Best Athlon MoBo for Full Sized Tower with Temperature Sensor and Case

 

I'm in the planning stages of buying parts to build a Athlon 64
computer.  Only dealing with x86 & Celeron up to this point need some
advise and opinions on the best parts (reliable) to buy.

What I'm looking for is not bleeding edge technology but a fast
reliable computer for everyday use and will be running XP Pro.  As to
graphics I don't play games, only Real Flight Simulator which requires
a 3d 128MB Graphics card and >1.3GHz CPU speed (32 bit program).  But
I do want the best that I can afford.

For cost, I have $3000 to spend and want the following:

AMD Althon
2 200GB+ Raid Drives SATA
EIDE ability to use my 3 Disk Drives Western Digital 250GB,
PlextorCombo 20/10/40-12A, Plextor 712 A/SW.
Built In Lan (Optional, I have a 3Com PCI Card)
256MB Graphics Card
Full Sized Case with Temperature Sensor/Readout
Motherboard with at least 4GB Memory and Bios/Temperature Sensor
400+Watt Power Supply
TV Tuner Card
Ability to run two Monitors up to 19" either VGA or DVI

Thats my list so far...any comments or suggestions to checkout would
be appreciated.

Most of my computing is Programming/Web Surfing normal stuff...but I
like to run 3-5 programs at one time in the background.

Tom

 

Thomas Collins Jr wrote:


Okay... Here's my question: Do you like to upgrade here and there, or will
you be building a complete system from the ground up when you upgrade.
Specifically, I'm curious about the graphics card. You see, you may not
want the latest/greatest hardware necessarily, but you might want to
upgrade to a new graphics card down the road in another 2 years or
something, without upgrading your system to do it. I think that AGP
graphics cards are going to go the way of PCI graphics cards in the next
couple of years. If I'm right, you'll be hard pressed to find many AGP
cards on the shelves that aren't low budget by then.

If you go the AGP slot route, take a look at this nForce 3 Ultra board.
They're canceling the nForce 3 Ultra chipset, so get them while they last:

http://www.msicomputer.com/product/p_spec.asp?model=K8N_Neo2_Platinum&class=mb

If you want to go the PCI-express slot route, take a look at this:

http://usa.asus.com/products/mb/socket939/a8nsli-d/overview.htm


--

Registered Linux user #378193

 

What are you going to do with the other 1500.00?

 

Thomas Collins Jr wrote:


Planning stages?
Building a PC takes 30 mins. Its not a trip up Mt Everest.

gtoomey

 

On Sat, 12 Feb 2005 16:53:28 -0500, Thomas Collins Jr


Ok this is my shopping list after reading reviews and talking to other
homebuilders:

Asus A8V Deluxe Via Socket 939 ATX Motherboard and AMD Athlon 64 3400+
Processor

(3)   Ultra 1024MB PC3200 DDR 400MHz Memory

 Silverstone SST-TJ05- ATX Mid-Tower Case with Temperature Display,
Front USB, Firewire and Audio Ports

(2) Maxtor 250GB / 7200 / 8MB / ATA-133 / OEM / Hard Drive

eVGA GeForce FX 5700 Personal Cinema / 256MB / AGP 8X / Video Card

Plextor PX-716SA / 16x8x16x DVD+RW / 16x4x16x DVD-RW / 48x24x48x CD-RW
/ Internal Dual Layer Serial ATA DVD Writer

Sceptre X9g-NagaII / 19-Inch / 1280 x 1024 / 12ms / Black / LCD
Monitor

Logitech Z-3e / 2.1 / 40W / Black Wood / Silver / PC Multimedia
Speaker System

 Thermaltake A1838 Silent Boost / Socket 754/940 / AMD Opteron/Athlon
64 / Ball Bearing / Copper Core / CPU Cooling Fan
  
 Pinnacle PCTV Stereo TV Tuner

Rounded EIDE Cable Set for my 250GB Western Digital & PlexCombo
20/10/40-12A

Rounded Floppy Drive Cable

3- SATA Rounded Drive Cables

Floppy Drive

SimpleTech 400GB USB 2.0 / Firewire External Hard Drive for Image
Backups.

Total Costs    $2931.00

Easy to spend $3000 on a ideal Personal System...

Tom