questions - is there any difference between my choosing 1 stick of 512 RAM rather than 2 sticks of 256?
Secondly, can anyone tell me if there's a significant difference between the graphics cards I listed? By choosing the standard ATI 128 card I can save a bit.
Thirdly, I found most of these items at their cheapest on Price Watch. I have no idea whether some of these are reputable though. Anyone ever come across BZBoys, AccuPC, Newegg? Or perhaps more importantly, are there any places I should avoid like the plague??
Finally, a number of these items come cheaper at OEM. One possible vendor of the Mobo provides the bareboard only, no cables etc. Is that going to be a problem or should I just fork out the extra for a retail version? Anyone experienced any problems with OEM/retail?
Thanks,
G.


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I would say MSI aren't the great mobo maker they used to be, neither the prices nor support let alone the quality and solid implimentations. I would also rec the Abit NF7-S or Asus A7N8X Deluxe which are both top notch SktA mobos offering Dual Channel, 400FSB and MCP-T Soundstorm. MCP is just bog std onboard audio so not truly nForce2, still decent but not great.
As said the XP2500+ is really the CPU to go for as you're practically guaranteed XP3200+ o/c's with it. I'd prefer the Volcano11+, 9 is good but 11 is very good. Corsair is probably better priced in the US, over here it's VERY pricey so Adata, TwinMOS and Crucial are easily better choices. I'd go with 2x256MB, a quick search will reveal why.
9600 is pretty dire even with 256MB (which is pretty pointless BTW). Seriously look to a Rad9600PRO, it's good at stock but great when o/c'ed. Second hand 9500PRO or 9700 are a better idea if you can find them. 9800 cost a lot more.