OK so here's my sad story. I decide that it was time for a new computer and empowered myself to build it on my own. I mean how hard could it be? I've built my own car and everything on a computer is color coded. Well I found out how mind numbing it could be. What once was a learning process, as well as the simple enjoyment of doing it yourself, turned to a nightmare. I have purchased everything I need except the Motherboard, CPU, and Ram. here's what I have so far:
AOpen Case with 250W power supply ( I may need a larger PS)
(2) maxtor 80 GB HDs (one 5400 RPM one 7200 rpm)
32x Cendyne Burner
12x DVD-Rom
Standard Sony Floppy
A Wingate? 56K modem (I don't really need a modem because I have DSL but I wanted one anyway for faxes)
A Belkin 10/100 NIC
So I need a motherboard and I found out there are about 100,000 choices in this area. I am in desperate need of some help in picking the board. I kinda have my heart set on the P4 1.6A GHz chip so if we could let's work with this chip in mind. Here is what I would like from the board:
Between 2-4 USB 2.0 ports on the back I/O board and have the ability to attach 2 more through a front 3.5" mounted I/o board with 2 USB ports, Line in and out audio, and a fire wire connection. Fire wire is not crucial it just comes on the I/o board I purchased.
DDR Ram
6 PCI slots and a 4x AGP slot
On board sound and video is a plus as long as I can disable it at a future time so I can add my own sound and video card.
Capable of at least 4 IDE devices. 2 CDrom- 2 HDD
And either MicroATX or preferably ATX form.
I hear that the Intel 845G is a good chipset but once again I really don't know much about this stuff. Also, if I could so indulge the group, I also have a few other questions.
A lot of the MOBOs I see have a different I/O panel that my case. Are I/O Panels on the back of cases interchangeable so I can use the one that comes with the board?
Is there anything special I need to be able to hook up the front I/O board?
When a board has a 533Mhz FSB does the chip also have to have the same FSB? The P4 I am going to buy has a 400MHz FSB. Is this something I should look out for?
I am sure that there is more I need to, or want to, know but I can't think of it right now. Thanks for reading this and helping out!
Tom
AOpen Case with 250W power supply ( I may need a larger PS)
(2) maxtor 80 GB HDs (one 5400 RPM one 7200 rpm)
32x Cendyne Burner
12x DVD-Rom
Standard Sony Floppy
A Wingate? 56K modem (I don't really need a modem because I have DSL but I wanted one anyway for faxes)
A Belkin 10/100 NIC
So I need a motherboard and I found out there are about 100,000 choices in this area. I am in desperate need of some help in picking the board. I kinda have my heart set on the P4 1.6A GHz chip so if we could let's work with this chip in mind. Here is what I would like from the board:
Between 2-4 USB 2.0 ports on the back I/O board and have the ability to attach 2 more through a front 3.5" mounted I/o board with 2 USB ports, Line in and out audio, and a fire wire connection. Fire wire is not crucial it just comes on the I/o board I purchased.
DDR Ram
6 PCI slots and a 4x AGP slot
On board sound and video is a plus as long as I can disable it at a future time so I can add my own sound and video card.
Capable of at least 4 IDE devices. 2 CDrom- 2 HDD
And either MicroATX or preferably ATX form.
I hear that the Intel 845G is a good chipset but once again I really don't know much about this stuff. Also, if I could so indulge the group, I also have a few other questions.
A lot of the MOBOs I see have a different I/O panel that my case. Are I/O Panels on the back of cases interchangeable so I can use the one that comes with the board?
Is there anything special I need to be able to hook up the front I/O board?
When a board has a 533Mhz FSB does the chip also have to have the same FSB? The P4 I am going to buy has a 400MHz FSB. Is this something I should look out for?
I am sure that there is more I need to, or want to, know but I can't think of it right now. Thanks for reading this and helping out!
Tom
