Hello, I'm sure you are all thinking "Not another PC build thread!" So I will get right to the point.

I want a performance PC in the $900-$1200(USD) range.

My planed specs, as of this moment are as follows:

CPU:$190 AMD Athlon 64 3200+
MOBO:$80.00 MSI K8N Neo4-F NVIDIA Socket 939 ATX
Memeory:$40 Ultra 1024MB PC3200 DDR 400MHz CL3 Memory
Vid. Card:$150 Geforce 6800(gt?)
PSU:$60 Ultra / X-Connect / 500-Watt / ATX / Dual 80mm Fan
Sound:$20 Creative Labs SoundBlaster Live 24-Bit PCI Sound
Monitor:$200 LCD something or other, I really don't care.
Case:$175 Thermaltake Silver Armor Aluminum Full-Tower AXT or black
Hard Drive:$100 Seagate / 300GB / 7200 / 8MB / SATA-150 / OEM / Hard Drive
CD:Already have one that should do.

Total: $1015

This rig will be used about 80% gaming, 20% random other stuff.

If you see anywhere that I am unwitingly cheaping out or going more expensive then I need to (Or just buying a POS part) I would appriciate the advice.

I would particularly like advice on the case and PSU.

Looks like an excellent PSU according to the reviews I have read. I don't think you'll have any problems at all. I have never owned or worked with that case, but Thermaltakes are fun.

Ok good, I though I remembered someone saying something about Ultra's being POS's.

Does anyone have advise on a good cheap LCD? (I haven't had much time to look at them, i only decided to get one yesterday when a friend pointed out how messed up it would be to put my gaming monster on an old CTR monitor.

Also, how hard are SATA or Raid-0 setups to get working, because I'm considering getting 2 80gb's and putting them in a Raid if it's fairly easy.

Edited for forgetfulness: Also, for anyone with experience with the case, how good is the cooling? I saw it had 2 90mm fans and 2 120 mm's but is that enough? (sorry if some of these questions seem noobish but I don't want to spend $1000 bucks on this thing then find out it doesn't work when it sets on fire or something.)

Looks like an excellent PSU according to the reviews I have read. I don't think you'll have any problems at all. I have never owned or worked with that case, but Thermaltakes are fun.

Really? I've heard x connects are trash in a nice box.
Ultra (yes, the pretty looking ones, they are made by a low-quality Chinese company that starts with "Young". Can't get much more generic than that!!!)
From the hardforum "unscrupulous" psu list.
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=792566
People that like them probably like them because they look cool, and have nice features. I'd be more concerned about quality/performance than looks though.
I'd recommend Enermax psus.

What size lcd are you looking for? Budget?

Also, crts are better(IMO) for gaming, as they don't have ghosting issues, but apparantly the newer lcds are very good.

I though I saw something like that about Ultra's... Now I'm looking at an enermax 535watt, but since is doesn't have the modular cable add on's like the Ultra did I'm a little woried about having enought cords, I think it has enough but I'm going to double check.

If you think CRT's are better for gaming I will wait unill my budget recovers to get an LCD. One last thing, CD drive. I just realized that the CD drive I have isn't w/rw so I'm looking at this one
Asus CRW-5232AS / 52x32x52 CD-RW / QuieTrack Black CD Burner in adition to the old one.

I guess that is the beauty of this forum. What one doesn't find, another will!

I was basing my info mainly from this article here: http://www.extremeoverclocking.com/reviews/cases/Ultra_X-Connect_1.html. Extremeoverclockers has it on their highly recommended list, plus with 34A on the 12V rail, it looked pretty sweet to me. Then again, I also trust that PSU article on the hardforum. If he is saying the Ultra company is unscrupulus, it's probably for a good reason.

Why not get a DVD-RW drive instead of just CD? The price of DVD-RW drives has come down so much these days, and it makes backing up your important data that much easier (over 4Gb per disk).

And if you are looking for a good LCD screen and have the cash, I have THIS (http://www.techspot.com/reviews/hardware/lg_flatron1980q/) one and love it. High quality, excellent colors and response time. I game with it all the time.

I don't really see myself needing to back stuff up on disc, my Dad has a network hard drive set up, I back up everything there. I did however just realise that that cd rom doesn't READ dvd's which it WILL need to do, I just need to find a black version of this (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1516481&CatId=87)
and confirm that my PSU has enough cables and I'm set. (I'm going to guess that cd drives use the perifrialls cables right?)

A cd drive uses an ide cable, like many hard drives do.
Your motherboard should have 2 of these connectors, and each connector supports 2 drives, so you can have 4 optical drives if you like(and use sata hard drives).

A dvd burner would only be like $8 more, but I guess if you wouldn't need it, you wouldn't need it.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827152047

Sorry about that, I ment that power cable do disk drives use, not what info transfer cables they use, And I'm going to asume that even a hard drive not in a SATA can use a SATA power conector.

