a newb with some cash and a craving for a 1337 comp!!!!

Dear good ppl of O/Cers forum land,

I currently have a Dell, but i would like to get another computer and build on my own this time. So bare with me as I am total new at this. I already got a good gripe on how to build the bloke...but im not to sure about the different hardware.

--And by the way, i dont plan on overclocking anything. I know it can be done safely...but i have friend who is 10 times more computer savy than me and he fried about $1000 worth of hardware after attemting to oc a few times. and i cant afford that lose AT ALL. !!plz forgive all mighty overclokcing gods!!--

1)CASE-The look of a case isnt terribly important to me-i just want a quality product with compatibility. I have been looking at the-Enermax, FS-710B. Black, 10-Bay, Enermax 330W P-4 PS, Server Tower Case-and it seems to be exactly what im looking for but then again you ppl know best so plz gimme some feed back. And since it comes with 2 rear case fans installed and a front case fan isntalled i would guess an AMD Athlon XP with the retail heatsink/ fan that comes with it would be good enough for cooling but i could be wrong.

2)CPU- im sure i want an AMD Athlon XP for cost reasons. I've been looking around at the 1800s for around $89. However, i have discovered that i could nearly get a 2000 for about $90!! But the porcessor come in OEM packaging. If anyone can recommend either retail packaging or OEM i would like to hear from you. I sort of iffy about OEM since you really dont know where the thing CPU is comming from. Also what type of fan should i go for with my AMD. Like i mentioned b4 if i dont plan to overclock it would the heatsink/fan that comes in a retail package be good?

3)MOBO-i found an-ASUS A7V8X AMD Athlon/Athlon XP/Duron Socket A, Processor Mother Board-it seemed like the right choice to me since im looking to put in 512mb Corsair DDR400 PC3200 RAM. I wanted the fastest RAM possible and this mobo was the most reasonable price that could support DDR400 RAM. Has anyone ever tried this mobo or something very similar cuz i would like to know if it is any good. Also i saw an Intel D850EMV2 mobo had a plastic mount for the cpu heatsink/fan. Are there any mobo's like the ASUS i described that have the mount....or is the mount worthless??(i have never installed an heatsink/fan on a cpu)

--bare wit me guys....i yap up a storm--

4)MEMORY-As i said b4 i dont plan on overclocking ANYTHING

I like the antec cases personaly. For the price the xp1600 is amazing concidering it runs at xp2000 with no additional voltage. I used msi epox and albatron motherboard and for the price/goodies the albatron beats them all. the only thing missing on that board is raid it has duel bios 1/6 divider ever a voice thing that tells you the problem. Samsung seems to be a good choice of ram i would sugest genuine samsung if u go for that the samsung chips on generic pcb prforms rather poorly

what type of antec case? and im not sure what u mean by the xo1600 runs at the xp2000 with same voltage...remember imma n00b!!

he means that you can overclock the athlon xp1600 to xp2000 speeds on stock voltage with adequate cooling very easily. as long as you keep heat in check...high voltage is the normal killers for components. so, getting that good of an o/c with stock voltage is not dangerous and is a very very good deal for only $54.99 at newegg.

jeff

OEm means you arn't playing 1/4 more for fancy packaging and paperwork you wont use.

Go for OEM.. its the same CPU as a retail..

---First off I have a question to Jeff Bolton---

If i was to get say an xp1800 could i overclock it to the xp2200 at the same voltage???Or does that only apply to the overclock from xp1600 to the xp2000??

---AND to Lusankya---

Since the OEM cpu's dont come with a heatsink/fan do you have any recommendations(for heatsink/fan) to go along with an Athlon XP??? I may overclock it so i know i will need a beefy one...i think...I fyou got any favorite heatsink/fans for the AMD gimme a shout.

---Some other questions to anyone---

Yesterday i found and Abit VID card that had an OTES exhaust system!!!!! Man that thing looks cool but I'm wondering does a g4 ti4200 without exhaust system put out that much heat?? And has anyone heard anything about a g4 ti4200 price drop say for the gainward cards?? Cuz i have been looking at those and they seem pretty good.

