Building a pimped out desktop but still cost effective?....

[mdflows]

I am trying to build a pimped out computer but keeping it close to 1k or under! I think i have chosen good items, the one I am least sure of is the video card. I mean there is a 256mb v card for $93 all the way up to $600+.... Please give me some insight if you feel any of these items could be found for less or replaced with something better.

All these items were found through www.pricewatch.com

Sapphire RADEON X850 XT Platinum Edition 256MB GDDR3 AGP8X VIVO/ DVI (OEM) (Free Pen $395

ECS PT800CE Retail Box Mboard (incl Cbls Man & CD) DDR PC3200 - SATA & IDE - USB 2.0 - AGP 8x - 5PCI - with cpu - Pentium 4 3.2GHz 1MB Cache Prescott 800 MHz CPU FSB Hyper-Threading w/Heatsink & Fan $253

PC 3200 DDR 400 1gig stick Aprox. $90

ATX Mid Tower Case + 550W AMD/P4 PS. Front USB2.0; Side window. Two side LED tubes. 10bays. Solid PS. Aluminum fini. Fits both ATX and Micro ATX MB. $32

Supertalent ST-9000 Wireless Internet Keyboard and Wireless Optical USB/PS2 Mouse Black/Silver MFN SUPERTALENT ST-9000 RETAIL : CORDLEASS Internet USB/PS2 Keyboard & Cordless Optical Scroll Whell USB/PS2 Mouse Black/Silver Mod $24

Western Digital 250GB 7200rpm 8MB SATA SERIAL ATA 8MB Cache 250.0GB. Buffer - 250gb Serial ATA DRIVE ONLY - 2500JD -The Master of the 250GB hard drive. $95

BenQ DW-1610 16X DVD±RW Drive Internal EIDE Black - DVD-R DVD+R ReWriter - Double Format not Dual Layer DW1610
$40 x 2 $80

thanks in advance for your help and suggestions! :blingsmile:

-mdflows

[zonecode88]

make sure you get a badass hs/f unit and a case with good cooling. I got a 3.0ghz prescott, it ran hot as all hell till i upgraded my hs/f.
Also before you buy anything, check it out at newegg.com . The site has like 95% positive revies and has great deals.

[evildr]

:blingsmile: or you take the cheep ass route to cooling and open your case, keep the room clean, and have a strong fan blowing air through the whole unit(real fan not case fan), oh and central AC in the house. I'm verry happy with the x800 256 I'm using atm but x850 should prolly be even nicer if you have the extra cash. I got my 800 for 150-200 on ebay. A video card tip though, get a motherboard that supports PCI-E since this will allow you to run 2 vid cards simultaneously and coordinate the resources (16 chanel instead of 8). Also because at least as of a month or two ago you could still get PCI-E x800-850's on ebay for $90-150 because of all the people buying them not realizing they couldn't use them in a PCI slot. This allows you arround a $1000 worth of video processing for
$200-300. The prices may have changed somewhat but i ewxpect they are about the same as last time I checked.

Only other thing I noticed that I'd check, you may have already, is the wireless keyboard/mouse. I know some brands have lag and range issues but i don't remember which brands. Just something might want to double check for the brand your looking at buying.

GL and have fun with it

[Spar13]

make sure you get it enough air... my pc restarted like once a min while running ffxi because my vid card and overheating took the sides of my case off and now I have 3 fans running to the vid card XD
works good

[ElDiablo]

Some water cooling with heatsink on your GPU's should be fine.

Yeah Prescott gave me overheating probs as well, but Northwood and Smithfield have been good to me.

[mdflows]

Thanks everyone for the information and advice! I have ordered the parts and waiting on their shipment. When I do get this PC finished I'll post some PICs.