It’s good to hear you’re about to embark on your system building venture, and I hope you enjoy success with it. However, there're a few things I’d like to point out to you regarding your choice of components.
Processor
A Pentium ‘C’ class processor is a fine choice, but they run at 800 MHz FSB. I rather suspect you’ve actually been looking at prices for a Pentium4 2.66 GHz ‘B’ class processor, as those run at 533 MHz FSB. The ‘C’ class processors are the better option by far, and if you shop around you'll find a
P4C 2.60 GHz processor for only about $10 more than the one you’ve listed.
RAM
Rather than purchase PC2700 333 MHz modules, you should purchase
PC3200 400 MHz ones. You’d need that to allow the processor to run with full efficiency at 800 MHz FSB, and it would be a more ‘future-proof’ purchase in any case. Again, there’s only about $10 per module difference in price if you look around.
I really do stress those first couple of changes to your selected components, Matthew. The performance difference they would give you over the components you’ve chosen would be quite significant, and would be an inexpensive improvement. I may be wrong, but my ‘hunch’ is that you’ve made your choices after looking at the wrong advertisements.
Display card
The
Game Buster card you’ve mentioned does indeed come with VIVO, and it’s quite a good choice.
Optical Drives
Oh dear!! I’m sorry, Matthew. Those drives you’ve mentioned mean a lot to you I can see, and I’m sure getting the funds together for them was an achievement, but they’re simply not needed. More than that, they’re going to become a
nuisance. You’ll have two IDE channels on your mainboard, and each can have two drives connected to it. If it’s possible to have your hard drive on a channel that is free of optical drives, it will perform at its best. You’ll also want that other spot on your hard drive’s IDE channel kept free, because if you’re going to be burning DVD's and doing other video-related stuff ( as your comments about a display card suggest) I’ve a strong hunch you’re going to want a second hard drive sometime fairly soon. Video, music and games fill up hard drives very quickly!
The
DVD burner you’ve chosen also functions as a DVD-ROM, and as a CD burner also. It does the lot, it covers both main formats of DVD, and it’s an excellent choice. But you don’t need both the other drives along with it, and I’d strongly suggest you sell one of them on eBay or to a friend, and cover the small extra cost of CPU and RAM that I’ve mentioned above.
Motherboard
The motherboard I’d recommend, and which many PC gamers would also recommend, is the
Abit IC. It’s cheap, it uses the latest chipset, and it’s a great performing and reliable motherboard. There’s no onboard LAN, but the board does have SATA connections if you want to add SATA hard drives later, and it allows for RAID0 on those drives. It’s a cheap and simple matter to use an
add-in network card for Ethernet. The
Abit IC7-G is a much more fully configured ‘big brother’, which would give you every feature you’d need (and more) if you have the extra dollars necessary to buy one.
If you really insist on a GigaByte motherboard, I’d suggest the
GA-8I875 , and if you chose an Asus motherboard the
P4C800-E deluxe Gold, although expensive, is the one I’d recommend from that range.
But I’ll say again -- go for the Abit IC-7 or IC7-G!
Your other questions
Definitely choose the Intel I-875P chipset to base your system on. It’s the one used in the motherboards I’ve recommended, and it’s the best chipset on offer currently for P4C class processors.
With regard to future upgrades, five years mightn't seem a long time when you're only 14 years old, but in terms of computing, it can be an eternity! I wouldn’t give any consideration at all to the potential upgradeability of your system five years down the track! You’ll be that much older, your financial situation could be quite different, and we’ll all most likely be using computers that are quite different to the ones we have today. 64 bit computing is looming large on the horizon, and it’s a safe bet that replacement will be your goal at that point in time, not upgrade.
HelpStation doesn’t really recommend individual PC dealers, and I’ve not used one from Dandenong to be able to comment on. The best I can do is to suggest you check out the dealer such as the one I use myself, a little further in toward the City at Clayton.
Scorpion Technology is one of the most reputable hardware vendors to be found, and comes recommended by people from all over Australia. The prices and links I’ve provided are from there, and although I only shop on-line myself, I’m told their over the counter service is of a high standard as well. But by all means look for a store closer to home. Do any readers have recommendations?
Good luck with your project,
Terry O'Shanassy