31 replies to this topic

[FaT_PHiL]

Im finally ordering my computer, and ive decided to purchase all the parts off of newegg and build it myself. I have a few questions and would like to know what you all think of the hardwrare ive selected.

NZXT Lexa Case 3x 120mm 1x 80mm 3 LED temp display
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16811146018

OCZ 520w Powerstream PSU - 2 LED fans 2 heatsinks, all 3 rails have changeable voltage, 12v rails rated at 28-33 amps
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16817711002

AMD Opteron 165 1.8ghz Dual Core 2x 1mb cache - plan to OC to 2.4 on stock HSF
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16819103588

DFI LANPARTY nF4 SLI-DR Socket 939
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16813136151

Corsair XMS 1gb kit 2x 512 pc3200
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16820145450

eVGA 7600 GT PCIE SuperClocked 600/1560
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16814130284

Seagate Barracuda 250GB SATA150
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16822148065

Sony 16x DVDr/rw + combo drive
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16827131267

NEC Floppy Drive
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16821152005

The two pieces im thinking about is the motherboard and the ram. The mobo is kinda expensive and it puts me over my 1200$ budget. The ram is pretty solid but im thinking about G.Skill.

and as for a replacment mobo im thinking about Gigabyte Pro Sli board.

My other question is related to overclocking. Im pretty sure i know enough but i want to make sure.

To overclock i would need to turn the fsb up in the bios and then set the clock multiplier to make it 2.4. So would i turn the fsb to 240 and then set the multiplier to 10?

also if the fsb is 240 or more will it effect my ram being as its pc3200 and should i just buy higher clocked ram?

Any suggestions on other parts are welcomed. I really want to learn everything before i start building to avoid any problems.

[justinlay]

Thats a pretty good setup. Why a floppy drive? i didnt think they still make them things anymore

[FaT_PHiL]

well i figured for 6$ might as well.. and wouldnt i need it to format the hdd when it comes?

[justinlay]

if you planed on puting xp on it you dont need the floppy drive

[dlewis23]

Quote

if you planed on puting xp on it you dont need the floppy drive

don't say don't because with that motherboard you have to use 3rd party sata raid drivers, so if he is using a sata drive, whitch i hope he is, he is going to need a floppy.

[justinlay]

yah your going to need a floppy drive for that

[disturbed]

its all good - i have the same motherboard - however, i would really recommend you get better ram if you can - everything else seems very nice

i have ocz el platinum rev.2 ram and its out of this world - its just amazing - its ddr400 but it will go as much as ddr600 (im running it at 500mhz right now)

if you have any questions regarding that motherboard feel free to ask

[disturbed]

but get a floppy drive - sure its outdated, but a lot of stuff you can do with the dfi motherboard works best if you have a floppy drive

[disturbed]

oh, and also I believe that this motherboard does not need any drivers for your configuration - you will only need them if you are going raid - most nf4 motherboards (including this one) are like that

[RTB]

[quote author=FaT_PHiL link=topic=12981.msg130399#msg130399 date=1143617136]NZXT Lexa Case 3x 120mm 1x 80mm 3 LED temp display
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16811146018[/quote]
First things first. Do you need the side to have a window? I mean, it's nice to have, but only rarely useful and so many people have windows (both in the case and on the HD) already on lan parties.

[quote]OCZ 520w Powerstream PSU - 2 LED fans 2 heatsinks, all 3 rails have changeable voltage, 12v rails rated at 28-33 amps
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16817711002[/quote]
Lots of room for upgrade, keeper.

[quote[AMD Opteron 165 1.8ghz Dual Core 2x 1mb cache - plan to OC to 2.4 on stock HSF
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16819103588[.quote]
The stock HSF is very good, and if you keep the temps below 50 (45 preferably) you can problably reach 2.6 with little problem. With a little luck and a better heatsink (I love my SI-120) it might run 2.8 24/7.

[quote]DFI LANPARTY nF4 SLI-DR Socket 939
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813136151[/quote]
Overkill. Stick to SLI-D if you don't wanna mod or can't get your hands on a SLI bridge (you don't even need it anymore), but the Ultra-D is just fine for virtually everyone else. Note that SLI is a pretty bad investment for most cards, with the 7900GT being the best option atm.

[quote]Corsair XMS 1gb kit 2x 512 pc3200
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145450[/quote]
If you plan on playing BF2 or FEAR think about getting 2x 1 GB.

[quote]eVGA 7600 GT PCIE SuperClocked 600/1560
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16814130284[/quote]
With the money you save with the motherboard I'd go for a 7900GT, they're awesome quality for the price. Overclocks like a dream too.

[quote]Seagate Barracuda 250GB SATA150
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16822148065

Sony 16x DVDr/rw + combo drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16827131267

NEC Floppy Drive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16821152005[/quote]
HD fine, DVD drive fine, Floppy drive can be salvaged from other computers, you'll only use it very very rarely.

[quote]The two pieces im thinking about is the motherboard and the ram. The mobo is kinda expensive and it puts me over my 1200$ budget. The ram is pretty solid but im thinking about G.Skill.[/quote]
Don't bother with a fixed budget, you're bound to go over

[quote]My other question is related to overclocking. Im pretty sure i know enough but i want to make sure.

To overclock i would need to turn the fsb up in the bios and then set the clock multiplier to make it 2.4. So would i turn the fsb to 240 and then set the multiplier to 10?

also if the fsb is 240 or more will it effect my ram being as its pc3200 and should i just buy higher clocked ram?

