newbie building a computer

malenroh

I am building a new computer, well, creating one to be built for me online, and would like some advice. I am going with an intel pentium 3.6 because I had an amd years ago and wasn't very happy with it. I'm sure they've improved but I don't know if I want to invest in something I might not like. Anyway here is what I have decided on for now:

Intel Pentium 4 3.6 LGA775 800mhz 1mb sc 775
Asus PSAD2 Premium LGA775 !925X chipset 800MHz DDR2
533MHZ SATA RAID GIGABIT LAN IEEE1394 AUDIO AT
(2) Kingston 1024 mb DDR2 PC2-4200 240 PIN
(2) MAXTOR 250 GB Serial ATA 7200rpm 8MB hard drives
1,44 3.5 floppy
mid-tower case-haven't decided which would be best
SONY 16x DVD ROM IDE
SONY 16x DVD+RW/-RW Dual layer
XFX GeFORCE FX 6600 256MB DDR PCI-Express TV/DVI
Enermax High Performance Case Fan Ball Bearing 8cm
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Pro EXT Drive

Sorry if it's more information than you wanted, or not enough. Just needed some advice on what I've chosen to use, it's mostly for gameing and graphics.
Thanks for your input!

leishi85

let me ask you one question, what didn't youlike about the AMD system u had before?

TheBaron

without the amount of money this thing looks like its going to cost you, I would go ahead and make sure you get a Geforce 6800, not a 6600. while the 6600 will be fine, it looks like you're going top of the line, and in many cases updating the graphics card would be beneficial even at the cost of some other top end component.
also, why are you getting an EXTERNAL audigy 2?

malenroh

it kept freezing up and slowing down. that was years ago, tho.

malenroh

sorry, that should have read INT, and I will check into the 6800 thanks for your advice.

primesuspect

Malenroh: Welcome to short-media.

First, The processor was probably not the cause of your old system lockups.

Second, read this thread.

I feel bad when people spend more money than they need to, and the generally accepted "fastest processor out there right now" is an AMD. You really should consider going Athlon 64.

muddocktor

OK, I won't go on about how AMD is better than Intel on you, since you seem to want to go Intel with your machine. With that said, I will tell you that the Intel will definitely run hotter than an A64 machine though, and that the high end P4E procs have clock-throttling issues due to heat with anything other than very high end air cooling or water cooling. It's not an issue that hurts your processor; the clock throttles down instead when it gets to a certain temp and with the retail hsf can happen during processor intensive operations such as gaming or folding and in effect gives you a slower machine.
As for your choices:

Asus PSAD2 Premium LGA775 !925X chipset 800MHz DDR2 - the best overall 925 board out there an overclocks like crazy. It's also expensive as all get out too.

Intel Pentium 4 3.6 LGA775 800mhz 1mb sc 775 - An OK choice, but if you are buying the best overclocking LGA775 board on the market, why not save some money and buy a lower clocked P4E like a 3.4 or 3.2E (P4 540 or 550) and spend some extra money on a premium hsf such as a Thermalright XP90 or XP120 heatsink using the LGA775 retention bracket Thermalright also makes to adapt those 2 premium heatsinks to the new socket. Then you can overclock that slower proc to 3.6 levels without having to worry about your processor throttling back even during intensive use.

(2) Kingston 1024 mb DDR2 PC2-4200 240 PIN - Depends on what your budget is. If you can afford it, go with the fastest ram you can with the lowest timings. OCZ is selling some PC5400 ddr2 dimms but they are almost double the cost of the Kingston ram. If you can't afford that, then buy a reputable brand (such as Kingston, Crucial, Corsair or OCZ) with the best memory timings your budget can afford.

(2) MAXTOR 250 GB Serial ATA 7200rpm 8MB hard drives - decent choice but Seagate is giving a 5 year warrantee on their drives versus 3 years on the Maxtors.

SONY 16x DVD+RW/-RW Dual layer - Good choice but according to Anandtech's DVD burner shootout recently, the NEC drive is better.

XFX GeFORCE FX 6600 256MB DDR PCI-Express TV/DVI - Like other people have said, if you plan to spend this much money, why not go with a 6800 vid card instead.

Enermax High Performance Case Fan Ball Bearing 8cm - good adjustable fans; I own 3 or 4 of them. The fan leads are pretty long as is the lead for the speed adjuster. I've been having mine for a few years and no problems with them.

Case and power supply - Make sure the case you choose has plenty of good airflow because with all the heat emanating from the proc and vid card, you will need to get rid of the heat. As far as power supplies go, stick with a high end psu such as an Antec TrueControl 550 or equivalant. With all the high power devices you will be using, I would recommend a psu of no lower than a 500 watt rating from a reputable psu company such as Antec, Enermax, PC Power and Cooling, Fortron Source and I've read good things about OCZ's new psu line too.

malenroh

Ok thanks for all the great advice, I am changing a few things and I think I'm going to try building it myself. Thanks again you guys have been great!

profdlp

malenroh wrote:

...I think I'm going to try building it myself...

Good idea.

There's no reason to pay extra for something you can do yourself. An added benefit is that you'll learn a great deal by doing it that way.

If you need help or have questions, just holler.

GrayFox

malenroh wrote:

it kept freezing up and slowing down. that was years ago, tho.

Because it was a old amd amd is good now i just upgraded by the time oneone reads this i will have my new specs in my sig

BTW: the presscott is a very unrelieable chip and out of the box the 3.6ghz zhip throttles back to 3.2ghz because of massive heat issues 74C +

aznherb36

yea, building your own pc looks hard but it is actually really easy. When I first did it I was all scared about getting wrong parts and not knowing what to do but after looking at the motherboard and the hardware it was like common sense.