Well, I picked out all the parts for my computer and I'm just looking for some feedback on what you think. This computer is mainly for gaming, so if you know of something better I could be using, go ahead and mention that (keeping in mind the price). I BELIEVE everything is compatible, but I am not 100% sure, so if someone notices something, please let me know.

The things I have listed below are EXACTLY what I am buying, nothing more, and nothing less. If I am missing something, let me know.

A few things I am concerned about:

1.) I didn't notice any USB ports, are these already on the case? Do I have to buy something extra?

2.) I have both the 200gb seagate and a 75gb raptor hds, will both of these fit in my case?

3.) I only put 1 CD/DVD burner drive on it. Will I need a seperate CD drive to install games and whatnot, or am I fine with just the 1 drive?

4.) My mother board is only 57 dollars, but it seems right for a gaming rig. I've heard that mother boards are normally something you don't want to cheap out on, so should I get a more expensive one? Which one if so?

5.) I'm not sure if my power supply is compatible, it just seemed like a good one for the price, and had good reviews.

6.) Once I assemble this thing, how will I get the operating system up and running? I have a "back up" copy of windows xp pro on a disc, will I be able to install this?

7.) Am I missing anything that I need? I think I'm missing an ethernet card, but I'm not sure if it comes with any of the things I already have. In light of this, could someone list all the things that someone would need if they were building a computer 100% from scratch? (hd, modem, processor, etc. etc., even the obvious things that are sometimes overlooked)


Sorry for all the newb hardware questions, but I figure it's better to ask newb questions than it would be to just go for it and end up ****ing myself over in the end. And now, here's my computer:

Case

ASPIRE ATXA7AW-AL/420 Silver Aluminum Server Computer Case 420W Power Supply - Retail
floppy drive
NEC Black 1.44MB 3.5" Internal Floppy Drive - OEM

gaming hd
Western Digital Raptor WD740GD 74GB 10,000 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive - OEM

regular hd
Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 ST3200826A 200GB 7200 RPM IDE Ultra ATA100 Hard Drive - OEM

monitorNEC Display Solutions AS900-BK Black 19" CRT Monitor D-Sub - Retail

motherboard
ABIT KN8 SLI Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail

video card
eVGA 256-P2-N517-AX Geforce 7800GT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail

sound card
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS SB0350 8 (7.1) Channels PCI Interface Sound Card - OEM

power supply
OCZ ModStream OCZ45012U ATX/BTX/PCI Express/SATA 450W Power Supply - Retail

2gb ram
OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered Dual Channel Platinum System Memory Model OCZ4002048ELDCPE-K - Retail

processor
AMD Athlon 64 4000+ San Diego 1GHz FSB Socket 939 Processor Model ADA4000BNBOX - Retail

cd/dvd burner
SAMSUNG Black IDE DVD Burner Model SH-W162C/BEBN - OEM

All input is greatly appreciated.

1.) No, USB ports are always on motherboards these days. The motherboard you selected has 4 2.0 ports. The case specifications also mention USB ports on the front of the case but doesn't specify how many. You should have plenty.

2.) Yes, the case can fit 5 3.5 inch drives inside, 2 external (maybe minus one for a floppy drive), or even more if you use 5.25 to 3.5 inch mounts.

3.) No. All CD-RW and DVD-ROM drives are compatible with plain old CDs. You can even see the CD-ROM read speed under the specifications for the drive.

4.) The motherboard is the central part in the computer. Every single part connects to it. If your motherboard is bad, then your computer won't perform well either. That said, price does not equal quality. Pay more attention to reviews of people who have used it than the price.

5.) Yes, it appears compatible. The main thing you need to look for is that your motherboard, case, and power supply are all ATX to ensure they are compatible.

6.) I'm not sure what you mean by "back up copy." All you need is a install CD for the operating system you want. Windows installs are very simple. Just boot the system with the CD in the drive and follow the steps.

7.) The motherboard you selected has ethernet built in, which should work fine. It even has gigabit ethernet!

You don't need a modem unless you are using or plan on using dial-up. I don't see speakers, are you planning on only using headphones? The motherboard has a built in sound card, which may be good enough for your needs so you may not need to bother with a separate one (I have no idea. Check the reviews). Do you already have a keyboard and mouse to use? I don't see them on the list.

ahh, yes. I totally forgot about the speakers. Thanks very much for answering my questions. I have a whole bunch of spare keyboards and... mice? around so I'm not worried about that.

About the sound card.. is it better to stick with the sound card that comes with the mother board, or are "after market" sound boards generally better? I like to listen to mp3s a lot and usually pretty loud. The computer have now is 7 years old and it just a pre-made compaq and the sound card/speakers seem to work pretty well.

if you're happy with your current onboard sollution, you'll surely be with the onboard solutions that are now available.

You don't need to buy a power supply, the case already has a good one.

If you realy want that Audigy2, you might look for an MSI K8N Diamond Plus, this is the only motherboard that has an Audigy2 onboard.

