My First Build. Will it work?

[mr_newb]

I'm building my first computer, and picked out the parts but was wondering if all my parts would work out alright. And if any one has suggestions I would be glad to hear it.

CPU: Amd Athlon 64 3200+ Newcastle - Retail

MOTHERBOARD: MSI Nforce 3 250 K8N Neo Platinum - Retail

MEMORY: 2 x Mushkin 184 Pin 512 MB PC-3200 - Retail

VIDEO CARD: ATI Radeon 9800 Pro Video Card 256 MB - Retail

SOUND CARD: Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS - Retail

OPTICAL DRIVES: NEC 8x Black DVD+RW/-RW Drive - OEM
Rosewill 52x32x52x16 CD RW & DVD COMBO BLACK - Retail

FLOPPY DRIVE: Nec 1.44 Black - OEM

HARD DRIVE: Hitachi 160GB 7200RPM SATA 8mb Cache - OEM

CASE: Antec Sonata w/ 380w Truepower

CASE FAN: Vantec Stealth Case Fan 120MM 1500RPM


So will it work out alright? And will there be anything else that i need? Thanks in advance!

 

[Crashman]

Oh, it will work out, but I wouldn't give Creative any of my money. I'd rather listen to onboard sound than give Creative anything.

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[dhlucke]

A couple suggestions.

1. Do you need a floppy drive? They're unreliable, stupid, and nobody uses them. Get a USB flash keychain instead.

2. I recommend Western Digital drives over hitachi. Get an oem drive if it saves you money. Your motherboard will come with cables and you don't need a manual. Get either a raptor or a drive with 8MB of cache.

3. Radeon 9800 256bit 128MB cards can be had for $199. Not sure what your 256MB card costs but is it worth it to you? I would either get the 9800 Pro 128MB card or spend a bit more to get either a x800pro or a 6800 gt. Save money by getting an oem card unless you're getting an awesome game bundle that you want.

4. Get some arctic silver to apply your hsf to the cpu. You'll lower your temps a few degrees. Costs a few bucks.

5. What optical drives are those exactly? Did you read the latest review on toms?

6. Do you have an OS? WinXp Pro.

<i><font color=blue>Edited by Scamtron on 10/11/01 09:58 PM

 

[Spitfire_x86]

Why do you need two burners? One DVD burner and one DVD-ROM is enough. No point of getting DVD-ROM/CD-RW combo drive if you're getting a DVD burner

I recommend LiteOn "SOHW-812S" dvd burner and LiteOn "JLMS XJ-HD166S" DVD-ROM

Maxtor Diamond Max 9 (8 MB buffer) is recommended instead of Hitachi.

Everything else looks fine.

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[dhlucke]

That maxtor drive is probably worse than the hitachi. Damn noisy bastard.

<i><font color=blue>Edited by Scamtron on 10/11/01 09:58 PM

 

[Spitfire_x86]

I have one Diamond Max 9 (80 GB). It makes no audible noise at all

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[Mr_Nuke]

Oh, it will work out, but I wouldn't give Creative any of my money. I'd rather listen to onboard sound than give Creative anything.

He meant the 7.1 model. The onboard audio only processes in 5.1 surround. I'd give Creative my money if I wanted to listen in 6.1, 7.1 is an imitation of 5.1 and actually adds 2 more front speakers, while the 6.1 adds a rear center speaker, wich brings a much better surround then both 7.1 and 5.1. And it also uses 24bit/196khz processing(stereo) and 24bit/96Khz(5.1, 7.1 or6.1). Damb, I wouldn't listen to onboard audio, it sounds like hell.

 

[Mr_Nuke]

Oh, it will work out, but I wouldn't give Creative any of my money. I'd rather listen to onboard sound than give Creative anything.

He meant the 7.1 model. The onboard audio only processes in 5.1 surround. I'd give Creative my money if I wanted to listen in 6.1, 7.1 is an imitation of 5.1 and actually adds 2 more front speakers, while the 6.1 adds a rear center speaker, wich brings a much better surround then both 7.1 and 5.1. And it also uses 24bit/196khz processing(stereo) and 24bit/96Khz(5.1, 7.1 or6.1). Damn, I wouldn't listen to onboard audio, it sounds like hell.

 

[slvr_phoenix]

<b>mr_newb</b>:

SOUND CARD: Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS - Retail

That's a serious sound card there. What on earth are you doing with your PC?

OPTICAL DRIVES: NEC 8x Black DVD+RW/-RW Drive - OEM
Rosewill 52x32x52x16 CD RW & DVD COMBO BLACK - Retail

Why two burners? Why retail on the CDRW? Are you thinking about any burning software to go with these or do they come with something that you're happy with?

HARD DRIVE: Hitachi 160GB 7200RPM SATA 8mb Cache - OEM

Good choice if you're looking for a combination of silence and performance.

CASE: Antec Sonata w/ 380w Truepower

I love my Sonata. It's a good case. It's a little cramped though. The interior could be slightly larger. And I wish that I could find more of those rubber fan rivets. One thing to note: If you're trying to hook up your front audio cables and nothing in the manual is matching up with the cable, go to Antec's website. They have the correction there. You may not need it though as only some of the manuals were bad. And here's a trick if you're interested in overclocking: Take out the spare 3.5" bay panel and screw the 'front' fan's bottom two holes to the top two holes in the fan mount. Now you've got one hell of an air channel across the CPU when the door is open. (Or slice and dice the door for good airflow when it's closed too. It's only plastic.) Judging by your hardware selection you're probably not OCing so you won't need it, but it's something to keep in mind for the future.

<b>dhlucke</b>:

1. Do you need a floppy drive? They're unreliable, stupid, and nobody uses them. Get a USB flash keychain instead.

Spoken by someone who has never had to install Windows onto a RAID array. For some flirking demented reason, M$ deemed that only the floppy drive may be used to load drivers from during the OS install. (Or at least that was true with my install of WinXP Pro.) Honestly, floppy drives are so cheap and end up being needed every so often for the dumbest of things that you might as well just get one. And believe it or not, but some people really do regularly transport files under 1.44MB.

2. I recommend Western Digital drives over hitachi. Get an oem drive if it saves you money.

I don't, not for a silent PC anyway. Hitachi drives kick arse when you're looking for a quiet drive with good performance. Every WD drive I've had is noiser than it needs to be <i>and</i> has a shorter lifespan than anything else in it's class. (Well, except for a batch of Maxtors I got once. Those puppies all died within six months, but that was probably a shipping problem.)

4. Get some arctic silver to apply your hsf to the cpu. You'll lower your temps a few degrees. Costs a few bucks.

That's a good way to invalidate a retail waranty. Last that I checked AMD was tight-arsed about their waranty. It's one of the few advantages of going Intel.

<pre><b><font color=red>"Build a man a fire and he's warm for the rest of the evening.
Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life." - Steve Taylor</font color=red></b></pre><p>

 

[Crashman]

Actually most boards are comming with "adequate" onboard sound now, they sound "ok" on reasonably good speakers.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>