How is this for a cheap PC

[jw287]

I want to spend under 600 pound and I already have the keyboard, mouse, dvd and floppy.

MSI Socket AM2 nForce 550 ATX 7.1 Audio LAN Firewire
quicklinx:42RVWS | Mfr#:K9N NEO F

£55.50

AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800 Socket AM2 2GHz 1MB 1000FSB
quicklinx:435LWS | Mfr#:ADA3800CUBOX

£99.48

DabsValue Alien Gaming Case 480W - Black
quicklinx:3LHHWS | Mfr#:8018C4

£36.03

Western Digital Caviar 120GB S300 8mb 7200rpm
quicklinx:3WF1WS | Mfr#:WD1200JS

£37.43

HannsG 19" Widescreen TFT Monitor
quicklinx:446NWS | Mfr#:HW191D

£124.98

Corsair Memory CM2X1024 - 6400 1GB XMS2-6400 240Pin DIMM CAS5
quicklinx:3RZJWS | Mfr#:CM2X1024-6400

£88.78

DabsValue NVIDIA GeForce 7900 GS 256MB DDR3 PCI-E DVI
quicklinx:48JMWS | Mfr#:7900GS-G5G3C

£129.22

Total with delivery = 580.50

Things I am worried about are:

The Chipset for the motherboard is an nforce 550. Will I lose any performance benefits by not getting a 570 chipset? What is dual lan anyway?

The ram is matched pairs. Do I need this to benefit from dual channel or a single 1gig stick?

The latency for the ram is CL5 but a CL4 stick with 800mhz anywhere I have looked costs at least 20 pound more. Will it matter much?

The PSU- The case has very good reviews and I checked it up on Google too. It doesn't give much detail about the PSU though. If the PSU blows is there any risk of it damaging anything else? What are these specs like for the Sansun Black True 500W 20/24pin PSU that I can get from ebuyer for 20 pound. I know I shouldn't skimp but if I can I will. It says dual 12v.

+3.3v - 28A
+5v - 39A
+12v - 19A
-12v - 0.8A
-5v - 0.5A
+5vSB - 2.0A

They also have a 600w

If I downgrade the Widescreen TFT to an old CRT I could afford to go the core2duo root instead. Will the AM2 boards be just as upgradeable as core2duo in the future?

Since DX10 cards are coming out next year (I might get one) should I downgrade my card to a 7600gt because I'm going to have to end up selling it on ebay next year. Or does the 7900GS have some important upgrades apart from 256bit?

Thanks for your time.

 

[Big B]

Looks good.

Word has it that AM3 CPU's will be backwards compatible with AM2 sockets, but not vise versa. Generall, AMD has been pretty good about getting mileage out of sockets, so AM2 is pretty safe.

As far as DX10 is concerned, deal with it when they come out. The 7900GS is pretty similar to the 7900GT, but about $60 cheaper. The 7600GT is no slouch either, but the 256-bit memory bus is going to have a leg up on the 7600GT's 128-bit one, simply because this allows for more data to be sent at once.

The only Sansun PSU I know anything about is the Arctic 500W, and the specs on that are pretty good. The others I would steer away from unless you can find some actual specs. Q-tec and Powmax have dual rail PSUs too, but as they say, you can't polish a turd. If you want to save money, the PSU is not where I'd do that. If you value your system at all, you don't want to try going with a cheap-o unit. 19A would be fine if this were a Socket A or Pentium 4 box, but today, you really want 25A (or more). PCI Express video cards and the CPU---the two power hogs---run off the 12V rail. In older systems with AGP, the video card siphoned off the 3.3V rail, while the CPU ran off the 12V. Realistically, you're going to want to double your budget for your PSU. There's no £20 PSU that you're going to want to put in that box.

Here's a short list of some units around £40-45 range.
OCZ Modstream 520 £46.79 w/o VAT
Antec TruePower 480 £39.35 w/o VAT
Seasonic S12-430 £41.99 w/o VAT
Hiper Type-M 530 £39.98 w/o VAT

If you want this rig to last, spend the money now on a good PSU. You don't need a £500 PSU, but you do want to spend a little and get off on the right foot. Going with a cheap PSU is like buying a Ferrari and then going with regular because Premium gas is too expensive. That's not a good way to go, and you might end up paying more for it later down the road.

The Athlon64 family has the memory controller integrated into the CPU itself, so the chipset in use is going matter very, very little. The 550 is the basic nForce 5xx unit, and unless you'll be using two NIC connections, the dual LAN ports wont do you any good. If you're intrested in running an SLI setup, then yeah, you'd want to get at least an nForce 570SLI board, but otherwise the 550 and the non-SLI 570 aren't really an issue.