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View Full Version : Building a custom PC (long)


Isura
08-03-2005, 03:22 PM
Okay, I just spent a week researching into building a custom computer. I know way more than I planned (or wanted) to learn about the newest hardware trends. Anyways, here are the specs, with some explanation. Feel free to list your specs. Also, computer noobs feel free to ask any questions.

Motherboards:
Most important selection in a computer imo. Take some time to research this area. Most stability problems are caused by a poor motherboard. I choose an AMD processor, so the choices are a bit broader. I suggest getting a board with NVIDIA's newest chipset, the nForce4.
DFI - best board for overclockers
MSI - best regualar (non-overclockers) board. Most MSI boards can do mild overclocking.
ASUS, ABIT and Gigabyte are also good.

Note that SLI is a new feature on mobos that allow one to use 2 video cards concurrently, to essentially double the machine's graphics capabilities. SLI technology is in its infancy, and the added cost is not worth it to get an SLI board at this time. You'll probably want to do a bit more research on this topic. Make sure to read the forums at www.anandtec.com (http://www.anandtec.com), excellent source for building a computer.

My choice:
MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813130484) - $180 CAD

Processors:
You have two choices, AMD or Intel. Really a personal choice, but I would suggest AMD for the best cost/benefit ratio, especially for a mid budget poker computer. I choose AMD, so a bit more about them. Sempron are the AMD equivalent of Intel celerons (ie crap), and Athlon XP is older now. Go with the Athlon 64. Socket 939 is AMD's newest socket for Athlon 64, and it supports dual channel ram. Go with the 3000+ chip, unless you really want to spend the extra money for a faster clockrate. If you want to get your hands dirty a bit, you can easily overclock the 3000+ to give the equivalent performance of the more expensive Venice models.

My choice: AMD Athlon 64 3000+ Venice (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103537) - $203 CAD

Videocard:
The selection here is pretty wide, and was overwelming for me at first. This buyer's guide (http://www20.graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20041110/index.html) is a good overview. Make sure to check to see what your motherboard supports (AGP or PCI express) before buying. For multitabling, you might want to get a dual DVI card to use with 2 LCDs. These are less numerous than the (1 DVI + 1 VGA) cards. Here are a few good choices for dual DVI:
2 Geforce 6600 GT's (http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?Manufactory=&PropertyCodeValue=679 %3A10550&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&P ropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCod eValue=696%3A9641&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCode Value=691%3A9631&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeV alue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&Pro pertyCodeValue=0&description=&MinPrice=&MaxPrice=& SubCategory=48&Submit=Property)

Geforce 6600 GT (NVIDIA) and Radeon X800XL boards are also manufactured by other companies, and offer a pretty cheap dual dvi option (eg MSI, ATI, PNY). Video cards don't differ much between board manufacturers, the actual graphics proceesing unit (NVIDIA or ATI chip) is much more important.

My choice:
Asus Radeon X800XL 256MB 256-bit dual DVI (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814121530) - $350 CAD

I spent about $130 more than I could have (the Geforce 6600 GT is $220 CAD), but the Radeon card is much more powerful (it's similar to the Geforce 6800 GT) and I'm a sucker for video games. /images/graemlins/smile.gif

Case and Power supply:
This is often overlooked. A good case will allow a good airflow and help keep the computer cool and quiet. Same goes for a quality power supply, and you don't want a crappy supply to ruin good hardware. For cases, Antec is my first choice for price/performance. For power supplies, Antec, OCZ, and Seasonic are excellent and usually very quiet. A good 400W supply should be more than enough. Maybe a 500W if you get a new power hungary video card and run multiple hard drives etc. If quietness is important to you, check out the forums at http://forums.silentpcreview.com/. These people make a living building silent computers.

Note about cases: Steel is generally quieter than aluminum, but aluminum is heavier. Also, those plastic side panels that show off your new hardware emit a lot of noise. For a cheap, quiet and solid steel case (with a power supply too), I couldn't find anything better than:

Antec Sonata II with 450W Truepower 2.0 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811129155) - $140 CAD

Memory:
Not much to say here. 1GB should be enough, 2GB maybe if you do a lot of video processing or gaming. The extra cost of super fast ram is hardly worth it imo. PC3200 speed ram is standard and fine for most users. Corsair, Crucial, Kingston are all good brands. Note, if your motherboard supports dual channel ram, get a dual channel kit (eg 2x512MB).

My choice:
Corsair ValueSelect 1GB (2x512MB) 184-pin dual channel kit (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145440) - $150 CAD

Hard Drives:
Hard drive technology hasn't changed much in the last few years, and isn't likely to in the future. One thing to consider is whether to get PATA vs SATA. SATA is newer and has a smaller cable (it's serial instead of parallel communications for PATA), but today there is not much speed difference. Since SATA cables are smaller, it is easier and more neat to wire, and allows better air circulation. Newer motherboards support both, so either one is fine. But might as well get SATA since the price is about the same. Note also that SATA II is mostly a marketing ploy (most SATA II hard drives don't implement the full feature set of the specification), so don't get Sata II unless the unless the price is the same. For brands: Seagates have the best warranty (5 years), but they are a bit slow and a bit noisy. Western Digital and Samsung are also good, and some live by Hitachi. Be warned that a lot of people complain about Maxtor's dying on them. I choose Samsung because they are supposed to be very quiet and the new P120 series is pretty fast.

