Hey all,
I’m needing a new computer for college and all. Looking for spending around $1000, and I’ve got a friend that is good at computers, and will help me build one, plus select parts, etc.

Here’s the list we came up with, off of NewEgg:
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NEC Black IDE DVD Burner Model ND-3540A - OEM ($41.99)

RAIDMAX ATX-868WBP Black Steel Gaming Case Computer Case 420W Power Supply - $45.99

Western Digital Caviar SE WD1600JD 160GB 7200 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive - OEM $82.00

SAMSUNG 710N-BK Black 17” 12ms LCD Monitor - Retail $255.00
ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail $165.00

eVGA 128-P2-N368-TX Geforce 6600GT 128MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail $169.00

Logitech Premium Desktop 967311-0403 2-Tone PS/2 Only for Mouse Standard Keyboard Mouse Included - OEM $19.99

CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System Memory Model VS1GBKIT400 - Retail $79.99

AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Venice Integrated into Chip FSB Socket 939 Processor Model ADA3000BPBOX - Retail $146.00

Subtotal: $984.96
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No mouse and keyboard yet, I’m still choosing ‘em.
How’s it all sound? Specifically, does the AMD have enough speed? ( Listed as only 1.8 GHZ on NE, but apparantly runs as fast as a 3 GHZ…at least my friend says so after we looked on a site with benchmark results)
I’m a bit of a newb here. I thought I knew alot about computers, until I started looking at stuff for this one. Sheez! <*_*>
Any suggestions? Any comments? Thanks!

looks good!

i’d spend a few $$$ extra and get the RAM as one twig, just to make upgrading easier (and cheaper)

you put my thinkpad to shame :oops:

Get a stick of Crucial Ballistix PC2-5300 1gb :D

you can get a cheaper mouse and keyboard and slice off a few $$.

Don’t buy one “twig”.. your memory will only run at dual channel if you are using 2 identical sticks.. stay with the 2x512, but spend a little more. ValueSelect RAM or any “value” ram for that matter has much higher latency rates than standard ram. The lower the latency the better. Dont let your RAM be your bottleneck on that machine.

I wouldn’t go with the NEC 3540A, check out the Benq 1620 or LG 4163.  NEC can’t overspeed a lot of 8x media and even 12x burning is slow because of it’s writing strategy.

definitely do not. that ddr2 will be incompatible with any amd motherboard.

as for how many sticks of ram to get, it depends on whether or not you will be upgrading in the future. if you think you will soon be upgrading to 2 GB, get 1 stick now and 1 later. if you think 1 GB is enough (as it definitely is atm), go for 512x2. and yes, get ram with better memory timings. I have a NEC DVD burner and i think its quite good at its job. definitely plan on another 6600GT for sli.  also, you should probably get a good power supply. my case one died within 2 months and newegg didnt replace it. i was computerless for a week until my new one came. not a good feeling.

I would reconcider that SATA if you are new at building computers and get an IDE instead. Trust me SATA’s are a b**** to get working with some mobo’s, and it’s even more of a pain in the ass when they are OEM. And if I were you I’d get a faster 64 bit processor. Shell out a few more bucks but that will ensure your processor doesnt go out of date so fast.

And I would like to give you more tip. Post these specs at http://www.anandtech.com , the guys over there know a lot more.

Thanks for the help, guys! :D