components for 1st DAW - any suggestions?

[bluehat]

I'm going to try building an audio computer. I currently have an off-the-shelf Compaq P4 that I use for everything including audio, but it crashes and drops out all the time. Here's what I've got planned out for the new system. Are there any changes you'd recommend? Prices are all newegg, although a few are a little cheaper on googlegear.

Audio card: Terratec EWS88MT (removing it from the old PC for the new one)

Enermax case bundled with power supply ($83), which is listed as a POWERUP 350W P-4 power supply. Does anyone know if this is a cheap power supply that I need to replace even though it is bundled with Enermax?

ASus A7N8X Deluxe for AMD - the nForce2 board ($153)
Athlon XP 2000+ ($93)
Lite On 48x24x48 CDRW ($72)
Western Digital 80 GB drive with 8 MB cache ($112)
Matrox G450 Video Card ($79)
512 MB Crucial DDR 2700 ($159)
3 Enermax 8 cm fans ($21)

Any feedback would be appreciated, particularly about the power supply since I can't find any information about that specific one. Thanks.

[bluehat]

Also, I'll mainly just be recording synths and soft synths. Occassionally other electric instruments will be recorded through the EWS88MT, but nothing with mic'ed setups or anything like that. Thanks.

[Chris_N]

I couldn't tell you about the power supply. If it's an enermax, then you should be good to go. At that price, though, it may just be a cheapo generic one. The Antec cases look nice and come with their TruePower supplies that are supposed to be very quiet and of excellent quality.

I just got done upgrading my computer to something very similar. I went with an athlon 2100+ (it's practically the same price as yours depending on where you look), and an Asus A7S333 mobo. My mobo was only $60-some, but it supports PC 2700 memory, has USB, a compatible chipset, etc (everything I wanted). It's based on the SIS 745 chipset which works fine with my Audiophile 24/96. Overall, it's been a cheap, stable upgrade. The most expensive thing I bought was my memory. $139 for 512MB Kingston DDR 2700 from googlegear (you might want to check that out as it's $20 cheaper than yours and I believe they offer free shipping on it).

Anyways, good luck with it. I've been very happy with my upgrade.

-Chris

[Arranger]

Those Enermax cases can come with a nice Enermax power supply. Any other is likely no bargain.

Go to www.directron.com (http://www.directron.com) to insure an Enermax supply. Even a basic Enermax is good, but consider an upgrade to the Whisper series like an EG-365P-VE(FC) or other with that "C" embedded in the product code.

[bluehat]

Hey guys - thanks for the info and vendor websites. I ended up getting the Enermax case through Directron - it was the only site I saw that lets you automatically upgrade the power supply. The same Enermax case was about $20 cheaper, plus I saved on the power supply by not having to get the cheap one bundled with it.