Building my first comp....

[Digerat_X]

And i was wondering if I could get some advice (and a recheck on compatibility) from you guys. It seems there are quite a few people here who know all about this stuff, which is what i have been looking for for quite some time.
Here's what I am building so far:
(Note: I already have a monitor, speakers and keyboard / mouse, although if anyone knows where to get good prices on the multisync LCD monitors by all means please let me know)
Case Xaser II 5000 Black $111
Hard Drive WD 80GB 7200RPM HD 8 MB Buffer and Cable $86
Video Card GeForce4 TI 4200 AGP 8X 128MB DDR $110.75
Sound Card Turtle Beach Santa Cruz $57
Processor AMD XP 2400 (1.93 GHz) $80
Motherboard MSI KT4VL $68
Heat Sink & Fan Thermaltake A1607 Volcano 11 Xaser Edition AMD $29
CDRW Samsung SW-252B 52x24x52 EIDE CD-RW Drive (2MB Buffer) $45
DVD-ROM SONY DDU1621 16X DVD ROM Drive $35
3.5 Floppy PANASONIC 1.44 MB 3.5 INCH $10
Power ThermalTake 420W (Dual Fan) ATX12V PS - W0009R -TT-420AD (Non-PFC) $51
RAM 512MB PC2700 64X64 DDR 184 pin DIMM X 2 $120 (this seems expensive anyone know of some good deals?)
Lighting SunBeam 12” Blue Sound Activated Cool Cathode $20
Grounding Anti-Static Wrist Strap $6

Thanks for your time,
Digerat_X

[Telexen]

Looks like that'll work out just fine...

If I may, for a little over $10 (normally) you can buy an AthlonXP 2500+. This uses a front side bus of 333mhz, rather than 266mhz the AthlonXP 2400+ uses.

[Digerat_X]

Thanks for the fast reply!
Any other ideas? (This is my first time I am open to all suggestions)

[Telexen]

Where are you planning on ordering this stuff from?

I suggest http://www.newegg.com/ if you're in the USA ... you'll find some great deals there

[Digerat_X]

I tried to find good prices on stuff at pricewatch.com, but I think I will either use this googlegear.com or newegg.com
Thanks!

[Digerat_X]

Do they sell the XP 2500+ OEM? I really don't feel like paying extra for a heatsink I am not gonna use...

[Telexen]

In my opinion it's better to buy the Retail..with OEM you get whatever warranty the dealer/vendor gives you...30 days if you're lucky, which will basically cover getting it, and installing it. With the retail you get a 3 year warranty from AMD.

[MrPurple]

It seems that you are making a system that is tweaked more toward gaming, if so I would sugest that you do go for the 2500+ Barton, and go with a dual channel ram set up, 512 is fine, but 1 gig would be better. My friend got 1 gig of Corsair Ram for approx $160 at newegg, look for "CMX512A-2700C2P".
Evrything else seems to look, ok, but honestly I do not like they Thermaltake Volcano 11, they are a bit loud for my taste, I would go with an SLK 900U and a 92 mm Enermax speed controled fan, but that is only for the select few who can mount the bloody thing .
Good luck with this, and rember making the perfect comp is an art, you will never get it right, and it will not be appreciated untill way after its gone

Good luck to you, and do calculations for shipping. Some things may cost more, but when you add everything up in the end may end up saving you money on shipping, but can inconvience you if you have things coming in from five differen places. In the end you do the balacing, and see what you would perfer.

[Digerat_X]

Ok, thanks especially for the last tip, I am in fact making a comp almost specifically for gaming so those tips really helped. I am aiming to have 1 gig of RAM in the end, whether it is two sticks of 512 (my original plan) or 1 stick of 1 GB (for now I will go with the one you mentioned)
I will go with the 2500+ Barton as well, do they ship it with heatsink and fan already attached? I ask because if they do, I am jsut wondering whether I need to even bother getting the heatsink if I can't take the original off.
I have also changed everything to match prices from newegg (I decided to order everything from them because of shipping) and the price actually dropped significantly at first (before I just went and changed my RAM.) For now it is $877. If I can use my own heatsink, the SLK 900 U looks good, but where did u find the 92mm Enermax speed controlled fan? Also, what's the hard part about mounting it? (I am curious what I will have to do).
Thanks Again!

[Telexen]

No, you should make sure you order some Arctic Silver 3 also to put onto your CPU core under the heatsink...it helps cool the CPU a lot and is necessary if you aren't going to use AMD's stock HSF.