Building my first computer

talk random
1

Alright, I’ve set myself to building my next computer myself. I’ve spent many hours searching for parts and I want the input of all my fellow kirupans.

www.airspacedesigns.com/stuff/computer.htm

Most of the parts I picked out from tigerdirect.com and I have heard more then a few bad things about them so I’m very nervous about ordering from there. What do you guys think of them?

Also wanted to check and make sure I’m not missing anything and all my parts are compatible. I have to cases shown because I haven’t descided which one I like better yet. I also am not sure what power supply I need.

2

^they are int he link and i think is cool cause the dvd and radeon have a good price.

3

i did phil… oh well here it is again

http://www.airspacedesigns.com/stuff/computer.htm

4

no, I don’t play a lot of video games but I’d like to keep the option open. Plus the duel monitors. What video card would you suggest phil for someone who has duel monitors and does lots of flash and photoshop and plays the occasional first person shooter?

5

MAC

6

*Originally posted by Phil Jayhan *
**way too expensive; **

and thats the OEM version too :-p

7

oh I’m not going to be ordering for quite a while phil. And I’d be very grateful if you did find cheaper prices on this stuff.

8

*Originally posted by Digigamer *
**no, I don’t play a lot of video games but I’d like to keep the option open. Plus the duel monitors. What video card would you suggest phil for someone who has duel monitors and does lots of flash and photoshop and plays the occasional first person shooter? **

This sounds like a Matrox job :wink: Matrox is kinda the reference when it comes to driving multiple monitors with high colour quality and resolution. If you’re getting a Matrox, make sure it’s fast enough to play games. If you wanna play some heavier games, I suggest you look for an ATI card that has dual monitor output. The Radeon card you chose was already a good choice: AGP 8x + dual monitor output. If I were you, I’d stick with the Radeon :slight_smile:

9

well, I just ordered a new PC (in the UK) so you can take a look at my specs:

Intel P4 3GHz 800FSB
1536MB DDR400 Memory
160GB Hard Disk
NEC DVD Writer
16x48 DVD ROM
FX 5600 256MB Graphics card
Sony Floppy Drive
USB2 Ports
Midi Tower Case

Approx £725 exc VAT ==> 1,279.19 USD
£859 inc VAT ==> 1,499.74 USD

Mind you, that’s without a monitor and other peripherals (since I already have all that stuff from my old pc).
Ahh… arriving in time for Christmas as well… :D:D

With regards to dual monitors - The GeForce FX cards have dual monitor support as well afaik (5600 and above). Some of the cards do vary though, so check before you buy. I think they’ve actually stopped producing the 5600 now because they did a few tweaks and renamed it the 5700 - it’s only a slight increase in price compared to the 5600, but the improvement is minimal anyway.

Voetsjoeba: Are Matrox even still in business? :sure:

10

hey digi, be sure to check out http://www.newegg.com because they are waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay better than tiger direct. for the Hard Drive, as much as I hate to say it, wait for best buy to give a good deal (they do it all the time) I got a 160 GB (8MB cache) for $99 and they have very similar deals all the time. And remember when looking at the prices that a lot of the newegg stuff has free shipping, and with newegg you get piece of mind, because they have such good customer service.

11

*Originally posted by asphaltcowboy *
**
Voetsjoeba: Are Matrox even still in business? :sure: **

Aren’t they ?? :stuck_out_tongue:

12

Oh eww… I hear a lot of BAD things about tigerdirect. I personally would never buy from them - good deal or not, better safe than sorry. I like newegg a lot when it comes to buying hardware online, they take care of business and have fast shipping.

Anyway - if you are patient it’s worth it to shop around for parts and wait for a good deal. I check the following sites daily:
http://www.hot-deals.org
http://www.bensbargains.net

If you are really good with mailing in rebates, you can save hundreds of dollars and excellent deals come in all the time.

13

ohhhhhhh yeah, mail in rebates all the way. theres a good Cyber Deals forum over at www.overclockers.com too. They have some insane MIR (mail in rebate) deals sometimes… like a logitec elite duo for $4 (yeah, $4… lol) too bad deals like that only last for a week usually before the stores realize their mistake.

