Build Advice

[Mike Maloney]

Hi Everyone, I'm working on building a machine, and I wanted to get some advice on the selections I've made, and if anyone has any suggestions or tips. Here's what I've selected:

Case - COOLER MASTER Centurion ATX Mid Tower
http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16811119068

Hard Drives - Seagate 200GB Ultra ATA/100, 60GB ATA/100

Primary Optical (CD-R/W/DVD) - DVD+R/RW 16x/4x/16x

Secondary Optical (Optional) - DVD-ROM Drive

Floppy Drive - None

CPU - Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 Conroe 2.4GHz LGA 775
http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16819115003

Motherboard - Intel 975X ATX LGA 775
http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16813121059

RAM - G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel (I'll most likely end up buying 4GB)
http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16820231098

Power Supply - Thermaltake 12V 500W
http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16817153028

Video Card - EVGA GeForce 7600GT 256MB PCI Express x16
http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16814130062

Sound Card - Onboard

Keyboard & Mouse - Logitech Cordless

LAN - Onboard

Monitor - 2 Dell 19" LCD Monitors - Black

Speakers - Altec Lansing 2.1

OS - Windows XP SP2

The hard drives, optical drives, mouse/keyboard, speakers, OS, and monitors I already own, which is why I didn't link to them. Also, as far as cases go, it was a fairly overwhelming process, there's so many to choose from, so I'm very open to suggestions as far as that goes.

One thing I was wondering about and I couldn't figure out from reading up on the mobo, if I had a case with front USB ports, does that mobo have that ability? It's not a big deal either way, just curious.

Thanks in advance.

[noneoftheabove]

you will be able to use those usb ports on your case because the motherboard has onboard usb 2.0

[Mike Maloney]

Great, thanks. One other thing I was wondering about is if I needed to get a floppy drive, or if I can do the build without. I'd rather not get one if it's not necessary, haven't had to use one in six years.

[LeftyAce]

I've built three machines in the past year without floppy drives, and haven't missed them at all. Didn't use mine for years before that on the old pc, either.

If you find yourself needing one, they're cheap to get, and easy to install, so I wouldn't worry about not starting off with one.

[flanzig1]

With the motherboard you selected, your limited to using ONLY 2 of the 4 IDE drives you have. To use all 4 drives you would need a PCI IDE controller card.

[Mike Maloney]

Would something like this:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16816115001

do the trick?

Oh, one other question, which might be really stupid, I have no idea. I currently have Windows installed on my current machine. Can I use the hard drive that's in there as my primary hard drive on my new machine, or do I have to start with a fresh hard drive from scratch?

[flanzig1]

What you linked is a RAID controller, what you want is something like this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16816102007
If the XP install on the old PC is from a retail Windows that you bought, then yes you can reuse it on the new system. If from a prebuilt system like HP/Dell/Emachine then, no.

[Mike Maloney]

Great, thanks again for the help.