advice on case (first-time builder)

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

Hi all,

I've decided to upgrade my PC and thought I'd finally bite the bullet
and build my own but I could do with a little advice.
Mostly I'm having trouble choosing a midi case: looking at dabs.com you
can get 400w atx midi cases for anything from £20 to £200 (about
$30-$300 i think). I don't really have much idea about the differences
here. Can anyone recommend a good quality (but cheap ;-) ) case? Or at
least what to look out for?

I also would quite like to hear any comments/suggenstions on my proposed
system:

Case?

MSI K8N Neo Platinum motherboard

AMD Athlon 64 3000 processor (separate fan probably thermaltake)

Crucial 512mb PC3200 DDR memory (possibly x2)

ATI Radeon 9600XT 128mb graphics card (I do like gaming, so let me know
if this is not a good choice)

160gb western digital caviar hard drive

LG dvd+/-rw dual format

Undecided about modem - need it to be linux compatible

logitech wireless mouse and keyboard

17" TFT screen probably benq or prolite




Thanks in advance for any advice or comments,

Hazel

 

[jad]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

cases can be just that, a box with trays, or a modded out 300$ spectacle,
however the Power supply these days is more important.

"Hazel" <hazel@dncn.freeserve.co.uk> wrote in message
news:d21noc$ovg$1@news8.svr.pol.co.uk...
> Hi all,
>
> I've decided to upgrade my PC and thought I'd finally bite the bullet
> and build my own but I could do with a little advice.
> Mostly I'm having trouble choosing a midi case: looking at dabs.com you
> can get 400w atx midi cases for anything from £20 to £200 (about
> $30-$300 i think). I don't really have much idea about the differences
> here. Can anyone recommend a good quality (but cheap ;-) ) case? Or at
> least what to look out for?
>
> I also would quite like to hear any comments/suggenstions on my proposed
> system:
>
> Case?
>
> MSI K8N Neo Platinum motherboard
>
> AMD Athlon 64 3000 processor (separate fan probably thermaltake)
>
> Crucial 512mb PC3200 DDR memory (possibly x2)
>
> ATI Radeon 9600XT 128mb graphics card (I do like gaming, so let me know
> if this is not a good choice)
>
> 160gb western digital caviar hard drive
>
> LG dvd+/-rw dual format
>
> Undecided about modem - need it to be linux compatible
>
> logitech wireless mouse and keyboard
>
> 17" TFT screen probably benq or prolite
>
>
>
>
> Thanks in advance for any advice or comments,
>
> Hazel
>

 

[steveh]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

"Hazel" <hazel@dncn.freeserve.co.uk> wrote in message
news:d21noc$ovg$1@news8.svr.pol.co.uk...
> Hi all,
>
> I've decided to upgrade my PC and thought I'd finally bite the bullet and
> build my own but I could do with a little advice.
> Mostly I'm having trouble choosing a midi case: looking at dabs.com you
> can get 400w atx midi cases for anything from £20 to £200 (about $30-$300
> i think). I don't really have much idea about the differences here. Can
> anyone recommend a good quality (but cheap ;-) ) case? Or at least what to
> look out for?
>
> I also would quite like to hear any comments/suggenstions on my proposed
> system:
>
> Case?
>
> MSI K8N Neo Platinum motherboard
>
> AMD Athlon 64 3000 processor (separate fan probably thermaltake)
>
> Crucial 512mb PC3200 DDR memory (possibly x2)
>
> ATI Radeon 9600XT 128mb graphics card (I do like gaming, so let me know if
> this is not a good choice)
>
> 160gb western digital caviar hard drive
>
> LG dvd+/-rw dual format
>
> Undecided about modem - need it to be linux compatible
>
> logitech wireless mouse and keyboard
>
> 17" TFT screen probably benq or prolite
>
>
>
>
> Thanks in advance for any advice or comments,
>
> Hazel
>
If you don't mind spending a few quid, bearing in mind you are getting
quality, then you can't go far wrong with the Antec Sonata:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Antec_Cases.html

It's nicely made, and more importantly comes with a decent quality PSU which
should be well capable of powering what you want.

