My new system, anytips for a newbie builder????

[Kerouactivist]

Finally,here is my the system I'm ordering tommorrow hopefully if newegg gets the epox in stock.

This is going to be my first build,I've never set jumpers or anything like that and I am quite nervous, how difficult is it??? Is their anything else that I need for this system that I have not included. Any recomendations or help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks.

EPOX EP-8K7A+ $141.00
AUDIO CABLE, $2.00
ATI Radeon 64MB DDR $153.00
AMD Athlon Thunderbird 1.33GHz 266MHz $124.00
MITSUMI Floppy Drive 1.44MB $9.00
IBM 40GB 7200RPM #IC35L040AVER07 $105.00
Pioneer 16X DVD Model 106S, $60.00
Creative Lab sound blaster XGAMER 5.1 $84.00
Arctic Silver's Premium Silver Thermal Compound, Thermal Paste : Arctic Silver II. $6.00
Crucial DDR Ram 45.00
Also a antec SX1040 from ems for $130 shipped
and (probably) Taisol Model CGK747092 with a 6800rpm GlobalWin heatsink.

Grandtotal:$917.00 shipped, I don't think that is bad at all

I am so glad I found this board, If not I woul have probably ended up with a crappy (comparably speaking) P3 with hardly anything from dell for the same price.

Once again, I must say that I am leery about putting this system together myself.
but i think that as long as i don't do anything stupid, and follow the instructions I should be ok.
Anytips for this newbie???
thanks all

 

[DanJ]

Whatcha gonna look at? (Monitor)

System building isn't that bad. You'll run into some problems most likely, we all do, but they can be worked through. You'll enjoy the system much more at the end.

Good luck.

 

[Kerouactivist]

Oh sorry I got a ev700 17inch, (i guess i'll stick with it for now) from my old system a gateway 350P2
also I putting my iomega CDR-rw 12x10x32, and iomega(maybe) 100zip from the old P2

 

[Kerouactivist]

i keep forgetting things,
os: i have both ME and 98 I still haven't decided (ME doesn't have a boot disk WTF,Is thatnormal for ME, My 98 has a boot disk?)
and Microsoft office SBE

 

[Kerouactivist]

bump

 

[Kerouactivist]

Bumpity bump bump

 

[VBboy]

Why does every "newbie" have to list 20 pages of hardware with detailed specs.. Can't they just say something like
Tbird 1.33 266, (2) 256 MB PC2100, Epox 8K7A+, 80 GB Maxtor 5400, GeForce2-Pro?..

 

[VBboy]

Are you done bumping, friend?

Can you edit your post there by cutting out all the "junk" info, like "requires a cooling fan" and "OEM version"? People can't read that much for free

 

[Kerouactivist]

damn i just got flamed

 

[Cybermastif]

Creative Lab sound blaster XGAMER 5.1 <- YUCK!

I personally would have gone for the hercules gamer

BTW you forgot on thing... if you are a newbie esp! Anti-static pad. being new you are more likely to forget about ESD and zap your componets, so say yourself some hassle and maybe money, learn good habits on PC building/repair and use and get and use an anti-static pad.

 

[VBboy]

No man, it's just very hard to get the actual info out of that text.

I would get a GeForce2 Pro or GeForce3, depending on your needs.
Also, most people here would recommend a different sound card like Hercules Game Theater XP or Phillips Acoustic/Sonic Edge. I don't know which sound card is better, they all have bad flaws.

 

[wasnlos]

hey vboy

take it easy
nobody forces you to read a thread

 

[Kerouactivist]

What's an anti-static pad?


Hey VBboy is it short enough for yeah now

thanks

 

[VBboy]

thorny, almost there

Rip out minor things like the cable and floppy drive and put each price on the same line with the product, and you're in business. I'm just trying to help you get the best support here.

P.S. I know you're buying from NewEgg, they are the only company selling the Arctic Silver 2 for only $6

 

[Kerouactivist]

Ok i edited it down to VBboy's standards less leaving out the floppy etc, for the reason that I am listing everything that I am buying so, if something (anything) is missing someone can point it out to me help out.
Also added the DDR ram i bought a couple of weeks ago from crucial.

 

[swanky]

Free bump!

A couple of weeks back I built my first system, and believe - I had the same &quot;nevrotic&quot; feeling that you have!

I'm not gonna tell you that it will be a breeze, some problems are bound to show up.

In my case thay all had to do with cables - bad cables, tight cables, loose cables, wrong cables - you get the picture.

I'll give you one tip: when you're putting on the HSF - rip of a piece of cardboard, put it between your finger and the locking device. Forget about screwdrivers - I almost pushed mine through the motherboard.

When I aired my nervousness about building a pc, I got a lot of support from the ppl here at Anand. And that helped a lot! (Thanks guys!!) Just think about it - you're building a pc with an extremely intelligent support desk! If you run into problems, post a thread. Most likely someone would have run into the same problem and got a solution.

I'm really not gonna comment on all the parts - they're up there with the rest. You have picked a Radeon, I bought a GeForce2 Pro. I got the same processor - believe me it rocks. I tried overclocking it to 1,5GHz - no problem. Now it's running at it's normal settings though, I really didn't NEED the extra speed at all. That was a nice feeling...

About the jumpers: don't worry, as long as you find out how to set the FSB (some somes with 200MHz as default), pretty much everything else will auto detect. Sure, there are some settings in the BIOS that would yield a little extra &quot;ooompf!&quot;, but you can save that for a rainy day.

One last thing: get a truckload of cabinet fans, this mama is hot!!

Be sure to come back an d tell us how it worked out!

Good luck!

swanky


P.S. - read my signature, learn it and live by it!

 

[wfbberzerker]

woohoo! another person with epox! (makes me happy i got mine)
lets see...

