First build questions

[UmZey]

So I have decided to build my first computer and thought it best to start with a barebone. Looked around and found what I wanted at eCollegepc.com

Barebone Specs:
3500+ Athlon 64 AM2 CPU Retail Box with Fan
Thermaltake Silent Boost Fan/Heatsink 21dBA
ASUS M2N32-SLI Deluxe (nForce 590 SLI, 1394, Serial ATA Raid, Sound, LAN 2xPCIEx)
450watt Black Aspire X-Dreamer II w/side window w/2 fans (4 5.25, 4 3.5 bays)
550watt Antec TruePower TP2-550EPS
Onboard LAN included
Onboard Sound included
Standard 1 year parts and labor

Total Price $537

These parts can be somewhat customized. I upgraded heatsink/fan for cooling purposes (I figure this comp may get hot and i dont want it to get too hot)
Upgraded mobo to include RAID because at some point I would like to learn how to set up a RAID with 10000 rpm hard drives.
Upgraded case for looks and I think this one is a good choice.
Upgraded power supply because I have heard these are kind of important and wanted a good one.
Do you think this is a good barebone or should I just buy these parts and try to put it together myself?

I also want to use 2gb RAM. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145527 or
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145015 or something else?

Im not sure where to begin with a hard drive. Im very into computers and like I said before would like to learn how to set up a RAID 0 as long as it does not get too expensive. Any suggestions?

CD Drive I dont NEED a dvd burner unless it is very cheap. Would like a CD burner but if I can get a reguler CD Drive very cheap thats what I want.

As for my video card, I believe I can use two if I want which I would like to in the future. For now im just looking for a 256 mb (so i can add another for 512 in the future). Not really sure of which are better than others.

Operating system will be windows xp. Is newegg the best place to purchase?

Im sure this is a lot to think about. Im not sure how easy this will be to build but I am very excited about doing so. I am a currently studying computer science and feel like bulding my own will be very beneficial for the future. Any answers or comments would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance.

~Umz

[Cricket]

Originally Posted by UmZey Im not sure where to begin with a hard drive. Im very into computers and like I said before would like to learn how to set up a RAID 0 as long as it does not get too expensive. Any suggestions?

What is "too expensive" to you? You're going to need two identical drives for RAID 0 and depending on the size of the HDD you get it's going to cost you double because of that. And are you going to use SATA or IDE RAID?

Originally Posted by UmZey CD Drive I dont NEED a dvd burner unless it is very cheap. Would like a CD burner but if I can get a reguler CD Drive very cheap thats what I want.

DVD burners are like $35 now. That's pretty cheap considering they cost around $600 (or more) when they first appeared. CD burners are about $25 so you'd only save $10...and if you buy a CD drive you'd spend another $20 and then you've spent $10 more than if you just bought the DVD burner. I'd just get the DVD burner since it reads and writes to almost anything.

Originally Posted by UmZey As for my video card, I believe I can use two if I want which I would like to in the future. For now im just looking for a 256 mb (so i can add another for 512 in the future). Not really sure of which are better than others.

Are you looking at NVidia or ATi based video cards? If NVidia (for the SLI) then look at eVGA video cards.

Originally Posted by UmZey Is newegg the best place to purchase?

If you live in the US Newegg is one of the better on-line vendors to use. Directron, MWave and ZipZoomFly are also pretty good.

Cricket

[UmZey]

There actually isnt a too expensive at this point. Im kind of hoping to get most of these parts as birthday presents so as far as im concerned the sky is the limit (ish). I found this hard drive http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136033 to use for my setup. I believe this means i need to use a SATA Raid correct?

For my video card I found http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130261 and want to know how that will hold up. Also, if I want to put in another video card in the future does it need to be the same one?

Dvd Burner http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827152058

How does everything look so far?

[jayb1234]

Take a look at the Liteon burners, they come with Nero and PowerDVD burning software. That NEC doesn't seem to include any.