I have two Ultra x-connect power supplies; correction, I have one working ultra x-connect and one piece of junk. I'm waiting to see if the one working one goes down and then I'll know for sure they're trash, LOL.

You might find a case that costs less, so you have more money for your video card. I don't know anywhere that sells a 6800 GT for $150, but I could be wrong.

Sorry about that, I ment that power cable do disk drives use, not what info transfer cables they use, And I'm going to asume that even a hard drive not in a SATA can use a SATA power conector.

No sata drives have sata power connectors, while ide drives use 4 pin molex connectors.

Sata
http://img363.imageshack.us/img363/8321/sata9cr.th.jpg (http://img363.imageshack.us/my.php?image=sata9cr.jpg)

Molex
http://img363.imageshack.us/img363/4857/molex21fm.th.jpg (http://img363.imageshack.us/my.php?image=molex21fm.jpg)

OK I think I get it now, so Since my hard drive is SATA capabile, it will use one of the Sata cords, the cd drives will use one of the 4 pin ide's each, one pci cord for my GPU, then main board connection, what kind of pin's do case fan's use, IDE?? Are their any other connections I'm forgeting?

Edit: Also, I realize now that I'm not getting a GT for 150, so I'm going with the regullar 6800

sata data cable?

one pci cord for my GPU
I think some cards take a pci-e power(6pin) connector while others have molex(4 pin) connectors, so it depends on the card.

Case fans can use either 4 pin molex(like ide drives), or some have a small 3 pin connector that connects on the motherboards fan plugs. Most motherboards have around 3 of these type fan connectors on them.

I assume you're not installing a floppy drive, they take a "floppy power connector" that's different than molex or sata power.

MSI Neo4-F is a nice mobo, but why don't you spend $100 more and get the MSI Neo4 SLI Platinum. Now you have built-in expansion (i.e. can get 2 video cards in the future) for those extreme games.

I origionaly considered an SLI mobo but Truthfuly, I think by the time I will need (or want) SLI this mobo will be long out of date, that and I don't have the money.

Nope, no floppy drive yet, but maby later. ok, so it looks like the PSU has enough cords, I'm going 2 wait to more days, do some of my own reasearch to look for compatibility problems and if nothing detrimental has been posted here I'm going to start ordering, thank you so much for walking me throuh this.

FINAL SPECS:

CPU:$200 AMD 64 3200+ 939 socket
MOBO:$89.99 MSI K8N Neo4-F NVIDIA Socket 939
CASE: $159 Thermaltake Silver Armor Aluminum Full-Tower AXT Case
PSU: $89.99 Enermax 535w
HARD DRIVE: $94.99 Seagate / 300GB / 7200 / 8MB / SATA
MEMORY:$89.99 2x512 ddr
GPU:$170 Geforce 6800
SOUND: $40 Live 24 bit PCi (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1080964&CatId=107)
CD:$42 this (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1582492&CatId=89)
Monitor:already have it

Total: $975.96
Plus about $25 (yes thats probobly not even close to the real number) so...
$1000

personally I won't run a system without a floppy drive. You need them for legacy debugging and booting issues. Yes you can make a CD virtual floppy but they're not alway reliable.
I'm in the same boat. 95% of users don't need an Athlon 64 based system... Like you, by the time I need a system that's 64bit based, SLI will be replaced with something else.
I'm not an early adopter of technology.... I'm a wait and see type.

I recommend getting a 3.5 floppy drive. Fortunately, they're very inexpensive. You'll need one to install the SATA RAID drivers. Even if you aren't planning to set up any RAID configuration, you still need the drivers to enable using the SATA controllers. MSI (and others) supplies them on floppies.

Install all the drivers at the F6 prompt and then disable RAID in the BIOS later.

precisely my point. Many drivers are issued on floppies.

Alright, I'll get a floppy, after all, I'm like $20 underbudget, and thats about how much a floppy costs.

Do I still need the SATA controlers even If I only have 1 hard drive?

No, wait SATA isn't the 2 hard drives thing is it? What is it then?

So tack another $20 and this (http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=313606&Tab=0&NoMapp=0) onto my specs.

Well, you are buying a SATA HD so you have to connect it to a SATA controller. RAID is the "two hard drives thing" if I understand you correctly.

You can get a good floppy drive for half that. Look here for example: Newegg (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16821103116)
That's not even the cheapest one. It wouldn't hurt to check the prices of the rest of your items too. ZipZoomFly.com is another good outfit.

One more thought, you might be able to save $25 dollars if you went with an oem version 3200+, as they're only $133, but you'd have to buy a heatsink, which'd add $40 to that, but that's still only $175 total, so you'd save $25.
The oem has no heatsink, and a shorter warranty, but is much cheaper. Also, since you'd be getting a good cooler, it would possibly overclock better, if you're going to overclock.
Cpu
http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=A64-3200BW
Heatsink
http://www.ewiz.com/detail.php?name=FAN-7700CU

I dont supose my mobo has intigrated SATA controllers does it? It looks like it might but I'm not sure.

nf4, do you have experience with the seller you linked to?

