Need help building a PC please

[PardeGT]

Easy ones:

http://www.crucial.com

http://www.mushkin.com

[pot]

use the FORCE Tarmenion!
these guys know what there on about.
AMD,Via-chipsets easy stuff for us newbies
Regards Pot...

[morriswindgate]

Okay, here goes my system suggestions for you. All prices are from www.pricewatch.com and do not include taxs, shipping and handling.

Motherboard - EPoX 8K7A+ $179.00
AMD 761 and Via 686B Chipsets
6 PCI Slots (Can Never have enough)
AGP 1x, 2x & 4x support
2 DDR RAM Slots, supports up to 1 Gig of RAM
ATA 100 IDE and RAID (4 + 4 Device support)
2 USB (Supports 2 more with add on Option)
BIOS - AWARD

CPU - AMD Athlon T-Bird 1.2 GHZ 266FSB - $145.00 (1.3 GHZ 266FSB is another $43.00)

CPU Heatsink - GlobalWin CAK-38 - $39.00

RAM - Crutial PC2100 DDR 256MB - (2 Sticks at $79.19 ea ) $158.38

Hard Drive - 2 IBM DTIA 307030 Deskstar 30 GIG ATA100 7200 RPM ($120.00 ea)$240.00 I like to have two drives, it means you can keep all your work seperate from the OS and Programs. This way a crash does not destroy your work. Also if you Partition the second drive you can Image to C drive using Norton Ghost giving you a quick recovery from crahes)

CD-RW Drive - Plextor 16x10x40 with BURN-Proof -$184.00

Floppy Drive - $20.00

CD-ROM Drive - $45.00 (If you want DVD add $94.00 to the total to cover the cost of a 16x Toshiba with a Hollywood Decoder card)

Sound Card - Diamond Monster MX400 Digital Dolby and 6 speaker support $55.00 (Or go with the Turtle Beach Santa Cruz for $21.00 more. Also Dolby + 6 speaker)

Video Card - RADEON 64DDR VIVO - $169.00

Round IDE Cable 24 inch (2 at 12.00 ea) $24.00
Round Floppy Cable - $6.00

Price As Above $1264.00
With DVD instead of CD-Rom Drive $1358.00
With Santa Cruz Sound Card $1285.00
With DVD and Santa Cruz Card $1400.38

I'm sure you do not need help picking a Keybord, Mouse, Monitor and Speakers.
Although, If you live where they have Costco stores the 17in Sylvania Monitor is $169.99 with a $20.00 Rebate.

[Tarmenion]

Thanks again everyone

New question.

I decided that I want the MSI K7T266 for a MOBO and I thought I was done on choosing a MOBO until I hit the pricewatch site for the first time, and I now see more then a dozen of the same product and I cant understand the difference. The one I was going to get was off of MWAVE for 154.00 but now I am thinking just to get the most expensive one which is 175ish just to be on the safe side.

Can anyone tell me the difference? Should I just get the more expensive one?

Also is Pricewatch recommended to purchase products?

Thanks for any help

[Tarmenion]

oops, also forgot to ask what is BIOS?

[HAL9000]

Basic Input Output System

morriswindgate, you shouldn't need a decoder card with the Radeon card if one were to put a DVD in the above system. Rage 128 cards are hardware assisted, Radeon cards are hardware controlled.

[Smoke24]

As I stated in my edit to one of the above posts, you might want to consider using two 40 gig IBM hard drives to take advantage of your RAID capability. I saw that Mwave and Allstarshop both have them at less than $135 each which would be close to the same price as a single 75 or 80 gig. You could then run them in the Stripe configuration for some speed increase. You still end up with the full 80 gig. Also be careful if you use Pricewatch as in the post by Morris, many of those vendors don't stock anything, they order after you do and they must charge a bunch for shipping to make up for a lowball price. I saw you say you like Mwave, Allstarshop and Newegg are also good and for ordering some items Egghead is good due to their $6.95 one price shipping, no matter what or how many things you order. That is four good places to shop and you might want to shop for price between them.

[Tarmenion]

hehe I though I could move on to the next steps but I find myself at the beginning again.

