Cost Of Assembling 64-bit Desktop Systems

[MikeWill]

With reference to the topic:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=26801

64-bit systems will run 32-bit applications without a problem and in addition they will boost the system performance and memory capacity.

The future computing is based on 64-bits.

Even so, Intel doesn't have yet a 64-bit CPU for desktop (it estimated to be released as 600-xxx series rather soon), it is already possible to see the parts necessary to assemble a 64-bit home/office system.

It looks that such system will be over $1.000 (for just basic parts).

Here is what I have found so far...

Prices

CPU

Athlon 64, Socket 939 (3 y. warranty):

- 3000+, 1.800GHz 9.0x200MHz, L2 Cache 512KB (Box) - THB 7,650

- 3200+, 2.000GHz 10.0x200MHz, L2 Cache 512KB (Box) - THB 9,990

- 3500+, 2.200GHz 11.0x200MHz, L2 Cache 512KB (Box) - THB 12,290

Motherboard

Asus

A8N-SLI Deluxe / Socket 939 / nForce4 SLI Chipset / Dual DDR400 / 8-SATA / PCI-Ex2 / 1394a (3 Years D COM) - THB 7,900

DFI

LP NF4-SLI DR / Socket 939 / nForce4 SLI Chipset / Dual DDR400 / Dual Raid / PCI-Ex2 / Dual GB Lan / 1394a / 10 USB / 8-Channel Audio (3 Years) - THB 9,800

DDR RAM

Kingston

Dual Channel Kit DDR RAM 1GB Bus 400 / PC3200 - THB ~6,500

Hard disk

Western Digital

WD Raptor WD740GD 74GB, 10000 RPM, SATA, 5.2ms (5 Years) - THB 10,500

Maxtor

- DiamondMax Plus9 6Y200M0 200GB, 7200 RPM, SATA (3 Years Maxwell) - THB 5,750

- DiamondMax Plus10 6B250S0 250GB, 7200 RPM, buffer 16 MB, SATA (3 Years Maxwell) - THB 7,600

Seagate

Barracuda 7200.7 ST3160023AS 200GB, 7200 RPM, SATA (5 Years Synnex) - THB 6,000

Display card

GeCube

Radeon X700 Pro ATI Radeon X700 Pro 128MB PCI-Express (2 Years) -THB 8,500

ASUS

Radeon EAX600XT/TD ATI Radeon X600XT, 128MB 128 Bit PCI-Express (3 Years) - THB 8,300

SPARK

GF6600 GeForce 6600 128MB 300/550 MHz, 8 Pipelines PCI-Express (2 Years) - THB 5,800

GF6600GT GeForce 6600GT 128MB 500/1000 MHz, 8 Pipelines PCI-Express (2 Years) - THB 8,500

Elsa

GF6600GT GeForce 6600GT 128MB PCI-Express (3 Years) - THB 9,000

Winfast

GF6600GT GeForce 6600GT 128MB PCI-Express (2 Years) - THB 9,100

Case + Power Supply

CoolerMaster

Centurion5 Medium Tower Case, 80mm front fan, 120mm rear fan, 350W power supply - THB 3,200

--------------------

The aim is to build a reliable and long-lasting desktop PC.

Any input on quality and prices, and recommendations on alternatives are most welcome.

Edited February 14, 2005 by Condo_bk

[joka]

acer has packages already, you might could check their website, prices start at 20000B and up to 30000B

[chingy_]

in the next few im planing to put a comp together, this is what i got listed so far

-mainboard ASUS P4P800-E DELUXE FSB800/468

-CPU INTEL P4 3.0E GHZ FSB800/478 PRESCOT

-also 120gb hardrive not yet pick brand

-also 2 , 512ram thats about 1mb of ram

-VGA ASUS RADEON 9550 128MB

i guest the rest is just minor item.

[RDN]

With such big hard drives - typically over 100 GB - you must consider a backup device of some kind. Can DVD writers be used for such a job?

I periodically - not often enough - take a complete image of my C drive on CD-Rs using Norton Ghost, and have successfully used it to restore the image to a new drive. Can Norton create such an image on a DVD?

[MikeWill]

acer has packages already, you might could check their website, prices start at 20000B and up to 30000B

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Can you give an URL (address), please?

