PCTech Forums

Ok this is my very first post and its going to be a long one. I am atteneding College and i am in my second year as a Information Systems Managment Major and i have decided to assemble a computer. I have been planing on paper for about a month now and need some seriously help since this is my first time building a computer. I know very little about the compatablity of hardware. So here it is, please any advice or help is good advice. I HAVENT LOOKED AT MOTHER BOARDS YET SINCE I MIGHT BE GETTING ONE FROM A SOCKET 478 FROM A FREIND AND I DONT KNOW THE SPECS OF IT, SO IF YOU HAVE ANY SUGGESTIONS PLEASE FEEL FREE TO ADD. Also if any of this is overkill or not enough please tell me. thanks.

Mission Statement
-To make a killer desktop for gaming (like CS, Americas Army, Age3, and/or Spore)
-Try to keep the costs under a grand (somewhere around 1200 max.)
-Just a very quick computer all around
-Keep this thing running for sometime.
-Make it look cool


Ok so here is the hardware list:
(Following parts from Newegg.com)

Proccessor
Intel Pentium 4 $277.00
Socket 478
3.4GHz
FSB= 800MHz
L1= 12kb+16kb
L2= 1 mb
Pro-Type= 90nm
Hyper Threading= yes
Multimedia= MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3
3 year warranty

Hard Drive
Fujitsu $195.00
36.7 gb
cache= 8mb
RPM= 15,000
Seek time= 3.3 ms
Write time= 3.8 ms
Latency= 2 ms
Interface= SCSI Ultra 320 68pin
5 year warranty

Hard Drive Cooler
Vantec $33.49
VTX-col-bk
Has 2 fans with settings (Low,High)
Temperature Display
Fits in standard 5.25 bay
fan speed= 2000-3700 rpm
Compatible with all 3.5 hard drives

i didnt know if i need this next part.
SCSI Controller $149.99
2x 68pin SCSI + 1x 50pin ultra SCSI
64-bit pci (32-bit compatible)
Dimensions 6.87''x3.87''
Transfer rate= 160mb/s
warranty 5 years

Memory
Kingston $193.95
ValueRom
240pin DDR2, SDRAM
2Gb (2x1gb)
DDR@ 533 (pc2 4200)
Cas Latency 4 <---What is that?
unbuffered <---What does that mean?
Life time Warranty

RAM Heat Spreader
Vantac
Iceberg

Video Card
Sapphire $199.00
radeon x800pro
coreclock= 475MHz
pixel pipelines= 12
Memory clock= 900Mhz
Memory size= 256mb
Memory type= GDDR3
Interface= PCI express x16
RamDac= 400Mhz

Input Devices
Logitech wireless $24.95
Keyboard and Mouse

CD-Drive
ASUS $21.99
CD-Burner
Cache =2mb
CD-R= 52x
CD-RW= 32x
CD-ROM= 52x
form= 5"

(Following parts from Xoxide.com)

Case
Logisys UV Reactive $79.99
450(h)x 200(w)x 470(d) mm
4 5.25" bays
2 3.5" bays
6 3.5" internal bays
Front USB jack
4 UV fans

Power Supply
6"Lx 5.60"Wx 3.50"H $54.99
20pin ATX 500watts
4Pin standart drive connectors
one 6Pin AUX power connection
one 4pin 12v power connection

Logisys Wireless Remote
Fan speed control $34.99
2 usb
5usbDC and 12vDC power
temperature sensor
Wireless remote to turn on power

Logisys 3.5" Digital fan controller
3 thermal sensors $19.99
3 temp sensors
3 fan speed controllers
displays time and has alarm

(added up with shipping added comes somewhere in the neighborhood of $150.00)

First off thank you very much for reading all this and taking your time, but i have a few things to add. please tell me if its good, not good, nessecary or a waste of time.Thanks.

- the reason for the fan controller and the wireless remote is ill have 4 case fans, the heat sink, and the video card fan to control, and the fan controller only does three on its own, and i just want to monitor my investments.
- I know acrylic retain the most heat, but with all of this fan control and thermal monitoring i was contemplating overclocking my 3.4 to somewhere in the neighborhood of 3.5 or maybe 3.6. Also i was contemplating overclocking my videocard too but, i dont know how much is too much.
Thank you very much,
Ross[/b]

Gecko's right. You need to get the motherboard first. Your budget sounds realistic.

I would suggest a motherboard that supports dual inline memory. With an inline memory board, you figure your total ram and divide it by two and purchase two sticks, this config is double speed.

Forget the scuzzy hard drive, your throwing your money away. Get yourself a Sata 80 gig for half the price.

