Yesterday my dad decided to get me a new computer for Christmas, for two reasons: Leave his Sony alone, and to replace my severely aging 533 MHz Compaq. I decided to build my own, and this was I have at the moment:

Athlon XP 2600+ (Barton, don't know what it means)
Shuttle AN35N-400 MB
Corsair 512 MB PC3200 DDR
--Video card to be decided--
6CH AC97 onboard audio (Will get a soundcard sooner or later)
--Hard Drive to be decided--
--CD-ROM Drive(s) to be decided--
430W Power Supply
Linkwood case w/ window on the side

I have the Speakers, keyboard and mouse. I'm looking for a Video card and HD for less than $80 each and I will probably go for a CD-RW drive for $50. Anyone have suggestions? Thanks.

By the way, I spent $350 for all the parts listed above.

I suggest that you go to NCIX.com and let them build you a computer... They have the lowest prices and can probably ship to the USA (since they are located in western Canada)... And there is no tax!

BTW, I would go with a ATI Radeon 128MB 9600 Pro Video Card and a Western Digital 80GB Hard Drive!

Nice site, and I saw a couple Radeon 9200SE for $80. Anyone know the difference between the 9200SE and the regular 9200s? For some reason the SEs are cheaper...

No idea, but since its a Canadian site, you'll probably pay like $600 US for a pretty good computer with a nice case...

How about a 64 MB Radeon 9000? I looked at a Best Buy ad and its $50 after mail in rebate.



Lol, the 9600 is out of my range, but the HD is a good idea!

Here is the one I quickly came up for you... Comes out to about $770 US...

http://www.ncix.com/pcbuilder/index.php?ac...platformid=1000

I already bought all these, and they're in the closet till Christmas...
If I can get a 128 MB Radeon/GeForce for $80 and I'll probably get the 80GB HD.

Oh! Well, you can order the parts you need individually!

I would not recommend buying a plain old CD burner. DVD burners, even dual format ones, are very cheap these days. For around $80 you can get a 4x +/- RW DVD burner. Try checking out Techbargains.com every day. There's an $80 burner under Office Max a little ways down the page. Good luck with your computer building!

Gamehead, I think I'm going to get the Maxtor 80GB at Best Buy. They have it for $49.99 after rebates. Thanks for the suggestion.
Datalore, I'm probably gonna get a plain CD-RW for around $40 just because I don't use DVDs on computers. Although then again, I'm cosidering it. Thanks.
Now, just need a decent video card for $80 then I'm good to go. Oh by the way, I'm gonna run Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition on this machine.

I have a Maxtor, and haven't had a problem with it yet...

Some people on this forum have had very bad experiences using them and suggest using Western Digital or Seagate!

Bartons are clocked a lil slower than the thougroubreds, but they make up for it with their extra cache. I just got my 2800 barton core and it performs great. The extra cache does make a difference.

Really?! Wow, thanks for explaining what a Barton is, because I was going to get a 2400+ Throughbred but I decided on the 2600+ Barton

As for the video card, I recommend some GeForce4 MX 440 64 Mb.

They are cheap, and go for like 60 US$. You can also go with a GeForce FX 5200 128Mb, the are like 75$ US$ (quotes from www.newegg.com). You can even pay a litlle less if you go with an unkown brand (wich I don't recommend. You should go with Asus or MSI. Abit is good too.)

I like the GeForce 4 MX 440. It's what I have, and I consider myself to be a mid-lite gamer. I like to play newest games, and I'm happy when the game runs fluently. I don't mind about ultra-high FPS. I've only seen a game where my GeForce MX 440 64 Mb got sluggish, and it was Sim City 4.

For the rest, you're getting yourself a great computer for a very good price.

GeForce 4 MX440 is definitely a candidate. I also am considering Radeon 9000/9200 also, since I haven't had a Nvidia card in a while. I tried to find a GeForce FX 5200 for about $80, but I can't find any. Hmmm...

Still on www.newegg.com...

There are 2 Asus GeForce FX 5200: 64 Mb (65$) and 128 Mb(75$)

Here is an MSI GeForce FX 5200 128 Mb at 72$.

Now a Chaintech GeForce FX 5200 128 Mb priced at 67$.

An Albatron GeForce FX 5200 128 Mb at 65$ (I heard Albatron cards are really good).

A Leadtek GeForce FX 5200 128 Mb at 62$

A Gainward GeForce FX 5200 64 Mb at 63$ or 128 Mb for 71$ Even a 256 Mb for 98$

Those prices are quoted in US dollars and do not include shipping nor applicable sales tax.

Thanks, I'll look through all these during the weekend. I also came up with another issue as I look over my stuff. I noticed my CPU has a 333MHz FSB and my RAM is a 400MHz. Will these two be compatible? Please help, I need to know so I can switch the RAM if they're incompatible.

That would be compatible, but your RAM will only be working at 333 MHz.

I have the same kind of setup, with a 266 FSB on the CPU and 333 MHz RAM. I intended this for a further CPU upgrade...