Building PC

[Moogs2K1]

As I have said before, I am ready to build my very first PC. I am pretty sure it will be easy after I get all the parts, but thats just the problem -- what parts do I need? I'm looking for around 1.3 GHz, probably an AMD, and I have an idea for my DVD-ROM/Burner drives, but I am not sure about... Well, everything else http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif. Thanks!

[Bovon]

1) A good ATX case, like a mid or full tower with front and rear fans, or options to install front and rear fans.

2) At least a 300 - 350 watt power supply for the above tower.

3) A motherboard.

4) A processor, AMD or Intel...your choice.

5) A good heatsink with fan for the above cpu.

6) Ram...depends on the motherboard, but as much as you can buy.

7) A good Video card. Depends on what you want to do with your computer.

8) A modem. hardware types are good, or a winmodem...cheaper.

9) A keyboard (duh)

10) A mouse (duh)

11) A monitor (duh)

12) A floppy drive.

13) A sound card.

14) C-D/DVD drive(s)

15) CD-RW burner.

16) Possible pci controller card if IDE devices go over 4. (or RAID mobo)

17) Ribbon cables for all drives. ATA100, 80 wire IDE.

18) Possible zip drive.

19) Hard drive(s), as large as you can afford.

20) Speaker set for sound system. (unless monitor has them built in.)

[Bob The Great]

What type of price range are we talking about? Without knowing i'll give you a few ideas on some pretty nice peices.

For the mobo (motherboard) I'd go with the EPOX ep-8K7A ($120 www.newegg.com (http://www.newegg.com) Get it fast, they go really fast). The only problem with this board is that it's bios only supports 1.2Ghz CPU's (although the jumpers support up to 2.5Ghz). It will probably be remidied with a bios flash or the like. But it may not be the board for you because of that. Also they do make an EPOX ep-8K7A+. It is raid, and supports up to 8 IDE drives.

For memory get 256Mbs DDR pc-2100 (newegg had some kingston for $52, a good buy). Also on the note of memory. Make sure it's AMD approved.

For the graphics card go with something like the GeForce DDR ($79), The GeForce 2mx 400 64MB ($89, and the slowest of these cards), the Radeon LE DDR ($79 but only get this card if your comfirtable with oc'ing), the GeForce2 GTS (I don't know the price), or the Radeon DDR (or Radeon AIW if you have the money). The Radeon DDR, and the GF2 GTS are the fastest and most expensive. The Radeon LE can go just as fast as the Radeon DDR if you oc it (actually it is the Radeon DDR but slowed down, long story). The GeForce2 mx 400 would probably be your last choice. If you didn't have enough money for the best two, and didn't feel like oc'ing the LE.

For the case. Do what Bovon said. Make sure it's AMD approved. I'd suggest something like one of the enlight cases if you don't mind it being really ugly (I have one, it's not pretty, but gets the job done great).

For the CPU. Go with something like the AMD Thunderbird 1.2Ghz. The price difference beyond that speed isn't worth it. For it's fan get something like the FOP32.

For the HD go with a 7200RPM ATA/100 drive with RAID if at all possible. Good brands are Seagate, WesternDigital, Maxtor.

For places to look for parts. Try these places...
http://www.pricewatch.com http://www.newegg.com

[Bob The Great]

Also if you need a copy of Windows. Go to the User To User exchange page here at sysopt! I got a legit version of win98 se (the best version of win98) for $28 after shipping, from a fellow sysoptian! http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

[Cody]

I reccommend that you do NOT get a Winmodem.

A winmodem lacks the hardware to technically be a modem, which means if you ever switch to an OS outside of Windows, you're out of luck. Also, they suck CPU resources (a few out there I have seen take 39% of an AMD 1.4GHz's Power!)

I reccommend you mow a few lawns to get the extra $20 and upgrade to a real modem.

[Cody]

Wow.... Sysoptian? I though you guys (the People at SysOPT) would call yourselves "freaks geeks and everything inbetween"... :-)

[Moogs2K1]

Cool! Thanks. I was thinking around the $1,500 mark or something. Thanks again!

