I'D Like To Build My Own Computer

[MaiDong]

I'm a little bit confused about the MB, in the description here it states '8x USB2.0 / 2x USB3.0' but it also states this further down 'On board I/O ports - 2 x USB 2.0 connector(s)' does it have 8xUSB2 & 2xUSB3 OR 2xUSB2?

Specs here

8 x USB 2.0/1.1 ports (4 ports at the mid-board, 4 ports at the back panel)

Asmedia USB3.0 controller:

2 x USB 3.0/2.0 ports (blue, at the back panel)

So, 8 USB2.0 ports (split between back panel and mid board) and 2 3.0 ports on the back panel.

The mid board USB connectors are usually connected the following - two for the front panel of the case, and two to an adapter/header connected to the back of the case.

//edit - I've noticed different specs on different sites for the same mainboard. The main ASUS site for that MB will not come up for me.

PDF file of the specs

I suppose what I'm asking is how many ports will I see on the outside of the case?

[janverbeem]

I beg to differ, my CarPc has an i5 2500 and it is but a mere shadow of my main desktop pc running a old "quadcore".

Have to agree with you there. I have an i5 at the office and the system I just replaced at home was an E6600 (which is a few years old) and the E6600 was considerably faster. Of course there are a lot of other variables that dictate that though.

+1 Have a I5 overclocked to 3.1 Ghz and with 4 Gb memory and if I have any program running like Winrar or something it will take ages to open any other program.This was for sure not my expectation when I build the system.

[Tywais]

Thanks for explaining things further and sorry for my ignorance again! So the mid-board ports are for me to expand to additional ports on the case?

Correct. My system - front USB and two rear headers. Inside the new build before wire cleanup.

//edit - regarding the number of ports you will see on the back - 6 (4 USB 2.0 and 2 USB 3.0) the 3.0 is backward compatible with 2.0 so if you need to use them with 2.0 devices you can.

[MaiDong]

Thanks for explaining things further and sorry for my ignorance again! So the mid-board ports are for me to expand to additional ports on the case?

Correct. My system - front USB and two rear headers. Inside the new build before wire cleanup.

//edit - regarding the number of ports you will see on the back - 6 (4 USB 2.0 and 2 USB 3.0) the 3.0 is backward compatible with 2.0 so if you need to use them with 2.0 devices you can.

Lovely, thanks again for your help!

[MaiDong]

I've built all my own systems and just rebuilt my home computer this weekend. Took most of the day due to complications such as mechanical fitting, wiring complexity due to the mainboard/case/large video card and a faulty Win7 DVD. It's the unexpected 'complications' that can make it pain. However, if you really would like to do it yourself for the learning as opposed to saving money than I encourage it.

A shop can put one together with your specs for a few hundred baht. An alternative is to do the build yourself then have someone who is skilled at it take a look at your work before lighting it up.

Minimal list of items needed:

• Case
  
• Power Supply
  
• Mainboard (CPU will dictate which board type needed)
  
• Processor (CPU) (decision on Intel or AMD needs to be decided)
  
• Memory - also, type determined by mainboard.
  
• Video Card
  
• Hard drive
  
• DVD Drive
  
• Video Monitor
  
• Keyboard/mouse
  

Here is a link to a system I built several years ago and put together a webpage for it. Unfortunately I lost the original page with descriptions. It will give you an idea as to what you will be dealing with.

My computer build

My recent build is probably a little more high end than you are looking for.

OCZ Vertex 3 Solid state drive

2 Samsung F3 hardrives (already had)

ATI Radeon 4890 (already had)

Asus P8P67 (R3) mainboard

Intel i7-2600K cpu

Dell U2410 - 24" monitor

Coolermaster Case

Coolermaster 550VA True Power power supply

the rest I already had (keyboard/mouse/etc)

Excuse me if I'm repeating myself at all Tywais, I've now had a little drink and am off to bed shortly, I just want ed to know if a video card was needed, do I need this?

[Tywais]

Excuse me if I'm repeating myself at all Tywais, I've now had a little drink and am off to bed shortly, I just want ed to know if a video card was needed, do I need this?

The video on the mainboard you are looking at is onboard, that is built in, so no need for a dedicated card.

[MaiDong]

Excuse me if I'm repeating myself at all Tywais, I've now had a little drink and am off to bed shortly, I just want ed to know if a video card was needed, do I need this?

The video on the mainboard you are looking at is onboard, that is built in, so no need for a dedicated card.

Thanks Tywais! I'll let you know how I get on

[Supernova]

Now I'm stuck between 4 & 8GB of RAM & lower/higher PSU's...

