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My first SFF build

P

PsiNorm

n00b
Joined
Aug 2, 2005
Messages
18
Here is what I'm looking to build (questions to follow):

AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Venice 1GHz FSB 512KB L2 Cache Socket 939 Processor

ASPIRE X-QPACK-GN/420 Black/Green Computer Case With Side Panel Window

ASUS MB A8NE-FM NFORCE4 1PCI-E 16X DDR400 SATA MATX

SAPPHIRE 100557L-RD Radeon 9800PRO 256MB 256-bit DDR AGP 4X/8X Video Card

Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 9 6Y080L0 80GB 7200 RPM 2MB Cache IDE Ultra ATA133 Hard Drive

CORSAIR XMS 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Unbuffered DDR 400 (PC 3200) Dual Channel

SAMSUNG Black 16X DVD-ROM 52X CD-R 32X CD-RW 52X CD-ROM 2M Cache IDE Combo Drive

Questions:

1: Any obvious errors?

2: I am having trouble finding the Asus motherboard, and have found some conflicting info. Where can I purchase this board online, and is it really a mATX form?

3: A friend has told me to stay away from the Sapphire card. He was disapointed with his 9600 pro. I have read good reviews of this card, so what do you think?

4: Any suggestions for upgrading the components?

Thanks,

PsiNorm
 
Hey dude, you have come to the right place. Many people here have aspire x qpacks. First thing I would say is to stay away from the green aspire x qpack. Once you get it you will see that it is really more of a nasty green color. Also I would suggest going with a nvidia video card. Prices are dropping for them rapidly. Also I would go pci express instead of agp. Everthing is going that way.

feel free to drop me a pm and good luck :D
 
also is this for gaming? what is your budget?

lol didn't even notice he had a pci mobo lol
 
TheBlueChanell said:
You have a AGP GFX card, and a PCI-E Mobo. THat's a bozo nono. .....*looks around*

I'd go with this card http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814143026
BFG 6600 GT

Also, if you wait, those card's prices will drop jurasctically within the next month to month and a half.
Click to expand...

This is why I'm posting here. It's my first ground-up build, so I may (correction: do) not know what I'm doing. You won't hurt my feelings.

Like I said, I haven't been able to find much of anything beyond the sticky post here about the motherboard. I've had success with Asus boards in the past, but the lack of information and the conflicting info has me a little concerned. I'm open to other suggestions.

PsiNorm
 
Okay, Post your price range and i'll build you a rig. Michigan can help too if he wants.
 
Price Range: As little as possible, I was looking at $800 with an upper limit of $1000 if it's worth the expense.

Use: Gaming. I'm giving my girlfriend my old computer so she can play WoW. This will be a computer mainly for WoW that I can transport back and forth from my place to hers.

I don't have any experience with overclocking, but I'd like to learn. Just keep in mind that the more complicated things get, the more questions I'll probibly ask. Fair warning.

Thanks,
PsiNorm
 
If your funds permit i'd do this. [REVISED]

case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811144109
mobo: http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16813186066
proc: Athlon x2 3800+ 345$ comes out next week I think.
ram: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820146545
HDD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822144235
DVD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827152052
Scard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16829102179

All That's like $925. You get dual core so your pretty much future proof. 2gig's of ram. And If you wati I think you should be able to pick up a 6800 GT for under 200. In the next coming month or so. The 6800 GT is better IMO, then the x800xl that the poster below mentioned. If you need anything feel free to pm me.
 
Also, i don't know much about wow. But I think 2 gigs of ram will benefit you if it's worth the extra 60 bucks. And, when the graphics card's come out. The Lower 7800 series you could probably pick a nvidia 6800 GT for under 200 dollars. So i'd wait it out a little bit longer if you can.
 
The ASUS MB A8NE-FM NFORCE4 mobo is quite bad, it was meant for OEM manufacturers and has few settings. I'd suggest going for the Jetway A210GDMS because of the range of OC settings that has. If you're not interested in OCing verymuch then the Foxconn NF4 board should suit you well. Also, for a vid card go for an x800xl for that budget.
 
