GARYC24 3 #1 December 19, 2006 I'm seeking additional info from anyone who has put together their own case/power supply, motherboard,cpu, etc. I have put one together years ago (165mhz) Intel before that was a XT (after AT came). PM would be okay for replies. Thank you Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
aardvarkeater 0 #2 December 19, 2006 What kind of info are you looking for?Muff Brother #4026 Loco Zapatos Rodriguez SCR #14793 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
GARYC24 3 #3 December 19, 2006 Actual parts used(pro.cons) mother boards, case power supply styles that were used. Any compatibility problems with other pcbs. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mostly_Harmless 0 #4 December 19, 2006 Are you looking to see what the rest of us are running or are you looking to find out what to get to build a brand new one? If you are planning to build a new one let us know what kind of price range you are looking at. Also places like www.tomshardware.com, www.guru3d.com_________________________________________ www.myspace.com/termvelocity Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
pilotdave 0 #5 December 19, 2006 I built my computer last year... I didn't know anything about the latest components, so I just started reading reviews at http://www.newegg.com until I figured out what I wanted. Start by picking a processor, then maybe a video card (if you plan to play any games), and hard drive(s)... then find a motherboard that's compatible with them all that has good reviews. Make sure you figure out everything you need to make it run. The case and power supply is easy enough to figure out last. I pretty much just picked a price range and then went by reviews. Dave Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jumpah 0 #6 December 19, 2006 Stick with Intel stock parts...yah...AMD is a fine company...but if you want a good machine working with minimum hassel, go with an OEM Intel mobo + OEM Intel CPU, not a knock-off or clone or something that is built to work like something else. If you stick with Intel you'll end up with a machine that has a good chance of working without much fuss. If you start throwing in some mobo from one company with a processor from a different one you may not be sure that they are 100% compatible. At least with Intel cpu + mobo you know that they are designed to work together. I've built a number of Intel-only systems and had only minor issues, where the two AMD + whatever (Tyan I think) mobo systems I have tried to build were always squirrely. These were 5-8 years ago, and maybe things are better now. For me, saving a few bucks isn't worth it. Try to use an XP installation that has SP2 built in...if your mobo has any kind of RAID controller for the drives this will help, as I've found SP0 versions of XP tend to require drivers to even see the hard drives. www.newegg.com is a good place to buy components. If something doesn't work, they usually do warranty through the original manufacturer, so read their return/warranty policy carefully. Coolermaster makes a nice case, but any should do. Make sure you have enough fans. Nvidia and ATI make nice graphics cards. You can find cheap nvidia cards from a whole variety of companies that license the technology...I have found some work well and some don't. Make sure all the fans are working before you button it up. The mobo bios should also be able to tell you the internal temp after its been running for a while...make sure its within limits of everything. A cool system runs faster than a hot one. SATA drives are fun and fast. When assembling, have a nice high bench to work on with bright lights. Get one of those LED headlamps you can find at outdoor stores...the light helps make the little writing on the mobo easily visible. Consider installing linux and windows in a dual boot configuration...or just linux! Knoppix makes a free bootable linux distribution on a CD or DVD that requires no installation...I like this for testing that everything is hooked up right before installing the OS. www.knoppix.org. The case I have for my current system and the power supply both glow blue. I didn't expect it...but its a neat effect. Have fun. It's rewarding to make something go that you put together yourself. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
aardvarkeater 0 #7 December 19, 2006 I PM'd you as well but for everyone else... Given the number of components out there. There's million's of configurations possible. What exactly are you wanting out of this machine? General office stuff like Word, Web, and Email? Games? Video? Music? Media Center? Do you care if it is noisy or will this be in the bedroom where you want it quiet? How big of an area are you putting this in? How much do you want to spend?Muff Brother #4026 Loco Zapatos Rodriguez SCR #14793 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