HTH
SteveH

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

SteveH wrote:
>
> If you don't mind spending a few quid, bearing in mind you are
getting
> quality, then you can't go far wrong with the Antec Sonata:
> http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/Antec_Cases.html
>
> It's nicely made, and more importantly comes with a decent quality
PSU which
> should be well capable of powering what you want.

Wow, that looks amazing! I've got my computer down to just a quiet PSU
fan,
and an 18db 120mm fan. It'd be nice to make it a bit quieter though, I
wonder whether a new case, or case moddification, will be the answer?

I'm not too keen on the Antec PSU's though. I've heard a lot of
stories of them blowing up, and it's also just happened to somebody I
know. They had flames comming out of the back.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

Hazel wrote:

> I've decided to upgrade my PC and thought I'd finally bite the bullet
> and build my own but I could do with a little advice.
> Mostly I'm having trouble choosing a midi case: looking at dabs.com you
> can get 400w atx midi cases for anything from £20 to £200 (about
> $30-$300 i think). I don't really have much idea about the differences
> here. Can anyone recommend a good quality (but cheap ;-) ) case? Or at
> least what to look out for?

The biggest difference is the power supply. First off, power supplies are
probably the most overlooked, yet most critical part of the whole system.
If your power supply isn't up to snuff, strange things start happening, and
mostly go misdiagnosed because the lack of juice makes another part seem to
fail, when it was, in fact, a lack of power to the component.

Power supplies very greatly in quality. Some 400 watt power supplies have
wide fluctuations in voltage, and carry few amps on the precious +12V line.
A quality power supply, like an Antec TruePower series returns to within 3%
of the stated voltage in less than 1ms. Other, lesser, cheaper power
supplies, though rated at the same wattage, may return to within 7 or 8% of
the stated voltage, and take longer than 1ms to do so.

I buy Antec power supplies exclusively, and usually get a case with power
supply for a better bargain.

There are other differences too. First, some cases, like Lian Li,
CoolerMaster, and others are made of aluminum. This makes them more
expensive. They are great in the fact that they're so light, and they look
great. However, scratch one and it looks terrible.

Second, some cases have drive rails that let you attach the drives to little
rails the click in place and make drive removal and installation a snap.
Some have removable motherboard trays that let you install everything and
just slid it in place. Some offer other gadgets too. The more stuff a case
has, naturally, the more expensive it is.

Again, I use Antec. They have good quality, nice features, but they're not
the coolest looking cases on the market. Some cases can get downright
tacky, looking like a alien or something. Personally, my case goes under my
desk and doesn't really get looked at much. I prefer the money spent on
internal goodies like quality power supply, rubber isolators for HDD's,
drive rails, quality ball bearing fans, etc.

However, buy what you want. Just make sure you don't get some cheapo power
supply.

> I also would quite like to hear any comments/suggenstions on my proposed
> system:
>
> Case?

Here's a great case for you:

http://www.antec.com/us/productDetails.php?ProdID=15138

> Undecided about modem - need it to be linux compatible

Get a true modem, not a WinModem, and you shouldn't have any problems at
all.

BTW, great to know you're a fellow Linux user! What distro? I use SuSE and
Mandrake. I like SuSE the best.


--

Registered Linux user #378193

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

On 25 Mar 2005 12:43:31 -0800, petermcmillan_uk@yahoo.com wrote:


>I'm not too keen on the Antec PSU's though. I've heard a lot of
>stories of them blowing up, and it's also just happened to somebody I
>know. They had flames comming out of the back.

First I've heard of this. If you want a good and quiet PSU get a
Zalman.

