Building My First Computer

PRIVATEpastry

PRIVATEpastry

banned
This is my first time visiting these forums and first, let me say that they are very helpful! Now, onto the business. I'm building my first computer, and I've pretty much got everything picked out from NewEgg.com. Here's a list of what I've got so far:


ASUS Black IDE DVD Burner 5X DVD-RAM Read Model DRW-1608P2 BK

DYNAPOWER SuperBien Black 0.8mm SECC steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 430W Power Supply

Maxtor MaXLine Plus III 7L250R0 250GB 7200 RPM IDE Ultra ATA133 Hard Drive

gigaram 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered DUAL CHANNEL System Memory Model GR1DD8T-K2GB/400/2.5

ATI 100-437105 Radeon 9550 256MB DDR AGP 4X/8X Video Card

ASUS P4S800D-X Socket 478 SIS 655FX ATX Intel Motherboard

Intel Pentium 4 531 Prescott 800MHz FSB LGA 775 EM64T Processor


I think the only thing left is a network card. I couldn't find any on NewEgg.com. I might have been looking in the wrong place, can anyone point me in the right direction?

If there is anything else that you think I should add/change, please let me know.

Thanks in advance,
Geoff
 
Well... pretty much everything is incompatible

The CPU is socket 775, the motherboard 478. If you get a socket 775 motherboard, then the RAM and graphics card will be incompatible.

What will you be using the computer for? Whats your budget?

By the way you dont need a network card its built into the motherboard.
 
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That kinda sucks... Well my budget is pretty much <$700, I'm going to need to save up a little, though. I won't be using the computer for gaming hardly at all, I just want it to be fast enough so that I can have Winamp, the internet, Limewire, Outlook, etc. open and running smoothly.

Any suggestions to make everything compatible?
 
Yes, as 34erd said, the mobo and cpu are definately incompatible. If you've already purchased this then it will show up on your doorstep and you wont be able to make it do anything. (Except maybe a long "beeeeeeeeeep" because there is no processor).

Also, one of the reasons I love NewEgg is because of their awesome "egg rating" system. I would recommend you read some of the reviews that people posted on NewEgg for the products you are about to purchase. Some of them sound like nightmares (like the case you have on the list) or only have a few reviews total, so you may be risking it. However I've risked it here and there and have had success. It isn't always this way though.

I have the ASUS DVD Burner (I think it's the same). It can be a little loud during initial read and burning. And, when it burns just cd-r it's slower than my Sony 40x CD-RW drive. Other than that it works fine.

What might you be using this computer for? A lot of gaming? Just office type use (word, excel, powerpoint)? Maybe just an internet surfing box?

If you are just going to use it for internet and office type stuff, then I would recommend checking out some motherboards that have onboard video. That will save you probably $100.

Good Luck.
 
PRIVATEpastry said:
That kinda sucks... Well my budget is pretty much <$700, I'm going to need to save up a little, though. I won't be using the computer for gaming hardly at all, I just want it to be fast enough so that I can have Winamp, the internet, Limewire, Outlook, etc. open and running smoothly.

Any suggestions to make everything compatible?
Click to expand...

Sounds like your doing anything too intensive... Maybe a simple sempron rig will do the job.

To make what you have compatible, either get a socket 775 motherboard, a PCI express graphics card, and DDR2 RAM, or switch your CPU to a socket 478. The first one would give you newer technology.

AMD has the desktop performance crown right now, so you should consider geting an athlon 64 or sempron 64.

Consider:

Chaintech VNF4 Socket 939 $59.00
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Venice $175.00
1 Gb Corsair Value $81.00
eVGA 6600GT $139.00
Maxtor DiamondMax 10 200 Gb SATA $90.50
Rosewill 500 W PSU $44.99

Total: $589.49, with plenty of money left for a case, DVD burner, floppy, etc... stuff people like to pick themselves.
 
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Yeah it will work. You wont be able to upgrade the RAM though and I dont think that motherboard suports dual core.

