Looking for build advice/suggestions

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village_lunatic

n00b
Joined
Jan 18, 2008
Messages
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Been a number of years since I've done anything more than upgrade a hard drive, so I figured I'd check with the best and see if someone was willing to improve on my thoughts. :D

Sticky questions;

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
Gaming PC, does not need to be high end. (More than likely, half life 2 is the most demanding game I'll be playing.) The primary goal of this upgrade is quiet (this is how I managed to convince my woman that the expense would be worth it), so that should be considered before anything else.

2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
Currently $300 budget (but I think I can manage a little flexibility if something's too good to pass up)

3) Where do you live?
South Carolina

4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. Please be very specific.
Motherboard (needs to have SATA 3.0 connections)
CPU (I have no preference between amd and intel)
Graphics card (Motherboard integration is not important.)
RAM (this computer will be starting from 0 ram-wise. Old sticks going to girlfriends PC.) Would like to get up to 4 gigs, if it falls within budget.
After market 80mm fan; max dBA 25 min CFM 30
After market 120mm fan; max dBA 25 min CFM 30

After market CPU cooler. This one's a bit tricky - we've got pets and more dust than I've seen anywhere else I've lived. I've currently got a Thermaltake cooler that worked great elsewhere, but the fins are so close together that (in this apartment) they serve as an excellent catch for dust. (about every 4 days I pull a significant layer off the fins). So I've got to meet two goals here - as quiet as is reasonably possible, but in a configuration that allows for wider air flow channels to combat this problem.

5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.

ATX Mid Tower, Aluminum. 3 fan ports - 120mm in back, 80mm in side window, 80mm at front bottom of tower.
Power supply, HDD, Sound card (if one is not integrated on new motherboard), optical drives will be reused.
HDD is a 120 gig Seagate Baracuda with SATA 3.0 connection
Power supply is Thermaltake 480 Total Watts Viewer. (Any other information on the PSU was lost years ago)

6) Will you be overclocking?

Nope.

7) What size monitor do you have or plan to have?

19 inch CRT (won't likely go over that when I get LCD either)

8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?

Probably in a week, maybe as much as 2.

9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.

SATA 3.0 connection is the only mandatory feature

10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license?

Yes, my OS is already taken care of.




I've already done a bit of digging on Newegg (which is where I'd prefer to buy parts) to see what I could find. I'll list those finds for consideration, but feel free to point out my flaws. :)

Motherboard
CPU
CPU Cooler
80mm Case Fan
120mm Case Fan
Haven't looked for RAM yet.
 
What case are you using?

And you'll definitely have to get a new PSU. The only decent Thermaltake PSUs are part of their toughpower and purepower RX line of PSUs.

Oh and SilenX fans aren't that great.
 
Case is an aluminum ATX mid tower, side window/80mm fan with rear 120mm fan and front 80mm fan(that has almost no vent room). bought it back around 2000, haven't seen it online in a while. I'll look around and try to find specs on it.


As for the PSU, I wouldn't mind upgrading it, but the other stuff is more important to me right now. (PSU fix is easy.. "Oh, darn, the power supply on the computer fried...") But better PSU ideas would be appreciated, considering.

The fans.. ok, they suck. Any better suggestions? :)
 
power supplies don't always down alone sometimes they take the rest of the ship with them.
 
Not saying I'll wait for it to die.. lol nevermind. I'll update the PSU, but the update will probably be seperate by a few days at least.
 
village_lunatic said:
Not saying I'll wait for it to die.. lol nevermind. I'll update the PSU, but the update will probably be seperate by a few days at least.
Click to expand...
Nice one. :p Just don't forget.

The Scythe Ninja or Ninja mini is good in low airflow systems, since their fins are widely spaced. Though, it sounds like you need dust filters on your intake fans.

Do you have a Fry's or Microcenter near you?

For quiet, inexpensive case fans, I use sleeve bearing Yate Loons from jab-tech.com. ;)

Oh, and you do mean SATA 3.0Gbps (aka SATA300 or SATA300MB/s), right? cuz the spec for SATA v3.0 isn't out yet, IIRC.
 
the SATA is 3.0Gbps, yes. Sorry :p

Dust is always an issue, but I don't want to put actual filters on my fans due to the reduction in air flow. It's the larger particles that are holding it together I think (Looking into putting a screen mesh over fan ports, which should keep out a large part of it, and can be cleaned from the outside of the case.)

God I wish I had a Frys, and I've never even heard of Microcenter.

Thanks for the advice so far :) ...time for work. bleh.
 
Awe, looks like online etailers are you only option then. :( Fry's usually has really cheap CPU/Mobo combos (mobos arent great, but good enough for a non-OC'd system... what do you expect for free?); and MC has really cheap CPUs. IIRC, the E5200 was $65 there a couple weeks ago (too many numbers in my head).

hossdaddy's build looks good.
 
Looks good - thanks hossdaddy for the build, and everyone else for the help. still going to be a few days before I order if anyone has any input :)
 
No.

Was on newegg until a moment ago selecting fans, etc. The motherboard you (hossdaddy) suggested is on back-order, with only an auto-notify option, and I don't want to buy part now and part later. So unless there's another motherboard of similar quality that can be suggested, I'll have to wait. =/ Maybe they'll get a shipment soon lol
 
Order finally placed. (Had issues with bank and check not showing up correctly, had to wait an extra day.)