[Bob The Great]

Ok. Get a GeForce3 (look for one with all the timmings i.e. tv out,tv in, and enything else you can get with it), 512MBs PC-2100 DDR, and make sure to pick up that 19"-21" moniter http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

[Moogs2K1]

Ha. I wish http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif.

[Bob The Great]

No really! With that budget, you should be able to! I'm building a PC much like the one I discribed to you for $700 (that includes everything including a DVD drive)!

I'm pretty sure you could afford it!

[HomeYield]

Try www.crucial.com (http://www.crucial.com) for the memory. They have 256Mb's of DDR pc-2100 RAM for $41.39.

As for the graphics card if you aren't planning on updating it soon, and don't want to spend the $300 on the GeForce3, then I would go for the 64MB DDR GeForce2 GTS Pro. Its $133 at www.newegg.com (http://www.newegg.com) and would be well worth the price.

Bob is right though, you really do want the 19"< monitor. It is your main connection with the computer and its kind of hard to justify spending so much money on a really good computer if its that tough to see.

[eagle1]

I think I wont elaborate on what to get since most of the guys already answered you but I'm going to reccommend another shopping site:

http://www.mwave.com great prices, great service.!

Also, with that budget you can get a top of the line computer as I built mine with an $800 budget.!!

Mid-Full tower case
300w Power Supply
Some fans
AMD T-Bird 1.2
Gigabyte 7ZX-1 mobo
256MB PC133
20gb Western Digital HD
GeForce 2 mx400 from Elsa
Sound Blaster Live value
dvd/cdrw combo from Toshiba
floppy
15 inch monitor
Mouse and keyboard and a cool mousepad!

[wyvrn]

My recommendation from many years experience, is to buy a solid quality case and PS with more wattage than you currently need. It makes sense that components are going to suck more and more juice as they get more complex (at least that has been the trend so far). In addition, do not skimp on the monitor. Spend the extra cash and get at least a flat 17" or nice 19" job. These components will likely last you through a few different motherboard chipset upgrades, so should be priority on the list as far as quality is concerned.

A note on Winmodems. While I am sure Cody means well, recent LT Chipsets are quite reliable, have had better pings than full-on hardware modems, and use less than 5% cpu resources, about the same as many animated mouse cursors. This is on a typical 500Mhz machine, so the newer 1Ghz machines and above should have NO problems with these chipsets whatsoever. Beyond LT, I would also recommend the Rockwell chipset modems as reliable and good bang for buck (like the Diamond Supra Max). If you want to pay double or more for a hardware modem for 3% more performance, go for it http://www.sysopt.com/forum/wink.gif I am not against them, but there ARE alternatives.

For the rest of the system, I will leave it to the rest of the forum http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif

[Moogs2K1]

OK, well this is cool. My dad just said he'd give me $3000 to build him a kick-*** computer (well, he didn't say that exactly, but that was the gist of it.) Anyway, I know about how to do everything (pretty much, after installing a new HD and a DVD-ROM) except the motherboard and the actual processor. I have found in the latest Maximum PC, however, a bare bones system (with just a case, an AMD T-Bird 1.3 GHz CPU with a 266 bus, an ASUS A7M266 Motherboard with DDR support, a mid-tower case with 300 watt supply) for $519. Is this a good price? I could also just get the same thing with a Cooler Master Extra Large Heatsink and Cooling Fan (I'm assuming they come with the other one too, but I'm not sure) with a 1.3 GHz T-Bird for only $396. Oh, and I decided to get a GeForce 3 because it plays DVD movies great (wink wink http://www.sysopt.com/forum/smile.gif) Any input? Yeah, he wants it for DVD movies and just to be a fast computer. The site for the computers is www.csg2000.com. (http://www.csg2000.com.) Thanks for any help!

[TechDude]

Well sicne you got a $3000 buget lets see what you can do..

I would suggest getting a 60 or higher gig HD.

AMD Athlon 1.4k. Or wait untill AMD releases the 1.5k.

A 16x DVD-ROM

16x/10x/40x CD-RW

GeForce3

512 mb DDR RAM (Or DDR SDRAM if they even sell those yet)

5.1 Soround sound speakers with subwoofer

A good soundcard

For the mobo it doesnt really matter what ya get.. get be sure to get a slot a mobo that supports 1.4k athlons and 1k+ ram.

