building my own pc.

[soongmak]

hi,

 

My laptop is about 2.5 years old and I am seriously thinking about building my own PC. I have become a serious computer enthusiast and I have found that most basic configurations are not what I am looking for.

 

First question is: should I build my own PC, considering that I never even opened a computer case? or should I let somebody build it for me? Second, what set up should I use?

 

I want my pc to be able to handle serious multi-tasking. A usual situation is downloading a couple of torrents, ripping or encoding dvd's, listening to music and open a couple of pages at the same time.

 

The PC will be used as a mediacenter, preferrably in a wireless set up with my HT system, using it for watching movies, listening to mp3's and internet radio. I want it to run quiet. It should feature wireless internet access.

 

At first I was thinking about the Intel P4, because of the superior ripping and encoding speeds. Now I am about to change my mind and opt for an athlon 64 3200+, because it is supposed to run a lot quieter.

 

I am thinking about this set up:

 

Processor: AMD Athlon 64 3200+ (S939, 2,0GHz, 512KB, Boxed)

 

I think an S939 motherboard is the better option over an s754 motherboard, considering future upgradebility, but please correct me if I am wrong. My current choice would be the Asus A8V Deluxe/Wifi, K8T800Pro (Sound, LAN, W-LAN, SATA-RAID, 1394).

 

For memory I am thinking of a dual memory set up of 2 X 512mb ddr 400 memory.

 

for hard drives, I thought of 2 200 gigs sata maxtor drives, one for back up purposes. I also thought of running 2 120 gig drives in a raid 0 configuration and a single 200 gig drive for back up, if this would help encoding/ripping and photo-editing performance. I would appreciate it if somebody could tell me if my bucks are better spend elsewhere though. ::

 

About videocards, I don't have the slightest clue as to what is good, and what should be avoided. I think I need one, but am not sure what it should be.

 

Any thoughts or pointers are appreciated.

[Guest]

Sounds like a SERIOUS project.

 

Yes you can build it yourself ......... just take your time and READ the Instructions BEFORE you do anything else ......... then read them again. Or you can have ashop built it to your specs for $50 - $100 which mihgt be agood option as then if anything fucks up, it's their problem (and $$) and not yours). It's always atrade off between getting the 'hands on' experience and satisfaction of knowing you built it and the guarantee of someone else doing the work. Maybe you can find an enthusiast to sit in with you for a bit of guidance.

 

Anyway I have afew links here to the site I buy most of my stuff from ........ there is a good forum on each product so you can get a feel fior what others say.

 

First ....... the board

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=12639&vpn=A8V-DELUXE&manufacture=ASUS

 

also an independant review

http://www.sharkyextreme.com/hardware/motherboards/article.php/3385101

 

how 'quiet it runs has mostly to do with 1) the fans, including the CPU fan

2.) the Power supply

3.) the case ......... which you haven't descibed yet.

 

Prepare to put quality ram in 512mb x 2 'dual channel' like this

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=12961&vpn=OCZ4001024ELDCPER2-K&manufacture=OCZ%20Technology

 

since you are going top end ......... might as well put in the BEST video card out there

 

ATI RADEON X800 XT PLATINUM AGP8X 256MB DDR3 VGA DVI-I TV OUT

 

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=11900&vpn=100-435211&manufacture=ATI

 

No doubt it will smoke my Sanuker II ......... but it won't travel as well

 

Best of luck

 

Sanuker II

[Guest]

Need more info.

 

where will the computer be - in Thailand?

 

Being your current computer is 2.5 years old, do you plan on keeping the new computer the same length of time?

 

You seem to be a novice with hardware, what about software?

[Guest]

Here are some thoughts about your situation.

 

* How quiet a machine runs has nothing to do with the CPU and everything to do with the fans on the CPU, the case, the power supply, and the video card. The stock fans -- especially the CPU fans -- are not as good as even mid-range after-market fans. There's a trade-off here between cost, ease of installation, and noise level. I have this fan in my Media Center PC.

