Building a Computer. Help!!! - Page 4

Alucard · 09-20-2003, 01:13 PM

It is perhaps a tad more difficult then turning on your console and slipping the game in. Those things are made for people with sub par intelligence.

Go the extra yard, be rewarded with great games that aren't even remotely resembled on any console.

SpaceManSpiff · 09-20-2003, 02:30 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by N?n-in-Eilph
Eh... Just curious, when you have all that, you just glue them together or something? Like those little Warhammer thingy orcs, glue RAM into Graphic Card, then screw Processor to hole D, then take Motherboard and stich it to CD drive...

hmm glue, never thought of that. Ive always used duct tape.

discomfort wings · 09-21-2003, 05:53 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by N?n-in-Eilph
Eh... Just curious, when you have all that, you just glue them together or something? Like those little Warhammer thingy orcs, glue RAM into Graphic Card, then screw Processor to hole D, then take Motherboard and stich it to CD drive...

And if that question was answered somewhere in this thread, then I did not notice it because I'm too lazy to read.

Hmm, you don't glue, fit motherboard into case, plug everything onto motherboard.

SpaceManSpiff · 09-22-2003, 04:06 AM

Well, After all my searching I think Ive found the system ill buy.

Motherboard

Its the one Alucard Suggested, and it looks good

CPU I think Alucard suggested this as well.

RAM Alucard suggested this brand, same type I planned on getting though.

Graphics Card

I took Seska's Advice on this one. Instead of getting a fx 5600. Hopefully this will run the games I want to play now well. I will upgrade to the 5900 or better later when there are better games out that I want to play.

Case

Eh, I got this all for looks, with a 400 watt power supply, and a cool little neon light.

dvd/cd drive. Ill keep what I have now and wait till the new ones come out and the old ones go down in prcie at the end of the year as Seska said. And if it doesnt happen then, oh well.

Monitor. Ill use the one I have now. Same for HD.

It may not be the best system, but its much better than the one I have now and its only costing $550. I just bought a car, so Ill have to wait a while to purchase this, and some of the items are one back order,

so it may be a while till I finally have it.

Here is a comparison of the new system vs. the old.

NEW ................................................OL D

CPU: Amd athlon xp 2600+.................... Amd K7 800MHz (The big kind)

RAM: DDR 3200 400 FSB etc. ....................Crappy ol SD ram

Graphics: GEforce 4 Ti 4200 64mb ....................GEforce 2 32mb

Motherboard: GOOD!! ............................................BAD!!

Thanks too everyone for the help especially Alucard and Seska. But everyone that posted was very helpfull. Well, except for Nin, but when is he ever helpfull. Hmm I went to put a winking smiley but the one I went for was gone, now there is only one and some new ones too haha. So Ill just leave a

to show that I was j/k Nin

.

09-22-2003, 05:08 AM

That GFX should do you good enough for Quake 3 engine based games (like the upcoming and excellent Call of Duty) and even for some of the newer games like Homeworld 2 and Max Payne 2 if you put your detail settings low. I'm also gonna wait on early to mi-next year to get me a better card, but right now 400 euro for a radeon 9700 pro is just not gonna happen. :p

Also, with Half-Life 2 having been out for a while we will be able to judge if the Nvidia or ATI chipsets are better suited for the engine. Right now it seems to be leaning heavily toward ATI. Time will tell!

Oh, and spacemen, you ahvent made any mention at all on what kinda cooling you intend to use. A frend of mine recently bought a new PC, a Tbred 2400. He used to scoff at me for spending 40 bucks on a HSF, so he went and bought a crappy $10 thing. He sure wasnt laughing when the CPU core ehat climbed up to 69 degrees C on idle. :p He now got a bare minimum ThermalTake and even so he gets 54 degrees.

Personally I use an ALPHA Pal Heatsink, it was lovely thing for my 1600 Palomino, but now its just good enough to keep my 2400 tb at 57 degrees on load. Since winter is coming Im not too worried about temp right now, as I dont think on load I will ever get to exceed 60 degrees, but I'm planning to get a Tt Silent Boost at some point - it has an excellent performance and low noise output, apparently it can keep even a 2800 at a nice and cool 37 degrees on idle, and around 42 on load.

Have a look on Ebay if you want to get one, they retail for about $25.

sin75 · 09-22-2003, 06:51 AM

Do you need a special hardware/software to know the temperature of the CPU? Never heard about that before.

