Hello,

My beloved Athlon 3000+ system died a horrible death last night, and I'm going to order a new system over the weekend. Below is what I whipped up from a 30 minute research session at lunch today.

What do all the hardware gurus think? Is it all going to work together? Am I missing anything big that will stop the show? Can I get better components for the investment? The budget is AU$1700.00. Thanks in advance for any input.

• Mobo Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3P LGA775 M/B, 1333FSB, 2x PCI-E x16, PCI-E x1, 2x PCI, 8x SATA, GigaLAN, Firewire, Audio w/SPDIF
  
• DVD Asus DRW-1814BL Lightscribe Black 16x DVD+/-R, 8x Dual Layer+R IDE Drive, retail w/software
  
• CPU Intel Core2 Duo E8200 2.66Ghz (1333mhz) CPU, Dual core LGA775 45nm 6mb, BX80570E8200
  
• RAM Geil 2048MB DDR2-800 Ultra Twin Pack PC-6400 240-pin DDR2 RAM, 2x 1024MB sticks, 4-4-4-12
  
• CASE Atlas Server Case includes TruePower 2.0 550W Power Supply
  
• HDD SAMSUNG 160GB 7200RPM SATA-II HARD DISK
  
• Video eVGA nVidia 8800GT 512mb PCI-E x16 video card, 2x DVI, video out, 600/1800MHz
  
• Monitor Viewsonic 22" VA2226W Value Series Wide-Screen LCD Monitor

Total Cost - Approx AU$1600.00

-EDIT- My priorities are to get a Vista / DX10 ready machine that can play any current games at full stick. (I'll concede maybe Crysis and FSX :schwitz. A lot of storage space isn't important and I don't care too much for quietness or uber good sound.

How much is that Mobo? I've never seen the "Ep35" before, i've only ever seen the P35

The mobo RAM and CPU are bundled together for AU576.40
Dunno where the 'E' comes from, but the details are here http://www.auspcmarket.com.au/ ... ow_product_info.php?input[product_code]=MB-GA-EP35-DS3P&input[category_id]=

That's a sexy system, especially that E8200. But, why only a 160 GB hard drive?

Quote from shiny_red_cobra :

That's a sexy system, especially that E8200. But, why only a 160 GB hard drive?

Well most of my storage is on external drives, so the one we're talking about here will only be for OS and apps.

Quote from farcar :

Well most of my storage is on external drives, so the one we're talking about here will only be for OS and apps.

Yeah - but to be honest, it would make more sense to just get something like a 320 Gb one. Considering the sizes of programs just keep going up, and that computer will definitely last you a few years. It would just be better matched to your system. It's only maybe $30-$40 more...

Also if you don't mind a smaller hard drive, you should get something very very fast, perhaps a raptor.

Quote from DHRammstein :

Also if you don't mind a smaller hard drive, you should get something very very fast, perhaps a raptor.

The samsung is very sillent, the raptor makes lots of noise. I should go for the samsung. Cheaper, silent and fast.

Yeah if you don't desire the speed then you'll be good with the samsung.

Quote from DHRammstein :

Also if you don't mind a smaller hard drive, you should get something very very fast, perhaps a raptor.

The thing is that Raptors are more expensive and to be honest, I don't really mind if Windows or LFS takes an extra couple of seconds to load.

I'm really more worried about skimping on the PSU than anything else. I'm still considering a different case and a standalone PSU. I just don't know what alternatives I should be looking at.

Quote from Stang70Fastback :

Yeah - but to be honest, it would make more sense to just get something like a 320 Gb one. Considering the sizes of programs just keep going up, and that computer will definitely last you a few years. It would just be better matched to your system. It's only maybe $30-$40 more...

I made the purchase and ended up getting the 320Gb drive. You're right, it's not that much more. It should be delivered by Wednesday.
If I can be arsed, I'll do a bit of a blog on putting everything together and post some pictures.

Quote from farcar :

I made the purchase and ended up getting the 320Gb drive. You're right, it's not that much more. It should be delivered by Wednesday.
If I can be arsed, I'll do a bit of a blog on putting everything together and post some pictures.

Sounds good. Keep us posted on how it turns out!