The Official PC building thread!

i fixed the cpu problem just had to update bios.. but would you recommend SATA or RAID??? or are they the same thing.. i was thinking about 10,000 rpm 40 gig seagate harddrive nesuggestions praetor??

(BTW we played Doom 3 and my copmuter seems to run a little better than his 3.2 GHz northwood =) the highest temp my prescott has gotten is around 42 deg. cel. i have a copper heat sink with a nicee fan=) )

 

Can you run Both SATA Harddrives and EIDE Harddrives at the same time??

Say i use my SATA HD as my Primary can i have my other 2 EIDE HD as slaves???

 

i just bought a 10,000rpm 8mb cache western digital SATA hd now i just gotta figure out how to set it up... never used nething but EIDE

 

This is my ?. I want to upgrade my computer, mobo cpu and memory. What I have 2.4 northwood 533, 1gb2700 ram, intel 845 board. What I want asus p4c800 deluxe(875) 3.2Prescot 800, and corsair xms 1 gb3200. My question is can I run my 2700 on the second set of ram bank at 333 and run the 3200 at 400 in the first bank? Should I oc my 2.4 or go with the 3.2 I've read where the 2.4 wi oc to 3.2. The motherboard says if you use 533 fsb cpu you can only run 333mhz ram. That leaves the delima fo 2.4 or 3.2 800 or 533 1mb or 512. I like the mobo because it supports 6 IDE drives, 800 fsb, and I gather from rading oc well. I have 2HDD and 3 optical( 5 IDE) Would I be better off getting the p4p800(865) and a promise card. Boards seem equal at least for what I do anyway. Video editing and internet, some games. Thanks for help.

 

hello all, im lookin for help on buildin a PC for a friend, he wants a 3.0 GHZ or higher CPU, but he doesn't really want to go with intel for sum reason. he hasn't gave me a budget so i'm stuck really

 

im running a p4 3.2prescott cpu runs real nice but will heat up without a better fan...

umm i don't really know anything about AMD soo

i recommend the p4 3.2 prescott but if you don't wanna buy a better fan then get the northwood which is also a good processor

 

is that with the stock heatsink?

 

i think the northwood 3.2 gighertz doesn't over heat like the prescott but you should ask praetor he's a genius lol

Why doesn't your friend like Intel?
_X_X_X_X_X_[small]p4 3.2Prescott w/ COOLERMASTER Jet4 Copperheatsink
1 gig ddr ram low lat. 2-2-2-5 Corsairs
ATI|RADEON 9800 PRO 256M 8X
Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum
Western Digital 74gb 10kRPM SATA HD
maxtor 120 gig IDE 7200rpm
500watt Aspire powersupply[/small]

 

your damn rite he is lol.

i think he's had a couple of really bad intels

 

Yes the northwoods .13 process runs cooler than the prescott .09 technology. The prescott core can handle about +10C more heat than the northwood according to the intel thermal sheet. I personally like buying the lower clock speed and overclocking(something amd enthusiast have done for years). The only difference in the clock speeds is the quality of the silicone. In other words all the processors are built the same but intel guarantees the speed by the quality of the silicone on that run. I can clock my 2.8 to 3.2 with no sweat, but it just depends on the chip. Remember that the higher the stock clock speed the less you will be able to overclock the chip because it is already closer to the max speed for all chips. The only drawback to overclocking is making sure that the other components in your build can handle it. This is especially true for the ram. If your ram won't overclock well then the divider will force you to run the ram below its rated speed unless you have a good overclocking cpu.

 

do any of the 64bit AMD CPU's get close to 3 GHZ, so far i haven't came across 1 that gets close to 3

 

Ok guys I have some upgrade questions.

I am looking for a new processor to replace my 1800+ XP. I have a Gigabyte GA-7VAX mobo. I am looking for a best bang for the buck scenerio, rather than blow alot of cash on the best, as cash is a limited resource. The processors I am looking at currently are the AMD Athlon 2500+ Barton, and the 2600+ Barton. They seem to be nearly the same price. Also I have been glancing at the mobile 2400+ and 2500+, as I have heard good things about them in these forums. I will be looking into some OCing, and was curious, as I have seen posts saying the mobiles OC better. Also, will the mobiles still fit my mobo? Will there be any compatability issues?

I just wanted to find out what you all had to say about these processors. I wanna here from some people with experience before dropping my hard earned cash.

Also, I am looking to add another hard drive. I currently have a Maxtor 80gb 7200 ATA133, with I believe, a 2mb cache. I have been looking and was curious, about the SATA drives. All other things equal, is there much difference between SATA and IDE? I back up alot of movies, and if SATA would speed up writing to HDD considerably, that would be awesome.

Thanks in advance.