A lot of the new boards come with a gigbit nic which isn't bad.

If you select a case for it, total for case and ps should be less that $90--your a little over there.

For a video card, you need to ask yourself Are we going to play games? If thats a yes, you do not want a motherboard with video onboard.

unbuffered memory is the "cheep stuff." I'm not sure if the new motherboards that use two gig of memory can use unbuffered memory. It use to be if you used more that one gig of memory it had to be buffered, and the stuff is twice the price of unbuffered. In the bios you check 'ecc scrub' to check the memory on boot--takes about 8 minutes for a 4 gigabite system boot. They usually call tech support after only waiting 4 minutes saying their computer won't boot .

As for the fans you have, I really don't think that you will need them.

Good luck on your quest

Thanks Duck for the help and boy do i feel like a computer noob (scuzzy=scsi). But now i believe that i have found a mobo. There are only a few more things i need your guys advice on then i can start putting this bad boy together (or at least start asking you guys on how and what order to put everything together). Basically i need to know if this is all compatible and if im actually building a decent computer, or can i go better with these parts with staying in the price range of 900-1150. And again thanks for reading this and helping me out thus far, and please if anything isn't good or theres something better for around the same price please feel free to inform me.

MOBO $60.00
ASUS (<--tech at my college spoke highly of ASUS)
P45800D-x
Socket 478
FSB=800/533MHz
North Bridge=SIS 655FX
South Bridge=SIS 964
4x184 pin DDR
DDR400(PC3200)
Max Memory=4gb
Dual Channel Support= yes
AGP=1xAGP 8x/4x
PCI=5
PATA=2xATA133
SATA=2xSATA150
Raid= 0/1
Onboard video=no
Audio=ADI AD 1888

Processor $277.00
Intel Pentium 4
Socket 478
3.4GHz
FSB=800MHz
L1=12kb+16kb
L2=1mb
Proccess type=90nm
Hyper Threading=yes
Multimedia=MMX,SSE,SSE2,SSE3
3 year warrenty

Memory $129.00
PQI
PowerSeries
1gb
ddr400(pc3200)
Cas Latency=3
ECC=yes
Registered
Lifetime warrenty

Harddrive $77.00
Hitachi
Deskstar T7K250
Capacity=160gb
Cache=8mb
rpm=7200rpm
Seek=8.5ms
Latency=4.17ms
Sata 3.0gb/s
3year warrenty

Input Device $24.95
Cordless logitech
Keyboard + mouse

Cd-Burner $28.00
ASUS
cache=2m
CD-R=52x
CD-RW=32x
CD-ROM=52x

Video Card $235.00
HIS Hightech
HX80GOQT256-3TOEN
Radeon x800GTO
Core clock=500MHz
Pixel Pipelines=12
Memory clock=1000MHz
Memory size=256MB
Memory Interface=256-bit
Memory type= GDDR3
Directx9
OpenGL 2.0
PCI Expressx16
1 D-SUB
1 DVI
Tv-Out=HDTV/S-VIdeo/Composite Out
Vivo=no
no tuner
RAMDAC=400MHz

Power Supply $24.99
ATX
500w
1 fan
no PFC
no Dual 12v
Input voltage= 115AC
Input frequency= 47-63Hz
Input Current= 6A
6x4Pin, 1xSATA P4 ready

Case $69.00
Sunbeam
ATX Mid Tower
Transparent blue LED
External 3.5''=2
External 5.25''=4
Internal 3.5''=5
Expansion slots=7
Dimensions 19.9''x7.9''x17.6''

Case fans 5x$2.99= $14.95
Rosewill
80mm
rpm=2500rpm
Air flow=32.11CFM
Noise level=25.0 dBA
Power Connection= 4Pin
Color blue

Fan Controller $26.99
Zalman
ZM-MFC1
5.25'' Drive bay
6-Channel fan controller
Universal DC fan controller


Ok so again thanks for bearing with me,but now is the multiple question round.
-First off is that a good motherboard?
-Since my mother board doesnt have on board video wont nothing show on the screen when booted?
-With regards to Memory is it better to have two sticks of 512, or one stick if 1g?
-What is Cas Latency when refering to Memory? And what is ECC?
-Does that Hard Drive work with everything else?
-Is that a good Video Card? Are there better for around the same price?
-Does the Video Cards memory type have to match the mother boards memory type?
-Is an ATX power supply worthy of keeping my computer running?

I believe thats it for now, thanks alot for all the help.

****Sorry for bumping this but i need help asap since my laptop just died and i need to start on this project****