First time builder

[JohnF]

Hi, I'm looking for feedback. I'm seriously planning to build my own PC, but this is my first time and it's more complex than I expected. (I did once replace a mobo and CPU back in 1996... put in a Cyrix 6x86 actually, but turned out the old monitor was incompatible...) Anyone think these parts won't work together happily?

Case: Antec Three Hundred (Mid ATX)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811129042

PSU: Corsair CMPSU-650TX 650W (mostly I'm shooting for about ~600W & 80%+ efficiency; not married to this particular product)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139005

Mobo: Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3P 1600/1333 FSB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128358

CPU: Intel 8400 3.0GHz FSB 1333MHz
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115037

HDD: Seagate ST3640323AS 640GB 7200RPM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148335

RAM: OCZ Reaper HPC edition 2x2GB DDR2 800
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820227267

Optical: Samsung 22x DVD+-R SATA
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827151173

Sound card: (On-board mobo)

Video: A Radeon HD 4850, 512MB PCI Exp 2.0 x16 (haven't settled on a particular one yet, they all look and cost almost exactly the same at Newegg.)

OS: Probably Win XP Pro x64 (b/c I got it as a student from my university for $10, but haven't used it before) but toying with the idea of going whole hog with Ubuntu 8.10 x64.

I have a monitor (w/ DVI) and peripherals already (reuse from my current Dell). I might throw in a a card reader, oh and maybe a TV tuner, but they all seem to get crappy ratings.

Mostly I'm concerned about the RAM working efficiently with the mobo and CPU; that and if either 64 bit OS will play well with the hardware.

Thanks in advance for any feedback!

[HAL9000]

You'll like the case.. even though it seems weird to have the power supply on the bottom. I just finished a new build with the same case.

Power supply, I used the same one. My only complaint about it, TOO MANY power connectors. There's enough for 16 drives and two floppies. The case has a nice place behind the drives to tie up the excess though. Either that, or look at one of Corsair's modular power supplies to get rid of a bunch of cables you don't need.

From previous experience as a system builder, I prefer ASUS motherboards.. take a look at the P5Q Pro http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131299

Seagate drives are good.. 5 year warranty on the OEM... I just put 4x 500GB drives in my build.

RAM, if you are going ASUS or Gigabyte, go to their websites and check qualified vendors lists for compatability.

Optical... never cared for Samsung drives. I've had more sucess with LiteOn and LG.

[shadowpr]

I agree with hal on getting a asus p5q motherboard.

check out the e8500. i think it's only a few dollars more.

I would recommend getting ram that is cas 5 instead of 4. Corsair, g.skill, a-data, crucial, mushkin.

For dvd, i would go with lite-on or asus.

And would stay away from xp 64. If you want windows and 64, get vista hp 64. Better driver support.

[JohnF]

Thanks HAL9000 & Shadowpr, I'll check out the pq5 and the lite-on,

Couple of questions:

why cas 5 instead of 4 on the RAM?

I saw the e8500 (same price as the q6600) but will .16GHz really get me a noticeable increase in performance?

And the reason I was going XP x64 was b/c I have it on hand (see my first post) and am honestly loathe to pay full price for Windows (though, yes, I know it's included in any pre-built price). Would I run into a lot of problems with the drivers, do you think?
If so, I'll probably skip the 4GB RAM (down to 2) and put Ubuntu 32bit on.

Thanks folks!

John

EDIT: oh, and if I went with a ~520W supply, I would be covered, powerwise, no?

[shadowpr]

The power supply should be fine. I assume you went with the corsair 520?

Cas 5 seems to play nicer with intel chips. Cas 4 can cause some problems when first starting. I rather be safe than sorry. You will likely never notice the performance difference, and should also save a fe dollars.

You probably won't notice the .16ghz difference, but if it's just $10, then why not? I like to get the most for my dollar.

Search for drivers for everything before you get it if you're going with xp64. That way you know if you'll be alright. Vista 64 has better driver support. It only costs about $100 on newegg.

