help w/ first PC build please?

[Jaegar]

Well, I hate to say it, but it’s about time for me to think about preparing to move out of my parents’ house. It may not happen for years yet, but I’d like a head start on gathering the necessities, you know kitchenware, furniture, and stuff. First step is the PC of course ;D . For a variety of reasons I’ve decided that I’d like to build my own PC. Unfortunately, I’m not still in contact with the few people I know with computer hardware knowledge (I guess not everyone wants to go to the local college )

I read a little book on the subject and have a little experience from minor upgrades on my parent’s computer, so I think I can manage the basics of it. I’d like to ask for some help with the part selection though. (pleeeease? )

I want a generally powerful machine, but on a budget. It shoulv be able to do just about anything with some level of competence. Since it’s going to be the first PC I’ve built/personally owned I’d like it to be something I can be proud of (at least till it becomes obsolete, then I can blame age anyway). I find creative ways to bring my PC to its knees on accident as it is. I’m not much of a PC gamer but that could change if when someone releases the right game… >.< oh yeah SC2 is coming eventually. Also, note that I plan to try overclocking (veeery cautiously) it for fun as a learning experience.
PS—I plan to run windows XP and/or Linux (not sure on the distro).

I’ve tentatively selected some parts and would like to know how/if they’d work. I checked all the compatibilities I know of and then picked what sounded nice/was cheap/activated the “shiny” reflex. If you have better suggestions for anything I’m open to them. I’ve tried to select parts that are of roughly the same quality, but I don’t know so tell me if I should be spending more/less on a given part.

Case


I picked this because it looks relatively nice and has all the room, drive slots, and reasonable (I think) fans already in place. I’m not sure about the PSU that comes with it, but I can always replace that.

Motherboard
[link1]
[link2]
[link3]

Not sure on this at all. It’s kinda an important part too. Let’s call them 1 2 and 3 respectively for discussion. 1 seems pretty nice, but I can’t tell much from the only review. I’m also not sure on the ram because it takes DDR2 1066. The other ones use DDR2 800, which costs a lot less. Would I be ok using the 800 in that board? 2 and 3 are pretty similar. If 1 won’t take the DDR2 800 memory I may use one of those.

Processor


It’s shiny, fast, and seems to generally pwn. The less powerful stuff isn’t that much cheaper so I figure I may as well get something nice.

RAM
[link1]
[link2]

Either two of #1 for 4 GB of DDR2 800 ram or one of #2 for 2 GB of DDR2 1066. I’m not positive of how much memory I need, but I’m a notorious for multitasking.

Hard Drive


The format or access or whatever (PATA? SATA? RAID?) methods are scary. T.T I just wanna nice big hard drive so I picked one. I’ll also use my 2 current external drives for archiving and media storage naturally.

Disk Drive


I want a reliable CD/DVD drive that can read/write to all the normal stuff I think this fits the bill. I plan to start with just one disk drive and no floppy drive. I <3 my USB based stuff (be they flash drives or external floppy drives).

Video/Sound cards

I have no idea. I was really hoping for help with this one. Do I need a sound card? I should probably get a video card, but I have no idea what’s good/bad and how much I should spend on one.

And if you feel like looking…

Monitor


Big, good reviews, relatively cheap (ewwww ) has speakers if I ever need them.

Mouse/Keyboard


Toys *.* sounds fun and useful. I can get the cheap $5 kind later if I need them.

Speakers


Good reviews, subwoofer, yay vibrations and good sound quality.


Sooooo… to paraphrase my request. Will the parts I’ve listed be compatible and (with proper construction) form a good and usable computer. Also, I need suggestions for a video card. One last note, should I invest in extra cooling for it? I figure it’ll be easier to add extra cooling to the CPU/case or whatnot as I build it rather than whenever (ifever?) I decide to try overclocking.

P.S. This is the high end of what I'm considering. It sounds like a lot when I add it up, but looking at the stuff DELL and BestBuy are selling made me feel a lot better (rofl 200% price diff for someting comparable). I tried shaving off a bit, but using less powerful stuff only took $20 off here and there for big differences in ability. A lot of it is the monitor and my input toys too it seems. ;D

[Tarquin]

Didn't go through each and everything thing since I have to study soon, but for a graphics card, I would say nVidia GeForce would be your best bet. I used to use the 7xxx (not sure of exact numbers) and this did not need extra cooling. Currently i use the 8xxx which needs extra cooling (the extra fan is inside the case).

[Yoon]

Great to hear that you are going to try to build your own computer, Jaegar! It should definitely be a fun, learning experience, as it was for me when I first built my own computer several years ago!

