Guys! lol You didn't have to flame FISHNERD so bad! lol I would have just nicely explained how the community works at AD and REPORT HIM HORRIBLY AND PAINFULLY!!! hehe Anyhoo. Billybob, I leave you in these guys' hands. They have helped me alot over the last few months. I have probably been the most prominent thread-starter this last week while preparing to build a new computer for my buddy. lol Had to go camping with my dad(pulled out the tent sunday night and forced me into the truck) and got back this morning. It was fun. Thanks for all the props guys. I try my best! Peace out!
boxwrench: Yeah sure, I was going to leave that out as we have to break people in gently. If you start throwing words at people too fast they go right over their heads, even professionals sometimes. (and that's just A-Level exams lol) The Front side bus is the connection between the processor and everything else via the motherboard. Every PC has a speed for this bus that determines how fast your CPu interacts with your other components. Memory, PCI slots, controller chips, and so on. The speed of your processor, e.g. 2000mhz, is always a Multiple of how fast this speed has been set. For example, my processor is 13x166mhz = 2166mhz. That's what an XP3000+ runs at. This ties in nicely with memory. DDR memory (double data rate) is just double this speed, hence the name, so in my case its 2x166mhz = 333mhz. Most normal PCs these days have a basic FSB speed of 200mhz, so the memory is 400mhz (that's why it's that speed). This can then be put into dual channel mode which doubles it again to make 800mhz. With traditional CPUs (i.e. EVERY intel, and all old AMDs (K6-2 and previous, Athlon K7, Athlon XP etc.) this is all there is to it, it's the speed at which the bus on the motherboard communicates with everything. The CPU just happens to do, say 13 things for every time it communicates with the bus, and the memory two things. Hope that's not too complicated, because it goes a bit further... Intel's latest CPUs use a front side bus of 800mhz or 1066mhz, matching up with dual channel 400 or 533mhz memory (with me so far because it's double?) making their real bus speeds 200 or 266mhz. All well and good, but what if you have two processors in a dual core? You can't up the FSB. So you have two CPUs competing for the same FSB, and that poor bus has to fit two lots of 13 operations every time. AMD however use a clever old thing called HyperTransport. (Not to be confused with Hyper Threading). This uses a control "bus" local to the processor itself, so you get more when you add more processors, eliminating the intel problem. With one processor, Hypertransport buses are twice what the Hyper transport level is set to, once again thanks to DDR memory. Typically HT is 4x (for 800mhz bus chips) or 5x (for 1000mhz bus chips). These are the ones to have. This of course makes 1600 or 2000mhz, where those HyperTransport speeds come from. With two cores you'd effectively have 4000 (2 lots of 2000), making it impossible to exceed the limit. That's basically the sum of it. Any more questions, only need to ask. And no, FISHNERD shouldn't have been so rude. He got what was coming to him. Sorry mate, but that's the rules!!!
I just think you should grin and bear it. Just report him and let suspension catch him by surprise. It's just so much sweeter that way. lol
Firstly, as i see it, fishnerds an bumhole and he deserved everything i got, i was already a bit iffy about asking about this, as i had (and i am a bit better knowledged about the basics now) no idea about how a computer is built and all the different parts. After eustansis reply and then auslanders, i thought i was wrong and that it was really kind, then that clown went and said that. Anyway hes just personified "misdemenour" for aD, lol, i cant be bothered to explain that. I see about doubling up now, that it wil effectively bring it up to 800mhz, but then you just gave me the link to 2 512's. What major difference is ther between the two? I will get them anyway, i have saved this thread as a bookmark, and will use it when i get the money together. I also understand now about the speed of the processor, i guess athlons just great lol. I think i can to spend £50 on the 1gig RAM, especially if it will make the system fly. Why is it so cheap? In my local computer store, they charged my mum £50 for 512mb RAM, and £20 to fit it!! Rip off merchants probalby, or that site it just brilliant, or you can just find great bargains!! Forget that, i cant have my dad having this computer, it sound great. I think it will be MY first build, ill ask him for one of those comps, and hope that his mate gives him a computer that they had some agreement about. Ill just follow this thread. Any tips on what i should do first? When i get the "blueprint" (my dads computer), should i get the processor and motherboard first, or the RAM, or the harddrive or what? Just your advice on which order i should do things, cheapedt ones first or get the bulk of the spending out of the way? Thank you so much though everyone who has contributed to this thread, i had no idea i would get this much help. Thanks alot, really appreciated.
if you [bold]absolutely[/bold] trust the power supply, the first thing to get is the mobo/processor. since you're doing such a great leap of an upgrade, you'll have to get the ram at the same time. you can buy minimal ram (say, one stick of 512) and simply add as you save up more money. as long as proper cooling is in place, the next thing would be upgrading the hard drives, then optical disc drives. if i were you, i'd try to get as much as possible at once, even if this means borrowing a bit of money or getting an advance on pay or something, as you can always pay it back. but if you buy a few parts and let a machine sit unfinished and unused, it will tend to get in the way and be possibly damaged. plus, if it sits long enough, warranties could run out when you have untested parts that may not function properly.
