1st time builder - Organizing Stage

[i8blarg]

*2-2-7 Update*

i wanted to thank all the posters who replied, you guys definitly made it alot easier on me. so heres where i'm at.

cpu: Intel Core 2 Duo E4300 Allendale 1.8GHz 2M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor $178

motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-965P-S3 LGA 775 Intel P965 Express ATX Intel Motherboard $120

ram: G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory $185
i know this is the memory that akhilles recommended, but i've been reading here about not needing a ddr2 800 and that a 667 will do fine. i'm not sure what that means but i started browsing around newegg for those requirements and havent turned anything specific up. am i looking for a low or high timing? and am i looking for low or high CAS? could you guys recommend some good ram for this setup.

vid card: eVGA 256-P2-N550 -T2 GeForce 7600GT 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16
Video Card $100 after MIR
i havent settled on this card yet, but for a 100 bucks i cant complain. i'm always welcome to more recommendations

cooling:
ZALMAN 9700 LED 110mm 2 Ball CPU Cooler $60
or
ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler $50
or
Tuniq Tower 120 P4 & K8 CPU Cooler $65
since this is my first build, i'm concerned about the cooler fitting in the case. i've read reviews about people having problems getting it all in there. is this gonna be a problem w/ the antec 900? i've also heard people say the tuniq tower is the best cooler so i'm debating if its worth the extra money for it

case: Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case got it for 75 after MIR

psu: Antec True Power Trio TP3-650 ATX12V 650W Power Supply with Three 12V Rails got it for 60 after MIR
i figure reviews said i should get a psu w/ long cables, i figure antec would make a psu that fits in their case. i know 650W is more wattage than i need for this build, but i'm hoping it'll last last like people say it will and i'll use it for future builds

sound: just going to use the onboard

cooling paste?: not sure what this is or what its used for, but someone said i should throw it in my build.
Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound $6

your right about my hdds, i dont have any money in my budget yet for upgrading to sata drives. i'm just going to hold onto my old hdds for a few months to replenish the funds.

this builds gettin pretty close to being done. i'm just waiting on selecting a few more parts. From now until presidents day, i'm just browsing around trying to see what the best price for the parts are that i can get. then once presidents day hits, whatever i havent bought, i'll just order.

hey guys, I am lookin into getting a new rig. unfortunately i dont know jack crap about whats out there. i have a random notepad doc that i've been pasting random part names into as i read reviews. i could use your guys help selecting what i need.

current rig: dell 8100 - 1500MHz, 512 rdram and nvidia geforce 3 Ti 200 vid card

lookin for/usage: i pretty much never shut my rig down so i'm looking for something stable. i dont do alot of gaming anymore but i'd like to try out some battlefield 2 and 2142 and some company of heroes. the graphics and fps dont have to be top of the line but anything better than my current vid card would be great. i'm salvaging my old cd burner, dvd burner and hdds from my old comp. i dont know anything about raid but everyone keeps saying its better. i dont know how mine is setup but do i have to buy new hdds to set it up in raid? i have an 80 gig that came w/ the comp and i bought a 200 gig later on and i think its a 5400 rpm. i'll look into buying a new hdd and dvd burner later when i come across more funds. I'd like to get into a little video and photo editing later on. I experiment with making my own dvds but it took my computer forever todo. I always do alot of multitasking and have alot stuff running at the same time (burn dvds, watch tv eps, unrar stuff, i cant do all taht at once now but thats what the new rigs for ) I'm hopefully gonna have a friend who knows how to build comps actually help me with the assembly but i'd like to try overclocking it a some too.

budget ~ 700 - 800 max - under is always better

i have a monitor, mouse and keyboard from my old comp so i wont need that.

like i said, i could really use your guys suggestions on where to skimp or spend more on.
my buy date will probably be presidents day in february when there are hopefully sales or free shipping

blarg.

