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Old 02-17-2003, 10:28 PM   #1
Bahumut
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Default Building my first PC.. need suggestions

Okay, so I'm going to be building my first PC. I've practiced for years by building Gundam models, battle style DJ mixers, electric R/C cars and Nitro cars, Tamiya 1/64 scale tanks and graduated by taking apart a cuisinart toaster and putting it back together again (it didn't work actually when we put it back together.. To this day, when you plug it in, you get a burning smell, thats it )

So, I'm ready to buy a P.C...
I figure, all I need is:
a case (preferable aluminum 4 proper heat dissipation)
a dictionary to properly check how to spell 'dissipation'
a 350-400W power supply with dual ball bearing fans
dragon platinum a-slot (whatever the hell that means) motherboard
?? sound card
video card with tv outs (so I can go cheapy on the monitour)
a dictionary to check how to spell the word monitor
my playstation 2 keyboard (usb)

what am I forgetting? OH!
a processor of some type..

wont' need ram.. ram is bull*****.. everyone knows you don't really need ram.. Ram is another myth created by bill gates..

Okay, so you wise rabbits and turtles.. I ask for your help. Suggestions, precautions, donations, whatever. Any and all help is appreciated.
-keith
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Old 02-17-2003, 10:34 PM   #2
Brahmzy
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Old 02-17-2003, 10:38 PM   #3
Bahumut
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what's so funny?
I'm seriously dedicated!!
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Old 02-17-2003, 10:41 PM   #4
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You dont need a processor either. All politics I tell you!
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Old 02-17-2003, 10:43 PM   #5
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have patience, and go sorta slow. What i did when i built the one i'm using was i first took apart an old one taht we had in the basement an acer from 92 or something. You forgot memory i would suggest some nice DDR memory, and perhaps instead of a dragon a slot maybe some kind asus board. look at

www.anandtech.com for info and reviews on stuff.
good luck.
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Old 02-17-2003, 11:01 PM   #6
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Hmm.. those Asus boards are pretty impressive w/ their on board features and such. Especially the overclocking hang protections. Thats pretty schweet. Thanks for the tip on those motherboards.

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Old 02-18-2003, 12:16 AM   #7
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Dont forget the 2400 BAUD Acoustic Coupler
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Old 02-18-2003, 12:20 AM   #8
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I just build a machine not long ago (as did cditto, I think) and
I found that www.newegg.com has the best prices - they also
ship fast, have good customer service, so you don't have to worry
about never getting your stuff.

RAM prices are dropping like grandma's saggy breastes's, so even
if you don't believe in it, you can get it cheap (i.e. PC2700 512MB
chip for ~$80!).

If you're not that interested in supremely high performance/overclocking,
I'd go with an Intel board (I got an 845GEBV, or something like
that) that has on board video/sound/lan card. You buy the board,
the processor, the RAM, a cheap hard drive, CD ROM drive and
a case, and you'll be at about ~$300.

good luck, keep posting questions if you got them...I got a lot
of help from this board.
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Old 02-18-2003, 12:26 AM   #9
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the mobo you mention i believe is the soyo dragon platinum
it has onboard 6.1dolby it's very very good
if you're gonna get that you're gonna want an athlon xp

video card i'd recomend the ati radeon 9500,
and don't skimp on the monitor, but you don't need to go all out

for all of this i'd recomend finding a computer show to get your supplies, and buy a refurb monitor
you can get a 19" sony trinitron for around 120 bux, and it'll be plenty good (better to skimp on TV than monitor you can always buy a tv tuner and watch tv on the monitor)

get cable or dsl internet, the dragon has good onboard lan capabilities

hard drive, get the biggest fastest ide mofo you can afford in your budget otherwise you'll just be payin more later

get a CDRW drive again best you can afford, i wouldn't bother w/ dvd unless you have extra money to blow it'd be better spent on processor or hd. unless you watch a lot of dvds and dont' have an actual dvd player.

i agree abotu going to anandtech.com www.arstechnica.com is also a good site. i wouldn't recomend www.hardocp.com purely out of politics.

good luck

oh on more thing, i'd recomend taking yoru old comptuer apart and putting it back to gether a few times for practice, i learned on a 25mhz 486 that i crystaled up to 75mhz. you just don't see overclocks like that anymore.

oh one more thing. case. don't worry about aluminum, the case has very little to do w/ heat disipation. get somethign that you like w/ some space and put in some fans

oh one more thing. get a good heatsink, i think that the SK8 is the best air cooling out right now
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Old 02-18-2003, 12:27 AM   #10
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stickers, lot of stickers
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Old 02-18-2003, 12:32 AM   #11
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oh, and don't go too into modding, it's a slippery slope, it's as competitive as import car showing, and follow a very similiar line
neons, insane paint job, shaving things, weird stuff, body kits, etc
very expensive if you want somethign competitive,
people make cases completely from scratch out of fglass, and mod things into them that you'd never think of for a computer
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Old 02-18-2003, 12:34 AM   #12
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http://www.directron.com

your source for everything. (good selection, great prices)
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Old 02-18-2003, 01:26 AM   #13
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go with the Mini. Chicks dig the Mini because of its cuteness.



