Buying a new computer!

[Hocus]

Processor

AMD Athlon 64 3200+

Fine.

Zalman CNPS7000A-AlCu

Go for the full copper version like I did. It's only marginally more expensive and works quite a lot better, since copper is a better conductor of heat and all.

I'd like to get the DFI LanParty UT 250-GB. This I can only seem to pre-order from ncix.com, and comes to $159 CDN before taxes, which is $130 or so US dollars (round figure so as to account for market changes). That sounds pretty good to me, and the board got a great review from Anand. I'm looking for opinions on DFI in general.

Can't comment. Never even heard of DFI. But if it got a good review on Anandtech then it should be okay.

Video card

Leadtek 6800 GT

Waste of money if you ask me. I had the money to go for a Radeon 9800 Pro or a 6800 GT and I went for the Radeon instead. Why? You're paying a lot more for only a slight performance increase. But, if you have your heart set on a high end card, definitely go for a 6800 GT or Ultra over an x800. I've explained why x800's are a bad choice in another thread you were involved in.

Harddrives

I want to pair a WD Raptor 36.7 Gig drive listed here with this Seagate 200gb SATA listed here

Let me guess, you're going to run the Raptors in raid0, a trap many people fall into. Go read Anandtech on the subject. It's pointless. There is only a minuscle performance gain in real terms to be had (we're talking 2-3% here) and it certainly does not justify the cost. Just go for a 74GB Raptor for your OS/games drive and the 200GB IDE for storage. No need to have SATA on a storage disk.

Memory

512x2 - Unsure

This is where I get really, well, confused. I honestly have no idea what to pick for RAM. I understand that the RAM bandwidth is important, and that the CAS timings seem to be a little less than important - I'd like to get something at CAS2.5 for overclocking, and not because I feel I need to scrape out 2% more performance for 200% the money. What brands are good? What goes well with the Athlon 64 boards? So on and so so forth.

Due to the way Athlon 64 chips have been designed (the memory controller is on the chip rather than the motherboard) CAS timings aren't as important; you can get away with far slacker timings than you would on a Pentium. I think there's really only two brands to look at: Corsair and GeiL. As for timings, 2.5 7-4-4 should be good enough, 2.5 6-4-4 would be better.

Sound card

Creative Audigy 2 LE Gamer whatever

or

Creative Audigy 2 OEM

I'm tempted to say waste of money. Onboard sound has made many leaps and bounds. I'm currently using the onboard sound on my Epox 8KDA3+ and it works great. Unless you're an audiophile you're unlikely to notice the difference. But it's hard for me to comment, since I don't have an Audigy 2 LS whatever yet.

Optical drive

NEC 3500A

This was recommended to me by someone on SH/SC

I'd prefer to go for the Liteon Combo Drive 52x32x52x CD-RW & DVD-ROM. Liteon have a much better name, and in my experience have been extremely reliable drives. Also they tend to be better at "properly" reading discs which is handy when creating backups of your discs.

Phillips 108

This one is recommended (I think?) by Anandtech. Who I'm told are reliable.

That's the drive I just got. It works a treat. Definitely go for it.

Keyboard

Logitech MX700 Duo. Can be had in Canada for a stupidly overpriced amount of about a hundred CDN. I assume this is well regarded as a good keyboard set to pick up?

Can't really go wrong with Logitech. I went for a Logitech Elite Keyboard (I'm not a big fan of wireless) and a Logitech MX500 Mouse. But it's personal preference I guess.

Monitor

I don't know. I'm thinking I'll have to go and look at monitors somewhere, but does anyone have any suggestions on a large CRT. I mean 19 inchs or more. I was really hoping to get a 21 inch, just to have something TRULY huge on my desk! And not a LCD, since I can just make space one way or the other. And I'm not a little kid, I can lift a big monitor.

CRT's are better for games anyway, due to colour depth/response times.

Case / PSU

Currently I have my heart set on the Thermaltake Xaser III Skull case, which is shown here with PSU, the stats for which are shown [urlhttp://www.thermaltake.com/purepower/w00089.htm]hereabouts[/url].

That case looks a bit small to me, it's only a midi tower. I'd go for a full tower if you plan to do any serious overclocking. If you want a full tower, go for an Antec 1080AMG like I did, it's simply superb. Room for 5 case fans, 10 drive bays, air filters, tough as nails, can't recommend it more. As for PSU, the ones in both the Thermaltake and Antec don't put out enough watts for overclocking, especially with all the extra drives you plan to put in. The 6800 GT is also a factor as well, drawing so much power it has 2 molex cables. I recommend just going for an Antec 500+ watt PSU, the more the better.