Need help picking parts for first scratch built

[Mr_Perfect]

Hello. I'm going to build my first machine form scratch and I need some help choosing the best components and making sure they all work together. I do know what I want in the machine, but I'm not sure what brands are the best pick for some parts.

Here's what I'm looking for.

1.33GHz Tbird
256 MB of PC2100 (not sure what brand though)
A 30 gig western Digital 7200 RPM, the EIDE Caviar
A Voodoo 5 AGP
A 50X CR-ROM of some sort
A cheap but reliable floppy
A Sound Blaster Live
A 17" NEC Multiscync FE700
KB and PS2 rollerball mouse
A Asus MB, I'm thinking with the AMD chip set
A US Robotics 56k modem
A 10/100 network card (someone suggested 3com or linksys)
One of those Silverado heat sinks (I can't seem to find the English site though)
Win 98SE
and a nice roomy case with a 300 watt power supply

I'm sure there are lots of little things that I'm forgetting like the heatsink's thermal compound and internal wiring though.

I know it's asking a lot, but what parts would you suggest and will all of them work together with things like UDMA 100?

Thanks for any help. =)

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Mr. Perfect
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Descent, because gravity is highly over-rated.

 

[wapaaga]

get the biggest power supply you can afford

check out curcial form what i hear there ddr is close to the same price of ther sdram

 

[Guest]

For the Silverado, got to www.noisecontrol.de and click on the US flag. You'll get the English info and order pages.

 

[HolyGrenade]

Get a GeForce2/3 or a Radeon Card. Don't Get the Voodoo. It takes more power and isn't as good.
Try to get an IBM or a Maxtor UDMA100 Hard drive. They're much better. A DVD drive rather than an Ultra High spin CD-ROM Drive.
Its gonna be hard to find a mobo with the AMD Chipset.
If you cant find a silverado, go for a Global Win FOP32 or FOP38. the 38 is really noisy though.


<i><b><font color=red>"2 is not equal to 3, not even for large values of 2"</font color=red></b></i>

 

[Mr_Perfect]

Well, I'm certaintly getting some good help here.

I am going to get the V5 and CD-ROM though. Most of my games are optimized for Glide support and the GF class cards with OpenGL will rather limit my frame rate. Otherwise I would.

As for a DVD-ROM, I'll never use it. All I'll be spinning will be CDs.

I'll have to look into a IBM drive.

One T.H. Guide on DDR boards seemed to prefer the AMD chipset over the VIAs, wich is why I was going for one. There weren't really any specific reasons though. Any reasons why?

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Mr. Perfect
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Descent, because gravity is highly over-rated.

 

[hammerhead]

Only get the Voodoo if you don't mind replacing it in a year.

By all accounts you can forget glide support in the future.

Hardly surprising, R.I.P. 3dfx.

 

[Mr_Perfect]

<A HREF="http://www.antec-inc.com/product/cases/sohoser.htm" target="_new">This case</A> sems to be a good choice, any thoughts?

Too bad there isn't a forum for building machines, I'm sorta out of the way in here...

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Mr. Perfect
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Descent, because gravity is highly over-rated.

 

[hammerhead]

That case sure looks good, and it should be for the price

 

[Guest]

As for the little bits: I would get a USB optical mouse. They are far better than rollerball mice.

 

[Mr_Perfect]

Yeah, I found a MS Wheelmouse Optical I've decided to get. =)

I've been doing a lot of searching today with the help of another community and I'll update the system specs in the first post when I get a few things finalized.

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Mr. Perfect
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Descent, because gravity is highly over-rated.

 

[arsend]

I would Highly Recommend you go ahead and buy a DVD ROM so that you will not have any compatiblity problems with software or movies, consider buying both since you have plenty of drive space and a large Power Supply.

If it works for you then don't fix it.

 

[Guest]

I would stay away from the Voodoo card... go with a GeForce.

I like the preformace of the IBM ATA100 drives.

The Kenwood TrueX CD-ROM'S rock, but I have heard that within a year games will be released on DVD as a standed.

I'm a fan of NEC too. I bought a Viewsonic A90 19" from BestBuy for $300 recently and love it. If you can, go 19".

3Com, Linksys, Netgear.... all good in my book.

Win98SE or Win2Kpro

As for your case and power supply... I really like Enlight cases myself but their PS suck. You could try a fancy case for around the same prices. Try these.
http://www.clear-viewtech.com/
http://www.designcomp.com/index.htm
http://www.caseetc.com/cgi-bin/caseetc
And the power supply should be AT LEAST 300W. I bought a Enermax 450W for $70 and am now a loyal customer. These power supplies are great!

You should use
http://www.pricewatch.com/
and
http://www.resellerratings.com/
for online purchasing comparisons.

Also get a antistatic wrist strap and maybe even an antistatic mat.

 

[rd382]

Hey im building my first pc too im woundering whats a antistatic strip????

7-|3 ^^4|\ \\[7-| 7-|3 8[9 57[<< 4[\\4`/5 \\[|\5....

 

[wapaaga]

it grounds your body so that you don't shock your componets with static electricty and fry them

it's basically a safety prcaution

 

[arsend]

It is a braclet type item that you put on so that while you are operating on the computer's innards, you won't zap it with the static buildup. You can find them at Computer parts stores and they usually come with a computer tool kit. If you plan on spending a lot of time building computers or messing around with thier parts, I would recommend you buy one. Otherwise, you can simply ground yourself by touching the power supply. Which is what I do sence I'm a tightwad.


If it works for you then don't fix it.

