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Author Topic: Now it's my turn....first time builder  (Read 479 times)

Offline Simaril

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Now it's my turn....first time builder
« on: August 19, 2006, 02:25:16 PM »
I've been saving pocket money and spot income (like from refereeing games) for 2 years or so, planning to get the upgrade machine. Thanks to you guys I've decided to build the machine myself...and here's what I'm looking at.

Motherboard.............P5W DH Deluxe...link to motherboard
CPU.......................... Intel X6600 (Yep, a conroe!)
RAM.......................... 2GB of PC6400 DDR2-800 Crucial RAM...link to memory
Hard Drive................Western Digital SE16 250GB SATA...link to hard drive
Video Card...............HIS Radeon X1900XT 512MB (not the XTX)...link to vid card    
Drives....................... HP 16X CD-ROM DVD Burner With LightScribe, IDE...link to hard drive
Sound Card..............None for now
Operating System....MS Windows XP – Pro        
Power Supply...........Antec TruePower 2.0 TP2-550W
Case........................T hermaltake Tsunami VA3000VWA...link to case




With rebates, it looks like I'll be running $1600 or so. I dont want to think what this configuration would cost from a box maker -- but I'll say this, it'd be enough that I'd never spend that much!

Any suggestions or thoughts?
« Last Edit: August 19, 2006, 02:32:19 PM by Simaril »
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Offline JTs

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« Reply #1 on: August 19, 2006, 05:03:30 PM »
good specs but do you really need a m/b with wifi on it? get a sound card.  i know its a conroe but ac97 eats up alot of cpu cycles that could be going to ah.   you can find sb live for twenty bucks. and if your going to do that lightscribe stuff make sure you get discs with version 1.2 on them. geez i sure sound like a smart *** on this
« Last Edit: August 19, 2006, 05:07:55 PM by JTs »
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Offline Simaril

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« Reply #2 on: August 19, 2006, 05:41:43 PM »
No problem...I'll take what I can from any kind of "smart" I get!

:lol


Absolutely dont need the WiFi, good point. I'll check around for the non-wifi equivalent. Looking for fast MoBo with the Asus temperature management system....


EDIT:
Did more research, and I really think this is a good one for me. I don't need the WiFi, but it offers the 975x chipset, compatability with the Conroe extreme for future upgrades, 2x PCI-e 16s and 2x PCI-e, and 3x PCI... a lot of slots!

Also, it apparently has built in architecture that can make simple SATA drives PnP to be RAID configuration...
« Last Edit: August 19, 2006, 06:28:10 PM by Simaril »
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Offline ALF

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« Reply #3 on: August 19, 2006, 10:44:56 PM »
If you have XP pro already then great...otherwise, Im just kinda hessitant to spend $200 (god lets hope your not paying more) on an OS that has a very limited lifespan.....especially with XP home on sale every few weeks for $50 and you get vista upgrade in a few months.....just my 2ΒΆ
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Offline OOZ662

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« Reply #4 on: August 19, 2006, 11:06:40 PM »
Yes, but if he gets Vista, he needs twice the RAM and the system will most likely not benifit from the massive CPU since Windows will eat up whatever he gains. Mmm...bloatware on a large scale.
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Offline DREDIOCK

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« Reply #5 on: August 19, 2006, 11:29:16 PM »
Suggestion I keep making over again and will do so now in case you missed it.

Do NOT but the full version of Windows XP so long as you have an old Win98 CS laying around.

If you want XP  Get Windows XP PRO Upgrade instead.

It will simply prompt you to insert the old windows disk just to make sure you've had windows before and will then install the full version of windows XP Pro at half the cost.

If you dont have an old windows disk lemme know I have at least 2-3 laying around here. Ill give ya one.

Use the saved money to buy a soundcard LOL
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Offline Krusty

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« Reply #6 on: August 20, 2006, 12:45:32 AM »
I was checking on the P5W not too long ago. If I recall one webpage said that the wifi used half a USB header (or something), and you could pull it out to get this header back. I wish I'd bookmarked the page, it was most useful on the technical side of things.
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Offline Simaril

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« Reply #7 on: August 20, 2006, 07:17:36 AM »
Thanks for the tips. I do have a 98 disk around, so I'd take that route -- except that the OEM version of XP Pro is cheaper than the upgrade disk, by a wide margin.

I'm not even sure what you'd lose going OEM with an operating system, since its not like they can leave out the cables or something.


And I'm trying not to worry about Vista, figuring that if the software has demands that high most of the free world will stick with XP anyway. Hopefully it'll go the way of WinME.
« Last Edit: August 20, 2006, 07:33:39 AM by Simaril »
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Offline eagl

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« Reply #8 on: August 20, 2006, 09:09:44 AM »
Heh, I just accidentally nuked my HTPC trying to mix/match winXP versions.  I had a nice OEM winXP MCE install but can't find the CD, so I tried to use another winXP Pro cd to repair the installation.  Oops, bad mistake.  It was totally unrecoverable due to microsoft's stupid licensing schemes even though I have more valid licenses than I have computers.  I gave up and spent a day installing and configuring mythtv on linux.  It's not quite as flexible and user friendly as winXP MCE and the tv software that came with my video capture card, but the picture is actually a LOT better using myth tv so the signal processing must be a lot better.
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Offline NOT

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« Reply #9 on: August 20, 2006, 10:53:07 AM »
Asus does have a version of that board without wi-fi. Ive got the p5b and i love it.Good luck.:)
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AKNOT

Offline lefty2

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« Reply #10 on: August 20, 2006, 02:01:57 PM »
Check around about some of this asus stuff it doesn't always work. I have a P4C800D the AI overclocking never could get it to work on my PC some did some didn't. Q-fan I guess it depends on what BIOS you have running but I could not get it to work consistently. EZ-Flash Asus web says not to uses it doesn't work and some of the other stuff that came with the board is a maybe other than that the board works fine . Do your research
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