Building Computer...

[EPW]

This
looks nice. It has a 380W Powersupply from Truepower and only costs
$80 from newegg after the rebate. Are two 120mm fans enough to keep the computer cool though?

specs: http://www.antec-inc.com/specs/Sonata_spe.html

[Asher]

I have an Athlon 64 3200+ with an Antec Sonata -- it's absolutely "good enough" for cooling.

[EPW]

Antec Sonata can have 4 cooling fans though. Do you use all four or is two enough?

[Asher]

I have the ones it came with only.

[EPW]

I do like the looks of it. It is going onto the list


Antec Sonata II for about $120.

[DanS]

Originally posted by EPW
I havn't seen anything that indicates it has a built in sound or network card. I believe

"Audio - Optical (S/PDIF), Audio - RCA Digital Coax (S/PDIF), Ethernet - RJ45 Twisted-Pair (XBaseT)"

is just reffering to the interface socket things.

I'm not of that opinion. See the specs on page xii in the manual.

http://dlsvr03.asus.com/pub/ASUS/mb/socket939/A8N-E/e1911_a8n-e.pdf

[EPW]

I think I will compromise and go with the TWINX10243200C2PT version, its $70 dollars cheaper with nearly the same performance.

[Kassiopeia]

I have a Sonata too, and I'm only running it with the fan it came with. Very good piece of work, and with a good price.

[Rasbelin]

Originally posted by Kassiopeia
S754 is being kind of phased out, there won't be anything new beyond 3000+ for it AFAIK.

You're around 80-90% correct. For the rest, not. The Socket 754 will remain viable for the Sempron family for at least this and the next year, depending on how AMD seems to be into moving to one socket again. There has been speculation on several sites about it. However I really don't recommend Socket 754 for anything else than a longterm Sempron based PC which gets upgraded with new mobo and CPU in 3-5 years at the earliest. However no power user should concider it.

Oh, and a small advice to the one who started this topic. Do not overclock, unless you know enough about how it works, thermal solutions and other precautions. You're voiding your warranty with overclocking, so it's only for those with the know-how. Just a friendly warning, in case you're even a little bit uncertain about it.

[EPW]

Heres how is stands now, I decided to take Slowwhand's advice and get the Lite-on cd=rom/dvd-rw. I also decided to get a larger HD for only $20 more. I am still considering whether to get a cheaper processor.

CPU AMD 64 3700+ (Socket 939) $300
Graphics Card Connect3D Radeon X800XL $260
Motherboard Asus A8N-E Motherboard $120
Case+Power Antec sonata II with 450W PSU $120
Ram Corsair 1GB TWINX10243200C2PT $130
Hard Drive Seagate Barracuda ST3160023A 160GB $90
CD-Rom Lite-On LTN529S 52x IDE CD-ROM $21
DVD-RW Lite-On SOHW1673S "" Dual Layer DVD±RW Writer $53
Floppy Drive Mitsumi 3.5" $15

Total: $1109

Thanks for all your help and advice.

[Frozzy]

ph34r my cheap budget PC I am about to build.

AMD Sempron 2200 - NZ$77.80
MoBo - NZ$67.95
HDD - 20GB, NZ$36
Power Supply - 300W - NZ$20
Case (ATX)- Bought from a dump for NZ$5 (Serious)
32X CD-ROM, CD-RW, Floppy Drive, Monitor, Mouse, Speakers, Keyboard, all pinched from a NZ$5 PC I bought 3 months ago
156MB RAM, 128MB GeForce II GFX - I think they were $50, bought 18 months ago.

Grand total: NZ$261.70, or US$183.19

I laugh in your ripped-off faces

[Rasbelin]

Originally posted by EPW

Lite-On SOHW1673S

If you haven't ordered yet, drop this one and take the 1693S instead. That one is abit more enhanced and has the mistakes of the 1673S. The 1673S is worse in terms of reliability, while the 1693S recognises most media and is more reliable than the one you chose.

[The Mad Monk]

If you can afford it, buy two identical hard drives and use one for backups.

[Rasbelin]

I assume you're suggesting RAID mirroring to him?

[The Mad Monk]

Not necessarily.

I couldn't be bothered to set up a RAID, so I imaged the main disk the first time around, and now just copy over my irreplaceable files every so often.

If anything goes wrong on the main disk, I just switch the master/slave settings, and use the fully operational OS on the backup to figure out what went wrong.

I have been doing it this way for nearly a decade, and it has worked everytime "something bad" has come up.

Not that there's anything wrong with RAID.