jimrockford

I'd pick up an inexpensive PC tool kit. They generally have a couple of small screwdrivers, nutdrivers and a pair of tweezers for those screws you're bound to drop into the bottom of the case.

Depending on what kind of a neat freak you are, you might want to get some rolled IDE cables and zip ties. I spent about 20 minutes building my computer, and then about 3 hours doing cable management. Sure looked good when I was done, though.

Oh yeah, looks like I was wrong about the MicroATX motherboards. I guess they do fit in a standard ATX case. But, I think you're making the right decision by going with ATX.

kford

eww... ATHLON all the way. May want to reconsider the vid. card. 5200's simply aren't worth the money. Just cause it's an FX doesn't mean it's good. You'd be better off getting a ge4 ti 4400 or 4600 especially. And pop for the corsair XMS 3200. One good thing about intel chipsets and procs is their FSB. The RAM will be your bottleneck, so spend your $$ on that.

Corey

iTrader: (1)

Kford, I have to disagree on the FX5200.
Yes, it's the bottom of the line FX series, but games have never looked better than before.
I can play any game at 1024x768 resolution, and get high frame rates.

I'd still go with that one for now, because like I mentioned above, cards will drop way down after the new ones come out in spring from both ATI & NVIDIA.

Chris, I am curious why you went with such an expensive mobo though.
Hbum and Drew on the forum have the same board.
It's very good, but overkill from what I have read in several PC mags as of late.

The 875 chipset it has is a tad faster than the 865 chip set of mine, but you can get the P4P800 like mine for almost half of that.

On my vid card, no the fan did not quit spinning, it got very noisy.
I cold touch the fan and stop it and noise would go away for a bit, but then come back again.

When Drew built his girl friends new PC, I saw the Asus FX5200 he got her, and there was no fan, just a big heat sink.
Asus might have stopped putting the fans on them.

Mine was a simple fix.
Push out the old fan with 4 tabs under the PC board of the vid card, smear some new thermal grease on the GPU, and place the fan down.

The stock fan plugged into the card itself, however the Thermaltake Crystal Orb fan I got is bigger & louder, and required a full size plug to power it.

On your case fans, they should have arrows on them for the direction.
Front fan sucks air in, rear two fans exhale the hot air out.
You opted to not get the blue LEDs 'eh?
I would have snagged them since you have a window on yours, and your two fans that come with it are blue LED.

You will love the sound card.
It is one of the best out now, along with the M Audio Revolution 7.1
The Creative one has a slight edge over the latter.

But even my Creative Live 5.1 sounds fantastic.
Games are very cool with sounds coming out of the five different satts I have with my 5.1 system.

Churnd

Keep in mind I'm not opting for all the most expensive "affordable" things. Just customizing for what I need. I'm not completely 100% on the vid card. It'll probably be the last decision I make.

Also, I've always been an Intel guy.

Why is the XMS better than regular? Dissipates heat better or what?

Churnd

Mainly, I picked that board because I figured it would be better in the long run to go with the bigger ATX board. Also, it's the cheapest ATX board I found that had all the features of the previous board and also supported HyperThreading technology for the P4 chip.

I thought about it a lot today, trying to think of what else I would need the extra PCI slots for. To tell the truth, I really couldn't think of anything. But, you never know when something might come up. If I went with the Micro-ATX board, I'd only have one free slot, instead of three.


The main reason I didn't choose the LED fans is b/c I figured the case itself would be illuminated enough without them. I didn't want to go overkill. What do you think?

Oh yeah. I've got a SB Extigy with a 5.1 speaker setup on my laptop/docking station right now and it rocks. I can't imagine the ZS being better, but I know it will be.

Corey

iTrader: (1)

I don't think the two blue fans would be overkill.
The reason my case is so bright is on account of the 12" green cathode tube.
I may put a switch inline to turn it off if I want to.

Oh, UT 2004 will look just fine on that FX5200, as I just played the demo five minutes ago, and the colors look great.

Weapon effects are way cooler than Unreal Tournament which I have been playing the heck out of every weekend now for over a month.

I'm gonna have to host a game of this demo I think this weekend.

jimrockford

The XMS memory is faster than Crucial's standard RAM. The CAS latency is lower, meaning it can respond to data requests more rapidly. You probably wouldn't notice a difference between the two types, but it will definitely show up in benchmarks. The XMS memory is also more stable when overclocking.

Personally, I run the low latency, XMS memory. It's a bit more expensive, but considered some of the best RAM you can get.

Churnd

Ah, I see. I'll probably stick with the regular RAM for the time being. I'm sure I won't be able to hold off upgrading this sucker for too long.

I also chose another case. It's basically just a step up from the case I previously had. This one is all black, more LED's, and has a temp readout.

Corey

iTrader: (1)

Nice case Chris, and LED.
This is the one I am thinking about adding later to mine.

Also comes in black.

Churnd

Does your mobo let you adjust the fan settings via software? I figured it might.

Krash

I don't know anything about the manufacturer of that case, but you might want to look at getting a chieftech tower. Honestly, I haven't worked with a nicer case, its worth the little bit extra that they might be. I just looked at it, its not but a buck or two more. The only thing that will cost is the chieftech doesn't come with a powersupply, which is good because you can purchase a quality psu, instead of the generic ones that usually come with cases. Trust me, you'll want a quality power supply. I've had one blow up (something popped and sparks flew) about 2 inches from my face (I used to work at a computer store) and I'm having to replace one in my friends computer in a couple days. Its nice to have all the edges rounded too so that you don't cut yourself, along with that they case is solid. I'm not afraid to stand on it, I think I have a couple times actually. It just has alot of features that are really nice to have, clip in fans, slide in optical drive mounts, removable bays so that its easier to install hard drives along with a fan thats mounted in the drivebay. Airflow is really good with this case too. I can stick a piece of paper on the front of my case and it will hold it there. I would mod it myself. More satisfaction that way. I think Corey can say that too. I'm pretty sure he modded his computer himself. Just my suggestion. Here's a link to the case: http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...125-262&depa=0 . The case is pretty popular, which might explain for it being out of stock.

