Help me pick computer

[Fuser Man]

I getting tired of my old computer and it's time to upgrade. I think I going to do some major ass kissing to my wife and try to get her to buy me one.

Here's here you come in. I need to know which parts are best.
I have to keep it under $1000CND, any more than that & I know she won't go for it.


I have a Voodoo3 2000 vid card.
I will get a pioneer 16X DVD and some basic (HP, LG, Ricoh)12X8X32 CDRW.


Is Sound Blaster X-gamer a good sound card?

What CPU is best? T-bird?

Mobo? Which Asus? and with which memory?

Speakers? Altec Lancing ACS54?

HD- IBM 40GB?

And what is a good 17" monitor? or should I spend the extra coin and go for 19"?(this is not to be included in the $1000)


Thanks for the input.

 

[HomeLAN]

OK. Soundblaster Live XGamer is a fine card, but the SB Live! Value is the same card, just with less software (and less cost).

These prices from Pricewatch.com :

Asus A7M266 DDR motherboard - $172

T-bird 1.2 266 FSB - $112 (This appears to be where the big break point in pricing resides at the moment).

SB Live! Value - 51

40 GB HD - about 100

From crucial.com 128 MB DDR RAM $26

This is in $US, shipped.

Total on this stuff is $461. Plenty of room for DVD, etc. You might also consider upgrading to a Leadtek GeForce 2 MX 62MB (about $115) if you game. Get the Leadtek, they play nicely with AMD systems.

You may also want to spend another 25 at crucial, and go to 256 MB DDR RAM.

Since you have the space, spring for a 19" monitor. You won't regret it.

If it were me, that's the route I'd go.

 

[fury]

I suggest you check out http://www.firestorm.ab.ca and http://www.memoryexpress.net

They have a lot of stuff listed at some good canadian prices.

You could probably get a pretty decent system built for $1000. Not too sure if you'd be able to get a 12x8x burner for under $250, but you might.

the SB Live X-Gamer is basically an SB Live Value with a bundle (as you can probably tell from the name, it's bundled with some games)

To reduce cost, I suggest you go with just a Live Value.

The best CPU out there (so far) is the T-bird. 1.0 to 1.2 ghz is the best bang for the buck at the moment. (Get the 266 version)

For the mobo, I suggest a KT7a, as they are getting pretty cheap (relatively) by now and are good overclocking boards. This uses PC133 SDRAM, which I recommend you get directly from www.crucial.com (They have a canadian page, so don't worry)

Not sure about the speakers, but I'm guessing the Klipsch Promedia 4.1 is a bit too expensive for that budget yet

Hard drive - IBM 60GXP (that's the model number, not capacity) 40gb or so. These are the fastest IDE drives on the market.

The monitor: Depending on how much you're willing to shell out, I'd probably get a KDS VS-195i, or if you're power conservative, look for an LCD monitor (they're REALLY expensive though)

 

[Fuser Man]

Thanks guys