[jr2]

Building your own comp is pretty easy... try it sometime.  After you get it fired up, it feels pretty good. 

EDIT: If you're not comfortable with that then I don't blame you; try buying the cheapest components you can get (DDR2 RAM is cheaper than the older kinds; so get a mobo / processor that supports it) and make a secondary computer just to play around with and figure out how things work.  If you break it, you'll learn a lot fixing it, and you'll still have your primary comp running.  Thus, you can test things on the cheaper comp, and if they work good for a few days, implement them on your main comp.    No better way to learn about computers than by breaking a few of them.  (true, though)

[Wobble73]

 

Yeah, the first PC I built, I almost fried the motherboard because I screwed it directly to the case, (not using the insulating washers supplied : ). You certainly learn from your mistakes. Luckily the motherboard didn't fry, but the computer refused to boot, it was extremely frustrating as I couldn't see what I had done wrong. I even took the motherboard back to the store insiting that it was faulty, they tested it and said nothing was wrong with it. I reassembled the computer, still no luck. I ended up giving in and taking the computer to a local repair shop. they took the side off and instantly saw the problem. Thnakfully they didn't charge me anything as once it was pointed out I could do the repair myself. 

[IceFire]

Similar experience myself Wobble.  Fortunately I was a coop student working in a computer store and they set me straight right away

I also once fried a Pentium 133 by clocking it incorrectly using motherboard jumpers.  Fortunately it was old and in a spare parts bin.

[asyikarea51]

I've killed three computers in my lifetime so far. The last one was only a few months ago, which is why I don't come here that often now. Money-wise, I'm not well-off I admit, but I am getting help. My reasoning, I have to build a new computer before I start losing all my hard disk data. (That reminds me, IDE and SATA don't mix, and I've never worked with enclosures before... )

Thinking about it now, quad-core and Striker Extreme are definitely out - the Striker costs slightly more here than the 680i DQ6, and I don't need their ROG paraphernalia. I looked up the P5N-32E SLI, the Commando, the Striker and I already have my mind set on the N680i-DQ6, but I'm open to suggestions if it's really not worth spending over $500 on it. (Obviously these are SLI boards except for the Commando, and though I definitely cannot afford two 8800's in one go, I'll probably save up for the second one in the future... that reminds me - is MSI's 8800GTX worth it? Cheapest one I could find under $1,000. Unless it's better to get one from XFX/Gigabyte/Asus for safety's sake... )

Plus I admit, if there's a few things I'm really unsure of, it's actually installing the processor (and the cooler/heatsink paste), aftermarket cooling of any kind (board, processor etc - never worked with them before), SATA (same, I come from the IDE era), setting voltages and clock speed (trial and error), and finally the PSU.

I suspect one of my boards (a P3 Celeron) blew up because I plugged in a PSU that was too powerful for it or something... but like I said, I don't know. I just remember turning on the power before hearing a loud pop/bang - instant death, so now I'd rather read up as much as I can first before buying anything (which I've been doing whenever I get a chance to use a computer). I am that worried... especially my data. I don't wanna lose it... hopefully I didn't kill my three IDE HDDs by accident when the said Celeron board went bang...

Should I run a 650W or an 800W power supply? And I'll definitely choose Win XP... my mind's set on it and Vista just seems too risky for me.

[IceFire]

Woa asyikarea51 man

Most of those parts are premium really expensive stuff. If you're not that well off then maybe you should look at some of the more practical components.  I mean a GeForce 8880GTX is the fastest on the block for at least a few more weeks but the performance benefit really doesn't weigh in the cost unless you absolutely must have the fastest card on the planet (till the R600 or the 88000 Ultra comes out).  The 8800GTS is a better buy.  Heck, unless you have a big widescreen monitor the 8800GTS with 320mb is a better deal (and clocked slightly faster at factory settings).

Secondly...about your PSU frying a board...no that doesn't work like that.  A PSU is rated to a certain wattage of total power but it puts that power out in different rails (3.3V, 5V, and 12V).  Furthermore, if the components are working properly then it doesn't matter if its a 1000W PSU or a 300W PSU...the board will not fry.  It sounds like the voltage regulator died and thats what caused the surge.  Not good news for anything connected to it...but you might be lucky.