[waldwolf]

Condo_bk - A couple of comments (suggestions) I might make. First, as concerns the HDD, the WD Raptor WD740GD 74GB, 10,000 RPM, while a excellent piece of hardware, is IMHO, not yet a cost effective storage device. As you noted, size vs. cost are small and high, respectively. I've also had users complain to me about the Rapter's noise level. (Some even used the term "jet engine".) Todays "bloated" software and the greater demand for video capability will certainly require HDD's of higher and higher capacity, as well as access speed. As HDD costs continue to decline, this is probably an option to review just before any purchase decision is made.

The other item I believe you should re-visit is the power supply. With your planned hardware, and possible future additions, I believe 350 watts will be very marginal. One should insure the total power demand required of the PS, not exceed 80% of its rated output, otherwise, the PS component life will be greatly shortened and may lead to a "low-voltage" condition in other components (eg: fans, HDD, etc.) causing increase heat and shortening their life, aswell.

Sounds like you about to embark on a great learning and fun experience. Enjoy!

cheers

(RDN - Norton Ghost v9.x will backup data to most any storage device, including CDR-RW and DVD-+R/RW. Also, most good burning software (eg: Nero v6x) will do the same.)

[chanchao]

Unless you're running an OS and particular application designed for a 64 bit CPU, I kind of fail to see how you could warrant the huge cost of getting something top-of-the-line? It kind of sounds like buying a Ferrari in 1980's gridlocked Bangkok because you expect the expressways to be finished in another 5-10 years or so.

RDN wrote:

> With such big hard drives - typically over 100 GB - you must consider a

> backup device of some kind.

I don't agree with this statement: The size is not what matters, the value of your data is. Like, if you use that big harddrive just for recording TV shows that you watch once, plus loads of games, then I wouldn't think a backup of everything is all that important.

However, even just a 20Gb drive running your company database and you'd be *$%* sure you need backup.

> Can DVD writers be used for such a job?

Not if you're a sane person and wish to remain that way.. Do the math: Reliable DVD-R media costs say 75 baht for a 4.7 Gb disk. You will do some compression, so say you get 6Gb on it. (Not that much more as a lot of video and music is already complressed) Now say you have a 120 Gb worth of data: 120/6 = 20 DVDs!! (=1500 baht) Burning a DVD takes like 10 minutes. So to make one backup, you need to be next to your computer for three and a half hours, manuall switching discs every ten minutes.

Anyway, all of this is an elaborate way of saying: "No."

I'd get a big removable harddrive for backup, or use tape, even though I hate tape. That said.......... I wonder if I could use the DV tape in my video camera as a backup medium... Hmmmmmm... That would hold a whole lotta data.. (Just thinkign out loud.. I mean the thing does support recording digital video back on to tape through firewire...)

--------

Ok, I've now thought about that and DV tape backup does indeed exist:

http://www.dvstreamer.com/#Storage

That said, you get abotu 15 Gb on a DV tape... which will take about an hour to back-up.. So again for 120 Gb of data that's not terribly feasible. Then again, to just backup my files, I think I may give it a try. Especially my home videos in DVD format I'd like to backup also on something else than just the finished DVD. The free version has a limit of 256 files, which shouldn't be a problem as files can be zipped into one archive file fairly easily.

Cheers,

Chanchao

Edited February 15, 2005 by chanchao

[chingy_]

I don't agree with this statement: The size is not what matters, the value of your data is. Like, if you use that big harddrive just for recording TV shows that you watch once, plus loads of games, then I wouldn't think a backup of everything is all that important.

However, even just a 20Gb drive running your company database and you'd be *$%* sure you need backup.

> Can DVD writers be used for such a job?

Not if you're a sane person and wish to remain that way.. Do the math: Reliable DVD-R media costs say 75 baht for a 4.7 Gb disk. You will do some compression, so say you get 6Gb on it. (Not that much more as a lot of video and music is already complressed) Now say you have a 120 Gb worth of data: 120/6 = 20 DVDs!! (=1500 baht) Burning a DVD takes like 10 minutes. So to make one backup, you need to be next to your computer for three and a half hours, manuall switching discs every ten minutes.

i agree on this point, usually i break it down to 60/60 or maybe 60/30/30

[waldwolf]

........It kind of sounds like buying a Ferrari in 1980's gridlocked Bangkok because you expect the expressways to be finished in another 5-10 years or so.......

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Ah......possibly, but that Ferrari would sure turn a few (female) heads. Now honestly, wouldn't you prefer being stuck in traffic while sitting in a Ferrari rather than a Cherry?

[george]

Why don't use web folders and back it up remotely on the net somewhere?