TheBlue has a good set up there for ya,

I suggest the Seagate harddrive over Maxtor though. 160-200gb SATA NCQ7200.8 from Seagate.

Also if you get an MSI board with ATi chipset...as a rule of thumb I will always get an MSI graphics card with an ATi chipset. Likewise, if you have an nForce4 I would get an nvidia chipset Graphics card. This is just a compbablity thing I like.


As for the processor, I would go with the x2 3800+ like he said or get a 4000+ from AMD. I believe the 4000+ is around 380 these days with the San Diego core.

Overall though TheBlue has got it right. Maybe add a Zalmann heatsink or something too.
 
Steeeeve said:
TheBlue has a good set up there for ya,

I suggest the Seagate harddrive over Maxtor though. 160-200gb SATA NCQ7200.8 from Seagate.

Also if you get an MSI board with ATi chipset...as a rule of thumb I will always get an MSI graphics card with an ATi chipset. Likewise, if you have an nForce4 I would get an nvidia chipset Graphics card. This is just a compbablity thing I like.


As for the processor, I would go with the x2 3800+ like he said or get a 4000+ from AMD. I believe the 4000+ is around 380 these days with the San Diego core.

Overall though TheBlue has got it right. Maybe add a Zalmann heatsink or something too.
Click to expand...

Actually, i was thinking about changin the mobo in his setup to a foxconn. I like my things nvidia. And I know more abou the NF4. :) The only reason the msi is there in the first place is because I know it support's dual core. Although foxconn just released a revision of that board, that show dual core support. The old version did w./ just a bios update. It's funny the revision is cheaper. I'm wating for DFI's mATX board.
 
What about the smaller frontside bus on the foxconn? I don't know much about that, but 400 seems very low compared to the bus speed of the processor. Also, the x2 processor means Dual Core? If so, then I guess that would mean that the processor I had picked out wasn't, eh?
 
yeah x2 means Dual Core. they come in 3800, 4200, 4400, 4600, and 4800
Keep in mind that the 3800 also comes in non-dual core

The foxconn board has not shown to be any better than the MSI because it uses the nf4 regular and not the ultra chipset. I think ATi chipset might even be a tad bit better. But yeah, if you like nvidia wait for the DFI or something. the MSI just started supporting dual core with their last bios update.

Oh, the DFI will be the C51 chipset by the way.
 
Is this the processor you're talking about?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103562

That's quite costly. As tempting as it is to go all out, I need to keep in mind that I will be playing WoW on this thing, so is it necessary?

Also, with dual channel memory, would it be better to get 2Gb with 4 x 512, or 2 x 1GB?

The pairing of the motherboard with the video card is making my head hurt - or it's the fact that I'm cutting out caffeine this week. Either way, I need some assistance there.

To make things a little easier, time is of the essence (kinda). I've moved my old comp to her house, so I need a machine to use myself soon. That takes the waiting game out of the picture, so let's go with what I could order this weekend (or even today).
 
thats actually higher than it should be...The thing is priced at 345 and newegg is ripping you off. I don't know what crawled into Neweggs butt lately but they sure are jackin up the prices.
 
order today...yikes...IF you want to do the qpack I suggest MSI board, MSI x800xl, AMD 4000+, Seagate 200gb 7200.8 SATA NCQ drive, 1gb Ram from either corsair, crucial, kingston, or mushkin try to get low lag 2-2-2 timings or something; ...not sure if I am missing anything else....good heatsink maybe, zalman

www.zipzoomfly.com has the cheapest parts to date.

http://www.anandtech.com/ is a good place to find low prices...go to this site and click on real time pricing on the left!
 
Heh, yeah. Sorry for the short notice. I signed up for these froums a while ago and never got any e-mail from administrators saying that I could post. I finally got tired of just browsing and thought I'd try to sign in anyways - it worked.

