College system

[Spyda]

if your going to get ram, (you obviously are as it is required ) get it now, while the price has plumetted

[Familyman]

Does it matter how many DIMM’s we use? 1 512MB or 2 256MB’s?

I read something about some memory needs to use 2? What am I thinking about???

[Spyda]

i think thats only RDRAM and very old SIMM sticks

it doesnt matter really unless you get a board with dual memory bandwidth, which you probably wont as they are the latest and greatest, with a price tag to go with it,
but if you get 2 256s and one fails, at least you have another stick of RAM in place, to see you until you replace the broken one

my brother wants 512 of DDR266 and i want to upgrade to 1GB of ram, but wont do so until he has the money to buy my 2 256s off me so i can buy 2 512s, i always double up my ram sticks for safety

[mwb1jr]

hey familyman, I could dis-assemble my system and ship it to you. I saved the boxes and packages to everything from the case down to the floppy cables.

[Redo40]

Originally posted by Spyda but if you get 2 256s and one fails, at least you have another stick of RAM in place, to see you until you replace the broken one

I agree, also 2 sticks can make troubleshooting ram easier.

[southrk]

News Flash....... a7n8x does not have onboard graphics.....

Crucial PC2100 512 mb is $62 on newegg.com right now

If your looking for budget go retail amd, get the a7n8x deluxe, amd xp2100, GF4 ti4200, 1 stick of crucial 512 ddr, a cheap case, a 350 watt enermax power supply, lite on 52x24x52 burner, and a 80 gig maxtor hard drive, make sure its 7200 rpm with an 8mb cache. Logitech z640 speakers.

All for around $650 on newegg.com

[glc]

Yes, to take *advantage* of the 533 bus, you would need a 533 FSB processor, but for a budget solution you can use a Celeron for now and upgrade later when the prices of the fast P4's come down more. The 2.4b P4 is now down to $164 but you can get a Celeron 1.8 for $70.

[i3OSS]

ok, im confused and i think familyman is too. before we go any further...
Familyman,
which processor are you going to make the build with?

[Familyman]

Oh yes. I’m most defiantly confused. Should I have started by choosing the processor first? I thought price and features was where to should start.

So far we like the Intel D845GEBV2L motherboard glc recommended for its features. But I still don’t have a good handle on how to choose the processor / motherboard / memory combination. I’m one of those people who like to get as much performance out of something as possible. That’s why I asked the 533 FSB question. It seems to me that to get the full potential out of motherboard/processor/memory there has to be a ‘fit’ or ‘balance’ of sorts. I’m thinking that he should choose the case, drives, keyboard and mouse next and then see if we have enough for a 2.4b P4 to take advantage of the 533 FSB since it’s there. If not we go with a Celeron 1.8. I don’t know. This is all new to me. I’m reading whenever I can. I see people talking about ‘bottlenecks’. I guess that’s what I want to avoid.

Two stick of RAM then. (I think I must have read something about boards with dual memory bandwidth and got confused.)

We looked at speaker last night. He likes the Logitech z560’s.

[Redo40]

I think you started out fine. I like to choose the motherboard first, for the features that I want. The motherboard then controls your processor choices, the Intel D845GEBV2L uses socket 478 P4's or Celeron's. They can either have the 400mhz fsb or the 533fsb. The 533 would get you the most performance, but depending on your budget, you can get a cpu with the 400mhz to save some money, then upgrade later if you feel the need. It can be confusing dealing with all the memory options, best bet is to go to Crucial , select the motherboard you want to use and let them give you the compatible choices. As far as 1 stick or 2, that's a personal decision. If you are thinking of upgrading another 512mb's later, I would get 1 stick of 512mb now, if not, I prefer to buy ram in 2's for reason's stated above.

The Logitech Z560's are good speakers.

[kisk]

I know this is somewhat of topic, but being that your son is going off college and you're probably going to have to pay for the books, you two should head over to half.com ... Most are used but I've saved close to $500 on textbooks the past 2 semesters and the books were in great condition. I even sell them back to my school for almost the same price I bought them for online.