[joka]

http://www.atec.co.th/.........sorrry, the company is atec, not acer. the computers are in the lower left corner of this page. and i couldn't find an english button, but you can get the general idea.

[Firefoxx]

in the next few im planing to put a comp together, this is what i got listed so far

-mainboard ASUS P4P800-E DELUXE FSB800/468

-CPU INTEL P4 3.0E GHZ FSB800/478 PRESCOT

-also 120gb hardrive not yet pick brand

-also 2 , 512ram thats about 1mb of ram

-VGA ASUS RADEON 9550 128MB

i guest the rest is just minor item.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Chingy, for a little bit more you can get the Asus P5GD1 mainboard (PCI-express and LGA socket), a PCI-express card, and a LGA processor. This way you'll be future-proof, while having the same performance.

[Darknight]

Unless you're running an OS and particular application designed for a 64 bit CPU, I kind of fail to see how you could warrant the huge cost of getting something top-of-the-line? It kind of sounds like buying a Ferrari in 1980's gridlocked Bangkok because you expect the expressways to be finished in another 5-10 years or so.

Must agree

Longhorn microsofts first 64 bit desktop Os is still in early alpha and the best release schedule put's it somewhere in final release in 2006.

By then your system will be getting old.

[RDN]

.... Norton Ghost v9.x will backup data to most any storage device, including CDR-RW and DVD-+R/RW. Also, most good burning software (eg: Nero v6x) will do the same.)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thanks for that, waldwolf .

...

> With such big hard drives - typically over 100 GB - you must consider a

> backup device of some kind.

I don't agree with this statement:  The size is not what matters, the value of your data is...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

OK, I guess I consider ALL my data valuable - if it's not valuable, it gets deleted!

..

> Can DVD writers be used for such a job?

Not if you're a sane person and wish to remain that way.. Do the math:.....Anyway, all of this is an elaborate way of saying: "No."  .

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

OK. And thanks for doing the math - I was hoping DVDs were bigger than that.

..I'd get a big removable harddrive for backup, or use tape, even though I hate tape.  ...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yes, I've already got an external USB drive for my lap top, so I was going to use it as a backup on my new PC.

As for tapes... we used to use 4mm DAT drives to back up the company PCs every night. But those drives and tapes were very expensive, although quite reliable. The ones I have used in the past on a PC were incredibly unreliable and slow.

So I think I'll go with the extra - and external - drive as a backup device.

[monty]

Eventhough the operating systems don't use the 64bit capability of these processors yet, they still are very good performers. For example these amd 64bit processors have their memory controllers in the cpu, thus enabling faster datatransfers. This is very noticable in memory intensive processes...

The AMD 64/3000 is simply a lot faster compared to the regular Athlon3000 or the P4 3.0Ghz.

[chingy_]

in the next few im planing to put a comp together, this is what i got listed so far

-mainboard ASUS P4P800-E DELUXE FSB800/468

-CPU INTEL P4 3.0E GHZ FSB800/478 PRESCOT

-also 120gb hardrive not yet pick brand

-also 2 , 512ram thats about 1mb of ram

-VGA ASUS RADEON 9550 128MB

i guest the rest is just minor item.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Chingy, for a little bit more you can get the Asus P5GD1 mainboard (PCI-express and LGA socket), a PCI-express card, and a LGA processor. This way you'll be future-proof, while having the same performance.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

i been doing some more research, there are two ASUS P5GD1 available

1. ASUS P5GD1-PRO-UAY/915P/800/socket 775

2. ASUS P5GD1/I915P/800/socket 775

what are the different betwen these two?

the price between ASUS P4P800-E DELUXE FSB800/468 and ASUS P5GD1 are not too much different, noly a few hundred baht

[MikeWill]

All those who still think that it is possible today to build a long-lasting system disregarding 64-bits, please refer to the topic http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=26801

That issue has been already discussed there to the great extent.

... as concerns the HDD, the WD Raptor WD740GD 74GB, 10,000 RPM, while a excellent piece of hardware, is IMHO, not yet a cost effective storage device. As you noted, size vs. cost are small and high, respectively. I've also had users complain to me about the Rapter's noise level.

As HDD costs continue to decline, this is probably an option to review just before any purchase decision is made.

The other item I believe you should re-visit is the power supply. With your planned hardware, and possible future additions, I believe 350 watts will be very marginal.  One should insure the total power demand required of the PS, not exceed 80% of its rated output, otherwise, the PS component life will be greatly shortened and may lead to a "low-voltage" condition in other components (eg: fans, HDD, etc.) causing increase heat and shortening their life, aswell.