It's great to see that you've done some tentative researching; selecting the right computer parts can be mind-boggling, since there's so many parts to choose from! Before you start ordering computer parts, you should ask yourself these questions:

The Big Questions:

1.) What is your MAX budget (most willing to spend)?
2.) What is the main purpose of this computer?
3.) Are you going to be gaming a lot on this computer?
4.) How long do you want it to last before you have to upgrade?

If you're looking for extra guides on how to put together a PC, you should check out the recent article that TechReport put out: www.techreport.com/articles.x/13671 . It's a really well-done guide with lots of pictures.

One thing to point out is that if you are looking to get a low-end PC for Internet/E-Mail uses, it would be cheaper to go with a Dell at the Dell Outlet store (http://www.dell.com/outlet), but if you want a mid or high-end PC, it is always cheaper to build it yourself, since companies like Dell and Alienware jack up prices on their "gaming" rigs.

Anyhow, I've taken some time to put together some suggestions that might help you out Jaegar.

Processor:

I'm not sure if you are only considering AMD, but you might also want to check out Intel's Core 2 lineup. In the past, AMD's Athlon 64 definitely had superior performance over Intel's Pentium 4/D processors, but once Intel came out with their Core 2 Duo/Quad lines last year, they've been mopping up AMD ever since. Now AMD is playing catchup, and they still haven't quite come out with an effective response against Intel's Core 2 line. In the meantime, AMD has slashed prices on it's Athlon 64 X2 line, so if you are looking for a budget dual core processor, A64 X2 fit that niche.

To get a better idea on how these processors perform against each other, you should check out this article, which compares Core 2 & Athlon 64 X2 processors in different benchmarks:

Tech Report - Weighing the value of today's processors

Side Note: (Don't be fooled by the amount of gigahertz, since that really no longer applies. For example, just because Pentium 4 has 3.0 GHz does not mean it runs faster than Athlon 64 2.0 GHz or Core 2 Duo 2.0 GHz, since their gigahertz are not directly comparable and the processor architectures are different. In reality, Core 2 Duo 2.0 GHz > Athlon 64 2.0 GHz > Pentium 4 3.0 GHz > Pentium 4 2.0 GHz.)

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600, 2.4 GHz ($279.99)
- This is the most popular processor for computer enthusiasts at the moment, since it is the cheapest Core 2 quad processor and overclocks very well. Even if you are not overclocking, it's multitasking and speed are excellent, due to the fact that there are four cores (think of it as 4-processors-in-one) on this thing, as well as the performance advantages of the Core 2 architecture. This is the processor that I currently have.

AMD Phenom 9500, 2.2 GHz ($239.99)
- The Phenom processors are new processors that AMD just released last month and is AMD's response to Intel's Core 2 line. However, it still is outclassed by the Core 2 lineup. Regardless, this Phenom processor is AMD's first quad-core processor and while it is slower than the Q6600, it is still a great multi-tasker for general purposes. Unfortunately, the Phenom is a poor overclocker compared to the Q6600, but for non-OCers, this is a moot point.

Intel Core 2 Duo E6550, 2.33 GHz ($169.99)
- If you want something a little cheaper and don't care for quad core, this is an excellent dual core processor. It's got speed, runs cool (temperature), and is a great multitasker. The E6550 is a bit faster than the A64 X2 5600+. This processor is also popular for overclocking, if you plan to do that.

AMD Athlon 64 X2 5600+, 2.8 GHz ($139.99)
- This A64 X2 processor is a good performer and is fast at stock speeds. It is a decent overclocker.

Intel Dual-Core E2140, 1.6 GHz ($73.99)
- This is the cheapest dual core from Intel. This is pretty much a gimped 'Core 2' processor. It performs somewhat close to the Athlon 64 X2 3600+; it is outperformed by it ~5%. One really good perk about the E2140 is that it is VERY overclockable. Some are able to OC this thing to 3.0 GHz with ease, using the right motherboard.

AMD Athlon 64 X2 3600+, 1.9 GHz ($55.99)
- This is one of the cheapest dual cores available, and it performs pretty well for most tasks that do not involve hard-core gaming or encoding. It is cheaper than the Dual-Core E2140 and performs a little bit faster than the E2140. This is the processor I use when building budget systems for dual-core.

Motherboard:

There are tons of motherboards to choose from, depending on what type of computing you will be doing. With motherboards, you want to choose a quality motherboard from a quality manufacturer, since the last thing you want to encounter is a buggy, unstable computer resulting from quality issues of the motherboard. All modern motherboards are feature packed, which means that they all have built-in sound, built-in network port, etc. Some motherboards have integrated video cards, if you plan on not buying a video card.

Intel Motherboards (Socket 775):

ABIT IP35-E ($89.99)
- This is a feature rich, quality motherboard that is suited well for Intel's Core 2 processors. It is made by a reputable manufacturer. This uses a new chipset released by Intel in mid-2007. This motherboard is quite popular among computer enthusiasts, since it is cheap, feature rich, and there are a lot of great overclocking options on this motherboard (if you plan on OCing).

