I would wait for Venice regardless. And I would not blow the whole amount on the processor. Get the 3200+ like you planned and save the rest for a new video card or other upgrade in the future.
I would wait for Venice regardless. And I would not blow the whole amount on the processor. Get the 3200+ like you planned and save the rest for a new video card or other upgrade in the future.
I was also thinking. If the 430W Seasonic PSU and/or 2x512MB TwinMOS RAM don't live up to expectations, I may just opt to return them or to sell them to other people. If everything is really stable and powerful, then I'll consider leaving it all as it is. Though, if worst comes to worse, I'll just jump on some OCZ RAM or the like. This computer is for gaming, I'm going to keep modifying it 'til everything is just right.
Edit: Also, what does 2.5 CAS Latency mean?
Edit 2: After careful consideration, I think I will be overclocking the CPU for my comp. Will the 430W PSU I have be enough? What will I need to do to stabilize it? Any good programs for overclocking purposes? How long can I expect a processor to last with a little bit of tweaking? If it goes kapput, will it damage any of my other components? Will there be any specific performance differences by overclocking?
Edit: Also, what does 2.5 CAS Latency mean?
Edit 2: After careful consideration, I think I will be overclocking the CPU for my comp. Will the 430W PSU I have be enough? What will I need to do to stabilize it? Any good programs for overclocking purposes? How long can I expect a processor to last with a little bit of tweaking? If it goes kapput, will it damage any of my other components? Will there be any specific performance differences by overclocking?
CAS Latency has to do with the speed at which memory data gets in and out of the memory chips, if you want a more thourough explanation try this wikipedia article -> here. Anandtech also did an article on RAM technology -> here.
The 430W should theoretically be O.K. as long as you are not doing major overclocking. If you get into watercooling and/or phase change cooling then you will want to get something a lot beefier. Most overclocking is done in the BIOS of the motherboard, the exact how-tos I am not sure as I don't do it myself and there are a few things to know about A64 processors before preceding. Namely the HT bus and running memory at certain frequencies to up the speed, all at the same time maintaining good voltage to the CPU and RAM (but not too much or you will fry them). If you push it too hard it has the potential to harm other components, but the liklihood is slim. And yes, performance increases as you get more of an overclock out of your processor. The higher you go, though, you may begin to see diminishing returns so find a good sweet spot and don't take it too high. And since this is your first build, take it slow.
I recommend this forum for overclocking questions -> here.
The 430W should theoretically be O.K. as long as you are not doing major overclocking. If you get into watercooling and/or phase change cooling then you will want to get something a lot beefier. Most overclocking is done in the BIOS of the motherboard, the exact how-tos I am not sure as I don't do it myself and there are a few things to know about A64 processors before preceding. Namely the HT bus and running memory at certain frequencies to up the speed, all at the same time maintaining good voltage to the CPU and RAM (but not too much or you will fry them). If you push it too hard it has the potential to harm other components, but the liklihood is slim. And yes, performance increases as you get more of an overclock out of your processor. The higher you go, though, you may begin to see diminishing returns so find a good sweet spot and don't take it too high. And since this is your first build, take it slow.
I recommend this forum for overclocking questions -> here.
Alright, I've got broadband, or more specifically a cable modem. I have both the modem itself and a Linksys Cable/DSL Router. Is there anything I need besides those to hook my PC up to the internet?
Woo!!!! I have my DFI Motherboard, TwinMOS RAM, Audigy 2ZS Gamer LE Sound Card, Seasonic 430W PSU, 16x DVD/CD Burner Drive, 250GB Maxtor Harddrive, and Floppy disk drive. I am well on my way to building my computer! W00t to me. Now I just need the case, card, and core, which will be out around 2056! I just hope the CPU comes out soon, or I'm gonna get restless and get a 3200+ Winchester...and have it shipped quick!
Also forgot to ask. The router and the modem will be connected to 2 computers, mine and my parents. I won't need anything else with these things? We both want internet access and the like, I just hope I can get online!
Also forgot to ask. The router and the modem will be connected to 2 computers, mine and my parents. I won't need anything else with these things? We both want internet access and the like, I just hope I can get online!
