part list

[alt123]

Hello, just want to make sure these parts are compatible, also wondering if i need to buy thermal grease or do p4 heat sinks already have it on. Thanks

ASUS P4P800SE Socket 478 Intel 865PE ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail $93

Antec LifeStyle SONATA II Piano Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 450Watt SmartPower 2.0 ATX 12V V2.0 for AMD & Intel systems Power Supply - Retail $99

Intel Pentium 4 2.4A Prescott 533MHz FSB 1MB L2 Cache Socket 478 Processor - Retail $121

CORSAIR ValueSelect 512MB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered System Memory Model VS512MB400 - Retail -38.75

ASUS Geforce MX4000 V9400-X/TD/64 Video Card - OEM -$27.50

Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 ST380817AS 80GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache Serial ATA150 Hard Drive - OEM $59.00

LITE-ON Black 16X DVD-ROM 52X CD-R 32X CD-RW 52X CD-ROM 1.5M Cache IDE Combo Drive - Retail $29

[BrokenKingdom]

Well what are you building it for?

Budget?

Don't worry yourself to much with the thermal grease it should come with it, if the heatsink isn't already on the cpu, in which case don't plan on trying to take the heatsink off. From what i hear they use some type of "indestructable thermal cement glue of death" that would sooner tear a whole in the fabrics of space and time then allow itself to be removed from your proccessor

[alt123]

building this computer for music recording, i already have an ESI soundcard, i just wanted something better than my 1.4 Ghz sempron, and i dont want to spend too much since this my first time building a computer

[BrokenKingdom]

Well I would look into a Creative LiveDrive (they are pretty neat) and mostly you'de be looking at sound boards outside of a computer for most of your recording along with recording software (a lot of people don't relize how important that is). As far as a cpu goes Ide recomend a P4 (Im an AMD guy myself though) P4 are supposedly more stable. But that means you'de have to change the mobo.

Also its inmportant that you don't skimp on the ram you're going to need that extra memory for mulitple tracks. You can get some great corsaire value ram 1Gb for cheap on newegg.com.

[Mr.Ferrari]

Yeap. If i had to add anything...i would really step up a few bucks on that video card. It is really sad. Even though ur not planning on gaming....u might feel sorry for it later..I would go with a 6600series. They arent that much more expensive but you will be happy with that choice. Or a Radeon X330SE it goes for 50 bucks and less.

[jayb1234]

Intel processors come with a thermal pad. Use it rather than paste, because using anything but the Intel pad will void the warranty on the processor.

[Louds3]

Originally Posted by BrokenKingdom they use some type of "indestructable thermal cement glue of death" that would sooner tear a whole in the fabrics of space and time then allow itself to be removed from your proccessor

That's quite an overstatement! With a little caution, you can easily remove a heatsink from the processor and not do any damage, but generally there isn't ever any need to do so unless you are troubleshooting and you have already checked everyting else. as JayB said, you must stick to a thermal pad that is on Intel's official list of acceptable thermal interfaces to keep your warranty.
I'm not sure what your budget is, but an 80 gig hard drive and 512mb of ram is on the light side for recording music. IF you are just recording a few songs at a time with not that many tracks at a time it'll be fine, but for more serious work I"d go with a gig of ram and a bigger HD. something like 160gb would be much better and not cost much more. like mrferrari said, if you will be doing any gaming you may wanna step up to a 6600 series, but if you won't be doing any gaming pretty much any $50 card will do (something like an ati x300, but not with the shared system memory). hope this helps

steve

steve