Pretty simple -

The PSU recommended by "Tywais" (post #60) should be good enough. As for RAM, I'd go with 4GB. FWIW, apps that use over 2 gigs of memory are rare. Besides, you can always add more later.

No he won't. The motherboard he's looking at has only 2x RAM slots.

Or add LARGER, later

I didn't realize the board has only two memory slots. That said, the OP might as well put in 8GB.

[wolf5370]

I didn't realize the board has only two memory slots. That said, the OP might as well put in 8GB.

OIr a single 4Gb dimm and leave the other slot free for another 4Gb as and when

[Supernova]

^ Sure, but running on a single DIMM module is a bit risky... Better to populate both slots in case one fails.

[MaiDong]

PSU & Case have been ordered, hoping they will arrive before the end of the week!

I'm going to shoot over to Pantip this afternoon to see how the prices compare to the items in my Shopping Basket with InvadeIT, does anybody have a recommendation for a shop I should visit? I can't seem to find the recommendations that were pinned on tv...

[MaiDong]

I've just been informed on another thread that I can't just use a splitter cable to send the same screen image to 2 different monitors, that's complicated things a little, should I consider a card of some sort with 2 monitor ports?

[JSixpack]

I've selected almost B20,000 of components for this build, I still need to buy 2 monitors which will cost another B6,000 minimum, and a few other extras, taking the total price up to over B27,000, that's way too much, I'll need to lessen my standards a little, what does anybody think I can downgrade on to reduce this total?

Processor - B6,850 - http://www.invadeit.co.th/product/cpus-processors/intel/core%E2%84%A2-i5-2500-sandy-bridge-processor-6m-cache-3-30-ghz-bx80623i52500-p004978/

Motherboard - B2,750 - http://www.invadeit.co.th/product/motherboards/asus/p8h61-m-le-usb3-b3-lga1155-h61-2-x-ddr3-4-x-sata-3gb-s-uatx-p005933/

RAM - B2,900 - 2x 4GB sticks of RAM - http://www.invadeit.co.th/product/memory/kingston/4gb-1333mhz-ddr3-non-ecc-cl9-dimm-1x4gb-kvr1333d3n9-4g-p006022/

Case - B1,920 - http://www.thanni.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=220&products_id=5388

Power supply - B4,230 - http://www.invadeit.co.th/product/power-supplies/cooler-master/silent-pro-m600-600w-power-supply-80-plus-silver-rs-600-amba-d3-p001565/

HDD - B2,080 - http://www.invadeit.co.th/product/internal-hard-drives/seagate/barracuda-7200-12-sata-6gb-s-1tb-hard-drive-7200rpm-32mb-cache-st31000524as-p005320/

DVD - B690(this seems too cheap) - http://www.invadeit.co.th/product/cd-dvd-burners/asus/drw-24b3st-internal-24x-sata-dvd-writer-black-p005912/

And what about an OS, should I buy retail or OEM? Will both only be eligible for installation on 1 machine?

[sorry, my reply comes a bit too late!]

MaiDong, asking in this forum about building a little office computer is akin to walking into a gym full of preening amateur bodybuilders and asking how to tone up. You'll leave injected full of steroids, stuffed with protein powder, body waxed, and skin bronzed.

I'm with Supernova in believing your proposed system is overkill.

It depends on whether you've got the money to burn. But I figure you can easily save 8,000 baht and still meet your needs.

What do the real pros recommend at this level? See here:

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/guides/2011/03/ars-system-guide-march-2011-edition.ars/2

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4164/budget-system-builders-guide-february-2011

So if you went in those directions, the CPU would cost only B1,900. The mainboard would be about the same price but a better board (GIGABYTE 880G-UD3H commonly sold here, note more RAM slots). You'd have 4G of RAM, not 8; you definitely don't need 8.

You really don't need a pimped case with blue lights and 3 fans blazing, either. A Cooler Master 335, well regarded, would be fine at B1,250. Now it might be nice to have a USB 3.0 port on the front; the NOX doesn't have one, but the Lian Li PC-K57 does. Busitek has these: http://www.busitek.com/forms/pricelist.html

Now, it's worth it to spend extra for a good case because it will stay with you for many years, through multiple builds, and the switches don't wear out easily. I'm partial to Cooler Master and Lian Li; I like the lightness of aluminum, too. Whatever case you get, put a quiet fan in the front (if it lacks one) to blow over the hard drives.