Maybe the money you save there can up your computer budget. I'm sure your son wouldn't mind that

[glc]

I see the advantage to having 2 sticks of ram, but the D845GEBV2L only has 2 slots, so I would go with 1 stick to leave room for upgrading. It happily accepts the generic Crucial/Kingston DDR modules at Newegg.

If you are looking at Z-560's, budget for a sound card - the onboard sound won't do them justice, it's only 2-channel. The $33 Soundblaster Live 5.1 will work fine on that board.

Work out your components and see how much you have left in the budget for a processor. The 1.8 Celeron will perform well for general use, but it's gonna be a bit weak for heavy gaming - but so is the onboard video. Both are easily upgraded later.

[Spyda]

if you are wanting max performance out of the board, get the highest for the board not the highest in the shops, for example, if you get PC2700 RAM and your board only supports max PC2100, youve wasted your money, as the RAM will only clock down to 266Mhz,
instead of the full potential of PC2700, 333Mhz

[corosus]

Originally posted by Markoman01027 Since he won't be doing any heavy duty gaming or anything like that..try to get an intel motherboard that has built in features(i.e ethernet, sound, video)

i've had a pc with built in video and have severeal friends that still do, i woulkd not recommend it
get an AGP slot on your mobo' that way you can put in a cheap video card now, and if you later want to, you can upgrade

[kisk]

I still love my Asus P4PE mobo... here are the specs (scroll half way down the page).

Supports Intel CPUs upto +3ghz(400/533 FSB), supports hyperthreading, awesome built in audio, comes with a digital SPDIF out . 6 PCI, 1 AGP, 6 USB 2.0, 3 DDR Ram Slots (up to 2gb of PC2700), onboard LAN controller, onboard RAID controller, and other stuff.

Anyways, its a great board and only around $100 at pricewatch.

[glc]

Corosus: The board I'm suggesting has onboard Intel Extreme Graphics, which is said to be GF2 MX quality. It's adequate for casual gaming.

Spyda: Yes, the 845GE chipset officially supports PC2700 but will run asynchronous if you set it to run at 2700. I usually put PC2700 in the PE/GE builds I do because it's not much more expensive than PC2100.

Kisk: The PE and GE chipsets perform about the same but the PE doesn't have onboard video - a video card is an additional expense which doesn't appear to be necessary immediately. Asus makes awesome boards for hobbyists and tweakers, but Intel boards are just as solid and are simple to set up.

[corosus]

i am a student myself, and the ablity to upgrade is imho a verry valuble one, especially if you like to play games, and do not have mutch cash, like most students.

plus this way you can do what my parents did with me, they gave me the cash for the most basic computer, and i augmented taht from my personal money.
over time i upgraded, one piece at the time, so that now (2years later) i have a compleetly new comp.

[Familyman]

Now I can’t find the D845GEBV2L on Intel.com

[Redo40]

D845GEBV2 is the same board, the L means it comes with onboard LAN. This will interest you also.

[Familyman]

Thanks Redo40. That's what I was looking for.

[Familyman]

OK, here’s where we are today.

We picked up a black ENERMAX case with 350watt power supply and side window, Western Digital 175GB 7200RPM 2MB cache with ATA controller card, black Logitech elite keyboard, Logitech mx500 optical mouse and 3 case fans.

Ordered the Intel D845GEBV2L, P4 2.4BGHz, 1 stick 512MB KINGSTON PC2700 and a 1.44MB floppy drive.

What does the ATA controller card that came with the hard drive do?

[Redo40]

It allows you to use hard drives over 137GB. You will have to connect the drive to it instead of the IDE.

Looks like a really good system. Good choices.

[Familyman]

Thanks Redo40.

We’re having a lot of fun with this. I’ve been reading the build your own PC tutorial and the information on the Intel website. We also picked up a couple of books. I’m sure we will have more questions after the components arrive.

[i3OSS]

its not as hard as you think. people ask me what my computer was and i told them all the specs and told them it was built by me.
they called me crazy and that how hard it was when i told no, its actually really easy. its just like setting it up already made parts
dont get too worried, just take a good look at the manuals and plan everything out.