For the rest, it looks nice. One small tip, if you often do lots of thing together (especialy CPU intensive tasks like ripping or encoding), you might want to get an A64 X2, those cpu's have 2 cores one die (so it's like you have 2 independant cpu's):
This one is about the same price as the A64 4000+: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16819103562

Just have a look if the games you want to play will run on the Atlon 64.
I know most of the games are 32-bit executable files. Isn't "AMD Athlon 64" a 64-bit machine ?
Personnally I buy only 32-bit cpu's because of all my games are 32-bit games. I think even my Microsoft Word will not work on a 64-bit machine.

By the way, I suppose you already verified that the Athlon 64 is compatible with your mother board ?

1. I doubt you need 2 gigs of ram, it would be alot cheaper with just getting 1 gig. Not to mention your computer would probaly actually run better.

2. so far you have skipped the most important thing. Cooling, Without proper cooling your cpu will die. Go to www.frozencpu.com that has a new-age cooling which will do wonderful.

3. Make sure your AMD you are getting and the mother board are bouth 939 socket.

I have mroe but I'm due to next hour in school. I'll post again with some more tips.

P.S. It's much better I think, to use the sound card in the mobo.

Yordan.....

There are still some 16bit applications on windowsXP. ( and 32bit CPU's have been dominant on desktops for decades now)

x86_64 is an extension of x86.

my amd64 runs 16, 32 and 64bit code simultaniusly just fine.

and like the main selling point of the Amd64 says.

Just make sure you STICK WITH 32bit windows... 64bit windows is useless.

you wont be able to take full advantage of the 64bit hardware untill windows develops a true 64bit OS... (unless you plan on playing around with BSD / Unuix / Linux)


1 have a Amd64 3400+ with one gig of ram.
Even half-life 2 doesnt need all the power i have.

save your money and only buy 1 gig of ram, keep a DIMM slot free for an upgrade if you still have the machine in 3 years.

Thanks, qwijibow.
I had bad experiences with Windows64. And Linux64 having problems with 32-bit drivers...
But I didn't try Windows32 on a 64-bit machine! I will give it a try.

Yordan

although the amd64 can run 32bit and 64bit code simultaniusly,
you cannot make a program half-32 and half-64.

a program has to be fully 32, or fully 64.

drivers run in kernel space. which is why 32bit drivers will not work in a 64bit kernel.

I think you should really get this built by a shop no offence to you I mean you could be the smartest computer dude on the planet and I wouldn’t know but just the way you wrote it it made it seem like your not exactly fit to build your own computer here is what I think,

I think it probably would be better if you got it built in a shop
1. Because you wouldn’t have to deal with and compatibility issues
2. Usually you have warranty if anything doesn’t work or it screws up
3. Usually if you by everything from one shop they waive the assembly fee
4. You don’t have to worry about installing Windows on your computer

Some idea’s if you still want to build your own
1. Remember to always wear an anti-static wrist band you body generations thousands of watts one shock when assembling your computer can totally kill it remember it only takes 30 watts to short circuit your computer now most people says it’s pointless because the strap says to hook it to the side of your computer, it would just go through the computer and short circuit anyway, no the computer case is coated with a anti-static paint so any static will be absorbed by the paint.
2. If you want you can put 2 drives personally I would put more than one so you can burn on the fly say if you want to burn a CD then you could put the blank disc in your cd writer and but the cd you want to copy into your DVD burner and it copies instantly rather then having to copy to your temp files first then burning it which would take twice as long.
3. Nice Hard Drives I wish I had a raptor, I haven’t actually looked at your case but it says server case most server cases are full towers they are usually made to support more than 4 hard drives so you should probably be safe
4. Man looking at your specs you have money (No offence) I would recommend you go for a dual 7800 although you would probably have to change the mother board it’ll be worth it
5. your case comes with a power supply so make sure you not wasting your money on another one
6. if your going to get that sound card I recommend the Gigaworks S750 Speakers great but a better sound card would be the X-FI all by creative
7. RAM it may not seem like much but take a look at the www.corsairmemory.com it’s probably the best ram you can get and take a look at memory basics it will explain all about the RAM’S timings Corsair XMS Xpert is what I would recommend
8. When you go into the computer shop ask them what the response time of the monitor is Response time is how fast it will take your monitor to “Talk” and respond to it’s demands if you have something like 25ms then your going to experience “ghosting” this happens when your playing games your watching movies you see the outline of the last scene of frame and it could get irradiating in a fast paced game.
9. Most motherboards usually have 4 or more USB ports but most cases mostly come with a dongle cable which adds 2 more and are usually located in the front.
10. Also don’t forget fans if you using it as a gaming rig then your going to need fans more preferably water cooling it’s silent and more effective.
11. oh yah you also might want to get another Ethernet card so you can surf the web and play games or Lans and do other things at the same time such as download stuff and it wont lag or interrupt you gaming experience need

Sorry if this has a lot of mistakes or makes no sense I pretty tired right now but I wanted to get this done if you need any extra help just contact me.

James