GARYC24 3 #8 December 19, 2006 Thanks to all replies. I most likely will be doing shopping from Fry's Electronics. Only game I play is chess. this one for $106 is looks good to me Intel BOXD945GBOLKR MicroBTX Intel Motherboard - Retail Socket T (LGA 775) Intel 945G 4 x 240pin Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
1969912 0 #9 December 19, 2006 First step is to decide whether to use an AMD or an Intel CPU. Mobo's are CPU-specific. Stay away from no-name or unpopular big-name mobo's because driver availability and support could be nonexistent, especially in the future. Check the mobo vendor's website; if they have a version of the site in your language, that's a plus. If the site looks like it was cobbled together in some reeking third-world opium den, that's a minus. Gamers seem to be big on building pc's, so mobo brands popular with them might be a place to start. Get a decent power supply whether it comes with the case or not. Bad one's are noisy and failure-prone. "Once we got to the point where twenty/something's needed a place on the corner that changed the oil in their cars we were doomed . . ." -NickDG Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dontiego 0 #10 December 19, 2006 I used mostly review from http://www.silentpcreview.com/ . Didn't want an airplane in the room."We call on the common man to rise up in revolt against this evil of typographical ignorance." http://bancomicsans.com Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
chrismgtis 0 #11 December 20, 2006 As many systems as I have built I've never had issues with AMD systems, but I've had a couple of Intel systems that had issues. Things will go wrong. Point is though, an Intel system isn't going to be "more stable" or have less chance of dying than an AMD system really. There are performance differences between AMD and Intel, but keep in mind, no matter what the commercials or people tell you, the difference is not that significant. An Intel system might perform 5% better in this type of application, but a comparable AMD processor might have a 5% performance difference in a different type of application. 5% isn't much and you won't ever notice it. Case in point, go with a processor in your price range. Personally, I prefer motherboards with NForce chipsets. They are very stable and have great onboard sound on the boards that I've personally used. If you're wanting a stable quality system, stay away from cheap motherboards in the $30-60 price range such as PCChips. I'd recommend an ASUS board, which is what I always use and I love them. A power supply is important for stability and the possible destruction (or not) of your PC components. Don't buy a $5-15 power supply. Preferably go with a company such as Enermax. The PSU will cost you about $65-75, but it will last. It will provide adequate power to the components in your system every second of it's life and you won't wake up to a loud pop, discovering smoke coming out of your system and several fried components. The only things you really have to worry about when it comes to compatibility are: 1. AMD or Intel Processor? You must use an AMD or Intel motherboard. You can't use an AMD processor with an Intel motherboard. 2. PCI (doubt seriously you will use a PCI video card), AGP or PCI-E video card? Which does your motherboard have and what type is your video card? 3. IDE or SATA hard drive? Most likely IDE. If your system has SATA connectors, odds are it does have IDE too. This isn't a big deal. You will probably go with an IDE hard drive, unless you want to spend some extra cash for a "faster" hard drive. -If I forgot anything, I'm tired of typing so maybe I'll add more later and I'm at work- P.S. Don't buy a 10,000rpm hard drive thinking things will be a lot faster, please. That is unless you plan on using your computer to get a ride to altitude.Rodriguez Brother #1614, Muff Brother #4033 Jumped: Twin Otter, Cessna 182, CASA, Helicopter, Caravan Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mnealtx 0 #12 December 20, 2006 The new Intel Core 2 Duo processors are strongly outperforming the current AMD chips at the moment. They also run appreciably cooler under load - and a cooler system is a happy system. You could build a decent, no-frills system for somewhere around $700, depending on the equipment you choose. Please note the $ amount is a guess, based against the recent searches for equipment I've been doing to build a new machine. It's definitely worth going to www.tomshardware.com and checking out their "build your own" section, as well as the forums.Mike I love you, Shannon and Jim. POPS 9708 , SCR 14706 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
