I recently put together some parts after hours of reading on building a mid-ranged gaming rig.
It came out to right under 1600 S/H and all. This is a complete system from scratch. I would like to knock some of the price off without losing in performance. All opinions and recommendations are welcome.

I would like this rig to be upgradeable for the future so i'm not blowing all my overtime pay to blow it all again in 2 years :P

MOBO
MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum nVidia Socket 939 $105

*Question*
Is this a good mobo for the money?
Should i go sli and i hear nforce4 chipsets are "best"?

PROCESSOR
AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Socket 939 ( Venice )$146

HD $116
Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 ST3200822AS 200GB 7200 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive

*question*
Would it be better to run a raptor for application and use another drive for storage?

RAM $90
CORSAIR(2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Model # VS1GBKIT400

Graphics Card $210
eVGA GeForce 6800 PCI-E

CASE
Black Mini Cube YY-0221

Optical Drive $46
NEC ND3540A DVD Burner

Floppy
NEC $9

Monitor $180
NEC AS900-BK Black 19" CRT

Speakers $55
L23-6322 Logitech X530 5.1
*question*
Would onboard sound be satisfactory to the majority?

PSU $55
ASPIRE ATX-AS520W BLUE ATX 520W Power Supply

KEYBOARD $46
Saitek PZ30AU Black USB Wired Standard Eclipse Keyboard

MOUSE $13
FlexiGlow X-Raider 9331489002805 2-Tone 3 Buttons 1x Wheel USB + PS/2 Optical Mouse

O/S
Windows Xp Professional w/ SP2
$142

Any knowledge your wanting to share feel free!
Thanks in advance!

Well if you want this PC to last for a couple of years I wouldn't choose the AMD Athlon 64 3000+. Perhaps go with a 3500+ venice instead.

I wouldn't bother buying a raptor, the performance isn't worth the money. I have a Seagate Baracude SATA Hard Drive and I can tell you they run pretty damn fast anyway.

Onboard sound is fine for newer motherboards, seeing as it has '7.1 channel audio codec RealTek ALC850'.

By the way, where have you been looking for your components? Im from the UK, but I've heard newegg.com are virtually unbeatable on price, so it might be worth checking them out if you haven't already.
Everything else to me seems fine, but perhaps buy some 80mm cooling fans for your case also?

AMD Barton 3200
1024mb PC3200 Ram
Radeon 9800 Pro 128mb
A7N8X-E Deluxe

I wouldn't get the 3500. It's 400MHz faster than the 3000 with no additional cache for $80 more. If you want your PC to last, put that $80 in a savings account and use it to buy an FX55/57 or X2 dual core, which will work on NForce4 Ultra boards such as the one you are purchasing. If a game won't run on a 3000, it won't run on a 3500 either. Otherwise, if you want a performance increase that's actually significant, go with the 3700 since it's not much more than the 3500, and has 1M cache.

I wouldn't recommend that either. Just get the 3000, and pop on a badboy CPU next year. :-)

Speaking of motherboards, I don't have personal experience with that particular motherboard, but after browsing a few forums, that board has been particularly problematic, so I'd go with something else such as...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813136163

Yes, onboard sound is sufficient for the majority.

For the monitor, I'd go Samsung. Shouldn't be much more, and they have the same LCD quality (actually better) as Sony.

That PSU is horrible. Amps on it, while rated highly on the label, are on par with an Antec 350W on the 12V rail. Go with something else such as...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817153007

Just FYI, the bass on the X-530's is overbearing over the midrange and treble. If you like that kind of sound, and most people do, they're fine. However, if you want good balanced sound, go with the 5300e's.

One last comment about newegg.com, I HIGHLY recommend you price out each component at www.zipzoomfly.com as well. Last time I ordered equipment for my father's upgrade to Athlon 64, zipzoomfly was over $50 cheaper for the same motherboard, CPU, fan, and hard drive. Zipzoomfly has service on par with newegg. They take longer to ship something by a day (whoopty do), but they usually ship it for free (watch the shipping costs on newegg comparably, and that is often what makes zipzoomfly cheaper), and they use 2 day UPS (lol, which = 3 day fed ex, since fed ex usually delivers early). Bottom line is you may end up paying significantly less for the same components, and get your stuff in the same amount of time. It's now a crapshoot which is cheaper, or they're the same. But that's twice now zipzoomfly came out significantly cheaper than newegg for me (used to be NEVER!).

"If that [soiled bed] sheet is a [holy] manifestation, then I'm working on a miracle in my Jockey's!"

Thank you both very much for your input. I checked on zipzoomfly.com for parts and it is a cheaper route. Thanks Hero

Hero have you worked with the dfi boards before?

I know i'm going nforce4 but whats the best choice in that chipset? What would you guys recommend?

Nforce4 Ultraoffer the best performance of all the chipsets. Driver updates have been known to damage XP installs. If you don't do driver updates, or if you do, you are familiar with how to fix XP, they're great. Otherwise if this is a concern for you, get something with a VIA chipset. I'd still go Nforce4 Ultra.

DFI boards are among the best quality motherboards I've worked with for the last 7 years. I have had absolutely no problems with them, and I'm struggling to remember a single board that went bad other than one in a machine that got hit by lightening. I know that has to be because of some luck, but it still shows how reliable they are.

"Republicans in Congress are moving to ratify a constitutional amendment to ban flag burning, thus ending the Iraq insurgency."

Yeah god damn mother nature destroying peoples' rigs.

AMD Barton 3200
1024mb PC3200 Ram
Radeon 9800 Pro 128mb
A7N8X-E Deluxe

Beware lest Mother Nature smite thee!!!

"Republicans in Congress are moving to ratify a constitutional amendment to ban flag burning, thus ending the Iraq insurgency."

How are you gonna fit all that s--- in a mini case?? Im not sure, is that motherboard Micro-ATX???

Oh yeah, dont go for onboard sound if you are getting speakers like that. Onboard sound is very crackly and "hummy" so it would be a waste to couple such good speakers with crappy onboard sound.

Onboard sound isn't as bad as it used to be depending on the motherboard with the current gen out there.

I personally still prefer an add on sound card, but onboard soundcards are perfectly acceptable.

"If that [soiled bed] sheet is a [holy] manifestation, then I'm working on a miracle in my Jockey's!"