Building Computer

[personman]

not true. i don't have a floppy in my computer and the hdd that i'm using is a 300 GB seagate sata. and yes windows xp does have drivers for it. after windows installs then you install the better one that your mobo needs. and yes i know this is true i just rebuilt this computer. running an asus an8 32 sli-deluxe.



drive. 500. no way. as i just stated, 300gb, 279 formatted. before i was running just sata i was using this drive for games, and another 50gb on 2 other IDE drives for windows and windows apps, and data on the other, didn't fill any of them. had i put them all onto the IDE's it would have filled them, but only about 1/3 of the 300. for a psu, 500 watts is more than enough. and partitions. haha. only works for data. if you need to reinstall windows you need to reinstall any other programs.

i am running mobo, amd 64x2 4200 OC, and 2 7900gt ko's OCed and it is working like a champ. hehe, i forgot, i'm modding that psu, i'm running all that on a 450. monitors, dell is amazing. honestly, their monitors are a great deal and a decent price. os, get xp. vista is still shakey, plus there are 47 apps in there that report what you are doing, and 20 of them report back to microsoft.

and here is a big question i didn't see either asked or stated, what programs do you plan on running? honestly, it is a big factor. if you are doing heavy graphic processing for art stuff. go with an intel cpu. if you are going to be running word, excel, internets, chat. go for the midrange performance and price wise, then go one or 2 steps up. intel or amd don't matter. if games, amd.

and case. if this wasn't your first build i would say get the LANBOYs. seeing as how you are in a dorm (i'm assuming you are leaving for school, correct?) you won't be able to store the case i am (http://www.thermaltake.com/product/C.../va8004bws.asp) so you need a smaller one. honestly, go into a bestbuy, circuit city, whathaveyou and lift the cases. get a lightweight mid size case that looks good. something you won't mind having around.

one more thing. fans!! you need fans. a major thing you forgot to factor in. they mostly depend on the case but most cases use 80mm fans. they are fine. don't need anything special, don't need lighted (Yet) or U.V. just the standard black will do. and i really reccomend upgrading the CPU fan from the start, the stock ones suck. i would say one of the ones zalman makes. i have 2 of the CNPS9700 LED and the cpu temp never reaches over 90*F

I can attest for SATA only setups being fine. I've built two computers with no IDE and they've worked like a champ with a Windows XP cd (the one i have is not even SP1!) so you'll be fine. If you want to spend alot on a nice, small case, here's the one I'm getting in the mail today:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811112130&Tpk=pc-a05b

Its SO slick

[tribalman]

I can attest for SATA only setups being fine. I've built two computers with no IDE and they've worked like a champ with a Windows XP cd (the one i have is not even SP1!) so you'll be fine. If you want to spend alot on a nice, small case, here's the one I'm getting in the mail today:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811112130&Tpk=pc-a05b

Its SO slick

little hijack. i hope you dremel that thing. it's a clean slate! pics when you do!

[y0da900]

SATA only setups rely on the motherboard having an ATA emulation mode for the SATA ports. It is not present on all motherboards, and unless you know for a fact that the motherboard you choose has that feature, don't bank on it.

I pretty clearly said that partitions are useful for the DATA that you saved to it, I never said that it will keep your programs running without a reinstall.

I also said that the 500GB drives hold the bang for the buck category right now. As in dollars per gigabyte. Never said that a 500 is what he should get, just what is the most cost efficient.

[personman]

little hijack. i hope you dremel that thing. it's a clean slate! pics when you do!

hahaha... I dont trust my shaky little hands on a $100 case. Although I was thinking about adding a little vent on the side to get some extra air to my VGA card. We'll see.
Ah, well that makes sense yoda. But I think the emulation is pretty standard by now... the cheapo $50 biostar I used in my friends computer was able to do it.

[Sudz]

OK, I've got what i think should be a good computer built for what my needs are. I could use some final input on the pieces that I have. I'm not sure if everything will work together and that I have the best bang for my buck, and that's where everyone comes in. I had to change over from Newegg to Tiger Direct because Newegg doesn't ship to Canada and Tiger direct has a Canadian base. So some input would be good, and remember that these prices are in CDN funds.

Processor- AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ 2.20GHz - $114.99
Motherboard- Asus M2A-VM AMD Socket AM2 MicroATX Motherboard - $106.99
RAM- Corsair Dual Channel TWINX 2048MB PC6400 - $109.97
Hard Drive- Western Digital / Caviar SE / 80GB - $66.99
Video Card- EVGA GeForce 7600 GT - $117.99
Multi- Drive- Lite-On LH-20A1S SuperAllwrite SATA DVD Burner - $42.97
Case- Power Up Black 2559 ATX Mid-Tower Case - $66.99
PSU- Thermaltake / PurePower / 430-Watt - $53.99
Fan- Silverstone 120mm - $9.99
Total- $745.87
Ok, That's everything. Give'r a look over and if you could give me some final comments that would be great. Thanks in advance everyone!

[kosmo]

Rubbish. Pure rubbish. Bad processor, bad mobo, not good enough for the price videocard, terrible case, untrustworthy power supply. Ill browse TD and see what I can whip up.

[kosmo]

case
power supply
DVD
Hard Drive
Motherboard
Memory
Video card
Processor

Comes out to $835 in your crazy monopoly money, $785 after MIR (which you actually get when you buy from NCIX as opposed to those shady TD goons). So its $45 more for a setup that pulls the pants down on your setup and then repeatedly kicks it in the balls. Hard.