Another question

The case I want to get is ANTEC 1030 and again I thought there was only 1 until I went to pricewatch and then to this site http://www.beatprice.com/bp2/bp_component.asp?cat=20 Which gives me more of a selection but Antec's main site only has 2, the 1030 and 1030b so its not making sense to me, I Also am thinking to buy from Beatprice being that there prices are 30 bucks cheaper for the case but again I want to make sure it is the same 1030 from the original site that wants 119.00 for it.

At least the Memory chips are easy to choose from, jeees hehehe

[Tarmenion]

Smoke, sorry I didnt notice your edit (wish I could edit)

Anyways, yes I am going to get 2 X 40 gig HDD and just curiousity, that goes in the DDR slots? So if my MOBO has 3 of these slots I can have 3 x 40 gig? just curious and I want to make sure I understand the process.

Also no one answered my question on the MSI MOBO , anyone know?


Sorry for all the questions guys and its only going to get worse

[Smoke24]

I see that at the Beatprice site they have one listed under Asus and another under Supermicro. They are the same case but the SX1030B is black in color, the plain SX1030 is beige. $89.95 is a pretty decent price but how much to ship? You also mentioned big price differences above, don't worry as you will find prices such as on the motherboard vary by a lot $30 to even $50 is not uncommon. You don't need to go for the most expensive as long as it is the same brand and model.

Your RAM will go in the DDR slots, the hard drives hook up at the IDE connectors and on that MSI board you mentioned that has RAID you can use up to four drives. They should however be the same size, make and model.

[Tarmenion]

Hmmm it doesnt say how much for shipping and I kind find it anywhere on the site Beatprice but Pricewatch offers it for $17 shipping and $81 for the case.

Here is the thing though, when I go to best buy and do a Antec 1030 search it gives me that price in Beige but then I click on who is supporting them and its beatprice. So now I go to beatprice and I see this: http://www.beatprice.com/bp2/bp_component.asp?cat=20

Its 3 cases to choose from and not one says 1030, so now I am wondering if there the same thing as these: http://www.antec-inc.com/product/cases/sohoser.htm
and what is the difference between the 3 beatprice is offering. If I cant figure it out I will just buy from Antec direct and lay out the extra cash.

Also on the MOBO's is this one ok compare to the other MSI K7T266? (not sure if I asked this already)

MSI K7T266 PRO-RAID VIA PRO 266 CHIPSET ULTRA ATA100 ATX FORM
FACTOR 1xAGP(PRO)/5xPCI/1xCNR/3xDDR W/RAID & AUDIO

[Smoke24]

The motherboard you've chosen is fine. Like I said above, since it is RAID you can use up to four hard drives in the RAID configurations. The first two will alternate writting to give you your 80 gig, the second two write mirror images of the first two to give you instant backup but you still will have 80 gig capacity but always backed up. If you look closely at the Beatprice link you gave, it list the Antec SX1030's under Asus for the beige and Supermicro for the black one. I am pretty sure they are the same case just listed wrong on their site. In the original post which you had above for that case, one of these guys had found it somewhere for $77.

[Tarmenion]

Sorry, I misunderstood, I see what your talking about now.

I am currently up Sound Card and Video Card.

I will look back to see what everyone said now and do my research on a sound card.

Next question.

I decided that I getting the Geforce 2 video card from what I hear its top of the line and then I should upgrade to Geforce 3 by downloading from there website, is this correct? Also which Geforce should I buy as there are a few available?

We are getting there, thanks for the help and fast response Smoke

[Smoke24]

I personally like the ATI Radeon All-In-Wonder 32 meg DDR video card. That's the one I'll get when prices really drop. I have had nothing but good luck with ATI cards and to me the video seems much sharper. The Geforce 2 is fine though and a lot of gamers love them but the download won't make it a Geforce 3 but will likely just update the drivers to improve performance and maybe make it act more like the Geforce 3. I don't know the Geforces so someone else will have to recommend which for those. For sound you might check out the new Turtle Beach Santa Cruz card. That will be my next card as I said above, when the price drops. You will need a surround sound speaker setup with it. I have read some good reviews of it and to be honest, although the Soundblaster Live! cards have been considered the top dog, I am kinda disappointed in mine and have had a few problems with it. It does still sound good though, probably due to my super JBL speakers. Sounds better than most peoples home stereo system.
You might want to make a list of the items you want to order beforehand and then decide where to get it all. Like I said before you may get a deal by ordering a good bit from one or two vendors and definitely save on shipping.
Let's go play a little golf. Be back later tonight.

