What do I need for my home-built PC?

I am going to be building my own computer. So I will be using a new AMD XP processor (these guys are wayyyyyy fastrer than their P4 brethren), and get a motherboard with it. This will be from E-bay. I will have to buy a new system case for the ATX style board. I will buy a video card, a hard drive, a burner, a ps2 compatable keyboard, some new DDRRAM (approx 512mb to 1 gb), and thats about it. All other things will be taken from my old comp (like floppy, monitor, speakers, sound card, modem, and thats about it there)

So my question is this: When I get the motherboard, do I need a certain case to make sure the m-board fits? I will be buying the case/power supply from a store, no point in shipping one. I assume all of the cards will line up nicely with the back of the case, am I right??
And the new motherboard comes with its own BIOS, right? (I will have to set it up in the BIOS, but I've done that before, so it shouldn't be a problem)

Also, should I buy a grounding wire, or is just touching the system case enough in this case?

Any input/ideas would be helpful:)

the mother board will fit fine in an ATX case !my advise to you ! while i have been an AMD user since its K5 processor !

get a 300 watt or higher case ! a big cooling fan ! a reliable board and branded RAMS ! by that you 'll garantee a stable system ! :)

MIKE

Yup! All you need is an ATX case. If you are buying anything online, I suggest www.mwave.com as they have a good selection and have great prices. As for the BIOS, it will generally configure itself once you boot up, but there might be some settings you need to change. No need to buy a grounding wire, just make sure you aren't working in an area with a lot of static.

Thanks, all! But I think I will go with ebay, its cheaper from them. If all goes well, I could have my new comp up and running in 3 weeks!

good luck !

MIKE

You forgot one thing, the OS. :D

you're taking a huge cgance with ebay, but whatever floats your boat. The main baord should fit a standard case. The size of the cooling fan really doesn't matter but the size of the heat sink does since it is a faster processor. Yes it should come with its own BIOS but configuring one isn't hard at all.

AE Stud is right. I know people that have gotten burned with computer parts on eBay. That is one of the few things I would never buy on eBay is computer parts. Just remember you always get what you pay for.

Originally posted by kbslacker
You forgot one thing, the OS. :D

I have a WInMe disk from my moms comp, so I have one.

So, then what should I look for when buying stuff on ebay, phrases like 'guaranteed to work', and walk away if it says 'as is'???

No... NO!!! (Nightmare begins) Not ME!! :eek: You might as well put '95 on... Get 2k or XP.

Originally posted by MBTN
No... NO!!! (Nightmare begins) Not ME!! :eek: You might as well put '95 on... Get 2k or XP.

No question there. You will have nothing but problems from ME. It is by far the worst OS that Microsoft ever released.

ok ive built 6 computers and i can answer a lot of your questions so if u wanna talk my aim sn is J8xL or just PM me thru these message boards

first off, dont buy from mwave, mwave = shit, i know ppl who have had problems with them and i think their cc databases have been hacked

secondly the guys are right, winme is complete shit, i installed it on a system i built that i sold to a friend, anyways 6 months later there icons on their desktop run around, everything crashses, it was a fricken mess, and no there wasnt a virus (running icons really boggled my mind lol) so i reformatted and installed XP. so just pirate yourself a copy it isnt hard to find on irc, win2k is good also.

ummm make sure u get a good quality motherboard, anything under 100 dollars probably isnt very good, but it could be, most likely not. and yes it'll fit into your case just fine. make sure you get a 300w power supply or higher and a case with ample room for upgrades.

name brand ram is a must, sucks for you but ram prices are waaaaayy higher than they were this past fall :(

dont buy anything from ebay, i recommend www.newegg.com for getting a burner, hard drive, um maybe a mobo, the ram maybe here too. http://www.pricewatch.com/ is a good site to search for the best price on computer products, but sum of the sites it lists are crappy (ex. mwave.com)

and you dont need to ground yourself, just touch the case a lot, dont dance around on sum carpet in socks while working in your comp and jsut be careful :)

lets see what else.......

really good quality hard drives at newegg for bout 80

video card get a geforce 2 pro unless u game like all day, i have a gf2 and it is great for all the latest games and u can pick up one for cheap, geforce 3s and 4s dont even add noticeable performance for a casual even experienced gamer

if you talk to me i can help u get a nice motherboard to suit your needs

k i think im done


oh and i can hook u up with winxp

XP SUCKS man ! and there has been a security issues released by MICROSFT concerning this ! :finger:


MIKE

Originally posted by ACCORD EX
XP SUCKS man ! and there has been a security issues released by MICROSFT concerning this ! :finger:


MIKE

umm yea just like with EVERY OS MADE

win2k has plenty of security issues, as with any 9x os including ME

linux variants can also have lots of security issues but not as many as MS

anyways security issues shouldnt worry you unless your running sum kinda server off your computer or if u piss off script kiddies that like to DoS your comp

these security issues are *usually* fixed quickly and like i said for a casual user it doesnt really matter

if u really want to run a really stable os all u can run is any BSD or *nix variant w/o any xwindows running (the graphical user interface)

if ppl think XP sucks so much? whats better? win2000 in some ways, but if u got a fast comp winxp is usually the better choice. Mac OS X looks pretty tight but in real life it gets clumbsy to use and doesnt have enough software support, but if i had the money i'd buy a mac too :)

Hmm, I never had a problem with www.mwave.com but I'm scared after hearing that the CC database was hacked.:eek: I guess if I want parts I'll get them from www.newegg.com

Hey what the!? Newegg is the same damn thing as mwave.com! :eek: :D

Originally posted by MBTN
Hmm, I never had a problem with www.mwave.com but I'm scared after hearing that the CC database was hacked.:eek: I guess if I want parts I'll get them from www.newegg.com

i cant say that they were hacked for sure, i jsut THINK it was. but one thing i know for sure, there is a reason mwave.com is bad, even if they satisfy some customers they arent a very good company and sum ppl have had shipping probs with them. anyways newegg.com has good prices, reliable components, and the security of knowing your ordering from a reputable company :) customer service is excellent too

heres a reason why AOL sucks major ass
once upon a time my friend wanted me to order a cd burner for him so i got it from newegg.com of course :) but i was using aol when i ordered it, everytime i submitted the order it timed out (you know with that error page and bla) cos aol is so fucking slow. so i did this twice and said fuck it and ordered it for them from my house (with my cable internet). after i successfully ordered it i realeized even tho gay ass aol timed out the other 2 orders went through and i had 3 cd burners charged to my friend's mom's credit card (not good....) thankfully w/ newegg i was able to cancel the orders easily and quickly. :)

heres an article on the register about how mwave.com got hacked, it was cos they use microsofts shitty IIS webserver and because their system administrators did not update their software. wow im 16 and i could probably do a pro system admin's job better just cos im not a dumbass who went to ITT Tech for my education.... anyways

heres the link

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/archive/21094.html

and another one about them being hacked

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/archive/20960.html

closing argument: mwave sucks and is bad, very bad

i rest my case

newegg.com seems to be really really good, thanks alot!

(But now I have to convince my dad that $1000 isn't too much to spend for a $2500 computer, but its a tough sell:( )

newegg.com is my new source! :)

I don't buy any computer parts online at all. I go to actual shops but whatever floats your boat. windows XP or 98 is going to be your best bet. Even tho Im not on a network I would use NT b/c I've had alot of experience with it and trust more then windows 98 that I have on my computer now. I've built hundreds of computers....from scratch.

I'm actually quite lucky. Another college down the road has a computer show like every other week. Everything there is DIRT cheap. 120GB 7200RPM Western Digital HD for like $180!:eek: I got a 17 inch monitor for 65 bucks, when it normally is $120+.

w00t! :D

AEstud i dunno about you but windows 2000 works 1billion times better than windws98 for me. for those of you who dont know windows2000 is based on the NT code.

MBTNGNGFJGFH whatevr the hell your name is your a lucky bastard and i hate you


good day

haha...oh jaxle my friend, I don't know aboot you either but I like strait NT cuz its easy for me to use cuz I work with it everyday for hours on end

Well, I have ordered and paid for the parts, most are expected Monday.

I have choosen to get:
Shuttle AK31A Motherboard, revision 3.1. It has support for up to 4gb ddr ram, the kt266A, and via 8366 chipset. It has 6 PCI slots, a CNR slot, adn supports AMD Athlon XP processors. Might come with a fan, or else I will get one (preferably the 72cfm one I saw lately!)

