I'm thinking about building a new PC. Does this all look ok?

Question

Intel Pentium D 820 Smithfield 2.8GHz 2 x 1MB L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor- $85

ECS 945PL-A (1.0) LGA 775 Intel 945PL Express ATX Intel Motherboard - $40.99

Power Up 5511 Silver ATX Mid-Tower Case with Clear Side, Front USB and Audio Ports and 450-Watt Power Supply- $56

Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD3200AAKS 320GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM - $84.99

Pioneer Black 18X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 10X DVD+R DL 18X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 40X CD-R 32X CD-RW 40X CD-ROM 2MB Cache E-IDE/ ATAPI DVD Burner - OEM -$37.63

Kingston ValueRAM 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 533 (PC2 4200) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail - $109.98

ASUS EAX1300HM512/TD/256M Radeon X1300LE 256MB On-board (512MB HyperMemory) 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail -$71.63

SCEPTRE X7G-NagaVI Black 17" 8ms LCD Monitor 300 cd/m2 500:1 - Retail- $152.97

I already have Windows Xp Professional.

Links to everything.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819116213&ATT=19-116-213&CMP=OTC-pr1c3watch

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813135007R

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2549301&Tab=1&NoMapp=0

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136074

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827129007

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820144157

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121036

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824112004

I have speakers already as well by the way.

Answer 1

It depends on what you want to do with the computer.

For a general purpose computer that will be doing a bit of gaming it'd probably be pretty good for the price.

Whether you plan on downgrading to Vista or not 2 GB is a good amount of RAM to get because while XP doesn't waste as much memory as Vista you probably are going to want to multitask a bit.

Answer 2

Seems like a decent system. Not going to be the top of the line as far as gaming is concerned though. I personally wouldn't settle for anything less then a Core 2 Duo if I was putting a system together today. But I'm big on games and some of them are really CPU intensive. On the other hand, at the moment I'm still using a P4 550. (Hoping to do a motherboard+cpu upgrade myself, eventually.)

Since that motherboard is Open Box, and OEM at that, I'm not sure if it'll come with all the cables and stuff. OEM drives usually don't include cables (or other face plates) but I'm not sure about motherboards.

Not so sure about the case's power supply (couldn't find any specs on the PSU itself) but that can always be replaced. If you do end up replacing it, I'd recommend an Antec power supply. Case looks cool. Hopefully it'll be more durable then the Raidmax case I bought for my system. I think I like top mounted USB/audio ports rather then front mounted, but that depends on your desk and personal preferences.

Answer 3

I would go with a Core 2 Duo setup and possible go with a 10K raptor drive. You can get the core 2 duo motherboard here at a good price the exchange rate also will allow you to save some money:

http://www.gamegiantsworld.net/cat/9
http://www.gamegiants.net

Answer 4

Unless you are planning on going to vista soon, you might as well just do 1 gig of ram. The xp operating system doesn't really utilize anything over 1 gb.