[Tarmenion]

Ok, I am still looking into sound/video cards.

Next is which CDwriter do I get, I was told plextor but there is a choice of 3 40x-16x here http://direct.mwave.com/mwave/DeptMM...ID=&CID=&Back=

Can someone tell me the difference between the 3?

By the way this is what I have so far, tell me what you guys think.

CASE:
ANTEC SX1030

MOTHERBOARD:
MSI K7T266 PRO-RAID VIA PRO 266 CHIPSET ULTRA ATA100 ATX FORM
FACTOR 1xAGP(PRO)/5xPCI/1xCNR/3xDDR W/RAID & AUDIO
$154.00 - MWAVE

PROCESSOR:
AMD THUNDERBIRD K7 1333MHZ(1.33GHZ) 266MHZ 3D OEM W/O COOLING FAN
$239.00 - MWAVE

MEMORY:
CRUCIAL 2 x 256MB PC2100 DDR-SDRAM, 184-pin DIMM
$79.00 EACH - CRUCIAL

HARDRIVE:
IBM 2 x 40GB ULTRA-ATA/100 IC35L040AVER07/PN#07N6654 7200RPM 8.5MS 2MB BUFFER
$129.00 EACH - MWAVE

CD ROM/DVD:
TOSHIBA SD-M1502T 16X-DVD/48X-CDROM EIDE INTERNAL (Bare drive)
$62.00 - MWAVE

CD WRITER:

VIDEO CARD:

SOUND CARD:

FLOPPY DRIVE:
SONY 1.44MB FLOPPY DRIVE (Bare Drive)
$13.50 - MWAVE

[Alfie]

Your system looks good,but you've forgotten(at least I saw no mention of it)the most critical item.
COOLING!!!
If you fail to install a heatsink and fan on the cpu,or skimp on quality,the cpu without cooling lasts 7-14 seconds.
If you skimp and go cheap,problems could plague you!
The best heatsinks are Alpha,Tiasol,Globalwin,Vantec,Thermoengine.
The best,but also loudest, fan for the heatsinks is the Delta 38cfm(default fan on Vantec and Globalwin)
The Delta 30cfm is the second choice(quieter)
Thermal compound is also strongly advised,Artic silver being the best.
Check here for a large selection(please note you can use the fan of your choice on many of them)
http://www.inflowdirect.com/socketa462.html

[Tarmenion]

Thanks Alf,

Its not that I forgot its I didnt get that far yet

As far as I know the case comes with 2 80m fans with the option of adding 2 more which I will do.

Thanks for that info, I will start looking into that now.

[morriswindgate]

Here is one of the best guides I have seen for explaining the CMOS settings and suggestions for getting the most out of it.
http://www.rojakpot.com/Speed_Demonz...uide_Index.htm

Also here is my disertation on case cooling with links
http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?threadid=12841

[Statica]

Morrisswindgate: Please do not crosspost! No reason to run to all forums and post a link you found.

Thanx

[PardeGT]

Ok, couple of things I've noticed while reading the latest posts.

The prices on pricewatch are the prices the vendors list them as. Pricewatch is not a store just a site for vendors to show prices. If you want more info and the vendors site does not specify either email or call that company. Chances are if they don't list a s/h price you probably don't want to know-its that high. Sometimes its worth paying a little more from a top notch vendor like the four we stated as you will have better support if you would happen to need to return something.

I would strongly follow Smoke24's suggestion about limiting the # of vendors you order from. The three plextor drives at Mwave look to be this. The first 16x10x40 drive is a bare drive-you just get the cdrw drive, no software, no cables for $184, the second for $183 says white box which means in comes with the drive, a cd with drivers and maybe a sound cable, and the one for $193 is a retail box version just like if you went to a store and bought it. It will have the drive, cd with drives, again maybe asound cable and probably added free software (games). Obviously you would choose either the white box or retail version after judging the prices.

