Looking to assemble my own computer... any advice?

i have a laptop that i use for school and as you probably know it can't do shit as far as games are concerned. so i'm looking to build myself a computer. it's my first attempt at building my own PC.

i've decided on the following components:


Asus Sk8v motherboard ([email protected])
AMD Athlon 64fx-53 processor ([email protected])
ATI RAdeon X800xt vid card ([email protected])
CoolerMaster TAC-T01-E1C Case ([email protected])
2 kingston 512 MB Pc3200 Ram (2 for [email protected])
Pioneer DVR A08 DVD RW ([email protected])


I haven't decided on a Hard drive yet. i have an unused 80gb Western Digital that i'll probably use. Also i haven't picked a sound card. is there any advice anyone wants to give me, or feel i should know? any unexpected things i should be prepared for? i have completely disassembled and reassembled my old POS compaq desktop for practice and it all went back together with no problems and runs fine, but i'm feeling a little unsure of my capabilites.


any feedback, pointers, etc. would be really helpful.

i have a laptop that i use for school and as you probably know it can't do shit as far as games are concerned. so i'm looking to build myself a computer. it's my first attempt at building my own PC.

i've decided on the following components:


Asus Sk8v motherboard ([email protected])
AMD Athlon 64fx-53 processor ([email protected])
ATI RAdeon X800xt vid card ([email protected])
CoolerMaster TAC-T01-E1C Case ([email protected])
2 kingston 512 MB Pc3200 Ram (2 for [email protected])
Pioneer DVR A08 DVD RW ([email protected])


I haven't decided on a Hard drive yet. i have an unused 80gb Western Digital that i'll probably use. Also i haven't picked a sound card. is there any advice anyone wants to give me, or feel i should know? any unexpected things i should be prepared for? i have completely disassembled and reassembled my old POS compaq desktop for practice and it all went back together with no problems and runs fine, but i'm feeling a little unsure of my capabilites.


any feedback, pointers, etc. would be really helpful.


Just make sure you know what you are doing if this is your first time.

Now my takes:

make sure that athlon FX is socked 939 so it won't require registered memory.

are you sure that x800 is an xt at that price?

for case get something with plenty of space and airflow

powersuply get a pcpower and cooling or an antec

memory get some low latency (try to get 222 acros the board) non overclocked memory from corsair, mushkin, OCZ or the new crucial balistix

hard drives I only use Seagates. They are the most expensive and they don't offer sometimes the best specs on paper but I can guarantee they are the best built. and now they even offer a 5 year warranty.

get a good cpu cooler and use artic silver thermal paste

sound card get an audigy platinum zx 7.1

dvd burned the one you listed seems expensive, is it even dual layer. I just bought a 12x lite-on single layer for 75 and they had for 99 a 16 lite-on dual layer both retail prices.

as far as mobos go i prefer msi although asus is not bad either

make sure the mobo has serial ports so it will support serial HDs

and if you can afford 3 identical HDs get a raid 5 controller card that way you'll have both speed and redundancy

what motehrboard would you specifically recommend to run ram with such tight timing?

what motehrboard would you specifically recommend to run ram with such tight timing?

normally it would not be the motherboad as much as the northbridge that would count. And any decent northbridge would handle low latencies. that is not to say there isn't a difference in speed between northbridges.

But now with the FXs things are a bit different, the CPU itself has the memory controller instead of the northbridge. So the nortbringde while still being important has much less to do with memory in this case.

i haven't looked that much latelly at FXs since i'm waiting for them to go down in price before I get one. So i'm not sure what northbridge is considered absolute best nowadays. but i think both the nforce3 and the via should work just fine.

as far as mobo brands my fav is MSI. but there are other good brands like Asus or Abit.

I prefer to use Crucial memory personally, but Kingston is a top brand - good marks. And low-latency RAM is a good thing. Don't skimp on the CPU cooler - make sure you get a good one. I use Alpha Novatech personally for their heatsink cooling solutions and Arctic Silver's Ceramique for thermal conductive material. Ceramique is completely inert and non-conductive and won't put your CPU at risk if you get some on the exterior CPU components when applying it. Also, I recommend a CPU spacer. Keeps the heatsink level on the chip and helps prevent excessive pressure to minimize the risk of damaging it.

I also agree, PC Power and Cooling for the power supplies - I use these in all my PC's and the one's I've built for other people. Asus is a great motherboard manufacturer - both my PC's have Asus boards. If you feel comfortable, you can probably upgrade the heatink/fan on the northbridge since they get pretty hot. Only if you feel comfortable doing it though - it's not necessary.

I've been very happy with my Audigy2 soundcard and Western Digital hard drives, but again it boils down to preference.

If you're purchasing a 64-bit CPU, might as well get Windows XP 64-bit as well. Otherwise there's not much benefit to running a 64-bit processor.

