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First Time Builer Questions ... Plz Help

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I have always sat back in the lime light and watched all my buddies build their own gaming beasts and now it is time for me to dip into that pot and use some old equipment and buy some new stuff.

New System:

* indicates a new component

MB|ASROCK 939Dual-SATA2 *
CPU AMD 64 |3700+ ATHLON 64 939P *
GPU | LeadTek 6800 GT
RAM | Kingston Value RAM 2x 512 PC 2100
PSU | Antec 400W
HD | Western Digital 60 gig IDE
Optical | MSI DVD burner
Optical | MSI 52x CD dive
Disk | 3.5 Floppy

Like I said this is my first build so bear with me. First, thanks to everyone who replies. Im not sure where to start so these are the steps I am going to take when building the computer.

1. Remove all components out of the previous case. I will leave the powersupply in the case as there is no need to remove it.
2. Install new processor on M.B. then put heat sink (thermal compound- small drop) and fan on after installed into the board.
3. Install RAM while board is still out of the case.
4. Screw M.B. into case.
5. Hook up my IDE drives - my HD & optical drives (primary, secondary) ... i know how to set master and slave with jumpers
7. Plug in the GPU
8. Hook up any other necessary stuff like front mount USB ports, Power light to the case, ect.
9. Plug in the PSU
10. boot for the first time.

This is where my questions lie. I want to reformat and do a clean install of XP SP2 on this computer. When i boot for the first time can i boot with the XP disk in the CD and then reformat from there? If i cant, what do i do? After the reformat of xp all i have to do is install drivers for the M.B. and my other devices? If i have this all completly wrong I'm sorry. I really would appreciate any help that comes my way.

I know this is not the best computer money can buy you but I am on a limited budget and this set up seemed to leave me with more upgrade options than anything elese I looked at.

Scott

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your pretty much set dude.

go into BIOS make sure your set to BOOT CDROM first... put disk in, on boot you will get the good o'l PRESS ANY KEY TO BOOT FROM CD... and boom your in ...


good luck.

You seem pretty set.


A couple ideas i would throw at you

when everythign is out of your case...its a perfect time to clean it. Wipe your case down with a swiffer...the inside of it and where the fans are and all that. Its simple but dust bunnies cling to dust easier then bare metal...so that will help.

Also make sure you have penty of air flow....i dont know what case or how many fans you have...but make sure you have atleast one blowing in and one blowing out.

Other then that you seem set....


One question though....you have PC2100 RAM and a AMD 3700+....why? You could lower the CPU to something like 3200+ and get a gig of PC3200 RAM easily....

I dont know for sure about the specific trade off, but PC2100 with a 3700+ isn't that good. You should downgrade your CPU slightly and get PC3200.

Just my thoughts...
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Quote:
You seem pretty set.


A couple ideas i would throw at you

when everythign is out of your case...its a perfect time to clean it. Wipe your case down with a swiffer...the inside of it and where the fans are and all that. Its simple but dust bunnies cling to dust easier then bare metal...so that will help.

Also make sure you have penty of air flow....i dont know what case or how many fans you have...but make sure you have atleast one blowing in and one blowing out.

Other then that you seem set....


One question though....you have PC2100 RAM and a AMD 3700+....why? You could lower the CPU to something like 3200+ and get a gig of PC3200 RAM easily....

I dont know for sure about the specific trade off, but PC2100 with a 3700+ isn't that good. You should downgrade your CPU slightly and get PC3200.

Just my thoughts...



Thanks for the heads up. I already had the RAM which im just going to cary over. Im thinking about upgrading to 2 gigs of OCZ RAM DDR 400. The great thing about this board is it leaves multiple options of upgrading in the future. I will deff. clean all components when removed from the case. I didnt even think of that. In respect to the Airflow, i have an Antec Server tower which currently has 4 fans (2 front, 2rear) plus a fan that plugs into a pci slot. I will prob loose the pci fan but I dont think it should effect cooling that much. I know its ancient but it works. Cooling shouldnt be an issue. After the RAM upgrade im thinking about doing a clean install of XP SP2 on a bran new SATAII HD w/ 3.0 gb/s. I have read that this will increase load time not only for games but applications i run such as photoshop... .ect. Thanks for the help.