Alucard · 09-22-2003, 07:49 AM

Theres a few software programs that test it. Like the excellent SiSoft Sandra program. That tests every aspect of your system.

Spaceman, if you're going for the ti4200, I would really really recommend getting the 9600 instead, mainly because Half Life 2 sucks hardcore with nvidia cards. Very sad.

09-22-2003, 07:59 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by sin75
Do you need a special hardware/software to know the temperature of the CPU? Never heard about that before.

Most moderm motherboards now come with a thermal diode right under the CPU to take the core temperature, and another thermal diode elsewhere that reads the teperature of the system (also known as boad temp.) Sisoft is the program I also personally use to measure temp, but there are others and plenty around, some even minimize to your system tray and give you a permanent reading thats always in sight.

You can also check your temp settings by going into your bios (hit the del key when booting up) under a section called "PC Health settings" or something like that. Other than being able to check the temp of your system and cpu, you can adjust the settings at which heat you want to be warned with a beep, at which temp you want the system to shut down and how fast you want your fans to spin.

Healin · 09-22-2003, 11:21 AM

Act I wouldn't get a GF4 Ti now unless I'm really on a budget. U can try to get a 9500 Non pro and chances are if u get v 25 you stand a pretty good chance of tweaking it to a 9700 wif softmod and hardmod it to enable the 8 pipelines. Else go gor a 9500pro or 9600pro.

You may think that the GF4 Ti is able to sustain ur games till u can afford to upgrade to 5900u but wouldn't it make more sense to get a DX 9 card now and upgrade later? HL2 is coming and so is a host of other games. Ignore if are planning to upgrade in like 3 - 6 months.

Personally I do a yearly upgrade. Sometimes I upgrade portions of my rig as and when i have extra cash. Much like what Alucard does eh if I don recall wrongly.

If I posted any wrong info pls correct me.

SpaceManSpiff · 09-22-2003, 06:32 PM

Heres what I has as far as cooling.

CPU fan

CPU shim thingy

Ill get some copper cases for my ram eventurally and maybe a HD fan. AS far as a system fan I just thought I wait till I got everything and see what it says in the manuals for cooling.

Alucard: can you list all of the games you know of that are coming out in the next 6 months that need a 5900 or 9800?

Alucard · 09-22-2003, 08:04 PM

Its not that you need the card to play them. ITs graphical features you may not be able to use though. Imagine bump-mapping for example. When it first came out they would show gorgeous water, etc etc. If your card dont support this feature then you'd have flat shiny water. Some games that will suppport it are Doom 3, Half Life 2, and by my reckoning, Thief 3, X-2,..um..theres a few games. I can't recall. You really really should go for the 9600 if you plan to upgrade later. Otherwise grab a 9700pro and live with that for about a year or two happily. You dont REALLY have to buy a 9800. For now that card is over kill.

Very good choice in brand name for fan, but I'd recommend you get something more powerful like the Thermaltake silent boost likeSeska said. That thing is quiieeeeeet and can go up to 3.4gig cpu.

SpaceManSpiff · 09-22-2003, 08:27 PM

How about this one? It says its silent and costs more, but they both say 17dB at 1,300 rpm. And 48dB at 4,800 rpm.
Fan

How man decibals at what rpms am I looking for?

Alucard · 09-22-2003, 11:32 PM

The important thing you should be looking at is what the fan is good for, and the details say up to +2600. Thing is thats what you're buying now. You want something much much beter then this. This is the fan I'm talking about..

http://www.11cb.com/cgi-bin/miva?Mer...tegory_Code=CF

Found this place and it claims free shipping. Might be something to look into.

Mishi · 09-23-2003, 01:44 AM

whats the american dollar vs euro ?

400 euro for a radeon 9700 pro

i think its about $200 US. my cousin just got one.
--
my specs
--
MOBO: Asus p4c800 deluxe
2x 512 corsair xms 3200 ddr
p4 2.6c
radeon 9800 pro
120gig hd
--
ps. my friend built an identical system except he has a barton 1500 overclocked to i think 3200 "forgot but they did something physically to the chip" it runs faster than mine >< and was $300us cheaper.

www.anandtech.com take a look at the radeon vs fx on HL2
the difference is amazing.

SpaceManSpiff · 09-23-2003, 02:24 AM

aah thanks Alucard, Ill get that fan instead.

Mishi: $1 U.S. dollar = 0.871014 Euros. So that 9700 pro would cost more in dollars than Euros, not less.