Any reason why you dont want to go AMD? A 3200+ will outperform the 531.
 
Is the AMD the same price? I'll look into it...

Do you guys have any personal experience with any of this stuff? If so, lmk what you thought about it!
 
AMD and Intel are diiferent in Clock speeds. AMD processors are made differently, and they whoop the intels a$$. They run cooler, and perform better at games. They are also cheaper than an intel (usually)
 
PRIVATEpastry said:
The 3200+ only has 2.0 Ghz, but the 531 had 3.0 Ghz. Why would the Athalon preform better?
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Different architecture. Clock speed isnt everything. The athlon 64s pipeline is shorter, so it doesnt need to run as fast to move information. It also has an integrate mem controller which reduces memory latency. I know it seems really hard to understand, but slower clocked processors can outperform faster ones.

Skidude wrote up a good analogy having to do with bakerys and dump trucks and feraris, maybe he can post it :P

AMD processors are made differently, and they whoop the intels a$$
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A bit of fanboyism eh....
 
Allright, well I'll probably go with the 3200+ then. One last (hopefully) question: what is the advantage/difference of having a higher power PS? Compare a 400w PS to a 500w PS for me, would ya?

Thanks.
 
None, if your system doesnt need it. But if your using a power suply that it too weak then you may experiance restarts and your computer may not boot. Have a look at PSU 101.
 
PRIVATEpastry said:
Allright, well I'll probably go with the 3200+ then. One last (hopefully) question: what is the advantage/difference of having a higher power PS? Compare a 400w PS to a 500w PS for me, would ya?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

1st of all, wattage doesn't mean that much, its the amps that are important. And for your computer there would be no different from a 400w to a 500w (assuming its a reliable psu and has good amps). However, if you're gonna do some major upgrading, like getting a more powerful graphics card or adding a crapload of more harddrives, then you'd want more power.
 
Allright, since I'm not going to be running a video card or sound card, the PS that I have picked out should be good, right? The PS 101 suggested that I get a +12V@~24A power supply. The one I picked is rated at +12V@26A.

Is Rosewill a good brand? The ratings are good on that PS...
 
PRIVATEpastry said:
Allright, since I'm not going to be running a video card or sound card, the PS that I have picked out should be good, right? The PS 101 suggested that I get a +12V@~24A power supply. The one I picked is rated at +12V@26A.

Is Rosewill a good brand? The ratings are good on that PS...
Click to expand...

yes its a reliable and inexpensive brand.
 
Just remember to get an AMD compatible Motherboard if you are going to switch to an AMD processor. And then of course make sure the socket types of the board and processor match again. Because AMD has different socket types than Intel.

You're learning quite a bit here, good luck with putting all of it together when it comes time.
 
Yeah, I made sure to get a mobo that would work. Socket 939. I've worked a lot with computers before, fixing them and whatnot, but I've never put one together from scratch. I hope it isn't too hard!
 
In cse you were still wondering I found the analogy I was talking about. It was posted by alanuofm help me understand the whole slower clocked AMD thing:

here goes nothing. a pipeline is a long string of instructions. these are called stages of instructions. it takes one clock cycle to perform one stage of instruction. with intel, at each of these execution pipelines, they break down instructions into smaller chunks and this results in pipelines that go as long as 30 stages. so it would take 30 clock cycles to execute all 30 stages. with amd their pipelines only has 12 stages (as far as i can remember). that means they only need 12 clock cycles to perform the same amount of instructions. so at each cycle they perform more instruction executions. so in order for intel to keep up, they have to increase the clock rate at which each stage is executed.

heres an analogy i developed. a bakery is called intel and amd. they need some wheat so they call their supplier across the street. intel uses ferraris to ship the wheat and amd uses semi trucks. the ferraris take off at 150 mph across the street and there is 30 of them. while on the amd side they have 10 semis truck that slowly make their way and then all the wheat is dumped at the plant. do you see which one is more efficient? yes the ferraris are going faster but the semis are getting more done at one moment.

hope that helps
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