1st computer, advice, opinions please

[SuperClifford]

Hi I need a computer for college and also to do some gaming on (i dont need extreme performance but id prefer not to have crap fps or lag) so I decided I could probably save money and get better parts If I built the computer myself rather then ordering one off say dell or hp. BTW I have never built a computer before but im fairly confident in my ability to try and I have a few friends who are knowledgable when i actually gotta build it.

A computer on dell is costing me roughly 1,300 or more for what I want, while these parts If I built it myself would only cost me 998dollars, including shipping and such.

At the moment Im wondering if these parts will be compatible and if there are parts I should reconsider for better parts which dont cost a whole lot more.
I looked to buy everything off NewEgg.com because I have bought stuff from there before and I had no problems with it.

Motherboard- Updated Choice- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138075
Processor- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115014
Memory- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820220142 Buyying Two
HardDrive- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136037
GraphicsCard- UpdatedChoice http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130084
CD/DVDDrive- Updated Choice http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135149
Case- Updated Choice http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147057
PowerSupply- Updated Choice http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817153028
Monitor- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824254005
Speakers- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16836121127
KeyboardMouse- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16823109132
PowerProtector- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812120805

I doubt some of those parts need to be posted (like the mouse or power power strip) I just posted them to show everything I am buyying, if Im missing anything please tell me. Do I need a network interface card or a sound card? or are the motherboards stuff good enough both items are fairly cheap i priced NICs around 10-20bucks.

Thanks in advance to anyone helps me out im going away tomorrow for college orientation till monday evening Ill read any responses then. and if its all good maybe ill order my parts too so i can build it next week sometime.

Edit: Listen to Jr's suggestions opted for a more updated motherboard, a cheaper case, and a new PSU (same 500W but from what it looks like a more reliable company)

Edit2: Decided to switch to a IDE Optical Drive

Edit3: Decided to upgrade from a GT to a GTS Graphics Card not much more in price.

[JrRacinFan]

Everything looks ok to me. I only have a few comments and suggestions. My first one is, are you waiting til July 22nd for this build, because if you wait your processor may be cheaper.

Also, Check out this motherboard (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138075) (I don't do this often, recommend a biostar mobo).

Also, to cut down on instabilities you may want to skimp on the case and get a better power supply.

Those are the only suggestions I have, and good luck! ;)

OH and BTW, I would not worry too much about the sound and NIC cards, integrated should work just fine for you.

[d44ve]

well, I am probably going to be shunned here.....

But I think you should go with a store bought PC..... Because :

1) Hassle free... you are going to be in college, you got other things to worry about

2) Warrenty... if something breaks, you dint have to go track down old receipts and go through hoops to get something replaced.

3) If you build your own computer.... you wont be able to stop just there :)

4) I don't know your computer experiance... but if it is on the slim to very little side... you don't need to worry about building a computer (I guess that can go to #1). However, you also get Dells, HP's or whoever's tech support. As useless as they are for most people here... they can help the "noobs"

5) They do come with some useful programs that will come in handy in college

I am sure there is more... but like I said, I am probably going to be shunned for recommending a store bought computer in the first place ;)



EDIT : Just to make sure it is clear... I am suggesting this only because you are going to be in college.

[d44ve]

BTW :

You forgot your OS ;)

ALSO.... 1300 is a lot for a computer. And what you have there, I wouldnt consider worth 1300.00

[devguy]

Yo man, I'm in college and I build pcs and am maintaining a 3.8 GPA with an outside life. It is possible.

I would say I've had nothing but good experiences with the Biostar Tforce line (only exception being on my current board I wish I could adjust the chipset voltage). But be warned with that DVD rom drive, not all motherboards allow you to boot off a sata dvd rom drive, so an os install would be tricky.

BTW, a 6600 at 3.9 ghz?! holy crap man!

[d44ve]

Yo man, I'm in college and I build pcs and am maintaining a 3.8 GPA with an outside life. It is possible.

BTW, a 6600 at 3.9 ghz?! holy crap man!


Very nice....

I am not saying it is impossible, just saying it doesn't help.

Not to mention, I am sure you built a computer before you started college?

Either way... I am just making assumptions right now. I am not trying to knock the guy or trying to say anything against his knowledge of PCs or intellegence. I am just trying to give him the best advice I can with the information at hand.