AMD Athlon XP 1800 CPU (1.53ghz, way faster than a 2ghz P4)

256MB Kingston DDR RAM,PC2100

CD Burner (12*8*32)

Apollo 128mb SDRAM video card, with 2 monitor out, TV out, and maybe an S-video out

Also getting a new 300W power supply with a new case, new keyboard also. Keeping current speakers, monitor, mouse, hard drives (13gb total, which is fine for dial up), floppy drive, printer.

I have 5 OS's (95, 2000, ME, XP, Linux), but will probably put on Win XP.

Video card isn't expected for a few more weeks, so I will use my Voodoo 3 16mb for awhile.

Well, I got everything together and it works! (Its allways best when that happens!) But I have 1 problem: It can't use the CD for some reason (perhaps the win95 startup disk, as the BIOS sees the CD fine. And CD needs win98SE or newer). So I couldn't get an OS installed. I now have a WinME startup disk, so I will see if that works.

Well, after many, many delays, I finally have my comp up and running:D Everything works fine, and I already have my Athlon XP 1800 overclocked to 1.63ghz (100mhz up). It took awhile to get XP Pro up (I ended up putting on 95 with my other comp, then starting the installation from there {setup wouldn't work from DOS, and win95 wont support the Athlon XP}, then let it do its thing. Took 2 tries, not sure why it didn't work the first time:confused: )

So, a quick recap:

AMD Athlon XP 1800+
Shuttle AK31A Rev. 3.1 mobo (up to 4gb DDR RAM, KT266A, nice board)
256 MB DDR RAM (PC2100)]
12*10*32 CD burner
52* CD ROM
10gb harddrive
3 gb harddrive
16mb Voodoo 3 (soon to be a 128mb Apollo, still on order)
Thermaltake Volcano 7 heatsink (with 53cfm fan, and some thermal grease)
300 watt power supply
Modem, SCSI card, onboard sound
15 inch monitor

I got it all for about $1000 Canadian (used MWave and E-bay, all works. Shipping was VERY pricey, though) Of course, some stuff I kept from my old comp.

your lucky u didnt encounter problems with ebay and MWAVE i told u not to use that, better hope your credit card # doesnt get stolen...

I used some thought, I didn't use credit cards (I hade to pay via wire transfer), so I'm OK there, and all the stuff works. And I couldn't use Newegg (they don't ship to Canada.)

Cris what is that Apollo 128 mb based on?

Here is what I got: (Also, dont discount bragging rights, like twin-monitors and 128mb, it just sounds cool :))

(ANd I know it wont be nearly as good as those ATI Radeon 8000 and G-Force 3's, let alone the 8500 and 4. But it is fairly cheap, the same as a Geforce 2 at 64mb would have cost me)




Apollo 3D Thrill R315 PRO

128MB + TV + Dual Display

AGP Video Card

With 3D Eagle Eye !!

Support Dual Monitors Out

Powered by 2nd generation 256-bit core engine--SIS R 315 with ultra-fast 128MB SDRAM.

175Mhz core clock speed, 166Mhz memory clock speed.

Double performance compared to SIS 300 graphics boards.

Integrated 375Mhz RAMDAC, resolution up to 2048x1536, True Color @ 60 Hz.

Hardware supports Transform & Lighting (T&L) with Full Scene Anti-Aliasing (FSAA).

Full acceleration for Microsoft DirectX 8 and Open G L R 1.2 LCD.

Comprehensive AGP 4X / 2X / 1X supports.

New hottest 3D Eagle Eye function for internet gaming, and fully supports D3D & OpenGL games .

Vivid NTSC / PAL TV-Output with flicker filter .

Localized auto installation guide for English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, Simplified Chinese, Korean, Japanese

System requirement:

IBM PC or 100% IBM PC compatible
Intel Pentium 4/III/II Celeron, AMD Athlon
AGP 2X or AGP 2X/4X universal slot
Installation software requires CD-ROM drive
32MB of system memory

Compatibility

Supports DirectDraw, Direct3D, Direct Video and ActiveX, OpenGL I CD for Win9x, ME, NT, Windows 2k ,Windows XP and Linux.

