More Advice

[Krum]

I've done a bit more browsing, and I've got a few more questions.

1) Newegg.com seems extremely reliable and has excellent rices. In many cases, I can find better deals on pricewatch.com. How do the companies on pricewatch compare to newegg's service? I was planning to buy all the components, with the exception of the monitor and maybe the case, online since the prices seem to be cheaper. The monitor I thought I would buy in a store so I could take a good look at it and avoid the shipping (the same goes for the case).

2) Actually, I've got quite a few questions about cooling. I'm probably going to go with the AMD Athlon 1600+ with a Gigabyte GA7VTX-H. I don't plan on doing any overclocking, so how much cooling equipment would you say I need? A processor heatsink and fan is essential, right? I've read a lot about temperatures. Do I need to keep track of my temperature, and if so, what's the best hardware to do so with? I've heard additional motherboard fans are good, so could someone explain that a bit more? I haven't really seen much else on fans. I know that I should probably have two or more inside the case, but what kind? how and where are they attached and positioned?

3) That kind of leads me to my next question. What type of case should I go with? I've read the Inwin IW-S508 is good and not too expensive. On the other hand, I hear a lot about Antec, but that seems a bit on the expensive side.

4) What kind of graphics card should I buy? Right now, the only gaming I really do is Civ 3 (and my machine can barely keep up with that). I don't expect to be doing a whole lot of gaming, but if a game comes out in the future that looks interesting, I don't want to be restricted by my graphics card. This is one of the areas where I know the least, but I've written down 3 cards and their price at NewEgg:

LeadTek GEForce 2 MX 64 MB - $80
ATI All-In-Wonder 128 Pro 32 MB - $108
ATI Radeon 7500 64MB - $115

That's the general price range I'd like to stay near, but I'm open to any kind of board.

5) Finally, since this is the first computer I will be building, I'd like to make sure I know everything I need to buy. This is my list of essentials:

case
monitor
processor
motherboard
memory
video card
hard drive
floppy
dvd-rom
heatsink for the processor
one additional case fan
keyboard and mouse
sound card (optional)

Is there anything else I'll need to buy? I'd like to stay under $1000 with my base system, and then I'll add in extras if I need them. Will I need additional cords or IDE cables or anything?

I really can't afford to screw anything up (especially with out of state tuition). I tried to explain my thought process as much as possible so someone with a bit more experience might find some of the problems in my thinking. Thanks in advance for any help.

Mark

 

[svol]

I can give answer to the following answers:
2. Fist you'll need an heatsink with fan that fits on this mobo, Swiftech and Alpha are to good brands of heatsinks.
For case cooling I recommend at least one fan in the lower front of the case blowing air in, and one in the upper rear of the case blowing air out of the case.
5. You will also need some speakers. You could stay with the onboard sound, but it's of lower quality then a good Soundcard. Most mobo manufacturers give 1 Floppy and 2 Harddisk cables with the mobo.

Hope this will help a little.

My case has so many fans that it hovers above the ground .

 

[camieabz]

You may want a CD-RW for back-ups or maybe a ZIP drive will suffice.

Have you considered what software (OS, apps etc.) you will need. You need an OS, which is obvious, but its also advisable to have anti-virus software.

Also hardware to suit if you're going to be online. Be it modem, DSL etc. Best get a firewall.

In short, if you want a CD-RW & an online connection, get the Norton System Works (pro I think) package. Can't quite remember which package it is, but it has Norton Firewall, AV, & Ghost, which is a good disk imaging program for back-ups.



<b><font color=blue>~scribble~</font color=blue></b> <A HREF="http://www.ud.com/home.htm" target="_new">Help cure cancer.</A>

 

[Krum]

ok, I just to clarify, I need a heatsink for the motherboard in addition to the processor heatsink? The lower front fan I'll probably need to get separately, but would the built-in power supply fan work for the back?

I've got some speakers from my old system and I was going to try out the onboard sound before I bought a new sound card. The same goes for more memory and a CD-RW. I'm going to wait and upgrade if I think it's necessary in the near future.

I should be ok as far as OS and software.

Thanks for your help.

 

[svol]

You don't need to buy a fan/heatsink for the mobo's Northbridge because it standard comes with one.
I meant that you have to look for a CPU heatsink that isn't to large, otherwise you can get problems with components around the CPU standing in the way for the CPU's heatsink. I looked at the pictury of the board on Gigabyte's site, and I noticed there were some components (capacitators I think) which were standing rather close to the CPU socket, so there <i>could</i> be problems with extremly large heatsinks.
If the powersupply has an extra fan on the inside it will do fine without an extra case fan.

My case has so many fans that it hovers above the ground .

 

[sigpop]

1) i am in the process of doing just about the exact same thing. i am buying a KT266A mobo (not sure which one yet, tomshardware recommended soltek and others say epox is ok) an amd 1700+, ram and case/300w power supply. i have the rest of the parts from other computers.

i decided to just go with newegg.com for everything since my past experiences with them have been good. i dont mind paying an extra $3 for something from newegg instead of ordering parts from 5 different sites with whom i have little/no experience. i am trying to find the case/power supply at a local store so i dont have to pay to have it shipped, however. i always buy my monitors local for the same reason.

2. may i ask why you chose the gigabyte mobo?

3. imho, the case is of little consequence. i have no affinity for its visual appeal. i only need to have access to the inside without having to remove the faceplate and proper power supply.