BTW : I am trying to break 4ghz.... I can boot and get into windows. I just cant get the damn thing stable past an 45 minutes on orthos. :banghead:

[Mediocre]

For pre-bought, checkout: www.cyberpowerpc.com great prices...build quality is average, but they are excellent $$ and you can pick most of you component mfg's (including mobo/videocard)

Don't worry d44ve once I get this p35 squared away I'm sure to hit 4.0 lol yeah right....

I'm thinking x8 multi w/ 500fsb...maybe I can fry my northbridge again....better yet lets rip some caps off of gfx cards and see if they still work...

you should see the mess I'm in good god, wrong fans, no RAID, broken GFX, can't connect IDE (need a 3 footer)....Oh and my bro needs help moving MULCH tomorrow yippie (at least it will help pay for this debacle...)

[Ehstii]

For pre-bought, checkout: www.cyberpowerpc.com great prices...build quality is average, but they are excellent $$ and you can pick most of you component mfg's (including mobo/videocard)

Don't worry d44ve once I get this p35 squared away I'm sure to hit 4.0 lol yeah right....

I'm thinking x8 multi w/ 500fsb...maybe I can fry my northbridge again....better yet lets rip some caps off of gfx cards and see if they still work...

you should see the mess I'm in good god, wrong fans, no RAID, broken GFX, can't connect IDE (need a 3 footer)....Oh and my bro needs help moving MULCH tomorrow yippie (at least it will help pay for this debacle...)

cyberpowerpc.com's computers are HIGHLY over priced and not worth it.

i say build your own, but i think you dont need that case at all. go with a nice rosewill 25 dollar case and put a better PSU in and youll be set. i would also prefer an AMD set. also you could probably do a little bit better with your shopping and probably knock off 100 or so.

[Ehstii]

or my company could just build you one for cheaper...

[SuperClifford]

Ok with the case i dont need it to be flashy or anything it was just a good rated case that came with a power supply.
ok points people made
-get a cheaper case
-get better seperate power supply
-that mother board doesnt sound bad but why is it better then the one i picked? out of curiosity
-what was that about my choice of cd drive and getting a OS to start? do you have any recomendations for dvd, cd, or dvd/cd drive?
I think those are major points did I miss any?

I want to build my own computer because it sounds interesting, I know I could just order one but idk this seems I guess fun is the word, Im not worried about it getting damaged I take pretty good care of my stuff especially expensive sutff.

Dell computers come with vista already installed and I dont think I want vista yet, and Im gonna find out about my operating system at orientation this weekend, my friends school sold him windows xp and i think microsoft works for like 10dollars and im going to find out if my school has the same kind of license plan or what with microsoft.

Thanks for the feedback though. I will look into other parts and edit my choices into my 1st post.

Edit: I forgot why are processors cheaper after the 25th and how much cheaper?
And what is a good stable power supply? My original choice was 500W

[JrRacinFan]

SC, I picked that motherboard due to a more up to date chipset and was a tad bit cheaper. Not to mention, I noticed it had more features.

Proc's will be cheaper due to Intel cutting the prices on their quad core line-up (sp?).

[SuperClifford]

that sounds good then, i guess the more up to date u can be the better since everything is outdated so quickly.
So if they cut their quad core prices it will also lower their duo core prices? If so how much 10 20 bucks?

Edit: Choosing to follow those sugestions will save me another 20 bucks, and there is another 65bucks in mail in rebates also!

[JrRacinFan]

If it helps any, these are the proposed price cuts.

http://www.techpowerup.com/img/07-05-15/Inte.jpg

[TXcharger]

just saw the Q6600 on sale for $460 something on newegg, that is gonna be as low as it goes for a while i think. newegg has gotta get their money somewhere, but i still love them

[TXcharger]

good call with the p35 mobo, but you might consider! swapping to one that has potential to run crossfire/sli. i say this because, crossfire and sli increase the life of your computer. you dont have to run it now, but if you see the need or have some spare cash sitting around your dying to use?
also the reason i say good call on the p35 is because it has support for intels next line of processors which would allow you get say a e6300 conroe and run that and swap over to a penryn quad core or one of the kentsfield quadcores in a year or so

[devguy]

What I was saying is that many motherboards (even new ones today) don't allow you to boot off a sata optical drive. You can research the motherboard in question (see if there are any bios updates that would help - ie you may need a floppy drive), or just buy a standard ATA optical drive.

