newb question

[ludacris]

I am going to build my 1st PC and a SATA hard drive is a must but i cant find a mobo that is compatible am i missing something? Any other tips that would help me understand or help things run smoothly would be appreciated.

[glc]

Almost all new motherboards have SATA now.

[Dark Nova]

are you trying to find a mobo thats compatible with your old stuff, and cant find one with any SATA slots?

cause like GLC said all the new mobos have SATA slots. what are your system specs thats your trying to put together?

[ludacris]

as far as system specs goes i am doing research to see which parts are compatable together and which arent i would look at the specs of the motherboard and it would usually say that is compatable with ata 66 ata 100 or something like that i cant tell if it is compatable with sata hard drives and an sata hard drive is the type of hard drive i want but i am having a hard time finding ANYTHING that is compatable I try to look at barebon kits and i find motherboards that might be compatable with sata hard drive but i dont know how to tell this is going to be my 1st PC as you can probably tell. I would appreciate some tips.

[glc]

I would recommend you do not look at barebones kits from Tiger Direct. Give us some rough specs of what you want - just about ANY current motherboard supports SATA.

Moving to BYOPC.

[Alaron]

It is possible that a barebones kit uses older hardware, but as the others have said, almost all current motherboards have SATA built in.

Look at the specs of this board for example: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131524

Under "Storage Devices, you see:

SATA 3Gb/s : 4

So that board has 4 SATA ports.

[jeromebrill]

When you choice a mobo make sure the mobo is "Native to SATA". This means you can use that drive as your main drive. It make it easy for doing a new install on that hard-drive with out having to do anything special. I'm not sure how many mobos have this. These guys^ may be saying most of them by now. Not sure.

Some mobos have SATA inputs but are not native. This means you need a regular IDE drive as your main then the others as SATA.

This is as much as I understand. If I'm wrong guys let me know. Thanks

[ludacris]

the mother board i want is the
Intel D865GVHZL Intel Socket 478 MicroATX Motherboard / Audio / Integrated Video / 10/100 Ethernet LAN / USB 2.0 / Serial ATA which i now Know does support an Sata hdd when i buy this i am getting it and an intel celeron with a 512mb memory as a package

the reason i look at barebones is because i have a hard time finding things that are compatable like i can never find a video card and a sound card that are compatable with my selected motherboard i dont know how to tell how they are compatable

[jeromebrill]

In-general most new mobos actually have a good on board sound card. You might not need to buy one. The video card is going to depend on the type of connection. PCI, AGP 4x or 8x and PCI Express.

This mother board uses just PCI. 4 generations behind. If you want to play any sort of new game you probably want something with at least AGP X8. If not, probably two of the best cards "for the money" for this board would be a NVIDIA GeForce FX 5500 or ATI Radeon 9250. There each about $70-100

If you are looking to basically do internet and word processing this mother board would be fine. It is how ever behind compared current gen. Besides having SATA. Look at how much can you upgrade for future use. The more the better even if your not building a big system now. It's good to have some head room for upgrades.

Oh and if your comparing parts. I think Tigerdirect.com does a good job with displaying their product info and have some good prices.

[ludacris]

I like the NVIDIA GeForce FX 5500 but is it compatable with the motherboard that i talked about in my last post and does that mobo come with a sound card. If you dont know thats fine.

[glc]

That is not a good platform to build an up to date computer with. Socket 478 is long discontinued and that motherboard does not have an advanced video card slot. You might as well just buy an entry level Dell, it's going to be just as cheap and perform better.

Give us a budget and what you want to use the computer for, and we can put a list together.

[ludacris]

hey, I really dont want to spend more than 750 but i would spend 800 if i had to you were right as the saying goes you get what you pay for i would use the computer for gaming, movies, music, and internet.

[jeromebrill]

$750 is not bad. Like glc socket 478 is going out but.... thats what I used to build my current system and I'm playing the lastest and geatest games. I'm also running a over clocked P4 HT with 2GB Ram. The board I bought was a Asus P4P800-VM http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...712&CatId=1139 It was cheap and it offered the 478 Socket which I needed to run my P4 processor from my old Dell. "a reason why I chose this board." It also offers AGPx 8 and up to 4 GB Ram. See what the others have to say also.

[ludacris]

I like that motherboard and it supports sata what kind of video card/sound card do you reccomend and what kind of cpu do you have.