 

[Guest]

Ok.
You as above mentioned
Voodo 5 = Serious regret
GeForce 2 MX (Creative one with DDR RAM) = Nice + cheap!
DVD-ROM comes highly recommended (now about £20 more than CD-ROM'S and like so much worth it)

I forgot if you added CD-RW to your spec and don't want to click back but if you haven't you really should. Freecom 8x4x32x is a good choice and cheap at the moment. Burnproof if you want to fork out.

Tbird - nice chip if you are rich, otherwise maybe get a 1GHz Athlon at fraction of the price and get some better equipment. You can always upgrade l8r as the Palminios that supercede the tbird should be compat.

Had my geek code on sig but lost it. Mail me for it if you like.

 

[Mr_Perfect]

Heh. I though people had forgoten about this thread.

Why is it that everyone dislikes the V5? Is it because it has two chips? Or that it needs the extra power from the power supply? Of course the newer GeForce 2 Ultra will out perform it or is this a nVidia vs the defunct Voodoo thing?

I have all the parts pluged together(except for the heatsink). Don't know if anyone is interested, but here's what I have.

1.33 Tbird
256 megs of 2100 DDR
46GB IBM Deskstar
the 17" NEC(crisp picture BTW)
Antec 830 with 300w power supply
Voodoo 5
SB Live X-gamer I had
U.S. Robotics modem
3com ethernet NIC
Sony 52x CD-ROM
Teac floppy (yay)
Asus A7M266
Logitec KB
MS Wheel Mouse Optical

Should do the job.

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Mr. Perfect
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Descent, because gravity is highly over-rated.

 

[Guest]

Looks good to me. The IBM hd is a good choice, and the Asus A7M266 seems to be the best of the crop of the DDR motherboards at the moment.

Let us know when you get it all up and running?

Falwynn

 

[Mr_Perfect]

Will do. Still waiting on that Silverado to come over from Germany. I'll have to investigate dust filters in the meen time.

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Mr. Perfect
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Descent, because gravity is highly over-rated.

 

[Guest]

You've put together a pretty good system. I think a 17" monitor is a little small especially considering that it's one of the last things that you will ever upgrade. If I was in the market for a monitor, which I'm not since I have a 19" right now and just upgraded from a PIII 600 to an Athlon 1.2 and have no money left, I definitely would not skimp on the size or quality. A 21" Sony or equivilent would be on my list.

I think DDR is a waste of time right now, but it doesn't cost that much so no complaints really. I think we need dual channel DDR (aka quad pumped) to really see some improvements.

IBM's are the best HD's out there. Good choice. Put a couple of those in RAID and you'll see a nice performance increase also.

I would have opted for a Toshiba CD-rom/DVD (DVD would be my preference) They come highly recommended from CloneCD.

The Voodoo 5 is just plain outdated now, especially looking at all the other kick a$$ components.

The optical feature on the mouse is neat, but performance is only suitable for office apps, I believe. A USB rollerball mouse from Logitech would have served you better for games, ergonomics, reliability, and service.

I have the exact case as you so good choice there, but I would have gone with the 400 W. Good choice on the heatsink too. I wasn't able to find one for sale in my searches so I just opted for a coolermaster.

I noticed you are missing speakers. I'm a firm believer in the Klipsch Promedia 4.1's. Couple that with your x-gamer card for some serious gaming and music.




- Every private citizen has a public responsibility

 

[alph]

It´s not only that the V5 is not that good. It´s also really big and (if i´m not REALLY mistaking) needs additional power. So if you still are stubborn about the V5 make sure you get a case big enough. It also produces some heat, not much but still..

<font color=purple> If the blue man group had been a purple man group, had there then been PSOD? </font color=purple>

 

[Mr_Perfect]

Got it up and running!

While it's true I might have gone for a monitor larger then a 17", I've been using a 15" so a 17" on 960x720 displays plenty of information. I was also trying to keep the price moderate. It has seemed to work to, I haven't got the final price, but it is about $1700.

I've heard others wonder about DDR, but it wasn't that much more expensive and the AMD chipset gets a extra 10% performance over PC133, so what the heck? =)

I like the HD so far. I put it on the only UDMA 100 cable, and I just found out today that the ATA 100 uses a standard UDMA 66 cable! I won't complain though, I can put my CD-ROM on the 100 now.

Out of curiosity, did you put any extra 80 fans in the case? There are two more addvertised but I've found a additional mount in front of the HD cage. I've been thinking of adding all 3 but have been dreading the though of turning it into a air purifier.

I do have a fair set of speakers I've had coupled up with the Live. A Altec Lansing 3 peice with a 15 watt sub. Definately not a high end 6 peice set with a 25 watter, but after restoring my other computer to it's stock speakers I have even more reason to be pleased with the Altecs. Deliver some nice sound effects with EAX games.

And yes the V5 is a bit longer and takes a additonal power connector. A bit anoying, but I still have spare plugs after hooking it up. Not to mention it cost $114 and is comapable to the $200+ GeForce 2 cards. =) Also, most of my games use Glide, so the V5 actualy outperforms the GF2 with this setup. Also, I keep the resolution down to about 640x480 because I could never tell much difference with higher resolutions. So the V5 will certaintly not be holding me back, probably for a long time too(in vid card time).

The only problem I'm having is with IRQ conflicts with the MBs built in sound card. *grumble*

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Mr. Perfect
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Descent, because gravity is highly over-rated.

 

[funkdog]

I own the version with less drive bays. The SX830 it is a beautiful case. Love it!

 

[Mr_Perfect]

Actualy, I ended up getting the 830. The 1030 was much more expensive and I don't really need more bays. I've only used one bay so far, though a HP burner may find it's way into a second bay at some point. As far as I can tell it keeps things pretty cool.

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Mr. Perfect
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Descent, because gravity is highly over-rated.