 

[akhilles]

Plan A:
E6300 $188.00
GA-965P-S3 $104.99
G.SKILL 2GB $204.99
(2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 Item #: N82E16820231098
eVGA GeForce 7600GT $119.99
Retail Item #: N82E16814130073 ($99.99 after $20.00 Mail-In Rebate)
Arctic Cooler Freezer 7 Pro $29.99
Antec LifeStyle SONATA II $52

Exactly $700 before tax & shipping & rebate.

Plan B:
G.SKILL 1GB $109.99
(2 x 512MB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 Item #: N82E16820231102
Antec Performance One P180 $75
FSP Group 450W $53.99
Item #: N82E16817104954
or
SPARKLE 400W $43.99
Item #: N82E16817103013

About $680 before tax & shipping & rebate.

Personally, I would NOT miss out that $75 P180 deal. Its regular price is $130. Especially you're gonna put it on the floor, you need a full tower case to reach the top cd/dvd drives. Unless you're Spiderman.

You can always add another gig of ram. Like you said, you don't need ultra mega hyper frame per seconds. 1 gig is fine for what you're gonna do.

Wait for raid experts to chip in.

 

[pinkcaddy]

CPU - You may want to consider Intel's new E4300. Higher multiplier, lower speed FSB. Plus, I keep hearing rumors that prices will drop. If you can wait a few weeks, and see what prices do, I would highly reccomend that.

Motherboard - The Gigabyte S3, MSI and Biostar are all good motherboards, including overclocking. Asus will typically cost you more, but they are feature rich. The link you had for the Asus is for an open box item - buyer beware that open box doesn't truly mean value. Also, bear in mind that each of these mobos have only 1 IDE port, so you'll only be able to run two PATA devices (HD, CD/DVD burners, etc). To run more, you'll have to get another IDE card.

RAM - Given your budget, I'd go with a 1GB stick for now. Get another sometime soon to ensure you can get an identical stick (latencies, etc). Depending on which mobo you go with, check the manufacturers website to determine what memory is compatible with their mobo. All of the brands you mentioned are good, but you have to make sure you get the right memory for OCing. Whittle the list down first to what memory you need for your mobo choice, then determine within that list what is affordable/OCable.

GPU - I don't know much about Radeon, but I would suggest the 7600GT. eVGA is a reputable brand and typically has a good warranty.

Cooling - If you get the retail version processor, it will come with a CPU fan. However, the fan is design for system that operate as Intel intends it to be operated (i.e. no overclocking). That having been said, you can still OC with this fan, just not much. If you want to OC more than ~300MHz FSB, then you'll definitely need a new fan - AC Freezer is a great fan at a great price. Get some Arcic Silver thermal compound too.

Case - I second the motion on the P180, but that forces you to buy a PSU. The Sonata is a good case. The PSU is marginal, but would probably be OK until you can upgrade it to a better PSU.

PSU - once you have your whole system determined, go to the PSU calculator and determine what you need (in terms of watts):

http://www.extreme.outervision.com/

That should help you begin to determine whether the Sonata's PSU will suffice for now.

 

[akhilles]

Good catch on the 1xIDE. He can get a sata-to-ide adapter:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?SrchInDesc=sata&Page=1&bop=AND&Submit=SUBCATDEALS&SubCategory=353

The rosewill one seems to be the favorite.

Good advice on the ram. Get the 2nd ASAP or else they'll go out of production or whatever. Same thing with SLI cards which is another story.

 

[harty23690]

SATA drives arnt expensive now and in this day in age I cant really see how you would justify using an IDE HDD.

 

[pinkcaddy]

SATA drives arnt expensive now and in this day in age I cant really see how you would justify using an IDE HDD.

I couldn't agree more, but another $75 will break the OP's budget. I believe the OP is looking to carry over his legacy HDs.