09-22-2003, 04:06 AM	#49
SpaceManSpiff Spiff to the Rescue!! Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Washington State Posts: 3,630	Well, After all my searching I think Ive found the system ill buy. Motherboard Its the one Alucard Suggested, and it looks good CPU I think Alucard suggested this as well. RAM Alucard suggested this brand, same type I planned on getting though. Graphics Card I took Seska's Advice on this one. Instead of getting a fx 5600. Hopefully this will run the games I want to play now well. I will upgrade to the 5900 or better later when there are better games out that I want to play. Case Eh, I got this all for looks, with a 400 watt power supply, and a cool little neon light. dvd/cd drive. Ill keep what I have now and wait till the new ones come out and the old ones go down in prcie at the end of the year as Seska said. And if it doesnt happen then, oh well. Monitor. Ill use the one I have now. Same for HD. It may not be the best system, but its much better than the one I have now and its only costing $550. I just bought a car, so Ill have to wait a while to purchase this, and some of the items are one back order, so it may be a while till I finally have it. Here is a comparison of the new system vs. the old. NEW ................................................OL D CPU: Amd athlon xp 2600+.................... Amd K7 800MHz (The big kind) RAM: DDR 3200 400 FSB etc. ....................Crappy ol SD ram Graphics: GEforce 4 Ti 4200 64mb ....................GEforce 2 32mb Motherboard: GOOD!! ............................................BAD!! Thanks too everyone for the help especially Alucard and Seska. But everyone that posted was very helpfull. Well, except for Nin, but when is he ever helpfull. Hmm I went to put a winking smiley but the one I went for was gone, now there is only one and some new ones too haha. So Ill just leave a to show that I was j/k Nin . __________________ Steam, Xbox Live, PSN, and Apple Gamecenter: xSpacemanspiff Currently Playing: LOTR: War in the North, Dark Souls, Resident Evil 5, Crysis 2. Last edited by SpaceManSpiff; 09-22-2003 at 04:08 AM.

09-22-2003, 11:21 AM	#54
Healin Registered User Join Date: Sep 2002 Location: On a dot Posts: 117	Act I wouldn't get a GF4 Ti now unless I'm really on a budget. U can try to get a 9500 Non pro and chances are if u get v 25 you stand a pretty good chance of tweaking it to a 9700 wif softmod and hardmod it to enable the 8 pipelines. Else go gor a 9500pro or 9600pro. You may think that the GF4 Ti is able to sustain ur games till u can afford to upgrade to 5900u but wouldn't it make more sense to get a DX 9 card now and upgrade later? HL2 is coming and so is a host of other games. Ignore if are planning to upgrade in like 3 - 6 months. Personally I do a yearly upgrade. Sometimes I upgrade portions of my rig as and when i have extra cash. Much like what Alucard does eh if I don recall wrongly. If I posted any wrong info pls correct me. __________________ Hmm..........

09-22-2003, 06:32 PM	#55
SpaceManSpiff Spiff to the Rescue!! Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Washington State Posts: 3,630	Heres what I has as far as cooling. CPU fan CPU shim thingy Ill get some copper cases for my ram eventurally and maybe a HD fan. AS far as a system fan I just thought I wait till I got everything and see what it says in the manuals for cooling. Alucard: can you list all of the games you know of that are coming out in the next 6 months that need a 5900 or 9800? __________________ Steam, Xbox Live, PSN, and Apple Gamecenter: xSpacemanspiff Currently Playing: LOTR: War in the North, Dark Souls, Resident Evil 5, Crysis 2.

09-22-2003, 08:27 PM	#57
SpaceManSpiff Spiff to the Rescue!! Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Washington State Posts: 3,630	How about this one? It says its silent and costs more, but they both say 17dB at 1,300 rpm. And 48dB at 4,800 rpm. Fan How man decibals at what rpms am I looking for? __________________ Steam, Xbox Live, PSN, and Apple Gamecenter: xSpacemanspiff Currently Playing: LOTR: War in the North, Dark Souls, Resident Evil 5, Crysis 2. Last edited by SpaceManSpiff; 09-22-2003 at 08:37 PM.