The cooling Alfie was talking about were not the extra fans to stick in your case which is fine/good to do. He was speaking of the heatsink/fan combo that goes on top of your processor. AMD chips run hotter and need sufficient cooling. I see your going for the oem version with comes without a heatsink and fan. You must have a heatsink and fan on the processor! The retail version that comes with a heatsink/fan will just get by for normal use. Most here would suggest for livelihood of your processor, expecially if you ever overclock, to buy just the processor (oem) and then a seperate heatsink/fan. Ones recommended are the Globalwin FOP32 and the Alpha pal6032, also artic silver paste between the cpu and heatsink is best. For the extra fans in your case I would recommend sunon fans. A good site for the items mentioned above is http://www.inflowdirect.com/.

[PardeGT]

Sorry Alfie, didn't see your link to inlfow direct.

Anyway, the 1.3mhz 266fsb processor ($238.50) shows "no stock" on Mwave, didn't know if you noticed that. However, Newegg has the same in stock for $210.

Also, you were looking for the Antec sx1030 case for a reasonalble price. Well, if you got your cooling stuff that I mentioned above at inflow direct they also have the antec case. The beige version is $85 and the black one is $90. As the old saying goes "killing two (maybe more) birds with one stone".

Morriswindgate: Don't worry about Statica. He's like the father figure who believes in tough love. Even though he yells at me a lot, I love him to death. He's a really smart guy.

Still I believe you should share your information with people who might need it. I'm sure links to the same sites have posted many times on different threads so don't worry about it.

<3 Statica

[Alfie]

Lynn computers has the 1.3's in stock at even a better price.
Lynn tends to sell good cpus.
He offers 1 yr oem warranty or boxed 3 yr.
The 1 yr is the best bet.
Every AMD cpu I've bought has been through Lynn.
Duron 600@900
Tbird 700@ 900
Duron 700@1,000
Check it out.

http://www.lynncomp.com/amd.htm

[LawyerRon]

Tarmenion,
The only comment I would make is go with a Sound Blaster sound card. I believe the Diamond cards have some issues with via chipsets. Sound Blaster cards are the most universally trouble-free in my opinion.

[Smoke24]

Ron,
Your idea is not a bad one but I told him to check out the new Turtle Beach Santa Cruz sound card. I have had a couple of problems with my Blaster Live! and I have read a few good reviews of that new Santa Cruz. It is built for true surround sound and has lots of features that are really nice should you be into audio editing and compiling. Super nice card!
Tarmenion,
Everyone here has really given you some good sound advise and you should be pretty much set for what you need for now. You will probably need some help and explainations to actually get it setup and running once you get the parts and put it all together. Be patient and check and double check everything you do for your first build and it should turn out great. Good luck!

[WJWheels]

... and don't forget to follow the excellent article on "How to build a PC" by King Risley http://www.pcmech.com/showdoc/282/ or better yet, buy the CD http://www.pcmech.com/products.htm

[Tarmenion]

Thanks again everyone, you guys have been the best of help.

A few more things here.

1. It seems no matter where I go the Processor is not available, it must be a hot item so I guess I will have to wait on that a bit.

2. Pardegt, that Antec 1030 case at the site you recommended was just for the case and not the powersupply.

3. Which is the better Geforce card? I thought Geforce was its own, I didnt know multiple companies make the Geforce, so far I have MSI Geforce. Also should I wait alittle while for the Geforce 3 to drop alittle in price? From what I understand Geforce 3 is ALOT better then 2 but it so damn expensive.

4. Networking Card & Additional Fans, am I looking for anything particular? or is like the floppy disc where anything is suitable?

5. Wires, plugs, accesories, is it best to purchase stuff at my local PC store? anyone know what I will need right from the start?

6. Monitor, I was thinking of buying this at a store rather then getting shipped, what you think? Also what Monitor should I be looking for to match my PC? In other words they say that if I hook up a PC with nice equipement such as Video card, etc.. that I should get a Monitor that can handle this so I can have the best in quality. I dont need those new Expensive LCD's or whatever there called, just something decent to handle the video card and such, I probaly would be looking for 17-19' depending on the price since I am close to my limit now.

Also today I will be going to CompUSA and BESTBUY just to check out somethings and compare prices, the main reason I am going there is to see if they carry the case I am looking for and maybe save on the shipping f there price is decent.