Other stuff should only cost yoou less than 300.

The other $1000 or so left, mail it to me =)

[conjh13]

Actually, modems can be quite finicky. If you're going to go with 56K dialup, I would say the best thing you can possibly do for a modem is find out what brand of equipment your ISP is using, then go with the best modem in that brand. The reason I say this, I had an ISP that used mainly US Robotics equipment, but I had a Rockwell modem. Nothing but trouble. It disconnected whenever it felt like, it had very inconsistant download speeds, and above all was just very poor. Then I got a US Robotics modem (actually a 3Com US Robotics modem, since US Robotics was sold to 3Com), and all those problems vanished. No more disconnections. No more problems connecting in the first place. And the download speeds were awesome, for 56K.

[DemonKnight]

to the post a couple posts above.. 1.4k ? 1.4Ghz and you would need a socket A motherboard, and mother boards a main system commponent, like the monitor dont skimp on the mother board.

[joerg]

$3000 geez thats alot for a computer i built mine for $1300. For 3000 lets see.

Not to diss AMD (i own 2 of there proccessors my only 2) but if price is not an issue go the P4 route and get a new 2ghz it should start to compete with an athlon at those speeds.

Buy the best mobo you can find for the P4 cant recomend any though

Throw in 2 256mb rdram modules

Get a liana li or coolermaster aluminum case

Go with 2 80gig westerndig 7200 hdds

Get a Guillemot Hercules 3D Prophet III Geforce3 64MB

Get the new Game Tehater XP and hook up the new Klispaci 5.1s

A new 24x burner

A 16x Dvd

21" monitor NEC

NIC, Modem, Floppy, Quality HSF, A few fans and a Optical cordless mouse and keboard.

And you should have pleanty still left over.

[This message has been edited by joerg (edited 08-15-2001).]

[Moogs2K1]

Yeah... I'm still a little worried about the mobos and the processers though... I'd rather just go with one of the preconfigured ones... Which of those 2 is better?

[DemonKnight]

I wouldent go with a p4 if you gave me the money to buy it. Intel will probably do somthing to the chip again and make you need a new motherboard to upgrade the proc. the athlon is going to use the socket A for a wile to come. (AFAIK) if your going for athlon you might want to get a Abit KG7-RAID I'm thinking of getting that when the 1.5ghz Athlons come out.

[Moogs2K1]

Any idea WHEN it'll come out?

[conjh13]

If this is your first system, and you plan to go with an Athlon, do yourself a favor and mess around with an older, but similar CPU and heatsink first. Athlons are very touchy to install, and be damaged quite easily - their only drawback. That's also why Athlons cost less to make, and are sold for less - because their physical construction is lower quality. On the other hand, they produce significantly higher benchmark results.

I went with P3 on my first system, and I'm very glad I did, because I very likely would have damaged an Athlon, not knowing how fragile they really are.

[Exter]

Jeez, those prices are low in the US!!

[TechDude]

Yeah athlons are verry fragile.. I think i cracked my first athlon when i tried to install the fan. I just cracked a 1.4kGHz athlon a few days ago =(. Hopefully the warenty will cover it.. i think im gonna let a friend who works at a tech shop install the next one =p.

[hallam2003]

exter - it's actaully probably about the same, if not cheaper there, darn exchange rates, could be wrong though. see, japan is where you really wnat to be, get all the cool stuff before the US does, and cheaper.


Hallam

[Axel]

Moogs, be careful what you ask -----
here is some additional advice to your first system build -
regarding Bovon's notes -

the amount of RAM you buy will depend on the operating system you have or buy to run on this system - oh yeah - he forgot to list you should buy an operating system. The operating system will depend on what you want to do on this machine. If this is your first build, I recommend windows 98 second edition if you can find a copy. Also - download a windows98 boot floppy from http://www.bootdisk.com regardless of what you choose to load - select one with a generic CD-ROM driver loaded so you can load your operating system off the CD -

With windows 98, you really don't need more than 256 MB of RAM - if you are running NT 4.0 workstation or windows 2k, then go for it - as much high speed RAM as you can afford is the right way to go., but realize that NT4.0 and windows 2k won't always run the games you probably already own...