Foxconn 946GZ7MA-8KS2H LGA 775 Intel 946GZ Micro ATX ($39.99)
- This is a budget motherboard that I often recommend for those short on cash. It is a good, reliable motherboard. While the motherboard is of a smaller form factor, it supports dual and quad Core 2 processors, a PCI-E slot (for add-in graphics cards), features built-in sound, network, and even integrated graphics (crap for 3D intensive games though). It even has limited OC capabilities.

AMD Motherboards (Socket AM2):

ASUS M3A ($94.99)
- This is a feature rich, quality motherboard made by Asus, a great motherboard manufacturer. The M3A uses a newer chipset that was just released. This is definitely made to support the recently released AMD Phenom processors, but Athlon 64 X2s will work well on this motherboard as well. There are overclocking features on this motherboard, but it remains to be seen how well it can overclock, since the motherboard is still quite new.

Biostar TF560 ($69.99)
- This motherboard is good, cheaper alternative to the Asus M3A. The Biostar TF560 also supports both the newer Phenom processors and the Athlon 64 X2 processors. It has decent overclocking options available.

Biostar NF61S Micro AM2 SE AM2 NVIDIA GeForce 6100 ($44.99)
- This is a budget motherboard that I recommend for AMD AM2 processor based systems. This one is a small form factor motherboard, but it has built-in sound, network and pretty decent integrated graphics that can run older 3D games okay at low settings. While it supports Athlon 64 X2s, it may or may not support the newer Phenom processors.

Video Card:

If you are planning on playing games that will be 3D intensive, you should definitely get a video card. Playing games on integrated graphics is possible, but it will look and perform like shit on the latest games (or it might not even run, if the game is too graphics-intensive). There are two main players in the graphics card market, and that is nVIDIA and ATI. Right now, nVIDIA cards are more popular than ATI cards, since they tend to offer more performance for a similar price. A few years ago, ATI cards used to perform better than nVIDIA cards, but after the purchase of ATI by AMD, ATI cards have gotten a little less competitive. However, that doesn't mean they don't have some good cards at good prices out right now for this holiday season.

If you want to get a sense on how the latest nVIDIA and ATI video cards perform against each other, you can check out this article: AMD's Radeon HD3850 and H3870

Another Side Note: (Don't be fooled by the amount of MB. Just because a card has larger MB does not mean it is faster. The speed of graphics card architecture makes the difference. For example, a GeForce 6200 512 MB is NOT faster than a GeForce 8800 GT 256 MB. Some graphic card vendors try to push the MB to sell their <CENSORED> card for higher prices to scam buyers.)

nVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT 512 MB ($269.99)
- This is an extremely popular video card at the moment, due to it's price and performance. nVIDIA just released this card in October, as an refresh to their high-end 8800 Ultra/GTX/GTS line-up. What surprised people is that this card yields GTX-like performance for only ~$250 (The Ultra and GTX cards are currently ~$599 & $499). This makes getting an 8800 Ultra and 8800 GTX pointless, due to this fact. If you want to play the latest games like Half-Life 2, Call of Duty 4, etc. on max settings at the highest resolutions (except Crysis, which kills all systems right now ), this is the card to get. The only downside is that since this card is so popular, it can be really hard to find in stock.

nVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT 256 MB ($209.99)
- The 256 MB version is identical in performance to the 512 MB version at resolutions lower than 1600 x 1200 in most games. If you plan to only game at resolutions lower than 1600 x 1200, you should consider this over the 512 MB version, if you are looking to cut costs.

ATI Radeon HD3870 512 MB ($249.99)
- If you can't find the GeForce 8800 GT in stock or if the vendors are jacking up the prices on it to $300+, the HD3870 is a great alternative. Compared to the 8800 GT, it is on average 15-25% slower in newer games, but still quite playable and you can still enable max settings at the highest resolutions for most new games (except Crysis).

ATI Radeon HD3850 256 MB ($219.99)
- If you are looking for something thing cheaper, the HD3850 is still a great performer, but is about ~25% slower than the HD3870. You should be able to play all games prior to 2006 on max settings and the highest resolutions, and about mid-high settings for graphic-intensive games released in 2007.

ATI Radeon HD3850 256 MB ($169.99)
- At this price, the card performance is outstanding. o.o The 256 MB performs about the same as the 512 MB version in resolutions less than 1600 x 1200. Definitely the bang-for-the-buck video card.

ATI Radeon X1950 GT 256 MB ($109.99)
- This is the video card that I use when building budget gaming systems. This video card still performs well in newer games. You can typically play games released prior to 2006 on max settings and max resolutions. This card can play 3D intensive games released in 2006-2007 typically on mid to high settings.

nVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT 256 MB ($87.99)
- This GeForce video card is able to play max settings & resolutions on 3D intensive games prior to 2005 and should be able to play games released in 2005-2006 on mid to high settings. 3D intensive games released in 2007 (like Crysis) should be playable on low-mid settings.