 

Conny HARDOCP is a reveiw site that does alot of benching and overclocking head to head. If you go to their site you will find that the ghz can be misleading. AMD does as much or more with less. It is all about personal likes or dislikes. The FX line of processors has proven to be the top of the line processors no matter what the rated speed. You should always research tech sites to be sure that the added money for extra ghz will be fair deal.

svt54 here is a list of supported processors for your board.
http://www.giga-byte.com/Motherboard/Support/CPUSupportList/CPUSupportList_GA-7VAX.htm

Your board may also support the xpm processors not on that list even if it cant identify it. Lots of people have gotten the mobiles to work even if the board doesn't recognize it. You could buy a cheap nforce 2 board that will run it. Like this nforce board that appears to be one of the best overclockers with a mobile processor.

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-127-166&depa=1

You also may want to look around some of the overclocker forums to see if you can find out if the xpm's are compatible with your board and the results that others are getting.

http://www.ocforums.com/forumdisplay.php?f=48&page=2&sort=lastpost&order=&pp=30&daysprune=-1

The reason that the mobiles are better overclockers is the reduced power usage for a mobile. Less wattage is usually less heat and heat is the enemy of overclockers. I have personally never owned a mobile but have heard nothing but great things about them. You aren't going to see a big difference in the write speed of a sata over ide. Most people are using sata to do a raid array over 2 drives. Raid stripe to lower the access times of their drives or raid mirror to protect data.
_X_X_X_X_X_[small]P4 2.8c @ 3.2
Abit IC7-G
2x80 gb seagates barracudas
ATI AIW 9600 soft mod by w1zzard
2 x 256 pc 3200 Kingston valueram(hynix chips)[/small]

 

NF7-S Rev 2.0 and mobile 2600+ with some nice OCZ ram....best combination i can think of. i love ABIT, AMD, and OCZ lol. only beef with ABIT is it needs higher NB voltage and higher DIMM voltage. you need mods to get past 240fsb.

 

I'll be building my first pc within the next few weeks. I've been doing my research and I think I'm ready to start buying all my parts. I've gotten advice from experienced friends, but I just wanted a second expert opinion. So here's my specs so far, tell me what you think:

-AMD Athlon XP 3000+ http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1011724

-Gigabyte7N400 Pro MOBO http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=25223&CatId=179

-Corsair 2x512 dual channel pc3200 http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=669365

-AeroCool CPU Fan/heatsink http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=986319&CatId=493

-Artec CD-RW http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=234667&CatId=87

-VisionTeck Xtasy 9800pro Radeon http://www.buyxtremegear.com/vc124129.html

-Western Digital 80GB HD 7200rpm http://www.buyxtremegear.com/noname6.html

-Logisys Case w/ Aspire 500W PSU
http://www.xoxide.com/armorcase.html

That's all I can think of at the moment. Also, is it advised to get a HD cooler? Any advice is welcomed and appreciated.

 

pcnewb,

You're getting no great deals using Tiget Direct.

For your processor try:
http://www.smksuperstore.com/catalog/products.asp?ID=227

Base price is $94 and the equivalent deal that you found on Tiger Direct is about $101 (1 year warranty, no HSF).

Also, newegg is probably the best resource on the web for parts and the best price/service.

 

What about a system like this. It is a year old and still kicks ass. What do you guys think?

------------------


System Information
------------------
Operating System: Windows XP Professional (5.1, Build 2600) Service Pack 2 (2600.xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158)

System Manufacturer: INTEL_
System Model: D875BZLK
BIOS: BIOS Date: 06/28/04 13:38:58 Ver: 08.00.09
Processor: Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.00GHz (2 CPUs)
Memory: 1022MB RAM
Page File: 270MB used, 2189MB available
Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
DxDiag Version: 5.03.2600.2180 32bit Unicode

---------------
Display Devices
---------------
Card name: RADEON 9800 PRO
Manufacturer: ATI Technologies Inc.
Chip type: RADEON 9800 AGP (0x4E48)
DAC type: Internal DAC(400MHz)
Device Key: Enum\PCI\VEN_1002&DEV_4E48&SUBSYS_00021002&REV_00
Display Memory: 128.0 MB
Current Mode: 1152 x 864 (32 bit) (85Hz)
Monitor: Plug and Play Monitor
Monitor Max Res: 1600,1200 nec FE1250+
-------------
Sound Devices
-------------
Description: SB Audigy Audio [B800]
Default Sound Playback: Yes
Default Voice Playback: Yes
Hardware ID: PCI\VEN_1102&DEV_0004&SUBSYS_00531102&REV_03
Manufacturer ID: 1
Product ID: 100
Type: WDM
Driver Name: ctaud2k.sys
Driver Version: 5.12.0001.0443 (English)
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
WHQL Logo'd: Yes
---------------------
Sound Capture Devices
---------------------
Description: SB Audigy Audio [B800]
Default Sound Capture: Yes
Default Voice Capture: Yes
Driver Name: ctaud2k.sys
Driver Version: 5.12.0001.0443 (English)
Driver Attributes: Final Retail
Date and Size: 2/23/2004 15:11:46, 366352 bytes
Cap Flags: 0x41
Format Flags: 0xFFF