09-23-2003, 01:44 AM	#59
Mishi Registered User Join Date: Sep 2003 Location: USA Posts: 320	whats the american dollar vs euro ? 400 euro for a radeon 9700 pro i think its about $200 US. my cousin just got one. -- my specs -- MOBO: Asus p4c800 deluxe 2x 512 corsair xms 3200 ddr p4 2.6c radeon 9800 pro 120gig hd -- ps. my friend built an identical system except he has a barton 1500 overclocked to i think 3200 "forgot but they did something physically to the chip" it runs faster than mine >< and was $300us cheaper. www.anandtech.com take a look at the radeon vs fx on HL2 the difference is amazing. __________________ ><V

09-20-2003, 01:13 PM	#46
Alucard Registered User Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Australia Posts: 32,641	It is perhaps a tad more difficult then turning on your console and slipping the game in. Those things are made for people with sub par intelligence. Go the extra yard, be rewarded with great games that aren't even remotely resembled on any console.

09-22-2003, 05:08 AM	#50
Seska Guest Posts: n/a	That GFX should do you good enough for Quake 3 engine based games (like the upcoming and excellent Call of Duty) and even for some of the newer games like Homeworld 2 and Max Payne 2 if you put your detail settings low. I'm also gonna wait on early to mi-next year to get me a better card, but right now 400 euro for a radeon 9700 pro is just not gonna happen. :p Also, with Half-Life 2 having been out for a while we will be able to judge if the Nvidia or ATI chipsets are better suited for the engine. Right now it seems to be leaning heavily toward ATI. Time will tell! Oh, and spacemen, you ahvent made any mention at all on what kinda cooling you intend to use. A frend of mine recently bought a new PC, a Tbred 2400. He used to scoff at me for spending 40 bucks on a HSF, so he went and bought a crappy $10 thing. He sure wasnt laughing when the CPU core ehat climbed up to 69 degrees C on idle. :p He now got a bare minimum ThermalTake and even so he gets 54 degrees. Personally I use an ALPHA Pal Heatsink, it was lovely thing for my 1600 Palomino, but now its just good enough to keep my 2400 tb at 57 degrees on load. Since winter is coming Im not too worried about temp right now, as I dont think on load I will ever get to exceed 60 degrees, but I'm planning to get a Tt Silent Boost at some point - it has an excellent performance and low noise output, apparently it can keep even a 2800 at a nice and cool 37 degrees on idle, and around 42 on load. Have a look on Ebay if you want to get one, they retail for about $25.

09-22-2003, 06:51 AM	#51
sin75 Registered User Join Date: Jan 2003 Posts: 275	Do you need a special hardware/software to know the temperature of the CPU? Never heard about that before.

09-22-2003, 07:49 AM	#52
Alucard Registered User Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Australia Posts: 32,641	Theres a few software programs that test it. Like the excellent SiSoft Sandra program. That tests every aspect of your system. Spaceman, if you're going for the ti4200, I would really really recommend getting the 9600 instead, mainly because Half Life 2 sucks hardcore with nvidia cards. Very sad.

09-22-2003, 08:04 PM	#56
Alucard Registered User Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Australia Posts: 32,641	Its not that you need the card to play them. ITs graphical features you may not be able to use though. Imagine bump-mapping for example. When it first came out they would show gorgeous water, etc etc. If your card dont support this feature then you'd have flat shiny water. Some games that will suppport it are Doom 3, Half Life 2, and by my reckoning, Thief 3, X-2,..um..theres a few games. I can't recall. You really really should go for the 9600 if you plan to upgrade later. Otherwise grab a 9700pro and live with that for about a year or two happily. You dont REALLY have to buy a 9800. For now that card is over kill. Very good choice in brand name for fan, but I'd recommend you get something more powerful like the Thermaltake silent boost likeSeska said. That thing is quiieeeeeet and can go up to 3.4gig cpu.

09-22-2003, 11:32 PM	#58
Alucard Registered User Join Date: Apr 2002 Location: Australia Posts: 32,641	The important thing you should be looking at is what the fan is good for, and the details say up to +2600. Thing is thats what you're buying now. You want something much much beter then this. This is the fan I'm talking about.. http://www.11cb.com/cgi-bin/miva?Mer...tegory_Code=CF Found this place and it claims free shipping. Might be something to look into.

09-23-2003, 02:24 AM	#60
SpaceManSpiff Spiff to the Rescue!! Join Date: Jun 2003 Location: Washington State Posts: 3,630	aah thanks Alucard, Ill get that fan instead. Mishi: $1 U.S. dollar = 0.871014 Euros. So that 9700 pro would cost more in dollars than Euros, not less. __________________ Steam, Xbox Live, PSN, and Apple Gamecenter: xSpacemanspiff Currently Playing: LOTR: War in the North, Dark Souls, Resident Evil 5, Crysis 2.

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