Building a Computer

[Jeffrey903]

Well, I didn't think the mobo supported SATA because newegg didn't list it, but it seems that it does (a friend told me to check on the manufactures website and I did - http://www.giga-byte.com/MotherBoard/Products/Products_GA-K8NSNXP-939.htm ). Now that I know this, should I go with the SATA version of the Seagate harddrives? - http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=22-148-033&depa=0

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: Jeffrey903
Well, I didn't think the mobo supported SATA because newegg didn't list it, but it seems that it does (a friend told me to check on the manufactures website and I did - http://www.giga-byte.com/MotherBoard/Products/Products_GA-K8NSNXP-939.htm ). Now that I know this, should I go with the SATA version of the Seagate harddrives? - http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=22-148-033&depa=0

I wouldn't recommend SATA for a first-timer. A thread showing why And in fact, I wouldn't recommend it for anyone, first-timer or not, unless you've picked a drive that's not available in any other interface (e.g. Western Digital's 10000rpm models, and ironically they're PATA drives with a bridge chip stuck to them). Call me biased, but when it's time to help a no0b get their SATA to be a boot drive, there's not a lot of people who will take the trouble to slog through your mobo's owners' manual looking for the secret.

Granted, nF3 250 Ultra may boot natively from SATA like it would from PATA. Some boards will behave that way, I know. If that worked on every board, I'd have about 2000 fewer posts right now

 

[trexpesto]

I love my Seagate SATA, happened to work out OK when I did the build. It is very quiet and fast and now they have the long warranty.
I had to run the "install third party SCSI controller" option (F6 key?) during the Windows install, inserting the floppy (yes virginia, you still need a floppy drive) of the SATA drivers. It talked about it in the mobo manual. First time didn't seem to take, so I did it again, but maybe I did something wrong.

EDIT: PS I just bought some Mushkin PC 3200 C2.5 and I feel NO REMORSE!

 

[Jeffrey903]

Ok, would an 1 ATA drive and 1 SATA drive (using the ATA drive as the boot drive) be better then 2 ATA drives? Also, on another forum they're telling me that I should go with the Abit mobo (which is $100 cheaper, but supposedly just as good). Do you have an opinion on that?

 

[trexpesto]

Originally posted by: Jeffrey903
Ok, would an 1 ATA drive and 1 SATA drive (using the ATA drive as the boot drive) be better then 2 ATA drives? Also, on another forum they're telling me that I should go with the Abit mobo (which is $100 cheaper, but supposedly just as good). Do you have an opinion on that?

It might be better because if you ran into trouble getting it to boot off the SATA, then you can switch and do the other one, so it gives you more options. Also depending on what you do, it can be good to have two drives so they can both be reading and writing at once. Alot of times people use the ATA drives for longer term storage where fast access is not so critical. They are cheaper. If you have plenty of time to muck around or a hard drive you can borrow in case of problems, I would get the SATA only but mechBgon by far knows what he is talking about and it seems there may be more issues with the newer mobos.

No idea on 939 or A64. I am just learning the old stuff and mostly poor now.

 

[Jeffrey903]

Someone told me that this - http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=20-141-423&depa=1 - dual channel RAM is really good. Should I get it instead of what I currently have?

 

[mechBgon]

Originally posted by: Jeffrey903
Ok, would an 1 ATA drive and 1 SATA drive (using the ATA drive as the boot drive) be better then 2 ATA drives? Also, on another forum they're telling me that I should go with the Abit mobo (which is $100 cheaper, but supposedly just as good). Do you have an opinion on that?

Do *I* have an opinion?! Definitely, but no one wants to hear about THAT again :evil:

I don't see any real compelling advantages to SATA over PATA yet. If I were buying ATA, I'd get PATA for now unless I were going to shell out the $$$ for the 10000rpm Western Digital SATA drives with the low seek times. But there's a definite price-to-capacity premium to pay for those. PATA... if it ain't broke, don't fix it, that's my 2¢ worth.

As for mobos... hmmm, two different chipsets there, and I have more of an nForce history so I would probably go for nF3 250 Ultra (but not the Gigabyte, since it doesn't use the yummy native nVidia gigabit controller, it has a wannabe tack-on PCI one).