Note in both the suggested builds above, one of which includes a graphics card, the PSU is only 380W. You can save B2,000 or more with one of these, still high quality (important):

http://www.invadeit.co.th/product/power-supplies/cooler-master/extreme-power-plus-460w-power-supply-rs-460-pcar-a3-p003266/

http://www.thanni.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=76&products_id=6202

http://jib.co.th/TH/prodetail.asp?Lang=TH&ID_Product=9313

As for building it yourself, that can be frustrating for a beginner. First, I would take apart an old computer, totally, and put it back together and get it running, if possible. However, you'll probably be OK as long as you don't bend or break the CPU pins or burn up the CPU.

Fooling around with computer hardware gets old quickly, however. I'm quite bored with doing any of it now, and I'm also bored hearing the chortles and gurgles of others in the process of building their PCs. I only like a special, possibly amusing, challenge (like recently gutting an ancient horror--a Compaq Presario case--and retrofitting modern components) on the rare occasion.

Anyway I'd suggest going to the shop where you'll get the mainboard, CPU, and RAM, such as jedicool or busitek, bring along your cheaper PSU, and negotiate w/ them to put everything together while you watch (explain you'd like to learn). They will let you get some things from another shop (gotta love Thailand in some ways). They might well do it for free.

Things NOT to worry about: future proofing; the various brands of thermal paste; overclocking; removing the CPU cooler & CPU every couple years (just blow out the fins w/ compressed air); dual channel RAM.

Good luck and keep us informed.

[Tywais]

I've just been informed on another thread that I can't just use a splitter cable to send the same screen image to 2 different monitors, that's complicated things a little, should I consider a card of some sort with 2 monitor ports?

Again, the mainboard you have been looking at has 3 video output ports. 1 VGA, 1 DVI (can be used as VGA with a cheap adapter) and 1 HDMI graphics port. This is all you need to connect the two VGA monitors and a TV up to the computer.

[MaiDong]

I've selected almost B20,000 of components for this build, I still need to buy 2 monitors which will cost another B6,000 minimum, and a few other extras, taking the total price up to over B27,000, that's way too much, I'll need to lessen my standards a little, what does anybody think I can downgrade on to reduce this total?

Processor - B6,850 - http://www.invadeit.co.th/product/cpus-processors/intel/core%E2%84%A2-i5-2500-sandy-bridge-processor-6m-cache-3-30-ghz-bx80623i52500-p004978/

Motherboard - B2,750 - http://www.invadeit.co.th/product/motherboards/asus/p8h61-m-le-usb3-b3-lga1155-h61-2-x-ddr3-4-x-sata-3gb-s-uatx-p005933/

RAM - B2,900 - 2x 4GB sticks of RAM - http://www.invadeit.co.th/product/memory/kingston/4gb-1333mhz-ddr3-non-ecc-cl9-dimm-1x4gb-kvr1333d3n9-4g-p006022/

Case - B1,920 - http://www.thanni.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=220&products_id=5388

Power supply - B4,230 - http://www.invadeit.co.th/product/power-supplies/cooler-master/silent-pro-m600-600w-power-supply-80-plus-silver-rs-600-amba-d3-p001565/

HDD - B2,080 - http://www.invadeit.co.th/product/internal-hard-drives/seagate/barracuda-7200-12-sata-6gb-s-1tb-hard-drive-7200rpm-32mb-cache-st31000524as-p005320/

DVD - B690(this seems too cheap) - http://www.invadeit.co.th/product/cd-dvd-burners/asus/drw-24b3st-internal-24x-sata-dvd-writer-black-p005912/

And what about an OS, should I buy retail or OEM? Will both only be eligible for installation on 1 machine?

[sorry, my reply comes a bit too late!]

MaiDong, asking in this forum about building a little office computer is akin to walking into a gym full of preening amateur bodybuilders and asking how to tone up. You'll leave injected full of steroids, stuffed with protein powder, body waxed, and skin bronzed.

I'm with Supernova in believing your proposed system is overkill.

It depends on whether you've got the money to burn. But I figure you can easily save 8,000 baht and still meet your needs.

What do the real pros recommend at this level? See here:

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/guides/2011/03/ars-system-guide-march-2011-edition.ars/2

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4164/budget-system-builders-guide-february-2011

So if you went in those directions, the CPU would cost only B1,900. The mainboard would be about the same price but a better board (GIGABYTE 880G-UD3H commonly sold here, note more RAM slots). You'd have 4G of RAM, not 8; you definitely don't need 8.

You really don't need a pimped case with blue lights and 3 fans blazing, either. A Cooler Master 335, well regarded, would be fine at B1,250. Now it might be nice to have a USB 3.0 port on the front; the NOX doesn't have one, but the Lian Li PC-K57 does. Busitek has these: http://www.busitek.com/forms/pricelist.html

Now, it's worth it to spend extra for a good case because it will stay with you for many years, through multiple builds, and the switches don't wear out easily. I'm partial to Cooler Master and Lian Li; I like the lightness of aluminum, too. Whatever case you get, put a quiet fan in the front (if it lacks one) to blow over the hard drives.