<<<***Geforce4 Ti4200 OTES VID Card***>>>

it doesnt put out that much heat, and IMO the geforce4's are junk! a geforce3 can compete just as well..

i think the xp1600 is just a special circumstance...it has a very good stepping right now and you are almost guaranteed to get a good stepping if you order from newegg.

for the record, a gf3 probably could keep up with most games..for now. but if he wants a 1337 rig then geforce 4 or radeon 9700 is the way to go. its just a wiser investment because it still has a lot more life in it, IMO.

jeff

Thanks everyone for the great feedback!!!!

---But im not done yet, i got some more questions---

I understand that RAMBUS RAM modules must be installed in pairs...like if you want 512mb you need to put in 2 sticks of 256....but does that rule apply to DDR ram too?? And if it does and i chose to put in a 256mb module for now, if i added another 256 module later would that be as fast as a 512 single module...or would i be better of with getting a single 512 module from the start????

Thnx for input- ---Justin

no, it doesn't apply with DDR.

get 1x512 as it will be faster, and most likely yield higher overlocks than 2x256 if you plan on overclocking.

good luck!

one more thing that the others did not address. 330 watts will not be a good choice if you plan on o/c'ing at all. I would suggest you go with at least a 400w unit. OI am only running a duron 1.1 and I am pulling a lot of juice when I bump the multiplier and voltage. I am personaly going to up rade to a 450w soon so I can continue on my quest of getting 1.33 Ghtz from my 1.1.

Lusankya said:

OEm means you arn't playing 1/4 more for fancy packaging and paperwork you wont use.

Go for OEM.. its the same CPU as a retail..

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O, and the retail cpu's come with those useless 3 year warranties too OEM has only whatever the distributor you get it from gives you in terms of warranty, AMD doesn't know you at all. Typically you get 30 days, but some only give 15. Hardly enough time to get the thing shipped, installed, and tested in some cases.

larva said:

O, and the retail cpu's come with those useless 3 year warranties too OEM has only whatever the distributor you get it from gives you in terms of warranty, AMD doesn't know you at all. Typically you get 30 days, but some only give 15. Hardly enough time to get the thing shipped, installed, and tested in some cases.

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theres no point in getting a warranty if you are going to be tampering with it.

WELCOME TO THE FORUMS

Antec cases absolutely rock. For an uber-l33t system I'd get an Antec PLUS1080. Black, beige or metallic gray, these are the l33t35t of l33t. They're heavy steel, have VERY easy to use mobo standoffs (unlike Lian-Li, they bolt in and don't bend when you sneeze at them) and they come with Antec TruePower PSUs - the best ATX PSUs aside from PC Power and Cooling, in my experiences.

a newb with some cash and a craving for a 1337 comp!!!!

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Welcome to the forums. Just avoid "1337speak" so nobody will accuse you of being a wanker.

ColdMiser said:

nobody will accuse you of being a wanker.

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There's none of that here anyway.

IM NO WANKER.....

Thnx for ur advice donny_paycheck

I have a question about the Antec 1080 case u had a link to in ur reply. It said it had 3 80mm fans pre-installed so i was wandering is that a 2 rear fan 1 front fan setup. Because it only said 3 fans and pointed to the rear of the case. I was also lookin at a Themaltake xaser II case. They seemed to be well built with 5 fans pre-installed and a temp gauge, fan control switch, and usb jack in the front. Have you heard any good about them??

----THANKS FOR EVRYONES ADVICE---THE MORE THE BETTER------

BY THE WAY WELCOME TO THE FORUMS

THANKS DIEHARD!!!!

!!!!!!!!!KICK THE TIRES AND LIGHT THE FIRES!!!!!!!!!

case - lian li pc70 too much $ ? antecs a good choice

processor... axp1600 or 1800 defenately.

mobo: asus got good stuff



your supposed smart friend is not smart if he can manage to kill 1000$ worth of stuff. there is a greater chance of killing your computer when u put it together then when you OC it.