As long as you can get a network cable to each computer from the router you will be fine. If it is wireless, depending upon environmental conditions, you could theoretically have the computers anywhere in the house and have an Internet connection. But if your house is already wired with Cat5e/6 then it may be better/more reliable to go that route. WindowsXP is really good about networks, most of the time it is plug and play (maybe a little configuration on the router, but nothing you could not follow in the manual).
BTW: Congrats, and I would still wait a week or two for the Venice, you will be kicking yourself if you bought the Winchester and had the Venice pop up sooner than you thought it would.
BTW: Congrats, and I would still wait a week or two for the Venice, you will be kicking yourself if you bought the Winchester and had the Venice pop up sooner than you thought it would.
Ah, the case and card have arrived. The 3200+ Venice has been seen on some sites and the *ahem* official ship date is the 18th. I was wondering if there are any precautions that I could possibly take while building my system, any extra equipment I should buy or acquire that would make this easier? I was looking for an anti-static wrist strap, but have been unable to find one. Also, should I do anything extra with the boxes that my equipment comes in? Should I take pictures of them in case something happens or the like? Can I start building my computer without the CPU or is there something wrong with doing that? I'm in the final stretch and I'm so very close to building it, just a few more tips...
Wrist strap - not necessary but good to have (found at CompUSA).
I would setup a working area such as the garage on a large table away from static sources such as carpet. You may get by not doing this but it is better to be on the safe side.
I would at least write down the serial numbers on everything, get pictures even (especially on the CPU as you probably don't want to have to remove the hs/fan after the fact).
And yes you can build everything and have it ready for when you get the CPU and then just plop the processor in and you are ready to go.
I would setup a working area such as the garage on a large table away from static sources such as carpet. You may get by not doing this but it is better to be on the safe side.
I would at least write down the serial numbers on everything, get pictures even (especially on the CPU as you probably don't want to have to remove the hs/fan after the fact).
And yes you can build everything and have it ready for when you get the CPU and then just plop the processor in and you are ready to go.
Alright, I've been doing my best to piece everything together, the only problem is that, while everything is installed, I have so many wires I'm overwhelmed, I'm just looking for the right wire or connection to plug it in. This is confusing to me on a whole new level. I've got a lot of wires such as HDD Led or a lot of Power Cables and the like, Just trying to find where each wire fits is a *****. Without the CPU it's kinda hard to test if everything is up and running correctly. Is it okay to turn on the computer and see if some of the stuff comes on? I could get a whole lot of pictures and put them on imageshack for you guys to check out and maybe help me. What do you guys think?
Pictures would help. As for the case wires (HD LED, POWER LED, Power Switch, etc.) you need to consult the manual of your motherboard, they will tell you where to put them.
I think everything is plugged in correctly, I have no CPU, but can I turn it on or is that a big no-no? I just want to see if the stuff works.
I wouldn't turn it on just yet. It won't boot, you probably will not get anything to show up on screen (maybe some beeps from the motherboard speaker), and I can't see it being good for the hardware. If you have access to a digital camera maybe you could upload some pictures so we can help you to make sure you have everything setup correctly.
Pics:
http://img237.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img237&image=dscn04834xe.jpg
http://img237.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img237&image=dscn04828lu.jpg
http://img237.echo.cx/my.php?image=dscn04840xs.jpg
http://img237.echo.cx/my.php?image=dscn04860ly.jpg
Hope these look okay. Once I have my CPU in, I'll fix the wiring job.
I was also wondering, since I'm not going to be overclocking like a madman, should I opt for the 3200+ Winchester? I'll do just a little bit of overclocking and such and that's about it...
http://img237.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img237&image=dscn04834xe.jpg
http://img237.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img237&image=dscn04828lu.jpg
http://img237.echo.cx/my.php?image=dscn04840xs.jpg
http://img237.echo.cx/my.php?image=dscn04860ly.jpg
Hope these look okay. Once I have my CPU in, I'll fix the wiring job.
I was also wondering, since I'm not going to be overclocking like a madman, should I opt for the 3200+ Winchester? I'll do just a little bit of overclocking and such and that's about it...
From what I can tell things are looking good. I did a little researching and apparently the 8-pin power connector that you have there is for dual processor systems, I did not know this. Anyways, looking good and I would still wait for the Venice, supposedly ETA of 4/18, so not too much longer (I know how hard it is to wait 
).
