Hello there!,Im Al and my last computer died sometime before christmas and Ive been short on money and time and as such havnt been able to get around to buying a new computer. Thankfully school is ending and Ive managed to come into some money by building computer parts. Anyways Ive got a budget of around $600 maximum $650. I probably wont be actually buying the parts until late June but I would like to be able to settle on a decent rig so Im not worrying about it anymore.
Anyways heres what Ive got in mind:

I want to stick with Socket 939 mainly because its proven,its cheap, and from what Ive read the A64's are decent overclockers. Plus AM2 doesnt look like its going to offer much of a preformance increase nor will it be cheap.
The computer is mostly going to be used for gaming with the odd video editing or animation. I would also like to try and get into overclocking and modding.

Also I allready have a hard drive, and a cd drive but I would like a newer DVD-Burner

With that in mind here are the parts Ive been looking at:

Mobo: DFI ATI Xpress 200: Im liking this motherboard a lot because of the features, supposedly good oc ability and its red color(Im thinking of a black and red color for the case) Plus the integrated graphics are always good as a backup incase my video card dies.
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3000+: Im going with this mainly because its cheap and its supposedly a really good overclocker. Also just out of curiousity how good is the stock fan? I probably wont be able to get a decent cooler till a bit later in the summer so it would be nice if could get some extra preformance early on.
RAM: Here Im really not sure. Ive been trying to decide between Corsair,Mushkin,OCZ, G.Skill or GEIL. Ive heard really good things about all of these companies but Im still not sure which one to go for. Ive used corsair before but I got two defective sticks and it took a while for them to be RMA'd but the preformance seemed really good later on. I never tried overclocking them though. Anyways:
Crucial
Corsair,Corsair : Is there any difference between these two?
Muskin
OCZ: Are these the BH5 chips?
Kingston: Is Kingston any good? Ive never heard all that much about them
GEIL:
GSKILL

Power Supply:
I think Im probably going to get a Hiper Type R 580w but Im also considering the Antec NEO HE550 which is about the same price.

Video Card:
Here I want a 7600GS at least. If anybody has a particular brand/model they like I would greatly appreciate it if they could drop a recomendation.

Thats about it for right now. I would like to get a case but I dont think Im going to be able to afford it while getting all this other stuff. Ive allready got a Hard Drive and ill probably just pick up a $40 dvd burner as well. Lastly my trusty logitech headphones have finnally crapped out on me and I was wondering if anybody had a set they really liked. Mostly they will be for games with the occasional classic/rock music and some movies as well. I found a really good deal on some Siberia Icemat headphones(anybody know anything about these guys bc the price seems a bit to good to be true.) but I would like some input from some actual people.

Anyways thanks a lot in advance and I would also like to say that Im very proud to have joined this forum and hope I can contribute and learn a lot hear.
Thank You
Al

Wow such perfect timing Purple Diamond.

PurpleDiamond posted up some great Intel and AMD systems costing at around $600.

AMD system

Intel System

Of course you can switch some parts to your liking, but that is a basic configuration at that price point. If there is anything else, then feel free to ask. Oh and welcome to PCA.

As far as memory goes all the brands you list are good. It really depends upon how much you want to push. My personal preference is Corsair and OCZ. Next would be mushkin, Kingston, and Crucial.

For the mobo, I wouldn't get an ATI Chipset mobo, no specific reason, just don't trust ATI with that much responsibility in my computer.

For the system you are building, 550W+ is overkill. Are you planning on upgrading in the near future? You can get a 430W Antec Truepower for half the price, and that will run pretty much anything you can throw at it, minus high-end SLI systems.

Other than that, the components you chose look to be pretty good. The OCZ Gold you listed doesn't look like BH5 because of the low voltages used to get where it is. You need 3.2v+ for DDR500 2-2-2-5 from them.

Quote: Originally Posted by DickNervous For the mobo, I wouldn't get an ATI Chipset mobo, no specific reason, just don't trust ATI with that much responsibility in my computer.

I agree with DN. I would go with an NForce 4 Ultra or SLI. These are high end boards that are proven overclockers. If you are on a tight budget go with a DFI infiniti or an Epox - they have decent boards for less than $90.

Ok after spending most of the evening going through and coming up with an updated refined build Ive come to this:

DFI Infinity RS482: Im sold on this motherboard- my only question is how high the memory voltage will go?
1GB OCZ DDR 400 Platinum Revision 2: Ive finnally settled on this as it seems to be a very good overclocker and is warrientied up to 2.9v.
AMD Opteron 144: I just found this today at Monarch. I dont what stepping it is but at $122 I really cant refuse.
Zalman 7000CU: Ive used these before in friends builds and have been really happy with them. Im going to use this until I can afford to step up to a decent water cooling system.
Hiper Type R 580w: Im going to stick with this for the moment because Im planning on adding on a lot of stuff once I can afford it (i.e tv tuner, lights,fans, hard drives, etc). Plus it looks plain cool.
Silver Thermaltake Armour: I decided to go for this instead of a seperate video card because Im really nervous about running a computer 24/7 without a case. Im hopeful that the integrated graphics will be enough to get me through a few months until I can afford a nice X1900 or 7800. However Im still not sure about this so I would like your opinion.
Icemat Siberia USB Headset and Soundcard: I found these for $40 at www.electronicsoutfitters.com but Ive never heard anything about these guys. I checked Resseller Ratings and it seems they sometimees have problems getting things shipped but Im very tempted to buy these.
Again thanks for all your help.
Al

I would assume the voltage should go to about 2.8v-ish...which is more than enough for that OCZ Rev 2. memory. Those use Samsung TCCD chips, which don't like high voltages at all. I tried running more than 2.8v on them, but my OC's went down doing so. Even with 2.8v, I could hit DDR640 @ 2.5-4-4-10 on 1T command timings. That got me over 8000MB/sec of memory bandwidth, according to SiSoft Sandra.

If you could get a little more funds, you should pick up a DFI Lanparty NF4-Ultra D. The overclocking potential is SO much higher. Too bad it doesn't have built-in video.

You could go down the Pentium-D 805 route. I'm sure you could get a decent computer for that much, with say; an 805, 945p motherboard, 1GB ddr2 etc.

As for heaphones... check the linky in my Sig... Medusa 5.1 surround. Absolutely amazing, especially if you are going to be gaming a fair amount!

Ive got the Hyper 580 and love it. Looks like the Mutz Nutz and is solid, stable and an all round great performer.

Mark

Quote: Originally Posted by Ator The OCZ Gold you listed doesn't look like BH5 because of the low voltages used to get where it is. You need 3.2v+ for DDR500 2-2-2-5 from them.

I was thinking the same thing, so I googled the Part Number and on OCZ's website that RAM supports EVP (Extended Voltage Protection). Which means OCZ allow you to use up to 3.0v's. Maybe its CH-5?

Update - I believe its Windond UTT
http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/...ad.php?t=50010