Ok, i thought about it and i was curious about building my own 2nd computer. This is what i have so far for the components. Please tell me what you think and what i else i need. I know i need a HardDrive, CD-ROM, and a 3 1/2 Floppy, just don't know which would be the best for it. Your imput would be appreciated. Well here's what i'm thinking so far, they're all in my wish list to order because i can only buy them one at a time...

Case - http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=11-144-026&depa=0

MotherBoard - http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=13-152-043&depa=0

Video Card - http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-102-268&depa=1

Processor - http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=19-103-452&depa=0

Memory - http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=20-145-479&depa=0

Power Supply - http://www.xoxide.com/48thbuposu.html

DVD-R/RW|CD-R/RW - http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=27-106-936&depa=0

Again any input you have would be appreciated.

Thanks

People still use floppies?

Might want to bump the powersupply up a bit, thats only a 350Watt. If you decide to put in a dvd drive, a burner, a floppy and eventually one of those newer Nvidia or ATI cards that require a seperate power coupling, you want to make sure the power supply can provide enough mojo.

Here's a 450w ps at the new egg site: http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproductdesc.asp?description=17-103-914&DEPA=0

cd-rom, you could basically pick one at random and it would be just as good as the next, i would recommend getting a dvd-r if you have the extra cash, its really easy to back up the main files you want for when you need to reformat


you don't have to have a 3 1/2 floppy, they are nice sometimes (<3 98 boot disk)

for hard drives, look at the deals section, i used to stick with seagate a few years back but i'm finding myself buying more ibm HDDs then anything else at the moment.

heres one i quickly looked up at newegg

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=22-144-148&depa=1

New Egg is awesome, I have that same case and it does a pretty good job cooling me computer. Also I dont think the temperature gauge inside of it is suppose to go anywhere just find a place to dangle it. As for a CD-ROM drive, you don't need anything fancy, just get something that works. Also if you are ordering them all seperatly over a period of time, order the processor and mobo last since there is a good chance they may drop in price by the time you get them.

Oh, and that stupid alarm clock thing that comes with it free is annoying as all hell!

I was looking at something from here for the PowerSupply http://www.xoxide.com/powersupplies1.html and since you suggest a 480w i guess i won't go with anything lower than that.

My other comp, it's a DELL, has a DVD-ROM in it. Don't really need 3 DVD players in my room :D . This computer would pretty much just be for me to play my second EQ account. Course when i get married my fiance will probably steal the computer from me :rolleyes: .

I kinda want a new keyboard for it, the one i have works fine, but i've always wanted one of these http://www.xoxide.com/keyboards.html. Love the clear one.

And yes i'm going to have to buy them seperately. Going for the case first don't know what next, might go with the most expensive, not sure.

dvd-r writes to the dvd disk, not just reads it, its great for BACKING UP your stuff, not just viewing DVD's

Throw away the heatsink and fan you get with the AMD, get http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=35-106-035&depa=0 as a replacement. Although, I do not have any experience with the 64 bit processors as far as heat goes, but my 3200+ chip was running very hot and I put that fan on and it runs considerably cooler.

350W is too small, especially if you have a few fans. I would say 400W bare minimum.

Oh come on people.

A 300 watt power supply is just fine. Sure, 350 watts is great. But be realistic and buy whatever you want. You can run 2 or 3 hard drives, a CPU fan, a DVD burner, a CD drive, a floppy, a graphics card that needs power, and multiple USB devices on a 300 watt power supply.

One thing not to skimp on - monitor and RAM. Thou needest a gig.

All you need is a 350W or above power supply. I have a 350W Antec and it runs just fine in my system. The brand is the most important though. Look for an Antec or Enermax. Liteon DVDRW drives are probably the highest quality for the price. 1GB of Corsair brand memory is my choice for a stable system for playing EQ. Seagate SATA harddrive 80GB or more (if you plan on backing up or authoring DVD's). This is basically what I have in my AMD64 system. The motherboard that was used was an Asus one, IIRC. I think the fan I used was this one, by Zalman: http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=35-118-109&depa=1

I have a monitor. Might save up for a 17" LCD thought. Will have to think about it.

What do you think of Kingston Memory? Also what is the difference in DDR400/333/266? Is it the lower the number the better the memory because the DDR266 cost more than the DDR400 does.

Did you mention if you had a Video Card already?

ATI vs NVIDIA?

Go crazy!

Haven't bought anything yet. Everything that's in my wishlist is in my first post.