floridadiver81 0 #13 December 20, 2006 my setup- pictures included ASUS A8N-E Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard.....board specs are as follows FSB 1000MHz Hyper Transport (2000 MT/s) Number of DDR Slots 4 x 184pin DDR Standard DDR 400 (PC 3200) Maximum Memory Supported 4GB Dual Channel Supported Yes AGP Slots None PCI Express x16 1 PCI Express x1 2 PCI Slots 3 Other Slots 1x PCI Express x4 Storage Devices PATA 2 x ATA100 up to 4 Devices PATA RAID NV RAID 0/1/0+1 JBOD SATA 3Gb/s 4 SATA RAID NV RAID 0/1/0+1 JBOD Audio Chipset Realtek ALC850 Audio Channels 8 Channels Max LAN Speed 10/100/1000Mbps PS/2 2 LPT 1 USB 4 x USB 2.0 S/PDIF Out 1x Optical and 1x Coaxial Audio Ports 6 Ports Onboard USB 6x USB 2.0(giving you a total of 8 USB 2.0 ports) I HIGHLY reccommend ASUS mobo's due to their overclocking capabilities. If the proper cooling methods are used you can overclock ASUS boards and the right processors to %200. I currently have mine set to 3.4 gig. I can go higher but in nto running the AC all day so i monitor the temps. if it's a cool day i can overclock it to the max and run the processor to 4 gigs. eVGA 064-TC-2N26-SX GeForce 6200 LE TC Supporting 256MB(64MB On-Board) GDDR2 PCI Express x16 Video Card...not the best video card.but it runs Battlefield 2142 so thats really good. AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Venice 2.0GHz Socket 939 Processor Model ADA3200BPBOX(havent had a single crash or bluescreen yet! Sunbeam AC-HUVB UV Blue (UV reactive) Clear Acrylic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 ST3200826A 200GB 7200 RPM IDE Ultra ATA100 Hard Drive - OEM MASSCOOL BLD-08025S1M 80mm Blue LED Case Fan...i am running 5 of these in the case and tep never go above 90 degrees farenheight. http://myspace-789.vo.llnwd.net/01223/98/74/1223164789_l.jpg http://a750.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/20/l_12b86e23b37fbf5ced6ff99176ab2a2d.jpg http://myspace-302.vo.llnwd.net/01223/20/35/1223165302_l.jpg"Age has absolutely nothing to do with knowledge, learning, respect, attitude, or personality." -yardhippie "Fight the air, and the air will kick your ass!!! "-Specialkaye Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mnealtx 0 #14 December 20, 2006 Getting anything over about 30 - 50% OC is a crapshoot and dependant upon overpriced, high speed memory and extreme cooling solutions... you're talking about being able to get 4Ghz out of that A64, which I honestly don't believe is possible...but if you HAVE, I'd love to see the benchmark sheets.Mike I love you, Shannon and Jim. POPS 9708 , SCR 14706 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
aardvarkeater 0 #15 December 20, 2006 Processor: Intel Core Duo or Core 2 Duo Motherboard: Asus, Gigabyte, MSI. P965 or G965 northbridge chipset. ATX or micro ATX form factor. Graphics Card: If mobo with G965 chipset use the onboard, if P965 it will be PCI-E. (AGP is old tech) In that case go with either Nvidia or ATI. Doesn't matter unless you really are into game FPS stats. (For GARYC24 onboard graphics should be fine) Memory: Get 1GB min, 2GB max of whatever ram the mobo will support. (Probably will be DDR2 of some speed) Hard Drive: Seagate, Western Digital, Samsung, Fujitsu, 7200rpm, Serial ATA is a must CD/DVD/Burner: Whatever you want and is in your price range. Power Supply: 350-450w PS, Seasonic S-12, Antec NeoHE, Antec EarthWatts, Zalman Case: Whatever you like. ATX form factor will fit both board sizes while micro ATX cases will only fit micro ATX size boards. OS: If you can wait, go for Vista, otherwise get XP Pro with SP2Muff Brother #4026 Loco Zapatos Rodriguez SCR #14793 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mnealtx 0 #16 December 20, 2006 QuoteProcessor: Intel Core Duo or Core 2 Duo Motherboard: Asus, Gigabyte, MSI. P965 or G965 northbridge chipset. ATX or micro ATX form factor. Graphics Card: If mobo with G965 chipset use the onboard, if P965 it will be PCI-E. (AGP is old tech) In that case go with either Nvidia or ATI. Doesn't matter unless you really are into game FPS stats. (For GARYC24 onboard graphics should be fine) Memory: Get 1GB min, 2GB max of whatever ram the mobo will support. (Probably will be DDR2 of some speed) Hard Drive: Seagate, Western Digital, Samsung, Fujitsu, 7200rpm, Serial ATA is a must CD/DVD/Burner: Whatever you want and is in your price range. Power Supply: 350-450w PS, Seasonic S-12, Antec NeoHE, Antec EarthWatts, Zalman Case: Whatever you like. ATX form factor will fit both board sizes while micro ATX cases will only fit micro ATX size boards. OS: If you can wait, go for Vista, otherwise get XP Pro with SP2 Don't forget the floppy drive to load up the SATA drivers when he installs the OS...Mike I love you, Shannon and Jim. POPS 9708 , SCR 14706 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
aardvarkeater 0 #17 December 20, 2006 QuoteDon't forget the floppy drive to load up the SATA drivers when he installs the OS... No. You don't need a floppy. You don't need to load drives for SATA. Maybe if you have an older board or a board that has a secondary HD controller chip then you might but any modern board has support for SATA on the the main chipset and therefore doesn't need drivers. Hence, no floppy. I've built 5 systems from scratch over the past 2 years and haven't put a floppy in any of them. Boot from the OS cd and you're off.Muff Brother #4026 Loco Zapatos Rodriguez SCR #14793 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
