Ready to build my first PC

[JD Anderson]

Hello,
I?m building my first PC (to run Photoshop CS), and I?ve chosen the following components. Does anyone see any issues with what I?ve chosen? Is this Memory OK?
-Antec P180 Case Retail
-Seasonic S12-500W power supply Retail
-AMD Athalon 64 3700+ San Diego Retail
-MSI K8n Neo4 Platinum SLI Socket 939 NVIDIA NForce4 SLI ATX AMD MB Retail
-OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184 pin DDR SDRAM Unbuffered DDR 400 (PC 3200) Dual Channel Platinum System Memory Retail
-Gigabyte GV-RX70P256V-SP Radeon X700PRO 256MB 128 bit GDDR3 PCI Express16 Video Retail
-Western Digital Raptor WD740GD 74GB 10k RPM 8MB Cache Serial ATA150 HDD OEM (To run Windows XP and Photoshop CS)
-Seagate Barracuda 7200.8 ST3250823AS 250GB 7200 8MB Serial ATA150 HDD OEM (Storage and scratch disk)
-WinXP Pro

And, I have a couple of other newbie questions:

I just found out that the OEM SATA drives will not come with cables. Can you tell me what I need to order to install the drives? Just a cable?? Anything else, and what kind of cable?

Do you recommend replacing the stock CPU heat sink and fan? I figure it will be easiest to do so now, not later. What about MB chipset fans and video card fan?? The Antec case has two fans? is that enough? (I won?t be overclocking, by the way)

Antec makes some hard drive coolers that fit into 5.25 bays. Do you recommend this, or is it overkill?

Are there any other pieces/parts needed to build a computer that need to be bought separately? I?d rather get everything up front than find out I?m missing a widget in the middle of assembly.

Thanks for your help!
JD Anderson

 

[imported_Kensai]

1. SATA data cable will be included with the motherboard. Power cable from the PSU.

2. Stick with stock stuff.

3. Fairly useless for that case since there'll be a fan blowing onto the hard drives.

4. Got a screw driver?

 

[crimson117]

Some Seasonic power supplies don't have long enough cables to reach up from the bottom of the Antec P180 case. Make sure the power cables are 20" or 22" long.

 

[kleinwl]

Sounds fine... though the raptor is overkill. The sata 7200rpm hard drives are almost as good and lots cheaper. If you have the money burning a hole in your pocket think about getting a better videocard and/or more ram (though 2GB is a good start). The other option is to add the IRAM card from Gigabite after you max out (4GB) your onboard system ram.

 

[JD Anderson]

Wow...
You guys are making this sound easy...
Do you know of a good tutorial for setting things up, or will it all be in the component manuals. I've been reading threads here and I've seen people talking about setting up the Memory timing in the BIOS. I'm sure there is lots to learn before I get started. Is there a book I should get, or just jump in with both feet and see what happens?

Thanks for your input, by the way!
JD

 

[JD Anderson]

Do I have any need for a 3.5 floppy? I've heard you need one for Raid configurations, but I'm not doing that.

Thanks,
JD

 

[xeodragon]

get a floppy just in case. when u need one, u wont regret it, they're like 10 bucks anyways

 

[hurtstotalktoyou]

Originally posted by: kleinwl
If you have the money burning a hole in your pocket think about getting a better videocard and/or more ram (though 2GB is a good start).

2GB is a "good start"? And why would he need a better video card?

 

[JD Anderson]

Originally posted by: hurtstotalktoyou

Originally posted by: kleinwl
If you have the money burning a hole in your pocket think about getting a better videocard and/or more ram (though 2GB is a good start).

2GB is a "good start"? And why would he need a better video card?

OK, for $10, I guess it is better to have it there if I need it.

My understanding is that Photoshop doesn't benefit from top of the line graphics cards. I was told a decent mid-level card will do well. I don't play games (three kids, full time job as an Project Manager at Intel, side business shooting weddings/portraits and doing graphic arts) because I don't have the time to. This machine is going to be used for Photo editing only, pretty much.

Thanks for the input!
JD

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

Seasonic and P180... dunno. It fits perfectly in a P160 though and the cables reach, so maybe that would be sufficient?

P160 has a fan blowing on the HDs. I dont know if that's enough.

My seagate 7200.8 ran at 39 deg sitting on top of my desk. Put it in with a Yate Loon fan blowing on it and it runs at 310 deg now. My Hitachi runs even cooler @ 29 deg.

 

[shoRunner]

nevermind, can't read, if you could afford the 3800 x2 you'd see some big improvements.