ok system?

[moboman]

OK this is my first time build, and I will be using this for my kids games, publishing, and stuff like that.Tell me if anything I should do to this before ordering.(iv ebeen looking at these forums, and have learned everything here)

abit kt7a-RAID motherboard
athlon 1.2 gig tbird
512mb crucial ram
abit siluro agp card
SB LIVE!
ethernet card for cable modem
16x sony dvd
12 6 40 plextor cd-rw
reg floppy drive
windtunnel case
45 gig 7200 rpm ibm hd
does this sound like a good gaming system?

[morriswindgate]

The only thing that I see that you haven't listed is the CPU Heatsink/Fan.
AMD CPUs get hot and need adequate cooling that is not usually found in cheapy Heatsink and Fan combinations. I use the GlobalWin Cak38 ($38.99) and Artic Silver II Thermal Compound.
Also you will need at least two additional Case fans. One at the front blowing in and one at the back blowing out.
Another item that you might want to look at is getting the Rounded Floppy and IDE Cables as they obstruct air flow in the case less than the standard ribbon type. Additionally after you get everything assembled and WORKING CORRECTLY, bundle the power cables using cable ties to reduce the obstruction to air flow. Just be careful not to place undue tension on connection plugs.

[Confused]

I notice you are getting the raid board but just one HD. If you aren't planning to take advantage of a raid setup, you might get the board without raid and save a couple bucks for something else.
Chas

[Smoke24]

I agree with Morris, cool it well. I really think the Antec SX-1030 case is great for cooling too. It has provisions for four case fans and plenty of room and loads of nice features. I also think I would consider a different sound card, I have a SB Live Value and it likes to make trouble at times, switching IRQ's and such causing conflicts and I still don't know why. I like the Turtle Beach Santa Cruz card and it will be my next one. You should end up with a nice system that will last a few years. Good luck.

[whr2206]

yeah I'd cool it well, without 2 extra fnas, my temp was 140 degrees! And sound blaster live, does cause alot of irq problems.(at least it did with mine)!

[morriswindgate]

Yeah, that's one thing that I forgot. I'm not a big fan of the Soundblaster cards, although they are the most hyped. They are problematic at getting along with other components. (This comes to the front if you have a lot of expansion cards). Plus I hate all the junk in their software.
I am using a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz, it has one of the best interfaces for the sound card I have seen. With it you have virtually unlimited control of the sound without the junk. Enabling Legacy support (Older DOS Games such as Doom) is as easy as opening the Card Control Panel and checking the box. Disabling is just as easy, which reduces boot-up time. Support is there for six speakers and it uses a Kurzweil (Piano Maker) chipset.
Plextor is the only CD-RW to buy!
If you do not need RAID capability now, why spend the extra money. I will tell you, as everybody else will, that once the BUilder Bug Bites, you will be thinking of building another system in six months. This on average will save $30 to $40.
Unless you are working with heavy duty graphics programs or Video editing, go with 256mb of RAM. This will be more than enough and with the money you will save on the RAM and the Raid you will be able to move up to the Turtle Beach Santa Cruz and Upgrade the Speakers. This will save $45.
For the NIC (LAN Card) go with the LinkSys DSL/Cable 10/100 card ($19.99) it's glich free and one of the easist to install.
For speakers go with Altecs (4 + Subwoofer $52.95 at Walmart). If you want to go high end, Monsoons.
Now to stir up trouble, I know it's a selling point with the off the shelf market, but do ya really need a DVD drive? Unless you plan on watching movies, for which you really need a Decoder Card (add at least $100) what good are they? I would rather have a 50x or above CD-Rom (About $30 bucks for a good one on sale)so that I can feed my CD-RW drive during copy jobs. (CD instead of DVD- Save $20 to $30)
Now that we have saved between $95 and $115, Lets spend it! Upgrade to the Santa Cruz for $30. And then with the rest go with two IBM $20 GiG or 30GiG hard drives. This will give you a little less or some more space that you spec'ed. But the major advantage is that the Operating system and Programs (the stuff that you have the Disks for) go on the "C" and all of you downloads, work files and backups go on "D". Remember eventually you will have a crash that will require you to Format and reload, and it is nice to know that the stuff you wanted to keep, but not necessarily burn, is still safe and sound on another drive. Plus, if you have backed up the "C" drive it's just a matter of a few minutes till you are up and running again.
For the Rounded IDE Cables, I mentioned in my first post, go here>
http://www.cables.cc/