DDR<insert mghz>

higher the number the better, if you want to do budget, don't do corsair, go with something like kingston, about the video card, the 9800 is a great card for now and in the future, if you want to spend a little bit more money and go on a hunting trip, you could find a 6800GT which is probably the best video card on the market right now

you could do all of this on a 300w PSU easily, just make sure its not a peice of crap, usually name brand PSU's are good to look (costs about $10 more)

as far as cases go i like the coolmaster wavemaster it has a sliding motherboard tray which allows you to slide out the back of the entire case with the motherboard tray and power supply as one unit for easy acess for upgrades .

plus it comes standard with two fans installed in the front as intake and one fan in the back as exhaust . plus it has 2 usb ports one in the back and a separte one beneath a flippy door on the top of the case the usb port on top can be removed and another exhaust fan can be placed in top if needed as it is desgined to just remove 4 screws and swap a 80mm fan inplace of the second usb .

It`s a little pricey but looks good doesn`t come with a power supply but can pick one up fairly easy .

Also like the antec performance series good cases also . also not sure if mentioned but i`d get a separte cable for each of your hard drive, cd rom. floppy and would stay away from the flat ide ribbon and go with round cables to get better air flow as the flat ribbons types can block air flow .

alsow in past lots used to set the hard drive up as master and cd as slave on the same ide ribbon reason it`s good to have them separte is even tho you have hard drive at 7200 rpm and it is master on the ide it will run at the same speed as the lower cd rom which most are like 3500 or so . making your hard drive run slower .

As far as cd rom, floppy etc, you could pick up a simply lite-on floppy 1.44 for like 15 bucks or so should do fine and can look at possibly lite -on cd rom or a samsung . both are ok far as i know .

the logi tech keyboard with optical mouse is ok nothing fancy seems to do better then the wheel mouse for games and can pick up both for like 25 bucks total or around there .

Good luck ! :)

I have a 350 watt power supply, and i have 2 cdroms, 2 hard drives, 3 strips of ram totalling 768 (ddr). 3 fans, heat sink fan, video card + fan, i'm sure my mobo sucks up some power with onboard audio, onboard lan x2, onboard USP x 8. I also have another 2 LAN cards. Oh yah and a floppy (which i'm sure is like negative 2 power it uses so much heh). Oh yah, Plus a comm port for my joysticks and crap, but i don't think that uses power. seems liek there was something else too... hmmm....Oh well. Oh yah, almost forgot, my power supply is an antec one.

/shrug, I burned out 2 380W Power supplies. Maybe its the 5 5000 RPM fans and the neon lights! :) I think my LeadTek 5800 takes up some juice too, it has 2 big fans on it.

If i get a new keyboard and mouse i'll be getting them from xoxide.com. How easy is it to put all the componants in the computer myself? I have a friend that might be willing to put it all in there if i buy all the stuff. I've pretty much settle on the Power Supply and case i have listed in my first post, though i like the water cooling cases, just can't afford them.

Also, according to the NEWEGG.COM site a stick of 512MB DDR Corsair memory is cheaper than Kingston.

Wireless Keyboard and Mouse are good to have but I've heard from some people who have ran out of battery while in the middle of EQ. I have one of those first generation Logitech Wireless keyboard and mouse. My mouse rans out of battery very quickly and eventhough they are rechargeable, it is a pain when your in the middle of an adventure or a raid. If you go get wireless, get the one that has a rechargeable craddle for the mouse.

Fans to cool off your PC. My other PC has a total of 6 fans, 1 on top, 1 at front, 3 at back and 1 at side (window). It sure does make more noise with all the fans but sure do helps cooling it.
Goodluck!

That Zalman cooler is an excellent choice for a CPU cooler. I have the Al-Cu version on one of my boxes. It cools well enough and it's quiet. Combine with an Antec Sonata case (an excellent case), and that whole system is quiet enough that I can only hear it if I'm sitting down next to it.

I'd shell out the extra money to get a CPU with a 1MB L-2 Cache if you're going for the AMD 64. The extra Boost will be nice and it's only like $50-60 more

If you get an LCD be careful, some of them suck ass for gaming, (Don't display colors right, steaking, bad juju etc..) Maximum PC has a list of a couple good ones for gaming.

the mobiles are going to be your cheapest way to get the 1mb of L2 cache (these are a good enough reason to believe in god) - very stable cpu's, and very overclockable (easy too, note:you still don't need to plop a huge HSF on it, nor put in a bagillian fans, stock cooling is fine on these cpu's)


http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=19-103-447&depa=0

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=19-103-446&depa=0

i'd still recommend having the a64 2800+ over these unless you an enthusiast

Alright friend of mine has a comp that he built which has Celeron 2.2Ghz, 512MB Rambus, Radeon 9600(Video Card), 20GB Harddrive, and a 17' monitor he's willing to sell to me for $400. Should i buy it? I think it would be a good deal and if i wanted to up grade anything i could.

