After the tentative research that I have completed up to this point, I have nearly reached a state of consumate resolution on my decision to build a PC from individual components. But, I still have many questions before I will be confident enough to begin the process, and most importantly, spend the money.
First and foremost, let me give a general rundown of the compenents that I will be aiming to attain.
budget is approximately $2000 USD
Athlon XP 1800+ // SOYO K7v-Dragon+ Socket A DDR // 512MB DDR 266mhz CAS2.5 (maximum), single dimm // 1.44mb 3.5 floppy drive// 80 gyg 7200rpm hard drive// ATI AGP Radeon 8500 64mb DDR TV/DVI // 16x DVD-ROM // Creative Labs Sound Blaster Platinum sound card // 56 k modem // 250 meg internal zip drive // Full tower w/300w power supply // 19" bulky monitor-flat glass (ex: viewsonic g90f) // windows XP pro
If there are any screaming compatibility issues or reasons for alternative selections with the equipment I mentioned, I would really appreciate a warning.
Also, I noticed at one website the spec of ATA 100 was on the SOYO K7V Dragon+ board and the hard drive I was looking into was a maxtor ATA 133.. does this difference mean that the ATA 133 will not acheive it's full speed on the mainboard, is there a compatibility issue? have I been duped by a typo?
My primary question is one of security and function. How confident can I be with purchasing all components from low price vendors via the internet? I have an acquaintance who built a system buying parts from a wealth of vendors quoted on pricewatch.com with little to no background checking, and his system turned out golden. And another friend gave warning that RAM is an extremely sensitive component and mail order just isn't a safe bet for such orders. I'm wondering if I can simply begin making purchases from the lowest bidders listed on pricegrabber and pricewatch.com and snap/plug the system together like an erector set with confidence.
issuing the most humble supplication
the layman
1/22/2002 addition
I would be using the system for: graphics editing, games and then to a lower degree - sound editing. all at an "enthusiast" level of course. i would not be planning on overclocking until the prospect of buying a new system was in view, but of course id want all components to run at the top recomended level of productivity.
1/23/2002 4:10 PST addition
the 56k modem, i feel, is just a bit of a necessity just in case i find myself without broadband access. I may exclude the purchase. the Soyou K7V Dragon+ has integrated 10/100 network adapter as well as integrated sound with optical outs. This is a bit of a curiosity for me. Many enthusiasts I've talked to decry an integrated anything so I'm wondering if it would be in my best interests to opt for proven, quality periphials and dissable the integrated features. I was thinking more along the lines of using the integrated sound/networking to get a feel for the function before making any periphial purchases of the same type.
I'll probably hold off on the 250 meg internal zip drive until I'm sure it would be a big benefit to me. I already have a decent HP CD-RW that I'll be moving from the 6 year old pc i'm using.
And I was also curious about oem vs retail. I was told that oem was basicaly barebones items where retail included a lot of extras. Are there some components that I should buy retail versions of and others that i may as well save through OEM? I noticed that the SOYO board had two separate components that looked to be fairly necessary to take advantage of all the board functions: including the sound optical outputs, smart card reader, usb ports, not to mention manuals and documentation I would need to rely on.
In response to the idea of buying two 40 gyg drives and using the RAID 0 option - i really have no idea, I'm completely uninformed. If it can be proven much faster, a better value, and not extremely difficult or a incompatibility monster I would opt for the method.
Last of all I am still not sure about which memory I should buy. I want the 512 to last me for a while. But it seems like it would be a waste to fill up the slots with low MB chips when ultimately I'd be using 1024 meg DDR's in a matter of years. I also read that max speed is achieved through identical ram chips, though I am not sure of the legitimacy of this. A single 512 dimm of the quality i'm looking for would be around $160.. i could probably get three 256's for $180. Might this be a better value even though I'd ultimately discarding them for DIMMs with a higher memory value? I really need some additional advice in way of memory. I was thinking that 512 mb would be an ample amount for at least a year.
First and foremost, let me give a general rundown of the compenents that I will be aiming to attain.
budget is approximately $2000 USD
Athlon XP 1800+ // SOYO K7v-Dragon+ Socket A DDR // 512MB DDR 266mhz CAS2.5 (maximum), single dimm // 1.44mb 3.5 floppy drive// 80 gyg 7200rpm hard drive// ATI AGP Radeon 8500 64mb DDR TV/DVI // 16x DVD-ROM // Creative Labs Sound Blaster Platinum sound card // 56 k modem // 250 meg internal zip drive // Full tower w/300w power supply // 19" bulky monitor-flat glass (ex: viewsonic g90f) // windows XP pro
If there are any screaming compatibility issues or reasons for alternative selections with the equipment I mentioned, I would really appreciate a warning.
Also, I noticed at one website the spec of ATA 100 was on the SOYO K7V Dragon+ board and the hard drive I was looking into was a maxtor ATA 133.. does this difference mean that the ATA 133 will not acheive it's full speed on the mainboard, is there a compatibility issue? have I been duped by a typo?
My primary question is one of security and function. How confident can I be with purchasing all components from low price vendors via the internet? I have an acquaintance who built a system buying parts from a wealth of vendors quoted on pricewatch.com with little to no background checking, and his system turned out golden. And another friend gave warning that RAM is an extremely sensitive component and mail order just isn't a safe bet for such orders. I'm wondering if I can simply begin making purchases from the lowest bidders listed on pricegrabber and pricewatch.com and snap/plug the system together like an erector set with confidence.
issuing the most humble supplication
the layman
1/22/2002 addition
I would be using the system for: graphics editing, games and then to a lower degree - sound editing. all at an "enthusiast" level of course. i would not be planning on overclocking until the prospect of buying a new system was in view, but of course id want all components to run at the top recomended level of productivity.
1/23/2002 4:10 PST addition
the 56k modem, i feel, is just a bit of a necessity just in case i find myself without broadband access. I may exclude the purchase. the Soyou K7V Dragon+ has integrated 10/100 network adapter as well as integrated sound with optical outs. This is a bit of a curiosity for me. Many enthusiasts I've talked to decry an integrated anything so I'm wondering if it would be in my best interests to opt for proven, quality periphials and dissable the integrated features. I was thinking more along the lines of using the integrated sound/networking to get a feel for the function before making any periphial purchases of the same type.
I'll probably hold off on the 250 meg internal zip drive until I'm sure it would be a big benefit to me. I already have a decent HP CD-RW that I'll be moving from the 6 year old pc i'm using.
And I was also curious about oem vs retail. I was told that oem was basicaly barebones items where retail included a lot of extras. Are there some components that I should buy retail versions of and others that i may as well save through OEM? I noticed that the SOYO board had two separate components that looked to be fairly necessary to take advantage of all the board functions: including the sound optical outputs, smart card reader, usb ports, not to mention manuals and documentation I would need to rely on.
In response to the idea of buying two 40 gyg drives and using the RAID 0 option - i really have no idea, I'm completely uninformed. If it can be proven much faster, a better value, and not extremely difficult or a incompatibility monster I would opt for the method.
Last of all I am still not sure about which memory I should buy. I want the 512 to last me for a while. But it seems like it would be a waste to fill up the slots with low MB chips when ultimately I'd be using 1024 meg DDR's in a matter of years. I also read that max speed is achieved through identical ram chips, though I am not sure of the legitimacy of this. A single 512 dimm of the quality i'm looking for would be around $160.. i could probably get three 256's for $180. Might this be a better value even though I'd ultimately discarding them for DIMMs with a higher memory value? I really need some additional advice in way of memory. I was thinking that 512 mb would be an ample amount for at least a year.
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