Youll do great and thats a great system.
good luck
i3oss

[Force Flow]

Originally posted by i3OSS its not as hard as you think. people ask me what my computer was and i told them all the specs and told them it was built by me. they called me crazy and that how hard it was when i told no, its actually really easy. its just like setting it up already made parts

Lol, i3OSS. People I know say that it's amazing when I tell them I built my PC.

It can be quite rewarding sometimes.

[azscary]

Do you think he could get by with a WD 80GB/7200RPM/8MB cache?

That is the EXACT same drive I have and it does way more than get by. The 8MB cache makes it fly.

The MoBo I have is an IWill P4ES that has an Intel 845E chipset. It has onboard audio described below.

Realtek® ALC650
6-channel AC'97 Audio CODEC
S/PDIF digital audio
1 x 4-pin CD-ROM audio-in header
1 x 4-pin AUX header
3 x Audio connectors (Line-in | Line-out | MIC)
1 x Rear Ch. audio connector
1 x Center Ch./Subwoofer audio connector
1 x Digital-out port for S/PDIF support

Here is the link to the IWill site and you can see all the specs

http://www.iwillusa.com/products/Pro...il.asp?vID=130

MWAVE has the MB for $95.98 plus shipping and NEWEGG has it for $91.00 free shipping.

[glc]

You will not need the card that came with that drive - the Intel bios will see the whole drive.

Only problems with that board that azscary mentions is it doesn't have onboard video, and it's the older 845E chipset.

[azscary]

I personally don't like onboard video or onboard LAN. I like the idea of being able to switch out the card if they go bad, and I have this undying affection for Intel Pro 10/100 NIC cards. That is why I buy boards without those particular onboard features. I used to subscribe to the idea that the more onboard the better as it leaves PCI slots free, but I could never find anything to fill up all of those slots. I also had a run of bad luck with onboard video or LAN taking a dump. This is actually one of the few boards I have bought that has onboard sound, but I was intrigued with the idea of surround sound onboard. I still haven't got around to buying the surround sound speakers, but I am still intrigued. LOL

[Familyman]

Thanks glc. Just leave the jumper on the HD in cable select?

Any recommendations on setting up the D845GEBV2L motherboard, etc? We did order retail so I’m guessing it comes with an instruction manual. I’ve been reading the information about the motherboard on the Intel website. It looks like the set up is done in the BIOS.

I read something about powering up the board after installing the processor and memory but before installing it in the case?

Anything else I should read before the components arrive? They should be here in a day or two and I’d like to be as prepared as possible.

azscary, My experience with onboard LAN and video has been good. They seem to work quite well enough for what we use them for. I’ve never had a problem with either. We can always add a video card later if my son gets into gaming. I got him a game to see if he likes it.

[glc]

The board comes with a manual on the CD, but it also comes with a yellow sticker that has the board map for all connectors. Use the 80 wire color coded IDE cable for the hard drive, leave it jumpered cable select, and plug the blue end into the motherboard and the black end into the hard drive.

Yep, powering it up on the table is a good idea. It's best to install the ram and CPU on the table anyway.

The only "gotcha" on that board is the power LED connector - it's a 2 pin where most case leads are 3 pin. It's easy enough to extract one of the end pins in the connector and put it into the middle hole. The system will function just fine with no power LED if you don't want to be bothered - and the board has an onboard piezo speaker so there is no place to hook up the case speaker, just tie the speaker lead back. There are no jumpers to set on the board unless you have front panel audio connectors on the case that you want to use, all settings are in the bios and you actually don't need to set anything except the date and time, the board takes very good care of itself.

The bios is defaulted to "silent boot" which just throws up a splash screen instead of showing you POST data - to get into the bios start tapping F2 as soon as you apply power - and disable silent boot while you are in there.

The first thing you want to do after getting Windows installed is run the CD that came with the board, it's self explanatory, it will install all necessary drivers and allow you to install "value added" software - most of which isn't necessary.