- Joined
- May 29, 2008
NOTE: I have replied with a much shorter version covering the essentials of what I need. If you can't read all of this (I don't blame you), read that.
Hello everyone, I am new to these forums and I was told the people here know what they are doing. I am attempting to build a PC for the first time, and I need some advice on parts and certain aspects of assembly such as RAID setup, BIOS configuration, and surprisingly enough, overclocking. Please assume my tech level is somewhere between novice and medium. I apologize in advance for any stupid questions.
And I REALLY apologize for the extremely long post. I’m typing this up in MS Word, and it is 4 pages long. I know I ask a lot of questions and put in a lot of spaces, but I am trying to keep this organized for the ease of the reader.
Ok. First I will go over the parts that I am looking at, starting with what I know the most about and how certain I am that they are the parts I want.
Processor:
I am going with the Intel Core 2 Extreme, pretty standard, not too much help I need with that unless there is a site that sells them for cheaper than the standard ~$1500, which I doubt.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...c=OTC-Froogle-_-Processors-_-intel-_-19115051
Graphics Cards:
I am going with dual nVidia 9800 GX2s.
Questions:
1) First off, what is the difference between these different versions I see on newegg:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...E&Description=geforce 9800 gx2&page=1&bop=And
Is there a reason one card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130344 ($560)
is so much more than another by the same publisher?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130338
2) Since my system is going to be so expensive (probably over $5000), I could save money by only getting one card at first and getting the second later. If I set the PC up with only one card, how difficult would it be to go in later and re-configure for dual sLi? Because if it would be too difficult or too much of a pain, I would rather just get both cards up-front and avoid a headache later.
3) This card WILL play HD video fine, right? I eventually plan to get a blu ray drive and I know that some cards specifically say HD in the name. Is that because they are lower-end cards and it is a big deal for them to be able to do HD whereas that is a standard feature on high-end cards? Or is it that those cards are specifically meant for HD video and can play in better HD resolution than the 9800GX2s?
Memory:
I’m almost 100% positive on the memory setup, I am planning on simple 4GB of Corsair DDR3 memory:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...top+Memory)-_-Corsair+(XMS+Series)-_-20145188
Sound Card:
I’m going with the Xtreme Gamer Card, I think that’s about the best I would need; I don’t know if there are any better cards out there and I don’t know if I would notice the difference anyway.
Question:
What in the world is the difference between these two cards?
This one says 96KHz and sells for $91:
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102006
And this one is 192KHz and sells for $136:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...oogle-_-Sound+Card-_-Creative+Labs-_-29102005
What exactly does the KHz measurement mean, and will the card with 96KHz sound much worse?
Power supply:
I don’t know too much about power supplies, I just know that I want something that will be quiet, won’t overheat and will be enough to power all of my parts. I am looking at the “PC Power & Cooling Silencer (Red) 750W EPS12V”:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...ower+Supplies-_-PC+Power+++Cooling-_-17341011
Since I’m now getting to the things on the list I’m not too sure about, I could use some suggestions. I have no idea if this is a good power unit or if it will even be enough to power all the parts I’m looking at or if it is overkill.
Hard Drive:
I know more about the hard drive than the power supply luckily, but I do have a few questions. I am looking at the Seagate Barracuda. It looks like a good quality drive for a good price. I initially looked at a simple 1TB drive, but then I found out how RAID works, and I thought I might be better off setting up four 250GB drives as a 1TB RAID drive:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...TC-Froogle-_-Hard+Drives-_-Seagate-_-22148309
It is about $120 more, but I think the difference in speed will be noticeable enough to warrant the upgrade. What do you guys think?
Also, I read up on different RAID configurations and I think I should probably stick with RAID0, or Performance RAID, but I was wondering how a RAID10 configuration would work. Would it pair the Hard Drives off and do 2 separate 500GB RAID0 with one being a backup? Either way, I don’t think I want to set that up because I have a lot of games and music and vids and I got 1TB of RAM because I ran out of space extremely quickly on my 80GB HDD on my laptop. The only game I even have on it at the moment is WoW.
Operating System:
I know I have to get a 64-bit OS with my 4GB memory, I only want to know if it is possible to run XP with my components or if I will have to switch to Vista. If I do need to upgrade, then I plan on getting Vista basic. I don’t think I need a higher OS than that.
Motherboard:
I am thinking about the ASUS Striker II Extreme http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131274
Or the Asus P5E3
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131276
If anyone has any suggestions for a motherboard that will do everything I want, I would be more than happy to listen because I don’t know motherboards and I can’t tell if a motherboard has what I need. For example, I don’t know what the difference between all the various PCIe slots are and I can’t tell if boards will have enough room for my graphics cards and other attachments.
One question: will the P5E3 allow me to get wireless internet without installing a wireless PCIe card? The card claims to have WI-FI built in, but I don't know if I would need anything else to make that work. Because would be a pain to get an Ethernet cord into my room from the office, where our modem is kept in the house. Once I get back up to my apt. at college I will most likely keep the pc connected via wired connection, but I want to be able to do wireless.
Now onto the parts I am completely clueless about.
