Building New computer. First Time.

Cyclone · Post by **Cyclone** » Wed Sep 29, 2004 12:10 am

Hey,

Well after 5 years of using this dell computer I decided I need a new one. This time Iâ??m not buying a crappy dell machine. Instead I want to build it myself. Since this is my first time building a computer and no experience I need some help. Like what parts to get and where to get them ect.

My budget is around 3k or so cdn.

I was thinking on getting these parts.

CPU = Intel Pentium 4 560 3.60GHz

Video Card = Leadtek nVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra Video Card

Ram = At least 1gb

I'm not sure what motherboard and what type of ram to get. I want the best parts I can afford. My main use for this machine is for graphics(3dsmax/maya) and games.

So any suggestions?

THANKS!

MD-2389 · Post by **MD-2389** » Wed Sep 29, 2004 12:30 am

I'd go for the Kingston HyperX RAM if you can. Though if your going to be doing alot of rendering, take it from someone thats been doing it for years. Go for a dual-processor rig if at all possible.

Cyclone · Post by **Cyclone** » Wed Sep 29, 2004 12:48 am

Thanks. I Might not be able to afford a dual processor.

So what speed of ram do I get? www.newegg.com has like 30 different speeds. From pc133(133mhz)to pc3500(DDR433-216mhz)to pc2 5400(DDR2 667).

Mr. Perfect · Post by **Mr. Perfect** » Wed Sep 29, 2004 1:52 pm

Ram speed and type depends on your motherboard chipset. Depending on what P4 you pick, you'll either be wanting 400MHz DDR(aka PC3200) or the 533Mhz DDR2(aka PC24200). If you're going to go with the 3.6GHz, then you'll be useing a socket 775 motherboard and the 533MHzDDR2.

suicide eddie · Post by **suicide eddie** » Wed Sep 29, 2004 1:56 pm

bandaids, iodine and something to wipe off the stains when you find a nice edge

Mr. Perfect · Post by **Mr. Perfect** » Wed Sep 29, 2004 2:03 pm

suicide eddie wrote:bandaids, iodine and something to wipe off the stains when you find a nice edge

Which reminds me. No cheap cases! A good quality case won't slice N dice you.

MD-2389 · Post by **MD-2389** » Wed Sep 29, 2004 3:15 pm

Speaking of which, what kind of tower case are you going to use? Medium or Full? (Just to put it into prespective, My computer's case is a full tower. A mid-tower (medium) is about 1/3 shorter in height than my full-tower.) If you plan on adding a fair ammount of SCSI hard drives in the future, then a full tower is the way to go. If not, then stick to a mid-tower. Try to get a case with wheels if you can. They stand further off the carpet, which is a good thing since its not as likely to suck in pet hair or dust.

Cyclone · Post by **Cyclone** » Thu Sep 30, 2004 2:01 am

I'm probably going to go with a mid-tower case. Doesn't matter on the size just as long as it looks good.

Does anyone know of any good sites to puchcase any of these parts? www.newegg.com doesn't ship out of the US.

also what kind of power supply is good. 450 watts? and do the amps matter?

Capm · Post by **Capm** » Thu Sep 30, 2004 1:07 pm

Actually, you can get a dual-proc system for under 3k - I've got a parts list somewhere, I'll look it up this evening for you.

MD-2389 · Post by **MD-2389** » Thu Sep 30, 2004 5:42 pm

Personally, I'd shoot for 450 or 500W. I run a 350W in my system right now and I'm just about peaking it out. Stay away from Enermax though. Complete utter garbage. I'd go for Fortron, since they're basically Antec parts at a lower price.

DCrazy · Post by **DCrazy** » Thu Sep 30, 2004 5:44 pm

Capm wrote:Actually, you can get a dual-proc system for under 3k - I've got a parts list somewhere, I'll look it up this evening for you.

3K US or Canadian?

Ned · Post by **Ned** » Thu Sep 30, 2004 6:50 pm

Building is fun. I had many Dells and just built my own AMD athlon 64 system and love it.

KB ORTEK|MCK-91 MINI 89K MTI SL RTL
Item# N82E16823134021

VGA CHTECH GF 6800 128MB RTL
Item# N82E16814145084

DVD+/-RW NEC ND-2510A SVR w SW %
Item# N82E16827152024

CDRW 52X32X ASUS CRW-5232QT BLACK R
Item# N82E16827135020

CD MS|WIN XP HOME w/SP1a %
Item# N82E16837102141

FDD 1.44MB NEC|FD1231H-302 OEM BLK
Item# N82E16821152005

MB ASUS K8V SE DELUXE K8T800 RETAIL
Item# N82E16813131490

HD 160GB|WD 7200 WD1600JB 8MB%
Item# N82E16822144203

CPU AMD 64 |3000+ ATHLON 64 RTL
Item# N82E16819103486

DDR 512MB|DDR400 CL3 PC3200 RTL
Item# N82E16820141424

Personally I think spending more than $1500 on a system (no monitor) is overkill.

