Building a computer for the first time. Looking for some suggestions

[John Locke]

Hi!

I've checked some sites recently on what parts to get but I still have a number of questions.

- The processor will be a Core 2 Duo E6600. At this point I don't have any intentions to overclock this or anything else in the computer (which will be used mostly for gaming).

- Right now I'm leaning towards buying an ASUS P5B-E motherboard. Would this be a good choice or are there other motherboards that I'd be better off with?

- I will be getting two SATA harddrives as well as two IDE optical drives. Would this cause any problem (I've read about some people having problems with the bios in these situations though I wasn't completely sure if it was because they were configuring RAID)?

- About the harddrives, I've heard that the latest Seagates have had some noise-related problems. For anyone who owns one, has this caused any distractions or is it not that big of a deal?

- Is there any specific brand of memory that I should consider buying (I'm looking to buy two 1 gig sticks)? I was initially considering buying one by Corsair though I've also heard that Crucial brand memory sticks are very good.

Thanks for any help provided!

 

[Heidfirst]

if you are buying new drives I would probably lean towards getting SATA opticals as well now that cheap ones are available.

 

[bpatters69]

I built a PC a few month ago. I bought most of my parts from NewEgg. Here is a list which might help you:

MB ASUS P5W DH DELUXE/WIFI-AP GREEN - Retail Write a review»
CPU INTEL|C2D E6600 2.4G 775 4M R - Retail Write a review»
MEM 1G|KST DII800 KVR800D2N5/1G R - Retail Write a review»
HD 160G|WD 7K 8M SATA2 WD1600JS % - OEM

I also bought a SATA optical drive and GFX 7950 Video Card. The system works great and basically worked right out of the box(es). The only hang up I had was installing Windows XP. My system kept losing the abilty to read the CD. The solution was simply to add an IDE CD drive and I was off and running.

Have fun.

 

[o1die]

I use maxtor hardrives (owned by seagate), unless you want a longer warranty. Either crucial or corsair memory should work fine. I've used both. Asus boards can be picky about voltages. I had so many post problems with my old p4 asus board that I don't use them anymore. I recommend seasonic, ocz, pc power and cooling, antec, or fortron power supplies. As far as number of drives, it all depends on which version of windows you use. I've only seen a few posts about windows having device conflicts. You'll just have to try whatever version you use, and possible use the f6 key during initial posting to install a sata driver. I never had to, and I use win 2k. Vista is ok, but slower in some applications. It has all the device drivers you need, but is still buggy with some software programs.

 

[moosey]

For memory, yes get the 2 1GB sticks. Crucial is a great brand and Corsair is good as well. You'll be fine with either. Patriot had a nice 2GB kit out as well and I've had good experiences with Mushkin in the past.

The P5B-E is a nice board, another in that price range to check out would be the Gigabyte DS3.
Just depends on what features you want and how much money you have.

 

[John Locke]

Thanks for the replies!

if you are buying new drives I would probably lean towards getting SATA opticals as well now that cheap ones are available.

Since I don't think there are any SATA CDRW's (at least, I wasn't able to find any) I could go with a SATA DVDRW and an IDE CDRW. Would this cause any problems? Also is there any major difference between a SATA and IDE optical drive?

I also bought a SATA optical drive and GFX 7950 Video Card. The system works great and basically worked right out of the box(es). The only hang up I had was installing Windows XP. My system kept losing the abilty to read the CD. The solution was simply to add an IDE CD drive and I was off and running.

That sounds strange. Do you know why it wasn't able to read the cd off of the SATA optical drive?

Asus boards can be picky about voltages. I had so many post problems with my old p4 asus board that I don't use them anymore. I recommend seasonic, ocz, pc power and cooling, antec, or fortron power supplies.

Do you know if newer Asus boards still have this problem?

Also, thanks for the power supply recommendations!

For memory, yes get the 2 1GB sticks. Crucial is a great brand and Corsair is good as well. You'll be fine with either. Patriot had a nice 2GB kit out as well and I've had good experiences with Mushkin in the past.

Is there any specific model for Crucial or Corsair that I should look for?

The P5B-E is a nice board, another in that price range to check out would be the Gigabyte DS3.
Just depends on what features you want and how much money you have.

Both boards are in my price range (around $150).

What are the major differences between the P5B-E and the Gigabyte DS3 (I'm assuming you're referring to the 965P-DS3 and not the 965G-DS3)? And, more importantly, in terms of stability how do the two motherboards compare?

 

[Puffnstuff]

Seeing those stories about people not being able to install an os because the sata optical drive can't read the disk without drivers keeps me away from them.

 

[bpatters69]

quote:

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I also bought a SATA optical drive and GFX 7950 Video Card. The system works great and basically worked right out of the box(es). The only hang up I had was installing Windows XP. My system kept losing the abilty to read the CD. The solution was simply to add an IDE CD drive and I was off and running.
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That sounds strange. Do you know why it wasn't able to read the cd off of the SATA optical drive?

Ummmmm. User error could be a reason.... ;-)

I found it odd as well as the PC would recognize the CD up until a certain point in the install and then suddenly lost the ability to read the CD in the SATA drive. I would not let this put you off buying SATA. Maybe there is a motherboard rev or something that will fix this.