Building a new comp

[DeathMagi]

Hi,

I am going to be building a new comp this christmas, and I was wondering waht u guys thought of my set up and had any suggestions thanks.

Case: Pc Micro Center PCM-4388BU, Aluminum Case With 350W (might change)
Motherboard: Kt400 Dragon Ultra (Soyotek)
Processor: XP 2100
Memory: Kingston 512MB PC2700
Vid Card: Geforce 3
OS: Windows XP Home OEM
CD-RW drive: CENDYNE 48x12x48x IDE CD-RW Drive
HD: Caviar SE 80GB, 7200RPM, Internal EIDE Hard Drive
Sound: Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live! Dolby Digital 5.1 - OEM
Keyboard/mouse: Logitech Cordless Elite Keyboard and Optical Mouse
Viewsonic E70f 17" PerfectFlat CRT Monitor
Logitech 2.1 Speaker System (3-Piece)

Anysuggestions will be appreciated. Thanks.

btw. If i have 2 hd, and lets say i have a 80 GB one and a 60 GB one. If I set the 60 GB one as the master, and 80 gb one as slave, will i the OS just see two 60 gb hds? Or what if I put the 80 gb hd as master, and 60 gb one as slave, will the OS see a 80 gb hd and a 60 gb hd? Thanks.

[BipolarBill]

Your choices are fine. Nice stuff.

I would jumper both drives as Cable Select and put the 80GB on the end of the cable. Simple. :cool:

[Comage]

There won't be any limit or watsoever. Your 60GB will be identified as a 60GB, and your 80GB will be identified as an 80GB. Doesn't matter how you chain it up. :)

[DeathMagi]

k thanks for your guys help and input :) If anyone else has some ideas of what i could add / change / subtract to make my system better, please post! thanks.:t

[Comage]

Why don't you change the graphics card to a 8500LE. Performance wise, I think it should be better than the GeForce 3.

[DeathMagi]

Is the 8500 a Radean card right?

thanks.

[BipolarBill]

I don't think that the 8500 will seriously outperform a GF3. The nVidia drivers are much more reliable than ATi's messed-up releases too.

I would shop by price.

Yes - the 8500 is a Radeon.

[DeathMagi]

ok thansk.

do u think i should stick with my G3 or buy a Radeon 9700 or somethign?

[BipolarBill]

I would get a GF4 Ti 4200 until I could make a decision. :p

[DeathMagi]

lol aight.:r

[Bigjakkstaffa]

get a 129mb ti4200 and you can easily o/c it to ti "4500" speed ;)

Also im none to sure about KT400 boards myself - they seem to offer no real gains over 333 boards

Personally im waitin for the KT400a

--Jakk:t

[DeathMagi]

I dun really know how to O/C it but i might get a ti4200, because its a lil cheaper and I dont have like 400$ to spend on the Radeon 9700.

BTW, do you guys think I should get the A7N8X (NVIDIA nForce2) Series by ASUS, A7V8X (VIA KT400 + DDR400) Series by ASUS, or the Soyotek board. ty

[gibsinep]

The ti4200 is a good card. Video cards are very very easy to overclock so if you want to you can be easily helped.

Bigjakkstaffa- So when did the 129 come out ;)

[Sauron_Daz]

Go Nforce2 if you can. Far superior in design (not performance!) due to crossbar architecture then anything VIA came up with.

[DeathMagi]

Well do you think Nforce2 would be better for gaming,graphics,programming, and surfing the web? I heard that the Nforce2 also had some glitches. I just read up n the KT400 boards, and it seems that more mature KT333 boards are actually better then KT400 :eek:

[Bigjakkstaffa]

So when did the 129 come out

nag nag nag :rolleyes:

--Jakk:t

[gibsinep]

:D

[genesound]

What about that Kingston PC2700 ram? That stuff any good?

[BipolarBill]

Originally posted by genesound
What about that Kingston PC2700 ram? That stuff any good? Naw - it stinks. :p

[Giblet Plus!]

I like samsung. :)

[genesound]

I wasn't really gonna sniff it :eek:

What's wrong with it, BP?

