MY First Time Building!! Hard or not?

[chikit]

So, its my first time building a computer myself. I've seen computers get built by other people a few times. But I forget the actual steps, and any side knowledge I should know.

Stuff like electrostatic discharge? I touch the PSU? Or wear gloves.
I heard about this one guy who fried his mobo because he didnt actually screw in the mobo to the case.. so something like it short circuited because the electric current went through the case aswell. How do I prevent that from happening?

I also bought a Enermax Liberty 620W PSU with 22Amps on the Dual 12V rails. It says a combined of 36Amps. Is this enough for a 8800GTS 320MB + Quad 6600? I paid around $130 for it. I think I got ripped off, I've never spent so much on a PSU before.. but I've been hearing that PSU's are pretty important these days.

Here's my build:
Enermax Liberty 620W PSU
Intel C2D Q6600
8800GTS 320 MB
GigaByte GA-P35C-DS3R
2GB PC6400 Kingston RAM
Tuniq Tower 120
WD 74GB Raptor x 2 RAID 0
DVD Writer

So I know some of you are gonna tell me off for the dual raptors in Raid, but I want to feel every ounce of speed from this machine and I thought HDDs are the biggest bottlenecks in systems today. So I thought I'll splurge a little, besides it costs $240 for 2 WD Raptors, which in my opinion was a bargain.

Here is my thinking of how to build a computer step by step.

1. Assemble all the parts correctly into the case, following the manual.
2. Apply thermal paste and CPU Cooler.
3. Boot up, set up RAID. (HOW DO YOU SET UP RAID WITHOUT A FDD?)
4. Install windows.
5. Finished?! Overclock.

 

[badge]

So, its my first time building a computer myself. I've seen computers get built by other people a few times. But I forget the actual steps, and any side knowledge I should know.

Stuff like electrostatic discharge? I touch the PSU? Or wear gloves.
I heard about this one guy who fried his mobo because he didnt actually screw in the mobo to the case.. so something like it short circuited because the electric current went through the case aswell. How do I prevent that from happening?

I also bought a Enermax Liberty 620W PSU with 22Amps on the Dual 12V rails. It says a combined of 36Amps. Is this enough for a 8800GTS 320MB + Quad 6600? I paid around $130 for it. I think I got ripped off, I've never spent so much on a PSU before.. but I've been hearing that PSU's are pretty important these days.

Here's my build:
Enermax Liberty 620W PSU
Intel C2D Q6600
8800GTS 320 MB
GigaByte GA-P35C-DS3R
2GB PC6400 Kingston RAM
Tuniq Tower 120
WD 74GB Raptor x 2 RAID 0
DVD Writer

So I know some of you are gonna tell me off for the dual raptors in Raid, but I want to feel every ounce of speed from this machine and I thought HDDs are the biggest bottlenecks in systems today. So I thought I'll splurge a little, besides it costs $240 for 2 WD Raptors, which in my opinion was a bargain.

Here is my thinking of how to build a computer step by step.

1. Assemble all the parts correctly into the case, following the manual.
2. Apply thermal paste and CPU Cooler.
3. Boot up, set up RAID. (HOW DO YOU SET UP RAID WITHOUT A FDD?)
4. Install windows.
5. Finished?! Overclock.

You can touch the PSU all you want. It's the CPU and RAM that can be damaged through electrostatic discharge if mishandled. Your PSU should have enough 12v amps to power your system. You do have two HD's, Q6600 and an 8800 etc., so I would watch closely after you build and have the system running for a month or so and be sure the load is not too much over time for your psu. Excessive heat and system crashes are a sign of an overloaded, overworked PSU. It could give out under stress over time. Maybe a quad 12v rail 18amp x 4 would do better over time. I always install the cpu onto the MB before I install the MB into the case. Hook up the front panel case wiring onto the MB headers before you screw the MB permanently into the case. GL.

 

[chikit]

thanks for your tips! I think my PSU has enough to power the system, it has 36A combined on the 12V rails. BUT!!!! THIS PSU IS KNOWN TO EXPLODE AND SHOOT FIREWORKS. after about a years time of use!!! NOooooooooooooooooooo... I just read like 40 reviews on newegg about this all saying the same thing! ITS DESTINED to explode. What should I do? I don't want to risk my other expensive components! I think its a manufacture design fault. There are seriously 40 or 50 posts saying theirs exploded, some taking the CPU and MOBO with them. ARGH. Should I try and exchange it?

