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Buying a new PC -- Motherboard recommendations (and several other technical questions)

S

sctakeshi

Member
I am buying my first personal desktop computer (for years I have solely used a laptop), or a computer my family owned.

I am buying it from iBuyPower.

The current configuration is:
[*](motherboard undetermined, but current selection is an MSI 865PE Neo-2)
[*]Raidmax A286 mid-tower case (has 4x 5.25", 2x ext. 3.5", 4x int. 3.5")
[*]Pentium IV HT @ 2.6GHz
[*]1024MB PC3200 DDR
[*]Western Digital 200GB UATA-100 HDD -- primary
[*]Maxtor 250GB UATA-133 HDD -- secondary
[*]ATI Radeon 9200 128MB 8xAGP
[*]Sony 16x DVD-ROM
[*] (a Plextor PX-708A 8x DVD+R / 4x DVD-R drive I am adding myself from another system)
[*] Onboard sound, generic speakers
[*] XP Professional, Norton 2003
[*] Blue cold-cathode lights
[*] Thermal display / fan control
[*] 4x USB2.0, 3x 1394
[*] round cables; generic mouse and keyboard
$1293 + tax/shipping

I have a few questions:

First -- does anyone have motherboard suggestions? Please look at the list of available motherboards from iBuyPower. Note that I am on a budget so I don't really want to add another $100 to the price for a mobo.

*How about S-ATA? iBuyPower, when you click the question mark next to the list of mobos, says the MSI mobo I selected above does not support SATA. According to MSI, it does. Who is right here? I'd presume MSI, but since iBuyPower doesn't give the *complete* model number of the mobo (it doesn't specify the letter suffix after "Neo-2"), I am not totally sure. I'd like to have SATA support if possible just for future expandability.

Second -- if a mobo has 2 IDE connectors, that means 4 devices can be connected, right? And that includes both the optical drives and the hard drives, right? So if I have 2 HDDs, a DVD-ROM, and a DVD+-RW, then I am all out of connectors, right? If I then wanted to add a third HDD (and, for the sake of argument, it wasn't a SATA one, but just a regular ATA one), how would I go about doing that? Do I add a PCI card like this one? By the way, can you boot off of drives on a PCI controller?

Third -- anyone happen to know about the cold-cathode lights iBuyPower offers? They say they are sound-activated... can I turn off the sound-activation? I'd think it would be annoying to have them react to sound unless I was actually playing music or a game at the time. Is there some kind of switch? And I presume you can turn them off without turning off the whole computer, right?

Fourth -- Just a question for future expansion: drives in a RAID array can coexist with drives not in a RAID array, right? So I could have four HDDs, have 2 of them be in RAID-1 (obviously I would have to buy a RAID controller), and 2 of them be regular drives?

Fifth -- if you have any other comments, feel free!

Sorry if my questions are stupid =P
 
sctakeshi, a couple of comments.

First, what are you going to be doing w/ this system? If gaming comes into the picture that 9200 card will come up short.

Second, if you're concerned about additional IDE channels, look at the Asus P4P800Deluxe. It has a Via RAID controller that will give you two additional channels (two drives per channel) for hard drives. FWIW running your boot drive off this controller will improve HD performance, compared to the onboard IDE. If you go this route just make sure it's the Deluxe model, as there are a number of P4P800 models. Also, P4P800Deluxe has onboard SATA.
 
Well, I am not a big PC gamer mainly because I am not a big fan of the online-FPS genre. For that reason I am more of a console gamer. But I played Deus Ex, FreeSpace 2, Warcraft III, Morrowind... so if a (PC-exclusive) game comes out that happens to pique my interest I'll want to play it. So gaming is not a primary concern but I'm sure every so often I'll want to do it.

Still, though, even knowing this, I have been encouraged to upgrade the video card if only so that the 9200 wouldn't be so "out of place" in a system of much better components. Would you agree? If so, if the 9600XT a good choice? I am already over my original budget of $1150, but I guess if need be I can add another $100 for the 9600XT (and save $50 by dropping the 250GB second HDD to 200GB, bringing me to about $1360).

As for the second comment, that motherboard sounds great (and is not too expensive, either -- iBuyPower offers the Deluxe version, it seems, so I'll definitely get that) -- question, though: if I move my HDDs over to the VIA RAID controller, do they have to be put in RAID? You said I'd get a speed boost, but I am not yet ready to do RAID -- though down the line I would like to get matching drives and RAID-1 my boot drive. So my question is if I can connect the drives to the RAID controller without actually putting them in RAID for the time being.

Much thanks. 🙂
 
If you don't plan on doing any overclocking at all the MSI board is fine. But why not just build you're own, $1.3k for a 2.6C with a Radeon 9200 is IMO overpriced. With Radeon 9800 Pro's in the $220 range, you can easily afford one into your rig with $1.3k. Assembling the components is very easy and everyone on the forum can help you pick the parts that will fit your needs. If you really have to get a prebuilt machine I would get a barebones rig for www.mwave.com, all you have to do is install hd/cd-drives and the O/S and you pay only a $30-$50 premium.
 
Actually, I added all the components to my cart at newegg.com and it was only about $70 cheaper to buy all the parts and build it myself than just have iBuyPower build it. The time I save, not having to go through the hassles and frustrations of hitting a roadblock, and the stress-testing iBuyPower does (plus the three-year centralized warranty) seems worth $70. If the difference was several hundred dollars I'm sure I would be more willing to build it myself.

Also, I have another question:

[*]What about cooling? Is it worthwhile to add 2 case fans for $20? (I believe all the system would come with otherwise is a single CPU fan) How much noise do they produce?
 
If you do any gaming that 9200 will make you regret it. I would definatley suggest going for the 9600 XT or Pro, those are good cards. And for the MB i would say go Asus.
 
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