woot woot! (first) new (homebuilt) system

[AvatarD]

Sorry to sound so noobish, but I just ordered the parts for my first "entirely-made-from-scratch" system! This is an exciting time.

My soon to be rig:

Antec SX1020B
AMD Athlon XP2100+
Chaintech 7VJL Apogee
Corsair 521 MB PC2700
Maxtor 80GB Quietdrive(ATA133)
Gainward Ultra 650XP (GF4 TI4200 128MB)
Sound Blaster Audigy MP3+
Lite-on 40x12x48 CDRW
Lite-on 16x DVD
Creative Inspire 5.1 2700 speakers

Can't wait for the parts to get here!

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[Boonesmi]

looks nice

good luck getting it together

 

[tweakmm]

why did you get the creative speakers?

 

[MichaelD]

Congrats on the purchase of some very nice components...though I'm curious about your motherboard choice. The motherboard is argueably the most important part of the system...why didn't you go with something a little more mainstream? Something a bit more well-known for reliability? Just curious.

 

[jcmkk]

I was curious about your motherboard choice too. It seems to be contrasting with the quality of the rest of your components. Good luck with your first build!

 

[Haruba]

Congratulations on the new system! You'll have a VERY nice setup!

As for the Chaintech motherboard, I have heard some good things from the reviews I've read so far, but I was still interested why you chose it over a more "proven" brand. It does have all the features one needs in a motherboard (*gives pat on back to Chaintech for rounded cables*), and with the updated southbridge it seems to do well in benchmarks. I admit that after reading reviews about the Apogee I was tempted to buy on to test it out ...but with the Chaintech Zenith version so close (same as Apogee but w/ raid and other goodies), I decided to stave off the hardware hunger a little while longer

Well, your system looks rock solid, and I wish you luck on your building endeavor!

 

[nemo160]

what hsf are you using on the 2100, and how many (size and flow rating) case fans are you going to use?
you want to make sure to have good cooling for the cpu as well as good case cooling...that gf 4 ti will be throwing off a good bit of heat as well as the 2100

 

[Ausm]

Originally posted by: jcmkk
I was curious about your motherboard choice too. It seems to be contrasting with the quality of the rest of your components. Good luck with your first build!

I agree Chaintech? there are more superior mobo's to be had then Chaintech

Ausm

 

[gf4200isdabest]

*Edited Before a Flame War Gets out of Control*...leaving the conclusion because it still holds true:

Not as much is expected from an AMD mobo and hence you shouldn't be as concerned with "name brand" as you would for a Northy...

Seriously; what advanced mobo features does the average person use with his Athlon considering most aren't overclocked much...

 

[Rainsford]

Originally posted by: gf4200isdabest
who cares about the mobo? It will work...Its not like you need much from an AMD mobo anyway. Its like saying "you didn't get a name brand engine when you souped up your Honda Accord." The answer is "yeah; what's your point?" If this was an Intel rig then maybe we could question the no name mobo because it would have to be handling the mad overclocking of both FSB and VDIMM and as such would be like getting a "generic engine for a Ferrari"

hehe...well maybe not to that extent but there is a valid point in there: Not as much is expected from an AMD mobo and hence you shouldn't be as concerned with "name brand" as you would for a Northy...

Um...no. I don't know how good that Chaintech board is, but I used to own one of their 440BX boards and it was pretty good, and I've heard fairly good things about them. But I am now more into playing it safe, so I would have bought a different brand (like Asus or Epox). However, if it works it's all good.

But what is this "it doesn't matter because it's an AMD mobo" crap? To draw on your car analogy, if you got an unreliable and crappy engine in a Honda Accord it would be just as bad as getting a bad engine in a Ferrari (at least as far as either driver in concerned). Reliability and features are important regardless of the speed of your computer. If you don't think so, maybe you should go talk to people on this board, 99% of whom probably disagree with you.

And anyways, what's this "Honda Accord" vs "Ferrari" comparison? Your rig is maybe a few percent faster than the rig AvatarD is building. I think a better comparison would be "600 hp Ferrari" vs "620 hp Ferrari". Stop the FUD, stop the FUD!

 

[Lucky]

Originally posted by: gf4200isdabest
who cares about the mobo? It will work...Its not like you need much from an AMD mobo anyway. Its like saying "you didn't get a name brand engine when you souped up your Honda Accord." The answer is "yeah; what's your point?" If this was an Intel rig then maybe we could question the no name mobo because it would have to be handling the mad overclocking of both FSB and VDIMM and as such would be like getting a "generic engine for a Ferrari"

hehe...well maybe not to that extent but there is a valid point in there: Not as much is expected from an AMD mobo and hence you shouldn't be as concerned with "name brand" as you would for a Northy...

WHAT A RETARDED POST.

 

[Rhombuss]

Chaintech is a decent brand. I remember Tom did some benchmarks with a whole slew of i815E boards, and I think the Chaintech came out top 5. I just don't think it's widely distributed in North America - probably more for the EurAsia users.

