Building my first pc

[bloom25]

Ozark, get the A7v133 kt133a MB.  This will allow you to use the 133 Mhz fsb processors in the future.  There are also a few other minor improvements.  The cost difference should be minimal and you'll thank me in a year or so.



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bloom25
THUNDERBIRDS

[Cleaner]

Ozark Nix the ABIT board, IWILL kk266-R, is the board of choice now among all the test sights. also for $50.00 more you can get the T-Bird 1.2 Gig with a 266 FSB.

[Lephturn]

I'd go with the Asus K7V 133a as well.  I guess the Iwill would do... but I haven't any experience with their boards, so I hesitate to recommend it.

If you have any troubles, please feel free to drop me an email here:  sconrad@hfx.eastlink.ca  I'll gladly help if I can.  

Oh, and BTW, one more thing.  Before you put any PCI or AGP cards in that thing, PLAN their placement.  There will be something in the mobo manual that will explain what onboard devices share IRQ's and which slots share IRQ's.  It is critical that you ensure your sound card and video card have their own, as well as your modem if possible.

I also can't stress enough how careful you have to be with your heatsink/fan unit.  If the clip is loose, falls off, or the HSF isn't mounted exactly right, you WILL fry the chip before you can figure out WTF happened.  You can get good HSF units, good thermal paste (Arctic Silver is the best), and CPU spacers to help prevent these problems.  If you are responsible for attaching the HSF to the mainboard, be VERY careful.  Ideally, get the guys you buy it from to do it for you.

Plycon has good stuff.  Their DNS is kinda pooched lately, so the link came back an IP.  These are one of the few guys that can supply CPU spacers though.  http://216.157.14.244/spacers.htm

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Sean "Lephturn" Conrad - Aces High Chief Trainer

A proud member of the mighty Flying Pigs
http://www.flyingpigs.com

Check out Lephturn's Aerodrome for AH articles and training info!

[Dowding]

Ozark - I've got the Antec SX-830 Performance case. I bought when I built this computer and it is superb.

The PSU is not AMD apporved, but the two fans included are great, and they snap on to different places in the case.

Not sure on the PSU issue, but some people say it's best to go with an approved supply. This is mainly to do with cooling aspect (placement of PSU fans and grills). I've had no heat problems - 1.2 GHz Athlon, Prophet II Pro 64, 16 Speed DVD-ROM and the Deskstar should produce lots of heat.

The two case fans, GlobalWin Fop-32 and arctic silver thermal paste gives me a CPU temp of 36 deg in Windows idle and 41 under load. Which is well within the operating limits.

Attaching the heatsink to the the CPU was very nerve-wracking. I'd read that the FOP-32 was very hard to attach, but it went on first time with no problems, and didn't take that much muscle.  

[This message has been edited by Dowding (edited 03-07-2001).]

[Quiet109]

Another good site I was drawn to is http://www.pricewatch.com  

Great setup! Looks to be a killer machine.

Quiet

[Shamus]

Just re-cased last week with the Antec sx-830, great box, almost seconds as a beer cooler

Shamus