 

* An additional issue that you didn't mention but that is related to the fans and case is cooling. AMD processors run typically 10-15 degrees C hotter than an equivalent Intel. This can be an issue because if you don't have adequate airflow and cooling and your processor runs hot, you will have stability problems.

 

* The motherboards that host AMD processors are often geared more towards the hobbyist/enthusiast/overclocker than the Intel ones. Be prepared to fiddle with RAM timings, VCore voltage settings, and the like to get your AMD processor running properly. The boards for Intel procs are typically more automatic set it and forget it. YMMV.

 

* For the usage pattern you describe, the hyperthreading in a recent model Intel P4 may help you. This is the source of some debate and again YMMV.

 

* If you are expecting to do video over wireless you must have 802.11a or 802.11g (both 54Mbps) . The more standard 802.11b (10Mbps) is inadequate for reasonable fidelity NTSC or PAL MPEG2 video.

 

* For video you might want to look at nVidia-based cards, the drivers are acknowledged to be solid. A 5900FX-based card has enough power to decode even HDTV and can be had for under $200. You can spend up to $500 for even more power.

 

Are you going to install XP Media Center edition?

[carlton68]

Soongmak,

 

nice machine you wanna build yourself. Only as you said you never looked at the inside of a computer. While I think that you can do it there is a risk in doing it yourself. There is of course the fun of DIY. Many computer shops only ask for little money to build your custom made machine, install your OS as well and you get a warranty. If you do it yourself and any part goes wrong they might blame you. And as you have no spare parts you might not be able to find out which part of your computer went wrong.

The out of the box computers for sale are an option, too. Some will come near to your preferred configuration, just missing the second hard drive which you may upgrade yourself.

 

Anyway the way you are heading with the hardware is the way I would go if I had the need and money. AMD socket 939, serial ata drives (but I wouldn't take Maxtor, had bad experience and they get bad rep. I prefer Samsung drives but their biggest drives are only 160GB these days), and the board with lots of hardware onboard.

 

About connecting to the home theater, not sure if there are any good options for wireless connection. For Video signals check if your TV/HT has S-Video input and make sure your grafik card will have S-Video output. For sound connection your HT will have have digital in (does it?), so your board should have digital output (called SPDIF ). Many boards offer 5.1 Dolby Digital output (some even 7.1) via SPDIF out. Better than using the analog outputs, and less cables, too. Just a hint, to make full use of the SPDIF output you need a software player that can use the Dolby Digital or DTS signals from your DVDs (and you want to make full use of your hardware). PowerDVD5 with Audio enthusiast pack or the brand new PowerDVD6 can do. Not sure if Media Player 10 is able to do this.

 

Nice project you have. I'd like to do something like that.

carlton

[JJsushi]

Just some quick thoughts:

 

Always build your own!!! You will know the parts, configuration, quality of work and not be reliant on some assemblers choices. The only advantages of buying a white box is the service, warranties cheap costs and tech support. When you build your own you have warranties for each component and you deal with the tech support for each manufacturere not some generic assembler. You build your own then you will be your own centralized tech support which is a heck of a lot better than dealing with a guy reading from a manual in India.

 

Keep in mind more so than hardware, you really have to think about the SOFTWARE you will be using. Think software first and build your system around that.

 

 

Your biggest risk in building your own is frying your motherboard. Other than that the rest is easy as long as you buy componenets that are compatible with each other.

 

I see no reason to buy an AMD 64bit processor. You really can't use the capabilities yet. There really is not any significant software designed to take advantage of the processing. Eventually longhorn will be released and you will see some games developed. Why waste the money? Buy a cheaper XP athalon processor.

 

With that in mind i would buy a Socket A motherboard with nvidia chipset. Relaible great prices and stable.

 

Don't skimp on the RAM either, if your going to be heavy into video/editing then I would at least have 1 gb, keep in mind that if you get a dual channel board you need to get 2 sticks of the same RAM to take advantage of it.