I do absolutely recommend reading and seeing if other people have the same combination of parts.  Spend allot of time and research things up as much as possible.  Keep punching part numbers into your search engine of choice until you have a solid idea of what you need to get to put together a good solid rig.

650W is allot of power...I was going to be very happy with a new rig running with a 500W PSU.  But I guess if its dual 8000GTX and thats what you want to do...then the 800W will probably be a necessity.  Again, do some reading and see if this is what various review sites were doing.  See what their recommendations were...and never trust one.  Get three or four.

I'd also, in that case, make sure you have a good case to put these things in.  A proper case with good airflow and acoustic design considerations will be key to making it a good system.

[asyikarea51]

There's an Ultra variant of the 8800 coming out? In that case, I should hold back for now. Maybe use an 8800GTS as a temporary measure. (Yes, like I said, I'm not too well off, but somehow I'm getting help - pretty complicated scenario I'd rather not explain.)

The 370W PSU that fried my P3 Celeron board (which is my backup computer)... after it killed that board, I tried going back to my main computer (an MSI KT4AV if that matters ) but it didn't work just the same.

My main computer failed after the RAM slots caught fire thanks to a bad GF6800 plugged in to that same 370W. Not enough power and too many components plugged in, I suspect. And I think it's true, because my USB external hard disk started giving errors and my Sony DRU-810A simply stopped working right.

Or maybe the backup board blew up because the power was put out in different rails or something? It's a very old P3 after all...

Yeah, so you can see why everything's giving me a headache... but my main worry is my data. There's enough data in there up to the point where I can't defrag any of the drives... around 200GB worth.

[IceFire]

I think you should probably blame a very shoddy PSU rather than a video card...a video card will not light your RAM on fire

As long as the plug fits, the PSU and motherboard will be able to cope with the power (they will not confuse the rails unless the plugs were forced on in some horror show style thing), so it sounds like a defective motherboard, PSU, or both.

Not sure what you mean about the data.  You say there's enough data that you can't defrag the drives?  That really shouldn't matter...unless you've completely filled the whole drive.  Even then...a defrag should still work...in theory.

And yes there is a GeForce 8800Ultra coming out about the same time that ATI/AMD's Radeon HD 2900 comes out.  The HD 2900 is supposed to best the 8800 GTX by a fair margin.  Not sure how much closer the Ultra brings to the new ATI offering.

[asyikarea51]

I'm willing to say it's the video card, because the whole computer went after I plugged the (now-dead) 6800 in and pressed the power button. But again, you might be right about the problem being the PSU though. 370W just doesn't cut it. (Horror-show style... LOL )

I remember , I first plugged the video card in a year or two ago, boot up, play Doom 3, within 15 minutes, BANG. Computer didn't work until I disconnected the card completely. Bring it back to the shop, get a replacement, repeat, BANG.

Fast-forward to present day --- connect the card, turn on the power, look! Sparks are flying on RAM slots 2 and 3... (ok now that's just bad )

On the issue of my data/files/etc, well if I were to view my percentage of free space from Windows Defragmenter, all the drives would show 1% available free space or less. Yes I can still defrag, but I gained very little performance-wise, it's better to say I gained nothing. (I'm aware of the crap that we all get when we have internet connections though.) Tons of old files from years ago as well as recent but hard-to-obtain ones, not to mention countless CS skins and an old RA2YR mod, among other archived things. And let's not forget FreeSpace too

[Fury]

Wow asyikarea51, just wow. I've been working at tech support past 6 years or so and I am totally speechless. You should sell your story to Hollywood.

Either your power supply or motherboard was faulty, or you had attached your motherboard into the case without using insulators that come with either motherboard or case or both.

