Help a Veteran PC builder

[ikickpigeons]

So I?m going to be building my second and third rig now. One gaming rig for myself and one business computer for my Dad.

My questions are:

1) My current hard drive has my OS, all of my programs, tweaks, and settings, how can I transfer all of that to my new hard drive? I just don?t want to go through the trouble of doing all of that over again. Would this be called cloning? Or is what I just described impossible?

2) What are the benefits of raid?

3) Should I buy an LCD monitor for my gaming rig?

4) If so, what about a widescreen LCD?

5) How do LCD?s compare to CRT?s in terms of gaming and generally

6) How can I make my rigs quieter and cooler?

7) Will upgrading my fans make a difference? My case is the Thermaltake Tsunami Dream with 2 120mm fans and 1 80mm fan.

8) If I want to overclock my gaming rig what do I need to do. [ie.] PSU, fans, thermalpaste, mobo

9) Can you guys steer me to some good sites/tutorials/FAQ?s for beginner overclockers?

10) Will 2 gigs of ram be more than plenty? Or should I get 4?

11) And lastly what are some good cheap cases? Not for overclocking or serious computer use.

Thanks in advance for the replies.

 

[Powermoloch]

1) It is best to make a back up on your most important files (music, txt, docs...etc). And start fresh

2) I'm not sure about raid..not familiar. (no comment )


3) Well it depends, if you're happy with your current monitor (I supposed you have a CRT). But it doesn't hurt to try one

4) Widescreens are best for eyes, especially in the FOV on FPS games. They are great on watching movies too

5) LCDs are great especially if you're on a lan party, enough to carry it around with you. In CRT not many good quality brands are out today, especially the high resolution types. The Plus side of CRTS that they give a very sharp image a big plus on digital art.

6) You can make rigs quieter and cooler depending on the brands your planning on buying. 3rd party cooling is a good choice to keep your system cool, and reputable case manufacturers = no flimsy chassis

- It is equally as important to keep your wiring nice and tidy, so there will be no obstruction to airflow, hence a cooler system B)

7) No not really, just make sure you have adequate air flow

8) If you're going to overclock, make sure your system is reliable, especially your PSU. It is imperative that the RIG is powered properly or problem arises.
- Have proper cooling too

9) Check the CPU/Processors forums, zebo made a great guide on Overclocking.


10) 2 gigs is enough for today, 4 is too much..unless you're doing some multimedia stuff

11) Cooler Master Centurion 5 is a sweet case ( I own one too)

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It is best to just buy a readily pre built pc for your dad...saving time and cash.

Just an opinion....

just check out www.gotapex.com

there'll be some good dell deals on SMB

 

[cmdrdredd]

Originally posted by: ikickpigeons
So I?m going to be building my second and third rig now. One gaming rig for myself and one business computer for my Dad.

My questions are:

1) My current hard drive has my OS, all of my programs, tweaks, and settings, how can I transfer all of that to my new hard drive? I just don?t want to go through the trouble of doing all of that over again. Would this be called cloning? Or is what I just described impossible?

2) What are the benefits of raid?

3) Should I buy an LCD monitor for my gaming rig?

4) If so, what about a widescreen LCD?

5) How do LCD?s compare to CRT?s in terms of gaming and generally

6) How can I make my rigs quieter and cooler?

7) Will upgrading my fans make a difference? My case is the Thermaltake Tsunami Dream with 2 120mm fans and 1 80mm fan.

8) If I want to overclock my gaming rig what do I need to do. [ie.] PSU, fans, thermalpaste, mobo

9) Can you guys steer me to some good sites/tutorials/FAQ?s for beginner overclockers?

10) Will 2 gigs of ram be more than plenty? Or should I get 4?

11) And lastly what are some good cheap cases? Not for overclocking or serious computer use.

Thanks in advance for the replies.

1) You an use the built in windows files and settings transfer wizard to do that. Or use Norton Ghost to make an image and transfer it with the MBR intact.
2) RAID gives much faster access times to the drives.You can also setup a cloned drive to make a 1:1 backup of everything you save on the drive.
3) LCD generally gives a better contrast and brightness ratio vs CRT, but colors are better on a CRT and all but the best (i.e most expensive) LCDs will have ghosting problems. Some people notice it, some people don't.
4) I'm not sure about widescreen LCDs but you need to use different resolutions than the standard.
5) see #3
6) Quiet doesn't always mean cooler. As you reduce the fan speed you will hear less noise but there is less airflow. Usually to reduce the noise without sacrificing cooling you need one of 2 things. First you can get a better heatsink on your cpu and run a slower fan speed or go to watercooling. Water is more expensive, but with the added benefit of you being able to watercool your GPU as well which is usually the loudest part of any computer.
7) Getting better and quieter fans always helps depending on whether you want better cooling or less noise.
8) For overclocking you need a good case with sufficient airflow, a good HSF on your CPU, a good motherboard capable of good overclocking, good memory, a strong PSU (I don't mean wattage) that has solid power on the rails such as PC Power & Cooling, Sparkle, Enermax, Seasonic, OCZ. You should also get some Arctic Silver thermal material which is really cheap. It's always better than the thermal paste supplied with most HSFs you buy.
9) http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=28&threadid=1497607&enterthread=y has info for overclocking AMD CPUs.
10) 2GB is plenty of memory for most applications. Unless you work with high resolution video or photoshop.
11) Good and cheap generally don't fall together in the same category here. It depends on what you consider cheap also.