-----------
------------------------
Disk & DVD/CD-ROM Drives
------------------------
Drive: C:
Free Space: 46.9 GB
Total Space: 114.5 GB
File System: NTFS
Model: ST3120026AS

Drive: F:
Free Space: 34.8 GB
Total Space: 114.5 GB
File System: NTFS
Model: ST3120026AS

Drive: D:
Model: HL-DT-ST CD-RW GCE-8520B
Driver: c:\windows\system32\drivers\cdrom.sys, 5.01.2600.2180 (English), 8/3/2004 22:59:52, 49536 bytes

Drive: E:
Model: PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-105
Driver: c:\windows\system32\drivers\cdrom.sys, 5.01.2600.2180 (English), 8/3/2004 22:59:52, 49536 bytes

--------------
System Devices
--------------
Name: Intel(R) 82875P Processor to PCI to CSA bridge - 257B
Device ID: PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_257B&SUBSYS_00000000&REV_02\3&267A616A&0&18
Driver: C:\WINDOWS\system32\DRIVERS\pci.sys, 5.01.2600.2180 (English), 8/3/2004 23:07:46, 68224 bytes

Name: Intel(R) 82875P Processor to AGP Controller - 2579
Device ID: PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2579&SUBSYS_00000000&REV_02\3&267A616A&0&08
Driver: C:\WINDOWS\system32\DRIVERS\AGP440.SYS, 5.01.2600.2180 (English), 8/3/2004 23:07:41, 42368 bytes

Name: Intel(R) 82875P Memory Controller Hub - 2578
Device ID: PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_2578&SUBSYS_00000000&REV_02\3&267A616A&0&00
Driver: n/a

Name: Intel(R) 82801EB USB Universal Host Controller - 24DE
Device ID: PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_24DE&SUBSYS_425A8086&REV_02\3&267A616A&0&EB
Driver: C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\usbuhci.sys, 5.01.2600.2180 (English), 8/3/2004 23:08:37, 20480 bytes
Driver: C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\usbport.sys, 5.01.2600.2180 (English), 8/3/2004 23:08:42, 142976 bytes
Driver: C:\WINDOWS\system32\usbui.dll, 5.01.2600.2180 (English), 8/4/2004 00:56:46, 74240 bytes
Driver: C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\usbhub.sys, 5.01.2600.2180 (English), 8/3/2004 23:08:42, 57600 bytes

Name: Standard Enhanced PCI to USB Host Controller
Device ID: PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_24DD&SUBSYS_425A8086&REV_02\3&267A616A&0&EF
Driver: C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\usbehci.sys, 5.01.2600.2180 (English), 8/3/2004 23:08:37, 26624 bytes
Driver: C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\usbport.sys, 5.01.2600.2180 (English), 8/3/2004 23:08:42, 142976 bytes
Driver: C:\WINDOWS\system32\usbui.dll, 5.01.2600.2180 (English), 8/4/2004 00:56:46, 74240 bytes
Driver: C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\usbhub.sys, 5.01.2600.2180 (English), 8/3/2004 23:08:42, 57600 bytes
Driver: C:\WINDOWS\system32\hccoin.dll, 5.01.2600.2180 (English), 8/4/2004 00:56:42, 7168 bytes

Name: Intel(R) 82801EB Ultra ATA Storage Controllers
Device ID: PCI\VEN_8086&DEV_24DB&SUBSYS_425A8086&REV_02\3&267A616A&0&F9
Driver: C:\WINDOWS\system32\DRIVERS\pciide.sys, 5.01.2600.0000 (English), 8/17/2001 13:51:52, 3328 bytes
Driver: C:\WINDOWS\system32\DRIVERS\pciidex.sys, 5.01.2600.2180 (English), 8/3/2004 22:59:41, 25088 bytes
Driver: C:\WINDOWS\system32\DRIVERS\atapi.sys, 5.01.2600.2180 (English), 8/3/2004 22:59:42, 95360 bytes

Name: Intel(R) 82801EB USB Universal Host ------------------

 

That system is getting outdated quickly...I'd upgrade as soon as possible.

 

Look at my Sig What Things that i havent filled in do you suggest

here are some things Im looking to game

I want a hard drive thats 80 gb not 2 much bigger then that And sorta queit hard drives can make noise right?

I need a DVD Drive Mabye a burner... i do like to burn stuff.

I dont want a soundcard yet im gonna save up money fo one of those.

help