Sounds like you about to embark on a great learning and fun experience. Enjoy!

cheers 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thanks waldwolf,

That's the exact reason I started this topic, so the board members will come up with suggestions of better and cost effective hardware alternatives...

Which brand of HDD, Power Supply & Case (and other components) is the best buy today?

http://www.atec.co.th/.........sorrry, the company is atec, not acer.  the computers are in the lower left corner of this page. and i couldn't find an english button, but you can get the general idea.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thanks joka,

I found the Atec offer at http://www.atec.co.th/performance_pc_full.html

It indeed very impressing at THB 24,900 Baht (including an excellent spill resistant ATEC Keyboard and Optical Weel Mouse, without monitor).

This offer is worth to consider.

The site is in Thai, but I have gathered the following specs:

• AMD Athlon 64 3000+

• 1GB DDR400 RAM up to 2GB

• 80GB Harddisk 7200RPM

• Geforce FX5200 128MB /TV Out

• Combo Drive 52x24x52x16

• 2xSATA Support RAID 0,1

• Gigabit LAN 10/100/1000Mbps

• รองรับ Windows XP 64-Bit Edition

Details:

• AMD Athlon 64 3000+

• 1GB DDR400 RAM up to 2GB

• 80GB Harddisk 7200RPM

• Geforce FX5200 128MB /TV Out

• K8N Neo Platinum [nForce 250Gb]

• Combo Drive 52x24x52x16

• 2xSATA Support RAID 0,1

• Gigabit LAN 10/100/1000Mbps

• 5.1 Channel Audio

• IEEE1394, 8 x USB 2.0

• Floppy, Speakers

• Keyboard, Optical Mouse

• ATEC Premier ATX Case

• รองรับ Windows XP 64-Bit Edition

Motherboard:

K8N Neo Platinum

CPU

• Supports 64-bit AMD™ Athlon™ 64 processor (Socket 754)

• Supports up to 3200+, 3400+, 3700+ or higher CPU

Chipset

• NVIDIA® nForce3 250Gb Chipset

- Supports Athlon™ 64 processor (Socket 754), 800MHz Hypertransport interface.

- Supports single memory channels, DDR 400/333/266 without ECC support.

- Supports external AGP 4X/8X

- Integrated Serial ATA interface: dual channel 4 S-ATA RAID controller and dual channel ATA 133/100/66/33 master mode EIDE controller.

- Integrated an nVIDIA MAC for Gigabit LAN.

- Supports 8 high speed USB2.0 ports.

- AC'97 2.3 compliance.

Main Memory

• Supports 3 slots for 184-pin DDR SDRAM DIMM modules.

• Supports DDR 400/333/266.

• Supports a maximum memory size of 2GB for DDR400

• Supports a maximum memory size of 3GB for DDR333

Recommended Memory Combination List DIMM Slots Max Speed

(table not included)

Slots

• One AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port) 1.5V 4X/8X slot

• Five 32-bit v2.3 Master PCI bus slots (support 3.3v/5v PCI bus interface).

On-Board IDE/SATA

• An IDE controller on the NVIDIA nForce3 250Gb chipset provides IDE HDD/CD-ROM with PIO, Bus Master and Ultra DMA133/100/66 operation modes.

- Can connect up to 4 IDE devices

• 4 S-ATA RAID controller and dual channel ATA 133/100/66/33 master mode EIDE controller.

Audio

• 7.1 channel audio codec RealTek ALC850.

- Compliance with AC97 v2.3 Spec.

- Meet PC2001 audio performance requirement.

LAN

• nVIDIA® nForce3 NV Gigabit LAN controller

- Integrated Fast Ethernet MAC and PHY in one chip.

- Supports 10Mb/s, 100Mb/s and 1000Mb/s auto-negotiation operation.

- Compliant with PCI v2.2.

- Supports ACPI Power Management.

IEEE1394

• Supports up to 3 x 1394 ports.

- Transfer rate is up to 400Mbps

- Controlled by VIA 6306 chipset

On-Board Peripherals

On-Board Peripherals include:

- 1 floppy port supports 1 FDD with 360K, 720K, 1.2M, 1.44M and 2.88Mbytes

- 1 serial port

- 1 parallel port supports SPP/EPP/ECP mode

- 6 audio ports

- 8 USB 2.0 ports (Rear x 4 / Front x 4)

- 1 RJ45 LAN jack

- 3 IEEE 1394 connectors (Rear x 1/ Front x 2)

BIOS

• The mainboard BIOS provides "Plug & Play" BIOS which detects the peripheral devices and expansion cards of the board automatically.

