BYOPC's advice welcome

v6z24e · 10-12-2007, 05:01 AM

HI. My name is Eric. I’m going to attempt my first pc build over the next few months. I’ve read up on a few sites what to look for and got a mod book to read though, so I’m not completely in the dark. I have a friend at work that recommended newegg.com to me for parts, so everything I priced is there.

The PC will be used for net surfing, I-tunes, DVD watching, games, nothing to hardcore, but I want it to last a couple years if possible. I do want to be able to have it run to my HD-TV. A great video card to play games and DVD/Blue Ray movies at top quality is a must. Learning how to build it should save money in the long run if I know what it is capable of and when to upgrade or replace.

Here is a breakdown of what I’m looking to get-
(all going in an Antec Nine-Hundred case that I already bought)

CPU- AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ Windsor 3.0GHz http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16819103773

Cooling- um…look at the case. LOL, do I need it? I will add a CPU fan/heat sink, the Video card has a fan.
----- ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 64 Pro 92mm CPU Cooler http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16835185125

Motherboard- ASUS M2N-SLI Deluxe AM2 NVIDIA nForce 570 SLI MCP ATX AMD http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16813131013

Video Card- XFX PVT80GGHD4 GeForce 8800GTS 320MB 320-bit GDDR3 http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16814150173

Sound Card- motherboard has 5.1 on it, will upgrade later if needed
Speakers- have a 2.1 system from old pc, will get 5.1 off e-bay later

OS- Microsoft Windows XP Home With SP2B http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16832116056

Hard Drive- I have a 20gig and an 80gig from old pc, reuse? I was thinking of the 20gig for the OS and adding two new ~150 (one for games, programs, junk, and the other for I-tunes and movies) good idea bad idea? Is the 10k rpm worth the money over a 7.2k?
-----Western Digital Raptor X WD1500AHFD 150GB 10,000 RPM 16MB http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16822136011
----- Western Digital Caviar RE WD1600YS 160GB 7200 RPM 16MB http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16822136062

Optical Drive- Have a external DVD-RW drive and a internal CD-RW from old pc, will add a Blue-Ray later

Monitor, Mouse, Keyboard- Have from old pc, may get a 22” widescreen and gaming keyboard later. No rush though, any keyboard works, and my HD TV will do good for now

Anti-virus, Spam protection- I have no idea in this department. What do you recommend?

Memory- How do you tell what is good? Is the top dollar better than the cheapo kind? I want 4gig total, but will likely buy two 1gig sticks for now and get two more later. Here is what I was looking at-
-----CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16820145589
-----CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16820145590
----- G.SKILL 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16820231098

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What I’d like to know is-

Will these all work well together?

Is this a good build that will last, games and speed?

Is this setup a good mix of max performance without getting the most expensive parts?

Should I look into Video card/Memory cooling units?

What am I forgetting?

Any advise/tips for first build?

I know I don’t have a Power Supply on the list. I have no idea how to understand them yet. What will have enough leads for my rig? Is it possible to run two at once? Good idea, bad idea, overkill, not possible?
ideally something that looks good in side window. This maybe- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817190012

What am I missing?

Thanks for any help.

Eric

Satyllac · 10-15-2007, 07:21 PM

When it comes to upgradeability, it's really a mixed bag. Sometimes you get lucky and have the ability to install new parts down the line, and sometimes the new technology is a flop (like RamBus RAM), and doesn't last much longer.

A couple years ago I was on the same mission. A good solid rig that wouldn't be out-of-date in a year or two when it came time to upgrade.

Things I put on my requirement list...
DDR2 Memory, PCI-Express x16, and the newest Intel processor style, the LGA-775.

To me, it looks like you're on the right track.

Motherboard: I'd recommend Asus or Abit. I personally run an Asus P5GDC-Deluxe that's been bulletproof so far. Get whatever suits your needs best. You might want to get one that's SLI or Crossfire compatible if you're planning on that later on.

Video: Look at the midrange of the newest line of cards. Aim for $250 to maybe $350 in this area. Go for a good brand (I prefer ATi), and do lots of research. Read up on all the most recent game benchmarks if you're interested in playing the latest games. If overclocking is of interest to you, research that as well, see which ones do best under stress.

Memory: Go midrange of the newest technology for the best bang-for-your-buck, unless there's a good sale on something. When I built my rig (back in early 2005) I put in 512 MB of OCZ's budget DDR2-533 memory. At the time, DDR2 was just starting to hit it off, so I wanted to make sure I'd be able to upgrade later down the road. They haven't failed me yet, but I really could use more space. I've been wanting to upgrade to 2GB, but have had other things to spend the money on. Kingston, Corsair, Crucial, Geil, OCZ, all are good as far as I've heard. If I had my way I'd opt for Kingston Hyper-X.

Sound: Asus has some decent onboard sound solutions, my board has 7.1 for example, and uses multiple connections. Example, mine has optical output, SPDIF output, and individual 3.5mm connections for front, rear, side, center, sub, and microphone. Other than onboard, I have no experience with sound cards.

Processor: Now that multiple cores are mainstream (as far as I can tell), go for whichever core is newest and most advanced, and get one of the slower speeds in that model. When I bought mine, it was the slowest LGA-775 Pentium 4 with HyperThreading at 2.8 Ghz, but it cost me much less than the 3.0+ Ghz versions.

Power Supply: Find out what your power needs are and get one that can pump out a few extra watts continuous. Make sure you're not reading peak wattage. I'm sure there's more science to it than that, like making sure certain lines have proper maximum amperage and such, but I haven't had an issue with that. I'm currently running an Antec 500W. I'd recommend going for a big name manufacturer. Antec, Fortron, or if you've got money to spare, PC Power & Cooling. Newegg also has PSU's from Thermaltake, Corsair, OCZ, and other name-brand hardware related companies, I doubt you'd get much trouble from them either.

v6z24e · 10-16-2007, 03:10 AM

Thanks for the list, i had put this post up on my J-body site and a Geek site i just joined. They said it looks pretty good. Some of them were saying go Intel, i don't care, but my laptop has AMD and I'm happy with no probs. That setup does have DDR2 Memory and PCI-Express x16. It isn't quad core capable but it does have duel core. And the board supports 5.1, if i want better later, I'll get a separate card with 7.1.