First Time Computer Builder Help

[Humongous]

I am an avid gamer looking to build a pc from scratch. I figure that the motherboard is the key. Can anyone answer a few questions for me or post a url that might? Keep in mind, I'm buying everything new.

1. Do I have to worry that my motherboard won't fit into my case?
2. Is a 400 Watt power supply enough for an average system?
3. It's better to get a motherboard without onboard video/NIC/sound ect..Yes?
4. Is IDE Raid worth it?
5. Any recommondations on a motherboard for less than $300.00 cdn?

Any other advice or good links on this topic would be appreciated.

Thanks.

 

[Stugots]

1. Do I have to worry that my motherboard won't fit into my case?

unless you have some really weird designed case, you dont have to worry about it. atx is a industry standard.

2. Is a 400 Watt power supply enough for an average system?

http://takaman.jp/D/index.html?english

3. It's better to get a motherboard without onboard video/NIC/sound ect..Yes?

imo, onboard sound and nic are both ok, they save pci slots. onboard video on the otherhand is usually not good because youll end up wanting/buying another video card anyway.

4. Is IDE Raid worth it?

personally id go with sata raid, but some people say theres isnt much performance difference. the cabling with sata drives is alot better.

5. Any recommondations on a motherboard for less than $300.00 cdn?

i love abit, but there are other good board too. a guy i work with loves his dfi lanparty board, it comes with ALOT of extras too.

 

[jamestime88]

it all depends on what your budget is and what kind of processor u are going to use. but for the most part all motherboards will come with onboard audio and lan, which are both fine to use.

 

[MrCodeDude]

The one thing you want to look at is the brand of Power Supply. I have a 300W Fortron/Source PSU that will power my secondary system, but the 350W POWMAX PSU won't.

Granted, there are some PSU's that will be non-name-brand and run just fine, however, if you're getting a 400W PSU for $20, chances are, it's not a quality power-supply. An easy check, but not fool-proof, and not very reliable either, is how much the PSU weighs. The heavier, the better.

Brands you will want to look at are: PC Power & Cooling, Fortron/Source, Sparkle, Antec and Enermax.

 

[Stugots]

The one thing you want to look at is the brand of Power Supply. I have a 300W Fortron/Source PSU that will power my secondary system, but the 350W POWMAX PSU won't.

Granted, there are some PSU's that will be non-name-brand and run just fine, however, if you're getting a 400W PSU for $20, chances are, it's not a quality power-supply. An easy check, but not fool-proof, and not very reliable either, is how much the PSU weighs. The heavier, the better.

Brands you will want to look at are: PC Power & Cooling, Fortron/Source, Sparkle, Antec and Enermax.

for shizzle...

get a brand name powersupply, it might be alittle more expensive but its better to be safe than sorry.

 

[leukotriene]

1. Do I have to worry that my motherboard won't fit into my case?

No, not unless you have a really old AT case or a micro-ATX case

2. Is a 400 Watt power supply enough for an average system?

Yes, especially if it's a Fortron/Sparkle or other reputable brand. Only if you plan to build a large SCSI array should you consider a more powerful power supply, since efficiency is highest under a medium-high load.

3. It's better to get a motherboard without onboard video/NIC/sound ect..Yes?

No, not at all. You can turn every option you don't want off in BIOS if necessary, and good luck finding a decent board without onboard sound. Crappy onboard NICs can suck CPU cycles more than the best standalone cards, but this is largely if not totally irrelevant with a modern system unless you have a Gigabit network. Onboard sound quality is rather poor as a general rule, but sound quality is largely if not entirely reliant on the speakers. Paying $60 for a sound card and $100 for speakers is foolish.

4. Is IDE Raid worth it?'

NO, the increase in failure rate combined with the sporadic and lackluster (if any) performance increases is not worth it unless you do intensive video manipulation tasks and use the striped array as a swap and/or scratchpad.
Hard drives can and do fail, and RAID 0 is a bad idea for a first time builder. Buy a single, faster hard drive, or a small 10,000rpm drive for boot and a larger 7200 rpm drive for storage.

5. Any recommondations on a motherboard for less than $300.00 cdn?

Since this is the AMD section the question that needs to be asked is:
XP or A64?
For an AXP: Shuttle AN35N Ultra (cheap), Abit NF7-S 2.0 (medium) or DFI LANParty B (loaded)
For an A64: MSI K8N Neo if you can find it and are willing to pay for a Socket 939 chip, Abit KV8 Pro if you're going socket 754.

 

[Okatha]

Since this is the AMD section the question that needs to be asked is:
XP or A64?
For an AXP: Shuttle AN35N Ultra (cheap), Abit NF7-S 2.0 (medium) or DFI LANParty B (loaded)
For an A64: MSI K8N Neo if you can find it and are willing to pay for a Socket 939 chip, Abit KV8 Pro if you're going socket 754.

Isn't the MSI K8N Neo a 754 board? That's the one I was looking, planning on picking up a +3200.

As for power supplies I've been looking at SilentPCReview, since I want a relatively quiet computer, and decided to go with a SeaSonic.

 

[sic wil]

For boards I like Tyan myself, i have a tyan tiger K8WS with a single opteron, although most tyans support dual opteron as well. Go opteron and go 2 sticks of 512 pc3200 ram. As a gamer you'll want a high end card, assuming you play a lot of graphic intensive games (FPS's, MMRPGs). I recommend a high end geforce or ATI. I have a Geforce 5900xt and i got like 400 fps in quake3. it's insane.

lots of ram and a big video card. Its worth it.

 

[coastertux]

1. Do I have to worry that my motherboard won't fit into my case?
No, as long as you get an decent ATX case and your motherboard is ATX (99.99% are).

2. Is a 400 Watt power supply enough for an average system
Yes, I have a 350 and have an above average system.

3. It's better to get a motherboard without onboard video/NIC/sound ect..Yes?
Yes, then there is no need for extra cards (as long as you get SoundStorm audio)

4. Is IDE Raid worth it?
No, contrary to popular belief, RAID 0 can actually slow down your system performance.

5. Any recommondations on a motherboard for less than $300.00 cdn?
ABIT NF7-S

 

[Oldwolf]

1. Do I have to worry that my motherboard won't fit into my case?
No, ATX is a standard format and most ATX boards will fit in an ATX case.

2. Is a 400 Watt power supply enough for an average system?
400watts is a good start, but if you can go higher, go for it. I still run nicely with my 350.

3. It's better to get a motherboard without onboard video/NIC/sound ect..Yes?
Onboard items eat IRQ's & resources, if you can, try to get a board without them.

4. Is IDE Raid worth it?
Only if you want a high-end server. Everything is ATA-133 anyway. Unless you want to upgrade to Serial ATA @ 150.

5. Any recommondations on a motherboard for less than $300.00 cdn?
Yeah, Asus, Abit or DFI, or if you have a particular fave, checkout Pricewatch.com.

My $0.02