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Shapermc Hot Sake!
Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279
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Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 2:55 pm Post subject: Building PCs and their QUESTIONS which are in need of answer |
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Ok, so I've told my mother-in-law that I'll build her a PC (and my wife wants one, but that's for another post) and use her copy of XP to install it on because she DOESN'T want Vista. Makes sense. I told her I could do it for under $400 no problem, but ... I think I've done it for about $260. I'm just putting this up so that I can confirm that everything will fit together and it will work WELL ENOUGH for someone who's only going to surf the internet and use MS Word.
Case: TRICOD 8068 Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 450W Power Supply - Retail
MoBo: ECS GF7100PVT-M LGA 775 NVIDIA GeForce 7100 HDMI Micro ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
CPU: Intel Pentium E2160 Allendale 1.8GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model BX80557E2160 - Retail
Memory: Kingston 1GB (2 x 512MB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model KVR800D2K2/1GR - Retail
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3500630AS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
Now, while this may seem like some cheap-out options, just know that this PC would be about 10X the PC that her current one is (which is so old it doesn't even support widescreen monitor options through the MoBo). I'm just trying to make sure that it actually will fit together w/o issue. If you have any recommendations on what should/shouldn't go together I'm all ears. I have about $40 of wiggle room before it gets "possibly too expensive" and $140 before it is "too expensive"
EDIT: Shit, i forgot an optical drive.... I'll just use the same one as below. _________________ “The average man has a secret desire to be a swaggering, drunken, fighting, raping swashbuckler.”
-Robert E. Howard in a letter to a friend circa Decmber 1932
"There is no place in this enterprise for a rogue physicist!"
Last edited by Shapermc on Tue Jun 03, 2008 3:45 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Shapermc Hot Sake!
Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279
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Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 3:40 pm Post subject: |
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OK, this one is mostly for my wife, but also me. There are some things that I know I could be scaled down, but the thing is that it's going to be displaying on my TV at 1080p, so I need a bit more horsepower for that alone. Here's what i've put together:
Case: Linkworld 437-01-C2229 Black/ Champaign Gold Steel MicroATX Mini Tower Computer Case 430W Power Supply - Retail
MoBo: GIGABYTE GA-G31M-S2L LGA 775 Intel G31 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E4600 Allendale 2.4GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model BX80557E4600 - Retail
Memory: OCZ Value 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model OCZ2V8004GK - Retail
Optical Drive: Pioneer 20X DVD±R DVD Burner Black SATA Model DVR-215DBK - OEM
GFX Card: XFX PVT84JYAJG GeForce 8600 GT 512MB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16 SLI Supported Video Card - Retail
HDD: Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3500630AS 500GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
The things I'm worried about are; if the power supply will be enough, and if I can turn this on it's side (mainly the optical drive is my worry) so it can fit. I could probably find a new case that will work if it's not worth finding out about the optical drive working on its side. My backup option for a case is this one, but that's quite a bit more money.
EDIT:
I'm trying to find an optical drive that is one of those slots which auto grabs your disc, but I can't find any. I'm attempting to find a viable option for a vertically oriented optical drive because that's probably cheaper/easier to upgrade. _________________ “The average man has a secret desire to be a swaggering, drunken, fighting, raping swashbuckler.”
-Robert E. Howard in a letter to a friend circa Decmber 1932
"There is no place in this enterprise for a rogue physicist!" |
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Shapermc Hot Sake!
Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279
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Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 4:34 pm Post subject: |
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So, here's another case option for the second PC: IN WIN IW-BT610T.300BL Black Steel MicroATX Desktop Computer Case 300W Power Supply. I'm a bit nervous that the psu may not be enough. Buying a new PSU will only be about $15, which would bring my total up to around $70, still just a little less than the APEVIA, but not much. I'm honestly a bit worried that the PSU in the case may not be a standard PSU, or that the cooling may not be enough in the box.
If this is good enough in the PSU department then I may just go with it for cooling and what seems like a nice internal layout for ease of installation. Is the 380w psu going to be enough? _________________ “The average man has a secret desire to be a swaggering, drunken, fighting, raping swashbuckler.”
-Robert E. Howard in a letter to a friend circa Decmber 1932
"There is no place in this enterprise for a rogue physicist!"