&quot;AUDIO CABLE, $2.00&quot;
what is this?

&quot;ATI Radeon 64MB DDR $153.00&quot;
i think you should go with geforce2 pro

&quot;AMD Athlon Thunderbird 1.33GHz 266MHz $124.00&quot;
good good good, same thing i got (works like a dream)

&quot;IBM 40GB 7200RPM #IC35L040AVER07 Deskstar 60GXP Ultra ATA/100 $105.00&quot;
is that two hard drives? if so, is 105 the total price?

&quot;Pioneer 16X DVD Model 106S, $60.00&quot;
looks ok, i guess (hell i dont know whats good or not)

&quot;Creative Lab sound blaster XGAMER 5.1 $84.00
i think you should buy the Hercules Game Theater XP, or the santa cruz one

&quot;Arctic Silver II. $6.00&quot;
good stuff, you overclocking?

&quot;Crucial DDR Ram 45.00&quot;
i assume you got 256mb pc2100? same stuff i got, really fast

&quot;Also a antec SX1040 from ems for $130 shipped&quot;
i heard antec cases are really good (i got enlight - cheap, but really good)

&quot;and (probably) Taisol Model CGK747092 with a 6800rpm GlobalWin heatsink.&quot;
if you are getting arctic silver ii, you might as well get this hsf, i hear its very quiet and good for overclocking

well, everything looks good. overclock that baby!

 

[Kerouactivist]

never overclocked before but i'm looking foward to trying(after I get the darn thing built).

It's just one hard drive I'll edit
on the audio cable
i think I'll need one to run from the sound card to the dvd player

I thought about geforce 2 pro, but I'm going to be living in an apartment for awhile so Eventually I'm going to get a klipsch system, and use this as my home stereo and also as advd
player for my 27 inch tv....
and i hear the DVD playback on the Radeon is better than the geforce2pro
convince me that the geforce2 pro card withtv out is an overall better card than the radeon 64mb, and I'll go geforce2pro

 

[Kerouactivist]

Can i get bump bump

 

[mackstann]

Radeon is better for DVD, and also has better 2D quality, the GeForce 2's tend to be a bit fuzzier. I'd say, go for the Radeon. It's great for DVD, great for 2D, and unless you are a 3D gamer freak who needs 3000 FPS then it is good for 3D. Heck, it's better at 3D than my GF2MX and that's plenty for me. Your sound card will most likely come with an analog audio cable, but for the DVD digital is better. You want the Coaxial digital cable, specifically. Also, maybe think about a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz or a Philips Acoustic Edge. The SB Live is kinda goin' down the pooper compared to the quality of other cards. You could also think about the Hercules Game Theater XP, but it's like 200 bucks.

Also noticed:


<< Taisol Model CGK747092 with a 6800rpm GlobalWin heatsink >>


The taisol CGK757092 IS the heatsink, I hope you meant 6800RPM GlobalWin FAN, cus you only need one heatsink!

Anyways, good luck and you know where to come for help

 

[Shooters]

Like others have said, if you think you're going to game a lot then consider at least a Geforce2 Pro. The Radeon is okay for todays games, but it may start to choke on games that are going to be released later this year. Of course if you don't plan on gaming that much, then the Radeon is an excellent choice.

I too would recommend either the Hercules Game Theater XP or the Turtle Beach Santa Cruz. I believe they're based on the same chip; the main difference is that the Game Theater comes with the breakout box with all the extra connections. The SB Live! is still a good card. I have the Platinum 5.1 version and am relatively pleased with it, but many people claim that the Game Theater and Santa Cruz both sound better that the Live! Also, since you're a newbie builder, you might want to go with the Santa Cruz since some people have that nasty problem with the Live! and the VIA 686b southbridge. Also, since the Game Theater is still kinda new, the drivers aren't perfected yet. The Santa Cruz would be a nice choice and would probably cost you even less than that X-Gamer. Don't forget about nice speakers. A great soundcard isn't worth anything if you don't have a nice set of speakers to get the sound to your ears.

Lastly, I would go for the Taisol CGK760092 simply because it's a better heatsink than the 747092, which means you can get away with using a smaller, quieter fan. Plus, the clip on the 760092 is a lot nicer.

Everything else looks great! Just read manuals and know exactly what everything does before you plug anything in.

Good luck,
Shooters

 

[Shooters]

Oh, one more thing. Make sure you have enough IDE cables. I'm not sure how many come with that Epox board, but my guess is that it will come with one ATA66/100 cable and maybe an ATA33 cable.....maybe not. You're probably not going to get any with that hard drive or DVD drive since they're sold as bare drives. Make sure you use 80 wire ATA66/100 cables instead of regular 40 wire ATA33 cables since both your hard drive and DVD-ROM are capable of ATA66 or higher.

 

[Kerouactivist]

Thanks for the info, to bad I already ordered the Taisol Model CGK747092 with a 6800rpm GlobalWin
I got them both for 22 shipped, i guess thats pretty good.
I'm looking at the santa cruz right now, I definitely thinking about it...
But
I'm not sure............

 

[mackstann]

I have the Santa Cruz, just quit thinking so hard and get it!

It has more in/outputs, better SOUND QUALITY, no probs with Via Southbridge, and it's cheaper. The only thing it doesn't do is come with games.

 

[Shooters]

That's fine, the 747092 is a nice heatsink.....just not quite the badass that the 760092 is.

By the way to answer your question from earlier, I've never installed a copy of WinME before, but my guess is that it probably doesn't come with a boot disk because you can boot straight from the CD. Personally, I would go with Win98 over WinME. ME is even more of a resource hog than 98 is. Of course Win2k would be optimal, especially for a system like that. You could get so much more out of it using Win2k.