Advice for a rookie?

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spartan92

spartan92

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May 11, 2004
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Hi all, I am looking at building my very first PC and was wondering if any of you who have done this a lot have any tips that might not be obvious. What I'm looking for is one of those important things that might not be spelled out in a product manual or "how to" guide or perhaps a mistake you once made and said to yourself "Hey, I wish I had known this" when you built your first PC.

Here are the components I'm looking at:

ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 chip (probably 3200+, 90nm)
1 GB matched pair PC3200 memory
SATA 7200 Rpm hard drive, 160 Gb or so
NEC 16X DVD RW
Nvidia GeForce 6800 GT video card
450 - 480 watt power supply (Thermaltake or Antec)
Antec P-160WF case

Thanks for any pearls of wisdom you can provide to keep from going "doh".
 
Make sure you clean your glasses before you start and read the manual through a time or two. Use Arctic Silver 5 instead of that white goop on your heatsink. Have a lot of patience. We can teach a monkey how to build one. Eeeee! Eeeee!

Abit IS7 - 3.0C @ 3.6ghz - Mushkin PC4000 (2 X 512) - Sapphire 9800Pro - TT 420 watt Pure Power
Samsung 120gb ATA-100 - Maxtor 40gb ATA - 100
Sony DRU-510A - Yellowtail Merlot
 
Take your time. It aint a race. Mark the page in the manual that has the front connectors on it.
It's like a puzzle. All the pieces go together only 1 way. Do not try to force them, make sure they look right. Know where pin1 is. It's always + (positive)
I usually hook up the psu, mobo, chip, hsf, ram, and graphics card, outside the case first. ( I have a plastic cutting board that I bought just for that reason).
The big thing- if it dont boot at first, dont panic.
 
1) They don't read.
2) They don't read.
3) They don't think.
4) They don't listen.
5) They rush
6) They don't ask when not sure.

7) They don't reset the CMOS

8) Lots of people who have seen the insides of older system don't realize that the new powerful graphics cards require an additional power connector.

9) If they are going cheap they get memory that doesn't work on their system. This was quite prevalent on Nforce 2.

10) They cable incorrectly.

11) They don't test with minimum components OUTSIDE the case first to see if it posts.

12) They don't know where to get help. Shy to ask for help from friends, parents, or us. Don't know how to get in contact with computer groups/clubs/highshool teacher/university guys.

13) They are the first ones on their block with components. You have nobody to swap with to find out which component(s) is/are defective.

14) Buy the lastest processor but have no processor to flash the BIOS.

15) They think all things are easy to solve.


The loving are the daring!
 
Some cases do not have enough elavated screwholes, you'll have to insert little plastic thingies in the mainboard holes for which there's no support in the case.

Don't lose any screws in the case, don't force anything and make sure that all moving components have been put into place firmly.

Beware of dry weather and static. Don't wear synthetic clothing just to make sure you won't discharge yourself on the mainboard etc.

Don't do anything with the PSU powered up.

About your components:
Is the SLI mainboard really worth it? You won't benefit unless you add another card and even then you won't see much improvement unless you can tell the difference between 100 fps and 200 fps or like playing at 1600*1200 with AF and AA set to max.
For the harddrive you should take a look at the Samsung drives. They are extremely quiet.

As for the PSU, go with an Antec, the Thermaltake has low amps on the 12V rail which you will not like with a power hungry card like the 6800 with its additional power connector.
 
Make sure that you get a PSU that is ATX12v <b>v2.0</b> compatible. These PSUs are designed to be cooler in the system and more stable in todays computers. If you're unsure on whether a PSU is 2.0, then look at the specs for the PSU - it will list 2 12v lines (something like 12V1 and 12V2).

Read, Read, Read - The manual and the forums. Tom's has a series a guides on how to assemble a PC - I can post links to them if you're interested.

There are NO stupid questions. If you don't know and can't find it in the manual, then ask us.

HAVE FUN! Building your own PC can be VERY frustrating, but when you step back and your newborn baby makes its first Post beep, boots smoothly and runs stably you'll feel a burst of pride an joy! Good luck and keep us posted.

BTW, I agree with Twee on the SLI issue. I'll take it a step further and say that if you will not be upgrading the CPU/mobo/graphics card within the next 18 months, then you should seriously consider getting a socket 754 system. That is unless you have no money limitations.

"He who will not risk, cannot win"
- John Paul Jones
 
And they post the same question in 10 forums at one time so that they are going on the advise of 30 people :tongue:

To save us both time, assume I know EVERYTHING :tongue:
 
Thanks for all the advice. It is appreciated. I know we newbies are annoying, but at least this one wants to learn how to fish vs. asking you to serve me up some fried cod. I've been researching components quite a bit on this site as well as Anandtech and some other sites and yet some things seem more unclear the more I research.

I do want to ask tweebel and Rugger if they might be willing to expand on their comments. I was looking at the Socket 939, as it seems to have the most longevity and the SLI board as one that is obviously expensive now, but I was thinking I would be able to pop in that extra video card down the road vs. having to perhaps upgrade more than that later. I'm searching for that sweet spot of price/performance that will get me the biggest bang for the buck and last a while. Don't care about being able to benchmark higher than the dude down the block, just want to have something that can crunch good, current games for as long as possible before major upgrades are needed.

