Ok, so maybe it's not drool worthy. But I'm about to buy this, and if anybody has some free time, you could tell me if I'm doing something horribly wrong that I should change. I'm pretty sure this will work with linux, I'm just looking for input:

CDRW
2xRAM (for a total of one gb, 400mhz DDR)
Mobo and proc (athlon 64 3000)
SATA HD
256MB GeForce
Totally awesome case
Heatsink

Whaddya think?

LBB

Buying Maxtor hard drives and Soyo motherboards is horribly wrong. Buy Western Digital Raptor series (36 GB or 72 GB). For the motherboard, buy from brands like ABIT, ASUS, or Gigabyte. Are you sure that Zalman heatsink will work because it is designed for P4. The GeForceFX 5700 LE will not do justice for games or any 3D programs. You have to be careful buying a video card with 256 megabytes of memory because the manufacture usually use slower memory. Get a GeForceFX 5700 Ultra with 128 megabytes of memory or even better GeForceFX 5950. The memory brand is weak. The memory brands you should pick from are Corsair, Crucial, Mushkin, OCZ. The memory speed that I will use is 433 MHz (2.3 ns) or 500 MHz (2 ns) because it increases the reliablity of the system at 400 MHz (2.5 ns). The reason for this is the memory seems it can go at 400 MHz on paper but in real life it goes a little slower than what was on paper.

The 52X read and write is over spec. The buffer will top the drive about 13X for write speeds. I have a CD-R/W that has 8 megabytes for buffer. It helps in recording and accessing files. Also IDE CD-R/W tends to add noise with increase in write speeds, so I stay around 4X to 8X for writing.

IMO, the case looks like a wannabee modifier that has constructed the chassis.

BTW, I hope I did not offended you but you have a right to know this before buying the parts. Also you should pick the general discussion in this forum.

Might want to try Newegg and Zipzoomfly for major purchases - both back their customers to the wall. I also check ResellerRatings.com when I'm dealing with other vendors.

Thanks so much electro, I wasnt expecting that much help. and no, you didnt offend me.

As for the harddrive, I bought a 30GB maxtor to upgrade one of my old PCs, and it runs beautifully. It's silent too.

The heatsink is designed for P4 and athlon 64. I read a lot of reviews on it, and there are many very happy A64 users.

Based on your advice, I just changed my board to Asus K8V Deluxe Socket 754 ATX. It's about the same price, and looks more reliable.

I hadnt realized that about the video card. Thank you. I changed it to a GeForceFX, 128mb.

The problem with the ram is that I am on a very small budget, so I can either buy 1GB of the Ultra, or 512 MB of the Corsair Overclocking RAM for the same price. I figured quantity over quality. Does this make sense?

I'm in canada, so tigerdirect and NCIX are our equivalents of similar american businesses.

Just ordered the computer now. I learned that a lot of my rebates were going to expire tonight if I didnt order. That is that. Thank you both for your help

First off, it seems that a good bit of people have a grudge against maxtor. True they did have their share of problems, but I've been using maxtor drives exclusivly for about 7 years now in all my desktop systems, and I've never had the least problem with any of them. In fact I still have a 3GB drive from 98 that I used for a /logs partition on one of my freebsd servers, and it gets a pretty good bit of use. I can't comment on the quality of WDs SATA drives, but I think their IDE ones suck. I've had 3 80GB ones that crapped out that were being used in a fairly high-activity file server. Of course their SCSI along with Seagate's Barracuda drives are really the only way to go.

As far as the Soyo MB, I currently have a Soyo Dragon 2 Platinum that I love. No problems what so ever. That being said, for the most part I stick with ASUS.

The ram is a touchy issue. People swear by the name brands. My feeling is if your going to buy online, buy brand name so you have some protection if it craps out. OTOH, I buy nearly all my hardware from a local mom & pop hardware shop, so I tend to buy generic because I can just drive down the street and return it if I need to. Over the past 7 years I've only had 2 sticks (out of no telling how many) that were defective. I've benchmarked my generic ram against Buffalo, Crucial, and Corsair, and it's never outpreformed any of them, but considering the often large price difference the slightly poorer preformance doesn't bother me.

The case: meh, if you like it thats what counts. However, I would reccomend that you check out this site:
frozencpu.com
Cases are pretty much the only DIY computer part I buy online (thanks that the wonderful prices of above said mom & pop shop) , and I've done a pretty good bit of businees with frozencpu. The service is fast, and they offer a wide variety of products. Pluse you can have them customize your case for you, and do things like wire loom your power cables, which always looks good.

Just a quick note on the case (I have the same one but it is green) watch out for sharp edges. When I assembled my system it took three band-aids.

Frozencpu has some slick stuff. I already chose my case, but I'd like some lights and fans, possibly a new power supply. I'll keep that site in mind.

Wow kak, small world eh? If you dont mind, I'm kinda curious about a couple things. How does the case look with all of the lights on? and do the included fans keep it cool enough? also, have you had any problems with the PS? I've heard its a bit weak. Thanks!

I added a cold cathode tube and it looks great. I decided to add 2x80mm and 1x120mm fan (comes with 2x80mm) and the case stays very cool. I went with the 5 fans becuase I am running mutiple Maxtor hard drives which seem to run warm. The front two fans blow directly on to the hard drives. Can't give any input on the power supply, I tossed it and used my trusty old Antec 400w. What it keeps cool:

AMD Athon 2800xp
Shuttle An35Ultra nforce2 chipset
768mb ddr ram
FX5700ultra 128mb ram
2x 80gb Maxtor HD
Plextor CDRW
Sony dvd-rom
SoundBlaster 16pci
Indus IDEX350 harddrive switch(not yet installed but on the way)

I probably could have gotten away with just adding the 120mm on the back panel. The LCD says the case temp is 78.6 degrees fahrenheit (25.9 celsius) right now with my five fans roaring away.

I bought and extra 120mm blue fan with it, but based on what I'm reading about this heatsink, it really keeps the case airflow up. The cold cathode tube is a good idea, I might go out and get one of those. I'll give the PS a try, and if it doesnt support what I need, I'll just get a new one I guess.
Thanks for your help