 

[Jeffrey903]

I've had so many suggestions on what parts to get over the past day, I'm just going to re-post my list of what parts I'm currently getting:

AMD Socket 939 Athlon 64 3500+ Processor
(2) Seagate 200GB 7200RPM
Thermaltake VA3000 Dream Tower Black Tsunami VA3000BWA
ENERMAX Noisetaker Series 470W Power Supply
NEC 8X Dual Layer DVD±RW Drive
Lite-On Black 52X32X52X16 Combo Drive
ABIT "AV8" K8T800 Pro Chipset Motherboard
Pqi TURBO Series Dual Channel Platinum Kit (2x512MB)
XFX nVIDIA GeForce 6800 Video Card, 128MB DDR

Total - $1,561.39

 

[CVSiN]

hmm 6800 GT way better than the reg 6800 128 card you were gonna pop for an X800 before and you took a huge step down?

 

[WarEagle]

Didn't see it answered, but since you don't game or play a lot of music, the onboard sound will be plenty (no need for sound card). In most of the Buyer's Guide here at this site they tend to go with onboard sound as well. Good luck with your build!

 

[Jeffrey903]

I'm probably going to order everything tomorrow (the processor is supposed to be back in stock then). Someone suggested to me to get a floppy drive, so I guess I'll get one - link (I probably won't ever use it, but why not?).

I need someone to do me a huge favor. I need someone to go through all of the parts and ensure compatibility. I've done this myself and everything seems that it's fine, but there might be somethings to look for that I don't know of and might have overlooked.

I also need someone to make sure that I have all of the necessary wires (I'm ordering 2 lighted cables for the harddrives - this and this - just so you know). But are there any other wires that don't come with the products I've chosen (most of the things are OEM, so I'm sure there are wires that I need but don't have, I just don't know what they are).

Thank you soooo much for helping me configure the parts of my computer. I'll try to post pictures of it once it's all done!

Also - should I get heatspreaders for the RAM?

 

[Jeffrey903]

I'm hopefully going to order the parts today, but the processor is still out of stock. It's supposed to be back in though today. I have one last question. Will Windows XP Pro (the normal 32bit one) will work on my 64bit machine? I believe it does, but I just want to be sure.

 

[jpeyton]

check this out if you have any other questions

 

[Jeffrey903]

The processor is now out of stock for at least another 4 days (this is the second time that the ETA has changed without it coming in stock). Does anybody know anywhere else I can get the AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Processor (Retail, not OEM) for less than $375 including shipping? Also, I found a few places, but they all had horrible reviews on resellerratings.com.

 

[Jeffrey903]

So I ordered everything today (except the processor which is out of stock. The guy at newegg said that they're expecting a shipment of 200 of them on Sunday).

Here's what I ordered:

(2) Seagate 200GB 7200RPM
Thermaltake VA3000 Dream Tower Black Tsunami VA3000BWA
ENERMAX Noisetaker Series 470W Power Supply
NEC 8X Dual Layer DVD±RW Drive
Lite-On Black 52X32X52X16 Combo Drive
ABIT "AV8" K8T800 Pro Chipset Motherboard
Pqi TURBO Series Dual Channel Platinum Kit (2x512MB)
XFX nVIDIA GeForce 6800 Video Card, 128MB DDR
NEC 1.44MB Black Internal Floppy Drive
LOGISYS 12" UV COLD CATHODE KIT
Thermaltake UV GREEN ROUND 18" Floppy drive cable
Unincom ROUND, 18-Inch ( UV RED ) IDE Cable
Unincom ROUND, 18-Inch ( UV SILVER/BLUE ) IDE Cable
Arctic Silver Premium Silver Polysynthetic Thermal Compound

I also got 5 free DVD-Rs as one of the free gifts and I got 1/2 off shipping (I called them and they were able to do it - especially since the shipping for the cables was $4 a cable.

The grand total came to $1,242.07 without the processor. It will be $1,594.70 with the processor.

