Please help me with my hardware selection

[bone]

I haven't put together a computer in a few years. I'm trying to cut as many corners as possible at the sametime beef up what I feel might be important. I already have a case, but I am not sure about the PSU. Any suggestions or recommendation is greatly apprecaited. All these parts I found at newegg

**Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 (Perpendicular Recording) 320GB 3.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s $94
**AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Venice 2000MHz HT Socket 939 Processor Model ADA3200BPBOX - Retail -$76
**ASRock 939Dual-SATA2 Socket 939 ULi M1695 ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail - $65
**CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Dual Channel Kit System Memory Model VS1GBKIT400 - Retail $100
**Leadtek PX6600TD-256 Geforce 6600 256MB 128-bit DDR PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail $70
**Logitech MX3000 967553-0403 2-Tone 104 Normal Keys 30 Function Keys USB + PS/2 RF Wireless Standard Desktop Mouse Included - Retail $69
**NEC 16X DVD±R DVD Burner Black IDE/ATAPI Model ND-3550A - OEM $29
**Hauppauge WINTV-PVR-150 PCI Interface Tuner Card - Retail $90

** Already own WinXP Pro and will be using GB-PVR in the livingroom with only the telvision connected
Total:
$593 (not including shipping)

I'm also concerned about the video card I selected (Leadtek PX6600TD-256 Geforce 6600 256MB 128-bit DDR PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail $70). I am not sure what inputs my television has, but it's a pretty new television that I know takes of course coax and s-compsite. Sorry for the ignorance, any info I'd grately appreciate it.

I've been playing around with GBPVR without even having the car and I really love the functionality it brings.

[rowle1jt]

Everything looks good, processor and hard drive prices have really been dropping lately, I won't complain.

I just ordered the same processor, but I ordered a uATX MSI K8NGM2-FID that has on board GeForce 6150 with DVI, s-video and component video outs. Newegg now shows it out of stock.

I see three things that come to mind from my perspective:
CPU Cooling: The stock AMD retail cpu coolers are pretty loud, not cool for a HTPC. I am currently using a Zalman 7700, very quiet and very efficient. Not much bigger than the stock AMD heatsink and fan. I don't know how much room you have in your case, but the Artic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro is a pretty rockin' cooler as well. Used it a few times, does a great job and is very QUIET as it uses heatpipes and a high efficiency fan. As a bonus it also sends some air moving at the voltage regulator portion of the motherboard. It is a fairly large heat sink and fan, but if you have the room it works extremely well!
Motherboard: I know that Asrock it a "division" of Asus, but for whatever reason, I still tend to shy away from them. I have absolutely ZERO first hand experience with them. If it were me, I'd probably go with the Biostar board that is a little cheaper than the Asrock you are looking at. I don't know what exact features you are looking for though. I must admit, the Asrock has a great rating though, so that's good! Is there a certain chip-set your after?
The Asrock you are looking at: ASRock 939Dual-SATA2 Socket 939 ULi M1695 ATX
Some Alternatives:
BIOSTAR K8T890-A9 Socket 939 VIA K8T890 ATX
EPoX EP-9NDA3I Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce3 250 ATX
MSI K8N Neo4-F Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 ATX AMD
Video Card: You may want to go with a card that is passively cooled. Unless you will also use this as a gaming rig (hopefully not as it is going to be hooked up to a low res TV!) then passive cooling will allow the system to be quieter. Just make sure that there is air movement in the bottom of the case for the video card.

If you are trying to save money, with that much processor power you could probably get away with 512 ram, and add more ram as cash allows.

I am a hardware geek to the core... there are many of us on here, so ask away. My brain is "open for the picking"...

[nitrogen_widget]

Please let us know how the on board GeForce 6150 performs for SDTV.
I saw that board also & kept it in mind should I decide to build a new HTPC.

I have a 2 ghz celeron with the stock cooler in a PC & it's loud.

In the past i've replaced my cpu fans with more expensive quieter fans & that always cuts the noise & costs less than one of the aftermarket coolers.
It may not be as quiet, but it's acceptable to me.

To be honest if I did buy an aftermarket cooler i'd spend the extra bucks for one without a fan.

[rowle1jt]

Please let us know how the on board GeForce 6150 performs for SDTV. I saw that board also & kept it in mind should I decide to build a new HTPC.

Will do... Even if I don't like the quality of the video coming out of the board, it has a PCI-e x16 slot that I can toss a video card in. My whole goal with this upgrade was higher performance and to cut down to 1 expansion card to help airflow/cooling at lower sound levels.

To be honest if I did buy an aftermarket cooler I'd spend the extra bucks for one without a fan.

Thats what I like about the Arctic Cooling I listed above. It is CHEAP for the quality of heatsink that it really is, the fan is silent and doesn't spin real fast, as most of the heat is dissipated by the heatpipes and fins.

I actually have one customer with a Freezer Pro 64 who installed speed fan software and turned the CPU fan off (after disabling shut down in the bios) and the silent 120mm fan in the back of his case cools the cpu as well. Runs about 45*C which is higher than I like them, but its his hardware, right?

[bone]

Thank you so much for the reply
I wrote probably a 3 page reply and the computer crashed.
I wasn't aware that Asrock was a division of Asus. In the past I've always used Asus boards for years and years and this time I've tried to cut a few corner to see if it pays off. I've always used Western Digital also and always loved WD, but I've seen such good reviews on seagate that I looked for the best deal that I thought was worth it. Samething with lite-on, I've been using them for years and I figured even if the Nec isn't as good I could just use my other computer to do most of the burning.