Note in both the suggested builds above, one of which includes a graphics card, the PSU is only 380W. You can save B2,000 or more with one of these, still high quality (important):

http://www.invadeit.co.th/product/power-supplies/cooler-master/extreme-power-plus-460w-power-supply-rs-460-pcar-a3-p003266/

http://www.thanni.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=76&products_id=6202

http://jib.co.th/TH/prodetail.asp?Lang=TH&ID_Product=9313

As for building it yourself, that can be frustrating for a beginner. First, I would take apart an old computer, totally, and put it back together and get it running, if possible. However, you'll probably be OK as long as you don't bend or break the CPU pins or burn up the CPU.

Fooling around with computer hardware gets old quickly, however. I'm quite bored with doing any of it now, and I'm also bored hearing the chortles and gurgles of others in the process of building their PCs. I only like a special, possibly amusing, challenge (like recently gutting an ancient horror--a Compaq Presario case--and retrofitting modern components) on the rare occasion.

Anyway I'd suggest going to the shop where you'll get the mainboard, CPU, and RAM, such as jedicool or busitek, bring along your cheaper PSU, and negotiate w/ them to put everything together while you watch (explain you'd like to learn). They will let you get some things from another shop (gotta love Thailand in some ways). They might well do it for free.

Things NOT to worry about: future proofing; the various brands of thermal paste; overclocking; removing the CPU cooler & CPU every couple years (just blow out the fins w/ compressed air); dual channel RAM.

Good luck and keep us informed.

Nice post, and quite a different set of ideas!

For the case, it's too late, I've ordered it already, I looked at the Cooler Masters and I REALLY didn't like the look of it - it too has blue lights!

So that's done, it's ok though, if I encounter problems I'll change case in the future.

I am willing to give this build a try, if it fails then I've learned my lesson, the thing is that I've spent hours and hours looking over this and had a lot of good advice, and NO silly replies which may just be a record for thaivisa(nobody spoil it now, will you!)

I'm quite happy to spend a little bit more and be sure that it can cope with anything I throw at it, I've settled for budhet pc's in the past and have been disappointed quite soon after installing all the software etc

Your advice about buying some components from a shop and asking them to install sounds like a wise one, it would definately help me, although I've done some research and I've even watched some 'challenged' amateurs doing it themselves...

[MaiDong]

I've just been informed on another thread that I can't just use a splitter cable to send the same screen image to 2 different monitors, that's complicated things a little, should I consider a card of some sort with 2 monitor ports?

Again, the mainboard you have been looking at has 3 video output ports. 1 VGA, 1 DVI (can be used as VGA with a cheap adapter) and 1 HDMI graphics port. This is all you need to connect the two VGA monitors and a TV up to the computer.

Yes, I remember you saying now, thanks again for the clarification

[Tywais]

I've just been informed on another thread that I can't just use a splitter cable to send the same screen image to 2 different monitors, that's complicated things a little, should I consider a card of some sort with 2 monitor ports?

Again, the mainboard you have been looking at has 3 video output ports. 1 VGA, 1 DVI (can be used as VGA with a cheap adapter) and 1 HDMI graphics port. This is all you need to connect the two VGA monitors and a TV up to the computer.

Yes, I remember you saying now, thanks again for the clarification

Reaching information overload?

[MaiDong]

I've just been informed on another thread that I can't just use a splitter cable to send the same screen image to 2 different monitors, that's complicated things a little, should I consider a card of some sort with 2 monitor ports?

Again, the mainboard you have been looking at has 3 video output ports. 1 VGA, 1 DVI (can be used as VGA with a cheap adapter) and 1 HDMI graphics port. This is all you need to connect the two VGA monitors and a TV up to the computer.

Yes, I remember you saying now, thanks again for the clarification

Reaching information overload?

Indeed yes.

It's ok though, it's all good info

[MaiDong]

Any last minute recommendations on what shop to visit in Pantip to check out prices?

[Spoonman]

I'm partial to Lian Li; I like the lightness of aluminum, too.

You will be disappointed with that Lan cool K57 case by Lian Li then as it is made from steel, still not a bad case infact I had its brother the K62 and was pretty decent, just not big enough for my needs.

[dave_boo]

[sorry, my reply comes a bit too late!]

MaiDong, asking in this forum about building a little office computer is akin to walking into a gym full of preening amateur bodybuilders and asking how to tone up. You'll leave injected full of steroids, stuffed with protein powder, body waxed, and skin bronzed.

I'm with Supernova in believing your proposed system is overkill.

