"Too_Much_Coffee ®" wrote in message
...

"Daniel Yates" wrote in message
...
Hi all

Well, I am biting the biscuit and doing something I should have done
years
ago and building my own setup. After many years of buying sub standard
rigs
from mainstream vendors with great "stats" yet the cheapest nastiest
parts
imaginable I am determined to caugh up the mulah and go for DIY

I am looking for some advice on the components I have chosen. I know
each
individual have their own "tastes" when it comes to parts, but what I am
looking for is any known compatibility problems between the parts, any
known
"major" issues with various parts i.e tempermental motherboards with a
shoddy bios etc.

Parts are as follows

Thermaltake ATX Supertower ( black ) with window

Thermaltake Silent 480W ATX PSU Dual Fan

I have 3 hard drives and two CDs on an Antec True380 (380W) with power to
spare.

A lot of people who I have spoken to, mainly those at dabs and CCS computers
here in the UK are saying that you need at least 400W power to sufficiently
power a S478 processor and run ample peripherals and other hardware as well.
The price on this component is minimal so I am not too mithered shelling out
maybe £10 more for the extra.


Asustek S478 Intel 865PE Deluxe ATX A L R Mobo

Intel P4 2.6 512Kb S478 800FSB

Thermaltake S478/SoA Aquarius II Water Cooling

Kingston ValueRAM 2x512MB PC3200 DDR (matched)

Do you really need 1GB of ram? 2x256MB is more than adequate for most.

The difference in some games when you have 1Gb of RAM is unbeleivable.
Morrowind is a classic example - there is pratically no difference between
256 and 512 RAM but when bumped up to 1Gb the games seems to run lightning
fast.


Gainward GeForce 4 Ti4800 128MB

I would look at the FX5600 Ultra. It supports DX9. If you aren't a heavy
gamer, the Ti4200 or even the FX5200 would be fast enough.

The graphics card is something I have been mulling over. Many, many fellow
gamers has been saying the FX is a little shoddy to say the least but I
understand each setup is different. In a perfect world the FX5900 Ultra
256MB RAM is very tempting but completely out of my graphics card allowance.
The general opinion has been that FX is th next level of glorified MX which
are useless for gaming. Maybe they will bring out the "FX" level of Ti card,
then maybe a high end card would be come a possibility. I can see this
component being my real problem area lol, yet to me it is the most important
for my needs.


Asustek CD-RW 52/52/24

I have worked out I can buy this set up for around £700 with a bit of
shopping around and trips to Bowlers - is this good value or should I be
aiming lower?

Does anyone know if any of these parts will clash with each other?

Are there any known bugs with any of these parts which I should consider
prior to purchasing?

I am wanting to make sure the PC is hyperthread ready, can run at full
800FSB and is utilising AGP 3.0 standards. Of course many would say many
of
these functions are currently defunct as they are not being utilised but
they will be eventually, and I would like to be readyf or them when they
do.

Thanks in advance for any and all advice offered

Kind Regards

Daniel Yates