Memory:

DDR2 RAM is so incredibly cheap right now, it's ridiculous! o.o I've never seen RAM this cheap before. Apparently, the reason for these low prices is because there is a huge oversupply of DDR2 RAM and demand is low, so RAM manufacturers have slashed RAM prices up to greater than 50%. The amazing thing is, RAM prices are still dropping and analysts are predicting that prices on DDR2 RAM won't be rising anytime soon. o.o It's definitely a great time to buy RAM now.

Transcend 2 GB DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) ($40.99)
- I'd recommend picking up one or two of these. For most purposes, one 2 GB is enough, but if you use a lot of memory-intensive programs, 4 GB is nice to have. There's really no need to get any faster RAM than DDR2 800, unless you plan on doing some major overclocking on your motherboard.

Hard Drives:

With hard drives, I would suggest either buying a Hitachi, Seagate, or Western Digital drive, since those companies are reliable and have good RMA services when the drives go bad. As for hard drive types, you should go for a Serial ATA (SATA) drive, since the cabling is more simple than an ATA (IDE) drive. Also, it is much easier to setup and install, since you don't have to worry about master/slave configurations.

The Seagate hard drive you selected is great, although you should get this Seagate instead: Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 (Perpendicular Recording) ST3250620AS 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB

It's a newer revision model and is $5 cheaper.

DVD/CD Drives:

DVD Burner drives are so cheap right now; shouldn't have to spend more than $30 on one. That Samsung drive you selected will work out great.

Sound Card:

Unless you have high quality speakers and/or headphones to drive, integrated sound on motherboards should be enough for most people. However, if you want to listen to music at a higher quality, you should consider getting a sound card.

About Creative's sound cards, it's a love/hate relationship, since they are considered to be the best cards to use for gaming, but their driver support is generally poor. The AuzenTech sound cards, on the other hand, have much better support and tend to be better for music, but gaming sound effects tends to be poor.

AuzenTech XMYSTIQUE7.1 7.1 Channels 24-bit 96KHz PCI Interface Sound Card ($57.99)
- This sound card is great for music listening. It supports 7.1 speaker setups, as well as Dolby Digital sound. It's decent for gaming, but no where near as well as the X-Fi Fatal1ty, Prelude, or Elite Pro series. Better than integrated sound.

Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer Fatal1ty Professional Series, 7.1 ($135.99)
- This is the most popular sound card for gamers, since it provides EAX1-5 support, surround sound, and 7.1 speakers support. Great for games and does a pretty good job with music and movies. Definitely better than integrated sound.

Power Supply:

This is the most overlooked part of the computer. A lot of people make the mistake of using cheap, poor quality PSUs for this system. This can be bad, since some of these PSUs have a habit of causing system instabilities, burning out, or exploding when put under heavy power load. If you are going with a quad core processor or a video card like the 8800 GT or the HD3870/HD3850, you will want a quality 500W PSU.

Antec Basiq BP500U 500W PSU ($59.99)
- This is a cheap, but a good quality 500W that won't blow up under load. Should be able to handle quad-core and high powered graphics cards just fine.

Antec Basiq BP-350B 350W ($24.99)
- If you decide to go with dual core and integrated graphics, this PSU will be able to handle it fine. The 500W is highly recommended if you decide to buy a graphics card.

These power supplies are definitely quality PSUs made by reputable companies. They should be able to power your computer just fine.

Monitor:

The Hanns-G monitor you selected should be fine, although you may want to consider this 19" Widescreen Hanns-G monitor: Hanns·G HW-191APB Black 19" 5ms Widescreen LCD. This monitor is widescreen (good for watching wide-screen format movies), has a higher resolution (1440x900), 5ms response time, and is $20 cheaper.

Wireless Mouse/Keyboard:

The wireless keyboard/mouse set you selected looks good. Another alternative I would suggest is the Logitech 967557-0403 Silver/Black. I'm currently using this wireless keyboard/mouse for my media PC.

Speakers:

The speakers you selected should work out fine.

Case:

Really, this really up to the user, since the prime concerns are basically only looks, quality, and ease of installing computer parts inside it. The Linkworld case you chose looks pretty good. Just don't use the power supply that comes with it, since it is definitely low quality.

That's pretty much about it. Hopefully it'll help you out when get started on building your first PC. If you have any questions or want to get advice on a PC build, post it here and I can comment on it.