It depends on whether you've got the money to burn. But I figure you can easily save 8,000 baht and still meet your needs.

What do the real pros recommend at this level? See here:

http://arstechnica.c...1-edition.ars/2

http://www.anandtech...e-february-2011

So if you went in those directions, the CPU would cost only B1,900. The mainboard would be about the same price but a better board (GIGABYTE 880G-UD3H commonly sold here, note more RAM slots). You'd have 4G of RAM, not 8; you definitely don't need 8.

You really don't need a pimped case with blue lights and 3 fans blazing, either. A Cooler Master 335, well regarded, would be fine at B1,250. Now it might be nice to have a USB 3.0 port on the front; the NOX doesn't have one, but the Lian Li PC-K57 does. Busitek has these: http://www.busitek.c.../pricelist.html

Now, it's worth it to spend extra for a good case because it will stay with you for many years, through multiple builds, and the switches don't wear out easily. I'm partial to Cooler Master and Lian Li; I like the lightness of aluminum, too. Whatever case you get, put a quiet fan in the front (if it lacks one) to blow over the hard drives.

Note in both the suggested builds above, one of which includes a graphics card, the PSU is only 380W. You can save B2,000 or more with one of these, still high quality (important):

http://www.invadeit....car-a3-p003266/

http://www.thanni.co...roducts_id=6202

http://jib.co.th/TH/...ID_Product=9313

As for building it yourself, that can be frustrating for a beginner. First, I would take apart an old computer, totally, and put it back together and get it running, if possible. However, you'll probably be OK as long as you don't bend or break the CPU pins or burn up the CPU.

Fooling around with computer hardware gets old quickly, however. I'm quite bored with doing any of it now, and I'm also bored hearing the chortles and gurgles of others in the process of building their PCs. I only like a special, possibly amusing, challenge (like recently gutting an ancient horror--a Compaq Presario case--and retrofitting modern components) on the rare occasion.

Anyway I'd suggest going to the shop where you'll get the mainboard, CPU, and RAM, such as jedicool or busitek, bring along your cheaper PSU, and negotiate w/ them to put everything together while you watch (explain you'd like to learn). They will let you get some things from another shop (gotta love Thailand in some ways). They might well do it for free.

Things NOT to worry about: future proofing; the various brands of thermal paste; overclocking; removing the CPU cooler & CPU every couple years (just blow out the fins w/ compressed air); dual channel RAM.

Good luck and keep us informed.

I think that the majority of the rest of us posters (the amateur bodybuilders if you will) are looking towards future-proofing his system as much as possible. For instance the setup I suggested has a processor that is mated up to a honking huge amount of RAM. There should be no reason in the next 4 years to have to replace those two components. If one were to buy a 1900 THB processor, what are you looking at? Slower dual core without HT? I read the comment that no programme will consume more than 2 GB of RAM; fine and dandy (and that's ignoring any programme that may be leaking memory) but what happens if you want to run two of those heavyweight programmes at the same time? I don't know about Windows, but how much memory does Firefox/IE use up when you have 10 flash heavy pages open?

You max out the motherboard in CPU and RAM and still leave the door open to drop in the latest midrange card down the line should gaming become an issue. So much of the traditional motherboard duties have been delegated to the CPU it is a bit senseless to recommend a feature rich board (does he know the difference between ieee1284 and ieee1394?) and I did recommend a lower end case (although CoolerMaster is a great brand), but the recommended PSU is more than acceptable for what he is asking for. What do the additional RAM slots off the OP if you are only recommending 4GB of RAM?

I'm sorry you've become disenfranchised with building computers (although to be fair no longer having to make sure that your SCSI bus is properly id and terminated, setting the dip switches, the endless frustration of ensuring that the memory modules are compatible are behind us), but there are still some who take pride in putting together a system that is cost effective and provides the desired performance. Others get a kick out of attempting to match their systems and cooling to reach crazy overclocks. Others have an affinity towards way overbuilding their systems so that they have to spend as little time on them as possible.

[JSixpack]

I'm partial to Lian Li; I like the lightness of aluminum, too.

You will be disappointed with that Lan cool K57 case by Lian Li then as it is made from steel, still not a bad case infact I had its brother the K62 and was pretty decent, just not big enough for my needs.

Very true, didn't mean to imply what I did unintentionally. I was just throwing out a hint about aluminum for the future. I didn't recommend an aluminum case specifically as I figured MaiDong would balk at the price for his first build, and after all I was emphasizing saving money.

If I were buying today for myself, though, I would likely get the Lian-Li PC-8NWX still available at tkcool:

http://www.tkcom99.com/product_detail.php?p_id=1218&is_product=Y&s_type_id=1&s_cat_id=112.