 

SATA is nice and all but for the money it is not worth it yet for $ per mb IMO. You can buy some cheaper and better valued HD's that you can set up in a RAID configuration, I really doubt if you will notice the speed diiference vs a SATA setup. Maxtor sucks IMO, I only use IBM/Hitachi, Western Digital and Seagate.

 

 

 

Quietness will depend on your case, PSU and fan choices.

I also did not read anything about you PSU. You should really invest in a good power supply.

 

Also if you are going to be in Thailand and your climate control conditions are unreliable, I would seriously get a quality case, and cooling system as well as power supply with battery backup.

 

There are a ton of video cards and are all dependent on if you are a serious gamer or just want to look at movies. There are certain games that are better for certain video cards so you really have to have a good idea about what games you want to play. other than that a 128mb video card will do for movie watching. Find the video card that meets your specs and don't skimp on the cost.

 

 

Get a good monitor

 

Also make sure you buy your parts RETAIL and not OEM or refurb, it costs you a few more bucks but they give you a longer warranty especially on the HD's and processors.

 

2 places you should check out:

 

 

www.newegg.com

 

www.tomshardware.com

[Neo]

Pretty useful info all in all, but I?d like to add a few counter points.

 

Always build your own!!!The only advantages of buying a white box is the service, warranties cheap costs and tech support.

REPUTABLE PC manufacturers test the parts to make sure they all work together. Buying a bunch of parts and putting them together isn't a 100% thing and sometimes you also have to deal with parts that are dead on arrival where reputable pre-built machines do burn in testing. You can be pretty sure you plug it in and it works.

 

I see no reason to buy an AMD 64bit processor. You really can't use the capabilities yet.

I would go AMD64 if you plan to keep the machine for the long haul. Think back to the days where you had the choice of a fast 286 (16-bits) or the new 386 (32-bits). People said the same things. Then it became clear what a windfall it was when the 286 PC's were stuck running Dos or Windows 3.1 where the 386 PC's were able to run Windows 95 or Unix netting a boost in power and features. The same will happen on the transition from 32 to 64-bits. XP 64-bit edition will be out long before Longhorn, though who knows how long the wait will be until all the drivers you?ll want are there. ATI?s are still beta for instance.

 

SATA is nice and all but for the money it is not worth it yet for $ per mb IMO...I really doubt if you will notice the speed difference vs a SATA setup.

I'm not sure about Thailand, but that is not true anymore in the USA. The prices of SATA are only $2 or $3 more than parallel ATA. There will be a speed increase on SATA when Longhorn is released because it will be the first Microsoft OS to implement command overlap protocol. Right now, commands are in single file to ATA drives and it?s why SCSI has always looked down on ATA. Longhorn will take advantage of SATA drives being able to get multiple commands queued up in the device at the same time where SATA drives can reorder and process them more efficiently. Get SATA!

[JJsushi]

Neo said:

Pretty useful info all in all, but I?d like to add a few counter points.

 

Always build your own!!!The only advantages of buying a white box is the service, warranties cheap costs and tech support.

REPUTABLE PC manufacturers test the parts to make sure they all work together. Buying a bunch of parts and putting them together isn't a 100% thing and sometimes you also have to deal with parts that are dead on arrival where reputable pre-built machines do burn in testing. You can be pretty sure you plug it in and it works.

 

Yes but try and get Dell to tell you the manufacturer of every compnent in their boxes and what can and cannot be upgraded. Ask them who the mainboard manufacturer is. You will get nothing but silence or they will say i is "DELL".

I know this because I have bought some DELL's for members in my family. The reason why I choose DELL? Simply because they handle all of the problems and they build very affordable PC's for mundane computing tasks. I don't build for family members because you then become the de facto tech support which is a freaking headache.

 

In this case this guy wants a specialized machine not one for simple web surfing and word processing. He will be much better off building his own. Dell won't build a great machine for his specs.

 

 

I see no reason to buy an AMD 64bit processor. You really can't use the capabilities yet.