 

[i8blarg]

i wanted to thank all the posters who replied, you guys definitly made it alot easier on me. so heres where i'm at.

cpu: Intel Core 2 Duo E4300 Allendale 1.8GHz 2M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor $178

motherboard: GIGABYTE GA-965P-S3 LGA 775 Intel P965 Express ATX Intel Motherboard $120

ram: G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory $185
i know this is the memory that akhilles recommended, but i've been reading here about not needing a ddr2 800 and that a 667 will do fine. i'm not sure what that means but i started browsing around newegg for those requirements and havent turned anything specific up. am i looking for a low or high timing? and am i looking for low or high CAS? could you guys recommend some good ram for this setup.

vid card: eVGA 256-P2-N550 -T2 GeForce 7600GT 256MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16
Video Card $100 after MIR
i havent settled on this card yet, but for a 100 bucks i cant complain. i'm always welcome to more recommendations

cooling:
ZALMAN 9700 LED 110mm 2 Ball CPU Cooler $60
or
ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler $50
or
Tuniq Tower 120 P4 & K8 CPU Cooler $65
since this is my first build, i'm concerned about the cooler fitting in the case. i've read reviews about people having problems getting it all in there. is this gonna be a problem w/ the antec 900? i've also heard people say the tuniq tower is the best cooler so i'm debating if its worth the extra money for it

case: Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case got it for 75 after MIR

psu: Antec True Power Trio TP3-650 ATX12V 650W Power Supply with Three 12V Rails got it for 60 after MIR
i figure reviews said i should get a psu w/ long cables, i figure antec would make a psu that fits in their case. i know 650W is more wattage than i need for this build, but i'm hoping it'll last last like people say it will and i'll use it for future builds

sound: just going to use the onboard

cooling paste?: not sure what this is or what its used for, but someone said i should throw it in my build.
Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound $6

your right about my hdds, i dont have any money in my budget yet for upgrading to sata drives. i'm just going to hold onto my old hdds for a few months to replenish the funds.

this builds gettin pretty close to being done. i'm just waiting on selecting a few more parts. From now until presidents day, i'm just browsing around trying to see what the best price for the parts are that i can get. then once presidents day hits, whatever i havent bought, i'll just order.

 

[chiefgabbai]

ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler $50

Just out of curiosity, does anyone know why the Arctic Cooler Freezer Pro 7 went from $29.99 to $49.99 overnight?

 

[i8blarg]

ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler $50

Just out of curiosity, does anyone know why the Arctic Cooler Freezer Pro 7 went from $29.99 to $49.99 overnight?

dunno, but i noticed that too and wish i would have bought it when it was 20 bucks cheaper

 

[zjohnr]

Good catch on the 1xIDE. He can get a sata-to-ide adapter:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?SrchInDesc=sata&Page=1&bop=AND&Submit=SUBCATDEALS&SubCategory=353
The rosewill one seems to be the favorite.

If the OP wants to try an PATA to SATA adapter, then he can save a few bucks by getting this one. It's ~14 shipped (in the US) and looks to me to be identical to the Rosewill one at newegg (same hardware, just generic ... no branding).

Another option would be to pick up an inexpensive PATA PCI controller card on eBay. I'd recommend either the Promise Ultra133 TX2 or the Ultra100 TX2. I picked up an Ultra100 for $15 and it has worked fine so far for me. Of course, I updated the BIOS and got the latest Win XP driver for it from the www.promise.com, but that's why I recommend Promise. The company and its web site are likely to continue to be around to get support from.

-john, the ostensibly clueless redundant legacy dinosaur

 

[zjohnr]

ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler $50

Just out of curiosity, does anyone know why the Arctic Cooler Freezer Pro 7 went from $29.99 to $49.99 overnight?
You can still (i.e. at the time I posted this) pick it up for ~$25 shipped from www.chiefvalue.com. Here's a link: ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler - Retail

(Off topic: So I buy this HSF from chiefvalue and it arrives today. I open the box and in it along with the packing invoice is a flyer/catalog for ... newegg.com? Huh?? What's up with that??)