next point - avoid win-modems like the plague - they use central processor cycles to do their work - I highly recommend an external modem - Best, Zoom, and 3COM are relatively painless brands - don't forget to buy the com port cable and a good long telephone cord when you buy the modem. Another advantage to an external modem is so you can reset it without powering off your computer and you can easily see if it's doing anything with the external lights.

zip drive - what's the point - you've got a CD-R burner - forget the zip drive - it's an expensive waste of money

hard drive - DO NOT get the biggest one you can!!! bad idea - I have yet to "fill" a 20 GB drive because, like any good user, I uninstall junk when I'm not using it any more. I prefer a good Quantum Fireball 7200RPM drive with a 2MB onboard cache - ATA66 or 100 - depends on your motherboard - If you end up needing more space, a second drive is cheaper than buying one IBM 76GB drive up front.....

two items he forgot on his list -

thermal paste - a tiny tube of paste - this is to go inbetween the heat sink and the processor - a very thin film is good - to much and it makes things worse.

NIC - or a network card - I prefer Netgear - get a 10/100BaseT auto-sensing PCI network interface card - about $30 - there are a lot of people out there still running 10's and you want to be able to connect should you decide to game with them - also - many DSL hubs connect to your network connection - so it's a good thing to have.

On motherboards - I prefer giga-byte and ASUS boards - they have many to choose from. I've also used TECHRAM boards in the past, but it's been a few years.

As far as the power supply, I haven't yet met a PC that needed a 350 watt supply - typically 250 to 300 watts is plenty if you don't junk up the system.

Also - you really can't have too many case fans - a cool system performs better and longer in the absense of cat hair......;-)

As far as the processor goes - I don't overclock and hate installing processor patches, so I typically stick with Intel processors - I buy them in kit form with a heat sink included.

On the monitor, I recommend getting a name brand 19 inch monitor - you'll definitely find it worth it. I typically go to auctions and surplus sales and buy used HP monitors - saves me $100's I can then spend on other goodies.....

Next bit of advice has to do with time and space - plan on 3 days of work in a well lighted space you can have to yourself. Plan to walk away from time to time to relax and stop and think - that's the best way to get good results.... You might get done in 1.5 days - but "plan" 3 so if something comes up you'll have a relaxed schedule to deal with it.....

[Exter]

64 Mb Geforce 3 MX - Fl 1,249
Geforce 3 in US: 300$

1 dollar is 2.50 Guilders: geforce 3 in US in Guilders: 750!!!!(or 500 Dollars!!!)

[This message has been edited by Exter (edited 08-17-2001).]

[conjh13]

Just a note on case size. If you're planning to use your computer in a typical computer desk, don't get a full-tower case (though they are nice to work in) - it won't fit! However, you definitely don't want anything smaller than a mid-tower.

PS - If you're not limited for space, by all means go with a full-tower. Just remember to take into consideration how much room you'll have for that nice tower. http://www.sysopt.com/forum/wink.gif

[Brangwen]

Axel:

Good amendments to Brother Bovon's reply. I think the time factor (1.5 - 3 days) is crucial. If you rush, you will likely blow your system <u>and</u> you mind!

My only additional input is get a Full Size Tower (like an Inwin) with <u>excellent</u> ventilation: intake fan front bottom, hi / lo exhaust fans in back of case, side fans (2) of left side of case to spill air over motherboard and cards, and an exhaust fan out of the top of the case. Perhaps a drive bay cooler as well. Click here (http://www.computersdivine.com/main.htm) for some ideas on case cooling.

Good luck and have fun!

Brangwen http://www.sysopt.com/forum/wink.gif


[This message has been edited by Brangwen (edited 08-17-2001).]

[mcse4u]

My suggestion to you is go on line at www.pricewatch.com and search for a bare bone system. The price you are going to pay for all the pieces and parts is by far more than it will cost you to order a bare bone. If you just want to have the experience of putting a computer together I would suggest to find a used computer store and put one together for fun out of used old processors and motherboard. You will experience a lot of frustration in the mean time. Good luck which ever way you go. :cool:

[lito pospos]

Warning !! please observe static discharge in handling your board parts since this is your first time don’t be excited be aware static can damage your parts