Help building a new system please

[Tangerine]

Since I've never done it before I thought it was a good idea if I start with a barebones system from MultiWave.
The one I'm about to order includes
Epox 8kta3 motherboard
AMD TBird 1GHZ 266 FSB
Heatsink and fan
256 MB PC133 Ram
Enlight 7237 case
Floppy Drive
All for 324.00 shipped, assembled, and tested, which I think is pretty reasonable.

I also have a Philips 8x4x32 Internal CD-RW Drive, and whichever 40G hard drive I can find a deal on this week.


So my questions are
1 - Can I use this video card?
I don't need a $200.00 card, and am getting lost trying to pick one. I just want nice text, decent 3D, and DVD support.

2 - What is burning in, and how do I do it.

3 - The operating system I have is a 3 year old copy of Windows 98 from my old computer. Is it ok to put this on and how many updates do I need to go download from Microsoft. Just the latest service pack? It seems I've upgraded my OS so many times with bug fixes, service packs, Y2K updates, etc.

4 - Once I plug everything in, format the HDD and install the operating system am I good to go? or will I need any new drivers or anything.

5 - Is there a way to copy some files from my old hard drive to a new one easily without tranfering them to CD's (mainly I'm thinking about the 5G of mp3's thats on my poor lil' 8G hard drive now lol.

Thanks for anyone who wants to help me out and talk slow to a newby

Meja

 

[sohcrates]

<<
1 - Can I use this video card?
I don't need a $200.00 card, and am getting lost trying to pick one. I just want nice text, decent 3D, and DVD support. >>


let's see. geforce2's are good cards. that's probably a fine card, but i'm not sure i've heard of abit making geforce2's (although they obviously do). i'm also not sure about that online seller. i DO know that if you go to www.pricewatch.com and look under video cards, that you will see you can get a gforce2 with DOUBLE that memory for only 65 bucks + shipping. but i'm not too familiar with gf2's, so i'm gonna stay out of this question. i'm sure someone else can help you more with that.




<< 2 - What is burning in, and how do I do it. >>


well, that basically means operating your system at &quot;full bore&quot; for several hours/ days to make sure it's stable and you don't have problems. you can use programs such as Sisoft Sandra to run burn-ins. i don't think they're actually that necessary. if you run your OS for a while, and play a few games, you'll know pretty quickly if your system is stable or not.



<< 3 - The operating system I have is a 3 year old copy of Windows 98 from my old computer. Is it ok to put this on and how many updates do I need to go download from Microsoft. Just the latest service pack? >>


normal win98 should work fine. i would suggest that once it's installed you go to internet explorer's tools menu, then choose &quot;windows update&quot; and it will show you all the updates availabe listed by importance. there's a whole bunch of security updates you might want to look into installing, as well as things like directx8 (for gaming) and internet explorer 5.5 (the newest web browser)



<< 4 - Once I plug everything in, format the HDD and install the operating system am I good to go? or will I need any new drivers or anything. >>


well, that board uses a via chipset, so you're going to want to make sure you install the newest via 4-in-1's. these can be downloaded from here. i think the newest final release is version 4.32. these are pretty darn important for your mobo to run well. also, you have ata100 controllers on your mobo, so you *may* need to install drivers for your hard drives to operate at ata100. most likely, you'll get a mobo manual and cd which will contain drivers for your IDE controllers if they're necessary. otherwise, go to epox's site and download them.



<< 5 - Is there a way to copy some files from my old hard drive to a new one easily without tranfering them to CD's (mainly I'm thinking about the 5G of mp3's thats on my poor lil' 8G hard drive now lol. >>


what i would do is install everything with your new 40 gigger...then once it's up and running nice, shut down the pc and install the old 8 gb as a &quot;slave&quot; drive (using the jumpers on it)...then you can just boot up into windows and copy over whatever you want to save (or even leave the drive in there permanently as a slave (as long is it's running ok))

let me know if you have any more questions

 

[Barefoot]

I'd have to say sohcrates hit the nail on the head for ya. One thing I'll add is that, yes, you can use that video card, but the MX200's are by far the least-powered GeForce2's available. I think that if you spent a little extra money for an ATi Radeon LE, you'd get better performance, but again, if sohcrates is right about finding a 64MB GF2, even if it is an MX200, for only $65, that would probably be your best bet for a video card.

 

[whom2be]

ok...

The video card should work, according to the specs.
You should do a web scearch for it and look for reviews.
looks ok though.

2 - What is burning in, and how do I do it:
Download SiSoft. This program has a system stress feature.
Burning in a computer is simply running the computer for 24 hours under a full load. It is to see if any componets are weak and will fail.

3 year old copy of Windows 98
Not a problem. The windows update page will tell you what you need.

4 - Once I plug everything in, format the HDD and install the operating system am I good to go? or will I need any new drivers or anything.

Go to BIOS/intergrated peripherals/
make sure the drive is shown or the settings for its channel are set to auto.
It will most likley be set to auto. That should be good.
Before you format you will have to fdisk, Being that it is a new hard drive.
Boot the System with the win98 start up disk.

A:\fdisk
Enable large disk support. (y)
creat dos partition or logical dos drive (1)
creat primary dos partition (1)
This creats one large hard drive.

When that is done restart with start up disk.
a:\fromat c:
wait forever.. install windows. wait forever

5 - Is there a way to copy some files from my old hard drive to a new one

You can put the old hard drive in the new computer. either as a slave to the primary drive. Or as a master in the secondary IDE channel. That board has 2 IDE Channels

However. I did this but upon returning the old drive to the old computer I encountered problems.
The old computer would nolonger access the drive.

good luck.

 

[Tangerine]

Oh super you guys are great, thanks

Sohcrates, is it MWave your not so sure about? I think they look pretty safe, according to Resellerratings? but all advice is appreciated, since I've never ordred from there.

I will look for a 64mb card, I was thinking about that Radeon, since everyone here talks about it, but the dual screen thing threw me. I won't need that.

Would I be better off using a different motherboard to get around Via 133 problems? I was planning on getting a 7200 rpm ata/100 hard drive.

And should I go get the drivers first and put them on a floppy or something to install them on the new system? Once I install them, do they know where to go? or do I have to put them in a certain place?

Silly questions, I'm sure, I just want to do it right.

edited for run on sentences(!)

 

[sohcrates]

<< Sohcrates, is it MWave your not so sure about? >>


nope, mwave is good. it's where you were gonna buy that video card that i'm not so sure about. though i've never used them, so trust whatever reseller ratings has to say about it



<< Would I be better off using a different motherboard to get around Via 133 problems? >>


the via doesn't really have &quot;problems&quot; , they just update their drivers often, and run much better on newer drivers. the kt133a is a real nice chipset, so i would certainly stick with it



<< I was planning on getting a 7200 rpm ata/100 hard drive. And should I go get the drivers first and put them on a floppy or something to install them on the new system? Once I install them, do they know where to go? or do I have to put them in a certain place? >>


well, to install win98, you won't need the drivers till windows is installed and up and running. that that point, you should be able to get internet access, and then download the drivers directly to your hard drive. that way, you won't need to put them on a floppy. you'll have to either update them through device manager, or they may come with a setup.exe file which you can run

 

[Tangerine]

Ok, thanks for clearing that up

I'm ready set go, thanks again for all the help! You guys are great.