 

[papa]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

>
> I'm not too keen on the Antec PSU's though. I've heard a lot of
> stories of them blowing up, and it's also just happened to somebody I
> know. They had flames comming out of the back.
>

That's a new one on me. In my experience, and from what I've read in a lot
of forums and in technical magazines, the Antec brand is one of the best.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

Connected wrote:
> On 25 Mar 2005 12:43:31 -0800, petermcmillan_uk@yahoo.com wrote:
>
>
> >I'm not too keen on the Antec PSU's though. I've heard a lot of
> >stories of them blowing up, and it's also just happened to somebody
I
> >know. They had flames comming out of the back.
>
> First I've heard of this. If you want a good and quiet PSU get a
> Zalman.

On overclockers you can get completely silent ones though. I think
they do an Antec Phantom, which is black and passively cooled.
However, you probably would need a case with good air flow. My current
PSU seems very quiet, if I cover up the PSU fan there's no noticable
change in noise. It's an AOpen one which came with my case.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

Hazel wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I've decided to upgrade my PC and thought I'd finally bite the bullet

> and build my own but I could do with a little advice.
> Mostly I'm having trouble choosing a midi case: looking at dabs.com
you
> can get 400w atx midi cases for anything from £20 to £200 (about
> $30-$300 i think). I don't really have much idea about the
differences
> here. Can anyone recommend a good quality (but cheap ;-) ) case? Or
at
> least what to look out for?
>
> I also would quite like to hear any comments/suggenstions on my
proposed
> system:
>
> Case?
>
> MSI K8N Neo Platinum motherboard

A board with dual memory channels would be nice if you can afford it.

> AMD Athlon 64 3000 processor (separate fan probably thermaltake)
>
> Crucial 512mb PC3200 DDR memory (possibly x2)

Good memory!

> ATI Radeon 9600XT 128mb graphics card (I do like gaming, so let me
know
> if this is not a good choice)
>
> 160gb western digital caviar hard drive

I'd recommend two 80Gb, or 120Gb SATA hard disks and use the RAID on
the motherboard. Disk performance will be twice as fast then.

> LG dvd+/-rw dual format

That's what I've got. I've always had LG, and never had any problems.

> Undecided about modem - need it to be linux compatible
>
> logitech wireless mouse and keyboard

I don't like wireless mice, or keyboards. The batteries will
eventually go flat, and they are usually heavy.

> 17" TFT screen probably benq or prolite

I don't know much about these makes, but I'd go for a good one because
you don't want to be getting eye strain.

>
> Thanks in advance for any advice or comments,
>
> Hazel

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

>
>
> Get a true modem, not a WinModem, and you shouldn't have any problems at
> all.
>
> BTW, great to know you're a fellow Linux user! What distro? I use SuSE and
> Mandrake. I like SuSE the best.
>
>


Thanks for all the advice. I use Suse 9.2, but I have to confess I
haven't quite got away from Windows. I am dual booting just now so
trying to make sure my new comp is fully compatible with linux is
driving me mad ;-)

I do love linux though

Hazel

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

Hazel wrote:

>> BTW, great to know you're a fellow Linux user! What distro? I use SuSE
>> and Mandrake. I like SuSE the best.
>>
>>
>
>
> Thanks for all the advice. I use Suse 9.2, but I have to confess I
> haven't quite got away from Windows. I am dual booting just now so
> trying to make sure my new comp is fully compatible with linux is
> driving me mad ;-)
>
> I do love linux though

I still occasionally use Windows too. Funny, I have more money invested in
my Windows machine and use it 1/10th the time. I've gotten to the point in
Linux where I don't need to visit Windows much.

Linux Rocks!


--

Registered Linux user #378193

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

Ruel Smith wrote:
> Hazel wrote:
> >
> > Thanks for all the advice. I use Suse 9.2, but I have to confess I
> > haven't quite got away from Windows. I am dual booting just now so
> > trying to make sure my new comp is fully compatible with linux is
> > driving me mad ;-)
> >
> > I do love linux though
>
> I still occasionally use Windows too. Funny, I have more money
invested in
> my Windows machine and use it 1/10th the time. I've gotten to the
point in
> Linux where I don't need to visit Windows much.
>
> Linux Rocks!