'tis up to you.

[SuperClifford]

ok so i could probably just google my motherboard's name and sata optical drive booting together or something. What is the difference between ATA and SATA? is there a great performance difference price difference or anything?

i didnt find much on the subject probably cause my search was very specific, I did find another build using the motherboard i now like and it used this Liteon 20X DVD burner which from wht it seems on the photos uses a IDE or PATA connection is that the same thing as ATA? Or some completely different connect seperate from ATA and SATA lol? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106045

lol sorry for all the questions
Ill search for answers just like to get answers from actual people also

[kwchang007]

ok so i could probably just google my motherboard's name and sata optical drive booting together or something. What is the difference between ATA and SATA? is there a great performance difference price difference or anything?

for an optical drive i would say anything is fine (including ata, pata, ide, w/e you want to call it) but for a hdd i would use SATA it's much faster.

[nflesher87]

only go with an sata optical drive if you want less clutter inside your case, otherwise don't worry about it
the cables are much less obtrusive

[keakar]

try looking at some of these cases http://www.geeks.com/products.asp?cat=CAS

[SuperClifford]

So Kwchang u think I wouldnt have a problem with a SATA optical drive? But it really doesnt matter wht kind of drive you have only real difference is how much space the cables take up. Ok then I may just stick with my original choice since its good and only 20 bucks.
And Im definently getting a SATA hdd

[kwchang007]

So Kwchang u think I wouldnt have a problem with a SATA optical drive? But it really doesnt matter wht kind of drive you have only real difference is how much space the cables take up. Ok then I may just stick with my original choice since its good and only 20 bucks.
And Im definently getting a SATA hdd

nope, no problem with a SATA optical drive. you may have some to work out some funky boot settings to get it to boot from the optical drive when you have a os loaded on the hdd. however i would recommend a ide because they are cheaper for the functions. personally i would get a dvd burner, because it is a really nice convince (you can't get a 4.7gb jump drive). i would get something like this (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827135148)

[SuperClifford]

I found a retail version of it cool.

Also decided to change my graphics card to a GTS alittle bit better and it doesnt cost much more probably equal to what I saved with the new psu and case.

[SuperClifford]

Hey I ordered all my parts and got them today(as in yesterday I just havent gone to bed yet), excluding my hard drive which is being sent seperately and didnt go out till 2 days after the rest of my order, and my speakers which arent entirely important which are being shipped from memphis lol.

Well anyways I decided to start putting it together, slowly and patiently, reading all my directions, and being very careful. I didnt run into any problems minor or major until the final part I was gonna install, my optical drive.

How many cables are supposed to plug into it? the directions didnt say much of anything and I know theres spots for jumpers and such but all I could see to plug in was my IDE cable and power connector. I think I figured out the jumpers and such on the motherboard but I dont see any cables for optical drive's jumpers.

Also my motherboard only has one IDE/PATA port but has a splitting IDE wire Can the optical drive and hard drive run off the same wire? Maybe better directions will come with my HDD which will hopefully get here today (as in thursday).

The most important question I think is about my psu, I had no problem installing it and It certainly came with plenty of wiring. I plugged in everything I could find following my motherboard and everything else's directions and then got my surge protector ready and plugged in my computer to it. I knew from replacing a graphics card in a store bought dell that when you plug in a computer it sends a bit of energy and makes all the fans spin and wht not for just a brief second. But when I plugged in my computer nothing spun.

I followed the troubleshooting and rechecked all my connections but nothing happened when I retried. I dont have many connections just the 24pin and 4pin to the motherboard, the black 6pin to the graphic's card, the 4pin to the optical drive, the 4pin to the 120mm fan, and the 4pin to I think the lighted power button (case didnt come with instructions), and by lighted power button do they just mean the light or the power button also, im gonna guess both. Can anyone think what the problem is?

I know a obvious answer could be try the power button but I really dont want to incase its not that and it somehow frys my gpu or proccessor.

Any help would be greatly appreciated with any and all questions and thanks in advance to anyone who helps.