Scott

Alright you are good to go for cooling

cleaning your parts is something i always overlook until its just kinda funky....so when you have all your parts out might as well wipe them down...swiffer if good because the gunk clings to it.

About the Harddrives....I know SATAII has a 3.0gb/s but thats the not speed it will run for you. That is the max theoretical speed. It will have minor effectson yoru load times. The NCQ on it will have more effect then the 3.0 transfer rate. If you want speed, try RAID-0 or a 74Gb Raptor. If you use Photoshop a lot you might want to go with a RAID-0 becaue of the large file sizes you are importing and exporting. If you dont use PS a lot...just occationally you can use your old HDD with a fresh instal and it will be just fine.

Quote:
Alright you are good to go for cooling

cleaning your parts is something i always overlook until its just kinda funky....so when you have all your parts out might as well wipe them down...swiffer if good because the gunk clings to it.

About the Harddrives....I know SATAII has a 3.0gb/s but thats the not speed it will run for you. That is the max theoretical speed. It will have minor effectson yoru load times. The NCQ on it will have more effect then the 3.0 transfer rate. If you want speed, try RAID-0 or a 74Gb Raptor. If you use Photoshop a lot you might want to go with a RAID-0 becaue of the large file sizes you are importing and exporting. If you dont use PS a lot...just occationally you can use your old HDD with a fresh instal and it will be just fine.


PickXX,

Thanks for the replies. My hardware should be in tomorrow. Im hoping this will help out in Gaming performance, which i think it will. I mainly play BF2 and some occasional Americas Army. I have only kept photoshop around becasuse it was available. The only photo rendering i do is pulling picutes off my digital camera and saving them to my H.D. As soon as i have a progress report on the instalation i will post. One other ? that came to mind as i was resarching tongiht. I have been reading about the architecture and reformating of Xp. From what i have read when you reformat XP you dont get a complete fresh install of the OS registry. Basicly, what i have read is that it would be better to just unistall the drivers from my old M.B. in device manager beforfe the upgrade. Then after the upgrade proceede with the install as normal. When i first boot into XP it will recognize new H.W. I would much rather wipe this hard drive clear and have a "clean" so to say install of XP SP2. Will it make a significant diffence if i reformat? I would rather leave well alone if the difference is that much. I may be reading to much into this subject and confusing myself more about nonsense that in the end makes no difference. Any thoughts?

I would say hook everything up....go into your BIOS->load from CD drive->delete partition->install windows->dont worry....

What cpu did you used to have before the 3700+?


If you do photoshop for fun, stick with your same harddrive. I wouldn't worry about RAID or Raptor.

Once you have these upgrades you should be good to go for quite a while....the next upgrade (performance wise) would be your graphics card....but it still works well (because i have a 6800GT as well) for BF2 and other games....so for now you are golden.

Quote:
I would say hook everything up....go into your BIOS->load from CD drive->delete partition->install windows->dont worry....

What cpu did you used to have before the 3700+?



I had a AMD XP 1900+, 1.6 ghz, 133 mhz FSB. Now i think about it i cant wait for the new M.B. and processor. :D 

Ok well the computer is up and running. I only ran into one small problem. The power led light connecter from the case (female) has 3 slots the left slot is +, the center slot has no wire to it at all, and the right female slot is -. On the mobo the power led light hook up only has a + and - hookup. So there are only two male prongs on the board. Otherwies everything was a breaze. I guess i can live without a power led light to my case. My bios is showing my ram as 133 mhz ddr 226. Although i have PC 2100 ram. Not sure why it is doing this. It is getting late so i will sort it out tomorrow. I had to do a litttle game testing b4 i crash and all i have to say is this is night and day. BF2 on the highest settings was painting between 80-90 fps without a hiccup in game play. This i would say is a far improvement from 15-20 fps before the mobo and processor upgrade. I never thought that it would make such a difference.
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