I have this system since a week (built myself), it works great so far:
ASUS K8V SE DeLuxe w/ wireless slot
AMD Athlon 64 3200+
Spire KestrelRing II Cooler
2x512 MB PMI DDR400
HIS Excalibur 9800 Pro 128MB Ice Q
Maxtor 120 GB ATA133 8MB 7200rpm
LG DVD
Sony DRU-700A DVD RW Double Layer
AOpen Case H500B
Floppy
Win XP Home SP1
Acer 1711 LCD Monitor
A couple of notes:
- assembling the whole was pretty straightforward, but the ASUS wireless slot with its proprietary connector was a bit of a ****** to install...I guess it depends on your case.
- the Spire cooler came with a tube of thermal paste, but no instructions. Don't do like me and do a google search on the web for the correct way to apply the paste. I had put way too much and I realized it just before the 1st power on. I had to disassemble everything, buy another tube of paste and begin from scratch again.
- I should have bought a SATA150 HDD instead...
- the case came with a Fortron 300W PFC power supply. Although a good one, I was afraid that the rated power output would be marginal with the AMD, the vid card with an oversized cooler and the Sony DVD-RW. So I replaced it with a Thermaltake 420 W PFC and the voltages seem to be pretty stable.
- the case is really good (rails to install the devices in the CD/DVD bays, front panel w/ 2xUSB/speakers/mic/IEEE1394, simple but ingenious system to feed the CPU cooler with fresh air from outside the case...) but it had no reset button
. I bought a small push button that I installed on a plate covering a PCI slot and it works like a breeze.
Have fun with the building...