[Tarquin]

admin said:

nVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT 512 MB ($269.99)
- This is an extremely popular video card at the moment, due to it's price and performance. nVIDIA just released this card in October, as an refresh to their high-end 8800 Ultra/GTX/GTS line-up. What surprised people is that this card yields GTX-like performance for only ~$250 (The Ultra and GTX cards are currently ~$599 & $499). This makes getting an 8800 Ultra and 8800 GTX pointless, due to this fact. If you want to play the latest games like Half-Life 2, Call of Duty 4, etc. on max settings at the highest resolutions (except Crysis, which kills all systems right now ), this is the card to get. The only downside is that since this card is so popular, it can be really hard to find in stock.

Oh yea, this is the video card I use at the moment. Its really good. Requires an extra cooling fan however..

[Jaegar]

Thanks a ton for your thorough and knowledgeable answer yoon ;D . It's the best I could have hoped for. I had no idea about processors, so I was just looking at the cores, L2 cache, and clock speed. I know one major thing now that I didn't before. Ok, short answers to the big 4 questions

1.) My max budget is flexible. I’m not going to do this for several months at the very least. I’m looking at it more like “how long do I have to save to get a system that does everything I want?”

2.) Main purpose is to… ummm? Is everything a purpose? I dabble in a lot of stuff. I regularly transcode anime to .dpg format to watch on my DS. I edit photos sometimes. I mess around in free games occasionally, but our current PC can’t run anything so I never get into them really. The #1 use is media/websurfing, but everything would be an apt description.

3.) I’m sure I’ll enjoy games more when they run above 20 FPS (that’s from a 2D game ) and Starcraft 2 is on the way (favorite RTS ever, remade), so yeah. I’ll be doing bit of gaming but not an extraordinary amount.

4.) I’d like to pay up now and rest easy for a year or two hopefully.

Thanks again for the awesome part listing. I’m happy because some of the stuff I was looking at to begin with is what you recommended
/overlyproud
Here’s what I’m thinking for all the parts I wasn’t sure on.

CPU AMD Athlon 64 X2 5600+, 2.8 GHz
-After looking at the benchmarks on the site you linked to and comparing this one to similar Intel chips, I think I’ll stick with this.

Motherboard Biostar TF560
-This is one I was looking at to begin with, and your recommendation seals it.

GPU ATI Radeon X1950 GT 256 MB
-The performance you’re talking about with this one is something like what I want and the cost is acceptable. I may just be overreacting to my current lack of graphics card though

RAM Transcend 2 GB DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) x2
-I pwn our PC’s 1 ½ gig RAM, and as you pointed out the prices aren’t bad.

HD Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 (Perpendicular Recording) ST3250620AS 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB
-Have I said thank you yet? =D

Sound Card: I think I’ll skip it (at least to begin with)

PSU Antec Basiq BP500U 500W PSU
-Better to spend the money once than to buy the lesser one and upgrade later. PSUs don’t get obsolete at the same rate as other parts, right?

Monitor…
-Still not positive. I think I'm leaning toward the normal one atm. I didn’t notice the one you mentioned because I excluded widescreens. They give me a headache reading large segments of text and landscape format comics. Also, wouldn't that mean I'd need differently sized wallpaper? ahhh! the horror D= I like my wallpaper collection. I may decide to get used to it for the price difference though. Fortunately, it’s not vital that I decide yet. I have a quick question after looking at the two side by side again.
1440 x 900 widescreen resolution
1280 x 1024 normal resolution
The wide has 1440 vs the normal 1280 horizontally, but the widescreen only has 900 to the other one's 1024 vertically. Isn't it just a matter of one being wider and shorter than the other?


Last thing--I don't wanna be messing around with this excessively once I've built it if I decide I need it to run cooler, but I also don't want to haphazardly add extra fans and heatsinks and stuff as I'm building it. I figure I'll get some Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound and use that in place of whatever compounds/pads come with the CPU and GPU. Other people seem to think it works and it looks like a simple and easy addition to me.


One last time, thanks to everyone who's replied so far. If Yoon hadn't posted his wonderfully thorough (and surely time consuming) list I'd have only what our other members (well, Tarq) know to go on.

[Yoon]

1.) My max budget is flexible. I’m not going to do this for several months at the very least. I’m looking at it more like “how long do I have to save to get a system that does everything I want?”

- Hmm, your options may likely change after a few months, since new, cheaper parts will likely appear, while the some of the selected parts will either get cheaper, or go completely out of stock. You should definitely check back in on the parts when you are ready to purchase the parts, just in case if better (and cheaper) options become available. But in any case, the system config that you put together should be well enough to suit your needs.

2.) Main purpose is to… ummm? Is everything a purpose? I dabble in a lot of stuff. I regularly transcode anime to .dpg format to watch on my DS. I edit photos sometimes. I mess around in free games occasionally, but our current PC can’t run anything so I never get into them really. The #1 use is media/websurfing, but everything would be an apt description.

