questions, need infos for 1st future build O=D

[omgitslong]

I'm a newbie, so plz don't get 'offended' in anywayz ty



and these things that's I've been unsure about

LCD: Widescreen or Normal

I've been using, seeing, and used to the normal LCD (4:3), now I'm planning to switch to the Widescreen (1440x900), and I'm really wonder what it will be like. For example, if I play Counter-Strike with it, would the picture look "un-real"? as in proportion-wise, like pplz looks fatter or those similar thing.


Mobo:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131013
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131011

Plz take a look at those 2 mobos. The first one has the heatpipe connected to ONE NorthBridge(??), but in the 2nd mobo, there are TWO NorthBridge(??). What is the purpose of it? Does it makes a difference for having 2 of those NorthBridge(??) ? I'm not talking about the heatsinks, the square things.

Another thing for the Mobo:

Does the Printer Port necessary?(The long pink port) Because I don't see it as often in the higher-end Mobo. So if I purchase a Mobo w/o the Printer Port, can I connect the printer through the USB instead?


HDD:

At first, I planned get a 37.6 GB 10K HDD and install Windows in it, then get another 320GB SATA 3.0 and store other datas in it, and then connect those 2 in RAID. But just a couple days ago, I found out that RAID only(?) works with 2 identical drives. (?) And later, I read someone's quote about putting Windows, Datas, Saves in a 7200RPM HDD, and all the games in the 10K RPM, and I think that's a better idea too. Is it? Sry.. looks kinda confusing..



Things I planned to get in some time between December to February, I'm planning to spend somewhere around $1000-$1200 on this computer, BUT these items can easily be replace as I go

AMD Athlon X2 Socket AM2 2MB L2 65W
4000+ or 4400+ depends on my budget and my urge as the time come

Zalman CNPS 9500 AM2

ASUS M2N-SLI Deluxe Socket AM2

Armor Jr.

Western Digital Caviar SE16 250GB


other things are decided but not enough time to post, so yea...


Thanks for reading this. I'll be open-minded on any comments.

 

[wingsofzion]

Question #1: Widescreen vs Normal Aspect

The difference between the two is basically resolution numbers. A Widescreen vs a normal screen will have different resolution numbers because of the size of the screen. For instance a Normal screen's resolutions are as follows: 800 x 600, 1024 x 768, 1280 x 1024, 1600 x 1200 and 2048 x 1536. A Widescreen's common resolutions are 1366 x 768, 1680 x 1050, and 1920 x 1200. Image quality are the same just the dimensions are different due to wide aspect being, well, wider. Just because it is wide aspect doesnt mean it will stretch what is displayed or disort it in anway. So no, players on Counter Strike will not be stretched to where they look like marshmellow men

Question #2: HeatPipes

From my experience with Asus boards the heat-pipes you see just regulate heat flow better. Difference between one and two pipes? Benifits may be there but very minor. True heating and cooling of your system relies on your type of case or if your doing watercooling. You can have as many pipes as you want but if your using a low end case with very little fans and there is no airflow going in and out of it properly those pipes will be useless cause your system will still run dangerously hot. Good cable management and proper cooling is the key to having a PC run smooth. But to be more specific on your question the Asus M2N32-SLI using a cooling design called "Advanced Thermal Design". Basically what your seeing is how the heatpipes are flown throughout the mobo to dispence heat in multiple places away from critical components.

Question 3: Printer Port
Higher end mobo's today do not have the printer port on the actual back panel itself. Instead the printer port will be included in the package as a seperate port that'll go into one of your device bays. With the growing use of USB, many printers do not even use this port anymore, that is why many mobo creaters do not place the printer port in the backpanel with all the other components to make room for newer ports like raid ports and so forth. If you have a printer that uses a printer cable, the mobo should come with the port as a separate attachment in the box that'll slide into one of your pci bays.

Question #4: HDD's.

I think the most simplest configuration is this. I'd get a 74GB 10K RPM drive and create two partitions on her. Partition about 10 to 12GB of it just for Windows (c drive) and leave the rest for your programs. Get the big 320GB drive for general to mass stroage and back up purposes. Windows is not as huge as people think. A good 10GB space will be enough to run windows on even with the amount of updates and so forth. Dedicating 37GB just to windows is overkill and a waste of a HDD. I take it you want a 10K RPM drive for it's speed for both windows and either gaming or running higher end programs. If so then i'd get the 74GB drive or go bigger with the 150GB drive. If you go 74 then partition 10GB for windows alone and save the remaining 65GB for gaming files or programs you want to run to take advantage of the drive's speed. If you go 150GB then do the same, 10GB for windows and save the 140GB remaining for your higher end programs or games. This is a more better set up than what was suggested to you cause you'd be giving windows way to much space that it'll never use. And get the 320GB drive. It wont hurt to have a big drive to back up things on incase you need a place to store back-ups.

Hope this info helped.