This is a repost from a few weeks ago - but it applies to you.
I'll share my experience with ya - and for starters - the AMD thread offers solutions which when you get toward the bottom and page 2 provide a solution that works. Which in 99 % of the cases, is running AH in Windows 98 compatability mode with 1 of the CPU cores turned off.
Now - onto the meat. You wanna build yrself a box. Easy enough, you want it to be large enough to fit an ATX formfactor with some extra space if you have bulky items inside. Some companies don't comply with the ATX standard, such as in video cards - so you want to allow for some overhead.
The CASE
Especially with the new line of processors needs a lot more cooling then in previous generations of PC. I've built a lot of computers, and as the processors got more powerful heat became my worst enemy. And because my case was too small, ended up destroying some components b/c of it. (3 video cards, 2 motherboards, 1 ram chip, 1 CPU and a HD.) By the time I got smart about it, I practically had my own coffee cup with the RMA departments. Since my case was tightly packed to begin with, my method was somewhat crude...and draconian - which involved cutting the ends off a 120mm fan and shoving it inside and securing it down with duct tape. The heat problems vanished at that point. I took no chances with the latest system built last week, which start out with 2 (120mm) and an 80mm fan.
For most users this is overkill, because if you look at the 2nd picture there are provisions to have 3 (120mm) fans up front, which attach to 3.5 HD bays - plus the 120mm at back, plus the 80mm exhaust up top, and there is even another damn fan on the detachable panel in the 80mm range which can be thrown on for cross flow.
You are probally thinking, ok - cooling, is no small ****. Well, your right - it isn't anymore. The chief cause of component failure on PCB's is heat related, and as the chip making process squeezes more stuff into smaller space, resistance builds up, heat rises, and the methods to disperse this excess grow.
The lesson learned - GET a case that is large enough to grow - and has plenty of provision for cooling and not some 1/2 assed jury rigged solution that is learned after 1/2 a dozen RMA's.
MOTHERBOARDS:
The motherboard is your foundation. Without it, you don't see any porn or play AH. ABIT is highly respected in the gaming community because it doesn't break, and is user friendly for overclocking and tinkerers alike. This is my MB, which runs on an AMD X2 4400 processor. I choose AMD because my previous machine is AMD, and AMD has for years constantly outperformed Intel on all things gaming and simulation related. Which is important for you to consider in your purchase. If you look closely at the picture, you notice 2 long black slots and 2 shot black slots - and 2 white slots. The 2 long black slots are the 16bit PCI express slots. The 2 short black slots are shot PCI express, and the white slots are PCI.
The Processor
When you look at the size of the chip compared to the radiator it needs to house - you gotta ask yrself. How much power is flowing through that to need such a hugeass fan? Well lets see...
Approximate Transistor count: 233.2 million
Approximate Die Size: 199mm2
Nominal Voltage: 1.35-1.40V
Max Thermal Power: 110 W
Max Ambient Case Temp: 65 degrees Celsius
Max Icc (processor current): 80A
Makes sense to me - 110W thermal is ALOT for such a small piece of silicone. And that is why the heat sync has such a huge footprint.
POWER SUPPLIES
Its hard to argue, with all of that power going to the processor alone - let alone any perhipherals you may have - you will need a lot of power. Generally speaking 500 watts is a good baseline to make sure you don't overtax yrself. I choose Antec because its reliable and has a ****load of connectors.
DVD Writers
It goes without saying, you want something that can write DVD's in dual layer and be capable of writing CD's also. The one I got does all of that, and doesn't break the bank either - especially at $40.00
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16827152058Hard Drives
There is a lot of talk about SATA and RAID enviroments. Sure, my motherboard has SATA and RAID capability, which offers speed and of course redundancy - but there is a price to pay, of course in equipment. Some decent drives are out there - but don't consider less then 300 GB - and usually a pair of them. I got 2 of these and they work beautifully. link
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822140166RAM
2 GIG is the new minimum. 90% of what is out there you will end up with 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Unbuffered DDR 400 in the 1 or 2 GB variety. RAM prices are always fluxuating, and many manufactures offer rebates. Here if what I got. 2 GIGs for 150 bux after rebate is hard to argue with.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820227210The Video Card
Card review:
http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/article.html?art=MTAwMSwxLCxoZW50aHVzaWFzdA==This is a touchy subject - you've got 2 choices - NVIDIA or ATI. I've owned both. The current top of the crop is the NVIDIA 7900 GTX which - to put it bluntly is ****ing huge. The 7900 at top left and its sibling the 7900GT. The difference lay in how much current is being put through, the GT is around 500 mhz, and the GTX at 650 or so. The architecture is the same between them - but the GTX has 512 MB ram, the GT has 256 - coupled by the slower clockspeed - which allows for a smaller cooling unit and overall footprint on th e motherboard. I had an ATI Radeon 9600, then ebay'd an ATI Radeon 9800 for 65 bux. After I built this system last week, now there are 2 7900 GTX's - which brings up another point, and this goes into the lessons learned part of the paragraph.
Double wide cards, like the 7900 GTX take up a lot of space. And if you look upstairs on the motherboard image, that is 4 slots - which leaves me with only 1 PCI slot at the bottom. But for my purposes, that is ok - because the MB has sound, GIG ethernet, 1334, optical, and enough USB on the system board and front panel for me not to complain too much. But if you wanted to add something - keep that in mind with the MB you choose and make sure it has enough slots available for what you want it to do.
Read this article to see what I mean.
http://www.bit-tech.net/hardware/2006/03/28/abit_an8_32x/1.htmlI guess thats it - if I think of anything else i'll add stuff. But this took like 2 hours to write so I hope it helps.
S!
Wolf[