I'm not a big fan of raptors.

For what that one costs you could get two of the Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD2500KS 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s which will perform almost as well.

[UmZey]

ill definately go with a liteon instead.

but will that hard drive really perform almost as well as a 10k rpm raptor? I dont know too much about this stuff but I would think that a 10k would be much better. Also, I would rather spend my money on speed then disk space. 150gb with two raptors would be plenty of room for me.

[glc]

I'll take a single 10k rpm Raptor over a pair of any 7200 rpm drives in RAID any day. Keep it simple. If you want 150gb of space, get a 150gb Raptor.

[UmZey]

Hey all. Im still unsure of which hard drive to go with so I have a few more questions. I have been looking at the 10k rpm raptors and want to know if these need to be used in a RAID to see a real improvement in performance over a 7200 rpm hard drive. If I don't want to set up a RAID, which one should I get since it seems like some of the hard drives are meant to be used in a RAID. How hard is it to set up a hardware RAID and approximately how much more will this cost. If I buy a 74 gb raptor and use it without a RAID, how hard would it be to buy another hard drive later and then set up a RAID. Any other comments about the matter would be greatly appreciated as im just trying to learn as much as I can about all this.

I just realized i didnt use a single question mark in the post but I hope you guys can help anyway. Thanks!

[minsonngo]

Originally Posted by Cricket You're going to need two identical drives for RAID 0 and depending on the size of the HDD you get it's going to cost you double because of that.

RAID 0 = Striped Set (Set up to create a small number of large "virtual disks" out of a large number of small physical ones), therefore you could use UNIDENTICAL OR IDENTICAL HDDs.

RAID 1 = Mirrored Set (Set up to create an exact copy (or mirror) of a set of data on two or more disks), therefore you would need to use ONLY IDENTICAL HDDs.

[786ARS]

but remember with raid 0, if one hd fails or the raid controller fails, you loose everything

[blue60007]

Is there any reason why you are set on using RAID? All RAID does is boost benchmarks and doesn't help that much with real performance, and in some cases, such as the seek time, actually slows things down. And there's what 786ARS mentioned too. You shouldn't put anything you can't afford to lose and have don't make regular backups for on RAID 0.

Also, I can't imagine how not using identical drives for RAID 0 can be good for performance...that would really throw things off. For all practical purposes, you would need identical drives...and it would cost a lot more than a single drive. A 7200rpm 160GB drive costs $60....2 80GB drives cost $80...I like glc's comment - keep it simple.

[786ARS]

the best hd, value wise is a 250GB, as you get the most GB/$

[UmZey]

OK so im starting to see that maaaybe I shouldnt go for the RAID 0. Which brings me to my next question, 10k or 7200 rpm hard drive? Again im using this mostly as a gaming system although I am a computer science student so I do like to play around with all sorts of programs as I bet most people around here do. So will I see a lot of improvement with the 10k? Thanks.

[Mr.Ferrari]

From what ive heard. You will see slight performance increases in windows loading up, game loads, stuff that would normally seek from your hard drive. But you will see very slight changes, the only way to see any noticable diff is to do 2 raptors raid 0'd. Once again that brings up more issues.

But if you have a few extra bucks and dont require a whole lotta space, raptors do come in very handy. I would get one if I had some extra cash too. lol. Especially those new 10k 16mb cache raptor's. Those are sweeet.

[UmZey]

Ok here is the final totals. Let me know what you guys think, hopefully this all works out together.

Only question left is deciding between which raptor hard drive. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136011 or http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136012
I have read first is gamer edition second is server edition. My guess is I should go for the gamer one seeing as how I am a gamer not a server but what is the difference?