Also, get a case that doesn't take a physicist to disassemble or manipulate. You'll thank yourself later. And SATA hard drives are the way to go. :)

win xp 64 still isnt for sale. the biggest thing a64's have goign for them are their effiecncy. I would suggest against an MSI 939 board as they seem to have quality issues with voltages varing much more than they should. If you can, nforce 4, a new chipset from nvida is set to be released very soon, at teh end of this month or next month. i am running corsair smx xl atm. pqi seems to be a popular company for less expensive low timing ram but i havent used any myself. The ballistix as mentioned above seem to be pretty sweet. Also, check for liteon dvd writers at newegg. they are quite a bit less expensive. a 16x dual layer drive is $80. which coolermaster case is that? the cavelier, pration or wavemaster?

Allso, if you're going to wait for the Nforce 4, don't get the FX-53 yet. In just a matter of weeks for not much more there will be the FX-55, which will actually be slightly faster than the Athlon 64 4000+ which will be appearing at about the same time. Just be patient.

The fx-55 will be quite a bit faster then the a64 4000+. the 4000+ is just a multi locked fx-53. the fx-55 runs at 2.6 comared to 2.4 for the fx-53 and the 4000+. The newer fx's seem to oc like made. one hit 3.6 on ln2 cooling a few weeks ago.

Actually the FX-55 and the 4000 run at the same speed, it's just that the FX-55 has that built-in memory controller, which makes it faster.

Actually the FX-55 and the 4000 run at the same speed, it's just that the FX-55 has that built-in memory controller, which makes it faster.


actually both the athlon 64 and the fx's have built in mem controllers. However the fx's is dual channel (128 bit) while the regular 64's is single. Plus the FXs tend to have significantly more cache.

Both are wrong. ALL socket 939 a64's and a64 FX's are dual channel. All Socket 754 a64's are signle channel. Every single A64 ever made has a built in memory controller. The a64 4000+ runs at 2.4 Ghz with 1 meg chache and the multis are half locked, the 3800+ runs at 2.4 Ghz with 512 chache, the fx-53 runs at 2.4 Ghz with 1 meg chache, and teh fx-55 runs at 2.6 Ghz with 1 meg chache, with the multis completely unlocked. Please cehck HardOcp (http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=Njc1). They are arguably the best review site out there. Im sure you could find specs for them on AMD's website as well. Trust me, i have nothing to do 80% of my day so i just go around reading tons of forums for hte past month. Also, its not like dual channel made a huge difference for these chips anyway, the A64's arent bandwidth starved like the p4's are.

Both are wrong. ALL socket 939 a64's and a64 FX's are dual channel. All Socket 754 a64's are signle channel. Every single A64 ever made has a built in memory controller. The a64 4000+ runs at 2.4 Ghz with 1 meg chache and the multis are half locked, the 3800+ runs at 2.4 Ghz with 512 chache, the fx-53 runs at 2.4 Ghz with 1 meg chache, and teh fx-55 runs at 2.6 Ghz with 1 meg chache, with the multis completely unlocked. Please cehck HardOcp (http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=Njc1). They are arguably the best review site out there. Im sure you could find specs for them on AMD's website as well. Trust me, i have nothing to do 80% of my day so i just go around reading tons of forums for hte past month. Also, its not like dual channel made a huge difference for these chips anyway, the A64's arent bandwidth starved like the p4's are.

This is what being burried with studies will do to you. I've haven't been recently to review sites. AMD's site is bloody deceiving they specifically list the FX with dual chanell mem "128-bit integrated DDR memory controller" but they just mention the built in mem controller for the regular 64 "and an integrated DDR memory controller for maximum performance and system efficiency". Do also notice that I said FX "tend" to have more cache not that all FX have more.

NOTE:Quotes are from amd's site.

Ah blech....I need a dual sys anyway and the only multi cpu mobos I could find support only opterons. So it seems I'll go with opterons despite ECC mem

well, all fx's do ahve 1 meg of chache, it just happens that teh new 4000+ also has 1 meg. ha, i didnt notice that harddirves till just now. ya sata drives are better than IDE. any newer motherboard supports them. seagates seem to be nice and they are quiter than the maxtor i have and just as quiet as my samsung. I also vote for the alpha cooler. of if you want to get a crazy huge one, thermalright makes a huge one, but i personally wouldnt use anythign that big, same goes for thermal takes new cooler. both are just too big. adn for the same price, u get the smaller alpha that cools just as well. Ya opterons are the only dual k8 core chips taht allow that. personally i cant wait till dual cores come out. that will be my next upgrade. also, so you know teh main reason ive been looking is i just built a a64 rig for myself as well.

Sorry I was wrong. The FX-55 is actually 200 MHz faster than the 4000+

use www.resellerratings.com to search on how good the sites you are ordering from. Newegg is the top rated but check on those other sites.