- For transcoding movies, the dual/quad core is the way to go, since the newer transcoding/encoding software takes advantage of multi-cores. For general web browsing and music listening, the configuration you selected should handle it like a piece of cake.

3.) I’m sure I’ll enjoy games more when they run above 20 FPS (that’s from a 2D game ) and Starcraft 2 is on the way (favorite RTS ever, remade), so yeah. I’ll be doing bit of gaming but not an extraordinary amount.

- For 2D games, all major graphics cards will definitely handle it with no problem, since they can handle 2D quite easily. As for Starcraft 2, since it is still in development, no one knows quite what it will require, but from judging from the screenshots so far, the Radeon X1950 GT should be able to run it at low-mid settings.

4.) I’d like to pay up now and rest easy for a year or two hopefully.

- With the parts you selected, it will, at least, last for two years before you have to upgrade something. The first things you may have to upgrade when the time comes around is likely going to be either the RAM and/or the video card, as newer software/games will continue to become much more graphics and/or memory-demanding.

Thanks again for the awesome part listing. I’m happy because some of the stuff I was looking at to begin with is what you recommended
/overlyproud
Here’s what I’m thinking for all the parts I wasn’t sure on.

CPU AMD Athlon 64 X2 5600+, 2.8 GHz
-After looking at the benchmarks on the site you linked to and comparing this one to similar Intel chips, I think I’ll stick with this.

Motherboard Biostar TF560
-This is one I was looking at to begin with, and your recommendation seals it.

GPU ATI Radeon X1950 GT 256 MB
-The performance you’re talking about with this one is something like what I want and the cost is acceptable. I may just be overreacting to my current lack of graphics card though

RAM Transcend 2 GB DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) x2
-I pwn our PC’s 1 ½ gig RAM, and as you pointed out the prices aren’t bad.

HD Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 (Perpendicular Recording) ST3250620AS 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB
-Have I said thank you yet? =D

Sound Card: I think I’ll skip it (at least to begin with)

PSU Antec Basiq BP500U 500W PSU
-Better to spend the money once than to buy the lesser one and upgrade later. PSUs don’t get obsolete at the same rate as other parts, right?

Monitor…
-Still not positive. I think I'm leaning toward the normal one atm. I didn’t notice the one you mentioned because I excluded widescreens. They give me a headache reading large segments of text and landscape format comics. Also, wouldn't that mean I'd need differently sized wallpaper? ahhh! the horror D= I like my wallpaper collection. I may decide to get used to it for the price difference though. Fortunately, it’s not vital that I decide yet. I have a quick question after looking at the two side by side again.
1440 x 900 widescreen resolution
1280 x 1024 normal resolution
The wide has 1440 vs the normal 1280 horizontally, but the widescreen only has 900 to the other one's 1024 vertically. Isn't it just a matter of one being wider and shorter than the other?

Looks like an excellent configuration. You will definitely like it. About the monitor, I guess it is a matter of preference; I tend to like widescreen monitors for watching movies, since most of the movies I have are in widescreen format. As for the wallpaper, there's more widescreen-adapted wallpaper coming out, with more and more widescreen monitors coming out on the market these days. You can still use existing wallpaper, by keeping it centered, or stretched, although it may look out of place or look like crap (especially when stretched to a great amount).

Last thing--I don't wanna be messing around with this excessively once I've built it if I decide I need it to run cooler, but I also don't want to haphazardly add extra fans and heatsinks and stuff as I'm building it. I figure I'll get some Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound and use that in place of whatever compounds/pads come with the CPU and GPU. Other people seem to think it works and it looks like a simple and easy addition to me.

Yep, definitely go with AS5; it's typically considered the best thermal compound to use for the CPU (and GPU, if needed). Ceramique (made by the same company), is also a good alternative, and is not slightly conductive as AS5 is.

One last time, thanks to everyone who's replied so far. If Yoon hadn't posted his wonderfully thorough (and surely time consuming) list I'd have only what our other members (well, Tarq) know to go on.

No problem. If you ever need help with building computers or need advice on a part, feel free to ask anytime, since building computers is one of my hobbies.

[Jaegar]

Okies... I'm ready to start this thing. As expected, some things have changed (mostly stuff deactivated on newegg). I'm keeping a few things the same, but I wanna make sure I'm not making a stupid mistake on one of the new parts I've selected.

Keeping this stuff...

Dec 15, 2007 1:37:07 GMT -5 Jaegar said:

Motherboard Biostar TF560
-This is one I was looking at to begin with, and your recommendation seals it.

HD Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 (Perpendicular Recording) ST3250620AS 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB
-Have I said thank you yet? =D

Sound Card: I think I’ll skip it (at least to begin with)

PSU Antec Basiq BP500U 500W PSU
-Better to spend the money once than to buy the lesser one and upgrade later. PSUs don’t get obsolete at the same rate as other parts, right?

