Hello,
I'm preparing to order parts for my first build. This computer will be primarily for gaming (I do not do any graphic editing, I mostly play games and do schoolwork on this computer.)
I've got lots of questions, hoping someone can help me out with some of the answers
I've searched these forums and done some research, but I am very new to all this so please forgive me ignorance and if I missed anything with searches (I am a bit unfamiliar with what keywords I should use for some of my questions.)
To start off, here is what I currently have planned out for ordering - nothing is finalized and any suggestions are welcome of course.
One note: I do not plan to do any overclocking.
ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16813131517
On a few of the other threads I've read, it seems like DFI is favored. I was looking on newegg but kind of confused by the different motherboards there. If that's what I need, could someone point out specifically which one I should purchase?
Lian Li PC-61 USB Black Aluminum ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16811112025
LITE-ON Black IDE DVD-ROM Drive Model SOHD-16P9SBLK - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16827131410
2x Western Digital Raptor WD740GD 74GB 10,000 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16822144160
2x OCZ Peroformance 1GB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered System Memory Model OCZ4001024PF - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16820146969
(A friend had recommended Corsair XMS but after some searches on this site it appeared OCZ was preferred and XMS wasn't looked on too fondly. I do not plan to do any overclocking, so if there is a cheaper / better option I'm all for it.)
Antec TRUE430 ATX 430W Power Supply - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16817103908
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ Manchester 1GHz FSB Socket 939 Dual Core Processor Model ADA4600BVBOX - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16819103545
I have a few questions about the processor. I did a lot of reading up on these but to be honest I don't understand a lot of it.
The gist of what I got was that the X2 have two cores and are better for multi tasking and the FX series is one core and better if you just play games.
Well, I just play games but I play multiple instances of games at once. Do I want two cores or one? I also like to surf the internet, listen to music, have messengers et copen while playing, does that count as multi tasking? I was unsure if "multi tasking" was for high memory applications solely or not.
CREATIVE Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS 70SB035000000 8 (7.1) Channels PCI Interface Sound Card - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16829102162
I like to listen to my music, but I'm not obsessive about it. I have a good pair of speakers already that I plan on using, the reviews on that said it got best performance out of an Audigy2 ZS, which I have not purchased yet. Is this a good card and will it improve quality of my sound?
eVGA 256-P2-N528-AX Geforce 7800GTX 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16814130234
Ok, now I have several more questions.
Will all of this work together?
Is the PSU sufficient for this setup? If not, can you recommend one that is or tell me about how many watts I need? (I realize watts are not everything for a PSU.)
Do I need a RAID controller or will this motherboard do a RAID 0 with those harddrives normally?
The reviews I read mentioned I would need a SATA cable. Is this what I need and will it work? (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16812105911)
Any suggestions or things I should do to optimize?
Do I need to buy any fans or anything, will this run cool enough with no overclocking?
With the drives what exactly do I need to do in regard of master/slave? I don't understand what that means or if I need to do anything, from what I read it sounded like that was for IDE but with SATA i wouldn't need to do anything?
I've put stuff in and taken stuff out of my cases before, but never completely built a computer from scratch. From what I've read, the assembly of the CPU and heatsink SCARES me. Any advice here?
Final note: All suggestions are welcome, and I am not really on a budget per se. I want something that's a very good computer I can use for gaming, will last me a decent amount of time (I know this is relative and hard to say with computers, but I don't want to buy another computer next year, for example.)
I spend almost all my time on my computers, so I'd rather get something good now - there is no specific number where I'd rather not spend anymore, but of course, cheaper is ALWAYS better.
Thank you all very much for all the great information on this site and for any recommendations you can offer.
I'm preparing to order parts for my first build. This computer will be primarily for gaming (I do not do any graphic editing, I mostly play games and do schoolwork on this computer.)
I've got lots of questions, hoping someone can help me out with some of the answers
I've searched these forums and done some research, but I am very new to all this so please forgive me ignorance and if I missed anything with searches (I am a bit unfamiliar with what keywords I should use for some of my questions.)
To start off, here is what I currently have planned out for ordering - nothing is finalized and any suggestions are welcome of course.
One note: I do not plan to do any overclocking.
ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16813131517
On a few of the other threads I've read, it seems like DFI is favored. I was looking on newegg but kind of confused by the different motherboards there. If that's what I need, could someone point out specifically which one I should purchase?
Lian Li PC-61 USB Black Aluminum ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16811112025
LITE-ON Black IDE DVD-ROM Drive Model SOHD-16P9SBLK - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16827131410
2x Western Digital Raptor WD740GD 74GB 10,000 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive - OEM
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16822144160
2x OCZ Peroformance 1GB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered System Memory Model OCZ4001024PF - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16820146969
(A friend had recommended Corsair XMS but after some searches on this site it appeared OCZ was preferred and XMS wasn't looked on too fondly. I do not plan to do any overclocking, so if there is a cheaper / better option I'm all for it.)
Antec TRUE430 ATX 430W Power Supply - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16817103908
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ Manchester 1GHz FSB Socket 939 Dual Core Processor Model ADA4600BVBOX - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16819103545
I have a few questions about the processor. I did a lot of reading up on these but to be honest I don't understand a lot of it.
The gist of what I got was that the X2 have two cores and are better for multi tasking and the FX series is one core and better if you just play games.
Well, I just play games but I play multiple instances of games at once. Do I want two cores or one? I also like to surf the internet, listen to music, have messengers et copen while playing, does that count as multi tasking? I was unsure if "multi tasking" was for high memory applications solely or not.
CREATIVE Sound Blaster Audigy2 ZS 70SB035000000 8 (7.1) Channels PCI Interface Sound Card - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16829102162
I like to listen to my music, but I'm not obsessive about it. I have a good pair of speakers already that I plan on using, the reviews on that said it got best performance out of an Audigy2 ZS, which I have not purchased yet. Is this a good card and will it improve quality of my sound?
eVGA 256-P2-N528-AX Geforce 7800GTX 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16814130234
Ok, now I have several more questions.
Will all of this work together?
Is the PSU sufficient for this setup? If not, can you recommend one that is or tell me about how many watts I need? (I realize watts are not everything for a PSU.)
Do I need a RAID controller or will this motherboard do a RAID 0 with those harddrives normally?
The reviews I read mentioned I would need a SATA cable. Is this what I need and will it work? (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16812105911)
Any suggestions or things I should do to optimize?
Do I need to buy any fans or anything, will this run cool enough with no overclocking?
With the drives what exactly do I need to do in regard of master/slave? I don't understand what that means or if I need to do anything, from what I read it sounded like that was for IDE but with SATA i wouldn't need to do anything?
I've put stuff in and taken stuff out of my cases before, but never completely built a computer from scratch. From what I've read, the assembly of the CPU and heatsink SCARES me. Any advice here?
Final note: All suggestions are welcome, and I am not really on a budget per se. I want something that's a very good computer I can use for gaming, will last me a decent amount of time (I know this is relative and hard to say with computers, but I don't want to buy another computer next year, for example.)
I spend almost all my time on my computers, so I'd rather get something good now - there is no specific number where I'd rather not spend anymore, but of course, cheaper is ALWAYS better.
Thank you all very much for all the great information on this site and for any recommendations you can offer.