Good luck,
N

Mr. Perfect · Post by **Mr. Perfect** » Thu Sep 30, 2004 7:12 pm

You can jsut type out the list of part you know.

The part numbers from an unkown site doesn't really help anyhow. That and I bet you could give a less cryptic description then they did.

DarkShadow · Post by **DarkShadow** » Thu Sep 30, 2004 9:02 pm

Cyclone wrote:Does anyone know of any good sites to puchcase any of these parts? www.newegg.com doesn't ship out of the US.

www.zipzoomfly.com

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/Service/Shipping.jsp
We only ship to USA and CANADA at this time.

Angel of Death and I have ordered about 5 computers worth of stuff from them without a problem yet. You can see the list of stuff for the first one below.
phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=3383

Capm · Post by **Capm** » Thu Sep 30, 2004 10:13 pm

Oh, Canadian, right duh...

well hows this:

Gigabyte - GA-K8NSNXP-939 - $205
AMD Athlon 64 3000+ 512K 90nm (939) - $200
GEFORCE 6800 128MB DDR3 256bit Golded Sample AGP 8X W/CRT TVO & DVI - $300
2xKingston 512MB PC3200 DDR 400 -$160
Maxtor 120GB 7200RPM Model 6Y120P0 Hard Drive 8MB Cache - $90
SONY Black 16X DVD-ROM Drive - $30
Sony CRX320EB 52X32X52X CD-RW & 16X DVD-Rom Combo Drive -$50
Chieftec Matrix Blue ATX Mid-Tower Case with Clear Side and Fan - $60
Antec SL450 450W - $60
XP Pro -$100
APC 800VA Battery Back-Up System - $120

$1375 USD

Cyclone · Post by **Cyclone** » Fri Oct 01, 2004 12:25 am

Thanks everyone for the links and info.

Capm thats a pretty good price and since I already have a WD160GB Hardrive and a DVD burner that saves me $200

what is this?
"Gigabyte - GA-K8NSNXP-939 - $205 "

Ok this is what I have to far

CPU = Intel Pentium 4 560 3.60GHz, Socket: LGA 775,Cache: L1: 16k+12k, L2: 1MB.
Motherboard = ?
Ram = Kingston KVR533D2N4/1G 1GB DDR2-533 PC2-4200
PSU = Antec TruePower TrueBlue480 True480 Power Supply
Video Card =Leadtek nVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra
Monitor = VIEWSONIC P225F 22" (20"VIEWABLE)
Case = Haven't found one I like yet
Sound Card = ?

I'm having trouble picking out the cpu and motherboard. I can't seem to find a motherboard that supports DDR2-533(pc2-4200)with 4 slots, LGA 775 cpu socket type, and one 8xAGP slot.

What is the "Extreme Edition" Pentium 4 processor? Its a lot more money then anything else. Also should I get a cpu with 2mb cache instead of 512kb? Make a lot of difference? And whats
all this talk about the chipset?

Thanks!

Mr. Perfect · Post by **Mr. Perfect** » Fri Oct 01, 2004 1:18 am

So there's no dualy setup for under $3000 Canadian then, Capm?

The Extreme Edition is, in my opinion, a vast waste of money. The extra cache does help, but it's not $999 worth of helping. That's about double the cost of the 3.6 you where looking at! As a side note, the Socket 775s have 1MB of cache. The 512KB chips are for the older socket.

Also, the socket 775 chipsets use PCI Express, so you're probably not going to find one with a AGP slot on it. You'll either need to find a PCI Express video card, or go with a diffrent socket proccesor.

The chipset it the chip on the motherboard that controlls a lot of the communications on the board. It controlls memory, PCI and AGP slots, and the FSB to the CPU, so a qualility chipset is a must. Chipsets made by Intel are usually top notch, so you could play it easy and just get an Intel chipset.

By the way, you should know that the top Pentiums are running very hot now. You might find once you have teh machine built that you need more case fans and/or a better heatsink for the CPU. For once the Athlons have the thermal advantage.

Capm · Post by **Capm** » Fri Oct 01, 2004 5:44 pm

The Gigabyte item is the motherboard -
and I gotta agree with Perfect, the Extreme Edition is a gigantic waste of money - it's cache would only really show any help in a server application.

Perfect, how much is 3000cdn in usd?

Cyclone · Post by **Cyclone** » Fri Oct 01, 2004 7:56 pm

$3000cdn is $2385usd

Really? They get that hot? The computer I am using now makes my small cramped room hot enough.

