Alright, after thinking about it, I decided not to go with the Asus Eee Laptop and am instead going to invest in a computer. Since it is cheaper to build a computer, I am going to do that, but it is my first time. I have read a number of guides and looked up a lot of stuff online.
So what I really need is for the BYOND computer teckies to look over what I got going on and let me know if there is anything wrong with the build I am going for. Suggestions would be appreciated. I am really thinking I need to replace the power supply in the housing, but I'd like an opinion on that. I'd like to keep the system in a small case like that, but it is hard to find any decent power supplies that properly fit the small micro cases. Also while I am at it, NewEgg suggested thermal grease when I bought the fan for the CPU, but none of the guides I looked at even mentions thermal grease, is it just a extra thing, or should I use it, and how should it be applied?
Case
Motherboard
CPU
Ram (Buying 2)
Video Card
Harddrive
Opitical Drive
CPU Fan
ID:182767
 Feb 7 2008, 8:52 pm
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Well, worst case scenario you get thrown in jail for child pornography by some horrible mix up. Otherwise I'd say it's a pretty nice deal for a hdd that big.
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The only issue I see offhand is that the motherboard you chose doesn't support the e8400. Here's a couple of alternatives from the same manufacturer:
ASRock Wolfdale ASRock Penryn Yes, you want thermal grease. Basically, when you slap a heat sink on top of a processor, there are going to be small pockets of air between the two pieces of metal. Air is a relatively bad conductor of heat, so you don't really want those pockets of air. Thermal grease is a good conductor of heat, so you put it between the heat sink and processor so that there won't be any air between them. You only need a very small amount of it, just enough to cover the top of the processor in a very thin coat (it won't hurt if you put on a bit too much). This will do: Arctic Silver 5 Again, you only need a small amount. There's enough in that tube to cover about 20 processors. You don't need the extra fan, unless you just happened to want a beefier fan. The processor comes with one. | |
Actually, I apologize! It seems the latest BIOS for that board does support the e8400. I'm not sure there's any way to tell what BIOS version Newegg will ship it with, though.
Here's the CPU support list for that board, so if you still want to pick a lower end CPU then any one from this list will do. The e4500 is a good one for the price. | |
Actually the e4500 is the one I have in my cart right now. Maybe once I get some more money, I'll invest in a better CPU.
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Get an 8600gts over the gt version if you can, quite a bit better performance. Most modern games you can run at low resolution (1024x768) with medium to high settings.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2000380048+1305520548+10679192 1+1067928567&name=GeForce+8600GTS As for the mobo and ram, good choice. Make sure you get a processor that runs at the 1333mhz fsb to get the most out of it. As for the dvd drive, I own that exact same model and absolutely love it, best drive I've actually ever owned. I always buy open boxed if I can (except for mobos). I don't buy open boxed mobos because most of the time you need some of the accessories that are supposed to come with it, but open boxed doesn't guarantee you'll get it. Trust me, not having the backplate on your computer sucks, a lot. But hard drives and processors? Heck ya. As for applying thermal grease, get the arctic silver. When you apply it, you apply it to the top of the cpu ONLY. You place a drop of it the size of a small grain of rice, that's it. Once you place the heatsink, do not lift it off again. If you pull the heatsink off, you have to remove the thermal grease with rubbing alcohol and reapply it. For c2d chips, you would run a thin line of the stuff horizontally along the chip. Go to arctic silver's website for docs on how to apply thermal grease for the type of chip you're getting. | |
First off, tell me your budget. These guys are suggesting you all the wrong things. Tell me how much you can spend, and I'll get you some good parts going.
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I've been looking for you for a few days Spike, but right now I am pretty happy with the build I am going with right now, so unless you can squeeze even more power out in under $650.00 I don't think you can help me too much.
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Great, the motherboard I was going to buy is out of stock now, that is simply great. Any suggestions?
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http://www.newegg.com/Product/ Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128078
It runs with ddr2-800, but 667 will run in it as well, and it's just as well for a 1333mhz fsb. | |
I was looking at this too, someone suggested it to me:
http://secure.newegg.com/Shopping/ ShoppingCart.aspx?Submit=view | |
Case
Motherboard CPU RAM Video Card Power Supply Hard Drive Optical Drive CPU Fan Thermal Grease Total with shipping = $615. Congratulations, you can now run any game you want on max except Crysis, which will only run on high. You have an extra 35 dollars you can spend on the hard drive, CPU, or other misc. things. If you don't like that case, we can discuss it. Some cases have better cooling than others. I'll tell you, your case does not have good cooling, mainly because it's a LAN box! I hope you already have an operating system, a monitor, a keyboard and a mouse. Now, do not be alarmed about the processor. It may be a bit low, but as you were planning to buy a CPU fan, I hope you know a bit about overclocking. You can overclock that CPU to ~3GHZ no problem, and it will run like it's 200+ big brother CPUs. If you don't know much about overclocking, it's easy, just take an hour or so learning how, and you can boost the performance of your CPU and video card a lot. I'll give you some simple directions if you can't be bothered to learn how to overclock. Set the FSB memory clock to "Unlinked" in the BIOS. Then, set the FSB (QDR) to 1332 MHz. Save and exit. You are now running at 3.0 GHZ. You won't really need 4 GBs of RAM anytime soon. Infact, you'll need a 64-bit OS to support RAM above 3.5GBs. So it's really a waste to get 4 GBs right now, I would just stick with 2 GBs. It's all you really need on games at the present. About that thermal grease, apply it before you put the CPU fan on, read the directions on it. Also, I would take the video card heatsink off, clean the thermal grease off it, and put on that arctic silver. Arctic Silver is a way better thermal grease, and you'll see decreases of temperatures of up to 15 C! Good luck on your new computer. [Sorry that I didn't respond sooner, I completely forgot about this topic.] | |
$20 more though.
I'd go with a different case too. That one only has two usb ports in the front. I'd look for something with four or more. You might night think you need that many now, but down the road it's nice to be able to plug in game pads and flight sticks without having to reach behind the case.
Also, I'm using that exact drive right now. About a month after I got it the disk tray got messed up somehow. It takes two or three tries to get the tray to eject without it getting stuck inside. It hasn't been bashed around or anything, it must have been a faulty part or something. It can get pretty loud when spinning a disk too.