BTW, what are the actual framerate levels where the human eye can actually tell the difference?

Thanks again.
 
I would use it anyway. Either that or Ceramique.

Abit IS7 - 3.0C @ 3.6ghz - Mushkin PC4000 (2 X 512) - Sapphire 9800Pro - TT 420 watt Pure Power
Samsung 120gb ATA-100 - Maxtor 40gb ATA - 100
Sony DRU-510A - Yellowtail Merlot
 
DVD's are about 30 fps and no one complains.

However don't think an average of 40 would be overkill. Maybe most of the time when nothing is happening its at 45, but when the action really heats up it can occasionally falls to around 10! Thats what happens when I try to play Doom 3 🙁

Whats really important is not so much the average fps, but frequently it drops below acceptable levels.
 
It is true that it is well possible that in about a year there will be a game (like a game which uses an updated version of the HL, FarCry or Doom3 engine) which you won't be able to play with max. res and full detail. By that time an extra 6800 will also be a lot cheaper but still about 250-300 I think.
At the moment a single 6800 is able to play almost any game at full detail using 1600*1200 if you have a fast cpu. If you don't mind going back to 1024*768 or 800*600 in the long run you won't need an SLI solution and you won't have to spend the extra money. You could use is for a RAID setup, more RAM, a good soundcard or a kickass 7.1 speaker set.
The problem is, that game probably also needs a high powered CPU so you'll be looking.

If you don't look at any of that you're right that the SLI setup most likely has the best upgradeability in about a year. A year is a long time in hardware and even SLI won't allow you to play DirectX 10 games (dunno if directx10 will arrive any time soon). So maybe instead of buying another 6800 you will like a new 7800 with directx 10 support while being stuck with your SLI board.
But with hardware it's all gambling, you never know what is going to happen. All I know for sure is that a 6800 with a 3500+ will rule in any game out right now!

About the framerate: To be sure hardcore gamers say 60 should be average because if it drops below average it will still be fluid (see other posts).
 
This series of posts is a good discussion for you take take a look at:
<A HREF="http://forumz.tomshardware.com/hardware/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=570009#570009" target="_new">http://forumz.tomshardware.com/hardware/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=570009#570009</A>
That being said agree with twee previous remark on current performance. The question you have to answer is if/when will you upgrade and when you upgrade <b>what</b> will you upgrade. Give us your thoughts on that...

"He who will not risk, cannot win"
- John Paul Jones
 
Again, thanks so much for all the advice and discussion on this topic. The information and perspective is appreciated and a big help.

I think based upon the information given regarding acceptable framerates, I'm probably going to look at the GeForce 6600 GT vs. the 6800 GT. In addition to being about twice the price of the 6600, the 6800 seems to be in very short supply, especially in PCI Express form.

Seems like most of my gaming has been done in 1024 x 768 anyway. I think the main thing that was steering me toward the 6800 was that in looking at the benchmarks Tom posted in his PCI Express charts, the 6600, even in SLI mode still seems at best equal to the 6800, however if those increased framerates are really imperceptable to the human eye, what's the point?

Tweebel, just out of curiosity, why do you say that even SLI won't be able to support a Direct X 10 game? I know DX 10 is likely a ways off, but I was wondering what would make SLI incompatable with DX10 whenever it rears its head.
 
Rugger, you asked the question of what I would likely upgrade down the road and I guess I would have to say the video card would be the most likely choice, as that technology always seems to advance the quickest vs. anything else and also has the biggest impact on gaming. I guess that's why I was leaning towards SLI. However, with the dual CPU's headed down the road, perhaps we will find that will make an even bigger impact. I guess it is all a crapshoot like someone else said. I'm just trying to hedge my bets as much as possible by making informed decisions.

Thanks for your insights.
 
Flinx, thanks for your insights. I was wondering if you could clarify something:

You mention people buying the latest processor, but not having a processor to flash the BIOS. I have flashed the BIOS on my current system and it involved downloading an update from ASUS. Is this process different for newer systems or am I just confused about what you mean?
 
Sorry, didn't make myself clear.

I mean that when a new directx arrives even SLI won't help you. You will be needing a new card anyway.
As it is normal that for every game that is released to make it compatible with older directX versions that doesn't really matter. Main thing is: If your old system is too slow you could buy a second card but you could also buy 1 new card. No game developer in the world will make a game for which there is no card fast enough.
 
The reason I asked about upgrading is because I wanted to gauge how well the s754 solution would fit your needs. I find myself getting a system and not upgrading it until I'm in the spot that a new build has the best price/perf ratio instead of just upgrading components in my new system. Then again I'm not an extreme gamer and I don't have to be on the bleeding edge. If you're going to be upgrading the video card/cpu in the next 18 months, then you should go with s939. It supports PCIe and AMD will continue to develop chips for the s939.

"He who will not risk, cannot win"
- John Paul Jones
 
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