Goose

All the loading? Pop in the disc and follow what it says

I'll pay a few dollars more for New Egg....they have never hosed me on an exchange or return and 9 times out of 10 they are less anyways


It seems like a lot to build a PC but once you do it you'll wonder why you never did it before


Goose

TomsHHR

You could make yourself a "clean" box to put your computer in with 1 or 2 exhaust fans and a furnace type filter for the intake.

catzcradle

I've been building her and my systems since 386 days, so for Mitz, it's kinda like living with a mechanic, and learning to do oil changes, there is the why factor.

Besides, building them is still much of a plug and pray. One raid driver not loaded, and the windows install looks at you like your a retard. I will say that systems have gotten smarter, but you can still spend a day trying to identify that one bad part when the system is deciding it wants to be a paper weight, and the POST codes are telling you one thing, when in reality, you just need to reseat your RAM sticks. Then there are the occasionally funky video drivers. I had one build that everything loaded just peachy, but the graphics refreshes were on the order of paint-drying speed. Checked it out with 3dmark and I was getting 2fps. Called the vid card company, and they asked the 30 stupid questions, and then finally asked me to uninstall all traces of the drivers, and reinstall them fresh, and while I was skeptical, it did work. I have no idea why I needed to on a brand new install, but something was installed "out of the order it wanted to be in" and got screwed up. At least I'm not having to troubleshoot IRQ's anymore with modern builds. Those were always a crap shoot.

Anyways, I'm waiting for the next graphics card refresh to see if the mid-range cards improve, right now the ati HD2600 and nVidia 8600's just kinda suck, and I don't want to be putting a $300+ 8800GTS or HD2900 in there when she doesn't play many games. I'd drop an x1950pro in there, but would prefer a DX10. But if the right deal comes along, I'll jump.

As for Newegg, I've got 14 pages of invoices on there from builds and upgrades (as people at work seem to come out of the woodwork asking me to build their next system) but when I can save $50 on a single component, I'll use one of a small select group of etailers I've had good luck with (eg. Directron, Zipzoomfly, ClubIT, and occasionally amazon for certain items) Newegg has always done right by me, as have the others, and if I'm doing a build for a co-worker, I use them exclusively to reduce the number of places I'm having to deal with, but for personal builds, I tend to shop around more since I will slowly gather the components I want, rather than a mass-purchase.

mitzkity

speekeee zee eengleesh!!!!!

longhorn

wait a sec. with a window on the opposite side, the motherboard will cover it, so whats the point in that? The picture has to be backwards, motherboards can't go on the other side of the case (video, sound, network, ps2, usb connections would be facing front of case)

TomsHHR

What new OS did you use? I am looking at a Visa system.

catzcradle

the motherboard in that case mounts onto the left panel in an "upside-down" orientation so the slot's are at the top. The power supply mounts at the bottom of the chassis. This type of configuration makes a bit more sense to me since the cables for speakers, monitor, etc will be closer to the top and the power connection will be at the bottom, closer to the plug. It's non-traditional but I've seen a few cases that work this way, just 99% mount to the right inner panel.

As for OS, I'm sticking to XP pro for now, I've got the license, and not all that comfortable with the reported stability of Vista yet.

As for components, I'm looking similar to what goose put in. the e6750 is currently at the sweet spot, though I'm using Corsair XMS memory and power supply for this particular build..

enri9267

I've been telling all my clients to hold off on Vista. MANY thing don't work under Vista. This is the number One call issue we get each week on our radio show. Wait till SP1 comes out, before buying.

CrashMan82

The original ATX spec was laid out for airflow and more importantly heat flow... air enters at the bottom over the drives, cool air goes up the board from bottom to top and over the CPU heat sink then the air now at it's warmest, is exhausted by (the 2nd hottetst component) the PSU and/or an 80mm fan just below it.

Putting the board 'upside down' puts the CPU at the bottom, so now warm(er) air is moving over most of the board and warming up the componenst like the north and southbridge of the chipset which typically are very heat sensitive and typically always rely on passive cooling...

Now, that said, as long as there's plenty of good airflow (at least 1 80mm intake at the bottom and 1 80mm exhaust at the top) you'll probably never see a problem. And modern coolers are much more efficient then even 5 years ago.

Not saying you will have heat problems by any strech, just explaining the 'why' to anyone that may be wondering why boards weren't typically mounted this way. Modern cooling probably smooths out the concerns of a 12 year old design just fine

BTX layout was more of an 'upside down' ATX, but aparently BTX has already been shelved...

J

jayhawker

All of you people disgust me. All I do is push the power button, click, and type. Other than that I'm clueless to any of this stuff.