If you have the money I think it would be better to get the bulk of the spending out of the way. Though computer parts can be for bargain prices they will never be cheap. You DO get your money's worth. Some ValURAM is pretty iffy but if you get a reputable brand like Corsair or OCZ it's just fine. If your mom just recently bought that RAM she was MAJORLY ripped off. If a few months ago then maybe not. RAM prices have really gone down recently. But $40 to insert a PCB board into a slot? That's a load of bull. You can get a good 2GB kit for about $180 when it used to be about $230-$250. But 2GB's is overkill for most tasks, even gaming. I just like the extra reserve of speed and lightning fast load times And you are right. FISHNERD really is an ass. But... whatever! Anyway we at AfterDawn are usually pretty good guys... except when we get in huge pissing contests about component manufacturers Don't let FISHNERD get you down. You just gotta remember that every forum is going to have a guy that thinks that the forum is an elite group for only the super intelligent. But if I remember correctly his name has "Junior Member" under it If you build a computer you ARE eventually going to want to play games. I suppose one of the guys could find you an X800GTO for cheap. I personally recommend it as a budget card. I had a very good experience with it in my first build. It has solid numbers even if it is a cut down version of the X800 series. No matter what you do don't get a GeForce 6800 series. The X800GTO will handily match and beat a GeForce 6800 at 2/3 the price. If you still want to keep your budget the GeForce 6600 series won't take you up too high but is MUCH more powerful than that 7300GS. Trust me, you might be okay with the weaker card but you won't regret the little extra cash you put into a better video card. Oh yeah. If you get a hard drive that uses SATA it is required to havve a floppy drive so you can use the floppy disk to install SATA driver on your motherboard. You can tell if it has it or not by the name. It will either be ATA or SATA. With ATA though you have to set jumpers but your motherboard's manual should help you out with that.
two 512s? No I'm saying use two of them, not just one. 1GB from 512MB is a major performance boost. Athlons are indeed just great. In your local store, they have to pay rents and labour for all that, they're a small company and they overcharge because they're so useful. That's what small stores are like, you'll have to get used to it. Buy all the parts you need as one order so you save on delivery, then when they all arrive, get building! If you can't afford to do it all at once, do the heavy stuff together, or you'll pay for two expensive delivery charges. £20 to insert RAM is ridiculous. Special reserve did it for £7 when they were around, and I thought that was bad. I got 2 sticks of 512MB RAM, albeit Elixir for £23 each about 18 months ago and fitted them myself. No probs so far with them, I think it was £49 (inc. delivery) well spent! You should keep an eye out on the http://www.overclockers.co.uk This week only specials, a mate of mine bagged himself two X800GTOs for £127 all in, and sold one on ebay for £85. Not bad eh? £42 (plus what ebay take, that was about £5 in the end with paypal) for an X800 ain't bad.
The power supply! The one in now is probably ancient, and i dont even know whch bit it is, whether its a box or board lol. Anyway, can i have one last link to a cheap one please? Thank you very very much sam, auslander, eustansis and boxwrench. And everyone else involved
The power supply is the box at the top at the back, with the fan at the back and where the mains cable goes in! This thing If you could give us what rating it is e.g. "250W power supply" we'd know whether it's still OK to use or not. If it is 250, it'll be fine. Any less and we may have to make another purchase (if one's tiny, check the other PC, if the other's better and the same shape, you could swap them (old systems use nowhere near as much power as even basic rigs do nowadays).
an old psu going out can take out all the new stuff with it, though. best to be cautious and replace it, anyway.
LOL Someone likes it! 5 stars over 630 reviews, I've never seen the like! Now to find one in the UK... http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?TT-W0069 Done.
Sorry guys... I lost my 3700 that night and was on my sisters 1.47 XP.... i was pissed and appologise.. please forgive me all.. and jeess, these moderat;ors dont like me.. O and Estuansis if look up triock91 or triock, you will see that i was an senoir member.. so dont be judging.. i am 14 almost 15 (july) and i am trying to find out what i am going to do. so please forgive me.. Again.. hehe.. Thanx, FIHSNERD
@FIHSNERD - we just don't like disruptions to threads, this is a very public site, imagine how comments look the next day, to a new visitor to the site, for instance.. anyway, back to Hamster's powering computers..
Hey, yeah I know who triock is. That's you? Oh well. Maybe you can take this opportunity to upgrade. Your 3700+ was good but a 4000+ will put you in much better stead for OCing. The higher stock core speed will allow you to hit maybe 2.8GHz and have essentially an FX-57. And maybe consider an upgrade to your video if you like to game. Ocing to 2.6GHz does nothing for performance if other components bottleneck it. My video is bottlenecking my newly OC'd A64 X2 3800+ big time. But I've got more processing power than an FX-55. It only beats me in single threaded arithmetic processing. I suppose you're right on member labels. I'm 16 and taking A+ maintanence and assembly/repair. A preparatory class anyway. I still ask the guys at AD on a lot of stuff because I have just started my class(it's a summer deal.) I plan on starting my own business someday soon. I've done enough research outside of classes to know much more than the average computer enthusiast. When I was 13 I found an old Pentium MMX computer on the side of the road. I took it apart and slowly learned the purpose of the parts by taking them out and seeing what stopped working when I turned it on. As I remember it had an Aztec sound card, an Aopen WinArtist video card, and a 4 gigabyte hard drive. In short, forgiven. Just don't let happenings in your life be taken out on others. It's annoying as hell when I have to wake up every morning and deal with my girl friend's latest problem. She takes out her frustration by yelling at me. Male or not, if you have any female friends you would know what I mean.
