New to building: Compatibility or Suggestions? ( 1 Views )

1. First post is the generic "is this right?" question :P I've spent the last week or so lurking and reading everything I can about all the new computer technology so I hope it isnt too terrible!.
   
   With that said, this will be my first home built computer, I've upgraded my comps before but never from the ground up. So I'm guessing there is far more to do with compatibility between components than just getting a hard drive or videocard and plugging it in! Anyway, here is what I've picked out so far, im trying to stay below $1500 for the computer iteself (no monitor keyboard ect).
   
   Also, I EVENTUALLY want to try my hand at Overclocking, but not till I get good use out of it while it works :P Computer will mainly be used for games, and every once and awhile (when im not on games) school work. Everquest, WoW, umm.. yeah that sums it up.
   
   CPU: At first I had a 4000+ for cpu, and my friend (who currently has dual core) told me to compare the two types, i read up about them here and after weighing the price and the fact that newer programs (games) will provide more support for dual core i decided on this. ( 3800+ instead of 4200+ because i read its fairly easy to overclock the 3800 to the same speed as the 4200)
   
   AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ Manchester 2000MHz HT Socket 939 Dual Core Processor Model ADA3800BVBOX - Retail
   
   
   Motherboard: Here is where I run into unfamiliar territory. First of all the board looks like it rocks. All sorts of stuff i dont even know what's for and such. My friend has an ASUS board and loves it and said this one is a very nice one. So here it is. I've read alot of stuff about the board, the most concerning is it being finiky with the two sticks of 1GB ram..? Is that just when OCing or in general? Also, which made me switch my PSU, it doesnt have 2x2 for two 12volt rails? (I have no clue what that means, i figured it was bad..)
   
   ASUS A8N32-SLI Deluxe Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce SPP 100 ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
   
   
   PSU: The one I originally picked was 600w from seasonic. Neither 12v had more than 20amps, this has like 33a if i remember correctly, is 20 required for a 4900gt? (read that somewhere) Like $30 more expensive too. Again, i was told this is a very nice PSU (friend has this :P) Seasonic was also SLI certified, since i plan on eventually putting another card in there.
   
   OCZ PowerStream OCZ520ADJSLI ATX, BTX, EPS12V 520W Power Supply - Retail
   
   
   RAM: Orignially i had $300 corsair xms ram here, and after going through and putting myself on a budget my friend recommended this as opposed to the G.SKILL ramp (quicker timings or something). Again I want to be sure this will work in my motherboard..
   
   OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered Dual Channel Platinum System Memory Model OCZ4002048ELDCPE-K - Retail
   
   
   Graphics Card: Theres a ton of options for this, and its quite daunting. I was originally planing on a 6800gt, but after changing psu ram and cpu i saved probably $300, so Im looking at a 7900gt. But i see like 15 different cards, different clock speeds on them all, do they come OC'd from the manufacturer? And is that good or bad? This is the one I had my eye on, 520MHz and is still $309, but dont know anything about manufacturer (XFX, their extream edition). Would cooling be a problem?
   
   XFX PV-T71G-UDE7 GeForce 7900 GT EXTREME (520MHz) 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail
   
   
   Hard Drive: This post is becoming a book.. I was told by one person to get two quick drives and RAID0 them, then laughed at and made fun of by another person who knows more about computers :P All he told me was get 7200rpm, with sata and NCQ (wtf is ncq?)
   
   Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 ST3300622AS 300GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
   
   
   CD/DVD-RW: This looks too good to be true.. $40 for burning + or - in single or dual layer, as well as DVD play and CD play and CD burn... There's gotta be a catch, thats all i can say. (Maybe the IDE? It's been too long since i read about the drive types :( )
   
   
   NEC 16X DVD±R DVD Burner Beige IDE Model ND-3550A - OEM
   
   Case: New choice! Much better looking too :D <3 black... thanks much Grap3S0da :) I appreciate it!
   
   Lian Li PC-7B plus II Black Aluminum ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail
   
   With all that Im at $1345 (more than I spent on my motorcycle :( ) which would leave room for a shipping and a new monitor! Oh and Windows Pro I guess unless school will let me do the upgrade disc from an older version of windows. Thanks in advance! Sorry for how much I type :P
   
   
   (suat, China)


2. Looks like an excellent setup to me. You won't be disappointed.
   
   
   (bengu, Algeria)


3. nice but isnt the Centurion cheaper at newegg? I see you are ordering most parts from the egg so might as well get the case from them too. I calculated shipping from Tigerdirect and it ended up to be over $70 for me! The case is ok if you are on a tight budget. Stuff should all fit but you will have less room to work with and there is no removable motherboard tray. The tooless setup works pretty good. O and you have to take off the whole front panel to add/remove optical drives and the design for that is kinda cheap (you have to push out the plastic pegs the holds the front together)
   
   http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811119047
   
   And $40 for that DVD Burner is not that hard to believe. Prices on DVD burners have dropped tremendously and that DVD burner was around the $35 range (as well as other burners) for a while (o and are you getting the beige one with that case? That would look kinda awkward haha. The retail one comes with Nero. $40 is basically the average price for burners (except for more expensive ones like Plextors..which arent that much faster).
   
   Looks good though. Hope you have fun with your new rig.
   
   
   (selma, Singapore)


4. I saw the one on newegg also, the one from tiger direct had an extra 80mm fan :P But $70 with shipping /cries... Will all mid towers be "cramped" or are some more spacious than others? (I dislike the idea of taking the front off for optical drives, my current computer is like that and i swear and curse... untill i broke a tab, then it was easy!)
   
