1st Time Building a New Machine

[tropican8]

Hey all,

My old laptop's motherboard fried so I'm in need of a new computer. Since I never took the laptop anywhere, I've decided to go the desktop route. Many people on the internet have suggested I build a machine rather than buy, and it does in fact come out cheaper.

Now I'm very new to this, so I'd appreciate if I was given some pointers on what's a waste of money and what's not, with the goal being a perfectly balenced system for $1350

Here's what I have so far:

An Intel 950, which believe it or not blew away a 4200+ on this bench but still comes out cheaper. http://www.gamepc.com/labs/view_cont...=pd900&page=11

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819116240

An Asus Socket T mobo that has an NForce chipset for future SLi and other goodies like firewire and SATA 3Gb/s.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131564

The ram I knew nothing about really. I just got the cheapest one for a 667 slot that has a heat spreader and a cas latency of 4. Does a heat spreader and latency make a difference though? EDIT: Doesn't matter, cheapest one happens to have a cas latency of 4 and a heat spreader.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820141211

The case is the cheapest ATX one I could find with two 120mm fans.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811147037

The Harddrive is the cheapest SATA3GB/sec over 100GB I saw that wasn't a deathstar. Again please advise if this is going to work.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822144415

The burner is the cheapest Dual Layer DVD+-RW drive. Turned out to be a sony.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827131031

Finally the PSU is the cheapest one that was a name brand with decent wattage.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817103937

By the way I'm very new to this whole thing so anything that doesn't look right please point out. I also have no experience building a working box so if there are any books or websites I'll need to read beyond product manuals, link away.

My OSes will be Windows XP Pro dual booted with Debian AMD64 (works with EM64T too).

Oh yeah, guess it goes without saying but this thing needs to be able to smoke most other desktop user's setups. (Minus the uber-gamer with dual 7900's) This card should do just that I hope:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130017

[Ghost(BOO!)]

check the mobo's website to see if that RAM is on the qvl. You'll want to get RAM that the manufacturer says is compatible. Also Sony in my opinion is not a good optical drive maker. I've seen a lot of problems with them. May I suggest Lite-on for the rom drive. If you want a good vid card you need to look at pixel pipelines and memory interface. Not just the size of memory. 128-bit is not good for a good vid card. You can get by with 12 pipelines but I'd suggest at least 16 for what you say you want your vid card to do

[glc]

Spend the extra 20 bucks and get the SLI-certified Antec TPII-550.

You don't need 667 speed ram unless you will be overclocking - 533 is fine. I'd rather see you get 533 that's on the QVL.

Don't look at SLI as a way to get 2 budget video cards to smoke a higher end rig - you are MUCH better off getting one high power card to begin with. With that in mind, look at a single card (cheaper) motherboard - preferably with an Intel chipset - and a 7800 or 7900 series card. That way, you could also get a lower cost power supply.

You can also save over 100 bucks by getting a 940 instead of a 950 - you will never notice the difference. Ram quantity and video card is more important for gaming anyway. You could even get a 930 to save even more.

[tropican8]

Originally Posted by glc Spend the extra 20 bucks and get the SLI-certified Antec TPII-550. You don't need 667 speed ram unless you will be overclocking - 533 is fine. I'd rather see you get 533 that's on the QVL..

Will I need a different motherboard then for 533 speed ram? Also how is a psu that's "SLi Ceritified" different than one that "suports" SLi?

Originally Posted by glc Don't look at SLI as a way to get 2 budget video cards to smoke a higher end rig - you are MUCH better off getting one high power card to begin with. With that in mind, look at a single card (cheaper) motherboard - preferably with an Intel chipset - and a 7800 or 7900 series card. That way, you could also get a lower cost power supply.

I'm not doing SLi right now, but want my box to support it for the future. If I were to say get one of those "Extreme Edition" Intel Processors I'd need dual 7900's to fully get my geek on in a few months/years :-) As I said I don't want to smoke a higher end rig, but want the ability to turn my machine into one if I get some more cash down the line.

Originally Posted by glc You can also save over 100 bucks by getting a 940 instead of a 950 - you will never notice the difference. Ram quantity and video card is more important for gaming anyway. You could even get a 930 to save even more.

Thanks I'll consider a cheaper processor, I guess Intel and AMD exaggerate the speed differences between their different models to pressure you into buying one of their more expensive ones.

[Ghost(BOO!)]

If a DDR standard is DDR2 667 you can still use DDR2 533 just not DDR2 800. SLI support is different because nvidia hasn't certified that the psu will work correctly with their cards in SLI. The support means it's possible to use SLI. One 7900 card will last for a long time before you need to upgrade.

[glc]

DDR2-533 ram is the best match for a 800 FSB 9xx series processor at stock speeds. Anything faster shows no real benefit. If you ever want to put a 1066 bus EE in though, better get 667 ram.

Problem is - the 9xx is going away - the Core 2 Duo debuts next month and I doubt any SLI board made today will support it. Consider delaying your build for a couple months.

[tropican8]

Originally Posted by glc Problem is - the 9xx is going away - the Core 2 Duo debuts next month and I doubt any SLI board made today will support it. Consider delaying your build for a couple months.

I am aware of Core 2 Duo coming out in July. Sadly I need to build a machine right now (don't have one minus my computer from 1999 since the laptop fried).

Would the recommended course of action be to get a singlecard board that supports the Core 2? Are there any chipsets out that do?

[glc]

Intel D975XBX with hardware rev 304. Going price is between $250 and $300, and no guarantee you will get a 304. It's just TOO EARLY.

[blue60007]

Boards with a 965 chipset will...but, I doubt they will come out until it's about time for Conroe to come out.

[glc]

Plus, Intel chipsets do not support SLI - and when Nvidia will have a Core 2 chipset is anybody's guess.

I'd recommend you get a basic motherboard that supports the 9xx and a low end 9xx - and look at the Core 2 as a future upgrade - replace both the processor and motherboard at that time. You can probably plan ahead with premium ram though.