).Alright, I couldn't wait, seeing that there is no definite release date and that a lot of other people weren't putting up with it, I went and got a 3200+ Winchester from Newegg.com. The Venice just doesn't hold my attention or warrant the purchase. I've been patient with getting my computer for a very long time, I can be impatient if I want to now. BTW: If you don't believe me, I just placed the order under express overnight delivery for a good $20.
I also did some rewiring of the insides of my computer and found that a pair of the wires I had used for the floppy drive and the DVD Burner were not the proper wires, so I switched them and everything will(hopefully) be all well and good. Right now, I have a somewhat excess of funds, since my birthday is tomorrow and a good paycheck is coming up in a little bit.
I hope that everything runs really well in my computer and that everything will look kick-a** and run silky smooth! What do you think Battlefield 2 would look like on my computer? That game looks truly incredible.
Don't think this is the last you've seen of me, I'm probably gonna be a permanent fixture in these forums, kinda like a lamp except much less useful or bright. Oh and thanks for all the help ohnnyj. You were definitely a MAJOR help. BTW: Are you on any online games? Maybe we could meet up in the virtual world and have a duel or something?
I also did some rewiring of the insides of my computer and found that a pair of the wires I had used for the floppy drive and the DVD Burner were not the proper wires, so I switched them and everything will(hopefully) be all well and good. Right now, I have a somewhat excess of funds, since my birthday is tomorrow and a good paycheck is coming up in a little bit.
I hope that everything runs really well in my computer and that everything will look kick-a** and run silky smooth! What do you think Battlefield 2 would look like on my computer? That game looks truly incredible.
Don't think this is the last you've seen of me, I'm probably gonna be a permanent fixture in these forums, kinda like a lamp except much less useful or bright. Oh and thanks for all the help ohnnyj. You were definitely a MAJOR help. BTW: Are you on any online games? Maybe we could meet up in the virtual world and have a duel or something?
Glad I could help, and if you have further questions please don't hesitate to ask. And once you are here for a bit and get some more experience with your computer you will be able to help others out. Not everyone can or wants to build a computer, so I applaud that you went ahead and did so. You gain a lot of knowledge and it is fun to boot. With the computer you have you should be able to play most games at very high settings with silky smooth framerates. Did you need some guidance on installing Windows and such? If so, here are some basic first steps once you have the CPU in place. If it starts up and everything is detected and seems to be running ok, then your good to go as far as installing the OS, but if you experience issues such as no video or beep codes then you will have to begin troubleshooting, and we can help you out there. But let's say that you get it to boot up and everything is good to go then:
1. If you have more than one hard drive, unplug all but the one you are going to use as your boot drive. Trust me you want to do this as Windows sometimes likes to install critical files on a different drive if you have multiple ones available (usually this is not a good idea).
2. Go into the BIOS and set it to its factory defaults just to be on the safe side (you can always tinker around once you have Windows installed) and set the CD ROM to be the first boot device. This will allow the computer to boot from the Windows CD. Save Settings and Exit.
3. Insert the WindowsXP CD and it should ask you to hit any key to boot from it, do so.
a. Sometimes Windows need SATA drivers to install on an SATA hard drive but I have not experienced this and you probably will not either. However, in case you do you will need to get these drivers off the CD that came w/your motherboard and onto a floppy diskette (the mobo manual should explain this and where to find the drivers). Then during the next step (the blue screen) immediately hit F6 (you will see a prompt on the bottom to do so) and in the middle of installing its various drivers it will ask you for the diskette. Insert it and load up the drivers (there may be multiple drivers on the floppy and you will need to load them all).
4. A blue screen (don't worry not the bad kind) will come up while drivers are loading (as seen on the bottom of the screen). Once done the Setup will begin.
5. After a few screens you should get to the point of partitioning and formatting your hard drive(s). I see that you have one Maxtor and it should show up as Unpartitioned Space. Just click on that item to select it and the Setup will automatically create the largest partition available for the drive.
6. Setup will now ask you how you would like to format the partition you just created, I recommend you go with the long format NTFS at least for this first time as it will also check the hard drive for errors (just in case you got a bad drive).
7. Once done let setup finish.
Once Windows is installed you will want to begin installing drivers for the things that Windows did not automatically detect. You can find out what was not found by right-clicking My Computer and selecting the Hardware tab then Device Manager. Anything that shows up w/a yellow exclamation mark needs a driver. These usually will be things like your Audigy card and video card. You actually may want to first install the latest nForce 4 standalone chipset drivers you can find them - > here before you install any other driver. Then proceed with the Audigy drivers that came with the card or even check their website if there is a newer version, and then the nVidia graphics drivers, the latest version - > here.
