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Building my first system...

X

Xanager

Member
I'm about to order the parts for my new computer. I'm definitely new at this, so any advice would be greatly appreciated. Here are my specs so far:

Antec SX1040 w/ extra panaflo fan in front = $146
MSI K7N420 PRO nForce = $164
AMD Althon XP 1600+/266 FSB PROCESSOR CPU - RETAIL = $139
Gainward/Cardexpet GeForce 3 Ti200 = $165
2 x CRUCIAL MICRON 256MB 32x64 PC 2100 DDR = $136
Teac 1.44MB 3.5 Inch Floppy Drive = $9
Lite-On 16x DVD Model = $58
LITE-ON LTR-24102B-01 24x10x40 CDRW - RETAIL = $82
2 x MAXTOR EIDE HARD DRIVE MODEL # 6L040J2 40GB 7200RPM = $166
IBM EIDE HARD DRIVE 60GB 7200RPM = $112
PROMISE ULTRA133TX2 CONTROLLER CARD = $40
NIC and soundcard included in mobo

already have speakers and Sony G420

Total price = approx. $1275 w/ shipping


I know there are tons of debates about the mobo, video card, etc. I'm just wondering if this looks like a solid system. Are there any conflicts I should know about? I will be running Win XP Pro.

I want three hard drives, one for applications, one for storage, and one for backup. Don't I need that controller to use all of these IDE devices at once? Any advice on the hard drives would be appreciated. Heck, any advice period would be nice. I'm kind of intimidated about this whole build the computer thing, but I know it will help me in the long run.



 
Looks good but you'd be better off getting a raid 0 controller card. Highpoint has a ATA133 model out if your curious.
 
I looked into RAID, but I just can't justify the risk. I actually would prefer three separate drives. Oh yeah, I don't really understand the ATA133, 100, 66, etc stuff. I noticed the maxtor said ATA133/100, while the IBM said ATA100. I got the controller card that supports 133, but I don't know if I need this one or just the 100 one.

I also don't know what cables I really need. The last thing I want is to get my system in and be missing a cable or two because where I live, there isn't any place to just go out and buy an IDE cable.

I looked at newegg and found this cable:

24-Inch, Teflon Coated, IDE True ATA100, Flat Cable for IDE Hard Drives, CD ROM, DVD ROM or CDRW, 3-Connector, 66/100, 24 Inches Long.

Do I need to buy three of these?

and this:

Round Floppy drive cable. RED. Booted, 2-head, 18-Inch.

does any of the components I'm buying already come with cables?
 


Why not RAID?

2 x MAXTOR EIDE HARD DRIVE MODEL # 6L040J2 40GB 7200RPM

These are good for RAID. Put all your mp3, movies, important data here.

IBM EIDE HARD DRIVE 60GB 7200RPM

Install Windows into the IBM drive.

Hint: Abit KR7A-RAID

 
Yeah, but I need a drive to back up all of my music, video, important data, etc.

Plus, I don't need to speed of RAID just to play mp3s or open up word documents. I doubt I'll be doing a bunch of DivX encoding or video editing.
 
^

would it be a better idea to get a soyo dragon plus and an audigy? then I wouldn't have to buy a controller card...
 
You might as well get RAID... It's a big performance boost for not much more.. And you say you want 3 drives, but it doesnt matter how many physical drives you have because you can partition them.

Ben
 
This is where I think the nforce doesn't pan out fiscally...It is an integrated mobo with a best ever built in 3d vid card and yet you bypass it with a gf3 anyways...money well spent i don't know...

I really market it as the all-around complete system for moderate gamers and ppl more into multimedia like dvds and such....
 
Why get an nForce and a video card? You should just get a kt266a board ( a good one if you got the money such ass SOYO Dragon k7v plus, Abit KR7A, ASUS A7V266E). You can get some of those boards with onboard raid.
 
You can prollly skip the Promise card since the MB already has a Ultra 100 controller anyhows. Is everybody still agreed that the new 133 variety of controllers is a bit of overkill anyway since the transfers never get past say 60-70?? I never saw the big advantage even going from 66 to 100 let alone 133...
 