• The mainboard provides a Desktop Management Interface(DMI) function which records your mainboard specifications.

Dimension

• 30.5cm(L) x 24.5cm(W) ATX Form Factor

Mounting

• 9 mounting holes.

Display Card:

GeForce FX5200 [MSI] w/128 MB DDR

1.GeforceFX 5200 Chipset Features/

CineFX Shading Architecture

• Support for DX 9.0 Pixel/Vertex Shader 2.0+.

• Very long pixel programs up to 1024 instructions.

• Very long vertex programs with up to 256 static instructions and up to

65536 instructions executed before termination.

• Looping and subroutines with up to 256 loops per vertex program.

• Subroutines in shader programs.

• Dynamic flow control.

• Conditional write masking.

• Conditional execution.

• Procedural shading.

• Full instruction set for vertex and pixel programs.

• Z-correct bump-mapping.

• Hardware-accelerated shadow effects with shadow buffers.

• Two-sided stencil.

• Programmable matrix palette skinning.

• Keyframe animation.

• Custom lens effects: fish eye, wide angle, fresnel effects, water refraction.

High-Performance, High-Precision, 3D Rendering Engine

• 4 pixels per clock rendering engine.

• 128-bit, studio-quality floating point precision through the entire graphics ipeline.

• Native support for 128-bit floating point, 64-bit floating point and 32-bit

integer rendering modes.

• Up to 16 textures per pass.

• Support for sRGB texture format for gamma textures.

• DirectX and S3TC texture compression.

High-Performance 2D Rendering Engine

• Optimized for 32-, 24-, 16-, 15- and 8-bpp modes.

• True-color, 64x64 hardware cursor with alpha.

• Multi-buffering (double, triple or quad) for smooth animation and video playback.

Advanced Display Pipeline with Full nView Capabilities

• Dual, 400MHz RAMDACs for display resolutions up to and including 2048x1536@85Hz.

• Integrated NTSC/PAL TV encoder support resolutions up to 1024x768 without the

need for panning with built-in Macrovision copy protection.

• Video Mixing Renderer (VMR) supports multiple video windows with full quality and features in each window.

Digital Vibrance control (DVC) 3.0

• DVC color controls.

• DVC image sharpening controls.

2.Operation Systems and API support

• Windows® XP / 2000 / Me / 98SE.

• Complete DirectX support, including DirectX 9.0 and lower.

• Full OpenGL 1.4 and lower.

3.Compatibility

• NVIDIA Unified Driver Architecture (UDA)

• Fully compliant professional OpenGL 1.4 API with NVIDIA extensions, on all Windows operating systems.

• WHQL-certified for Windows® XP, Windows® Me, Windows® 2000.

ATEC Keyboard

Model 5107 TH Keyboard 107 keys Black color

Products information • Designed for Windows 98/ME/2000/XP

• Ergonomic design for added comfort

• Quiet key response, Soft "rubber dome" touch

Layout 107 keys PS/2 compliant keyboard

Keyboard connector 6-pin mini-din male (PS/2 type)

Input power 5Vdc, 50 mA

Travel distance 3.5 +/- 0.5 mm

Keyboard dimension 456(L) x 148(W) x 31(H) mm

Keyboard weight 0.6 kg

Standards EMI: FCC part 15, subpart B, class B, C-tick, CNS, VCCI

Safety: TUV, UL, CSA, CE

Features

• Provides three ACPI power management keys: Power off, Sleep, Wake up

• Stylish and contoured design

• 12 function keys

• Spill resistant

Optical Weel Mouse

ECM-S6702 (PS/2) / ECM S6703 (USB)

Outline

This optical system mouse that scrolls in response to rotations of a wheel and uses an optical sensor allows you to operate it not only on flat surfaces but also on your clothes comfortably. Both USB and PS/2 interfaces are supported.

Features

1. Compatible with Microsoft wheel function.

2. Newly developed circuit enables 20% of current

consumption reduction. (USB interface).

3. Detecting the tracking by Optical sensor.

• Maintenance free Cursor operation is realized.

• Expanded free-play operating range.

4. Scroll wheel is installed between the right and left buttons.

• Simple scroll operation without using scroll bar is enabled.

5. The design is ergonomic and user friendly.

• Improved fit feel for any size of hands and either dominant hand.

