building new computer...need advice.

[loserbutt]

hello anandtech boarders

I've just ordered a bunch of parts off newegg and was wondering if you guys had any advice.

Item List
KB ORTEK | MCK-800 MULTIMEDIA BEIGE (Qty=1,Price=12.00)
MOUSE MS|INTELLI OPTICAL PS2/USB% (Qty=1,Price=24.00)
VGA ATI|RADEON 8500 64M DDR AGP% (Qty=1,Price=179.00)
CPU FAN AMD|1.9 BB DR THERM TI-V77L (Qty=1,Price=22.00)
MNTR HITACHI|17" CM625 16x12 75Hz (Qty=1,Price=225.00)
HD 60GB|IBM 7200R #IC35L060AVER07 % (Qty=1,Price=111.00)
DDRAM 256MB|32X64 PC-2100 CRUCIAL% (Qty=1,Price=72.00)
MB VIA KT266A|SY-K7VDRAGON+ SOYO (Qty=1,Price=146.00)
CASE EVERCASE|P4ATXMD300W E4252WEFA (Qty=1,Price=42.00)
DVD|TOSHIBA 16X SD-M1612 OEM % (Qty=1,Price=65.00)
CDRW 24X10X40|LITE ON LTR-24102B RT (Qty=1,Price=84.00)
CABLE HD|IDE ATA100 24" 3HD TEFLON% (Qty=1,Price=6.00)
CPU AMD|1800+/266 ATHLON 1.53G XP % (Qty=1,Price=179.00)

did I forget anything? I didnt get a floppy because I noticed that I just about never ever use a floppy anymore...but will that be a problem during the building?

also, could use just general advice on building this. this is the first computer i've ever built so im a bit nervous.

thanks

 

[microAmp]

Looks good, like you I'm thinking about ditching the floopy but the BIOS upgrades will keep it there for the time being and some very important stuff I don't want to lose, Favorite websites, address book, etc...

 

[CocaCola5]

Something you will eventually come to appreciate if you continue to build is to always run your hardware out of the box first, meaning leaving the motherboard in its retail box with of course PS, and cpu, memory, vga, ps2 installed only just to see if the thing work.

 

[dave127]

when building it, make sure you are on a hard surface with a hard floor or else wear an antistatic wrist strap to avoid damaging sensitive parts such as ram...also dont forget to install all of the drivers....have fun and good luck!!!!

 

[Dim]

Not sure about the ATA cable. Looks like it is for 3 devices. I don't think this will work as you might expect. Your HD and DVD player should be one one IDE channel with a cable, and the CDRW should be master on the other channel, with a separate cable. Be sure you set the master and slave jumpers on the drives correctly.

Looks like a nice system, though.

 

[ku]

looks nice. you may want to stay away from IBM hard drives. They have high fail rates. Other than that, everything looks pretty sweet.

 

[loserbutt]

yea, i was wondering about that. do teh cd/dvd rom drives come with their own cables or do you have to supply them? hmm, also, i was wondering about the HD, is the cable ok? and i didnt buy a mounting bracket, will I need to get one?

 

[Dim]

Your case should have a place to mount the hard drive without the need for brackets. In my experience brackets are only needed if you want to mount the HD in a 5.25" drive bay, or if you have an ungodly number of drives and have used up all your 3.5" bays.

If your other drives are retail, the cables are probably included, but if they are OEM, don't expect to get a cable with them.

Don't worry about the IBM drive comment. I believe the troubles were with the 75GXP models, not the 60GXP.

 

[Kitros]

maybe a bigger monitor, you'll be getting one later, trust me.

 

[loserbutt]

yea, im not completely satisfyed with the monitor but then again i am in a dorm where space is at a premium,

i do plan on getting an lcd when prices come down to maybe 300-400 for a planar-level 17incher

 

[Raincity]

Your missing a OS.

Rain

 

[bigshooter]

You can save a few dollars and get free shipping on the ram from crucial. Use the anandtech crucial deal to save 15%. I would also recommend the D740x with fluid bearings from Newegg. I only found the 40gig with fluid bearings, but it's only $90. The XP 1600 and 1700 are also better bang for the buck than the 1800 as well. The 1600 is only $118 plus newegg is out of the 1800 . If you aren't going to overclock, I recommend getting a retail processor. It comes with a quiet cpu fan, plus it has a 3year warranty.