Either way, I would still get 4gb. Even if you don't get xp64 or vista 64, still get the 4gb. And you could also dual boot with ubuntu 64 later on if you so wished.

[JohnF]

Good deal, I'm learning lots here, thanks.

I do have Ubuntu as a dual boot on my current machine (the Wubi installer inside Windows) on an external USB HDD. I like it but my wife knows XP (or she knows how to get it to do what she needs) and it might be worth the extra $ to go Windows again - of course she doesn't know Vista either - and she hasn't enjoyed learning Office 2007.

Are all 64-bit systems just not worth it, yet?

[shadowpr]

I like vista hp 64. That's actually what I use.

Some say it's not necessary, and they're right, but it doesn't hurt either. At least in my opinion.

I'm also about to upgrade my linux mint dual boot to their 64 bit edition.

[JohnF]

Not to drag the thread too far off course, but how do you like Mint? I don't suppose you could compare it to Ubuntu for me?

[HAL9000]

I went with Vista Premium 64 bit and am quite happy with it. Quite snappy and stable. My only issue was no driver support for my old Canon scanner... although I have found online people say drag folder over from the software installed on an XP machine for the driver and it works fine, then get some aftermarket software for scanning software.... I dunno, I may just include the scanner with my old comptuer when I sell it.

I still don't understand what the difference was with Vista Home Basic and Vista premium though. Vista Basic on my Dell 3.06 Celery 3GB RAM was quite simply a dog... I hated it... yet Vista Premium on my 1.8Ghz Celery (I know there is different arcitecture) and only 1GB RAM zips along quite nicely. If I put Vista back on that Dell, I'm upgrading to Premium.

[JohnF]

How strange about the Vista Basic/Premium.

But I managed to solve my own problem: turns out the disc on the flipside of the XP Pro x64 CD case is not a second installer disc for x64. Turns out to be plain old XP Pro (32 bit)

Two versions of XP Pro for $10. Goes to show that a two year M.S. degree wasn't for naught.
So, I'm gonna stick with XP till Win7, or Linux gets just a touch more user-friendly. (My wife will NEVER use the terminal or command line.)

Thanks guys.

Oh, one last thing - I am sorely tempted by motherboards that can accept up to 16GB of RAM. I know that much is a touch insane right now, but... worth it?

[MrDravenX]

Originally Posted by JohnF Oh, one last thing - I am sorely tempted by motherboards that can accept up to 16GB of RAM. I know that much is a touch insane right now, but... worth it?

I doubt 16GB of RAM will be worth it unless you are building a server.

[JohnF]

Originally Posted by MrDravenX I doubt 16GB of RAM will be worth it unless you are building a server.

True, but 4GB of RAM was unheard of when I bought my current computer 5 years ago. I was thinking that that 5-7 years from now, with 64-bit OSes becoming standard, that 16GB of RAM might become more common. But maybe not.

I'd like to have to only add to any new machine I build, so that 5 years from now the only replacement I might need is to put in a quad-core or something. That's why I was considering DDR3, but read more about it and it sounds like latency issues make it not worth the added expense.

There's nothing wrong with my current PC, except that I stupidly bought a small case machine and it's a huge pain and expensive to upgrade video cards, HDDs, DVD drives.

EDIT: I should say I have no intention to install more than 4GB of RAM right now.

[shadowpr]

I like mint. Coming from windows for years, it was basically simple. I had to use the command line for a few things, but that was only to get it set up. Once it was up and running, it was just as nice as vista, if not better.

I'm running their old version now, but I expect their newer version to handle more things without me having to configure it.

[Doom]

Another case to look at would be the Cooler Master CM 690. I recently built with one and was very impressed. Based on pictures at newegg.com, I think the CM 690 might be easier to wire.

If you can, going with a modular power supply (Corsair 620 has it...I think there's a modular 550 also) made my most recent build much easier as it frees up some space and make the inside cleaner.