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12-28-2005, 12:35 AM
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#1 |
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Member (4 bit)
Join Date: Dec 2005
Posts: 8
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First Build
Noob here. I've decided to undergo my first build, but before I start, I wanted to run everything by you guys. I'm looking to make sure I have all the parts I need and that they'll all go together nicely. I would also love any suggestions you might have.
 (price isn't a problem)Case: COOLER MASTER Centurion 5 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811119078 Motherboard: ASUS A8N-Sli Premium http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131540 Processor: AMD Athlon 64 x2 4800+ http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103544 Vid Card: SLI 2x eVGA 256MB GeForce 7800GT (I wasn't too sure which one to get) http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130249 Memory: 2GB (2 x 1GB) Corsair XMS PC3200 184-pin http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145486 Hard drive: Seagate Barracuda 300GB 7200 RPM http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148064 CD Drive 1: ASUS 52x CD-Rom Drive http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827134012 CD Drive 2: NEC DVD Burner http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827152058 PSU: Enermax Noisetaker 600W http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817194001 Feedback is greatly appreciated. Is there anything else I'll need? My apologies if a post like this is redundant and also for my noobiness in my details. Thanks!
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12-28-2005, 12:46 AM
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#2 |
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Wx geek
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Indiana
Posts: 6,638
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Looks very very nice! Couple things though, I wouldn't get two 7800GTs, I would get a single 7800GTX...it'll perform just as well now, and you'll have the option to add a second one later on.
Optical drive wise, I would get at DVD-ROM and a DVD Burner, might as well have two drives with DVD capabilities. Also, that NEC OEM drive doesn't come with Nero, I believe the Retail version does. You might look into a hard drive with a 16MB cache, I've heard those are pretty fast. Don't forget an OS...XP Home OEM should do the trick.
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"It is the way of man to make monsters and it is the nature of monsters to destroy their makers." |
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12-28-2005, 01:09 AM
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#3 |
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Member (4 bit)
Join Date: Dec 2005
Posts: 8
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Thanks a bundle, blue. You're right about the 7800 since it's basically pointless to get two right now. As for the optical drives, it's been a pain searching on newegg. My current rig has the first as a cd-rom and the second as a cd/dvd burner. I lliked it just fine so I figured what the heck.
I'll replace the hard drive I have up there with this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822144237 I'm guessing I should get the 64 bit edition of Windows XP Professional? |
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12-28-2005, 09:42 AM
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#4 |
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Member (4 bit)
Join Date: Dec 2005
Posts: 8
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I'll just stick with XP Home for now until Vista is released. I'll also go with these drives instead:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827106830 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827131352 I have two concerns now. Firstly, should I get a sound card? I have no idea which to get. Also, I'm pretty clueless about sufficient cooling. Is there something I should add, or is there a better case out there? Thanks for your time. |
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12-28-2005, 10:02 AM
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#5 |
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Professional gadfly
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Posts: 6,364
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Do you really need two burners, and such an expensive Plextor burner? My preference is Lite-On; they make good drives. You can get a Lite-On DVD-ROM and a Lite-On DVD burner for about $70 total, which is as much as the one combo drive.
Why not go with a SATA hard drive? I'd stick with Seagate, they have a 5-year warranty. Don't get a sound card yet until you try out the onboard sound to see if it is good enough for you. I'm trying out Windows XP x64 and so far it's good. I haven't had any driver problems at all. |
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12-28-2005, 10:43 AM
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#6 |
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Member (4 bit)
Join Date: Dec 2005
Posts: 8
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I hate to seem stupid, but I'm confused when picking optical drives.
Rom: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827135136 Burner: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827106009 Is IDE Rom fine? I did a quick search and couldn't find anything. Hopefully I found the right hard drive this time: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136003 It's between this (Western Digital) and a similar Maxtor. Unless someone can suggest one brand over the other, I'll go with this. (The only Seagate is 500GB, which is excessive for me) |
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12-28-2005, 10:49 AM
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#7 |
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Professional gadfly
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Posts: 6,364
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Yes, that DVD-ROM is fine, although I don't know if ASUS is a good DVD-ROM maker. Almost all optical drives are IDE. SATA optical drives are expensive and not really necessary.