Fan:
I have no idea what kind of cooling I am going to need for this rig. For all I know, I could need six fans sticking out every which way or I might just need one fan/heatsink that applies directly to the CPU (I did not know about this before reading Corsair’s system-building guide, which coincidentally I will probably use to help me build the sytem: http://www.corsairmemory.com/systembuild/report.aspx?report_id=12472&sid=2 )
I do know that I want something as quiet and cool as possible, I know it is going to be a (insert curse word here) to keep those GX2s and that Core 2 extreme cool.
Case:
There are so many freaking cases out there that I can’t even begin to decide. I don’t even know what size case I would need. I am assuming that I would need a full-size case but I really don’t know. I looked at a couple cases, all around $300, but I figure I should ask you guys first.
As an added note, I don’t LAN with my PC. The only time this PC will be moved will be in the summer when I come home from college or go back to college, so weight is no issue.
Extras:
I’ll go ahead and list the other components that I’m getting. They are not necessarily things I need help with, but for all I know there could be a hidden compatibility issue with the monitor and the sound card and all my hard work will be in vain. Better to be safe.
Monitor:
I’m going with the Dell Ultrasharp 24” because it got a good review on CNET and because I hate glare on my displays and this one is supposed to cut down on glare.
http://reviews.cnet.com/lcd-monitor...8wfp/4505-3174_7-32886455.html?tag=prod.txt.2
Speakers:
I didn’t look very much, but I think the Bose Companion 3 speakers look good. They are a higher-end series for not too much. I’m not a big audiophile, HD video is more my thing, so I think a basic setup will be fine for me.
http://www.bose.com/controller?event=view_product_page_event&product=companion3_computer_index
Ok, that’s all the components I can think of. If I’ve missed anything important, please point it out for me.
Once again, if you know any places to get these components cheaper or lower the price of the build, please let me know because it is going to be around $5000 the way it is now.
If anyone has any links to help me with BIOS setup and some more in-depth help for the initial setup, it would be greatly appreciated. I think I can attach the parts easily enough, but I’m worried about setting them up to actually work, and especially editing the BIOS and doing the overclocking. After all, I am a noob when it comes to all of this so I could very easily screw up. I think I can get a friend that fixes computers to help me, but I still want to be able to understand how to do it myself just in case.
Finally, I just wanted to mention that I have been basing this build off of ability to run Crysis at all highest settings with a smooth frame rate. I know that I have mostly highest-end components here; do you think I would still need to Overclock to achieve that, or is there plenty of power here already?
Thanks for reading my post in advance and I hope I didn't pose too much of an annoyance.
Hello everyone, I am new to these forums and I was told the people here know what they are doing. I am attempting to build a PC for the first time, and I need some advice on parts and certain aspects of assembly such as RAID setup, BIOS configuration, and surprisingly enough, overclocking. Please assume my tech level is somewhere between novice and medium. I apologize in advance for any stupid questions.
And I REALLY apologize for the extremely long post. I’m typing this up in MS Word, and it is 4 pages long. I know I ask a lot of questions and put in a lot of spaces, but I am trying to keep this organized for the ease of the reader.
Ok. First I will go over the parts that I am looking at, starting with what I know the most about and how certain I am that they are the parts I want.
Processor:
I am going with the Intel Core 2 Extreme, pretty standard, not too much help I need with that unless there is a site that sells them for cheaper than the standard ~$1500, which I doubt.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...c=OTC-Froogle-_-Processors-_-intel-_-19115051
Graphics Cards:
I am going with dual nVidia 9800 GX2s.
Questions:
1) First off, what is the difference between these different versions I see on newegg:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...E&Description=geforce 9800 gx2&page=1&bop=And
Is there a reason one card
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130344 ($560)
is so much more than another by the same publisher?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130338
2) Since my system is going to be so expensive (probably over $5000), I could save money by only getting one card at first and getting the second later. If I set the PC up with only one card, how difficult would it be to go in later and re-configure for dual sLi? Because if it would be too difficult or too much of a pain, I would rather just get both cards up-front and avoid a headache later.
3) This card WILL play HD video fine, right? I eventually plan to get a blu ray drive and I know that some cards specifically say HD in the name. Is that because they are lower-end cards and it is a big deal for them to be able to do HD whereas that is a standard feature on high-end cards? Or is it that those cards are specifically meant for HD video and can play in better HD resolution than the 9800GX2s?
Memory:
I’m almost 100% positive on the memory setup, I am planning on simple 4GB of Corsair DDR3 memory:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...top+Memory)-_-Corsair+(XMS+Series)-_-20145188
Sound Card:
I’m going with the Xtreme Gamer Card, I think that’s about the best I would need; I don’t know if there are any better cards out there and I don’t know if I would notice the difference anyway.
Question:
What in the world is the difference between these two cards?
This one says 96KHz and sells for $91:
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102006
And this one is 192KHz and sells for $136:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...oogle-_-Sound+Card-_-Creative+Labs-_-29102005
What exactly does the KHz measurement mean, and will the card with 96KHz sound much worse?
