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General discussion

Beginner building a great computer needs advice

Jul 7, 2005 11:25AM PDT

Hi I'm building a desktop and I'm gonna need some advice on parts to get and what price ranges should be. I'm not too concerned with saving a lot of money as I'm building it over time. I'll have maybe $400 a month to spend I guess, so it's just a matter of waiting a while to get something better if it is expensive. Here's what I have so far:

19" hand me down monitor- my parents upgraded to a flat panel so I inherit their old CRT 19" sweet

Mid size tower case- it's aluminum/steel alloy, which is heavy but bought, cost me $120, but I like it enough

ATI X800 PCIE graphics card- I have a discount on this at work, $300 value at $180 dollars, sweet

Creative Labs Sound Blaster Extigy- an external sound card given to me for a birthday a long time ago for the purpose of using my Mom's laptop to burn cd's and build an mp3 library. It's pretty slick, so I'll want decent 5.1 speakers.

What I need to look at next is a motherboard and processor. My friends have already suggested I get an AMD 64 3200 or higher processor, so I need to find a great motherboard to go with it. How much should I spend and what should I look for when I research them? I'm not really familiar with computers, but I'm a quick learner, so if you get into alphabet soup with me, just tell me why somehting's better I guess, it'll only help me at work.

I want my computer to be the best it can be and I'm willing to spend the money the right way, but if it's not worth it, I'll probably go with the cheaper option.

I play video games and play music with my computer now and will probably replace my stereo with a nice set of speakers on the computer and a ton of mp3's.

I also don't know where to go with the harddrive. Get two? Or just partition a 300 GB. Which is better in terms of performance?

Thanks to anyone who responds.

Discussion is locked

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Nothing specific but a small tip
Jul 7, 2005 11:51AM PDT

If saving and building over time, I'd not put too much space between buying and assembling. The hardware available is changing constantly and your desires might as well. I'd spend plenty of time researching and put the money away until you are ready to make your major hardware decisions and then get it all at once. If you buy a processor now and a MB in a couple months, you might find that a better processor is available at the same/less cost than the one you bought and stored away for later. As for hard drives, you should probably consider SATA drives and I'd get more than one rather than do multiple partitions.

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Thank you for your timely reply
Jul 7, 2005 12:28PM PDT

Two hard drives I can do.

I am fully aware of tech being obsolete in a month, and it is indeed maddening, but I have to start somewhere. Is there anything in the works that I should wait for? Sometimes the newest stuff isn't always the best though. I have been in this situation before and you can always tell what's new to come to some degree.

As far as research though, what are the specs I'm looking for in a motherboard, anyone know? I'm commited to PCIE, but that's about it.

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motherboards
Jul 9, 2005 5:54PM PDT

ok so you've got PCI-E as a requirement. ok, i'd recommend at least an NForce 4 Ultra chipset if you do go with the AMD cpu. also plan on getting a socket 939. of couse be sure you've got the right form factor for your case. i'm running an msi nforce 4 ultra board that was $150 after shopping around a bit. might be a bit less now. it's PCI-E, socket 939, ATX form, etc. so given the tight budget that might be a few things to look into

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Form Factor
Jul 10, 2005 10:19AM PDT

My case is the SilverStone TJ02. It's form factor is standard ATX and Micro ATX, thanks I'll keep an eye on that.

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Re:
Jul 7, 2005 3:21PM PDT

Really only you can decide how much you want to spend on your processor. So I would suggest deciding how much you feel comfortable spending on the processor and then some suitable M.B. suggestions could be made. Picking out the "right" processor is very subjective. Many may feel you will get by fine with a A-64 3200, While others may feel you need at least a 3500 or 3700 or more. A little wiggling can be done back and forth in your case, However it would really help if you could ballpark how much you want to spend. Because there is a big difference in what you can get in regard to a processor depending upon if your budget is $150 or $350

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thank you
Jul 8, 2005 1:11AM PDT

I appreciate the suggestion, I'll add it to the list.

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Nice MOBO
Jul 10, 2005 7:44AM PDT

If you think its too expensive you can just shop for an SLI-compliant Mobo @ Newegg.com

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as much as is needed
Jul 8, 2005 12:55AM PDT

like I said, I'll be building it over time, so I'm spending like $450 a month. So if I can only get the processor one month so be it. Is $450 enough for a processor? I don't know what the range is. I'd rather put the emphasis on quality rather than price, you know. If it costs $800, then it costs $800. But I'll $450 to spend next month and I hoped to get a motherboard and processor first so I can get started building. I'll probably spend 6-7 months doing this too, so if something new is coming around the bend I's appreciate the heads up.

Thank you for your reply.

But ballpark? $450? I guess, I don't know if that's rediculous though.

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$450 is enough for a potent cpu
Jul 8, 2005 1:28AM PDT
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O.K.
Jul 8, 2005 5:49AM PDT

Here is a very good processor for a little under $400, It has the venice core which is excellent. I would strongly suggest going to the Amd forums and reading up on the different processors, Folks that work for Amd regularly visit the boards and you can get some very solid input on their line of processors.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103531

http://forums.amd.com/

In regard to Motherboards, Asus does make good boards, I don't know about the best, Again, Very subjective. DFI is a board that is loved by folks that like to Overclock their rigs, They run on the expensive side though. I would suggest doing research on the different chipsets that come with motherboards, My personal thought is stay away from boards with the via chipset, I have read numerous posts on different forums with people having trouble with the via chipset. The N4 seems to be very popular. I have an Asus board with the SIS chipset and have had no issues.