Any suggestions on other parts are welcomed. I really want to learn everything before i start building to avoid any problems.
[/quote]
The multipliers for AMD chips (save for the FX ones) are locked upwards, meaning with this CPU you can't go above 9x. If you want 2400 Mhz, you'll need a FSB of 267. Note that your ram won't handle that most likely, and should be put on a divider, on DFI you have the choice between 166 (Ram speed 218 effective) and 150 (ram speed 200 effective). First one is an option if you like tweaking (lots of ram can do more than that), otherwise stick to 200 effective.

I had lots of problems getting my DFI board to run at all, it wouldn't recognize my CPU at first, and you may have that problem as well. Either stick an older CPU in there and flash to a newer BIOS version, or hotflash the BIOS chip in another DFI lanparty board.

[disturbed]

i play bf2 and fear without any hitches on highest settings - and I only use 1 gig of ram

[Swimmer]

one of the tech sites actually tested this.. it was actually faster to run 1 gig of ram than 2.. I dont know why.. but i will try and find the article..
http://www.tomshardw...need/page6.html
this might be it.. but i think there is another one..

Hard drive wise.. if you are going to run a mobo with Sata 3.0GB/s why dont you get a drive that supports it?  http://www.newegg.co...N82E16822144013

built a 4800+ x2 system with 2 of the 300gig version on raid 0 for a client a few months back.. They are quite but they get really hot.. so might want to think about a case fan to blow some air over them.. Also one of the drives arrived DOA.. make sure if there is any clicking or you cant find the drive.. to call maxtor!

[FaT_PHiL]

Wow thx alot for all the info guys.

I dont plan on raiding but for 6$ the floppy isnt much of a burden. Having never experienced XP i didnt know how to go about installing it on a OEM drive.

Being behind the times i wasnt sure which was faster sata150 or 3gbps now that im sure ive chosen the 160gb by seagate, dont need much storage and i might upgrade in the future making it my slave and adding a raptor
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16822148105

As for the mobo ya its overkill but i wanted to get something solid cause i would be OC'ing and i heard it works fantastic with opterons as well as the A8N32 does.

I didnt actually notice the SLI-D, reviews on it look good. Im gonna go with that unless money becomes an issue.
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16813136158

Finally the Ram and video card
Without ram and the gpu it comes to about 890$ which leaves me in the area of about 300$ for ram and a video card.

After thinking about it ive decided to try and spend an extra 50$ and get this ram, its got 0 bad reviews and only a couple had to RMA it
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16820146890

With that said im going to stick with the 7600GT unless i can find a good sale on a 7900, if i ever needed to get a better video card i can either sell this or buy another 7600 being only 200$ its not that much to get sli going.

Is there any sites that might give demonstrations on computer building, more specificly videos. I really want to cover all basis before building this thing whether what i need to do to prep myself before building and if problems should occur.

[richcornucopia]

If money does become an issue you could save some on the motherboard. This is the one I have http://www.newegg.co...N82E16813138264, and is a very good board all around. Its stable for overclocking, I've got my opteron 148 at 2.9ghz, the onboard video is decent, and the price is great for all the features it has. It had everything I needed and was the cheapest motherboard I was looking at so I went with it and am glad I did  .

[FaT_PHiL]

seems like a pretty solid mobo, except i wanna go sli. I plan to either purchase a second video card or buy my friends 7600gt when he upgrades. Money isnt that much of a concern anymore, just need about 50-75$ extra.

2.9 opteron must be sick, what kinda HS you got on? im thinking about getting a Thermalright XP-120, but thats not for a while. 2.4 on stock cooling should be good for now ^^

[richcornucopia]

I've got a custom water cooling system, but I think it was a little overkill. All in all it was a great learing experience for water cooling though, but I've heard of people keeping overlocking opterons pretty cool on air, but then again I was going for dead silent as my comptuer ison 24/7 in my room.

[FaT_PHiL]

i leave my current computer on basicly 24/7, would there be any problems if i OC'd to 2.4 and wanted to keep it stable 24/7? .. i would assume i wouldnt go over 50 degrees on stock HSF.

I heard for the first week you want to keep it on only for a little bit each day so you dont overheat the thermal compound and make it inefective.

.. i dont think ive left my dell off for more than 1 day in over 6 years lol

[RTB]

Quote

i leave my current computer on basicly 24/7, would there be any problems if i OC'd to 2.4 and wanted to keep it stable 24/7? .. i would assume i wouldnt go over 50 degrees on stock HSF.

Not a problem at all. In fact, Optys tend to do much more than that, and stay under 50C while OCing.

Quote

I heard for the first week you want to keep it on only for a little bit each day so you dont overheat the thermal compound and make it inefective.

It's not that extreme, but it's said that for optimal use of AS5, you'll want to turn it off once in a while for up to 200 hours after application, so the thermal paste can work at its best.

[FaT_PHiL]

Is the stock thermal compound that amd gives worth putting on, or should i go with some arctic silver like you said. For 5$ it seems well worth it.

Also i keep working myself up probably for nothing as to how im going to build this comp on my own. Because ive never done anything much more than install a video card or some ram.

Would all the products come with decent instructions? like how to apply the thermal paste or like .. how should i go about connecting everything to the mobo. What kind of surface to use when putting the cpu and hs on.

Another question, the psu i chose says it has a 20 pin power connector with +4 pin.. the mobo says 24 pin. would that work just like an adapter? cause i know somethings gonna go wrong, either a part DOA or i cause something to fry

[Swimmer]

24 pin pin in the new standard.. it is the 4 pin with the 20 pin connected.. I would make sure that that ps has sata and PCI-E connections also.. otherwise you are going to have to upgrade to get those..  Unless you use a molex to Sata cable.