Processor went and vanished =/ I checked out the similar processors (both AMD and Intel) and picked out this one
AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ Windsor 3.0GHz
It's slightly better than the one I was looking at before, and is less expensive than the closest Intel processor (Intel Core 2 Duo E6550, 2.33 GHz). According to one review it out-performs that processor too.

I'm gonna buy whatever 2 GB DDR2 800 RAM happens to be cheapest at the moment I order. I'll start with one stick and get a second later.

Case is also gone so I'm looking at some Raidmax case.

same with the disk drive

The two video cards you linked to that I liked are both gone. As cloes as I can tell newegg doesn't have the ATI Radeon X1950 GT 256 MB anymore, but I found an ATI Radeon HD3850 256 MB by a different manufacturer. (right here)

Finally, I didn't think of this before, but I'm gonna need some form of wireless networking device. Anything I need to know, or should I just grab something like this?

[Yoon]

Apr 25, 2008 23:21:50 GMT -5 Jaegar said:

Okies... I'm ready to start this thing. As expected, some things have changed (mostly stuff deactivated on newegg). I'm keeping a few things the same, but I wanna make sure I'm not making a stupid mistake on one of the new parts I've selected.

Keeping this stuff...

Dec 15, 2007 1:37:07 GMT -5 Jaegar said:

Motherboard Biostar TF560
-This is one I was looking at to begin with, and your recommendation seals it.

The Biostar TF560 is still a good choice, as it offers a few extra options over other motherboards in the same price range. With basic support for AMD Phenom processors, it gives you an upgrade path, should you choose to upgrade the CPU later.

HD Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 (Perpendicular Recording) ST3250620AS 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB
-Have I said thank you yet? =D

The previous link was deactivated, but here's a link to an identical Seagate 250 GB model: www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148262

Sound Card: I think I’ll skip it (at least to begin with)

The integrated sound on the Biostar motherboard should be fine, unless 1.) you're an audiophile with sensitive ears, 2.) you have high quality speakers and/or headphones, 3.) you're a gamer and you need EAX/OpenAL support.

PSU Antec Basiq BP500U 500W PSU
-Better to spend the money once than to buy the lesser one and upgrade later. PSUs don’t get obsolete at the same rate as other parts, right?

Nah, they generally stay the same. However, I would probably recommend getting the FSP Group AX500-PN 500W PSU over the Antec 500W. Antec's quality control has been rather questionable as of late. FSP's PSUs work well and are quality PSUs.

Processor went and vanished =/ I checked out the similar processors (both AMD and Intel) and picked out this one
AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ Windsor 3.0GHz
It's slightly better than the one I was looking at before, and is less expensive than the closest Intel processor (Intel Core 2 Duo E6550, 2.33 GHz). According to one review it out-performs that processor too.

Good choice. The Athlon 64 X2 6000+ will be no slouch when it comes to multi-tasking.

I'm gonna buy whatever 2 GB DDR2 800 RAM happens to be cheapest at the moment I order. I'll start with one stick and get a second later.

Sounds good. Prices on DDR2 RAM are pretty much at their cheapest now, but once supply starts to diminish and DDR3 RAM becomes more common, prices on DDR2 RAM will rise. This'll probably start to happen in a year.

Case is also gone so I'm looking at some Raidmax case.

Looks pretty sleek!

same with the disk drive

The LITE-ON DVD-RW burner should work out fine. I have a pair of these in my main PC and they work great.

The two video cards you linked to that I liked are both gone. As cloes as I can tell newegg doesn't have the ATI Radeon X1950 GT 256 MB anymore, but I found an ATI Radeon HD3850 256 MB by a different manufacturer. (right here)

Excellent choice on the video card. The Radeon HD3850 is a great performing video card and is 2x faster than the previously selected Radeon X1950 GT.

Finally, I didn't think of this before, but I'm gonna need some form of wireless networking device. Anything I need to know, or should I just grab something like this?

Hmm, it might be better to go with an internal wireless PCI card, like this: www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833156141
It's cheaper than the Linksys USB Wireless Adapter and doesn't take up external space.


Overall, the selected parts look great.

[Jaegar]

Thanks for the last update ^_^ Now let's hope nothing changes in the day or two it takes me to finish preparing.

[Yoon]

How's the new computer working for ya these days? Hope it's working out for you.

Oh yeah, do you have Compiz Fusion up and running? That's one of the big GUI perks of Linux over both Windows (XP & Vista) and OS X.