Power supply:
I don’t know too much about power supplies, I just know that I want something that will be quiet, won’t overheat and will be enough to power all of my parts. I am looking at the “PC Power & Cooling Silencer (Red) 750W EPS12V”:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...ower+Supplies-_-PC+Power+++Cooling-_-17341011
Since I’m now getting to the things on the list I’m not too sure about, I could use some suggestions. I have no idea if this is a good power unit or if it will even be enough to power all the parts I’m looking at or if it is overkill.
Hard Drive:
I know more about the hard drive than the power supply luckily, but I do have a few questions. I am looking at the Seagate Barracuda. It looks like a good quality drive for a good price. I initially looked at a simple 1TB drive, but then I found out how RAID works, and I thought I might be better off setting up four 250GB drives as a 1TB RAID drive:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...TC-Froogle-_-Hard+Drives-_-Seagate-_-22148309
It is about $120 more, but I think the difference in speed will be noticeable enough to warrant the upgrade. What do you guys think?
Also, I read up on different RAID configurations and I think I should probably stick with RAID0, or Performance RAID, but I was wondering how a RAID10 configuration would work. Would it pair the Hard Drives off and do 2 separate 500GB RAID0 with one being a backup? Either way, I don’t think I want to set that up because I have a lot of games and music and vids and I got 1TB of RAM because I ran out of space extremely quickly on my 80GB HDD on my laptop. The only game I even have on it at the moment is WoW.
Operating System:
I know I have to get a 64-bit OS with my 4GB memory, I only want to know if it is possible to run XP with my components or if I will have to switch to Vista. If I do need to upgrade, then I plan on getting Vista basic. I don’t think I need a higher OS than that.
Motherboard:
I am thinking about the ASUS Striker II Extreme http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131274
Or the Asus P5E3
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131276
If anyone has any suggestions for a motherboard that will do everything I want, I would be more than happy to listen because I don’t know motherboards and I can’t tell if a motherboard has what I need. For example, I don’t know what the difference between all the various PCIe slots are and I can’t tell if boards will have enough room for my graphics cards and other attachments.
One question: will the P5E3 allow me to get wireless internet without installing a wireless PCIe card? The card claims to have WI-FI built in, but I don't know if I would need anything else to make that work. Because would be a pain to get an Ethernet cord into my room from the office, where our modem is kept in the house. Once I get back up to my apt. at college I will most likely keep the pc connected via wired connection, but I want to be able to do wireless.
Now onto the parts I am completely clueless about.
Fan:
I have no idea what kind of cooling I am going to need for this rig. For all I know, I could need six fans sticking out every which way or I might just need one fan/heatsink that applies directly to the CPU (I did not know about this before reading Corsair’s system-building guide, which coincidentally I will probably use to help me build the sytem: http://www.corsairmemory.com/systembuild/report.aspx?report_id=12472&sid=2 )
I do know that I want something as quiet and cool as possible, I know it is going to be a (insert curse word here) to keep those GX2s and that Core 2 extreme cool.
Case:
There are so many freaking cases out there that I can’t even begin to decide. I don’t even know what size case I would need. I am assuming that I would need a full-size case but I really don’t know. I looked at a couple cases, all around $300, but I figure I should ask you guys first.
As an added note, I don’t LAN with my PC. The only time this PC will be moved will be in the summer when I come home from college or go back to college, so weight is no issue.
Extras:
I’ll go ahead and list the other components that I’m getting. They are not necessarily things I need help with, but for all I know there could be a hidden compatibility issue with the monitor and the sound card and all my hard work will be in vain. Better to be safe.
Monitor:
I’m going with the Dell Ultrasharp 24” because it got a good review on CNET and because I hate glare on my displays and this one is supposed to cut down on glare.
http://reviews.cnet.com/lcd-monitor...8wfp/4505-3174_7-32886455.html?tag=prod.txt.2
Speakers:
I didn’t look very much, but I think the Bose Companion 3 speakers look good. They are a higher-end series for not too much. I’m not a big audiophile, HD video is more my thing, so I think a basic setup will be fine for me.
http://www.bose.com/controller?event=view_product_page_event&product=companion3_computer_index
Ok, that’s all the components I can think of. If I’ve missed anything important, please point it out for me.
Once again, if you know any places to get these components cheaper or lower the price of the build, please let me know because it is going to be around $5000 the way it is now.
If anyone has any links to help me with BIOS setup and some more in-depth help for the initial setup, it would be greatly appreciated. I think I can attach the parts easily enough, but I’m worried about setting them up to actually work, and especially editing the BIOS and doing the overclocking. After all, I am a noob when it comes to all of this so I could very easily screw up. I think I can get a friend that fixes computers to help me, but I still want to be able to understand how to do it myself just in case.
Finally, I just wanted to mention that I have been basing this build off of ability to run Crysis at all highest settings with a smooth frame rate. I know that I have mostly highest-end components here; do you think I would still need to Overclock to achieve that, or is there plenty of power here already?
Thanks for reading my post in advance and I hope I didn't pose too much of an annoyance.
Last edited:
TO THE FORUMS!!
