Hey Folks, This is my first kick at the can, posting and building. Totally tired of proprietory systems so Ive decided to put together my own. I will list the components and I would appreciate any thoughts or suggestions regarding my choices.

• Athlon64 3400+
• Asus K8V-DX
• Kingston hyperx 3200 400 2x512
• Maxtor 80 gb 7200rpm
• Radeon 9800 XT 256
• XP Pro

Will also be installing a DVD and RW. Oh, the mobo chipset is the K8T800.

Looks like a beautiful setup, however I would kick that 80GB Maxtor for a Western Digital Raptor 76GB SATA HDD(Its a 10k RPM HDD). Other than that beautiful.....

BTW, you can get a free copy of Windows XP 64-bit edition here...
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/64bit/downloads/upgrade.asp

absolute beast

Identical to what I'm building but for the proc, which I'm using the 3200+ and the hd, which I'm going with a smaller one for starters....will go for SATA in the future.....

You're right....should be rockin'.

buy the 3200+ and use the money u saved to buy a sata drive. u can even a radeon 9800 pro and use that money to buy a raptor. it will be a beast anywayz. the free copy of windows i think will have bugs and is the beta version. i think u will be better off will xp pro

I rechecked the specs, the difference between the 3400 and the 3200 is small and worth consideration, especially when it comes to dollars saved. The 10k raptor, I could live with that . I agree about the buggy 64 bit Windows, this being my first I think I'll stick to familiar ground for now. Sata, definately in the future, right now I just want to get a respectable system up and running with lots of room for improvements down the road. Thanks for the response Gents !

Not sure if it's buggy, but it's only good for a year.

Nice System

Sounds like a beast...I just finished building mine as well. You should seriously consider going wth S-ATA drives - the prices isn't too bad, especially if you save by getting the 3200 instead of the 3400 -but that's just my opinion. I run 2 of them in addition to my system IDE HD, and I haven't had one issue at all. And let me tell you, this beast SCREAMS...next, is my gaming station...this is gonna be fun...

That machine should be an total monster. I will blow my machine out of the water for sure.
If you want my opinion you should hang fire on the 9800XT until the next-gen cards, the NV40 and RV420, come out (soon....very soon) Then either buy a next-gen card OR buy a 9800XT at knock down prices.....
And....if you are going to wait, wait for the socket 939s and dual channal athlon 64s......tasty.

Windows 64 (according to reports i have read) is fairly bug free, however there are no offical ATi drivers AND (tested on a nvidia card) gaming performance is down between 5% and 50%...so we need better drivers and an OS update or 2 before itll play games.

Steg