So, I got a decent amount of cash for graducation, and went and bought myself some comp parts. Just wondered if anyone sees some potential bottlenecks or improvements for the system as it is now-

Intel P4 2.8 ghz (socket 775)
2x512 DDRII PC-4200 ram
2x160 GB SATAII drives in Raid 0
Radeon X700 pro 256 mb
500w power supply.

Any help is appreciated.

my opinion is that you should mail it to me. i wouldn't need help using it.

but, seriously, that's a good comp. and i know some filthy rich dude is going to tell me otherwise, but still.

1) Is there a reason you went pentium? Do you do a lot of video encoding or something like that that would warrant an Intel processor? If not, you wasted your money :\

2) The RAM won't really perform at PC4000 (which is what I assume you meant) which is 533 MHz. It defaults ot PC3200 which is 400 MHz

3) The X700 was really a poor choice in video cards. The 6600GT beats it hands down, and 6800s and 6800GT's are dirt cheap now (with the 7800GTX just being released).

It'll still be a great system, you'll love it to death, but it could've been better for the money.

Aye, this is the advice I was lookin' for. Thanks for the input.

Return policy is 15 days, even opened, so I still have time to correct mistakes.

Agree with everything here.

Go for the Nvidia video cards, and unless you are doing some serious audio/video work (NOT gaming), get an AMD.

I think I'll return the ATI, because it seems the reviews are pretty unanimous in the 6600GT > X700. However, as far as getting an AMD instead of intel, apart from the price, is there any real advantage?

They're faster in most everything except audio/video encoding.

Generally, anything that requires lots brute computation power (rendering, encoding/decoding) will benefit from Intel's higher clock speed. AMD are "only" just reaching 2.8Ghz, but Intel is producing chips which are up to what, 3.6-3.8Ghz? But what AMD lacks in brute power, they make up with a much more efficient core. If Intel didn't have such a high clock speed they'd be in biiiiig trouble.

AMD gets way more IPC. Go AMD. Duel core if you want to do rendering and things.

My P4 1.6@2.133 and Ti4600 plays anything I throw at it..but I don't buy brand new games. You'll probably be more than happy with whatever you get in that range -- but I'll agree with the above posters..AMD is typically cheaper and faster.

i have a pentium 4 and it works fine for me

Yeah the DDRII isn't really worth it at the time. It's not that much more expensive than regular DDR, but still, regular DDR is dirt cheap nowadays. I agree with the AMD part. Go Socket 939 Athlon64 with just a 3000+ or 3200+. That'll hold you off until the dual cores come down in price and then you can get a new processor without having to change your motherboard.

What brand power supply did you get as well? If it was a cheap one, that 500W rating doesn't mean jack crap.

It was an Antec

Good, then stick with that. Price wise, Antecs are probably the best power supplies.