first computer, let me know how I did

[All Devourer]

I am building my first computer. please let me know how I did. You can find it's stats at http://secure.newegg.com/app/WishHistoryReview.asp?position=HISTORY&submit=VIEW&ID=307096 .
Any advice or recommendations would be well appreciated. Thank you.

[Budfred]

Welcome to http://www.pcguide.com/ubb/pcgubb.gif

It looks ok, but I have a few suggestions:

You don't seem to have a motherboard and you won't get far without it.

You might want to consider a Barton CPU, the prices are similar I believe.

You can get a Sony floppy for $7 at newegg and it is probably a better deal, I don't know about the black face on it though.

You can possibly get the full retail 120gig hard drive for less if you watch the sales and don't mind rebate.

You can almost certainly get the Kingston RAM for less if you watch the sales, BestBuy has it for less almost every week. You may be better off with 2 512MB too. The PC3200 may be hard to find for a better price though.

The modem you specify is probably a software modem which means it won't be as easy to configure and will probably not work with Linux if you ever want to use that.

You don't mention a heatsink/fan for the CPU and that is important on an Athlon (or any CPU these days). Some people around here have indicated the adjustable fans may not be worthwhile.

That is all I have for now....

[ZURKE]

I am with Budfred on the "Bartons" they come in 2500,2800 and 3000, I think AMD has a 3200 but I am not sure what it is.

The 2500 would be great.

And as Budfred said you should not skimp on a heat-sink fan. The one you have listed has a maximum 3000 RPM. While that may well be good enough, I would go for a 5400 RPM.

[saphalline]

Don't know if you play any games, but if you do, dump that GF4 MX and get a GeForceFX 5200 instead. Much better performance and not much more price. Usually $70 average.

[red indian]

1st-geforce 4mx and geforce 2mx both had similar benchmarks (in fact stay away from the mx series if your going to play games -online or off-
2nd-lite-on has had many problems reading disks and never reach speeds listed -benchmarks
3rd-the maxtor drive does not perform to par ,believe me i had money but not enough for the wd 120 gb 8 mb cache,and this being the 1st time of not buying a western digital,i have resented it ever since ,crap ill sell you mine since i replaced mine with my old one which was the 40 gb caviar and that still ran faster on my programs ,especially with the games--so be carefull!!
4th- also it does matter when it comes to 56k--choices of modems have become so abundant thats its almost like buying a pop in a gas station,there are so many choices but you can only drink one, same applies to a modem make sure its going to be the one you want ,as I have flown thru my fare share-my opinion is a us robotics as i have had the most success with this,with other modems i have probably achieved maybe 36.2-38.0 that was with the creative series of modems and now with the us-robotics ive never gone below 49.0
5th-your amd athlon xp 2600 only runs at 2.08ghz with 333fsb for a 105.00 when you can pick up a celeron(p4)2.20 ghz with a 400 fsb for 100.00 you do the math
6th-go with the windows xp as it is less prown to crashes due to newbie mistakes and brand new is 200.00 and is up to date with drivers
7th--WHERES THE MOTHERBOARD

[All Devourer]

First of all, thank you all for your suggestions and experience. My field is programming, so I dont know the ins and out of hardware manufacturers. I will be sure to make several changes before I place my order. Next, the motherboard is now on. I thought that I had it on before but must have been mistaken. Once again thanx for all the great feedback.

[bassman]

Looks like a nice setup. You have been given some sound advice as well. My only suggestion would be to go with a DVD burner that is capable of CD RW as well. Then get a simple CD ROM drive for all input needs. I realize you want to stay economical but for future, this will be a better functionality choice. You have been given some suggestions that would easily save the few dollors differance in the DVD burner.

Good luck and welcome to the http://www.pcguide.com/ubb/pcgubb.gif :cool:

[saphalline]

Um, no. Stay away from the Celeron. CPU prices have plummeted to the point where it just doesn't make sense to get a value CPU like a Celeron or Duron. Besides, a Celeron 2.2GHz is going to crumble under the might of an AthlonXP 2600+! That's why it's called "2600", because it performs almost like a P4 at 2.6GHz, which is a far cry from a lowly Celery at only 2.2GHz. If you really want to go with Intel, get a P4B and a dual-channel DDR RAM chipset.

Since you have most/all your parts picked out at this point, tho, I suggest staying with the AthlonXP. The Barton 2500 is really cheap now, and the performance compared to a P4 is really close in some cases, and way over a P4 in others.

Also, my LiteOn CD-RW has no problems reading any disks. Well, unless there are really deep scratches, but that usually renders a disk useless so that might not count. ;)