Also do not forget to purchase some sort of antivirus program, I recommend Trend Micro as you get much more than just antivirus (firewall, etc.) - > here. And keep that box up to date with the latest Microsoft patches by keeping Automatic Updates turned on.
One thing I forgot to ask is what version of WinXP are you installing? Home or Pro? SP1a? SP2? The reason I ask is that since you have a 250GB hard drive WinXP original (no service packs) has a 137GB partition limit. You should be fine if you have an SP1a or SP2 CD. If not you will either have to create a slipstreamed CD with SP2 on it or install with the 137GB limit, apply the service pack after install and use a third party tool such as Partition Magic to increase the size (you may be able to use Disk Management if you have Pro but I am not sure about this). Here is a link to a thread about this very topic in case you need the information -> click me.
Oh, and BTW I usually can be found playing Half Life 2 Deathmatch so if you happen to come by say hi. And sorry if you already know all the above. But if you have some questions about it; need more clarity just let me know and I will do my best to help.
1. If you have more than one hard drive, unplug all but the one you are going to use as your boot drive. Trust me you want to do this as Windows sometimes likes to install critical files on a different drive if you have multiple ones available (usually this is not a good idea).
2. Go into the BIOS and set it to its factory defaults just to be on the safe side (you can always tinker around once you have Windows installed) and set the CD ROM to be the first boot device. This will allow the computer to boot from the Windows CD. Save Settings and Exit.
3. Insert the WindowsXP CD and it should ask you to hit any key to boot from it, do so.
a. Sometimes Windows need SATA drivers to install on an SATA hard drive but I have not experienced this and you probably will not either. However, in case you do you will need to get these drivers off the CD that came w/your motherboard and onto a floppy diskette (the mobo manual should explain this and where to find the drivers). Then during the next step (the blue screen) immediately hit F6 (you will see a prompt on the bottom to do so) and in the middle of installing its various drivers it will ask you for the diskette. Insert it and load up the drivers (there may be multiple drivers on the floppy and you will need to load them all).
4. A blue screen (don't worry not the bad kind) will come up while drivers are loading (as seen on the bottom of the screen). Once done the Setup will begin.
5. After a few screens you should get to the point of partitioning and formatting your hard drive(s). I see that you have one Maxtor and it should show up as Unpartitioned Space. Just click on that item to select it and the Setup will automatically create the largest partition available for the drive.
6. Setup will now ask you how you would like to format the partition you just created, I recommend you go with the long format NTFS at least for this first time as it will also check the hard drive for errors (just in case you got a bad drive).
7. Once done let setup finish.
Once Windows is installed you will want to begin installing drivers for the things that Windows did not automatically detect. You can find out what was not found by right-clicking My Computer and selecting the Hardware tab then Device Manager. Anything that shows up w/a yellow exclamation mark needs a driver. These usually will be things like your Audigy card and video card. You actually may want to first install the latest nForce 4 standalone chipset drivers you can find them - > here before you install any other driver. Then proceed with the Audigy drivers that came with the card or even check their website if there is a newer version, and then the nVidia graphics drivers, the latest version - > here.
Also do not forget to purchase some sort of antivirus program, I recommend Trend Micro as you get much more than just antivirus (firewall, etc.) - > here. And keep that box up to date with the latest Microsoft patches by keeping Automatic Updates turned on.
One thing I forgot to ask is what version of WinXP are you installing? Home or Pro? SP1a? SP2? The reason I ask is that since you have a 250GB hard drive WinXP original (no service packs) has a 137GB partition limit. You should be fine if you have an SP1a or SP2 CD. If not you will either have to create a slipstreamed CD with SP2 on it or install with the 137GB limit, apply the service pack after install and use a third party tool such as Partition Magic to increase the size (you may be able to use Disk Management if you have Pro but I am not sure about this). Here is a link to a thread about this very topic in case you need the information -> click me.
Oh, and BTW I usually can be found playing Half Life 2 Deathmatch so if you happen to come by say hi
. And sorry if you already know all the above. But if you have some questions about it; need more clarity just let me know and I will do my best to help.TRENDING THREADS
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