And ya, I'm definitly going to price check before I order, those where just guesses.

I've not purchased from ewiz, but I checked resellerratings.com and it seemed to be rated pretty good(except for returns). The overall rating is good.
http://www.resellerratings.com/seller5721.html

The neo 4-f has 4 sata(150mb/s) ports on board, so it supports 4 sata drives each at up to 150mb/s.
http://www.msi.com.tw/program/products/mainboard/mbd/pro_mbd_detail.php?UID=652

If you want to find the best prices on the parts try pricegrabber.com, but check a place's ratings before you buy from them.

Ok, so I'm going with everything as listed previously (with the floppy drive) exept no sound card, my mobo has intigrated sound and that will probobly be enough for me as I don't pay much attention to sound.

If all goes well and nothing new comes up I will be ordering tomorrow.

And I've decided the $25 savings isn't enough to make me go with a seller I've never heard of, I guess I'm just paranoid.

It probably is a good idea to stick with one vendor(that's reputable) for your build, it will be much simpler. I've had good experiences with newegg.com, but have also heard good of zipzoomfly, mwave, chiefvalue, xoxide, etc. There are many decent stores.

Best wishes on your build.

Ok, I got all my parts in and the build went wonderful, no BSOD, nothing. Then when I tried to play battlefield 2 I realized I had no sound. Now, I didn't get a sound card and I have yet to conect the front sound connection thing, but my MoBo manuall says that shouldn't matter as long as some pins on the connectors are jumped (which they are) I have the newest BIOS and drivers, what could my problem be?

Ninja Edit: Sorry, Aparently I DIDn't install the latest drivers, all is well. (And it sounds GREAT)

one last thing, I have Windows XP installed, but there is a problem, I thought I had a COA but I don't is their some way I can just get the COA (legaly)?

If you mean the product key for xp, here's a program to tell you your current key.
http://www.magicaljellybean.com/keyfinder.shtml

Glad to hear about the build. Enjoy!

No, I don't HAVE a key right now, I'm running it on some sort of 30 day trial. What I mean is, is their any way to just get a key? I have an old OEM disk but it's key is already in use.

If the product key is already in use, then there is no legal way for you to use that CD in another machine.

using xp on more than one computer is a violation of the user agreement and stealing.
PIracy is not tolerated here.

I'm not articulating myself very well today, I'm trying to say that I already have the OS, but not an unused key, and since it's two hours to the nearest Tech store and I don't want to wait to a disk to be delivered, is their any way to purchase a COA code from microsoft without purchasing the disk?

Edit for understanding: Wait, so even though I'm trying to purchase another key, it's illegal to use the OEM disk, even for the 30 day period it gives me to enter the product key? If so could someone explain to me how to uninstall an OS?

Yeah, although you characterized it earlier as a trial period, there's no such thing. That's just the time that you are allowed to activate Windows XP. The OEM version is tied to the original machine it is installed in. According to Microsoft, it cannot be transferred to another machine even if the original machine is no longer in use. You would have to purchase a full retail version to do that. That is a key difference between OEM and retail, not just the price, manuals and packaging.

I'm not a authority on this subject so I don't know what would happen if you purchased your own OEM XP CD and just tried to use the key on your existing installation or if you have to use the key with the cd it came with. It would probably be best if you reformatted and reinstalled a legit copy (your own, that is) of Windows. BTW, I'm quite sure you can't legally buy a COA separately.

God I'm Stupid.

I guess the Ironic thing here is that an aquaintance of my kept trying to get me to get a crack of windows, and I said no because I didn't want to break copywrite law and then ended up (unwittingly) breaking it another way.

I'm going to reformat here in a second (as soon as I figure out how). Thanks for walking retarded little me though that.

No problem. I give you credit for trying to do the right thing.

Of course, if you reformat without an OS to install, you won't have a usable computer. Do you have a new one now?

nope.... you'll need the cd

No, The only OS I have thats not in use is an old win 98 deep deep in the recesses of my tech cabenent.

Also, could someone walk me through reformating? The only tutorials I could find all invove floppys, and I really don't want to improvise when my $1000 PC is on the line.

I thought you said you were going to get a floppy with your new system. Change your mind?

Ya, the only reason (that I knew of at the time) to have one was for drivers, and I have a PC that does have a floppy, so I was just going to use that macine to burn any floppys I needed to disk.

Iis it posible to use that bootdisk thing on a cd?

That just makes things more complicated to my simple way of thinking.

Anyway, it's possible to boot from a CD but I've never done it in the way you mean so someone more knowledgeable than I will have to tell you. That would be just about anyone else.

Ok, hard-drive is reformated. Thankfully my mom was going to the city today, so hopfully she will find a reasonable priced copy. (Walmart wanted $200 online!) Thanks again and hopfully I won't cause any more problems. :(