• Offering less user fatigue caused by a long use.

• Free play of the cable enables comfortable operation.

6. Supporting USB and PS/2 interface.

------------------------------------

The only obvious drawback that I have noticed is the old socket 754 (CPU & motherboard).

All comments on ATEC offer is most welcome.

[Firefoxx]

Chingy, there are many different versions of the P5GD1. Some have RAID, some have wireless, some have firewire. Of course, the ones with more options will cost more. I got a P5GD1 for a friend, with 4 SATA ports and 2 PATA RAID ports, for about 5,300 baht.

[waldwolf]

รองรับ Windows XP 64-Bit Edition ?????

Not speaking/reading the Thai language, I wonder what รองรับ translates to in English. (WindowsXP x64 Edition is only in Beta (RC2) and not yet released to manufacturing (RTM).)

Surely they haven't "pirated" a beta and started offering it as OEM.

[monty]

Wald,

It only means "designed for/support" Windows XP 64-Bit Edition !!!

[RDN]

Wald,

It only means "designed for/support" Windows XP 64-Bit Edition !!!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

As in: "Windows XP 64-Bit Ready"

[waldwolf]

Wald,

It only means "designed for/support" Windows XP 64-Bit Edition !!!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

As in: "Windows XP 64-Bit Ready" 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thanks guys. I was a little concerned, for a moment.

cheers

[Firefoxx]

รองรับ is the literal translation of "support". So, it literally means "supports" 64-bit windows.

[Abandon]

since you mentioned it, I might comment on data storage. In my opinion the new big hard drives are not so reliable, especially if you don't heve them in open spaces with a big fan blowing across them. Personally I'd always go for several smaller ones.

You can back up data across them easily.

Put one on each IDE cable and then data access is sped up, e.g. running photoshop with big files works best if the scratch drives (temporary data) is on a different physical machine. Also you can De-fragment one drive, while still using the others at top speed.

I have 3 Hard drives, one on each IDE cable, and another on a PCI IDE expansion card. Its good particularly for Bit Torrent which is pretty heavy on Hard drive use, and other File sharing apps, and you can still run videos, photoshop, de-frag, or copy data on the other drives.

If they are 3 big hard drives however, you might well need a bigger power supply. My drives are 20, 60 and 80 gigs, and I use the original power supply with no problems.

[Firefoxx]

The problem with most ~1000 baht cases is that their ventilation is very bad, especially for harddisks. Newer harddisks spin very fast and run very hot... inadequate cooling can lead to premature failure. Solution is to get a case which has adequate cooling. Spend a bit more for peace of mind. Lian Li aluminum cases sell for around 3200 baht, and there is a Chinese made aluminum case sold for around 2400. Both have fan mounts for harddisk cooling.

Power supply needs depend on a lot of factors, including number and type of optical drives, number and type of harddisks, motherboard, processor, ram, VGA, and peripherals. You can't easily determine whether your PSU will be up to the task, but if strange things start happening when you add that new peripheral, it might be because of the PSU. The cheapest Enermax PSU, the 350W, costs around 1,800 baht.

[MikeWill]

pandit35,

Thanks for the input. It's very important to choose the right HDDs. Can you recommend any specific models/brands?

[MikeWill]

Firefoxx,

Thank you. Did you see these Chinese aluminum cases in Panthip Plaza? What shop is selling them? Are they coming with or without PSU?

[MikeWill]

chingy_!

Same as you, just a couple of weeks ago I was thinking of the new P4 system, but... changed my mind in light of the 64-bits.

If you intend to biuld your system that will last over 3 years, you should really take a look at this topic:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=26801

[Firefoxx]

The cases I'm talking about can be found mainly in Pantip, mostly on the 3rd floor, near the stairs/elevator. They look a lot like the Lian Li cases, except for a little green faceplate on the front. I've recently started seeing them at IT Mall, but they were going for 3000 baht (and the Lian Li for 5000). They come with the typical 300 baht PSU (the Lian Li come with no PSU). They have front panel audio, USB, and firewire. Two fan mounts in the back, two in the front, and one on the side, which has an acrylic window.

[MikeWill]

Thanks Firefoxx.

"typical 300 baht PSU" is probably not suffice for the average system even in aluminum case. If I recall correctly, your advise was the Enermax 365W PSU (THB 2,100). So, the total for Case & PSU = THB 4,500.

Do you think that with 2 HDDs (~80 GB each), CD DVD-ROM, etc. it will do?

What is your advise on HDD?