My choice:
Samsung SpinPoint P series 200GB Sata II (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822152022) - $130 CAD

DVD/CD drive:
The DVD/CD writers are really cheap these days. Not much difference in the known brand names. NEC 3520 and 3540 are very good.

My choice: NEC 3540A (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16827152052) - $67 CAD

Final cost shipped - $1381 CAD

I'm very happy with that price.

Some helpful links:
Anandtec building a computer thread (http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=27&threadid=1520618)
Anandtech motherboard guide thread (http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=29&threadid=1639727&enterth read=y)
Quiet components recommendations (http://www.silentpcreview.com/section10.html)
Anandtech forums (http://forums.anandtech.com/)

I hope this was helpful. Please feel free to add any information or helpful links. Comments appreciated.

Hoopster81
08-03-2005, 03:36 PM
sweet. sticky this?

MyMindIsGoing
08-03-2005, 03:41 PM
"Steel is generally quieter than aluminum, but aluminum is heavier"

Eh. Aluminum is lighter, alot.

Isura
08-03-2005, 04:41 PM
[ QUOTE ]
"Steel is generally quieter than aluminum, but aluminum is heavier"

Eh. Aluminum is lighter, alot.

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, I meant that. /images/graemlins/smile.gif

MyMindIsGoing
08-03-2005, 04:46 PM
Pretty good post otherwise, even though I don't agree with it all. Much of it is just personal taste though /images/graemlins/smile.gif

Entity
08-03-2005, 05:11 PM
Similar to my new setup I'm building, but I went with an X700 for my video card (I don't game and will upgrade the card later if I change my mind) for $150, and a DFI Lanparty Nforce 4 board, and a new AMD X2 4400+ for my processor. I also got 2GB of OCZ PC3200 memory. /images/graemlins/smile.gif

Isura
08-03-2005, 06:50 PM
[ QUOTE ]
Similar to my new setup I'm building, but I went with an X700 for my video card (I don't game and will upgrade the card later if I change my mind) for $150, and a DFI Lanparty Nforce 4 board, and a new AMD X2 4400+ for my processor. I also got 2GB of OCZ PC3200 memory. /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

Nice setup. I was tempted to get a DFI board, those things look nice. But it would have been -EV for my computer and my poker since I'd be tempted to start donking around with overclocking everything.

_dave_
08-03-2005, 10:43 PM
Quick post to correct a link in the OP:

Anandtech Forums (http://forums.anandtech.com/)
Anandtech Main Site (http://www.anandtech.com/)

Great sources for hardware info / news / help

08-04-2005, 04:45 AM
It should be said that people should stay away from IBM hard drives. They seem to randomly die on people.

I've always liked Western Digital hard drives myself, and think that they are the most reliable.

bort411
08-04-2005, 09:30 AM
I can't say enough about how awesome the Western Digital Raptor is. I highly recommend looking into it.

Maulik
08-04-2005, 12:16 PM
You need 4 FPS whatever so you can twelve table the $30s

Isura
08-04-2005, 04:27 PM
[ QUOTE ]
I can't say enough about how awesome the Western Digital Raptor is. I highly recommend looking into it.

[/ QUOTE ]

I wish I could afford it. Awesome boot drive.

MyMindIsGoing
08-04-2005, 05:02 PM
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
I can't say enough about how awesome the Western Digital Raptor is. I highly recommend looking into it.

[/ QUOTE ]

I wish I could afford it. Awesome boot drive.

[/ QUOTE ]

I would rather put my money on a solid state disk. There is one out now for "home use", pretty cheap, and they will be even cheaper and support more memory in the future. Plus the interfaces will be faster witch is now the bottleneck for that solid state drive. I for sure gonna get one later. Been waiting for years.

http://www.anandtech.com/tradeshows/showdoc.aspx?i=2431&p=5
http://www.anandtech.com/storage/showdoc.aspx?i=2480&p=1

Jeff W
08-04-2005, 07:16 PM
It looks like you're overpaying for all of your components.

Examples: Sonata II goes for $100+$16 on Newegg. Venice 3000+ goes for $146+$0 on Newegg.

Also, you should get a battery backup supply to protect you from downtime and your computer from brownouts and electrical problems. I have this one (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16842106124) and I've never had a loss of power despite living in a house with extremely poor wiring. 1200VA is powers a PC, 2 LCDs and a cable modem.

Isura
08-05-2005, 02:01 AM
[ QUOTE ]
It looks like you're overpaying for all of your components.

[/ QUOTE ]

The prices are in canadian, and newegg doesn't ship to canadian addresses. /images/graemlins/frown.gif

Thanks for the link for the battery backup.

boondockst
08-08-2005, 10:55 PM
For a $150 case look into this: (company i used to work for)

Koolance (http://www.koolance.com)

the new video coolers are sick