The Official PC building thread!

Hi guys,
New rig! (In sig.)
I have been gathering this stuff for weeks now, scheming and laying my plans... LoL :^)
No Sandra yet, not even CPU-Z because I'm all ready to go once my Conroe shows up (ETA Wednesday 9th).
But hey, I was running SocketA, same basic rig since ~2003... I've fixed a whole lot of other rigs newer/better than my own for quite a while now - so I deserve this.
Nobody likes the E6400 but me it seems, but it will be good! It was very reasonably priced (my memory cost more).
L8R

 

That's not really true, nobody can like the E6400 since nobody's been able to get hold of one yet!

 

Hi Sammorris,
You know what I mean, everyone is hot for an E6700 (or - the Extreme!) and others are attracted by the E6300's price and availability as it is in stock 'as we speak'.
But true true, we will see...
It is a nice single-vidcard rig, a tiny fraction of the cost of motorcycles I have owned over the years. I still want a new bike too, LoL
But I'm very lucky to have never (seriously) injured myself...
Regards

 

Has anyone used Hiper PS? I was considering using this power supply for my new machine.

So far I'm looking at:

MB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813128010
PCU
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103747
Memory
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820144808
VC
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102685
HD (For O/S only)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822148107
PS
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817128002

I have a Sony DVD burner and 2 150 gig PATA that I will from my current PC.

Am I on the right track?

 

Sort of, depends on what you're using it for. The X1900XL All In Wonder is a very video-work based card. An X1900GT might be a better option if you don't do loads of video work. Geil RAM is good, but others prefer Corsair. PSU is good as is CPU. I have a 580W Hiper and it's great. They work all the way up to 630W. The Gigabyte board is OK, but I doubt you'll find better for that little.

 

I want to play some games with this PC, but it won't be it's primary focus. I saw the X1900 card for $200 so I thought that was a good deal. I like the All-In-Wonder Cards and would like to get another one with my new PC.

Is there another MB that you would recommend?

 

he X1900 AIW is a very good card with outrageous features, but you could also have a slightly more powerful X1900GT for less at http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814142068

These are good: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131013R

 

I think PvtJoker wanted 2 IDE Ports. Thats why he went for the nForce4 based Mober over a nForce5 based Mobo. I would go with nForce5 and buy a cheap PCI Controller Card.

Maybe it might be cheaper if you get a X1900 Based card and a seperate TV Tuner.

Dave

 

Well no because the All In Wonder cards are the lowest end of the range performance-wise, so they are cheaper than other X1900s. The X1900 All in wonder is an X1900XL.

 

"he X1900 AIW is a very good card with outrageous features, but you could also have a slightly more powerful X1900GT for less at http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814142068"

????

 

By chance I picked a link that newegg have just got rid of! Now you'll have to settle for this one. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102022

 

Thats the same price as the AIW X1900
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102685

 

THAT one is, the one I had before was $200, but obviously that was a special offer that's now ended.

 

I can get the X1900 All-In-Wonder for $199. I believe that is a good deal.

Where I'm hung up is the mobo. I want to use my old PATA drives since I bought them some time ago and never used them. (Still unopened in the box).

For my existing PC I bought an card to allow me to hook up another HD, but now it takes 5 solid minutes for my PC to completely load Windows XP.

I am hesitant on adding another card to a new PC for fear that it would bog down my new PC.

I may end using this new PC to play more and more games on it. If they are going to charge $600 for the PS3 I mind a well invest that money on a better PC.

What is the difference between nForce4 and a nForce5?

 

For $199 that's a steal, and not only will it have all the best that All-In-Wonder offers but pretty amazing games performance. Do you mind if I ask where? I'd gladly recommend that to future buyers!

I can see why you prefer PCs, the PS3 will be £550 here (about $1050), albeit with three games. nForce 5 is just newer and therefore should be better, but the only real difference as far as many are concerned is that the nF5 allows the use of socket AM2. If you want to add extra drives, get a board with lots of serial ATA ports, then get some external slots to run HDDs via external serial ATA, they work wonders.

 

ati.com is offering the deal.

The card is $249, but if you mail them any video card they will credit you $50 back.

I heard that ASUS has the best motherboards and I am going Socket AM2, but I heard that there were lots of issues with memory for those boards.

Still not sure what the best mobo is to go with.

 

Nah few issues with memory, you've just got to remember to get DDR2!

 

hey guys... i just have a quick q about adding a second optical drive. my dad's work comp has a cd burner so we bought a new oem dvd burner. i have an ide cable and thats it. is that all i need, or do i need something else. i read up on it and it says something about master/slave and i just wanted to know, is a jumper a seperate cable? i would open the comp up but i cant turn it off because the comp is the main server comp so i cant. any help would be appreciated.

 

You will have to turn the unit off when you add the drive, or you run the risk of triggering the OLP and forcing it to turn off! You have heard right about master/slave setups being necessary. The drive will have a small set of pins on the back with a small bar joining some. Which pins you join signifies how the drive is set up. You can have two CD/DVD drives on one IDE cable as long as you have one as Master and one as slave. You will need to check with the drive where the jumper needs to be to set up the drive correctly. In many instances it's printed on the drive's label, so even with OEM drives you know what to do. A jumper should be provided with the drive. Change that then use your IDE cable plug it in (along with the power connector from your PSU lol)

 

Damn. i got an lg GSA-H10N and it doesnt have a diagram like most drives do. i'll see if my other drive has the master/slave diagram then. and it came with no jumper cable; just the drive itself and an LG disk with some old nero software. i guess i got to look for a jumper cable for it then. would radio shack have them? and can you show me a pic of one so i know what i am buying?


EDIT: i found a little etch mark on the end of the drive that has CS, SL, and MA, which i guess stand for cable select, slave and master.