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dual core?
Jul 9, 2005 10:34AM PDT

Should I invest more money in a dual core processor?

That one looks nice by the way, and I'll add it to my list.

Thank you very much.

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Thanks for the input
Jul 9, 2005 10:32AM PDT

Just an update. Last year at work there was a training program with AMD and employees got a substantial discount on processors and motherboards. This happened in september, so I've decided to wait and see if they do it this year.

So I'll probably go with the best of whatever they have to offer if they're offering it this year, maybe I'll score a good deal on a dual core processor.

That being decided, what should be my next purchase? I started with the case.

Maybe I should just get the drives out of the way, I've got my eye on some at work, and my employee discount is pretty nice. And I could probably afford to get my peripherals out of the way at the same time, a nice wireless keyboard and mouse.

The question I have now is about the hard drive. Would it be better to just get one really big one, or to get two or more. Does it speed up the computer to have more than one drive? I know I can always just partition a big ole 300 gb hd to protect my OS. What advantages do these options have?

Also how important is it to get a hard drive with SATA? Some have said it is difficult to set up and I might just want to go with the normal type (I have no idea what that's called by the way).

In fact now that I think about it, everything is basically settled except for the MB, processor, and hard drive(s).

Again I apreciate your help.

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bigger is better ;)
Jul 9, 2005 10:42AM PDT

i would get one big hard drive, 300GB or more

"Also how important is it to get a hard drive with SATA? Some have said it is difficult to set up and I might just want to go with the normal type (I have no idea what that's called by the way)."

sata provide thinner cables which means better airflow. its that you have to install the sata drivers before windows, e.g. during installation when asked for 3rd party drivers. i wouldnt go with the "normal type" e.g. pata. fat cables = bad airflow.

you could buy 2 hard drives and put them in a raid array, raid 0, but this doesnt yield too much performance gain so i wouldnt do it. you couldnt get a 300GB hdd and a raptor 10k hard drive for performance apps. 10k hard drives make for better load times in games.

yes, wait for september to get your discount. get a dual core cpu with the money and discount, they will be cheaper than they are now btw.

konny

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Then mine must be the biggest
Jul 9, 2005 12:14PM PDT

Thank you I guess I'll get a large SATA hard drive as big as I can find then. But if I take your meaning, I have to install the SATA drivers before I install Windows? Or do I have to set up the drivers to be recognized by the computer before windows starts up?

Thanks for the advice.

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lol nice title name, i would search around
Jul 9, 2005 12:41PM PDT

these forums about more info on t
e drivers. while installing xp, it asks you if u have any third party drivers to install. u hit the key to install the drivers and insert the floppy

konny

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Driver installation
Jul 10, 2005 10:24AM PDT

I have plenty of help putting this thing together, so I'm not too worried.

It shouldn't be too difficult for us though.

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This may work
Jul 10, 2005 7:40AM PDT

Get a really fast 80GB HD like 10,000 RPM to run you operating system and pagefile(Better Performance). Then get a slow 200GB HD to store your music and files.

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Hard Drives
Jul 10, 2005 10:26AM PDT

So it's better for the smaller one to be faster, and not to worry about the bigger one then.

80 GB fast and 200 GB normal.

Still not sure if I'm gonna get SATA or the other yet.

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Ehh...
Jul 10, 2005 10:54AM PDT

The difference in speed between a 10,000rpm drive and a regular 7,200rpm drive is minimal in my opinion. Just look at some of the harddrive comparisons:
GamePC
AnandTech

However those are older harddrives. The gap is even smaller today.

"A) the 10,000 RPM Hard Drives are worthless for gaming, you'll see about a 0.03 % increase in performance for around a 50% increase in price (their nearly $200 per)
while SATA-II disks are nearly as fast in disk access (with NCQ)" From a post by Ozos.

With the SATA interface and 16mb of cache the difference is minimal. Save your money.

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(NT) (NT) Refering to Transfer Rate^
Jul 10, 2005 10:55AM PDT
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Can you get faster Ram for AMD
Jul 10, 2005 7:42AM PDT

Not DDR2 but DDR thats operating at much faster speeds like 667 MHZ or 800MHz

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(NT) (NT) Yes, its good if you're ocing..
Jul 10, 2005 9:25AM PDT
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Overclocking
Jul 10, 2005 10:29AM PDT

I doubt I'll be doing that. I don't want to burn down the house. Sounds fun, but I'm not even capable of doing it anyway.

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Yes
Jul 10, 2005 10:28AM PDT

Faster is better. I'll probably get 1-2 GB of ram. Do you have to have the same type of ram in all four dimms? Can I add the gaming ram later in addition to what I get now?

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If you're doing dual-channel
Jul 10, 2005 10:56AM PDT

2 has to be same and other 2 same too. Ya add later

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(NT) (NT) 2 GB of RAM is a [u]Waste[/u]!
Jul 10, 2005 10:57AM PDT
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(NT) (NT) 2GB Lets me BEAT SPYWARE
Jul 31, 2005 1:30PM PDT
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AMD
Jul 31, 2005 1:32PM PDT

Only go for AMD if you plan to overclock and note that it might void warrenty, otherwise stick with Intel. You might lose some performace, but itll last you longer.