Building A New Desktop System

[MikeWill]

http://www.busitek.com/forms/pricelist.html

http://www.thanni.com/index.php?main_page=...aca9372d2fc9e9d

[The Coder]

SharkyExtreme has just updated their "value gaming system" which is packing the most power into a 39,000 baht budget. Just scroll to the bottom and choose the page of choice. They explain page by page the best mix of every component; case, speakers, cpu, memory, video card, monitor, etc. Might be worth a look for tuning your choice of components. If there are any other similar build your own PC sites please post!

One other thing of interest is Intel last week announced that within 10 years their processors will have more than 100 cores! It's going to be pretty exciting.

[Tywais]

If there are any other similar build your own PC sites please post!

That's a good idea Coder. There are probably members who would like to BIY but too intimidated to do it so some step-by-step sites would be handy. So, here is a start:

http://www.pcmech.com/byopc/

http://www.buildyourown.org.uk/

http://www.hardwarecentral.com/hardwarecen...tutorials/109/1

http://www.intel.com/personal/build/ (Intel based systems)

http://www.buildpc.org/buildpc.html (A little basic though)

[francois]

hi'

well, if I were you I would wait for the new pentium conroe

amd is the only cpu I never advise to get! unless you're a hard gamer

also, the new chip 975/ich8 will run at 1066mhz fsb ... going with the new dual core from intel ... along with ram at same speed

patience is a main word forgotten in the IT world ...

I'll wait until the new chip is stable, some revision of the assembling code of these MB would be better

waiting for ram pc ddr2 can run at 1066, not far though

and pci express to be able to run 512mb ram in a reasonable price ...

and for sure waiting for the new sata2 to be available on MB and really working as specified

francois

ps;I'm still working with a prescott 3.2 OC at 3.6, ram 2gb pc500 ddr, agp8x

and I run faster than some of my customers's machines running a "new" P4 650 with 1gb ram ddr2

why should I look for upgrade now?

beside some MB have problems dealing with a mix of last and latest generation of hardware ... see asus MB for example

[poorfarang]

Can anyone offer some insight on the following system I threw together.

Mobo: ASUS "A8N SLI Premium"

CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+

Ram: Kingston ValueRAM 184 Pin 1GB DDR400 PC-3200

Hard Drive: Seagate 250GB Barracuda 7200.9 8MB Cache S-ATA

Video: Chaintech "SV62TC" GeForce 6200 Shared 256MB DDR (128MB)

CPU Cooler: Cooler Master "Hyper 6+"

Case: Lian-Li "PC-7B Plus"

There are some things that im not sure about and some things that will change. The ram for example, I sounds to me like its not the best but I was just looking at this one website and they didnt offer much. My new budget is 50,000 for the entire system including all components, cdrw, dvd rom, wireless card, etc.

[MikeWill]

The SharkyExtreme is assembling a "value gaming system" and since so, its emphasis are on the VGA card, which takes ~20% of the whole system price.

Although, the commentaries are rather helpful, I am still stick with my basic configuration:

- CPU Athlon X2 3800+

- MB ASUS A8N-SLi Premium

- RAM (2 x 512 GB) DDR400 / PC3200

- HDD Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 250GB S-ATA II

- Case CoolerMaster Centurion 530/532 Medium Tower

- PSU CoolerMaster Real Power 450W P/N: RS-450-ACLY

tywais

The http://www.pcmech.com/byopc/ is rather interesting reading.

As for the "build your own PC" approach (i.e. assembling the parts and installing an operating system), it's really a matter to be determined individually. Personally, I would prefer to have someone with experience to assemble my system: CPU, RAM, and other Mainboard components, including BIOS configuration.

Any suggestions?

Edited March 12, 2006 by Condo_bk

[poorfarang]

Where are you buying these parts? We have the same system basically and I dont know what parts I should order from the websites listed in this thread, and which parts I should pick up at pantip or another place.

[MikeWill]

As I've posted above, it's rather difficult to find stuff in Pantip. I wasn't able to see neither the CoolerMaster Centurion 530/532 case (tho' the Lian-Li PC 7 Plus was in stock at THB 2,990 w/2 12cm fans at JEDI shop), nor the CoolerMaster Real Power 450W P/N: RS-450-ACLY PSU.