Celerons suck, and 400 is a RIP OFF for that computer. Personally I wouldn't do it, but its up to you. You could probably buy a better one at comp usa for that price.

tiny hard drive, requires rambus (hahahahaha) and don't even know if the 9600 is an SE or not, i'd say hell no, celeron is crappy enough as it is, if i were to buy that for 400, it better come with a warranty

Totally seperate..but if you can afford it I'd recommend getting the water cooling..or a low-fan/ultra-quiet solution.

I recently loss my hearing for 2 weeks cause of these damn things.

Turned around and invested in those new voodoo "Fanless" pcs..expensive..but only took once to realize my hearing was more valuable then saving $100.

Watercooled pcs are alot quiter at least.

Lost your hearing because of a computer's cooling fans? That's a new one... I wouldn't think that you could cause hearing damage with fans.

Anyway, I agree with Darus. Quiet computers are something that's VASTLY underrated. You don't have to go to the extreme of going to watercooling to get a nice, quiet computer.

There's lots of things you can do to quiet your PC down:
* Undervolt your fans
* Use larger fans (undervolted)
* Change your fan grills to something less restrictive
* Get a motherboard that can adjust the fans according to temps
* Get a power supply that can do the same
* Use passive coolers where possible
* Isolate your fans/drives/etc from the case with grommets, rubber/silicone standoffs, etc.

As I mentioned above, the Zalman CNPS7000 is an excellent cooler (in either the pure Cu or Al-Cu version) in terms of cooling performance and noise.

The Antec Sonata is a nice, quiet mid-tower. It uses a 120mm fan as an exhaust and has a fairly quiet 380W power supply. (Antec also has several other cases that are good in the noise dept.)

I would guess the various Lian Li cases are good in the noise dept, too.

Enermax's Coolergiant and Noisetaker power supplies are also excellent in terms of noise.


(Oops, I forgot to add the URL for Silent PC Reivew (http://www.silentpcreview.com) it's an excellent resource for learning how to quiet your PC down)

" I recently loss my hearing for 2 weeks cause of these damn things."

Umm, ok.

Yes..years of sound stress can cause temporary or permanent hearing damage.

Just like working next to any other noisey machinery can...

How loud is your fan? lol... I know mine or any computer that I have seen hasn't sounded like machiney, just a low humming.

Mine sounds like a boeing 747 trapped in 3x3 box! I sued gateway for the cost of my hearing aid.

for along time it was around 60DB..then I got new fans for around 40db(but thats still 40db from 3 pcs..)

anyways isnt about me..only point was dont skimp on the noise, well worth the investment.

if she wants to take it in to get fixed its going to cost her extra to have the technician remove it and put it back in place, plus alot of cooling systems out there are louder then the fans on a case, you will still have to have fans on a case regardless of a H2o system, not to mention a h2o system NEEDS a fan(s) to cool down the liquid in the reservoir, a cooling system is not needed, and i would suggest against spending money on it (alot of things could go wrong and cost you alot more money down the road)

another thing is, fans are not that horrible, especially if the pc is kept under the desk, my main PC has 2 hard drives, a zalman HSF combo, and 4 fans (2 rear, 1 front, 1 top), sometimes i go to sleep forgetting its on

Don't get anything with Rambus. My "work" computer uses those RIMMS and they cost an insane amount of money compared to normal DDR ram.

I'd rather have an 800 mhz amd athlon than a 2.2 ghz celeron...... let me put it that way.

YES it's super easy to put the computer together yourself. And if you need help, I will walk you through it via AIM, yahoo, msn, phone, e-mail, whatever. THe only trouble you will have probbaly is putting the heatsink on your processor, maybe a little trouble mounting your mobo in your case getting all the holes to line up, but it isn't hard at all. Almost forgot, if your getting a case and neon lights and stuff, get some round cables too. Otherwise it will look retarded.

http://www.newegg.com/app/searchProductResult.asp?DEPA=0&bop=and&submit=Go&description=round+cables&Range=1&InnerCata=317

I was thinking about getting the round cables but I used some cables I have around the house. If you strap them and position them right you can make it all look smooth.

What kind of round cables? Where can i get them? are they like Cat5s?

He means ones that you use instead of IDE ribbon cables (like to connect the hard drive, floppy, and CD drives. The link is in his post above.

For example, like these: http://www.xoxide.com/roundidecables1.html

Ok, see i didn't know if i would have need to get an adapter or something to use "round cable" never seen them before. Thanks for the visual helped out a lot.