Last edited by Shapermc on Tue Jun 03, 2008 4:45 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Redeye .
Joined: 02 Oct 2006 Posts: 986 Location: filth
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Posted: Tue Jun 03, 2008 4:40 pm Post subject: |
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I have lost 2 computers to shit PSUs.
Get a good one, and always opt for a little extra power. _________________ I felt sheer anarchic joy when I ran over my first pedestrian. |
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parkbench .
Joined: 02 Jul 2007 Posts: 145
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DonMarco .
Joined: 02 Mar 2005 Posts: 349 Location: 33903
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Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2008 1:17 am Post subject: |
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Be careful that you get a low profile video card for this case. It's only 3.7" high, so regular cards will be too large for it.
Shaper, have you thought about having two optical drives for the second computer? On my current rig, I have a CD/DVD reader in one bay and a CD/DVD burner in the other bay. I never have to swap my current game in order to burn a CD/DVD, or can install a game while burning and is generally a wholy time-saving, stress-reliving set-up. The CD/DVD reader drive was salvaged, but are fairly inexpensive new (less than $20 easy).
Before you scoff, imagine how awesome your 360 or PS3 or whatever would be with two drives. How awesome it is carrying both Mr Driller 2 AND Front Mission at the same time in your DS. The next DS will have three DS game slots I hear! Which reminds me- what about multi-card readers and fans and a UPS. All worth their weight in gold.
Shapermc wrote: | I'm trying to find an optical drive that is one of those slots which auto grabs your disc, but I can't find any. I'm attempting to find a viable option for a vertically oriented optical drive because that's probably cheaper/easier to upgrade. |
I was under the impression that slot-loading drives either break down faster or were less reliable in some way compared to tray-loading drives. Maybe that was just with laptop drives or old problems new hardware avoids. Why turn the tower on the side when you could just get a desktop case? Or not turn it on it's side? _________________ Collector of over 1,538 strategy guides. That's weird, right?
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aderack .
Joined: 15 Jun 2005 Posts: 1105 Location: San Francisco
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Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2008 5:10 am Post subject: |
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DonMarco wrote: | Which reminds me- what about multi-card readers and fans and a UPS. |
Wouldn't a fax machine be faster? _________________
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dhex Breeder
Joined: 13 Dec 2004 Posts: 6319 Location: brooklyn, Nev Yiork
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Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2008 8:05 am Post subject: |
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Quote: |
I was under the impression that slot-loading drives either break down faster or were less reliable in some way compared to tray-loading drives. |
this has been my experience as well. particularly if it's made by apple or sony. _________________
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Shapermc Hot Sake!
Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279
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Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2008 1:16 pm Post subject: |
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Ok, thanks guys.
I'm still looking to make sure that the first PC will go together and run, or if I'm missing some detail here. _________________ “The average man has a secret desire to be a swaggering, drunken, fighting, raping swashbuckler.”
-Robert E. Howard in a letter to a friend circa Decmber 1932
"There is no place in this enterprise for a rogue physicist!" |
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DonMarco .
Joined: 02 Mar 2005 Posts: 349 Location: 33903
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Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2008 11:40 pm Post subject: |
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aderack wrote: | DonMarco wrote: | Which reminds me- what about multi-card readers and fans and a UPS. |
Wouldn't a fax machine be faster? |
You mean using a fax machine with a built-in multi card reader? It's all the same, but which ever would be loser to hand-level or within reach- I'd say have the card reader there.
Or UPS to mean the shipping company instead of Uninterruptible Power Supply, which is basically a big battery in case the power ever goes out. Most also function as surge suppressors. In a power out last year (damn hurricanes) I used mine to not power my computer, but charge my DS and power a small alarm radio for over 15 hours.
Shapermc wrote: | Ok, thanks guys.
I'm still looking to make sure that the first PC will go together and run, or if I'm missing some detail here. |
Honestly, the only thing I'd change would be to get a smaller case. The CPU and mobo are perfectly fine, RAM and optical great. Maybe throw in a 3.5" multicard reader and something nice like swapping in some more quiet fans and you're all set.
Micro ATX boards and smaller cases are pretty cool. Throwing a Micro ATX board in a full-sized case seems like such a waste of space, like parking a motorcycle in a regular parking space.