 

[badge]

If you bought it from Newegg, call or email tech support and explain you thought the PSU would power your system, but realized after you purchased it the psu would be inefficient for you system. Newegg may even drop the restocking charge if your good. I'm sure they will let you return it, especially if it's within 30 days.

 

[Slippers]

I would put the heatsink on the cpu before putting the motherboard in the case. Some heatsinks require it but some you just cant tell if they are all the way on unless you can pickup the mohterboard. when i built my first rig i just used the intel cooler that snaps in place, i thought i had it in but only two snaps were in place. when i turned it on my cpu got up to 214 degrees Fahrenheit then shut off thankfully.

 

[chikit]

i bought it from a local dealer.. i guess i can do the same.. i should say that it doesn't power my system or... its known to be defective. its just particular model though. the 500W liberty series are fine.. i hate this!

 

[badge]

At the least they should let you return it for store credit if you did not even use it.

 

[coldmast]

the 620W Noooooo, but the 500W is so good. HOW CAN THIS BE.

NOOOOOoooooooooo!

I now take everything back that I said about the Liberty,

what do they say about the Infiniti?

go Seasonic {EarthWatts} then?

Newegg is great, you get real customer feedback, not just brainwashed B$

get 4x 7200 RPM drives and run RAID5, should get about the same write performance, read should floor the 2xRAID 0, but I guess that takes the fun out of not know when the whole thing goes to sh..

are you getting the good kingston ram with the heatsinks or the cheap ram

Vista or XP or BOTH or something else {better}

 

[chikit]

So how do you set up RAID without a FDD? don't you need one to load the RAID Drivers?

 

[chikit]

anyone? How do you set up a RAID without a floppy drive?

I bought half my components today.
GA-P35C-DS3R for $167
WD 740ADFD Raptor x2 for $122 each
Pioneer DVD Writer for $37

Gonna get my Q6600 for $275 tomorrow at my local dealer!!! WOOOOOOOOT. I hear theres a shortage online or crazy price fluctuations. I'm glad for my dealer. I could buy a dozen for $275!!!! WOOO HOO. Maybe I should buy loads and ebay them hmm..

 

[geofelt]

My 2 cents.
1) dump the raid. You are correct tha the hard drive is one of the slower parts of your system. For less $ get a single raptor150. It will outperform the raid. Go to www.storagereview.com for info on raid and some benchmarks of real world single user environments. Synthetic data transfer results with raid-0 look good, but real world results show no advantage.
---oops, I see you bought already.---

 

[HPCE_Larry]

@geofelt. "real world results show no advantage." http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/03/12/cheap_raid_ravages_wd_raptor/

The raid does better than the single raptor, on both synthetic and real world benchmarks.

 

[chikit]

So anyone know how to set up a RAID? Can you teach me please?

 

[rwpritchett]

What OS are you running? Windows XP or Vista?

 

[geofelt]

@geofelt. "real world results show no advantage." http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/03/12/cheap_raid_ravages_wd_raptor/

The raid does better than the single raptor, on both synthetic and real world benchmarks.

As you might know, the outer cylinders of a hard drive hold more data, and transfer it faster. The referenced tom's article had a flaw, in that it did not test equal capacity cases. The raided raptor had twice as much data on the faster parts. The raided caviar had 5 timed as much. The synthetic results are impressive if you are after bragging rights. For real world results, the article shows almost identical boot times and sysmark004 performance was only 3% better. Not much difference to me, and easily explained by the capacity difference. In any case, what is really important is your individual access pattern. If one has the funds for two drives, I suggest that performance will be better if the data is split among them. Try it, your results may vary.

 

[chikit]

im running windows xp. I read my mobo manual GA-P35C-DS3R and it says i need a floppy drive to install the RAID drivers, so that xp can recognize my harddrives. can i use a flash drive?

bump: please help anyone? I have all my parts ready waiting. =\

 

[rwpritchett]

If you're running XP, then there are two ways to install the OS on a RAID:

#1 Use a floppy and "F6" the drivers after booting to the XP CD. If you don't have a floppy, it might be worth the $5 to buy a cheap one at CompUSA or other store. For XP, it must be a floppy. USB drives, optical drives are a no-go. Vista is a different story, but I won't go into that.

#2 Download and install nLite and slipstream your RAID drivers onto a new XP install disc. You may have success with your particular RAID controller. I tried this once on my P965 based board and I couldn't get it to work for me. I'll admit that I didn't try very hard since I have a handy floppy+card reader in one of my 3.5" bays and it was just easier to use that instead.

 

[coldmast]

good old nLite, you have to read up on this, handy when you need to install XP on a laptop.