New office PC

[Duron]

This is my new office PC I will be building 2 of. Any suggestions or things I am missing? Budget is NZ$1,400.

ATX Mid Tower Case $83.80
420W RaidmaxPCI-e 16 Ready Powersupply $79.40
Asus P5B-VM Motherboard, Socket 775. $205.94
Intel Celeron D 356, 3.33.Ghz, 533Mhz FSB, 32bit. $112.53
Seagate Barracuda ST3160812, 160GB $115.64
Asus DRW-1814B DVD Writer. $66.15
AData 1GB DDR400 RAM $118.44
Samsung Syncmaster 740N 17" LCD Monitor. $291.75
Microsoft WindowsXP Pro, 32bit, x86 OEM. $240.27

Thanks in advance for giving it the once over.

[EzyStvy]

There are several Pent D's that are dual core and in the same price range that would be way better then the Celeron cpu you picked out.

[maxnik]

Raidmax PSUs are not good. Check PSU Guide and pick from a GOOD list. Actually in your case I would recommend finding an Antec case with a power supply.
Also 250-320Gb HD seem to be a nice spot in regard to price/volume ratio.

Your Memory is DDR 184 pin and WILL NOT work with P5B motherboard - you'll need DDR2 240pin memory. Most people around here like Corsair. Good luck

[Duron]

Thanks for the suggestions. My updated list is attached.

Any last minute thoughts or corrections before I place my order?

[minsonngo]

Get a SATA optical drive instead of the IDE one.


And... I would get a better PSU. The one included with the case is not good either. If you are looking for a good case with a PSU... look at ANTEC.

[Duron]

If I were to use one of the Core 2 duo's with 1024mhz FSB, do I have to have RAM with the same or higher bus speed? or could I use say 667 or 800mhz FSB RAM. Would this have a performance drop?

Thanks for answering my stupid questions. I have been out of the PC building loop since SDRAM was king.

[blue60007]

DDR2-667 is a good match for a 1066 FSB Core 2 Duo. You don't have to match the FSB speed, which is good considering DDR2-1066 is expensive. In fact, I don't think you can even run the memory that fast out of the box. Anything above DDR2-667 is really only good for overclocking.

[Mr.Ferrari]

Originally Posted by Duron If I were to use one of the Core 2 duo's with 1024mhz FSB, do I have to have RAM with the same or higher bus speed? or could I use say 667 or 800mhz FSB RAM. Would this have a performance drop? Thanks for answering my stupid questions. I have been out of the PC building loop since SDRAM was king.

Also remember that Intel processors are quad pumped. Meaning the actual core fsb is 266mhz stock for a C2D. DDR mean double data rate. So multiply that 266 by 2 and you get 533mhz. So DDR2 667mhz would be a notch above that, which is a good thing.