Hi allMy first post.Its a good one too.Buying a whole new system.My Specs FPS unlimited thats it thats all oh thats with MAX res and MAX scenery. All games All the time.Reading the hundreds of posts in this and other Forums. I have come up with this.A. I dont/wont ever know a thing about computers except how to curse them, turn them on and off.But i think i have this much figured out.MOBO ASUS A7V333.CPU Athlon XP2400RAM 1gig PC2700 DDR Monitor 17" LCD SamsungCD/CDRW Lite On 48x12x48 CDR-RWHarddrive Western Digital 40GB w/ 8MB cache Harddrive 7200rpmCASE Kingwin KT 436BK CaseCPU Cooling Thermaltake Volcano 7+ cooling fan for the CPUOperating System Windows XP Pro.Vid Card ASUS V8460 GeForce4 4600 128MB DDRNow my quest1. Where (if) is the bottleneck in this system.2. MOBO also looked at the Asus A7N8X with the Athlon XP2400 this has the NForce2 chipset..HUmmm??3. Only problem i see is that AMD boards never say they are CPU upgradable??. Intel CPU boards now say that they are P4 3.0ghz+ capable. Now what do i do??Plse let me know where what how, i can better spend my money. I will be looking daily hourly at this post and the answers in it. You have all contributed to the system above, now help me make the right choice PLSE!!Am actually thinking of going the Intel 2.8ghz Asus P4PE motherboard route but you can add 1grand onto that price tag.Intel Inside is a very expensive STICKER!!!.Shooterman.

You might want to shop more for your components; a 2.8G P4 + Asus P4PE should cost you a maximum of $650 total, not $1k more than than an XP2400+.If you are serious about "... dont/wont ever know a thing about computers except how to curse them, turn them on and off" then why don't you look into www.alienware.com or www.falcon-nw.com. Building from scratch is rewarding, however it is also time consuming and may require some trial and error.

OOPS should have mentioned this part.I live in Canada. 600USD IS 1000cdn!!..At least!I wont be the one putting this thing together, i will be supplying the parts.

The only thing I see limiting your system is the 40GB hardrive. If you can afford, get at least 80GB. They fill up very fast with todays large programs.

That is a nice system. What sound card are you using? I know the SB Live! cards use lots of CPU. The audigys are better. Intel offers faster speeds, AMD can't keep up. I would probably get a bigger hard drive, the 7200 is a must, 8MB cache is great. If you have a big enough wallet I would get a Ati 9700 Pro for the extra $100.

Now see this is the kinda stuff i like.Sound Cards - i was hoping somebody would catch that missing peice of the puzzle!. I am currently using(remember that i am buying a Total new sytem) is C-Media 8738. $17 bucks cdn. I can talk on RW, fly FS2K2, listen to music, and talk on MSN. With NO FPS hit at all!! Thats on a 700mhz P3. I can upgrade to the C-Media 8788 for 3bucks..yup thats right 20 bucks cdn for this card, with 6channel output!. Drivers are plentiful, and Win XP drivers as well.Audigy thats SB as well??. Its got to match or surpass the C-media card that i have now. Heard something about a card called Gamer anybody know about this one??Ok harddrive is up to a 80gig 7200rpm 8mb cache. Looked at the 9700, will look at it some more.Shooterman

that gamer card is a version of SB Audigy. The retail bundle comes with more games. You can save about $30USD and get an OEM version.Glad I can help find your bottle neck

If you're going to go with the A7V333 you mentioned above, you should know that it already has 6 channel sound onboard. I'm not sure how good it is or weather it uses up a lot of CPU as I don't have the board yet. I'm also going to be building a new system based on this board soon and would appreciate any input anyone has about the it's onboard sound.>Now see this is the kinda stuff i like. >Sound Cards - i was hoping somebody would catch that missing >peice of the puzzle!. I am currently using(remember that i >am buying a Total new sytem) is C-Media 8738. $17 bucks cdn. >I can talk on RW, fly FS2K2, listen to music, and talk on >MSN. With NO FPS hit at all!! Thats on a 700mhz P3. I can >upgrade to the C-Media 8788 for 3bucks..yup thats right 20 >bucks cdn for this card, with 6channel output!. Drivers are >plentiful, and Win XP drivers as well. >Audigy thats SB as well??. Its got to match or surpass the >C-media card that i have now. Heard something about a card >called Gamer anybody know about this one?? >Ok harddrive is up to a 80gig 7200rpm 8mb cache. >Looked at the 9700, will look at it some more. >Shooterman

I would recommend that ASUS P4PE board and Intel 2.8GHz processor. I would use the Swiftech MCX4000 heatsink and overclock the thing well over 3GHz. Also use Corsair 3200 memory. I have that setup using the 2.53 processor and overclocked to 2.85GHz. It will overclock higher, I just havn't found the need.Elmer Smith

Well I will be a somethings uncleThat A7V333 onboard sound card isC-Media 8738!!!..Read above post of mine, thats the sound card i have NOW!.Keep the thoughts coming. Thks.

I have been playing with power settings and with the core voltage at 1.725 I now have this machine running at 3040. Not bad for a 2.53 processor, and the temperature is still below my AMD at unclocked setting. The P4PE board, Swiftech MCX4000, Corsair 3200 memory and Intel 2.53 processor cost was approximately $660.00.

Hey excellent.That is the setup I was looking hard at. The P4PE and the 2.8ghz. The corsair 3200 is onsale as we speak. Just new for us Canucks is the 3.06ghz Chip, a cool 1000bucks cdn, thats about 2 bucks US..LOLHavent been able to find the Swiftech heatsink, but i will for sure be looking at the biggest fastest coolest(temperature wise) heatsink/fan combo i can get. Thanks alot gents, i almost have my shopping cart full.shooterman.