Some shops quote me the CPU Athlon X2 3800+, and MB ASUS A8N-SLi Premium. It's not a problem to find RAM, HDDs and other parts.

If you want to combine our orders, just PM me (let me know your email or phone number).

[MikeWill]

I have ordered almost all components for my new PC:

1. Case CoolerMaster Centurion 532 - THB 2,235 (incl. delivery in 2-3 days by thanni.com)

2. PSU CoolerMaster Real Power 450W P/N: RS-450-ACLY - THB 2,850 (should be delivered in 2-3 days)

3. CPU Athlon X2 3800+ - THB 13,900(in stock)

4. MB ASUS A8N-SLi Premium - THB 7,190(in stock)

5. RAM (2 x 512 GB) DDR400 / PC3200 (in stock)*

6. HDD Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 250GB S-ATA II - THB 4,600 (in stock)

*- The available RAM is (all dual channel kits of 1GB):

a. Corsair (Latency = 3) - THB 4,990

b. GEIL (Latency = 2,5) - THB 3,950

c. Kingston (Latency = 2,) - THB 3,690

Which one to choose?

The only other question remained is about VGA card.

I'm not much of a gamer, and don't want to invest heavily in that card. On the other hand, it should be adequate to perform basic tasks and be reliable.

Please advice!

Edited March 14, 2006 by Condo_bk

[Firefoxx]

Go for the kingston or the geil. Corsair is too much money for too little performance.

As for VGA, I saw a Sapphire ATI X1600 card sold. It's a middling card, but has all the bells and whistles, and is fairly cheap (around 5,500, depending on ram, 128 or 256). It'll perform well enough for games at 1024x768, and also has HD acceleration.

The other day I was looking at the various full tower cases. I looked at two similar models... the main difference was that one was steel, the other was aluminum. The steel model weighed a ton, while the aluminum model was much lighter. There's a big difference, but of course it would only matter if you need to move your computer around.

Edited March 14, 2006 by Firefoxx

[poorfarang]

Not exactly. Dont forget about the cooling powers of aluminum vs a steel case.

[Tywais]

Go for the kingston or the geil. Corsair is too much money for too little performance.

The kingston will be fine for you, that is what I normally get. The reason for my getting the Corsair (XMS version - Extreme Memory Speed) that it is designed to boot up in the extreme low latency mode and can be overclocked around 10-20% more. I'm not a gamer but I need the highest performance I can afford in order to run Physics simulations which include substantial amount of 3D graphics plus electronics simulations/PCB auto-router development. Also why I need a fairly high performance video card.

As for video, just make sure it is a PCI eXpress card, either ASUS or ATI should be fine. I personally prefer ASUS and is what my last 6 or 7 cards have been and have had no problems. Also, if you are running a dual dvi display system make sure that the card has dual-dvi outputs.

Edited March 14, 2006 by tywais

[MikeWill]

Thanks Firefoxx, I'll probably go for GEIL RAM THB 3,950.

As for the VGA, I was told that ASUS A8N-SLi Premium MainBoard is compatible only with GeForce cards, not ATI Radeon.

Since so, I'm considering if the GeForce 6600GT 128MB (THB 5,200) is good enough or WHAT?

What is the cheap place to buy VGA cards?

Edited March 14, 2006 by Condo_bk

[poorfarang]

Is this the Kingston ram?

http://www.thanni.com/index.php?main_page=...roducts_id=3024

Do I need to get 2 sticks of it or can I use a single 1gb stick? Also, this latency says 3. Maybe its different

[Firefoxx]

I recall seeing a test of aluminum vs steel cases, and the result was that there was no difference. I have nothing against aluminum cases, I prefer them myself (lighter, easier to mod), but the cooling is basically the same.

Current mainboards all use dual-channel ram... that is, you install two sticks of identical memory to theoretically double bandwidth. Of course, in real life the performance boost isn't much, and you can live with a single stick. Then again, you're paying for a dual-channel mainboard, so you might as well use the capability.