I did some searching on video cards and nvidia's site says that they make a GeForce 6800 Ultra with PCIe support and I have seen some reviews on the net on them but I can't seem to find any stores that sell them. Only one I could find on any sites was a GeForce 6600 GT.

Ned · Post by **Ned** » Fri Oct 01, 2004 8:16 pm

Mr perfect,

Cylone mentioned newegg twice, so I gave newegg part #'s. Is that so confusing? I suspect he is bright enough to get more detail online. I put the whole list so he could see what is essentially compatible in one system, ie mine. Rather than ignore someone trying to build, I thought I'd try to help someone in my exact sitaution 2 months ago..

Capm · Post by **Capm** » Fri Oct 01, 2004 9:15 pm

Yea, I can build a dual proc system for 2400.

Dual Opteron 242 (1.6ghz x2)
1 Gig DDR400
Geforce 6600 128mb
120 Gb HD w/8mb cache 7200rpm
DVD/CD-RW combo
Zip 250
Chieftec Case
Keyboard, Mouse
19 inch LCD Monitor
Battery Backup with AVR
Antec 550watt PS

$2200

That probably gives enough leaveway for a better video card in the budget there too.

Cyclone · Post by **Cyclone** » Sat Oct 02, 2004 2:48 pm

Does anyone know where I can purchase a GeForce 6800 Ultra or GT with PCIe support? I know their out there.

Is the Dual Opteron 242 (1.6ghz x2) much faster then a p4 3.2? How do the speeds of dual proc systems work. It would be slower then a 3.2ghz cpu but does more per clock cycle? I don't know much about dual processors.

Also would it be better off buying a different cpu and get a motherboard with agp and just get DDR400 instead of DDR2 5500 with a motherboard that has pci express?

Thanks for the help. I have almost decided on the parts I want

Mr. Perfect · Post by **Mr. Perfect** » Sat Oct 02, 2004 3:38 pm

Yes, they do get quite hot. Something around 107 watts of heat(the old Athlons everyone called mini space heaters output 70 watts). You can build a system that can handle all the heat, but it's worth considering when you're building.

By the way, I poked around a bit and found a review comparing the 3.6GHz with other version of the Pentium 4 and the Athlon 64. It also compares PCI Express with AGP, so it could answer some question you might have.

Ned wrote:Mr perfect, Cylone mentioned newegg twice, so I gave newegg part #'s. Is that so confusing?

Clam down man, I wasn't attacking you. Simply stating that the part numbers where of no use the way they're posted. You never said they where Newegg part numbers. Besides, he said he can't use Newegg.

MD-2389 · Post by **MD-2389** » Sat Oct 02, 2004 10:31 pm

Cyclone wrote:Is the Dual Opteron 242 (1.6ghz x2) much faster then a p4 3.2? How do the speeds of dual proc systems work. It would be slower then a 3.2ghz cpu but does more per clock cycle? I don't know much about dual processors.

The dual operterons are meant for server applications. However, in your situation they would work fine since you plan on using it as a rendering rig. Also, don't be fooled into thinking that with two processors that it would be twice as fast. In reality you'll see maybe a 25% benefit overall at most for single-threaded applications (gaming). Where dual-cpu rigs really shine is multi-threaded applications (3dsmax, Maya, Photoshop, etc) where both processors get used efficiently. The whole point is that both chips share the load instead of one carrying everything. Thats why I recommended a dual-processor rig for you since you'd see the most benefit out of it for your application.

Also would it be better off buying a different cpu and get a motherboard with agp and just get DDR400 instead of DDR2 5500 with a motherboard that has pci express?

Honestly, I haven't seen any benchmarks showing DDR2 based systems being dramatically faster than standard DDR systems. I'd wait until the second generation DDR2 boards come out. That way most of the bugs will be ironed out. It was the same way when DDR came out years ago.

Mr. Perfect · Post by **Mr. Perfect** » Sat Oct 02, 2004 11:38 pm

Not to mention that the P4s are still using the 800MHz bus. Once they have the 1066MHz bus they'll have a synced up rate with DDR2533 and will be able to take full advantage of it.

Cyclone · Post by **Cyclone** » Sun Oct 03, 2004 5:29 pm

hmm I have to decide between a p4 3.6ghz with the 775 socket type or a p4 3.4ghz with the 478 socket type.

I'm still interested in the dual cpu idea though. Is there anything faster then the Dual Opteron 242 (1.6ghz x2) setup? Like a dual p4 3.0ghz with a 800mhz FSB?

Capm · Post by **Capm** » Sun Oct 03, 2004 8:07 pm

not for that price.

Remember that AMD processors run at lower clock speeds than Intels, but they perform better than those of equivilant clock speeds - I saw a review when Opteron first came out, the dual opterons smoked dual xeon with clock speeds twice what the opterons were running at.

And the Opterons are a 64bit CPU also, so if you want to use a 64bit OS, you'd be good to go.