 

[gf4200isdabest]

edited the post to the point I was trying to make since this board has a tendency to flame semantics for 100+ posts

As for you lucky; I think your opinion is retarded too....*sarcasm*In fact let's all flame each other until the end of time because thats all this forum is here for; right? *sarcasm* Argh...I don't have time for this today....If you don't like what i say then you can screw off

 

[AvatarD]

Haha! The mobo... I knew there would be some questions along those lines. There were a few reasons I got it though. And Haruba kind of hit on it. The updated south bridge was one reason. And, before someone else says, I know the north bridge still slows it down, but, regardless, there is a slight performance increase. Outside of hardware though, the bundle is absolutely the BEST. $115 gets mobo, software out the wazoo, 4.1 headphones (which I won't really need), and a full gambit of rounded cables. It's not the best OC card, granted. But I'm not a big OC either, so the little performance increase I ask out of it shouldn't be too difficult for it to handle. So, when compared to the other mobo i looked at it (Shuttle AK35GT2), I decided to take a chance on an "off-name" for a GREAT bundle. And as far as the speakers go, I'm a big Creative fan, I've seen them used before, and I think they're worth it. (Even if they are the most expensive component). My only regret is lack of onboad RAID. But, you can't have everything I guess. Right now I"m just using the bundled heatsink and fan with the processor, and I have two 80mm fans for the case, both exhaust out the back. I was going to get a third for front-intake, but newegg was sold out when I went to purchase. I'll pick it up later though. Hopefully everything will work out. No question, if I had another 2 or 3 months, this would change drastically. A new Radeon card for example. But, I need it now before I head back to school. So, I guess it is what it is.

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[AvatarD]

OH, btw, this is the review that was kind of the clincher in making the mobo decision.

Chaintech 7VJL Apogee

 

[Zugzwang152]

in regards to gf4200....

You can't just say that now because everyone seems to be overclocking their P4's...In the past the prime OC'er was the Duron and Athlon, not Intel. And like you were just now, the people who put down Intel back then were in turn shut down themselves. I don't see what that comment had anything to do with his mobo choice. You seemed to want to flame AMD for some reason.

 

[nemo160]

two exhaust fans should be a good start, but an intake or two will really help too
i like sunon's 80's: not too loud, move a good bit of air and you can find them for around $5 each
make sure to get ball bearing fans, the ones that get included with cases tend to be sleeve bearing fans which don't last as long as ball bearing fans

the retail hsf should be adequate at stock speed, but if you have any intention of ocing i'd reccomend something better
i lean towards all copper hsf's, so my favorites right now are the thermalright sk-6, slk600, or slk 800
the first two are 60mm fan, the third can accept 60 or 80 mm fan..maybe even 70mm
sk-6 is an older model but still a great performer, so you could probably pick one up at a pretty reasonable price
i have one that does a great job of keeping my 1.4 tbird cool
slk600 and slk800 both perform even better, but the price will be somewhat higher
have fun building your new system

 

[teddymines]

AvatarD,
While others squabble about motherboards and flaming, I will say this: Congrats on your new system! I always like it when people ask me what brancd PC I have and I tell them I put it together myself. You really get to know the computer and the technology better when you build it yourself.

 

[Chadder007]

Hey yall, quit bashing his Chaintech board.....They are quite a bit better IMHO than FIC, QDI, or ...ECS. Eek

 

[Den]

Congrats on your new system, looks pretty good. Hopefully it will assemble and run easily too. If not, you know where to come

Where did you find that 521 MB RAM? That is really unique and cool...

Just kidding. Anyway, enjoy.

 

[Rainsford]

Originally posted by: gf4200isdabest
edited the post to the point I was trying to make since this board has a tendency to flame semantics for 100+ posts

As for you lucky; I think your opinion is retarded too....*sarcasm*In fact let's all flame each other until the end of time because thats all this forum is here for; right? *sarcasm* Argh...I don't have time for this today....If you don't like what i say then you can screw off

Heh, sorry to flame in your thread AvatarD, but your post is still misleading, gf4200isdabest. You want a good motherboard whether or not you are overclocking. There are a lot more things that come with a good motherboard than the ability to overclock. That is why it is equally important to have a good board for Intel and AMD systems. That's all I'm trying to say, stop being so sensitive.

And congrats on your new system, AvatarD. Hope it works out...and you know where to come if it doesn't.

 

[AvatarD]

Thanks everyone!! It's encouraging to see such a large group of professionals give the OK! Now the tough part...waiting! haha

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[Legendary]

Good luck, the first one is always the best to build.

 

[EXman]

I think your Mobo looks good too ... KT333 people might be jelous that they still have KT266a (just kidding)
I got an Iwill XP333-R and not to many people liked my choice but heck it is my money and it had good bang for the buck.

Good luck with the set up!

 

[billyjak]

It's a good looking setup from what I see.
That Chaintech board dosen't look to bad either.
Too bad the newer GF5 isin't out yet.
You should have a Kick A$$ setup.
Good luck building it. Go slow though.