4. i play a lot of tribes2 and i had a gf2 mx 400 64 mb. it was a good little card for the 80 bux i paid for it. i am not familar with the ati models. i now have a gf2 pro 64 mb. it runs all my stuff fine, not superb, on the 800 mhz dell i am upgrading.

good luck.

 

[jiffy]

Depending where u shop it could be cheaper buying a CPU Box, with a 3 yr warrenty, which includes the heatsink, instead of buying them seperate and only getting a 30 day warrenty. I shop at allstarshop and tccomputers.

Yes 300 watts is the minimum, but should be good qaulity power supply and if the bottem is open it will suck air out. And you would just need one fan in the front. Again this minimum.
Your mobo should come with software to monitor your heat and volts and stuff. Install that, then you'll see what kind of shape your in.


defrage is child's play-fdisk

 

[Krum]

Thanks again for all the tips.

I was going to buy the processor retail and use the heatsink that came with it. Do you think that'll fit ok on the Gigabyte?

I realize the Gigabyte might not be the best in terms of benchmarks, but everywhere I go, it seems they recommend Gigabyte as being very reliable. It's got the dualBios and just seems the most newbie-friendly. Plus it's not as expensive as some of the others such as the Dragon. This was really probably the hardest choice I made. I'm still not positive I'm going to go with the Gigabyte, but for the moment, that looks like the front runner.

I'm probably going to wait until January before I buy the stuff to see if prices will go down. Plus, that way I can assemble it at school instead of having to transport it there.

I also planned to buy the monitor and case locally if I could find it cheaper than online. Actually, I found a Philips 107P20 17" for $220 after rebate from BestBuy. I noticed a lot of monitor topped out at 1024x768 @ 65 Hz. Shouldn't it be able to get at least 85 Hz at that resolution? If I remember correctly, the Philips could get up to 1600x1200 @ 85 Hz (but it's optimum was 1024x768). Is that going to be good or could I go with something cheaper?

As for the graphics card, right now I'd like to go with the LeadTek Winfast GEForce3 TI200 64MB. Like I said, I don't know much about vid cards, but if an extra $50 will keep me current a little while longer, I figure I might as well.

 

[Take_Out]

1)Use Newegg. Use Newegg. You will find some lower prices, you will not find the same grade of merchandise at that price. I am talking unopened, NEW, current versions of top equiptment. These people are serious about their business.
Even their refurbished equiptment can be compared to new.
Sometimes you even get the Driver CD and Manual along with the full retail box on refurbs (at least EPOX MBs if you ask). Make no mistake, and read carefully the experiences of others at Resellerratings.com, and you will find that perhaps two out of three low prices at Pricewatch and others are from rip-off artists that only sell opened, not working equiptment and survive off the 20% restocking fees and over-priced shipping and handling when they get the inevitable returns. There are other good companies, but I KNOW that Newegg is good all the way, and that is why I re-commend it.
2) Just get a Retail CPU and it will have a perfectly good HSfan on it. As for case fans, I really like the adjustable fans from Enermax at Newegg, they can work with temp or manual adjust to vary speed. they come in 80mm and 92mm. I use both and you can run them slow and quiet in winter and fast and a little noisy in summer.
3)I have always liked a really big case, less cramping and easier to cool cause the components are apart more. I have always used ANTEC, and not others. I am currently using the ANTEC 1240 from Newegg with an Enchance PS 350w ($99). It is great. Five fan positions and 6 51/4" outside bays. The case is sold by Chieftek, and they have several based on the Antec 1030 case with the door in front. They are really reasonable prices.
4) I always stick with NVidia, and the Leadtek is the one I just bought, and another I like is the Visiontek Xstasy 5632 GeForce 2 GTS-V DDR 32meg. This is a GREAT deal at $65.00 at Newegg, it has the 256-bit memory access which is the most important area nowadays for graphics cards. I also purchased the Visiontek and it seems real nice, although I haven't benchmarked it yet. Don't get a MX-200 GeForce, they don't have but 64 bit memory access to regulare single data rate memory. Get a GTS or regular GeForce 2 type, you can get these older models for less than some of the MX-400s that only have 128 or 64 ddr access.
Good Luck, Take-Out. ATI makes good cards too, but many of them lose out cause there are no driver updates. NVidia has the unified drivers that all use the same set of drivers and are realeased about every three months to stay up with the newest games and such.

"We killed OUR Hitler" - attributed to Paul McCartney (If so, then well done, sir)

 

[jlanka]

1)Use Newegg. Use Newegg. You will find some lower prices, you will not find the same grade of merchandise at that price. I am talking unopened, NEW, current versions of top equiptment. These people are serious about their business.

I second the newegg recommendation. They're top notch. I use them a lot.

Also, there's another vendor <A HREF="http://www.mwave.com" target="_new">mwave</A> which I would also recommend. Actually I often think they're the same vendor because the websites are so similar. Strange.

<i>It's always the one thing you never suspected.</i>

 

[Take_Out]

>>>>>Also, there's another vendor mwave which I would also recommend. Actually I often think they're the same vendor because the websites are so similar. Strange.<<<<<<<<<<
____________________________________________________________
Yes, eerie indeed. Maybe they use the same Java-boy format.
If they offer the same service and quality, and you say they do, I am going to try them too. Thanks.
Good Luck, Take-Out


"We killed OUR Hitler" - attributed to Paul McCartney (If so, then well done, sir)<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by take_out on 12/17/01 07:47 PM.</EM></FONT></P>