I really had no idea that the CPU was load, thanks for letting me know about Zalman 7700, I'll place that on the order also. I forgot to include an 802.11G PCI card as well. I'm hoping that the video card is ok as I really am not that familiar with video cards and I don't play games.

My case has a PSU that I'm hoping is good, but I saw another PSU for 25 bucks that might be worth it. I've had some really load PSU in the past and I'd hate to get one that's like this. I could always order the PSU later if I felt the one with the case is too loud.

Is there a certain chip-set your after? AMD I prefer if that's what you are reffering to

I really have a lot of space in my case, it's a midsize case, but the way it's designed it has like 7 or 8 bays if my memory is right.

One way I looked at the Arock was that I went to newegg's and looked at the boards that people commented the most about and the asrock was the second or third and most people really liked them. It was half the price of the other popular boards. Originally I was going to go with ASUS board, but thought I'd cut the corner a little bit here. Hopefully the sound and other features don't come back to bite me.

Thanks so much for the reply. I'm going to take a good luck at the other mobos and for sure pick up one of the two cooling devices you mentioned.

[bone]

rowle1jt I was looking at the other mobos you were recommending and none of them have SATA 3Gb/s and the seagate drive I'm buying has the 3Gb/s transfer. Since I'm putting 100 bucks into the HD at 320 gigs seems that I would probably be better off with the Asrock mobo

[Chris.Day]

There is no need for those kind of transfer rates. The average hard drive still can't saturate a UDMA/100 interface, let alone SATA speeds.

As for cutting corners; the motherboard is pretty much the last place you want to do that (power supply is probably the last-last place). ASUS is the last brand I'd choose for a HTPC (for now at least), as they have been plagued by various PCI issues over the last couple of generations (A8N dying with TV tuners and other demanding PCI cards due to weak PCI power regulator, A8V not working with PVR-500 etc.). I've never used an ASROCK board, but they are budget boards, and ASUS seem to want to distance themselves from them. I'd rather have a board from someone like Biostar, EPoX, AOpen, MSI or Gigabyte.

[rowle1jt]

rowle1jt I was looking at the other mobos you were recommending and none of them have SATA 3Gb/s and the seagate drive I'm buying has the 3Gb/s transfer. Since I'm putting 100 bucks into the HD at 320 gigs seems that I would probably be better off with the Asrock mobo

An over site on my part and I apologize. Video card should be fine, like I said, you may want to go one that has passive cooling.

Honestly, I gave a shot at a cheap board from PC Chips (my current rig in my signature) and it is a really nice board. I have to come to trust the reviews on Newegg, most of them are very accurate! If it were me, even though I said I wouldn't, I'd probably go with the Asrock... Its got what you want and the price you want. I am only replacing the PC Chips board because I have another duty for it, it is a very nice board.

I too am a fan of WD hard drives, I also use Seagate and Hitachi if they are on sale when building a system. In the last three years I have bought 50 hard drives (for different people) and I would say probably 45 were Westerns. I use Lite-on's exclusively as well, I have bought a few NEC's and they were nice drives as well. Ram I use is typically G.Skill, Corsair or Crucial.

In all honesty... the last few Asus boards I have used have been OK. They just don't seem to be the awesome, rock solid board that they used to be.

[rowle1jt]

There is no need for those kind of transfer rates. The average hard drive still can't saturate a UDMA/100 interface, let alone SATA speeds.

Benchmarks are one thing, real world performance is another. I'll take SATA over IDE any day! There is a major real world difference in speeds when you are doing something drive intensive.

I try to stay with Biostar, Gigabyte, Epox or MSI for client systems. I used a few Abit's back in the Socket A days, haven't tried one in a while. Stability is priority one in mobo's and performance is second, at least for me. What good is a fast computer that randomly freezes/blue screen's/reboots?

[Chris.Day]

I haven't found that to be the case at all. The main advantage of SATA is the neater cabling. Speed differences are negligable (perhaps there may be a slight increase with SATA-II due to NCQ, but it's not overly impressive). The actual physical disk hardware can only manage around 70MB/s, and any higher speeds are achieved by buffering (and as such any noticeable increase in speed between interfaces appears from benchmarks, while real world performance is the same).

If you run a benchmark, which uses the buffer to obtain higher speeds, then you will see a difference between the various interfaces.

In the real world, if for example you are doing a file copy from one disk to another, you are not going to see any kind of speed increase if you have a 100MB/s, 133MB/s, 150MB/s, or even a 10000000000000MB/s interface because the information simply doesn't come off the disk that quick. Similarly, if you open, say Word, then with a modern processor you are not really held back by the CPU, and so the limiting thing for speed is the rate at which data can come from the hard drive. Again, this is capped to e.g. 70MB/s because there is no way that the drive could possible read anymore data into the buffer.

I have also noticed that with multiple drives, SATA can be a big advantage over IDE. I used to have two DVD-RW (IDE) drives on the same cable but I found that this was pointless, because if I tried to copy from both drives simultaneously, the transfer rate halved. But, this argument was related to the various speeds of SATA, not IDE vs SATA. Just as there is no advantage of using a UDMA/133 drive over a UDMA/100 drive, there is no advantage choosing a rediculously high speed SATA standard over another. Given the progress of hard drives in the past few years, I doubt you're going to be able to get anywhere close to needing 300MB/s in the life of this machine (and probably even the next one, and the one after that).