I'm still trying to make a complete change of to Linux, but I've just
ordered Windows XP Pro (OEM) (only one copy though ). I'll have my
slow (1GHz C3 Nehemiah) Linux machine, fast (and silent) Windows
machine (1700+, FX5500, Audigy 2 ZS, DVD-RW), and a PII 400 laptop with
Linux. I'm still trying to get Linux configured on both machines
though which is a nightmare. One of the most frustrating things is
that my Windows machine will be considerably quieter than my Linux
machine, and be much faster, which will put me off Linux :-(. Hmm, I
think I will need to rethink this change over :-(

Oh, Hazel IIRC with some serial ATA boards I think there may be some
problems in Linux, but I'm not certain. I also had problems once with
onboard RAID, and needed to disable it to boot Linux.

 

[jad]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

once I played a Linux CD backwards...it emitted satanic messages. Later I
found out something even more terrifying, play it forward and it attempts to
install Linux!




<petermcmillan_uk@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1112262428.146223.86070@l41g2000cwc.googlegroups.com...
>
> Ruel Smith wrote:
> > Hazel wrote:
> > >
> > > Thanks for all the advice. I use Suse 9.2, but I have to confess I
> > > haven't quite got away from Windows. I am dual booting just now so
> > > trying to make sure my new comp is fully compatible with linux is
> > > driving me mad ;-)
> > >
> > > I do love linux though
> >
> > I still occasionally use Windows too. Funny, I have more money
> invested in
> > my Windows machine and use it 1/10th the time. I've gotten to the
> point in
> > Linux where I don't need to visit Windows much.
> >
> > Linux Rocks!
>
> I'm still trying to make a complete change of to Linux, but I've just
> ordered Windows XP Pro (OEM) (only one copy though ). I'll have my
> slow (1GHz C3 Nehemiah) Linux machine, fast (and silent) Windows
> machine (1700+, FX5500, Audigy 2 ZS, DVD-RW), and a PII 400 laptop with
> Linux. I'm still trying to get Linux configured on both machines
> though which is a nightmare. One of the most frustrating things is
> that my Windows machine will be considerably quieter than my Linux
> machine, and be much faster, which will put me off Linux :-(. Hmm, I
> think I will need to rethink this change over :-(
>
> Oh, Hazel IIRC with some serial ATA boards I think there may be some
> problems in Linux, but I'm not certain. I also had problems once with
> onboard RAID, and needed to disable it to boot Linux.
>

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

Ruel Smith wrote:
> JAD wrote:
>
> > it was just a poke.
> >
> > its sad when you have people apologizing because they use windows.
AFA
> > Linux being competitive, its always been, at best, a nuisance. Not
because
> > it couldn't be, it just has no development strategy, chaotic.
> > I think we could debate the 'advocating' thing but its not
necessary. 9
> > out
> > of 10 people attempting the use of Line is back to windows in
awhile. too
> > bad, as 10 years ago we all thought it would go somewhere.....
>
> In the Linux groups, it gets tiring to see people jump in and flame
Linux,
> and most have either never tried it, or made a single attempt a few
years
> ago without success. It does take a little more patience and some
technical
> ability to get it up and working properly sometimes. Once it's there,
> though, it's pretty nice.
>
> Linux has gotten somewhere. It's been estimated recently that as much
as 13%
> of the home user market either runs Linux exclusively, dual boots it,
or
> runs it via Knoppix style live CDs. That's more marketshare than the
> Macintosh has. I often wonder if Apple's pricing structure and
dedicated
> hardware has helped that, since Mac OS X is clearly a better OS from
a
> usability point.
>
> Now, I'm starting to advocate, I guess...

