Our new addition.....another computer.

Well, Folks, Its my turn. This is Liz, by the way. I now get to build my dream computer. We did Corey's about a year ago, and with all the fun games that should be coming out in the next few months, I thought I'd better get a computer worthy of them. This stupid laptop will never be able to handle Neverwinter Nights 2.
I've spent the last few days doing some research (thanks Dad for teaching me to over-research everything), and here's what I'm thinking:

Processor: AMD Athlon 64 3700+ (San Diego=2.2GHz, 1M L2 Cache)
Motherboard: ABIT Fatal1ty (nForce4 chipset)
Video Card: NVIDIA Geforce 7800GT
Memory: G.Skill 1G DDR 400 SDRAM
Case: Xoxide .....
Power Supply: Aspire ATX-CW500WP4
Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 200G
CD/DVD Burner: whatever's cheapest at the time
Speakers: Altec Lansing 121i 2.1 speakers
CPU Heat sync & Fan: ....
Monitor: Hyundai L90D+ LCD 19"


So, thats it so far. I could use some advice from the pros on some of these things. So, I've include a list of questions. There will be a test.

1. Do I go with 1G memory or 2G? The benchmarks provided by Tom's Hardware looked like 1G wasn't quite enough, but 2G was maybe too much? Anyone ever heard of G.Skill? Are they reputable?

2. Lots of choices of cases for me. Which of the following do you like best? They're all at www.xoxide.com: X-static 2, x-styler, x-ventilator, x-aviator. My other case option was the Sunbeam Trio, which I love, but it's $73, and I'd still have to get a different power supply (only a 20 pin connector).

3. Any suggestions for a heat sync? The three I've looked at are the Evercool HPC-925, the Titan Venessa, and the Thermaltake Big Typhoon. None of these really wowed me. I want something quiet, but inexpensive.

4. Looking for a good monitor, too. The Hyundai was recommended by Tom's Hardware - its not that exciting for me, though.

5. NewEgg has multiple parts that all look the same for some of these things (notably the processor) - how do you figure out the difference? Also, sometimes I just picked the cheapest one from all the different manufacturers (like on the video card) - is that an ok thing to do?

Anything else you see that stands out as a big problem? I'm not so good at the details here - I was more concerned about matching my red motherboard to the red led's in the case. ;-)


All in all, this comes to about $1400 total, which I think is decent, considering I need everything, including a monitor. Is that a realistic expectation?

I know, I've provided more questions than anything, but this is the first time I've spec'd one of these jobbers out by myself. Take a look, and have fun wishing you were getting this machine. :-)

-Liz