   I'll look around more for that, I kinda just stumbled on that and stopped looking :)
   
   
   (ALÝ , Monaco)


5. Quote:

   I saw the one on newegg also, the one from tiger direct had an extra 80mm fan

   Are you sure the cases are different? I believe its the same thing..they both have a 120mm fan in the back and one 80mm fan in the front. There are some other midtowers that have more space (such as the Antec P180), but then again they are also larger in size (still considered midtower tho). The centurion should work fine if you like the looks tho and you don't have to worry too much about cooling if you wire your cables nicely..and perhaps upgrading to a better heatsink fan.
   
   Also see this Lian Li case. It has a nice clean look and has a 120mm fan in the back and one in the front. Youu can replace the front 120mm w/ an LED or UV blue fan if you like the blue look.
   
   
   (zekerya, Sudan)


6. Im 90% sure the only difference is the inclusion of the extra fan. Other than that its exactly the same.
   
   

   Quote:

   From tiger direct: 80mm Fan Ports 1 80mm Fans Included 1 120mm Fan Ports 1 120mm Fans Included 1 From new egg: Cooling System 120mm Fans 1 Side Air duct Yes

   
   Thats the only real tip off i had. The blue i was referring to was on the case :) Im not really a fan of the LED's unless they're red (not so ungodly bright at night in my room). That case you liked looks nice! Does it cool nicely? I used to think more fans = better, not anymore heh. Air flow over components and whatnot, its kinda scary (like all the rest of this stuff, but i've gotten over that)
   
   Also, what does a removable motherboard tray afford you? Access to underside of the board?
   
   If i decide to bite the bullet and buy the comp I will be SO obsessivly neat i probably wont ever finish building it :( lol Thanks for your help, btw :)
   
   
   (melike, French Southern Territories)


7. Although Newegg does not say it comes with the 80mm fan, it actually does. I bought the silver one for my dads PC (windowless also) and it also says nothing about the 80mm fan on the site, but when I received it, it actually came with one. Anyways..it would probably be easier for you to order the case from one site haha..just wanted to clear that up tho. And yes Lian Li cases generally cool well and have a better construction than some of the cheaper cooler masters (you get what you pay for!). The centurion is not a bad case but why not pay a little more and get a better case. Your PC is an investment and you might as well spend more now than buy something cheap that you may not be happy with in the long run.
   
   Lian Li is highly recommended bynot only by people in this forum, but others as well. Here is the review for the 7B Plus http://www.systemcooling.com/lian_li_pc-7b-01.html
   and I believe the one at Newegg is the Plus II, which probably has some minor upgrades. This case also does not have a removable motherboard tray (makes it easier to attach the motherboard, but not really a necessity)
   
   

   Quote:

   The inclusion of two quiet 120mm fans provides excellent cooling with minimal noise – a fair trade in my opinion for the loss of the removable motherboard tray and one external 3.5” drive bay.

   (From the review)
   
   No problem btw and the only reason why I keep on mentioning the case because you have such nice system specs and it would be nicer if you supplied a good house for your components. :p I am considering getting this case also.. if I decide to go back to atx cases after being into Small form factor systems for a while. I believe Velocity Micro uses the same case for their Gamers Edge 1500 and it is quite a beauty...looks more solid than the Cooler master.
   
   
   (murat, France)


8. You've convinced me :P its only like $40 more, and.. yeah.. all at one place would be good. They are cheep on shipping anyway :) Now i just have to weight the need to save money for school... or spend it on a new computer... im leaning towards new comptuer :P
   
   
   (EYLEM, Chile)


9. O one last suggestion haha..was just browsing the Hot Deals section and they have that Seagate hard drive on sale for $99.99 if you buy it today or tomorrow. Ground shipping for me was about $8. Good deal if you can get it now and don't mind ordering from two different places..should save you some $.
   http://shop4.outpost.com/product/4596297
   
   And yea..good choice in upgrading the case..hey you saved $50 on that Mail in Rebate for the ram so might as well spend it.
   Also look out for some of those Dell deals for the 20.1" Widescreen LCDs. They are trying to clear out some 2005FPW to make room for the new 2007 model. Just got the 2005FPW for about $380 shipped after tax..not bad a bad price for such a nice monitor.
   Review for Dell 2005FPW if you need it
   But just go to the Display subforum and just look at how many people have it..should be convincing enough. (They got me!)
   
   
   (emre, Pakistan)


10. I probably wont be ordering till next week if i do =/ Pay check isnt till saturday lol
    
    My friend recently built a compy and she is regretting not upgrading stock cpu cooling (she has p4 tho, and they run a bit hotter as far as i can tell) since she has to take the mobo off to get the fan and sink off the cpu (from what i understand) Would it be worth spending like $15 on a better cooling system now?
    
    It may be awhile before i get a monitor. Just use this computer as a "server" in the mean time (even though i hate this monitor with a passion such a pos)
    
    
    (memet, British Indian Ocean Territory)


11. I doubt a $15 will be better than the stock heatsink fan. I have used a stock cooler with 3 different systems that I have built and have had no problems. Cool and quiet works well and the stock heatsink should work fine for light overclocking. Its not hard to replace the heatsink if you do feel like you need to have better cooling in the future.
    
    Haha I know how you feel about using a crappy monitor..been using an old dell CRT for a few years now and finally have a nice LCD to ease my eyes. What's sad tho is I'm still using this ghetto microsoft keyboard and the old school harman/kardon speakers.
    
    
    (rojin, Taiwan, Province of China)


12. Quote:

    Originally Posted by Grap3S0da What's sad tho is I'm still using this ghetto microsoft keyboard and the old school harman/kardon speakers.

    Proud to be using the same keyboard since '99. Some of the letters aren't visible anymore! :)
    
    
    (tuðçe, Bhutan)

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