Final part order:
BIOSTAR TForce TF720 A2+ AM2+/AM2 NVIDIA nForce 720a ATX $69.99
SAPPHIRE 100265L Radeon HD 4830 512MB $79.99 ($20 off with $10 mail in rebate)
Antec earthwatts EA430 430W $49.99 ($20 off + free shipping)
Kingston 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 $42.99( + free shipping)
AMD Athlon 64 X2 7750 Kuma 2.7GHz Socket AM2+ 95W Dual-Core black edition $66.99( $5 off + free shipping)
ARCTIC COOLING ACF8PWM 80mm Case Fan $8.49(intake on front and side of case)
ARCTIC COOLING ACF12PWM 120mm Case Fan $9.99Rear exhaust fan
Scythe SCMNJ-1000 80mm Sleeve "NINJA MINI" CPU Cooler $34.99($5 off + free shipping)

Final total is $371.91 before shipping. Above budget.. but considering the options (and that there's a good amount of markdowns there), it's worth it. Order went in 15 minutes ago, so hopefully by sunday or monday I can post final build pictures. Thanks again for the assistance (I'll be asking again soon.. I have a friend complaining at me to build a computer v.v)
 
Took longer than anticipated, but build is done (save a few minor tweaks.)
I'm no photographer, and the case is old, but here's what I managed to get. :-P ...Also, I admit it. It's been a few years since I really got to get in and do PC hardware work.. and I got excited. I had the thing disassembled and mostly put back together before I even found the digital camera. I'll do better next time lol

I took a few before pictures, but they were with my phone and it's wanting to argue with my computer still. I'll try to get those uploaded in the next couple of days.

Not the best wire-handling I've done, but this is less a show computer and more workhorse anyway. (Case is nearly 10 years old now, so disregard the dings and plexi-cracks.)


Note to self. Less caffeine when doing computer work. I thought I took a second, less blury shot of this angle.. apparently not. (It's not as bad as some of the ones I deleted.)


For some reason, it never crossed my mind that I should have taken a shot of the tower front before re-attaching the faceplate. I'll try to fix that on my second upload, too. (This means that you don't get to see the all-mighty kill switch that I installed on the frame face, beneath the aluminum/plexi cover. Simple toggle switch.. but one of my first major case mods, years ago. :-P) The switch you DO see is for the lightbar.. (left side beside grey Dvd Rom.) Cracked the case after I destroyed the first switch (tightened this one down too much.)


First power-up with all panels restored to proper locations. Interesting effect, that mobo led has.


Apparently I really liked the effect. Second shot. v.v


Let there be light! Cathode still works.. Fans are running well, whole thing is quieter than my air conditioner.


And, just because looking at pictures is never quite as much fun as when you get to see what's supposed to be covered up.. :D


After a little installing (and a major issue with sound card drivers which I can't work out) I decided to boot Half-life 2 ep2 (since, as I said, it's currently the most demanding game I run), crank the video features (high res, etc etc etc). After an hour, the biostar hardware monitor (came in the mobo software) showed off a nice 34 Celsius. (With absolutely no graphic slowdowns in hl2 at any point.)

Thanks for all the help again (And I'll still try to get those other pictures uploaded.)


In case anyone has any thoughts on that driver issue (wound up tossing in a separate pci sound card for now), I've followed all steps that I could think of.
-Used the auto-installer from mainboard drivers CD. (which worked for all other hardware that needed drivers.)
-Went through Device Manager and attempted to update drivers from that direction.
-Went to BioStar's website, downloaded new drivers for audio device. Attempted both install routes again.

Any suggestions here would be appreciated. The item in the Device Manager shows as
Audio Device on High Definition Audio Bus.
 
village_lunatic said:
-Went through Device Manager and attempted to update drivers from that direction.
-Went to BioStar's website, downloaded new drivers for audio device. Attempted both install routes again.
Click to expand...
What happened when you tried those steps?

Also, hit up Realtek's website and download the drivers straight from them.

Oh and thanks for the pics!
 
Not yet on the ticket. I'm going to try again later today to get it in good working order.

EDIT: Realtek's website is a POS when it comes to downloads. only 1 in 4 download mirrors work, and that's a browser ftp setup that I did better than five years ago in my mothers garage. D/L at 1.5 to 2 kbps (when it dl's at all), keeps dieing at 70-100 kb. Arg.
 
Danny Bui said:
What happened when you tried those steps?

Also, hit up Realtek's website and download the drivers straight from them.

Oh and thanks for the pics!
Click to expand...

On all occasions, it stated that it could not find proper drivers. I can't recall what the exact message was, if the driver package I have downloading from biostar's website now doesn't work I'll try again and copy over the message.
 
hey man I have great success with the drivers from guru3d. Give them a try. Btw is the problem you are expereincing by hooking u to the audio jacks on the back of teh comp or on the front jacks?
 
Will look into that site soon as I've eaten.

It's not a problem with hooking the speakers into the jacks. (Though front and back both operate from the same place. The front jack requires that I plug an extension into the rear jack. :-P)

The drivers themselves - every time I try to install the drivers, I get a "Unable to install this hardware" response. (That's not word for word, btw.)
 
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