1.6ghz, 80gig, 256ddr, dvd/cd-r, 64mb video, and other goodies.
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Old 02-18-2003, 01:31 AM   #14
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Quote:
Originally posted by Asinus
go with the Mini. Chicks dig the Mini because of its cuteness.



1.6ghz, 80gig, 256ddr, dvd/cd-r, 64mb video, and other goodies.
WHOA
SWEET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1 paint it black that white is fugly
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Old 02-18-2003, 01:37 AM   #15
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picture's bad.... the case it brushed aluminum - looks awesome except for the dvd drive which is stupid white.
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Old 02-18-2003, 09:16 AM   #16
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don't use directron it's overpriced and slow

www.newegg.com is better

oh and for any weird stuff that you might want later on for modding if you do start
www.bgmicro.com is good so's www.mpja.com i've ordered from both and both are excelent companies
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Old 02-18-2003, 09:10 PM   #17
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Yeah, i decided I'd save $100 and use my dad's old Gateway 2000 for tower and bracket parts. Right now it's dusty, stained, and painted in that nasty, off-whyte that keeps getting yellow-er, and yellow-er as time wears on.. I figure I'll just prime it and paint it like I do the r/c cars...


(sorry for the crappy pix)

..swap out the crappy 110W power supply for something in the 300W+ range and so on.. I'm really tied up though on the motherboards..

The Dragon Platinum is cheap, but those Asus boards seem easier to set up and more crash proof. Hm... I'm not into overclocking and warranty dodging (yet...), I just need something for my video and music-hashing.

Oh, and I checked out newegg.com, nice site, thanks for the tip. They have real nice specials, especially on Intel chipsets, but... they use Fedex as their shipping source... YikeS!
I work for fedex and.. well, nevermind.

Who knows where I can source an OS real cheap??[
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Old 02-18-2003, 10:19 PM   #18
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Look on ebay, I got a copy of Windows XP Pro for 110.
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Old 02-18-2003, 10:40 PM   #19
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www.pricewatch.com
for everything dealing with computers.

avoid thecableclub.com...i ordered from them 3 weeks ago and haven't recieved anything

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll...category=31496
these boards look interesting and generally go for ~$40. that integrated adaptec u160 controller is $150+ if you buy it seprately. the board only takes pc133 ram and up to 1.4ghz athlon processors though. both are very cheap. the 160 controller is useless to most people, but it would be nice if there were some p4/Athlon XP boards that came with it and supported faster ram.


1.8ghz is a good processor speed. its questionable if processors faster then that make a noticable difference unless your a heavy gamer. and in a few months AMD and Intel will release 64bit processors making everything out now obsolete, so don't invest too much yet

get a 7200 rpm HD. preferably with an 8mb cache, but thats not as important. some people are determined to keep their HDs forever and are suprised when they eventually fail/crash and *everything they had* is wiped out. i generally replace mine about every 18 months so that doesn't happen, which also means that i don't need the absolute biggest drives because i'll have another one by the time the space is needed.

getting a big monitor,good keyboard and mouse is pretty important because thats how you interface with the computer

if at all possible, get high speed internet.
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Old 02-18-2003, 10:46 PM   #20
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AMD ALL THE WAY!!!!!amd is more powerful and cheaper than pentium the capabilities are much more, i have a duel 1.6 ghz so i have a total of 3.2 ghz its awesome
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Old 02-18-2003, 10:49 PM   #21
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Install only the power supply, processor, one hard drive, one CD drive, the floppy, the video card, and one stick of ram. This is pretty much all you'll need to get it up and running.

The reason why I recommend this is so that it makes things easier to trouble shoot. If everything works fine, then start added other accessories one at a time, to see if they all cooperate with each other.

Oh and it will take a long time and lots of rebooting.
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Old 02-18-2003, 10:50 PM   #22
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that board is not what your looking for; just felt like mentioning it
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Old 02-20-2003, 12:12 AM   #23
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thanks for the phat tips yo!!

Now, to decide against being late on my rent, or waiting another week before I start buying stuff...
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Old 02-20-2003, 12:23 AM   #24
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make sure you have the power supply set to 220 when you try and turn it on when you are done assembling it.

did you have the toaster plugged into a 220v socket when you tried ot get it to work again? no? you should try that. also when you take a toaster a part it gets thristy... pour water in it to jump start it.
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Old 02-20-2003, 12:24 AM   #25
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WHATEVER you do, make sure that you put stand-offs between the case and the motherboard
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