-john, the ostensibly clueless redundant legacy dinosaur

 

[RJ]

hey guys, I am lookin into getting a new rig. unfortunately i dont know jack crap about whats out there. i have a random notepad doc that i've been pasting random part names into as i read reviews. i could use your guys help selecting what i need.

current rig: dell 8100 - 1500MHz, 512 rdram and nvidia geforce 3 Ti 200 vid card

lookin for/usage: i pretty much never shut my rig down so i'm looking for something stable. i dont do alot of gaming anymore but i'd like to try out some battlefield 2 and 2142 and some company of heroes. the graphics and fps dont have to be top of the line but anything better than my current vid card would be great. i'm salvaging my old cd burner, dvd burner and hdds from my old comp. i dont know anything about raid but everyone keeps saying its better. i dont know how mine is setup but do i have to buy new hdds to set it up in raid? i have an 80 gig that came w/ the comp and i bought a 200 gig later on and i think its a 5400 rpm. i'll look into buying a new hdd and dvd burner later when i come across more funds. I'd like to get into a little video and photo editing later on. I experiment with making my own dvds but it took my computer forever todo. I always do alot of multitasking and have alot stuff running at the same time (burn dvds, watch tv eps, unrar stuff, i cant do all taht at once now but thats what the new rigs for ) I'm hopefully gonna have a friend who knows how to build comps actually help me with the assembly but i'd like to try overclocking it a some too.

budget ~ 700 - 800 max - under is always better

cpu: i think i'm pretty much decided on the c2d e6300. from everything i've read, i cant see spending more on a e6400 - $188

motherboard: im not sure how to pick a motherboard. i've been looking for awhile and everything says it depends on the user. I know im only going to use 1 vid card so i'm not sure if that helps narrow it down. over the months, here are the ones i have pasted in my notepad
GA-965P-DS3 $149
Gigabyte GA-965P-S3 $105
MSI P965 Platinum $135
Biostar TForce 965PT $105
asus p5b - i dont know which one i was looking at, when I put it into newegg, it spit out a bunch of results
P5W-DH Deluxe $167

ram: i'm not sure which ram to buy or what timing its supposed to be. all the posts i read say i want 2 gigs but is it possible to buy a single gig stick now, then get another stick when i get more cash? or does it have to be installed in pairs like on my current dell? i heard these are all good brands and good at OC'ing - OCZ, Corsair, Crucial, G.Skill, Mushkin, Kingston

vid card: like i mention before, i'd like to be able to play some bf2 and bf2142 and company of heroes. not sure what the going card is in the budget range. i'd like to some day have dual monitors. not sure if that would affect my buying situation now
Geforce 7600 GT the newegg link took me to 3 cards, not sure which is the right one though
Radeon X1800 GTO - tomshardware guide has it ties with the above card for best card for 125 but i couldnt find it on newegg

psu: unfortunately i couldnt pick a psu either because i wasnt sure how much i need to run this system.

cooling: not sure if i needed this but i looked into since i wanted to try to OC my system
Arctic Cooler Freezer 7 Pro $29.99
ZALMAN CNPS9500 54.99
ZALMAN 9700 59.99
i dont know what the difference between a zalman 9500 and 9700 put i looked into both

case: i dont really care what my case looks like. its just going to go under my desk. i dont want it to have lights or windows or whatever. i just want it to be a case that fits all the stuff inside and is quiet and cool. i wasnt sure which way to go on the cases that i was looking at, if it had a psu in it already or one without
Antec Performance One P180 $75 from the outlet
Antec LifeStyle SONATA II $52 from the outlet and comes w/ 450w psu

sound: i'll probably just end up using the onboard sound. i'm not a sound nut, as long as it works and i can hear it, i'm happy

i have a monitor, mouse and keyboard from my old comp so i wont need that.

like i said, i could really use your guys suggestions on where to skimp or spend more on.
my buy date will probably be presidents day in february when there are hopefully sales or free shipping

blarg.

