Hardware Review... plus a couple of questions...

[rallen88]

Hello all!

Building a new system and have been out of the loop for a bit. Been doing my reading and have come up with a plan to build the following:

Case: Thermaltake Xaser III V2000A
Power: Enermax 550W
MoBo: Abit NF7-S 400FSB
CPU: Athalon XP 3000+ Barton (400FSB)
Mem: (2) 512K Corsair PC 3200
AGP: Radeon 9800 Pro 128mb
HD: (2) Western Digital 80mb 7200rpm
DVD-RW: Sony DRU510A
CD-ROM: Mitsumi 54X
Floppy: Samsung 3.5in
O/S: Windows XP Pro

My concern is that I want to make sure that these components play together nicely and that there aren't any compatibility issues that anyone can spot right off the top.

I also have a couple of questions:

How (if at all) does SCSI work with this board if I were to substitute a Seagate SCSI for one of the WD drives?

I have a SoundBlaster Extigy soundcard that I also use for my laptop... Can it be used in the above system or is it better to go with the onboard sound or a completely seperate sound card?

Thanks in advance! I've always gotten my best tech advice on this board!

[rallen88]

Anyone? Beuller? Anyone?

[DallasDon]

That list looks nearly perfect. The Nf7 has pretty decent onboard sound.

If you want to invest more money, the board has onboard SATA, and WD 35GB Raptors are getting to be reasonably priced. I personally would stay with the 80 GB WD in a Raid array.

Looks like you have done your research. The ONLY thing I would invest a few more bucks in is upgrade to Corsair XMS PC 3500, so you can overclock that processor, if you desire.

[Kc2iLq]

I'd go for more than one meg of ram, but that's just IMO.

-Kc2iLq

[joker_927]

Case is really expensive.

Your wasting a ton of money on the cpu unless you have no clue how to overclock. Get a 2500+

If you have a DVD-RW, why get a CD-ROM?

If you go with Geil, you have money on that ram. About $40.
PS: I hope your getting 512MB and not 512K as it says above.

550W PSU? WTF for? A 350-450 will do just fine.

[rallen88]

Thanks for the info... I will definitely look into making use of the SATA capabilities at some point but will set the current ones up in a RAID array.

Joker, some of the stuff I chose was for practical purposes and some not. I like the Thermaltake cases for their looks and I like having a larger, aluminum case. The CD-ROM drive is from another PC. I don't necessarily feel that 550W is overkill either. I will be in a rural area with somewhat "spikey" and inconsistent power. Plus I know the importance of having a good, clean power supply and since it was available for only a few dollars more than lesser ones, it makes sense to invest an additional $20 or so. I'm not familiar with Geil but it's another area RAM where I'm reluctant to go with anything less than big names (ie Corsair, Crucial, etc). I may pay a few bucks extra but that's fine. I also don't expect to be messing with OCing this system and I know that as you get faster processors you spend exponentially more money but at the moment... I have it to spend so I will. I've tried not to cut too many corners with this system and hope to have it for quite a while.

My main interest was with hardware conflicts and the Abit board but I am confident that the components should work fine.

I'm sure someone will advise me if that's not the case!

Thanks!