Condo, the compatibility that you were told probably refers to the "SLI" part of the mainboard. In other words, you can do SLI (two identical cards) only with Nvidia cards. However, since you don't care much for video performance, I think you can go with any card, which includes the card I mentioned. Of course, you can get an nvidia card too. You can expect roughly the same performance for similarly-numbered cards... ie, the ATI X600 & X1600, the nVidia 6600 & 7600, etc.

[The Coder]

The GeForce 6600 you are looking at is actually a decent card. But I wouldn't advise any lower than that. I don't understand why yet, but Vista recommends extremely powerful cards. Over the years I have owned various ATI and nVidia (GeForce) cards depending on who had leap frogged the other. Lately they have settled into near equals emphasizing top to bottom product lines and price points. All equal, I would select GeForce mainly because the drivers are more stable and I've also had an ATI card go out, twice. If I was in the market I would get something based on the GeForce 7800/7900. That has an absolutely awesome ASIC (chip) in it. But I am a gamer who likes to crank up really high resolutions.

[Tywais]

If I was in the market I would get something based on the GeForce 7800/7900. That has an absolutely awesome ASIC (chip) in it.

Same here, but my bank account says 'no'...

You have probably seen this:

http://www.tomshardware.com/2005/12/14/sne...quad_gpu_setup/

[MikeWill]

Thanks a lot guys.

First of all a good news... Yesterday, I wired money to thanni bank account, and today the case (Centurion 532) was delivered to me by the messenger.

It looks great, black color, nice perforated front panel and with big tranparent window (on the left) removable panel. Weight ~8.0 kg. It comes with only one 12 cm fun, various cables, but no PSU.

It's rather unfortunate that in my PC table it should sit under the desk.

Re: VGA Cards

It would be probably wise to go for GeForce nVidia 6600 (7600 and farther is likely too expensive).

Does the cheapest among 6600 series is OK?

When I've been to Pantip, the most popupar brand there is SPARK.

Which brands should be avoided, if any.

More one question: should I make a DOS partition on my 250GB drive prior to installing Windows? Or to partition the drive after OS installation?

[Tywais]

It looks great, black color, nice perforated front panel and with big tranparent window (on the left) removable panel. Weight ~8.0 kg. It comes with only one 12 cm fun, various cables, but no PSU.

It is a very nice looking case. As I mentioned I got the 530, seems you had luck finding the 532. Haven't seen that much difference between the two actually. One of the reasons, besides looking good and reviews, was the top/front control panel. Easy access to USB and firewire connectors. Ideal for you since you have it on the floor.

Re: VGA Cards

It would be probably wise to go for GeForce nVidia 6600 (7600 and farther is likely too expensive).

Does the cheapest among 6600 series is OK?

When I've been to Pantip, the most popupar brand there is SPARK.

I'm getting the ASUS nVidia 6600GTX/silencer but it is higher end then you really need so a vanilla nVidia 6600 would be fine. I bought a SPARK for my media center PC because I didn't need anything fancy and wanted to keep the price down. It seems to work fine (about 6-months use now). However I would still recommend going with a 'brand' name like ASUS simply because I have used so many of them and know their performance/reliability is very good.

More one question: should I make a DOS partition on my 250GB drive prior to installing Windows? Or to partition the drive after OS installation?

When you begin the installation of XP, at some point it will ask you about creating partitions. Just do it then. It can be done after but not a good idea if you are not sure what you are doing in this area.

Edited March 15, 2006 by tywais

[MikeWill]

I just noticed a price reduction for Seagate 250GB HDD - THB 4,070. Refer to:

http://www.thanni.com/index.php?main_page=...roducts_id=3303

[poorfarang]

What kind of partitions should I set up? Ive heard someone mention creating a seperarte on for the page file. Is this a good route to go?

[The Coder]

I just noticed a price reduction for Seagate 250GB HDD - THB 4,070. Refer to:

http://www.thanni.com/index.php?main_page=...roducts_id=3303

Not bad. I see the US street price for that drive is just 500 baht less than that. Say, did it worry you ordering from Thanni that the only form of payment they accept is depositing 100% of the money into a PERSONAL bank account in advance? They don't take credit cards so I worry nothing is stopping them from just taking your money if they want.