Lastly! have you looked over the mobo+cpu combos at newegg? They're pretty unimpresive to you or me, but for cheap computer builds they do help. Most are older CPUs and boards that were damn great... 7 years ago... but now are just taking up space. Also pulled from older eMachines models, two or three years back. I think you're getting the idea, so I'll stop now. _________________ Collector of over 1,538 strategy guides. That's weird, right?
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ryan .
Joined: 20 Feb 2005 Posts: 999
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Posted: Fri Jun 06, 2008 10:33 pm Post subject: |
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What about good PC speakers? I have a Creative Labs set from about 3 years ago, and they have never been good. I have the bass literally past negative and there is still too much bass. I'm now getting this annoying buzzing sound from them - two quick bzz bzz after a nnn - and I'm looking for a few set. I think the Logitech Z-10 are a decent pair, scoring in the 8 range and being pretty compact; that's another thing, I would like the speakers to be moderately sized as well. I've been reading reviews, but a lot of sites either don't cover speakers or aren't too much help. I'm trying to find a pair that I can buy locally so I can return if needed, but so far the Z-2300 set from Logitech is the only set I can find around here, but they look bulky and cost around $130 - a shade more than I would prefer.
What do you folk have? _________________ Come to me, Mordel. We shall depart. |
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DonMarco .
Joined: 02 Mar 2005 Posts: 349 Location: 33903
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Posted: Sat Jun 07, 2008 6:37 am Post subject: |
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I use two 5-watt Yamaha speakers. I think they cost me $30 or so 8 years ago, have never had a problem before. _________________ Collector of over 1,538 strategy guides. That's weird, right?
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ryan .
Joined: 20 Feb 2005 Posts: 999
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Posted: Sat Jun 07, 2008 3:10 pm Post subject: |
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DonMarco wrote: | I use two 5-watt Yamaha speakers. I think they cost me $30 or so 8 years ago, have never had a problem before. |
A black set would look pretty nice. Hmmm, seems used is the best way to go with them. _________________ Come to me, Mordel. We shall depart. |
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Shapermc Hot Sake!
Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279
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Posted: Sat Jun 07, 2008 6:49 pm Post subject: |
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I had some Creative Labs speakers that i'd been carrying around since I got them for free from work about 4-6 years ago. I've never really liked them, but they never bother me until I got my new monitor which has a nice piano black finish around the edge and they finally looked too out of place. So, I'd been looking for something cheap and ran across these on an island in Fry's for $30:
They have pretty good separation, and separate bass volume on the sub woofer. I also get a detached volume control which makes it much easier to use headsets. Overall, for $30, I'm very happy with the quality. _________________ “The average man has a secret desire to be a swaggering, drunken, fighting, raping swashbuckler.”
-Robert E. Howard in a letter to a friend circa Decmber 1932
"There is no place in this enterprise for a rogue physicist!" |
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ryan .
Joined: 20 Feb 2005 Posts: 999
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Posted: Sat Jun 07, 2008 7:55 pm Post subject: |
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Those are pretty sexy! I would be psyched to get some speakers that don't blow out from bass overload whenever I put the dial into -, nevermind beyond middle and into the positive end. I've turned to using earbuds to keep from using them, but all I have are the shitty kind that came with my original PSP and some old iPod ones, sans the comfy foam casings. _________________ Come to me, Mordel. We shall depart. |
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Shapermc Hot Sake!
Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279
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Posted: Sat Jun 07, 2008 9:06 pm Post subject: |
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Strangely enough I use Zune ear buds mostly. I have some really nice Sennheiser headphones, but my wife abducted them because I won't wear them out of the house (too expensive to have lost) and I won't wear them in bed (because it's really easy to pull out a wire from the speaker). So I stole her Zune earbuds that came with her first gen Zune when I couldn't find my iPod earbuds (my PSP earbuds broke within a month). The Zune ones are decent for being ear buds: even noticeably better than the iPod ones which I still have and use when the others are misplaced.
But yeah, you can buy those speakers I linked to sans the subwoofer, but they aren't good enough on their own for depth of sound. The subwoofer allows just the perfect amount of bass and I can listen to them cranked up to 11 throughout my house happily. _________________ “The average man has a secret desire to be a swaggering, drunken, fighting, raping swashbuckler.”