PsiNorm
 
yeah, same thing happened to me...I actually go the email about a week after I registered and thunderbird junk mailed it :)
 
Ok, here's a new list. It still needs tweaking though.

ASPIRE X-QPACK-YL/420 Black/Yellow Computer Case

MSI RS480M2-IL Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

AMD Athlon 64 3200+ 1GHz FSB Socket 939 Processor

Maxtor DiamondMax 10 80GB 3.5" IDE Ultra ATA133 Hard Drive

NEC Black IDE DVD Burner Model ND-3540A

CORSAIR XMS 1GB (2 x 512MB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Dual Channel Kit System Memory

MSI ATI Radeon X800 PRO Video Card, 256MB GDDR3, 256-Bit, DVI/TV-Out, PCI-Express, Model "RX800PRO-TD256E"

I think I'll go with two 512 memory, and if I need 2GB I can get two more later. I don't really know what memory to get though.

The video card is another one I'm not sure of. I like the MSI RX800XL-VT2D256E Radeon X800XL 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 VIVO PCI Express x16 Video Card, but it doesn't have a VGA output. That's fine for my 21 inch LCD, but unless I buy another monitor right away, I'll be using a VGA at her house (or lug that huge thing back and forth).

As it is, it's almost $1000, and I'd like to trim it down some, but I don't know how. I don't want to get crap just to save money. Any areas I can trim the fat?

By the way, you guys have been a huge help. I'm starting to think I know a little of what I'm doing.

PsiNorm
 
If I were you in all honesty. I would hold out until september. Then get the DFI mATX board. By then, the 6800 GT will be under 200 dollars. The 6800 GT is better than the x800xl. IMO.
I also wouldn't get 512Mb or ram. You seriously want 1gig. or better.
 
OK, you may have convinced me to wait. What DFI mATX board am I waiting for?

PsiNorm
 
hmm, well since DFI hasn't really announced it yet, it is hard to say. I know it is going to be based on the C51 chipset...but beyond that who knows. I emailed DFI and found all this stuff out. Maybe Blue has a link.

I still maintain the MSI board is fine..even more so if you don't OC. For the record the X800xl has been shown to be better than the 6800gt :p but we are nickel and diming it there...they are, for the most part, the same. I still say get Seagate harddrive too. After all, Maxtor lost 176 million last year :eek:
 
just do cas lagtancy 2 for a new egg search....but yeah, do you overclock at all?

Corsair is fine...I like Mushkin better...and they are cheaper
 
PsiNorm said:
Ok, maybe I won't wait since we're nippling and diming it... I mean nickle and boobs... I mean... money.

So I need some guidence on memory. Is there an easy way to look up 2-2-2 timings? The search on newegg doesn't search that way. I found this:

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16820145523

Is that a good deal?

PsiNorm
Click to expand...

Actually, that's a good deal but, you could get ocz for cheaper.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820146890

I don't know about the [H] folks but the newegg and gamespot crowd seem to like them alot.
 
I might play around with overclocking, if it wasn't too hard and I had some guidence, but I'm not building with overclocking in mind.
 
Good timing, seeing how it's almost 5 here.

It's a day.

Thanks a bunch guys, you've been an amazing help. I might post again later once I get things together to see what kind of OC fun I can have, if you'd be willing to teach.

PsiNorm
 
No problem. I don't want to blow this thing up, I just spent $950 on it. Should get the pieces Monday.
 
Here's what I ended up going with:

CASE ASPIRE|X-QPACK - Yellow

MSI RS480M2-IL

MSI|RX800XL

AMD 64 |3200+ ATHLON 64

DDRAM 2x512MB| OCZ4001024ELDCPER2-K

HD 80GB|MAXTOR 6L080P0

Samsung CMBO 52x32x52x16

Should be getting it Tuesday, we'll see how it goes.

PsiNorm
 
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