Nice, simple design; no "awesome" disco effects; only two fans, both 120mm, a common size. (I wouldn't mind the silly blue LEDs so much except the computer is often on when I got to bed, and any light makes it more difficult to sleep--a known fact for many people.) Lian Lis are great cases.

Trouble is, my old aluminum Cooler Master Praetorian was built so well I think it will outlast me, going on 7 years now and still looks new through 3 or 4 builds. I only recently replaced the original fans, which were starting to get noisy. Fantastic case, really; IMHO, Cooler Master should have just updated it a bit and continued the line, but they instead chose to move more into the gaming market.

[MaiDong]

Just got back from Pantip, everything was much more expensive than online prices except monitors, they were roughly B500 cheaper so I'm wondering whether or not to treat myself to a 20" instead of the 18.5" which is perfectly ok anyway...

I had a look at the Cooler Master cases and the Nox cases, they all seemed to be about B600 more than the prices we've discussed in this thread so I am pleased with my option, the Nox 25 looks nicer IMO too, I don't really care about the blue lights, if it gets too much then I'll just do something about it, it'll be sitting in my office, not in my bedroom so that won't be a problem either.

[MaiDong]

WINDOWS 7 - where should I buy this from? Somewhere trusted, somewhere cheap preferably! I understand it won't differ too much from shop to shop, any recommendations?

[Spoonman]

Just got back from Pantip, everything was much more expensive than online prices except monitors, they were roughly B500 cheaper so I'm wondering whether or not to treat myself to a 20" instead of the 18.5" which is perfectly ok anyway...

I had a look at the Cooler Master cases and the Nox cases, they all seemed to be about B600 more than the prices we've discussed in this thread so I am pleased with my option, the Nox 25 looks nicer IMO too, I don't really care about the blue lights, if it gets too much then I'll just do something about it, it'll be sitting in my office, not in my bedroom so that won't be a problem either.

Check the blue lights that I assume are on the fans, if so they would be LEDS, cut and tape the supply wires to them and and they will be gooooone.

[MaiDong]

Just got back from Pantip, everything was much more expensive than online prices except monitors, they were roughly B500 cheaper so I'm wondering whether or not to treat myself to a 20" instead of the 18.5" which is perfectly ok anyway...

I had a look at the Cooler Master cases and the Nox cases, they all seemed to be about B600 more than the prices we've discussed in this thread so I am pleased with my option, the Nox 25 looks nicer IMO too, I don't really care about the blue lights, if it gets too much then I'll just do something about it, it'll be sitting in my office, not in my bedroom so that won't be a problem either.

Check the blue lights that I assume are on the fans, if so they would be LEDS, cut and tape the supply wires to them and and they will be gooooone.

Yeah that's what I thought, although as long as they're not projecting etch-a-sketch patterns all over my face I won't be too bothered

[JSixpack]

I exceeded my quote space per post (!) so I have used brackets for the quoted part.

@'dave_boo' timestamp='1310378212' post='4551169' wrote:

>If one were to buy a 1900 THB processor, what are you looking at? Slower dual core without HT?

Yawn. Go read the specs and the reviews for yourself instead of waiting for a spoonfeed. It's the beginning of independent thinking and research.

Here's a random quote:

"For a price tag of $66.63 , I must say the performance is amazing.

In two out of five real-world gaming benchmarks, the Athlon II was

able to beat the $165 E8400. Buy One!!"

The other build the real pros suggest uses a AMD Athlon II

X3 450, which does have HT, and costs only about B2300. Gets fantastic reviews.

>I read the comment that no programme will consume more than 2 GB

> of RAM; fine and dandy (and that's ignoring any programme that may

> be leaking memory) but what happens if you want to run two of those

> heavyweight programmes at the same time?

You don't know, do you? Hint: the same thing that happens if you

have 512K of RAM. By YOUR theory, it would be impossible to run

Firefox/IE with such a low amount.

Those computer scientists were just SO amazing, the things they thought of!

> You max out the motherboard in CPU and RAM

Ah, no. That's just a waste of money unless you really need it.

It's sort of like buying a bazooka to kill a deer. Hence companies

never follow that kind of IT policy.

>What do the additional RAM slots off the OP if you are only recommending 4GB of RAM?

It mostly relates to the emotional comfort factor. Those extra

slots are there to be touched, stroked, and fondled at any time.

But who knows, a slot could become damaged or fall in disfavor

(computers can be ornery) and then he could move a stick over to the unused slot.

Or maybe, as a result of this build, he would experience a

transformation into ***NEO-2***, computer hobbyist El Supremo, and need viable street

cred in the forums for having his very own 8G of RAM.