Corey

iTrader: (1)

Yes it does, just the front & rear fan.
I can set it to auto on 4 settings, or have it just full blast all the time.

Also on Asus's website are a few utilities you will want to get.
One is an overclocking utility to use from Windows instead of doing it via the BIOS (Although I do use the BIOS for that, this utility I use for temp monitoring), and the other one is a temp monitor with alarm if it gets to hot, and it also monitors your fan speeds.

The overclocking one monitors stuff too such as CPU and mobo temps, voltages, ect.

PS, just saw your reply now Krash afer mine.
Yes, modding a PC is a lot of fun, and very rewarding.
Why have a plain jane case

Krash

Yeah I was pretty proud when I wired up my mini-fanbus. My 4 years of electronics in high school payed off yet again..... I used to have nothing to do but mod my pc before I got my truck.
If you get into modding yourself http://www.thetechzone.com is pretty good or my favorite http://virtual-hideout.net/ . They both have some pretty good mod ideas and how to's on their site, I know alot of them use the case I posted above.

sabre

virtual hideout is a great place. My first mods done to my gateway system some many years back is on thier original cool case gallery. page 104 or 114 (I forget).

Krash

Heh, I've been reading virtual-hideout since man I can't remember, I know when I was 17 I first came across Tweektown, then I just migrated.

Churnd

Ok, I had orginally scratched this project due to financial purposes, but now that I found out how much my tax return is gonna be, it's back on the drawing board.

I've made a few changes to my list. Check the list out here. Probably the most noticable change is the graphics card, which is now an ATI 9800Pro. I must be crazy.

I also changed the motherboard to an Asus P4P800, which is in ATX form. My main concern about that is the chipset. Will the 865PE work with the 2.8Ghz chip I picked? I noticed the socket styles are the same, so it should work, right?

One thing I'm sketchy about is the DVD RW drive. Is it a good brand? I know Plextor is the best, but I don't wanna pay $50 more for it.

Another thing I changed is the hard drive. It's basically the same drive, but uses SATA interface instead of IDE. Will SATA give me more problems when I install it?

And yet another thing... what is RAID and will I use it?

As always, thanks a lot for your supreme wisdom.

Corey

iTrader: (1)

The P4P800 mobo is one of the best out there Chris, it's what I run.
The 865PE is all you need.

The next mobo up is the P4C800 with the 875 chipset, and all the mags I read which are a lot says it's overkill for a home user.
You will be fine with the P4P800 mobo.
In fact the P4P800 will run the new Prescott chips that are now emerging on the market.

Good choice on the GPU, as that card is one of the best out now, a tad better than the best that Nvidia has to offer.
Will you see a difference between it and a FX5950?
Perhaps not.

I will probably get a FX5700 later on when the prices drop.
The new vid cards from Nvidia and ATI will soon be out making older cards drop in value.

$164 for 512 x 2 RAMs?My, prices have dropped very fast as of late.
That is what I need to pick up later to add to my current 512 MB.

Don't know about the NEC DVD, but I'm sure it's good.

You will have to do some things differently with the SATA drive when firing it up for the first time.
Search for member Drew's post on that.
Here, I found it.
https://www.yotatech.com/forums/show...highlight=sata

That will tell you what to do to get the SATA going, as you have to load drivers for it from a floppy disc.

Churnd

Ok, now I'm trying to factor in the cost ratio of this stuff. Like... what's worth it and what's not? Mainly I'm worried about the hard drive and video card. Actually, the video card more than the hard drive. I'm having a hard time convincing myself to pony up the $330 for the vid card. Any suggestions?

Once again, the stuff:

http://secure.newegg.com/app/WishHis...VIEW&ID=564731

Corey

iTrader: (1)

The ATI 9600 Pro XT that came out recently is in the $200 and under range, and is very good if you wanna stick with ATI.

It's the card I would get if I was switching to ATI.
Mags give it a great review.

The XT version is better than the regular 9600 that came out a few months back.

I'd stick with the SATA hard drive, or you could get the same one in rugular format instead of SATA to save some $$$.
I'm perfectly happy with my non SATA drive.

Churnd

I'll probably stick with the SATA drive, as the IDE version isn't much cheaper.

The video card is going to be my toughest decision. I've read a lot of reviews, and it seems most reviews lately point towards ATI. I did my own comparisons between ATI and NVIDIA, and noticed 2 things: ATI seems to be cheaper than an equally equipped NVIDIA card, and in most cases, ATI supports newer 3D API versions. Most all of both ATI and NVIDIA support DirectX 9.0, but what I found surprising is that NVIDIA's current cards only support OpenGL up to 1.5. Even some of ATI's lower end cards support OpenGL 2.0. I can't figure out why that may be. Is it like AMD's Athlon 64 all over again... coming out with something that you won't be able to use just yet? But then again, ATI's stuff is usually cheaper than NVIDIA's. I've always been an NVIDIA guy, but now I'm thinking about switching over. Unless anybody can tell me why I shouldn't?