Building first rig ... a few questions!

[karmasalad]

Well, I'm about to get started on building my first system tonight. I'll be going to pick up my motherboard and processor after work (CUSL2-C BP & P3 1 GHz... I know, I know, Intel ).

Anyway, before I start getting myself into trouble, I thought I'd seek the advice from the experts here on a few things.

First, my specs:
- Antec SX-840
- CUSL2-C Black Pearl + P3 1 GHz
- 256MB PC133 Crucial RAM (x2)
- Maxtor DM+60 40GB (x2)
- Plextor 16x CD-RW
- Toshiba 16x DVD
- Hercules Game Theater XP
- ATI Radeon 64MB DDR
- USR 56k Modem
- Netgear FA311 TX 10/100 NIC

1. Is it easier to install all of the drives (DVD, CD-RW, 2 HDs, floppy) into the case before installing the motherboard or after?

2. My case comes with two rear exhaust fans, and room for two front intakes. I won't be overclocking and will be using the stock HSF with thermal pad. Should I install one or two front fans? (I'd like to keep noise to a minimum but also wanna make sure my system gets adequate cooling.)

3. Is there a performance difference between having the 4 IDE devices on their own channel as opposed to using a master/slave setup on 2 channels? I'm wondering if I should pick-up an ATA100 PCI card and whether it would have an effect on performance.

4. Should I dual boot Win98/2k or just run Win2k? I will be using this computer primarily for web development (Macromedia and Adobe stuff), general Internet (email, chat, etc) tasks, and some gaming (mostly strat/sims and shooters). I'm wondering if I still need Win98 for anything.

Thanks in advance for the help!

 

[bigbootydaddy]

1. after, just in case.
2. get 2 quiet fans for the front. prob solved. 2back fans blow out, 2 fron blow air in. nice wind tunnel effect.
3. nothing u will notice. if not manufacturers wouldnt design it this way. pci slots are valuable...(i will get flamed for this)
4. win2k, that way you dont have to mess with fat32/ntfs and 50 partitions.
5. there is no number 5.

 

[MichaelD]

Nice rig! You purchased high-quality components and a great case. You chose wisely. This rig should last you a good long time.

BigBootyDaddy is right on the money. I just would like to add my own opinions from my experiences:

1. I install all the drives before the mobo, this way if I drop something, like a screw, I don't have to worry about it rolling under the mobo, getting wedged under there, then you have to take the mobo out. (Does it sound like this has happened to me? ) I keep the mobo in it's happy little box until after all drives are in.

2. You can never have enough airflow/cooling. This case was made for cooling. Spring for the $20 to get the additional two fans for the front. Peace of mind.

3. I don't know too much about W2K, but being that you're not a big gamer and will be doing mostly Web Dev/image editing, run W2K. For the occasional gaming fit, it'll be just fine.

4. I wouldn't put both the DVD and CDRW on the same IDE channel. You will run into probs if trying to copy CD-to-CD. This isn't a raid board, is it? No, it's not...I just checked. Hmm. I take it you'll be using one of the HD strictly for storage, right? I'd try each HD as Master on their own IDE channels and both CDs as slaves; one on each IDE channel.

Good luck.

 

[Hoober]

Yeah, if you don't want to spit out the money for a PCI controller card, put the CD-ROMs on separate channels. IDE is asynchronous, unlike SCSI, so you might run into problems trying to copy CD's without caching the files first. But otherwise looks like a great setup.

 

[karmasalad]

Wow, thanks for the quick responses!

Regarding the hd master / cd slave setup... isn't such a setup a hit on hard drive performance? I've read in various places that doing so isn't a good idea because the CD devices run at a slower transfer rate than the hd's. Wouldn't this affect transfers between CDs and hd's? (On my current computer, I usually do burns by copying a CD's contents to the hd first because I've found it generally prevents errors.)

And yes, no RAID setup here, just using the second hd for storage.

 

[bigbootydaddy]

in that case put 2 hdds on one channel, and the dvd/cdr on the otherchannels.

i would master whichever cdplayer you use more, prob the dvd. unless, like 15 sec of burn time matter that much.

i forget if the sx830 comes with drive rails, thats why i said put the mobo first, if it has drive rails, then you wont be screwing in drives on top of the mobo thus no screws will fall under mobo...

make sure you use the brass mounts for the mobo too.