Thats about it for now, this is what I got so far, I think I am almost done, tell me what you guys think

HEATSINK/FANS
GlobalWin FOP32-1 for Socket A/462/FC-PGA 370
$21.00 - INFLOWDIRECT

CASE:
ANTEC SX1030

MOTHERBOARD:
MSI K7T266 PRO-RAID VIA PRO 266 CHIPSET ULTRA ATA100 ATX FORM
FACTOR 1xAGP(PRO)/5xPCI/1xCNR/3xDDR W/RAID & AUDIO
$154.00 - MWAVE

PROCESSOR:
AMD THUNDERBIRD K7 1333MHZ(1.33GHZ) 266MHZ 3D OEM W/O COOLING FAN
$239.00 - MWAVE

MEMORY:
CRUCIAL 2 x 256MB PC2100 DDR-SDRAM, 184-pin DIMM
$79.00 EACH - CRUCIAL

HARDRIVE:
IBM 2 x 40GB ULTRA-ATA/100 IC35L040AVER07/PN#07N6654 7200RPM 8.5MS 2MB BUFFER
$129.00 EACH - MWAVE

CD ROM/DVD:
TOSHIBA SD-M1502T 16X-DVD/48X-CDROM EIDE INTERNAL (Bare drive)
$62.00 - MWAVE

CD WRITER:
PLEXTOR 40X-READ/16X-RECORD/10X-REWRITE EIDE INTERNAL REWRITABLE
W/SW
$193.00 - MWAVE

VIDEO CARD:
MSI GEFORCE2 PRO GTS 64MB DDR W/TV OUT MS-8815 PRO
$182.00 - MWAVE

SOUND CARD:
TURTLE BEACH SANTA CRUZ PCI
$70.00 - MWAVE

FLOPPY DRIVE:
SONY 1.44MB FLOPPY DRIVE (Bare Drive)
$13.50 - MWAVE

[Smoke24]

In buying your parts you should get most if not all the cables you'll need. The motherboard will come with a floppy cable and a couple of IDE cables hopefully of the 80 wire variety. You may or may not get the small audio cables with your CD drives, it depends on which ones you buy, most have them except the bare drives. You should have cables left over but any you are short can be bought at any computer store pretty cheap. Your list looks good and is of real quality stuff. I don't know the Geforce cards but at present and for the price, I would go for the 2 and not a 3. Most major brands should perform similar and have about the same features. You could look at tomshardware and see if they recommend a paticular one. I did notice that you can get that Antec SX1030 case in a 400 watt version, it is the SX1040, in case you're interested. If you use several hard drives and a whole bunch of fans, you might want to consider it. For your net card, stick with 3Com as I have found them to be a bit faster than the cheapies and they are instantly compatible with Windows.
What operating system are you running and do you have a full version disk for it? I still recommend Windows 98se as ME is not what it's cracked up to be. It crashed at random on my machines and caused more problems than one person could solve. While buying your motherboard and processor you may be able to get a new OEM disk for it real cheap.
Buying your monitor locally is not a bad idea. That way if you have any problems, it is easy to return and you'll avoid a high shipping charge. I have found the Viewsonics at Office Depot and other big electonics and office stores to be of excellent quality and you can sometimes find them with fairly good rebates although I am still waiting on my $40 rebate on my wife's monitor from 4/3/01.

[Tarmenion]

How is this site?

http://www.tomshardware.com/

I am finding everything cheap here, when I do an item search it gives me a list of sites that sell the item the cheapest.

So far I got my case for $99 and $7 shipping and handling from Egghead. It also List my processor I am looking for for $208 but I am not familiar of the site that is selling it. Also can is the above site like pricewatch? or can I purchase items here, I am not sure how this system works if I can purchase on this site meaning this site would play the middle man, hmmmm.

What should I do? Look:

http://tomshardware.cnet.com/shoppin...r.pl.pr3714963

http://tomshardware.cnet.com/shoppin...r.pl.pr5224024

[Smoke24]

Tom's is a good place for info and checking out reviews on all sorts of computer components. The Cnet thing you found is like Pricewatch and you would have to buy from the vendor directly. Cnet may get a small commision on the referal from their site, that's the reason they will show only certain vendors because they agree to that. I would say that most if not all of their vendors must be reliable. I have bought lots of stuff at Egghead and like their one price for shipping, no matter how many items are on the same order. They also run an auction at their site where they have close-out and overstock items from many manufacturers but in some cases you can buy the item outright at their fixed price site cheaper either due to higher shipping charges or overexuberant bidders.