The Official PC building thread!

Thanks. Going with the premium.

 

i have the deluxe and i have no heat probs at all and only two case fans standard cpu cooler and the nexus psu fan it's cool quiet ans as fast as ....

 

Ok im about to buy a geforce6600gt graphics card. It says the requirements are at least a 350watt power supply which I have a 400 or 450 watt cant remember and the other requirement is a molex power dongle. This card connects to an AGP slot on the motherboard. I need to know what a MOLEX POWER DONGLE is and can it connect to any motherboard or anything of that sort than I might need to know and give me a link to where I could buy one. O yeah and just outta curiosity the memory type of this card is DDR3 will that effect me in any way or is there something I should know about that. Also I saw a geforce 6600 with 256mb and this card is a geforce6600gt with 128mb tell me also which would be better. Hey I know im asking quite a few questions but any advice u give is appreciated.

 

Yeah, but only twin 7900GTX PCs will actually benefit from the 32 deluxe, and even then it may be 1-2% performance difference atm. Not really a good use of all those dollars/pounds/euros/miscellaneous.

Right Dante

350-400W means a good 350-400W, so if you've got a quality make like Antec, Hiper, enermax, Seasonic etc. Then you'll be fine. If it's some extra value lump that cost $5 in the bargain bin, it may not give you great performance.
A Molex power dongle in my interpretation means a PSU power connector, i.e. it needs separate power in addition to the power it gets through your AGP slot. looks like this:

DDR3 memory is the best type currently available on graphics cards, that shows you it's better than cheaper graphics cards that use DDR2 or even, heaven forbid, DDR1.

 

Great so that answers most of my questions but I need to know if it could connect to my mothboard or like is there anything I need to know about the way it connects.

 

erm, you plug it in the AGP slot if it's AGP, and in a PCI express 16x slot (the top one for an SLI motherboard) if it's PCI express. Not much more I can say, other than to remember to undo the clip first.

 

But where does the Molex Power Dongle connect to in the Motherboard?

 

It typically doesn't. It will connect to the graphics card itself. Only SLI motherboards actually use Molex connectors themselves, and that's to power the second PCI express 16x slot.

 

O so I just put the card in and attach the Molex Power Dongle to it and thats all right? Also which is better a geforce6600 with 256mb or geforce6600gt with 128mb and also whats the differece in the mb on graphics cards, like whats the mb do on graphics cards?

 

On a card almost identical to mine, you can see the white plug where power is supplied.

AGP cards use this system, whereas PCI express cards often use a specialised connector such as this:

 

You're starting to lose me in questions.

Firstly, a 6600GT is a faster graphics card than a 6600 as you probably guessed, and with a card in this range, there's very little need for 256MB memory, this is more in the 6800 domain where it becomes a necessity. I'm not entirely convinced the 7800 series needs 512MB, but that's another matter. If your card has that famous white 4-pin socket on it, that's where the plug goes!
As for motherboards affecting the performance of GPUs, it's marginal. You'll get more impact from them limiting CPU performance than GPUs. The only issues arise from SLi, and you're using AGP so we can count that out, thankfully.

 

So im all set to go and buy this card. Well thanks for all the peoples help that gave me info on this.

 

You're most welcome, drop us a line to let us know how you get on!

 

@sammorris: I noticed in your signature that you are have the hdd that I plan on buying. According to WD the maximum operating temperature for that drive is 55 degress celcius. My computer now rarely runs at 55, usually between 55 and 65 degrees and its only the beginning of summer. Would you recomend getting a different hdd if my operating temperature might be higher the 55 degdrees?

Thankx

 

Your CPU will run at 55C, not the computer as a whole. It is true that you should never let hard disks reach 55ºC (or at least not for long) but it's not easy to get them that high. Hard disks have temperature sensors on them so you can monitor their heat. You can download a small app called Hmonitor to get this data, and dependant on the rest of your system, some other temperatures. My CPU reached 75C before my Hard disks exceeded 50. Unless you run a high power GPU and CPU and two hard disks with a single case fan, you'll be fine, trust me.

 

Thanks for your advice. You haven't been wrong yet.

 

Lol, you should be fine, but there's a first time for everything!

 

Hi everyone,

I'm building a new PC and wondering if I can salvage any parts off my current build.

My mobo is an Asus A7S333. It has 3 RAM slots that accept DDR333 PC2700. Is that good enough if I were to get 1 or 2 GB of that kind of RAM? I don't play any hardcore games really. If anything, I will play Age of Empires III and/or Command & Conquer. Gotta love the war strategy games.

Also that mobo only allows a 4x AGP, not 8x. Does that matter really since I don't play hardcore games like counterstrike and what not?

I assume my Athlon 2000+ will need to be upgraded. haha. Not sure how high the A7S333 can handle since it is a few years old.

Any advice on if I should keep and build off this mobo and some recommendations about good RAM deals, Processors to go along with it, and graphic card would be GREATLY appreciated.

Thanks in advance everyone.

 

Yeah that board's fine for 1GB or 1536MB DDR400 (it will descale automatically, I use the same setup, 2x512MB DDR400 in a 3xDDR333 board) The XP 2000+ isn't too bad a CPU, but socket A is pretty much dead and buried now with new stuff. Few places still sell 462 chips in volume. If you're not after stellar performance, a new build would go well.
You can grab a futureproof MSI K9N-NeoF board with an AM2 Athlon64 3500+ and 1GB of PC3200, along with an X800GTO (or an X1800GTO if you game quite a bit) for much less than you think.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103633 - Athlon64 3500+ - $123
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813130050 - $87
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814131007 - X800GTO $115
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145568 - 1GB DDR2 $90

That's most of a new computer for $415.
Or if you're more extravagant, go for
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102013 - X1800GTO - $191
That brings the build to $491. And that's a seriously fast computer for less than $500.
You may want to consider it. Upgrades on old technology are costly and often ineffectual.

 

Thanks Sammorris...

What do you think of the 20.1" BenQ monitor that comes with it for $225 more?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16824014105

Is BenQ a decent company? Never bought from them before.

Someone told me that I should go with a 17" over a 19" because they both have the same number of pixels, only the pixels have to fit over a 19" screen so the picture quality isn't as good. He said that 20" and up doesn't have that problem though. Is this true? Do you agree that you should buy 17, or 20 or higher and not 19?

I've been agonizing over which monitor to buy...contrast ratio, refresh rate, size. Hard call.