[CP5670]

I've killed three computers in my lifetime so far. The last one was only a few months ago, which is why I don't come here that often now. Money-wise, I'm not well-off I admit, but I am getting help. My reasoning, I have to build a new computer before I start losing all my hard disk data. (That reminds me, IDE and SATA don't mix, and I've never worked with enclosures before... )

Thinking about it now, quad-core and Striker Extreme are definitely out - the Striker costs slightly more here than the 680i DQ6, and I don't need their ROG paraphernalia. I looked up the P5N-32E SLI, the Commando, the Striker and I already have my mind set on the N680i-DQ6, but I'm open to suggestions if it's really not worth spending over $500 on it. (Obviously these are SLI boards except for the Commando, and though I definitely cannot afford two 8800's in one go, I'll probably save up for the second one in the future... that reminds me - is MSI's 8800GTX worth it? Cheapest one I could find under $1,000. Unless it's better to get one from XFX/Gigabyte/Asus for safety's sake... )

Plus I admit, if there's a few things I'm really unsure of, it's actually installing the processor (and the cooler/heatsink paste), aftermarket cooling of any kind (board, processor etc - never worked with them before), SATA (same, I come from the IDE era), setting voltages and clock speed (trial and error), and finally the PSU.

I suspect one of my boards (a P3 Celeron) blew up because I plugged in a PSU that was too powerful for it or something... but like I said, I don't know. I just remember turning on the power before hearing a loud pop/bang - instant death, so now I'd rather read up as much as I can first before buying anything (which I've been doing whenever I get a chance to use a computer). I am that worried... especially my data. I don't wanna lose it... hopefully I didn't kill my three IDE HDDs by accident when the said Celeron board went bang...

Should I run a 650W or an 800W power supply? And I'll definitely choose Win XP... my mind's set on it and Vista just seems too risky for me.

A good 650W one will run two 8800GTXs comfortably, unless you also have a ton of hard drives. Note that any PSU that could handle X1900/1950 Crossfire will also work with two 8800GTXs, which use less power on load. The Corsair 620W or the PCP&C 610W should be good choices.

Where do you live, by the way? I'm guessing the prices you quoted aren't in US dollars, or they would be insanely high.

As for the 8800 Ultra, the initial reports are saying that this card will be priced at $1000 (USD), so it sounds like another 7800GTX 512 style, limited production/vaporware card. Either that or it's a GX2 type SLI card.

SLI has traditionally never been a good option as an upgrade path due to the pace of change in the video card market. Unless you're planning to buy the other card pretty soon, maybe in another month or so, don't base your upgrade plans around it. Although I would personally advise staying away from SLI altogether. Nvidia still hasn't fixed some serious and well known bugs in SLI that have been around since its release three years ago, and the 8800 series in SLI has a host of problems of its own.

[IceFire]

The 8800 Ultra won't be a GX2 SLI frankenstine like thing because apparently one of those is on the way as well

[diceman111]

The 8800 Ultra won't be a GX2 SLI frankenstine like thing because apparently one of those is on the way as well

Oooohhhh godie then I can replace my 7950GX2 Bastard card with a new one from the 8000-series 

[asyikarea51]

Wow asyikarea51, just wow. I've been working at tech support past 6 years or so and I am totally speechless. You should sell your story to Hollywood.

That sounds mean... (but why am I laughing... ahh heck. )

Anyways I'll keep checking the thread whenever I can come online. Hopefully I can start the build by next week, unless I get interrupted with my new term in a new school (which is tomorrow).

In case it matters, I'm staying with air cooling - sticking with what I know. I haven't changed my mind other than the video card - a lower-end GTS might do just fine until news of the Ultra comes out. Unless my class instructor can suggest to me a much cheaper alternative system...

unless you also have a ton of hard drives.

I'm thinking of running two 500GB drives and one 10k 150GB drive. The price jump from 500 to 750 is too high - around $200, maybe more, so twin 750s are out of the question. I might have to buy an enclosure in order to transfer data from my old IDE ones though... I just hope I didn't lose any data.

Alternatively I can buy one internal drive for the build, then when more money comes later, buy two more internals together with enclosures so I can run them externally.

Before I forget, as at the time of typing, the current exchange rate is about 66 US cents to one dollar where I am.