Forgot to mention a LED does shine on the back of the PSU, its yellowy maybe they call that green, it says Green=On Red=Standby, idk if that changes any of the advice I would get.

[rick22]

i would get a better motherboard...may cost a few more dollars ...you can get the Asus p5n e sli for 124.99...also if you spent 30 more you could get the e6300...i think it's well worth the money it my cost you...last thing the speakers you want to buy are not very good....thats what i think...good luck

[hat]

I would go with a PCI-E card that doesn't take a power connector. I say go for a 8600gt, not a GTS.

I myself will be getting a crap 6600gt that has 128mb and 128-bit bit it has all copper cooling stock for $30 after MIR. It comes 525/1050 stock but I plan to push it when I get it. It also doesn't take a power connector so I am eliminating a power cable and strain on my PSU.

This 6600 is:
128MB 128 bit
525mhz core
1050mhz mem
PCI-E

my old 6800 was:
350MHz core :shadedshu
1000MHz memory
256MB
256-bit
AGP

and didn't overclock worth shit, and it took a power connector.

[tkpenalty]

And so? "Power strain" really proves that you lack a lot of common sense... a 6600GT < 6800... "copper cooling" doesnt equal good, all the 6600GT coolers were crappy at the best. And before, in the 6 series days, memory bit bandwidth was significant. Oh boy... you are so misguided... my 9550 clocked to 500mhz, and memory speed was a bit slower, ANYWAY, my 9800pro was at 350+ish, and what do you see? the 9800pro giving the 9550 a good spank. While you may go its different, its not.

Please... they manufacture PSUs with high power for some reason. If you have any satisfactory knowledge of this stuff... then you would know that you are ONLY using around 50~60% of your PSU's avaliable power. I dont know where your definition of "strain" comes from.

EDIT: Why did you turn down the HD2600XT? It doesnt need external power.

Anyway, 8600GTS is a great choice if you intend to overclock... these bastards overclock so readily with normal aftermarket cooling!

[SuperClifford]

Hey guys thanks for ur reccomendations but I already ordered the parts and they are on my kitchen table all already installed. Now I just am having questions about cables and such and the problem with the fans not spinning when I plug it in. Its in my last post more detailed and stuff.

[bigboi86]

I would go with a PCI-E card that doesn't take a power connector. I say go for a 8600gt, not a GTS.

I myself will be getting a crap 6600gt that has 128mb and 128-bit bit it has all copper cooling stock for $30 after MIR. It comes 525/1050 stock but I plan to push it when I get it. It also doesn't take a power connector so I am eliminating a power cable and strain on my PSU.

This 6600 is:
128MB 128 bit
525mhz core
1050mhz mem
PCI-E

my old 6800 was:
350MHz core :shadedshu
1000MHz memory
256MB
256-bit
AGP

and didn't overclock worth shit, and it took a power connector.

WTF... a 6800 will SPANK a 6600. I had mine voltmodded ran up to 450mhz core, I had like 750mhz DDR1 memory too that I ran at 1ghz!! For DDR1 that's amazing. I also had unlocked a vertex shader, from 5vs to 6vs.. the last quad wouldn't unlock, so it ran 12pp.

EDIT: It was a 6800 vanilla.... like the lowest model.

[SuperClifford]

i fixed the power thing i finally tried hitting the power button and that was the problem
i got my monitor hooked up and it looks like it is reading everything so i think all is well atm now i just gotta wait for my hdd to be delivered today

[cdawall]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150238'

REVIEWS
http://www.i4u.com/full-review-247.html
http://www.guru3d.com/article/content/441/
http://www.bjorn3d.com/read.php?cID=1123
http://www.overclock3d.net/reviews.php?/gpu_displays/xfx_fatal1ty_8600_gt_professional_series/1


do this instead of the listed vid card oc's like crazy 750mhz out of the box :twitch:

i would spen the extra $20 for the 11x multi if you plan to oc
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115031&Tpk=E4500

this mobo will allow you to later upgrade to SLi'd 8600gt's instead of the ATi based board shown
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130082R

also this is a much better PSU than listed one
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817104038

[SuperClifford]

Ok I got it all built
Got windows running now i gotta figure out all this crap