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

[Kerouactivist]

I really like the santa cruz, but the x-gamer has alot of games and costs only 14 bucks more, none of which I currently have.

I guess this one is going to come down to a coin toss...

How often have these problems with the via chipset came up???

 

[Shooters]

<< I really like the santa cruz, but the x-gamer has alot of games and costs only 14 bucks more, none of which I currently have. >>


The games are a plus, but honestly the only game out of that bundle that I play on a regular basis is Unreal Tournament, but I bought the full retail version of that before I got my SB Live! Deus Ex is okay too. You can find both games for about $20.



<< How often have these problems with the via chipset came up??? >>


It is a big enough issue to be recognized as a &quot;known problem&quot; by VIA, but it seems to be less of a problem nowadays with the release of various patches and the newer 4-in-1 drivers which you'll have to install. For the record, I have built three AMD systems with the VIA 686b southbridge all using SB Live! soundcards and have not run into any problems.

 

[Kerouactivist]

Alright, everything else looks good though, I guess I'm going hit the sack, I just might go ahead and order my case right now, and make the sound card decision, whenever the epox becomes availible at newegg.

Thanks and later

 

[LostHiWay]

You might want to think about getting the 8K7A instead of the 8K7A+. You don't show using RAID in your setup and that is the the only differnce in the 2 boards. If you don't have any plans in the future for it save yourself a good chunk of change.

 

[Kerouactivist]

I'm a friggin insomniac,
anyway,
i still have two choices to make
x-gamer5.1 or santa cruz = coin toss

and the really hard one

Do I go for the 400watt powersupply with a 40 gig or a 300wt with a 60 gig?????????????????????

what to do

 

[Prince of Persia]

I just built a system last night with the help of the people here at anandtech.

The hardest thing you'll have to do is applying the AS2 onto the die of the Athlon.

GOD DANG in the picuteres the die looks fairly large, but its SUPER tiny. I've got big hands (hehe), and I applied to AS2 on wrong the first time. Then I reapplied it and my temps dropped by 10 degrees.

Take your time with AS2 and the heastink/fan installation is the hardest part, after that everything is candy.

 

[WhatWasIThinking]

I just went through exactly what you're doing now and everything worked out ok for me (and believe me, I'm no technical jeenyus). Most of building a system is just plugging things together. Watch out for the Arctic Silver, though. I tried to get a little tiny bit out of the syringe thing and got it all over my fingers, the cpu core, the cpu bridges (those little rectangular thingies) and pretty much the rest of the cpu. Great start, let me tell you. I have the EPOX 8K7A and an Antec SX830 and like them just fine. If you plan on using the upper drive bays you might want to get one or two 24&quot; ATA100 cables, since it's a long distance from those bays to the IDE ports, especially if you have both a master and slave.

Don't worry. You'll be fine. You'll swear plenty, but you'll be fine. Have fun with the pidgin English in the EPOX manual (I think all manuals are like that).

 

[m2super]

From micropro.com gf3(yes I said geforce3/iwill(which I like much better than epox)for 80 buck more it comes with the gf3, pre setup so you wont have to worry about blowing it up!

Pre-configured AMD Thunderbird/Duron Computer System with DDR Memory
ATX Mid Tower Case with 250 Watt Power Supply
K7AMA Thunderbird/Duron - DDR Memory - Built in sound - Ultra/100 - ATX
1 4X AGP - 5 PCI Slots - Ultra33/66/100
Heavy Duty Heat Sink and Fan Assembly
1.44 MB Floppy Drive
104 Keyboard, Mouse
Millennium Gold Service Plan on any system we assemble!
Processor Thunderbird 1.33 GHz CPU (266 MHz FSB)
Upgrade Power Supply to AMD approved 300 Watt ATX PS
Upgrade Motherboard Iwill KA266-R - IDE RAID - Ultra/100 - 266/200 MHz FSB
Memory 256MB PC2100 DDR Memory
Hard Drive 7200 RPM 40 GB Ultra/100
DVD Drive 16X Pioneer DVD Drive - IDE
Video Card GeForce3 64MB AGP with TV Out
Upgrade Sound Sound Blaster Live! Value (OEM)

Your Price
$1005

 

[Kerouactivist]

I've heard bad things, about micropro......

 

[MrHelpful]

VBboy, what's your problem? He can put it up any way he wants. It seems that bthorny is the name that's in front of the first message, not VBboy.

 

[DaejangNim]

u can use the 98 bootdisk to setup winme, thats wut i did ^^ id also buy another 256 of ram, since its so cheap^^