-Robert E. Howard in a letter to a friend circa Decmber 1932
"There is no place in this enterprise for a rogue physicist!" |
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ryan .
Joined: 20 Feb 2005 Posts: 999
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Posted: Sun Jun 08, 2008 12:08 am Post subject: |
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Are speaker hookups universal? I have my subwoofer from the creative labs set at my left foot, itching to go. _________________ Come to me, Mordel. We shall depart. |
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Shapermc Hot Sake!
Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279
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Posted: Sun Jun 08, 2008 2:11 pm Post subject: |
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Well, I mean, how these work are like this:
Subwoofer 1/8" jack into the PC for audio out -> Speakers 1/8" jack into the Subwoofer for audio.
The audio box goes in between the PC and the Subwoofer for volume.
I don't actually recommend messing around with mixing and matching, but it could potentially work...? _________________ “The average man has a secret desire to be a swaggering, drunken, fighting, raping swashbuckler.”
-Robert E. Howard in a letter to a friend circa Decmber 1932
"There is no place in this enterprise for a rogue physicist!" |
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dhex Breeder
Joined: 13 Dec 2004 Posts: 6319 Location: brooklyn, Nev Yiork
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Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2008 8:30 am Post subject: |
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it should all work.
for what it's worth, i've never really liked subs that much. but i've also never lived in just a house where i could use them in any real capacity. _________________
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Shapermc Hot Sake!
Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279
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Posted: Wed Jun 18, 2008 12:19 pm Post subject: |
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dhex wrote: | for what it's worth, i've never really liked subs that much. but i've also never lived in just a house where i could use them in any real capacity. |
Yeah, I think that apartment/townhouse settings don't really work for robust bass-y sound set-ups all that well. That's another one of those reasons I couldn't go back to sharing walls with other people. _________________ “The average man has a secret desire to be a swaggering, drunken, fighting, raping swashbuckler.”
-Robert E. Howard in a letter to a friend circa Decmber 1932
"There is no place in this enterprise for a rogue physicist!" |
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Shapermc Hot Sake!
Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279
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Posted: Fri Jun 20, 2008 8:08 pm Post subject: |
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Hey, so where could I get some info on what's a good overclocking amount for my graphics card? I want to see if I can push it a little yet still being very safe. I'm just looking for a small bump in performance mainly because I think that Vista is sucking up too much processor/gpu. _________________ “The average man has a secret desire to be a swaggering, drunken, fighting, raping swashbuckler.”
-Robert E. Howard in a letter to a friend circa Decmber 1932
"There is no place in this enterprise for a rogue physicist!" |
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Redeye .
Joined: 02 Oct 2006 Posts: 986 Location: filth
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Shapermc Hot Sake!
Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279
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Posted: Fri Jun 20, 2008 9:00 pm Post subject: |
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As a note, there's no way in hell I can do a fresh install of Vista. Which is a shame.
I didn't see anything on there about overclocking btw. _________________ “The average man has a secret desire to be a swaggering, drunken, fighting, raping swashbuckler.”
-Robert E. Howard in a letter to a friend circa Decmber 1932
"There is no place in this enterprise for a rogue physicist!" |
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Redeye .
Joined: 02 Oct 2006 Posts: 986 Location: filth
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Posted: Sat Jun 21, 2008 11:22 am Post subject: |
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I was thinking make Vista leaner instead of overclocking.
Or add a gig or 2 to mem.
I'm so paranoid about breaking things I'd probably underclock a little if it was super easy to do. _________________ I felt sheer anarchic joy when I ran over my first pedestrian. |
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Shapermc Hot Sake!
Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279
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Posted: Sat Jun 21, 2008 7:42 pm Post subject: |
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my mobo is maxed at 2gb ram as well, otherwise I would've jumped on that. . .
no shit, I just thought of something and checked up on it and yes, on the mfg site for the mobo it says up to 4gb memory is supported, where it says that only 2gb are supported on the site I bought it. I think that would probably help me out quite a bit. _________________ “The average man has a secret desire to be a swaggering, drunken, fighting, raping swashbuckler.”
-Robert E. Howard in a letter to a friend circa Decmber 1932
"There is no place in this enterprise for a rogue physicist!" |
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