14

hey thanks everyone. You guys are very helpful.

RG- those are some great sites thanks! I’ve already signed up for a couple things on the hot deals site.

Phil- your the man!

15

*Originally posted by APDesign *
for the Hard Drive, as much as I hate to say it, wait for best buy to give a good deal (they do it all the time) I got a 160 GB (8MB cache) for $99 and they have very similar deals all the time.

I will look into that APDesign. The reason the hard drive is a bit more expensive is because it is type Serial ATA which I believe my motherboard requires.

16

definitely go with newegg.com. They have the best customer service, pretty good prices and they ship pretty quickly. I’ve ordered tons of stuff from them and have never had a shipping problem or anything DOA.

-If you need a SATA hd, newegg has had some really good deals lately- look for the one day specials they sometimes have.

Also check out
http://resellerratings.com/ before you order from a company you don’t really know much about.

[edit] things about the hardware…
-if you get that motherboard, make sure it is rev 2.0
-if you get that seagate hd, make sure you get a power supply that has a plug for an SATA drive or get an adapter(some of the new seagate drives don’t use the standard 4-pin connector)
-you can save a few extra bucks and get a mobo with onboard graphics instead of buying a separate card if you don’t need the performance
[/edit]

17

newegg.com man…I second that…

2.0ghz amd’s for like $80.

wooweee…

I’ve used them, and will for sure in the future…beat the heck out of pricewatch.com.

18

That mobo you got is a nice one man…

here’s a good combo I came up with real quick…

the ASUS nforce combination is a stellar go, I’ve got one of the combos myself…

search on newegg…you will find a near unbeatable deal man…

just make sure with this kind of setup that your
POWER SUPPLY is 400w or above man.

Also you will need a good heatsink, cooling system etc.

Let me see if I can find that heatsink I’m using on my pc right now online in the next day or so.

Computer Hardware > Motherboards - AMD > ASUS > N82E16813131433
Asus Motherboard Chipset nForce 220D for AMD Processors, Model “A7N266-VM AA”(AMD Assured Version) RETAIL
Specifications:
Supported CPU: Socket A AMD Duron/Athlon/Athlon XP up to 2600+
Chipset: NVIDIA nForce 220D (IGP-64 and MCP-D)
FSB: 266/200MHz
RAM: 2x DIMM support DDR266/200(Unbuffered/Non-ECC) Max 1GB
IDE: 2x UltraDMA 100/66/33 up to 4 Devices
Slots: 1xAGP 4X, 3x PCI
Ports: 2xPS2,1xLPT,1xCOM,1xVGA,1xLAN,4xUSB1.1(Rear 2),1xGAME,Audio Ports
Onboard Audio: MCP-D Integrated APU with AC3 + Realtek ALC650 6-Channel Codec
Onboard Video: Integrated GeForce2 GPU
Onboard LAN: Realtek 8201L 10/100Mbps
Form Factor: Micro ATX

Model# A7N266VM
Item# N82E16813131433
Stock Status: In Stock
Rating: (avg rating out of 323 voters) Reviews: 262
Click Here For More Product Info

Price: $59.99 Free FedEx Saver Shipping

Computer Hardware > Processors > AMD > N82E16819103421
AMD Athlon XP 2400+ “Thorton”, 266MHz FSB, 256K L2 Cache Processor - OEM
Specification
Model: AMD Athlon XP 2400+
Core: Thorton
Operating Frequency: 2GHz
FSB: 266MHz
Cache: L1/64K+64K; L2/256K
Voltage: 1.65V
Process: 0.13Micron
Socket: Socket A
Multimedia Instruction: MMX, SSE, 3DNOW!, 3DNOW!+
Packaging: OEM(Processor Only) (limit 10 per customer)

Model# AXDC2400DKV3C
Item# N82E16819103421
Stock Status: In Stock
Rating:
Click Here For More Product Info

Price: $75.00

19

what is all this prstudio? Did you find this on newegg???

20

I’m working on find all my parts on newegg for good prices since I’d prefer not to purchase from tiger direct.