New Builder Has Questions

[bertscova]

Hello all, This is going to be my first full build.
My questions are:

1) I have a static matt and wrist strap. Can i ground the matt to the ground in a regular household 120 outlet? I don't have a good earth ground. The plumbing in the house is that plastic stuff.

2) Are there any procedures to follow when starting the computer for the first time?

3) I couldn't afford to get the vid card this order. Planning on an ATI HD 4870 1gb not sure of the Manufacturer. Can I use my old BFG GeForce FX5500 (PCI) for the build? This will only be a temp vid solution. I don't want to wait to long for the build because of the return policy time frame.

New system spec's

LITE-ON 20X DVD±R DVD Burner SATA
Western Digital Caviar 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s
ASUS P5Q Pro LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz LGA 775
OCZ ATI CrossFire 4GB (4 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 800
Antec Earthwatts EA650 650w PSU
Acer 22" Widescreen LCD Monitor
Will Be adding a HD4870 1gb GPU

Running Windows XP Pro SPK3

I have a general knowledge of computers and have added mem, video cards, swaped HDD's and rom drives but never a full build. So any suggestions or comments would be welcome.

 

[einstein4pres]

I would purchase a WD6400AAKS hard drive; they run very quickly and don't cost too much more. Memory tends to be more stable with only two modules. Consider buying 2x2GB instead of 4x1GB; there's also a better upgrade path afterward (assuming a 64bit OS at some point). The PSU is more than you need, but a good enough choice.

You shouldn't have problems using an older PCI video card. Of course, prices tend to drift downward; why not wait until you can get the whole rig?

 

[bertscova]

Everything listed (except for the PSU it's from old computer ) is on order. Should arrive in the next couple of hours. As for the video card i have the fx5500 out of my old computer. Just using it for the build and will be ordering the hd4870 along with FO3 on friday.

 

[englandr753]

If the FX5500 is actually pci, it will work fine as a temporary card. Just dont expect good gaming.

As far as the anti static straps and the matt, all you really need to do is be sure to touch the side of the case each time you go to reach inside your case and touch the parts. Be careful to prepare a good place to put sensitive parts such as your hard drive, motherboard, memory and video card while you are building. You can lay the anti static plastic on a hard surface and then place these items on top of that while you prepare to use them. I have never used anti static wrist straps or matts.

As far as procedures for startup, be sure all wiring is connected correctly and not hanging down to contact fans. If you see that you need to add or remove hardware after startup, be sure to shut down the pc and unplug the power cord from the psu and watch for the light to go out on the motherboard 1st. This will reduce the chance you get an electrical discharge from the power and render your component(s) useless.

Set your 1st boot device to cd rom and place the OS disk in and go from there.

If you have issues you may want to check and make sure that the correct voltages and timings are set for your memory. You can go to the memory manufacturers site to check for this info and then update this information in the bios and retry.

 

[aevm]

I'd also suggest waiting instead of using the FX5500, especially if it's just for a week or so. That way you don't have to install nVidia drivers, uninstall them, clean up, install ATI drivers. It's safer to just install ATI's drivers directly on a clean Windows.

+1 to everything Einstein said.