[jeromebrill]

The CPU that I have came out of my old Dell 8300 but the same thing is a 3.0GHz P4 with hyper threading technology. http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...657&CatId=1974 I also just bought the best video card you can get for the AGP X8 and that is the Geforce 7800 GS OC But this one is spendy. http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...6748&CatId=318

[ludacris]

well that is pretty expensive is there a different processer and a video card that is compatable with the motherboard

[jeromebrill]

You could go with the P4 with out the Hyper threading. http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...p?EdpNo=998904
$100 bucks cheaper. This one is rated at 2.8GHz instead of 3.0GHz I just wouldn't drop to a celeron if you want to do gaming.

You could also go with the Geforce 6800. http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...1323&CatId=318 That ones about half the price as the 7800

You also might want to think about Socket 775

[ludacris]

I like that video card and processor.This one will be my last question because im sure your tired of me. What type of SATA hard drive do you reccomend for the motherboard you told me about. and can you reccomend a power supply unit that would be compatable with everything.


Thank you

[Alaron]

ludacris, you would be better off building a system on current tech. Intel no longer supports socket 478, and AGP video cards are no longer being manufactured. You could build a system that would work now, but your upgrades are severly limited.

I configured this system recently as a budget Intel gamer:

Asus P5LD2 Motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131538

Intel Pentium D 930 CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819116238

1GB DDR2-533 RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145526

Radeon X1600Pro: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814127201

Antec Sonata II: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811129155

Western Digital 250GB HDD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136010

Add in a LiteOn DVDRW and Windows XP and you should be around $800. We can tweak this list, but by using a current socket775 cpu and a PCI-Express video card, you will be able to upgrade later on.

[glc]

Jerome, we do not configure using Tiger Direct here. They sell too much overpriced crap.

What Alaron configured will blow *ANY* Socket 478 build clear out of the water. It's using up to date technology which really doesn't cost any more than that obsolete stuff you are quoting from Tiger.

[ludacris]

I love the products that alaron posted and i would like to know if there is anything else i would need to build a pc if i bought exactly what alaron posted. if not that was a huge help.
if so what is it and where should i get it.

[Kareeser]

You'll need to add other important things, such as a keyboard, mouse, and monitor.

[jeromebrill]

"Jerome, we do not configure using Tiger Direct here" Kind of bias are we? I was just suggesting some things that worked for me. Don't get bent out of shape. Everything that I have bought at TigerDirect at the time I researched was less expensive. And saying the same product is crap just because it's from TG doesn't make any sense. Like I stated if anyone followed the conversation. ^ post #13 end sentence. "See what the others have to say also." I'm just trying to help. And for the record they do make the P4 extreme edition for socket 478.

Ludacris thank you for your time. I was just trying to help.

[glc]

My next door neighbor used to work the phones at Tiger - I have inside information. I won't shop there if they were the last vendor on earth. Sorry, but that's the way I see it.

[ludacris]

The motherboard that alaron posted is a socket 775 correct me if im wrong so it wont blow a socket 478 lol.

[blue60007]

An Intel 930 is faster and cheaper than any Socket 478 CPU. It's dual core, and has twice as much L2 cache among other things. There aren't any dual cores for Socket 478. Socket 775's also run cooler. Socket 478 CPUs are few and far between. Intel hasn't done anything with them in a couple years.

Socket 775 also brings PCI-E and DDR2 to the table. Socket 478 is pretty much stuck with AGP. AGP cards are few and far between, and decent performers aren't worth the premium. From what I've seen PCI-E counterparts are cheaper than the AGP cards. Also, no new cards have been made for AGP for a while. The price of DDR will continue to rise with AMD switching to DDR2 (DDR production will drop off faster than demand).

[ludacris]

hey

I found this site http://arstechnica.com/guides/buyer/...ide-200602.ars and I am quite happy with price of the parts I was wondering if someone could reccomend a PC case that is compatable with the parts on the site above. I would appreciate if someone could tell me if there is anything else i would need to build a PC if so specify. If the parts are not good enough quality please tell me. the only Things I would Use the PC for is mainly internet, music and a couple games now and then.

[Cricket]

That guide is from more than a year ago so some of the prices and components may be different (or unavailable) when you do shop around for them.

The parts selection looks okay but since it's a Socket A system it isn't going to be very upgradeable in the future (not sure if that matters to you since it's a budget box and you rarely upgrade a budget box, you just build a new one).

I don't know if I would use a EPoX motherboard, I'd go with a ASUS equivalent. I've had problems with leaking capacitors on EPoX motherboards in the past.

Any standard ATX case will work with these parts. I'd stick to the better brands like Antec, Enlight, AOpen, In-Win, Thermalright, Cooler Master, etc... I've been using this Antec case in recent builds I've done...it's a nice little case with good cooling and a good power supply.

Cricket

[ludacris]

i appreciate that cricket i would like to thank all of you that helped me out. this was a big help. now i know what im looking for thanks again.