I would go AMD64 if you plan to keep the machine for the long haul. Think back to the days where you had the choice of a fast 286 (16-bits) or the new 386 (32-bits). People said the same things. Then it became clear what a windfall it was when the 286 PC's were stuck running Dos or Windows 3.1 where the 386 PC's were able to run Windows 95 or Unix netting a boost in power and features. The same will happen on the transition from 32 to 64-bits. XP 64-bit edition will be out long before Longhorn, though who knows how long the wait will be until all the drivers you?ll want are there. ATI?s are still beta for instance.

 

 

Why pay up for a processor and mainboard that you can't fully utilize? There is no bang for the buck there. By the time 64bit is utilized prices will drop significantly enough where the poster can buy the processor and board cheap. I see no sense in buying for "anticipated" technology. If that is the case then the poster should buy BTX boards and PCI-express.

 

I guess you and I look at things with different perspectives. I look to build the best PC with known technology at the cheapest cost. i don't care for paying for things 'down the road or the long haul"

 

 

SATA is nice and all but for the money it is not worth it yet for $ per mb IMO...I really doubt if you will notice the speed difference vs a SATA setup.

I'm not sure about Thailand, but that is not true anymore in the USA. The prices of SATA are only $2 or $3 more than parallel ATA. There will be a speed increase on SATA when Longhorn is released because it will be the first Microsoft OS to implement command overlap protocol. Right now, commands are in single file to ATA drives and it?s why SCSI has always looked down on ATA. Longhorn will take advantage of SATA drives being able to get multiple commands queued up in the device at the same time where SATA drives can reorder and process them more efficiently. Get SATA!

 

Once again we differ here. When it comes to when to buy. I guess I focus more on cost vs use I have a bunch of gaming friends that swear by their SATA setups, even showing me their benchmark tests but I have yet to see the difference vs ATA. I still kick their asses during LAN parties!

[soongmak]

Wow, there's already a wealth of info. Thanks for taking the time to give a serious reply. For those of you who say you need more info, I have more info.

 

At the moment I am just studying my options, I will be building the machine in about 6 months time. I have a budget of about 2,00 euros, and basically parts seem to be around 10 % more expensive than in the US here in the Netherlands. I hope prices will fall in the coming months or I will seriously go over budget. From this budget I also have to buy a tft monitor, a wireless router and a media extender for connection to my HT. I am also seriously considering buying windows XP mediacenter as my OS. The PC is meant for use back in the Netherlands.

 

 

[soongmak]

I can't reply to everybody in person but I appreciate everybodys input. Just great!

 

First, I want to address the processor/motherboard issue. I don't know if the AMD 64 Athlon with a s939 motherboard is the way to go. I am plunging of the deep end here. From what I have read, athlon xp's are basically at the end of the line in terms of development and AMD seems to go the 64-bit route. There are already some serious 64-bit processors out there that are way faster than the 3200 + processor and I think this is a good platform in terms of upgrade possibilities, so I'll stick with that. I see no use in building my own PC when there's no room left for improvement.

 

I know the P4 is supposed to be the better processor when it comes to encoding movies in mpeg4 format and ripping of cd's, but I also read many times that the athlon 64 is quieter and produces less heat. It should also be easier to configure it to my likings, like setting the fan speed lower when the case doesn't run hot, and I find that appealing.

 

Now where I am really in doubt is to what videocard I should buy. I heard there are some compatibility issues with ati cards and TV screens, so I tend to go with the geforce 5900fx card, as suggested by TypicalAnonym.

FYI, I want to use the PC to stream content to a meda extender connected to an amplifier and my widescreen tv. I don't know if there are compatibility issues with the different screen size and resolution. If somebody knows about this, I love to hear it.

 

About the case and the PSU, I heard some good things about Antec casings. My favourite is the Antec Lifestyle Overure with a 380 w PSU, but I heard it is a bitch to build. An alternative would be the Antec LifeStyle Sonata. Not as stylish, but probably much easier to handle.

 

I am off for now, but will be back later for more.

 

Cheers,

 

soongmak