[poorfarang]

Also, Im going with the same mobo/cpu. Will that come with a proper cooler or will I need to buy an different one?

[Tywais]

What kind of partitions should I set up? Ive heard someone mention creating a seperarte on for the page file. Is this a good route to go?

http://www.g4tv.com/callforhelp/features/3..._Page_File.html

http://aumha.org/win5/a/xpvm.php

http://www.neowin.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=10724

Edited March 15, 2006 by tywais

[Tywais]

Also, Im going with the same mobo/cpu. Will that come with a proper cooler or will I need to buy an different one?

The mainboard chipset has a heat pipe for cooling and the AMD 3800+ comes with a reasonable cooler/fan. Some earlier releases of the CPU set had a bad fan design but the newer stocks should have the corrected fan with it. I'll try to dig up the information on how you can tell which fan.

Haven't found that info yet but here are a few comments:

http://www.hardforum.com/printthread.php?t=907579

And some tests:

http://www.hothardware.com/viewarticle.aspx?articleid=666

Go to the review index at the bottom and select "Temperature: Stock and Overclocked"

Edited March 15, 2006 by tywais

[Firefoxx]

8 kilograms! What a backbreaker! And that's without anything inside it. My aluminum case weighs a lot less than that *fully loaded*.

For partitions, if you only have 1 harddisk, it's good to separate it into two partitions, one for programs and one for data. If you ever need to reinstall, you can simply format the program partition and keep your data. If you have multiple harddisks, this isn't necessary.

As for page files, putting it on a separate partition isn't going to help much. What's recommended is putting it on a separate *physical* disk (if you have one).

I like Asus, but I've had my fair share of problems with them. My old Asus VIVO card never got any updated drivers after a year or so, which meant that it was useless. Its fan also gave up the ghost after a bit more than a year. I've had problems with Asus notebooks, but not with other brands.

Again, condo, an ATI card *will* work on your board.

[MikeWill]

... Say, did it worry you ordering from Thanni that the only form of payment they accept is depositing 100% of the money into a PERSONAL bank account in advance? They don't take credit cards so I worry nothing is stopping them from just taking your money if they want.

Yes you are write, if they want, it can be done. In my case, I will loose a couple thousand Baht. But after they'll do such things several times they will be out of business. Furthermore, when I wired money to them, my banker told me their phone number, as to assure me that this is OK. Actually, I tried to call them, but the number was out of order... later on, I was told that is't a wrong number..

That's in regards to Thanni.

In regards to Busitek, they called me and apologize for being not able to get my PSU (i.e. CoolerMaster Real Power 450W P/N: RS-450-ACLY).

Yes, they waste my time, but at least, they didn't try to cheat.

Now, I called to Shop4Thai, and they agreed to send me the PSU with a messenger, so I will pay upon delivery. It will cost me a bit more ~ THB 3,200.

To be continued...

[MikeWill]

What do you think about a meeting at Pantip Plaza this Saturday afternoon?

Firefoxx, tywais (I know you're in ChiangMai), The Coder, poorfarang and anyone else what do you say?

Edited March 15, 2006 by Condo_bk

[Tywais]

8 kilograms! What a backbreaker! And that's without anything inside it. My aluminum case weighs a lot less than that *fully loaded*.

I wonder if that is just what it says on the shipping box. Mine doesn't feel that heavy at all, at least compared to the other cases I have used. But then I don't think I've had my hands on an Aluminum case recently.

One reviewers comments:

"As I pulled the case out of the box, I was immediately taken back by how light it was for a steel chassis case. The panels are also steel, but overall the case felt light and durable."

[MikeWill]

The PSU is really becoming an annoying problem. The Shop4Thai messenger came and brought the P/N: RS-450-ACLX instead of RS-450-ACLY. The marketing manager checked again and told me that they have only one kind (i.e. RS-450-ACLX) of that PSU. I have noticed that the difference is MTBF > 100,000 Hours as compared to MTBF > 400,000 Hours. And BTW, it was made in China.

Dear tywais, would you please check what is the P/N of your PSU.

If it is RS-450-ACLY, please tell me where you have ordered it from.

Edited March 15, 2006 by Condo_bk