WTH Darus, you have a turbine generator as a powersupply for your PC?

in my experience round cables are a hell of alot easier to use as well

Round cables are generally easier to break than standard ATA ribbon cables. I blue screened not long ago b/c a couple of the tiny wires attached to the head of the cable broke. I replaced it with a ribbon cable, and funnily enough it was easier to get that out of the way than the round cable, allowing for better air flow. Of course I have a tower case though, so I just shoved it into an extra internal 3.5" slot.

I've stayed out of this thread. Lets just say that I know a lot about this and I don't want to get into fights with all of you :)

First, let me make a brief plea to just buy yourself a Dell. You can build yourself a Precision series desktop/workstation that has the queiest fans you'll EVER hear and includes every feature you'd expect to see in a do-it-yourself PC, and you'll never, ever have to lift a finger if something breaks. ON-SITE SERVICE!

Ok, so you're not sold on the Dell. LISTEN TO BUADYEN! Get a quiet PC. You can do it on a budget at NewEgg.

If you don't need lights and blinkie crap, get yourself a power supply that's QUIET. The Fortron is just as quiet as any of the "Super-Quiet-Dexlue! $99.99" fans out there for a fraction of the price. http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=17-104-966&depa=0 That's the 350wt, and, I only recommend it because it's a *REAL* 350. Test the load. It'll hold up. If you're not convinced, buy the 400. http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=17-104-962&depa=0

If you insist on das blinkenliten, http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=17-104-963&depa=0 is actually cheaper than the non-blinky 400 (free super-saver shipping) but people say the fan is *slightly* louder.

Overall, the surprise victors of this roundup were Fortron and Zalman. Both included virtually identical units in the review and both performed extremely well, especially in the sound tests. However, since the Fortron units are priced about $20 lower than the Zalman units, we have to give our editor’s choice award to the Fortron. ThermalTake came in very strong, with very low noise and very high stability. The $74 cost is high, but considering the other external fan control power supply costs $60 more, we think the cost is easily justifiable.
Oh, there's two reasons to buy rounded cables. (a) They look cool, and you can show them off to people, and (b) they have a MARGINAL effect on cooling, as you can achieve better airflow.



Look, do yourself a favor. Make your PC quiet.

And, listen to Buadyen again. This is the best fan I've ever had :)

http://images10.newegg.com/productimage/35-118-109-04.JPG

One of the main reasons for me to build a computer instead of buying another DELL is for the experience. Have always wanted to and now i have the money to do it. Besides, i'm getting rather excited about building my own computer.

thats the HSF i use and the one i told cull to get, <3 it too much

and http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=17-104-966&depa=0 is way too nice

DDR<insert mghz>

higher the number the better, if you want to do budget, don't do corsair, go with something like kingstonThat is wrong, unless you overclock. Get good DDR400 DIMMs with low timings, or don't give a damn and buy cheap Kingston Valu Ram DDR400 512mb DIMMs, that's what I did and they haven't blown up on me yet. Don't spend premium on DIMMS with extra speed (and higher timings) that won't be used by your (non overclocked)CPU.

EDIT: I have that Zalman fan pictured a few posts up, it's really nice, its barely audible and it will impress your geeky friends on lan parties.

Well I skimmed this over and I would like to throw something at you.
If you haven't already made purchases (i did not read this whole thing), focus on getting a good motherboard everything else doesn't matter that much imo. I prefer Asus P4 boards (or any Intel product).

I run a 2.6GHz P4 on an asus P4P800Deluxe. It runs great. I went with some cracked out case with 2 exhaust fans with the option of adding 3 intake fans (one over the hard drive bay). I put a 450W power supply in it (w/ one intake and one exhause fan built in), I figured what the hell I wanted something that wouldn't give me fits and kill cd/dvd drives because of the power supply waffling. 2 512 400MHz Dimms (Kingston run of the mill) to support dual channel pipe to the processor (dunno if it really makes a performance bonus). 8MB caching Western Digital ATA133 drive (I was convinced that SATA was not worth it in spite of the neeto tiny cables they use). using an ATI 9800 Pro (128MB variety) which is fine atm.

I don't do the overclocking and I'm using the stock Intel Processor fan that was supplied. Don't get down on the overclocking geek trip, just shell out more cash and save yourself the trouble with unforseen issues that you may not be able to isolate due to ghetto wizardry.

oh and one more thing about noise. this comp i made has a behemoth of a tower case, its really fat and phat. its so large I don't notice any noise from the fans. Hell my central AC in the appartment is so loud in comparison it doesn't matter. mabe i can find a pic of the case for you. ah well "6 of one, half dozen of the other" as my redneck mom always says. I would strongly advise you see some of what you are buying in action before you make any purchase, if you don't have this luxury well be prepaired to not have every expectation filled by making purchases based on specs alone.