chrismgtis 0 #18 December 20, 2006 QuoteI HIGHLY reccommend ASUS mobo's due to their overclocking capabilities. If he is here asking questions, he doesn't have the experience to do so, so I would recommend not getting him to base his buying decision on whether or not he can overclock.Rodriguez Brother #1614, Muff Brother #4033 Jumped: Twin Otter, Cessna 182, CASA, Helicopter, Caravan Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mnealtx 0 #19 December 20, 2006 QuoteQuoteDon't forget the floppy drive to load up the SATA drivers when he installs the OS... No. You don't need a floppy. You don't need to load drives for SATA. Maybe if you have an older board or a board that has a secondary HD controller chip then you might but any modern board has support for SATA on the the main chipset and therefore doesn't need drivers. Hence, no floppy. I've built 5 systems from scratch over the past 2 years and haven't put a floppy in any of them. Boot from the OS cd and you're off. Have you built one off of an Asus board? Even with updated bios I still have to do the F6 to load SATA driver bullshit on a 2 year old machine...and there's still people having to load SATA drivers on brand new M/Bs...Mike I love you, Shannon and Jim. POPS 9708 , SCR 14706 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
aardvarkeater 0 #20 December 20, 2006 QuoteHave you built one off of an Asus board? Even with updated bios I still have to do the F6 to load SATA driver bullshit on a 2 year old machine...and there's still people having to load SATA drivers on brand new M/Bs... Yup. 3 with Asus, 1 with Gigabyte, and one with MSI. NEVER have had to use a floppy. I use boards that have SATA support built into the main chipset. I connect the primary HD to a SATA connector that is fed off the main chipset. If you have a board that has an additional RAID controller and use that then you might need floppies but most people don't need it.Muff Brother #4026 Loco Zapatos Rodriguez SCR #14793 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mnealtx 0 #21 December 20, 2006 QuoteQuoteHave you built one off of an Asus board? Even with updated bios I still have to do the F6 to load SATA driver bullshit on a 2 year old machine...and there's still people having to load SATA drivers on brand new M/Bs... Yup. 3 with Asus, 1 with Gigabyte, and one with MSI. NEVER have had to use a floppy. I use boards that have SATA support built into the main chipset. I connect the primary HD to a SATA connector that is fed off the main chipset. If you have a board that has an additional RAID controller and use that then you might need floppies but most people don't need it. My board has the SATA drives run from the RAID controllers... I believe the new ASUS boards are the same, still... I'll probably be finding out, early next year. Current game machine at the barracks is slowly dying from a couple of power surges it got hit with last year...Mike I love you, Shannon and Jim. POPS 9708 , SCR 14706 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
aardvarkeater 0 #22 December 20, 2006 Just for reference, Asus' latest and greatest board, the P5B Deluxe uses the Intel P965 chipset and supports six Serial ATA connectors in RAID 0, 1, 5 and 10. It has a separate JMicron controller that provides another two Serial ATA connectors for RAID 0 and 1Muff Brother #4026 Loco Zapatos Rodriguez SCR #14793 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
mnealtx 0 #23 December 20, 2006 QuoteJust for reference, Asus' latest and greatest board, the P5B Deluxe uses the Intel P965 chipset and supports six Serial ATA connectors in RAID 0, 1, 5 and 10. It has a separate JMicron controller that provides another two Serial ATA connectors for RAID 0 and 1 Antec P180B case ASUS P5W DH Deluxe (looking at the P5B as well) Sapphire Radeon 1950XTX Fortron 700W PS Intel Core Duo E6600 Crucial Ballistix DDR2 1000 (2 Gb) 2 x Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 (Perpendicular Recording) 250Gb SATA2 HD in Matrix RAID Lite-on 16x DVD+/-R burner 5x DVD-RAM Zalman 9700 cooler Floppy drive (just in case) Keyboard, mouse, OS Figured I'd go soup-to-nuts, this time... I've already got a 21" WS Samsung LCD monitor...Mike I love you, Shannon and Jim. POPS 9708 , SCR 14706 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
justinb138 0 #24 December 20, 2006 QuoteJust for reference, Asus' latest and greatest board, the P5B Deluxe uses the Intel P965 chipset and supports six Serial ATA connectors in RAID 0, 1, 5 and 10. It has a separate JMicron controller that provides another two Serial ATA connectors for RAID 0 and 1 IMO, the P5B Deluxe is the best value out right now. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
aardvarkeater 0 #25 December 20, 2006 Nice systemMuff Brother #4026 Loco Zapatos Rodriguez SCR #14793 Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