 

[Jeffrey903]

I got all of my computer parts yesterday except the video card, processor, floppy cable, and UV light. I should be getting everything else today, except the processor which I should get on Thursday. Well, of course I started to build it. I haven't run into any problems yet. Here are 4 pictures of it:

http://s87057908.onlinehome.us/uploader/files/P8160161.jpg
http://s87057908.onlinehome.us/uploader/files/P8160162.jpg
http://s87057908.onlinehome.us/uploader/files/P8160163.jpg
http://s87057908.onlinehome.us/uploader/files/P8160164.jpg

I then decided today to add the motherboard (even though the processor isn't in yet). Here are 2 more pictures:

http://s87057908.onlinehome.us/uploader/files/P8170165.jpg
http://s87057908.onlinehome.us/uploader/files/P8170166.jpg

I have one question. I'm not sure which two DIMMs to put the RAM in (its dual channel). I believe it can go in either DIMM 1 and 2 or 3 and 4, but I'm not positive. Here are the pages in the motherboard manual dealing with the RAM (I'm sure you guys can tell me which DIMMs to use):

http://s87057908.onlinehome.us/uploader/files/ram1.jpg
http://s87057908.onlinehome.us/uploader/files/ram2.jpg

Thanks so much for all of your help and sorry for having so many posts in a row.

 

[Runner20]

Originally posted by: RaNDoMMAI
Is there an artic cooling VGA silencer for the 6800? i have a pretty quiet system and i dont want to mess it up with a new and uber loud vid card.

~RaNDoM

ATI X800 series runs cooler and quieter

 

[RadioHead84]

How much did you get the processor for?

 

[Runner20]

Originally posted by: Jeffrey903
I've had so many suggestions on what parts to get over the past day, I'm just going to re-post my list of what parts I'm currently getting:

AMD Socket 939 Athlon 64 3500+ Processor
(2) Seagate 200GB 7200RPM
Thermaltake VA3000 Dream Tower Black Tsunami VA3000BWA
ENERMAX Noisetaker Series 470W Power Supply
NEC 8X Dual Layer DVD±RW Drive
Lite-On Black 52X32X52X16 Combo Drive
ABIT "AV8" K8T800 Pro Chipset Motherboard
Pqi TURBO Series Dual Channel Platinum Kit (2x512MB)
XFX nVIDIA GeForce 6800 Video Card, 128MB DDR

Total - $1,561.39

what memory?

 

[Jeffrey903]

RadioHead84 - I got it for $419. When it came back in stock, it was almost $70 more then I had planned, which pissed me off. It was stick out of stock everywhere else, and I decided to order it. Less then 2 hours after I ordered it, they ran out of stock again.

Runner20 - Pqi TURBO Series Dual Channel Platinum Kit (2x512MB)

Edit - Does anyone know which DIMMs I use?

Edit (again) - it seems that newegg raised the price of the processor another $20. Good thing I ordered it when it was $419 instead of it now being $439

 

[RadioHead84]

yeah i coudlnt get it.. Newegg now has it at 439. I got mine ordred at Monarch now for 400 Shipped and that will come the 23rd.

 

[Jeffrey903]

I have another couple questions (small ones).

First, in the motherboard manual, it says that I can add "additional" USB and firewire ports (the top/front ones). But for the top/front sound, it doesn't say additional. Does that mean I have to choose wheather to use the back or top/front sound?

Second, is there I way that I can see my lights on (the lighted fan, the front lights, and the UV light) without harming any parts (keep in mind I don't have the processor yet - I'm not sure how this will effect my system)?

Third, the top firewire and USB cables don't seem to match up with what's on the motherboard. Any hints/suggestions?

I think that's it, I want to thank you guys for making this possible. Hopefully everything will work once I put the processor in (and if it doesn't I'm going to be screwed, because I'll have no idea what's wrong).

Edit - I have another question. I have an AUX Power Connection and FM/FC Connector coming from the power supply. Does anyone know where I plug them in (if I do at all)?

 

[Jeffrey903]

So everything is built and working (except the UV light, which I think is broken). You can see my rig here:
http://www.anandtech.com/mysystemrig.aspx?rigid=28680

Thanks again for helping me out. I love this computer.