Here's a 250GB Seagate SATA drive: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148065 |
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12-28-2005, 11:26 AM
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#8 |
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Member (12 bit)
Join Date: Sep 2005
Posts: 2,509
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You can save some cash if you get that case without a power supply.
You are likely to need a floppy drive at some point during the setup to load drivers, sata controller etc.. Edit: here is that case in the same color you had listed,
Last edited by jayb1234; 12-28-2005 at 11:44 AM. |
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12-28-2005, 11:38 AM
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#9 |
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Member (4 bit)
Join Date: Dec 2005
Posts: 8
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The user reviews for the ASUS drives indicate they're pretty solid. As for the hard drive, I figured I'd continue being greedy and go with the 16MB cache like blue suggested.
Here's the updated spec list: Case: Cooler Master Centurion 5 $84.99 Motherboard: ASUS A8N-SLI Premium Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI $163.00 Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ Toledo 1GHz FSB $787.00 Video Card: XFX Geforce 7800GTX $525.00 Memory: CORSAIR XMS 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM $207.00 Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar SE16 320GB 3.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s $155.50 DVD-Rom: ASUS Black 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-ROM $24.99 DVD-Burner: LITE-ON Black ATAPI / E-IDE DVD Burner $39.75 PSU: ENERMAX All in One Noisetaker 600W Power Supply $148.99 Total price: $2,136.22 I've been shopping for a high-end dream machine and I don't think this price is bad at all. I don't want to open it up for another 5 years after buying it. Maybe once to go SLI. Granted, I'll have to tac on a few more things: OS, speakers, floppy (thank you jayb), etc. I already have a fantastic monitor, mouse, and keyboard. This kind of thing can go for 4k+ on some sites. Let me know if you think I'm crazy. |
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12-28-2005, 02:15 PM
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#10 |
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Member (11 bit)
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Chicago
Posts: 1,033
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dont always trust reviews...I would stick with Lite On...more reputable...the sites you are referring to must be the customize your own computer websites and of course they are going to be way more expensive which is a main reason why people build their own...if you really want a dream machine you may want to consider having a WD Raptor and then getting a smaller Caviar still with a 16mb cache. Install the OS on the Raptor. I also suggest a diff CPU, if you are going to spend 800 on a CPU you are going to want to consider FX55 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819103527) especially if you are gaming, and looking at your VGA you will be doing some serious gaming, hopefully you wont let it go to waste. Now, sound card...again with dream machine Soundblaster X-Fi for sure, and speakers...now this may be too dream machine for you but check out the M-Audio Studiophile (I think) LX4 system i think you have to get a 2.1 system and then upgrade it to a 5.1....friend has it (IMO no better product than this nothin comes close)
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Thermaltake Tsunami | Asus A8N-E | AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Venice | WD 74GB Raptor | 2 x Seagate 120 GB | 2GB (4 x 512mb) Corsair ValueSelect | eVGA Geforce 6800 gt | Audigy 2 ZS | XCLIO 450watt | NEC 3520a DVD-Burner | Sony 1.44mb Floppy |
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12-28-2005, 03:35 PM
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#11 |
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Member (10 bit)
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: brooklyn, ny
Posts: 920
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it seems that your mobo doesnt suport X2 cpus.
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12-28-2005, 03:40 PM
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#12 | |
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Professional gadfly
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Posts: 6,364
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Quote:
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12-28-2005, 04:47 PM
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#13 |
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Member (10 bit)
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: brooklyn, ny
Posts: 920
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i agree with u, but why doesnt the newegg page say so?
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12-28-2005, 07:17 PM
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#14 | |
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Wx geek
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Indiana
Posts: 6,638
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Quote:
Check the ASUS website, and it says that it supports X2 processors. |
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12-28-2005, 07:40 PM
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#15 |
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Member (4 bit)
Join Date: Dec 2005
Posts: 8
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I wasn't really sure which direction to go in with the processor. I do game a lot and I do realize that the fx-55 is better in some aspects - especially gaming. This pc is for a LOT more than just gaming though. The x2 4800+ still has impressive benchmarks, so I was wondering - does it matter? Sacrificing a few frames for now isn't that big of a deal to me. Is it naive to think that they'll actually capitalize on dual core's in the near future?