[BipolarBill]

I'm kidding - it's good RAM. ;)

[genesound]

Just as I thought ;)

I figure I'll keep it with the XP2100 if and when I ever upgrade to a 333 chip. Hopefully by then the hi-zoot stuff will come down - thanks :t

[gibsinep]

I have that same ram in my system, it is very nice. :)

[genesound]

What kinda timings do you get out of it? it's on your K7S5A?

[gibsinep]

Yea it is on my k7S5A. It is at 2.5 timing,

[genesound]

My Kingston dual pc2700 256s seem stable @ 166MHz @ 5-2-2-2, passes Memtest86, too. Thought you might be interested...:t

[gibsinep]

Nice,

Happy 500th past also. :t

[genesound]

Thanks!

[deadkenny]

Not a big fan of Soyo boards. Agree the nForce2 would be a better chipset. Shop for a good price on the GF4 Ti's. At least a 4200, with the 9700 out the 4400 might be getting reasonably priced.

[lptech]

I would agree that the nForce2 mobos are a better choice overall. The KT400 mobos are still not that good IMHO. KT400A mobos are going to be released sometime within the first quarter of next year so this leads me to believe that the KT400 mobos are not all that they're cracked up to be! They would not be releasing an updated version of the chipset if it were not for the fact that it does not live up to their expectations!

Suggest going to ASUS A7N8X mobo since it has all the bells and whistles that you could ask for! In any case, good luck with your little project and let us know how it goes!:)

[DeathMagi]

lol ok so you guys think i should go with Nforce2 eh? Seems like a good deal to me too. So i think i will go with that :D Ill let you guys know how it goes once it doen hehe!

thanks for ur guys help! :t

[slosh]

Hey, one more thing there. I'd recommend going with XP Pro instead of Home edition. Either way, good luck. :t

[genesound]

I have the Asus A7N8X Deluxe and it's working out fine. Lotsa features! Stable! Nice OC setup! :t

[BipolarBill]

:t

[DeathMagi]

oh yeh, 1 more quick thing.

Does anyone know about how many case fans i should get? And where i can get some good/affordable fans? Also, does anyone know a good CPU cooling fan that I should get for a Athlon 2100+~2200+ ? Thanks.

[BipolarBill]

That ain't quick! :p

Case fans - balance your in-out flow. Use Vantec Steath, Coolermaster or equivalent. These are quiet and cheap:

http://www.bestbyte.net/Product.cfm?ProductID=81&CategoryID=8&Keyword=

I recommend just about any Thermalright HSF for your Athlon.

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduct.asp?submit=manufactory&catalog=62&manufactory=1444&DEPA=1&sortby=14&order=1

I use the SLK-800 and one of these fans:

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproduct.asp?DEPA=&submit=Go&description=N82E16811999001

It's quiet and cool. You should not go below about 2700RPM on a CPU fan. This one rox if you want adjustability:

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproduct.asp?DEPA=&submit=Go&description=N82E16811999604

[DeathMagi]

hehe aight cool. Thanks a lot! :t

[Giblet Plus!]

If you don't want to spend $50 on the slk-800, a thermalright ax-7 or sk-7 will work great and be a little cheaper. :)

If you have the money, get the slk-800. You'll like it. :t

[DeathMagi]

:) cool thanks for tip!

[Snix]

:t Aren't we just a friendly thread with all these hand waving guys! :t

[genesound]

I just ordered the slk-800 and the adjustable fan, Thanks for the links! :t

I have a CoolerMaster HHC-001 (heat pipe) on there now. It's cooling quite nicely, 37°C on a Palomino XP1800 @ 1790MHz full load, but it's too noisey! It's going back to Frys when the Thermalright comes in. :rolleyes:

[BipolarBill]

Be aware that an adjustable fan's speed is normally not detected correctly in BIOS or motherboard monitors. Normally, it skyrockets when you turn the speed down. Don't let it spook you.

[genesound]

Thanks a lot Bill, I'll keep that in mind :D

[DeathMagi]

:t :t :t