 

[Bozo Galora]

Why is the sky blue?

What is the Meaning Of Life?

Are we alone in the Universe?

Is There A God?

Are Britney Spears Breasts Beginning To Sag??

 

[StevenNevets]

Originally posted by: Bozo Galora
Why is the sky blue?

What is the Meaning Of Life?

Are we alone in the Universe?

Is There A God?

Are Britney Spears Breasts Beginning To Sag??

Because of the ocean

No

No

Yes
___
____

ugghhh

 

[Lonyo]

1) My current hard drive has my OS, all of my programs, tweaks, and settings, how can I transfer all of that to my new hard drive? I just don?t want to go through the trouble of doing all of that over again. Would this be called cloning? Or is what I just described impossible?

It's better to start fresh, cloning the OS is pretty much impossible since components, and therefore required drivers change from system to system.
Windows does have a File and Settings transfer wizard though (XP), which can help.
You could also put together your new machine, hook up your current hard drive, and copy the files across.


2) What are the benefits of raid?

RAID-0, speed slightly increased, but mostly not really worth it for general use. RAID-1, data backup, so if a HD fails you don't lose all your stuff. Other RAID isn't really that useful for home users. If you go RAID at all, then RAID1 is probably best if you want to have a HDD backup of everything, but if you back up another way regularly anyway it doesn't really matter. RAID-0 isn't particularly helpful.


3) Should I buy an LCD monitor for my gaming rig?

If you want, then yes. But one of the best things to do would be to go to a B&M store and actually look at monitors yourself and see if you think they qould suit you. I have some cheap 17" LCD's and I use them for gaming without any problems.


4) If so, what about a widescreen LCD?

Again, have a look and see if you think widescreen would suit you. For TV's it's definately nice, haven't tried it on a PC myself, but I think dual monitors is good, and would probably go for duals > single widescreen.


5) How do LCD?s compare to CRT?s in terms of gaming and generally

IMO LCD's are fine for gaming/other use, but obviously other people will have differing opinions. Again, it's a wise idea to go to a local shop and look at LCD's so you can get an idea of what they will be like


6) How can I make my rigs quieter and cooler?

Good airflow, good fans, efficient components, possibly water cooling. Making sure you have good airflow will keep things cool, and low noise fans (of which there are many choices) will obviously be quieter than other fans.
You will probably want to look into aftermarket cooling for your CPU and gfx card, as the stock coolers that come with are going to be noisier than things you can buy for some extra $$$.


7) Will upgrading my fans make a difference? My case is the Thermaltake Tsunami Dream with 2 120mm fans and 1 80mm fan.

Depends on what kind of noise level your current fans have, if they are rated for low noise, then it might not make much difference.
One option you might want to look into is fan controllers so you can alter the voltage (and therefore speed and noise) of your fans. example


8) If I want to overclock my gaming rig what do I need to do. [ie.] PSU, fans, thermalpaste, mobo
Arctic Silver thermal paste, a new heatsink/fan usit (check the cases/cooling forum), make sure you have good cooling with airflow/fans in your case, and check the CPU/Overclocking forum for mobo advice. You will need decent cooling and a good mobo for overclocking.


9) Can you guys steer me to some good sites/tutorials/FAQ?s for beginner overclockers?
Check the CPU/Overclocking forum of this website, they can answer most questions.


10) Will 2 gigs of ram be more than plenty? Or should I get 4?
2GB is more than enough (get 2x1GB for now), 4GB for general use (gaming etc) is overkill, but if you go for 2GB now with 2 sticks, your mobo will probably be able to accept another 2GB for a 4GB total later on if you feel the need.


11) And lastly what are some good cheap cases? Not for overclocking or serious computer use.
Err, pass.

 

[ikickpigeons]

Thanks guys a lot for the help. Looks like i have plenty to research about overclocking and cooling.

 

[Shadow Conception]

Originally posted by: StevenNevets

Originally posted by: Bozo Galora
Why is the sky blue?

What is the Meaning Of Life?

Are we alone in the Universe?

Is There A God?

Are Britney Spears Breasts Beginning To Sag??

Because of the ocean

No

No

Yes
___
____

ugghhh

No. It's because of particles in the air which absorb light on the blue side of the spectrum. The ocean has little impact on the color of the sky.

 

[Zepper]

Veteran builder??? Hmmm...

.bh.