As for the hard drive, I don't see that much of a benefit having a 74 GB Raptor and then a 250 GB Caviar. The speed isn't that much of an upgrade. At least not enough to spend another $100. As for the MoBo, the Asus website lists it as x2 compatible. Aside from that, is there much of a difference between my current Motherboard and the a8n32? I'm fairly certain that the Premium also supports SLI in 16x mode (the deluxe does not) so I don't see any difference. The a8n32 is out of stock anyway. |
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12-28-2005, 07:58 PM
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#16 |
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Member (10 bit)
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: brooklyn, ny
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12-28-2005, 08:04 PM
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#17 |
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Member (4 bit)
Join Date: Dec 2005
Posts: 8
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Click on the picture and you get more info.
A8N-SLI Premium supports AMD 939-pin Athlon 64 FX/ Athlon 64 processors with 1MB/512KB L2 cache which is based on 64-bit architecture. It features 2000/1600 MT/s HyperTransport Bus and dual-channel un-buffered DDR400 memory support. Currently, it also supports AMD Athlon 64 X2 CPU. That "Currently" concerns me. :P I also don't see why they don't have it listed on the main page. All of the other boards in that family have it except that one. Interesting... I looked into it and there's a ton of people using this mobo with x2. One claims there's a compatibility issue with the 4800+ specifically. I think it'll work just fine.
Last edited by LilJimmy; 12-28-2005 at 08:37 PM. |
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12-28-2005, 09:17 PM
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#18 |
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Member (11 bit)
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Chicago
Posts: 1,033
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You could get a 37gb Raptor and the speed is a HUGE improvement. Windows takes only 30 minutes to install...ive done it twice now and timed it trust me its no fluke. its up to you but its definitely worth it........what else will you be doing with this computer?
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12-28-2005, 09:52 PM
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#19 | |
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Member (4 bit)
Join Date: Dec 2005
Posts: 8
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Well, it seems to me like it's just spending another $100 for a quicker install and slightly quicker bootup. Stupid question - does having the hard drive used for majority of the storage as your secondary drive affect performance at all? I'm guessing this concept is dated since SATA drives elimated the master/slave configuration. That might have nothing to do with it. I'm an idiot.
Since this is my first build, is installing two such drives simple? I have no familiarity with RAID. As far as I know, it comes in a can and you kill bugs with it. Quote:
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12-28-2005, 10:00 PM
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#20 |
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Member (11 bit)
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Chicago
Posts: 1,033
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Ultimately it is up to you, in my opinion spending 500 some on a graphics card is just for higher fps that you wouldnt be able to tell the difference when compared to a 300 card....downloading is way faster on the raptor too, but it seems like you are against the raptor, raid is simple. I would still go with the FX-55....
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12-28-2005, 10:27 PM
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#21 |
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Member (10 bit)
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: brooklyn, ny
Posts: 920
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That "Currently" concerns me. :P
i think it involved a bios update as for the cpu i recomend the FX-55. its better for gaming and for non gaming its still wickedly fast. Last edited by nicolaus corelius; 12-28-2005 at 10:32 PM. |
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12-29-2005, 12:28 PM
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#22 | |
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Member (12 bit)
Join Date: Sep 2005
Posts: 2,509
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Quote:
What? How is a raptor going to increase download speed?
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12-29-2005, 12:42 PM
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#23 |
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Member (11 bit)
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Chicago
Posts: 1,033
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write speed...i dont mean like internet download i meant installing games and downloading from cd, sry poor word choice.
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12-29-2005, 01:05 PM
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#24 |
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Member (10 bit)
Join Date: Jan 2005
Location: brooklyn, ny
Posts: 920
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pretty much anything that takes substancial HDD time is gonna get boosted from raptor. many times the system actually stalls from drive overload (trying to do too many things at the same time), raptor should somewhat alleviate
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12-29-2005, 01:15 PM
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#25 |
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Member (11 bit)
Join Date: Apr 2005
Location: Chicago
Posts: 1,033
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I just checked out ur case...your gonna want a different higher end case. you only have 2 fans and only one is 120mm.
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