Mainly, that mainboard is built exceptionally well and should be

virtually bombproof. Nothing worse than crashes. I've got one

myself (by coincidence) and it's been wonderful.

I used to be an Asus man; no more, I'm converted.

>there are still some who take pride in putting together a system

>that is cost effective and provides the desired performance.

Where we disagree is on what is cost effective for a lowly office PC.

As I said, think about corporate IT policies where costs are really tracked using cold, hard figures.

Now, I just rebuilt a couple of computers for friends in the States, to

save them the hefty labor charges there. But here such labor is free

with purchase, so I myself would just let a shop do it while I had a

coffee and surfed the net--and just check everything at the end, heh.

Those Thai guys at jedicool and busitek, for example, are excellent, really.

Just the same ol' screwing screws and inserting plugs and putting

things in slots and running wires etc. don't teach me a thing. I could do it in my sleep.

I don't anticipate whether the box will boot: I know it will if the

parts are good, and these days the parts are almost always

good. Quality has come very, very far.

>Others get a kick out of attempting to match their systems and

>cooling to reach crazy overclocks.

Well, people gotta have fun doing something,

I predict, though, most such people will eventually outgrow their present hobby.

>Others have an affinity towards way overbuilding their systems so

>that they have to spend as little time on them as possible.

I'm afraid I couldn't follow your logic on that one.

In any case, dave_boo, we're all grateful for your sincere effort and input.

[MaiDong]

That's thrown the cat amongst the pidgeons!

What can I say...

Each time I've bought a new PC I've been underwhelmed by it's capabilities - every PC has been a shop-bought HP/Compaq.

I want to start it up quickly, have several hungry apps open at the same time - Photoshop, Dreamweaver, multiple Firefox windows with multiple tabs, and then all of my other programs for chat, VOIP, downloads, iTunes, Word, Excel, Outlook etc etc, I want it to be quick and I want it to last a good few years, I want to be able to change a component if it is faulty, I want to know I've got good value, I want to be proud that I've stepped aside from the shop-bought crap of the masses, I want my tower to look sleek in my office(even if it does have blue lights!)

[JSixpack]

That's thrown the cat amongst the pidgeons!

What can I say...

Each time I've bought a new PC I've been underwhelmed by it's capabilities - every PC has been a shop-bought HP/Compaq.

I want to start it up quickly, have several hungry apps open at the same time - Photoshop, Dreamweaver, multiple Firefox windows with multiple tabs, and then all of my other programs for chat, VOIP, downloads, iTunes, Word, Excel, Outlook etc etc, I want it to be quick and I want it to last a good few years, I want to be able to change a component if it is faulty, I want to know I've got good value, I want to be proud that I've stepped aside from the shop-bought crap of the masses, I want my tower to look sleek in my office(even if it does have blue lights!)

MaiDong, you've made an excellent decision to go with a custom build! I mean that. You'll never, ever buy another name-brand computer.

You're gonna learn a lot of interesting new stuff here. The knowledge you gain in building the PC can also be applied to maintaining it, which is quite useful. You won't be the least intimidated when you open up your case; you'll know what it all means and how it fits together.

We all had to start somewhere. What with the resources of youtube and the forum, you can't lose.

And you should be very happy with your new box, never fear. A bit of extra never hurt anything.

I'm looking forward to your account of your progress, as a courageous new builder.

[dave_boo]

I exceeded my quote space per post (!) so I have used brackets for the quoted part.

@'dave_boo' timestamp='1310378212' post='4551169' wrote:

>If one were to buy a 1900 THB processor, what are you looking at? Slower dual core without HT?

Yawn. Go read the specs and the reviews for yourself instead of waiting for a spoonfeed. It's the beginning of independent thinking and research.

Here's a random quote:

"For a price tag of $66.63 , I must say the performance is amazing.

In two out of five real-world gaming benchmarks, the Athlon II was

able to beat the $165 E8400. Buy One!!"

The other build the real pros suggest uses a AMD Athlon II

X3 450, which does have HT, and costs only about B2300. Gets fantastic reviews.

>I read the comment that no programme will consume more than 2 GB

> of RAM; fine and dandy (and that's ignoring any programme that may

> be leaking memory) but what happens if you want to run two of those

> heavyweight programmes at the same time?

You don't know, do you? Hint: the same thing that happens if you

have 512K of RAM. By YOUR theory, it would be impossible to run

Firefox/IE with such a low amount.

Those computer scientists were just SO amazing, the things they thought of!

> You max out the motherboard in CPU and RAM

Ah, no. That's just a waste of money unless you really need it.