Video card $119 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130261
DVD burner $30 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827106014
OS $87 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16837102059
RAM $167 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145015
$462 - Barebone
3500+ Athlon 64 AM2 CPU Retail Box with Fan
Thermaltake Silent Boost Fan/Heatsink 21dBA
ASUS M2N-SLI Deluxe (nForce 590 SLI, 1394, Serial ATA, Sound, LAN 2xPCIEx)
450watt Black Aspire X-Dreamer II w/side window w/2 fans (4 5.25, 4 3.5 bays)
550watt Antec TruePower TP2-550EPS
Onboard LAN included
Onboard Sound included
Standard 1 year parts and labor

Mouse and keyboard im going to go to a store to see which feels best but what do you guys think about this mouse. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16826104136

Also any comments on a good monitor?

Itll be about $1300 + monitor give or take. Good bang for my buck?

You guys have been great help. Definately going to stick around these forums for hardware help! Thanks again.

~Umz

[UmZey]

Just found this monitor. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824002248

[Mr.Ferrari]

On the hardrive from what I can see is that they just made a fancy case. A raptor is a raptor and would personally go with whatevers cheaper. Monitor looks good. I would suggest you leave out a fan/heatsink until you see it required. The processor will come with one, and the once u selected doesnt look a whole lot better.

[blue60007]

The Raptor X has the see-through window. Useless if you ask me...go with the cheaper one as mr ferrari said.

If you want to game, get a Western Digital SE16 250GB drive instead. That will give you almost $200 you can better spend on a video card. The card you have selected is a lower end card...a 7900GT might be within your budget if you go with a cheaper drive.

See if you can get that case with the power supply...no need to get one bundled if you are dumping it (wise decision).

Also, if you drop the SLI board down to the M2N-E you could put more money towards a faster CPU or video card. Just some ideas...

[UmZey]

Here is (I think) a better video card. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Custra...82E16814150140
Not eVGA but this one got better reviews. Think it will be ok?

Im no longer sure about the barebone idea. I would like to make my first time as easy as possible but it seems like I can get more of what I want without the barebone. So my new big question is...barebone or no? How much cheaper would it be to get everything myself? How much easier would the barebone make it? Any other comments? Thanks as usual!

[blue60007]

I would say no barebone...as you said you can get exactly what you want. I would go ahead and add up the parts individually from Newegg and see how the totals compare. I doubt the barebone kit would make it any easier. I'm not sure if they install the parts in the case or not, but it's not that difficult to do it yourself, and you should really test out the case first.

I'd say the 7600GT is a better card because it is newer, but I still perfer eVGA because they are nVidia's primary in house brand.

[chuck4456]

You need to develop a better understanding of the system first. Start simple. You may regret blowing all that cash when you power up and it fryes...................
Buy a basic PC. Learn how it all works - upgrade it. Then start looking at builds.
Patience my boy .................... patience.

[blue60007]

If you take your time and read all the manuals and such, you shouldn't have any problems. It'll take more money to build a basic system and then upgrade it...there have been lots of folks here start out with expensive rigs for the first time and had no problems. Now, if you had no budget, then yeah, building something basic than upgrading is not a bad idea, but people may not be able to afford to buy a system then upgrade it right away...JMO

If you did want to play around with something cheap...I'd suggest finding some old junker for $50 and tearing it apart and put it back together. Sure, the standards would be different, but the idea is the same. I don't think it would be too effective to buy a $600 system than spend another $600 upgrading when you could have had the whole system in $1000 in the first place..

[UmZey]

I'm not too worried about frying any parts. Ive read all the precautions about a million times and I know my way around a computer. Ive installed memory, video cards, and hard drives. Biggest concern with the full setup rather than the barebone is that I would be fully responsible for the mobo and all the cooling and power supply stuff, whereas if I ordered the barebone most of that stuff would be installed and the rest of the stuff would be easy. But I think if i read the manuals and am very cautious ( and I will be very very cautios because of the amount of money im spending ), then I will be ok.

[Mr.Ferrari]

Trust me its easier then it sounds, and definately more funner, good luck.