New build

[gerry480]

I am about to build a new computer and I have some questions.

I intend to use Windows XP Professional operating system and it will be used as a multi-purpose computer. General business software, multi-media with moderate gaming applications.

I also intend to pull some equipment off an old computer. So my first concern is, will the new power supply and mother board fit in the 5 year old case (I believe it is an atx case, which had a asus P4T533-C motherboard in it.)?

I would also like to know if all the equipment I have listed below are compatible and if I am missing anything, for example, does the CPU come with a cooling unit?

OLD computer equipment list:
5 year old case, keyboard and mouse
19" ViewSonic VP912b monitor
Sony 3.5" floppy
Liteon CD-RW IDE LTR-522465
Artec 16x DVD-ROM IDE DHM-G48
Sony DVD/CD RW IDE DRU-820A
Western Digital Hard Drive WD2000JB-00DUA0 uses Ultra ATA controller card
I am assuming that I will not be able to boot off of this drive and may not be able to use it for data storage or retrieval. So I added a new hard drive to the new equipment list.

NEW computer equipment list (estimated cost $1400):
ASUS P5K DELUXE/WIFI-AP LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz LGA 775 Processor Model BX80562Q6600
Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model BL2KIT12864AA1065
EVGA 512-P2-N757-TR GeForce 8600GT 512MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card
Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD5000AAKS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
Western Digital My Book Essential WDG1U5000N 500GB 7200 RPM External Hard Drive (FOR BACK UP)
Hauppauge WinTV-HVR-1600 MCE 1183WB NSTC/ATSC/QAM/FM Tuner w/MCE Remote(White Box)PCI Interface
OCZ EvoStream OCZ720EVOSLI ATX12V v2.2 and EPS12V 720W Power Supply

[glc]

You do not need that Ballistix ram - standard DDR2-800 is plenty good enough and actually recommended - CAS 5 and 1.8 or 1.9 volts. The rest of the list looks fine, but I'm betting others will have alternate suggestions. You can boot off that old IDE drive if you want BUT note that you can only have 2 total IDE devices on that new motherboard. You could PROBABLY move the Ultra ATA card over if you want.

[gerry480]

The old hard drive had the OS installed while on the old motherboard. I was told that I would get the blue screen of death, if I tried to boot up off the old drive, if the old drive was installed on the new motherboard. Is there any truth to that?

[Cricket]

Originally Posted by gerry480 The old hard drive had the OS installed while on the old motherboard. I was told that I would get the blue screen of death, if I tried to boot up off the old drive, if the old drive was installed on the new motherboard. Is there any truth to that?

Yes, you won't be able to boot from the old hard drive if it's connected to a new motherboard. You have several options if you must use the WinXP Pro install on the old hard drive but you must have the WinXP Pro installation CD for one of the options. See this thread.

Cricket

[Katreat]

I would suggest you go the new SATA HD route and do a clean install of the OS. You can use the IDE HD as a secondary drive, or buy yourself an external enclosure (which have better cooling if they have a fan than most external HD on the market) and use it for back-ups. I would also suggest just spending the $35 and get a SATA burner while you are at it, it just makes fireing up a new MB that much easier since it will recognize the SATA burner without having to set any jumpers and bios for master/slave.

Your PSU has a lot of head room for the system you are building. Nothing wrong with that but you can probably get by with 500+ watts from any quality PSU. As GLC mentioned, the ram you chose is over kill. Unless you plan major OC'ing the system 800 ram is faster than your CPU speed by enough of a margin that you should not need anything faster. Actually, 667 ram is fast enough for non-OC'ed CPUs but 800 gives you a bit of head room for future upgrades.

The P5K only has a PS2 mouse port, they keyboard has to be USB or you need an adaptor to make it USB so you might want to check that for compatability.

I am seeing a lot of recommendations for the new 8800 GT video card, not sure how it compairs for price, but you might want to take a look because it will be worlds faster than the 8600 which is desinged for very casual gaming. Even moderate gamers like games to run smoothly.

Kat

[gerry480]

Thanks Cricket, I am assuming that if I don't boot off the old drive (new motherboard) that I would still be able to access the data on it?

I am also assuming that if an identical motherboard was used, I should be able to boot up off the old drive with no problem?

[Cricket]

Originally Posted by gerry480 Thanks Cricket, I am assuming that if I don't boot off the old drive (new motherboard) that I would still be able to access the data on it?

If you install the OS on another hard drive and put your old hard drive in the system for data storage you will still be able to access whatever you have on it.

Originally Posted by gerry480 I am also assuming that if an identical motherboard was used, I should be able to boot up off the old drive with no problem?

I'm not sure about that...never tried it.

Cricket

[glc]

The key is the IDE controller. If you move a XP boot drive to another computer, if the IDE controller is identical, it will successfully boot. This is why I have the tip - prior to removing the drive, change the IDE controllers in Device Manager to "standard dual IDE" and that's compatible with anything, that's the generic Microsoft atapi.sys driver.

[gerry480]

Thanks for the good information glc. So am I to assume that since the old hard drive comes with a uata controller card, that if I use that card, I will not need to change the IDE controllers in the Device Manager?

[glc]

Correct.