First Build Critique...

[Dingo]

This PC will be use for basic college stuff...surf youtube, play music, maybe some online gaming (not really into any of the new games at all) and typing up papers (need something reliable!).


Any opinions before I hit purchase?

LIAN LI PC-A59B Black Aluminum ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail
$99.99

Western Digital Caviar SE WD1600AAJS 160GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive x 2
$95.98

GIGABYTE GA-M57SLI-S4 AM2 NVIDIA nForce 570 SLI MCP ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
$89.99

MSI NX8400GS-TD256E GeForce 8400GS 256MB 64-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16 Video Card
$35.99

Rosewill Stallion Series RD450-2-SB ATX V2.2 450W Power Supply - Retail
$42.99

G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-6400CL5D-2GBNQ
$46.99

AMD Athlon 64 X2 4000+ Brisbane 2.1GHz Socket AM2 65W Dual-Core
$53.99

Total with shipping is: $495.04

I have an HDA Xplosion 7.1 DTS Sound card and old DVD-RW, floppy, and CD-ROM Drives that will also be apart of this particular system.

I would like use Windows 2000 Professional, does anyone foresee any problems putting this system together?

Thanks!

P.S. Would RAID be the recommended way to set up the hard drives? If so, which type should I use and how difficult is it to set up?

[RickyTick]

This PC will be use for basic college stuff...surf youtube, play music, maybe some online gaming

Is this basic college stuff these days? We're all doomed. DOOMED I tell you. :eek:

[Dingo]

Lol...ok ok! I'll add word processing and uhm...research...will this set up do that!?!

[RickyTick]

I would prefer one large hard drive as opposed to 2 small ones. You can get a 500gb HD for under $100. The Western Digital Caviar SE16 is very highly regarded.

You may have difficulties using Win 2000. You'll find little support for it on or off campus. Its 2 generations old. Move on up to Vista.

If you have a $500 budget then take a look at this.
http://www.techreport.com/articles.x/14610/2

[Barrister73]

Why do you suggest one large hard drive to two small ones? My initial thought is that I would like to have my music/video collection on one drive and keep everything else on a separate one so that only the one drive will have to be defragged all the time. But, I don't really know how computers work; is my logic flawed?

MRR

[shyster]

Well besides the increase in heat that is produced from having two hard drives, which can be considerable depending on your type of drives. There is also the fact that it is a pain, at least as far as I am concerned to dive between two different drives.

Also if defragmenting is really an issue to you, you can just make partitions on the one big drive and then defrag the partitions seperately as opposed to having two drives which make more heat and are running seperately.

At least those are the reasons I can think of for having one big drive versus two small ones.

[The Wise Monkey]

Why do you suggest one large hard drive to two small ones? My initial thought is that I would like to have my music/video collection on one drive and keep everything else on a separate one so that only the one drive will have to be defragged all the time. But, I don't really know how computers work; is my logic flawed?

MRR

Technically correct, but having two drives doubles the chances of a problem. Plus it uses more power, creates more cables, produces more heat and takes up more space in your case.

However, you do get some benefits for having separate drives. First of all, you can re-install your OS without having to worry about backing up any of your data. Also, since the OS drive will have less space to spread out on, it will actually run slightly faster.

If you do decide to go for two drives, then I would suggest getting a 10,000rpm drive for the OS and a larger, slower drive for storage.

Oh, and the link that Ricky posted is very good - an excellent economy build.

[RickyTick]

Since going to Vista, defragging has not been an issue.