Available 4X AGP Slot


Package Includes

SIS315PRO 128MB AGP Video Card.
Card Drive On CD.
S-Video Cable
Dual display head adapter
User Guide.

http://images.channeladvisor.com/Sell/SSProfiles/20054007/Images/128DVI.JPG :)

Originally posted by Chris

AMD Athlon XP 1800 CPU (1.53ghz, way faster than a 2ghz P4)

256MB Kingston DDR RAM,PC2100

CD Burner (12*8*32)

Apollo 128mb SDRAM video card, with 2 monitor out, TV out, and maybe an S-video out

Also getting a new 300W power supply with a new case, new keyboard also. Keeping current speakers, monitor, mouse, hard drives (13gb total, which is fine for dial up), floppy drive, printer.

I have 5 OS's (95, 2000, ME, XP, Linux), but will probably put on Win XP.

Video card isn't expected for a few more weeks, so I will use my Voodoo 3 16mb for awhile.

1) AMD is not faster in speed. In performance, it is a better quality. Also, it isnt WAY FASTER. In test, it barely beats it. (According to SiSoft Sandra)
2) You cheap bastard, a CD Burner from Dell about 40x (not 12x) is about $88
3) Don't go w/ generic video cards/psu.

Originally posted by SpeedSlayer


1) AMD is not faster in speed. In performance, it is a better quality. Also, it isnt WAY FASTER. In test, it barely beats it. (According to SiSoft Sandra)
2) You cheap bastard, a CD Burner from Dell about 40x (not 12x) is about $88
3) Don't go w/ generic video cards/psu.


To be more specific. Amd has slower clock speeds but more than makes up by having a higher IPC than a P4.(basically it can do more instructions per cycle just slower) So faster might be a good word because what it matters is how fast a program coprised of numerous intructions is run.

And the best CD burner is the plextor 40X but fork out 170$.(I just added this because plextor rules:D )

I read a few reviews of the Apollo video card (with 64mb, ot 128mb). They said it was about the same as a Geforce2, but a little worse. But with twice the RAM, that would make up for it. It might not be GeForce3 , but it was cheaper, and I was on a parent-enforced budget.
And my CD burner, I know, isn't the best out there. All the sites that shipped to Canada and E-bay were really expensive.
For example, Googlegear.com had some great burners, but they only ship to the US. And local stores (ie, in Oshawa), an 8*4*24 was about $20 MORE than what I got (12*10*32). And I couldn't find anything else at manufacturer web sites.
And I have a 52* to use to run games, or for copying. All I was really interested in was the RW speed, as I like testing things before I burn them permanently. In fact, I rarely burn anything permanently. I have 2 comps at different houses, so if one comp dies, I can just copy the game. (for some, like Ghost Recon, it worked. Others require a setup program, those I burn permanently. But I do that at my moms house, with a 16*10*40 burner, that came with the store-bought system.

And AMD's are about half the price of a similiar P4.
I plan on getting a 16* DVD soon. I will be getting a better hard drive, I found an 80gb 7200RPM IBM hard drive for $105 American.
I also now have an optical mouse.

Oh, and show me a CD-R that can take advantage of a 40*. The fastest I've seen is 24*.

How does this video card perform? I just bought one just like it off of Ebay. I have a 2g 256 system.

I haven't had 2 monitors on it yet, but I hope to try it out soon. The S-video out, havent tried it either (too much school). But now that school is out, I'm planning to try everything on it.
So far, it runs all the games I have without difficulty. So, no problems and smooth performance. Until I have problems running a game quickly, I will stay with it (and it was cheap :D )

what games do you run, out of curiosity, by the way your reply made me feel alot better about buying it. hehe

Some of the more intensive games I run are Empire Earth with 1200 guys fighting at once, and it goes smoothly for me. I play almost everything for a little bit, like GTA3, C&C Renegade, Max Payne, Civ3, Ghost REcon, Wolfenstein, Star Wars Jedi Outcast, and they all run nice:)

Is that massive white thing for Plasma screens?? Or what else is it for?

http://images.channeladvisor.com/Sell/SSProfiles/20054007/Images/128DVI.JPG

Yes its for Flat panels. They make an adapter, called a Dongle that you can use to plug in a VGA monitor. With this card though it already has an adaptor for an extra VGA so you don't need it. I tried this card and didn't like it. It ran good enough to play but the texture quality was far far below that of a high end card like a GeForce or Radeon. I now have a Radeon 8500 I got off of Ebay for 95 bucks.

C'ya

I can get 8500 for 220 Canadian, retail. I was considering getting one, maybe sometime:rolleyes: