Finalized PC Specs

[Gza]

Just wanted to know what everybody thinks of this.

Motherboard - Gigabyte GA-K8NF-9
CPU - AMD Athlon 64 3000+ (s939)
RAM - 1024 (2x512) Corsair Value Select PC3200
Video - Sapphire Radeon x800XL
LCD - Samsung 710N 17? (12ms)
DVD - NEC ND-3520 16 DVD+/-RW
HDD - Seagate 160GB SATA
Sound - SB Audigy 2 ZS
Speaker - Logitech X-530 5.1
PSU - SuperFlower 450W
Case - SilverStone SST-TJ04 (black)

Thanks.

 

[2Xtreme21]

Looks great!

 

[mwmorph]

the motherboard is okay, but for only a little more, yuo can get a dfi nforce4 ultra which is excelent for overclocking. no need for audigy either. onboard is very good.
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-136-152&depa=1($137)

 

[Promethply]

Those components looks great, but you may want to look at this thread on the mobo:

Gigabyte GA-K8NF-9 WARNING!!!

 

[Gza]

Originally posted by: mwmorph
the motherboard is okay, but for only a little more, yuo can get a dfi nforce4 ultra which is excelent for overclocking. no need for audigy either. onboard is very good.
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-136-152&depa=1($137)

Thing is, she won't be overclocking (well, it's not top priority at the moment, and I doubt it will be later on, but who knows), and I've basically narrowed it down to a cost-effective choice; we've also considered the MSI RS480M2-IL, but because of the sub-par USB performance, we kind of stayed away from it.

As for the Realtek: She'll be gaming quite often, so shouldn't EAX4 offer a significant difference?

 

[Ike0069]

I would look at the Chaintech VNF4U. Solid board for $100.

 

[mwmorph]

not really ofr realtek v.s. ev4. the nforce4 4x chips are subpar.

 

[Trente]

The VNF4U may be based on a better chipset, but the board is not as nearly trouble-free as the K8NF-9. a quick search will verify this I am sure.

 

[imported_Kensai]

Nice chipset.

 

[EndGame]

If you're just looking for a great, solidly stable board with nice features, the Asus A8N-E is a good choice. I've now built 3 systems with this board and each build produced the same easy setup, solid performing system right out of the box.

Everything really looks good though, if I were you I'd stay clear of the DFI in this application. It would be a waste since there will be no overclocking and with the numerous tweaks it could be easy for someone not so knowledgable to get into trouble with this board.

 

[Gza]

Alright, guess I'll be sticking with the list then.

As for the A8N-E, it does look nice, although I highly doubt that she'd notice the difference; not to mention that the K8NF-9 is a bit cheaper.

Thanks guys. Should be interesting as it's her first build, so I'm going to walk her through it.