Yeah I agree I just bypassed getting an ata133 controller cause I felt the cost didn't justify the performance as most of my ata100 drives max rates don't go over 40mb/sec with only burst near 90mb/s...I went with an promise ata100 controller as I felt they have been out awhile and I could get some definitive answers on its winxp and other os compatability...
 


<< I looked into RAID, but I just can't justify the risk. I actually would prefer three separate drives. Oh yeah, I don't really understand the ATA133, 100, 66, etc stuff. I noticed the maxtor said ATA133/100, while the IBM said ATA100. I got the controller card that supports 133, but I don't know if I need this one or just the 100 one.
>>


You controller card is fine; it's backwards compatablie with udma/100 udma/66 udma/33, EIDE, etc.



<<
I also don't know what cables I really need. The last thing I want is to get my system in and be missing a cable or two because where I live, there isn't any place to just go out and buy an IDE cable.
>>


ok you'll need 2 80-wires (aka. udma 66/100/133 cables) for the hard drives, 1 40-wire (IDE) for the cd drive, and a floppy cable for the floppy.

all ide cables (80 wire and 40-wire) have 3 connectors - one for the motherboard, one for the master drive, and one for the slave drive.

 


<< Yeah I agree I just bypassed getting an ata133 controller cause I felt the cost didn't justify the performance as most of my ata100 drives max rates don't go over 40mb/sec with only burst near 90mb/s...I went with an promise ata100 controller as I felt they have been out awhile and I could get some definitive answers on its winxp and other os compatability... >>



theoritacally udma /133 drives can operate at 133 mb/s for a period of up to 3 ms.
 
I mean, I had to have a controller for three hard drives, so I went ahead and got the 133 one. I didn't figure there was that much of a difference, but I figured it couldn't hurt.

I got two of these from new egg for cables:
24-Inch, Teflon Coated, IDE True ATA100, Flat Cable for IDE Hard Drives, CD ROM, DVD ROM or CDRW, 3-Connector, 66/100, 24 Inches Long.

I went ahead and bought this system actually, but instead of the IBM 60 gig, I went ahead and got the maxtor.

I thought, about RAID, but I really can't justify the risks. I know I can partition the drive, but if the drive fails, then everything on it is lost, partitioned or not. I can't justify that. Anyways, I don't do many things that would require speed that fast.

I've had plenty of people telling me soyo, and plenty telling me nforce. I'm a newbie, I probably made a mistake, but I'm sure I'll learn from it. I'm sure whatever I do get will be better than my PIII 550 laptop. I've never even experienced a faster computer. I hear some people say how they click on Excel, or an mp3 and actually don't have to wait 10 or 15 seconds for it to open. So, I'll be happy with whatever. I'm not going to let myself not be happy with my first build 🙂 This forum rocks; it's helped me out a bunch.

Now I just have to figure out how to build it. The most I've ever done is install a NIC and a harddrive on a laptop 😱

I'm sure you haven't heard the last of my questions...
 
This is after the fact, I know, but this is my take. There are 3 routes I would consider
Gaming - Soyo Dragon +, Ti200, integrated hardware sound (perfectly fine)
Gaming & Audio - Shuttle AK31/MSI KT266A/..., Ti200, Audigy OEM/Platinum
Multimedia - MSI nForce, integrated sound and video.

If you're going to pay for the features on a board why replace them with add on cards? I have an Audigy Platinum and I would have no problem going with the sound that comes with the Soyo or nForce boards. Also if your going to spend the money on a graphics card than what is the advantage of buying the nforce? I figure the nForce is a cheap alternative to buying a video card and sound card. If I wanted a gaming system I would stick with a KT266A chipset board.

The first KT266A board I bought was the Shuttle and I have to say that it's been one of the best quality boards I've owned (I've had numerous Asus boards, an MSI and tried boards from soyo, gigabyte and ECS) The only disadvantage (if you want to call it that) is that the board is simple and comes with very few "extra" features. Isn't stability the most important feature of any board?
 
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