It's sort of like buying a bazooka to kill a deer. Hence companies

never follow that kind of IT policy.

>What do the additional RAM slots off the OP if you are only recommending 4GB of RAM?

It mostly relates to the emotional comfort factor. Those extra

slots are there to be touched, stroked, and fondled at any time.

But who knows, a slot could become damaged or fall in disfavor

(computers can be ornery) and then he could move a stick over to the unused slot.

Or maybe, as a result of this build, he would experience a

transformation into ***NEO-2***, computer hobbyist El Supremo, and need viable street

cred in the forums for having his very own 8G of RAM.

Mainly, that mainboard is built exceptionally well and should be

virtually bombproof. Nothing worse than crashes. I've got one

myself (by coincidence) and it's been wonderful.

I used to be an Asus man; no more, I'm converted.

>there are still some who take pride in putting together a system

>that is cost effective and provides the desired performance.

Where we disagree is on what is cost effective for a lowly office PC.

As I said, think about corporate IT policies where costs are really tracked using cold, hard figures.

Now, I just rebuilt a couple of computers for friends in the States, to

save them the hefty labor charges there. But here such labor is free

with purchase, so I myself would just let a shop do it while I had a

coffee and surfed the net--and just check everything at the end, heh.

Those Thai guys at jedicool and busitek, for example, are excellent, really.

Just the same ol' screwing screws and inserting plugs and putting

things in slots and running wires etc. don't teach me a thing. I could do it in my sleep.

I don't anticipate whether the box will boot: I know it will if the

parts are good, and these days the parts are almost always

good. Quality has come very, very far.

>Others get a kick out of attempting to match their systems and

>cooling to reach crazy overclocks.

Well, people gotta have fun doing something,

I predict, though, most such people will eventually outgrow their present hobby.

>Others have an affinity towards way overbuilding their systems so

>that they have to spend as little time on them as possible.

I'm afraid I couldn't follow your logic on that one.

In any case, dave_boo, we're all grateful for your sincere effort and input.

I understand the point of getting a 1900-2400 THB processor with a 5000 THB videocard...if he's a gamer. However, we're looking at a guy who has admitted he isn't into gaming and choosing to go down to a processor that has less performance than a 3 year old dual core product when for not that much more scratch, especially since he is going to get such good onboard graphics, doesn't seem right to me.

I understand about scratch/swapfiles/pagefiles...I don't like the performance hit that comes with HAVING to depending on them. If you're only going to run 4GB of RAM and really use your computer, you're going to run into it. While modern hdd have really respectable transfer rates, the access time would have me pulling my hair out! Sorry you did not get the rhetorical nature of the question.

Thinking that IT decisions are decided solely by CTO rather than with major CFO input is quite a fantasy. Case in point; recently the company I work for was upgrading their laptops. Fine and dandy, right? Problem was that it was decided to go ahead and get Dell's cheapest models. On paper they sound great. 4 GB of RAM, a i5-5250, etc. But apparently there was no validation testing completed on them. Resume from suspend is atrocious. 100% of the time the USB keyboard/mouse will not work and 50% of the time the onboard keyboard won't work! But the guys controlling the purse strings thought that was what the company needed..

I can see your point about having back up ports; however I refuse to allow a computer that has warrantied parts to force me to switch items around to resolve an issue. If it is under warranty and throwing faults (memtest is ran before the machine is pressed into operation, right?), the sucker gets RMA'd. I still like Asus for family builds, but stick with Supermicro for my personal machines. I suppose I used to be a Tyan man, but after all the issues and dropped support on the K8WE (which I suffered though and cemented my current work or be returned attitude) I will stick with brands I know. Gigabyte also is on my hate list for their dual proc Opteron board that they sold and immediately dropped support for after realising just how hard it is to get workstation/server motherboards working as they should (yes I had bought one).

We do have quite disimilar attitudes on what constitutes a proper 'office machine'. Technically an dual core Atom with 4GB and a nlited XP would be great. If you want to do anything past smallish spreadsheets and simple emails you're going to quickly run into frustation though. This difference ties into the part you said you didn't understand. I do a lot of transcoding; both SD and 1080p. With out the machine I built I would be waiting forever trying to get stuff done. I have just a little bit of time to do it when I'm not working and I want them done as quickly as possible. Hence a machine was built out that should serve me some 4 more years. Nobody really needs 8 real cores and 16 threads. Nobody really needs 12 GB of RAM. Who needs an array that pushes over 500MB/s in their home computer? And yet I do. If that means that I can get done in a 1/4 of the time that other machines take, I will use that much less electricity (good for the power bill and the planet), have that much longer life out of equipment, etc. I consider it a good investment.