I'd go with a G965 motherboard. It's onboard video is actually pretty decent. It mildly overclocks, compared to what a P965 can do. Since you're new to this, I wouldn't go playing with overclocking too much yet. I had an AMD 4400 x2 dual core before, which was pretty quick. Now I've got an E6600, and it just flat out kicks butt, before OCing. Going with a G965 mobo will give you the ability to spend your graphics card money elsewhere. You can always add a vid card later and disable the onboard graphics. I'd wait on this build just a few months. The Intel prices are going to drop soon, considerably.
Better performance can be had if you get 2 smaller hard drives and set them up in a RAID 0(striping) configuration. this may sound imposing, but it's not hard to set up if you read and prepare ahead of time. A hard drive has a limited transfer rate. By shuffling the data between 2 or more hard drives, you increase the rate at which your data is written or read. I've got 3 Raptor(10,000 rpm) drives in RAID 0. I'd probably get 60-65 mbs operation with one of these drives. I have over 180 mbs now. This gets me in to those online games BEFORE most other players. It will also help with video transfers/editing because it's delivering the data much quicker. The downside is if one drive dies/corrupts, all the info is irretrievable. In a single drive setup, it's still possible to retrieve your saved data...photos, music, video, if the OS crashes. That's why my operating system is in RAID 0 and my data is on a single drive. After I finish whatever I'm working on, I move the finished product to my storage drive.

It also helps to get as much memory as you can. 1 gig is good, 2 gigs is better. Windows XP 32 bit will only see 3 gigs max, no matter what you've got in it. The sweet thing about the 965 chipset is you can start with 2 512 sticks and add either another set of 512s or 1 gig sticks later on. You can have different sizes in the slots, but I'd keep it to memory from the same company with the same timings, so there's no conflict. 965 Chipset is dual channel. What I told you about RAID 0 applies here. a 4 lane highway gets the job done quicker than a 2 lane highway. If you're going to start with a gig, make it 2 512 sticks.

I see you have an 80 gig with the comp and added a 200 gigger. These are more than likely IDE drives, since you think it's 5400 RPM. Serial ATA drives just flat out fly. Newer motherboards, like the 965 chipset, have 1 IDE connector, only allowing 2 items to be connected. You can get 160 gb SATA drives for a little over $50 a piece. In RAID 0, that gives you 320 gbs as a primary drive(actually less, because you never see the advertised size of a hard drive). You can still hook up the 200 gb drive and your DVD drive on the IDE cable. I'd get an external USB IDE case for the 80 gb drive, this way you've got somewhere to backup your most precious data. I think there's cases available between $15-30 online. That's what I ended up doing with old hard drives, they don't go to waste.

Hopefully this helps you on your way toward creating a system you can truly enjoy. Any questions, feel free to ask.

One more note...read this, it's pretty cool.
http://www.thetechrepository.com/showthread.php?t=30

 

[i8blarg]

ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler - Retail

(Off topic: So I buy this HSF from chiefvalue and it arrives today. I open the box and in it along with the packing invoice is a flyer/catalog for ... newegg.com? Huh?? What's up with that??)

-john, the ostensibly clueless redundant legacy dinosaur

haha thats crazy. do you use chiefvalue regularly? i've never heard of them, but they have the exact same prices as newegg and might be a good option if i dont want to pay for shipping

 

[zjohnr]

haha thats crazy. do you use chiefvalue regularly? i've never heard of them, but they have the exact same prices as newegg and might be a good option if i dont want to pay for shipping

Nope, this was my first and only purchase to-date from ChiefValue.com. Everything went ok, but don't have any track record to recommend (or not) them.

On some things they seem to charge less than newegg, this Freezer 7 Pro (at the moment) for example.

-john, the ostensibly clueless redundant legacy dinosaur

 

[chiefgabbai]

do you use chiefvalue regularly? i've never heard of them, but they have the exact same prices as newegg and might be a good option if i dont want to pay for shipping

If you check http://www.resellerratings.com/store/ChiefValue you will find that chiefvalue.com is very highly rated. I haven't used them yet, but if they still have the Arctic Cooler Freezer 7 Pro for $25 I may just do that.

 

[i8blarg]

do you use chiefvalue regularly? i've never heard of them, but they have the exact same prices as newegg and might be a good option if i dont want to pay for shipping

If you check http://www.resellerratings.com/store/ChiefValue you will find that chiefvalue.com is very highly rated. I haven't used them yet, but if they still have the Arctic Cooler Freezer 7 Pro for $25 I may just do that.

nice, thanks for the link. when my buy date hits, whoever has the cheapest price will be my winner