SLI has traditionally never been a good option as an upgrade path due to the pace of change in the video card market. Unless you're planning to buy the other card pretty soon, maybe in another month or so, don't base your upgrade plans around it. Although I would personally advise staying away from SLI altogether. Nvidia still hasn't fixed some serious and well known bugs in SLI that have been around since its release three years ago, and the 8800 series in SLI has a host of problems of its own.

Taken note and have to admit, I agree. But I still have my mind on that DQ6, even though the Commando is somewhat cheaper... (Yes, I'm not going for quad-core, but the part about soldering stuff just to get better performance from the C2D/C2X bothers me.)

[CP5670]

I'm thinking of running two 500GB drives and one 10k 150GB drive. The price jump from 500 to 750 is too high - around $200, maybe more, so twin 750s are out of the question. I might have to buy an enclosure in order to transfer data from my old IDE ones though... I just hope I didn't lose any data.

Yeah, three will be fine. It would only become an issue if you had more than five or six of them.

Taken note and have to admit, I agree. But I still have my mind on that DQ6, even though the Commando is somewhat cheaper... (Yes, I'm not going for quad-core, but the part about soldering stuff just to get better performance from the C2D/C2X bothers me.)

If you're considering non-SLI boards, you don't need to solder anything. The three boards I mentioned earlier will overclock at least as well as either of those (without any mods, apart from the ICFX3200's heatsink) and cost less money.

[asyikarea51]

If you're considering non-SLI boards, you don't need to solder anything. The three boards I mentioned earlier will overclock at least as well as either of those (without any mods, apart from the ICFX3200's heatsink) and cost less money.

The soldering issue is more for Quad-core users, both SLI and non-SLI, I... think. I read up from somewhere that you have to unsolder a certain resistor (and solder a 500-[forgot the unit] variable resistor in its place, in order to get better overclocking from those processors.)

[Bob-san]

If you have not already purchased....

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 Retail ($210)
Motherboard: MSI P6N SLI-FI ($120)
Memory: Transcend (ValueRAM) 2GB DDR2 800 (2 x 1GB, dual-channel)
Graphics: EVGA GeForce 8800GTS ($300) or 8600GT ($180)
Hard Drive: (Choose your madness; I'd go with a Western Digital WD1600AAJS; some of the fastest write speeds for 7.2k rpm drives)
Power Supply: AMS Mercury EPS12V 460-watt Power Supply ($56)
Case: (Choose your madness; I'd go with an XClio A380 Full-tower ATX case ($100), though the Windtunnel is awesome as well. Spend no more than $130 on a case)
Optical Drive: Sony/NEC Optiarc DVD Burner with LightScribe on SATA, black ($32)
Other Drive: Sony Black 3.5" Floppy Drive ($8) (For flashing BIOS and possibly installing some drivers)
Other necessary stuff: Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound, OEM ($6)
Operating System: Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit OEM ($112), SATA Cable ($5)

Part subtotal: $986
Shipping (appx): $38
Total: $1025

[asyikarea51]

I just made my purchase this morning. I'll provide details on it later (in class now, on break XD).

[Descenterace]

If a disk is too full (above 90%, IIRC) Windows defrag won't do much. This is because it uses a particularly bad algorithm.

There are better defrag apps available that will defrag a drive as long as there's more than one free cluster on it.

[Bob-san]

I just made my purchase this morning. I'll provide details on it later (in class now, on break XD).

You can cancel the order if its from some etailers... what did you purchase? (sorry I was too late)

[CP5670]

Some of your recommendations aren't very good in any case, to be honest. That board isn't too great unless you must have SLI support - the DS3 overclocks much better for a similar price - and the 8600 line has pretty much flopped, being soundly beaten in most games by previous gen cards in the same price brackets. Their prices will certainly fall over the next few months, but right now they're not worth buying.

The soldering issue is more for Quad-core users, both SLI and non-SLI, I... think. I read up from somewhere that you have to unsolder a certain resistor (and solder a 500-[forgot the unit] variable resistor in its place, in order to get better overclocking from those processors.)

This sort of thing would be specific to some particular board. I highly doubt you can use the same procedure on all of them, especially ones with different chipsets.