I dream of the day when I will have Linux setup correctly! I would
certainly say that Windows is better in many ways, although Linux does
have some advantages of the Windows. I think really we need a new OS,
maybe one which has a better development strategy. I don't think Linux
will ever be perfect! MacOS was amazing the last time I used it,
although that was more than 10 years ago :-(

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

JAD wrote:

> it was just a poke.
>
> its sad when you have people apologizing because they use windows. AFA
> Linux being competitive, its always been, at best, a nuisance. Not because
> it couldn't be, it just has no development strategy, chaotic.
> I think we could debate the 'advocating' thing but its not necessary. 9
> out
> of 10 people attempting the use of Line is back to windows in awhile. too
> bad, as 10 years ago we all thought it would go somewhere.....

In the Linux groups, it gets tiring to see people jump in and flame Linux,
and most have either never tried it, or made a single attempt a few years
ago without success. It does take a little more patience and some technical
ability to get it up and working properly sometimes. Once it's there,
though, it's pretty nice.

Linux has gotten somewhere. It's been estimated recently that as much as 13%
of the home user market either runs Linux exclusively, dual boots it, or
runs it via Knoppix style live CDs. That's more marketshare than the
Macintosh has. I often wonder if Apple's pricing structure and dedicated
hardware has helped that, since Mac OS X is clearly a better OS from a
usability point.

Now, I'm starting to advocate, I guess...


--

Registered Linux user #378193

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

On 2 Apr 2005 07:08:53 -0800, petermcmillan_uk@yahoo.com wrote:


>I dream of the day when I will have Linux setup correctly! I would
>certainly say that Windows is better in many ways, although Linux does
>have some advantages of the Windows. I think really we need a new OS,
>maybe one which has a better development strategy. I don't think Linux
>will ever be perfect! MacOS was amazing the last time I used it,
>although that was more than 10 years ago :-(

MacOS now looks and feels just like Linux to me, although it is based
on BSD, which is another variant of Unix, but then that's what Linux
is, a Unix clone. Personally, I prefer XP, just batten down the
hatches some more.

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt (More info?)

petermcmillan_uk@yahoo.com wrote:

> I dream of the day when I will have Linux setup correctly! I would
> certainly say that Windows is better in many ways, although Linux does
> have some advantages of the Windows. I think really we need a new OS,
> maybe one which has a better development strategy. I don't think Linux
> will ever be perfect! MacOS was amazing the last time I used it,
> although that was more than 10 years ago :-(

It has more of a development strategy than you think. Those contributing
developers are actually paid through their companies they work for to
commit time to developing Linux. True, there are projects that are
completely volunteer, but projects like Gnome, KDE, the kernel, Samba,
Apache, etc. all have developers from Sun, IBM, Red Hat, Novell, and others
who have a vested interest in them. Those are very experienced software
engineers.

However, it's true that KDE's priorities are not the kernels or Gnome's or
whatever. Therefore, they could be going in different directions. Such is
the case where the 2.6 kernel wreaked all kinds of havoc on ATi and nVidia
drivers.

Linux's Achilles heel is driver support. Companies like Via and nVidia have
Linux support, but it varies. There are still Via SATA RAID chips that
aren't supported, and nVidia chipsets don't have complete Linux support.
The Creative SoundBlaster was one of the best supported sound cards on the
market, yet Creative never developed anything to support it, and more
elaborate SoundBlaster cards, such as the Audigy Platinum, have only basic
support. Also, there remains many bugs in Linux. In Knode, as I'm writing
this, it informs me of misspelled words, and I can right-click on those
highlighted words and get suggestions in a menu. However, if I choose one
of those suggestions, it doesn't change the misspelled word. It does
nothing. This bug has existed in a number of Knode releases and has yet to
be fixed. So, there's a long way to go.

As for a new OS, it isn't going to happen. It takes hundreds of millions of
lines of code to write a complete operating system from scratch, which is a
monumental task. This is why Apple chose to use the FreeBSD Unix operating
system as a base to build OS X.

Besides, the Linux kernel, which is what makes Linux...Linux, has few bugs
at all. It's the other stuff, such as KDE applications, that are buggy. KDE
is used in other operating systems too, such as various Unix OS's, and
those same bugs exist.


--

Registered Linux user #378193