"Harry Krause" wrote in message
...
JimH wrote:
Based on the reported performance results of the last system you put
together I would appreciate your comments and opinions on this system I
plan to put together with my son:

MSI K8N Neo4/SLI motherboard (w/built in SoundBlaster Live chip)
Althion 64 3000+ CPU, Socket 939 version
2 GB DDR400 Corair Ram
256MB Nvidia GeForce 7800 GTX video card
Antec Performance TX640B Series Case
Plextor PX-716A dual layer DVD 16X
Maxtor 300GB DiamondMax hard drive
Viewsonic 17" Thinedge VP171B LCD flat panel monitor
Windows XP Professional OEM

He already has a decent keyboard, speakers and optical mouse. I will
also
add a DVD player so he can record copies of the DVD's he owns.

I can do this for around $2,000.

Any suggestions or comments?

PS (I know this was previously posted but I never received any feedback
from you).

Jim, I don't really know much about the Athlon chips, other than everyone
says some of them are really fast and capable. If your kid is going to do
a lot of CAD work, I would contact the CAD publisher and ask if a dual
processor CPU would be helpful, or, in fact *which* processor(s) work best
with the software. Same with the video card. Some pieces work better than
others for CAD.

The Plextor is the same one I have. It's fine. I would go for a 10,000 RPM
"C" drive of 75 gigs for the OS and programs, and use that 300 gig drive
for storage. That's pretty much what I did.

I think your monitor choice is too small for CAD work. In fact, I would go
for a 20 or 21" glass tube monitor. They're not that expensive any more.


Thanks for the advice! I appreciate it.

BTW: I never gave a larger 21" CRT monitor vs. the smaller 17" LCD. I
would guess the cost might even be less.