[Jaegar]

Hardware is shiney and awesome *.* software is new and confoogling x.x"

I was hoping to not bother you too much about this but since you asked... XD

I'm trying to get all my software running, but I have noooo idea how Linux works, and I'm the biggest computer buff in my family. I picked media software to work on first, and it's all messed up. CCCP for video and winamp for music was the easy fix for Windows, but CCCP doesn't seem to work so well in Linux/Wine. I'm trying to get the Linux version of MPC working, but I don't know how the file system and installers work, so I'm just hitting the magic button on the "add applications" dialog and crossing my fingers. That's not going too well...

All my attempts at downloading and compiling for myself or w/e the make command does are doing even worse than that >.<

I also have a small pile of drivers and utilities that came with my hardware. I have no idea if I need/can use those (already got Linux video card driver at least). I'm wondering what's going to happen when I try installing games that were finicky to begin with (like RO).

[Yoon]

I'm trying to get all my software running, but I have noooo idea how Linux works, and I'm the biggest computer buff in my family. I picked media software to work on first, and it's all messed up. CCCP for video and winamp for music was the easy fix for Windows, but CCCP doesn't seem to work so well in Linux/Wine. I'm trying to get the Linux version of MPC working, but I don't know how the file system and installers work, so I'm just hitting the magic button on the "add applications" dialog and crossing my fingers. That's not going too well...

While WINE works great for regular Windows apps, you should probably use a native Linux movie and music program. For movies, I would recommend VLC Player, as it handles movies nearly as well as the CCCP MPC does. You can find some video codecs for Linux at this site: www.sol4.net/downloads/vid1.shtml
The codecs you'll want to get are the Divx & Xvid codecs, as those two are the most commonly used. As for a music player, Amarock is a popular music app among Linux users.

All my attempts at downloading and compiling for myself or w/e the make command does are doing even worse than that >.<

Having to compile is tedious (and scary) at first. It's just one of those things that takes time getting used to.

If you do find a Windows game or a program that simply will not run under WINE, Cedega, or Crossover, you might want to consider a dual-boot configuration, with the ability to boot into Windows. Another option is to get VMware (or another virtualization app) and boot into Windows under Ubuntu.

[Jaegar]

Thanks for suggesting Amrok. That's working out great. I'm still pulling my hair out over the video player though...

I've been using VLC player for a while to play incomplete or broken files. I would've just stuck with it when I was going through this same problem the first time getting videos to play on Windows but I was picky then too. VLC has problems keeping up with the video on occasion and the subtitles behave erratically. Not to mention that they're ugly to begin with...

I managed to get the official distribution of MPlayer to work. It's mysteriously crashed a few times but I think I fixed that by tweaking some settings. I have two problems with it now. One is that the video has some flaws. I'm sure there's a technical term for it, but when the screen suddenly changes there are annoying horizontal bars for a split second like it halfway renders the image then displays the rest a split second later. I've compared it side by side to zoom player on the other PC and only this one does it. I'm thinking that will be fixed if I can just find the right setting. It's not a constant thing, but it bugs the crap out of me every time I notice it.

My other problem is that the interface makes me feel like I'm working the computer while trying to wear shoes as gloves. It's so amazingly clunky! A little research shows that a lot of people like the SMPlayer frontend so I plan to install that.

One last thing. I figure I should fix this before I go any farther. How do I remove something I installed after compiling in the command line? At one point I successfully installed some portion of MPlayer (I think it's just the basic package witout a GUI even) that way and I haven't managed to get rid of it since. I've found plenty of guides for compiling and installing from source, but nobody brings up removal >.<

sooo yeah I have two important questions. Do you have any idea what setting I need to tweak to make the playback look right and do you know how to remove MPlayer after compiling and installing it from source?

[Yoon]

I'm not sure what to suggest to fix the playback in Mplayer, since I didn't really use it much in Ubuntu. You should check out the Mplayer Forums to see if they have a solution.

As for uninstalling compiled programs, unless you used a make file to compile the source, there is no easy way to clean up the files (besides manually deleting the installed files). If you have the make file from when you compiled the source files, you could try doing 'make uninstall', which should remove the compiled files. However, it may or may not work, depending on the make file.

[Jaegar]

ah, thanks for the unmaking info.

I'll browse the forums for help with that playback issue. I'm not sure where I'd find info on it though because it's not just MPlayer. VLC and Totem do it too. That's going to be something to work on for a while.

I don't notice it at all in live action stuff. I'm guessing it's because it doesn't have the smooth lines and solid textures anime does. It may be the file types though... I'll try different file types to see if it's all video or maybe just one codec or container. Troubleshooting and narrowing down trouble sources...

edit: oh yeah, the newest freakiness I'm having is that nothing saves my preferences when I exit. eg: I set the default audio and subtitle tracks in VLC to watch subbed anime, watch 3 episodes fine then open the player again the next day and it's back to all default settings. I'm puzzled by this. Does Linux only save the settings if I use the drop-down menu exit option instead of the X in the corner or something weird like that? I checked the permissions and it's set to allow both read and write...