Help Building My New Computer

knight0334 · Posted: Wed, 11 Feb 2004 19:48:22 Post Subject:

expect to spend another $50 US on a good heatsink and fan. Factory/OEM HSF's dont cut it.

Also figure in another $20 or more for case fans. ...nothing loud or fast spinning, just enough to get heat out of case since you are getting the CPU that produces the most heat.

BigFNDeal · Rated PG Joined: 03 Nov 2003 Posts: 7 Location: Philly

DO NOT BUY THE FULL VERSION OF XP!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you have any prior version of Windows, or know someone that does, you can do a full install from the upgrade cd! I have done this multiple times, I know it works! save $50, get the upgrade for $99! Put the extra $50 towards better speakers or a top of the line power supply!

Spire · Posted: Fri, 13 Feb 2004 00:52:48 Post Subject:

I think it looks like a very nice system, I kinda question the Audigy still, and, because your board supports SATA (serial ATA) might I recommend getting the same drive you have, the Segate 120, but get it in SATA. (Just installed that drive in a machine myself) The only current advantage is better (smaller) cabling, and maybe a touch more speed, however, in the future you will be able to do a RAID arrray on that board if you decided to get another Segate. Also, SATA is the future, PATA (Parallel ATA) is on the way out.

Would like to second the "get the upgrade of XP instead of the full." Might also think about saving a buck and get XP Home, there isn't that much different.

SpydeR · Rated PG-13 Joined: 10 Feb 2004 Posts: 45

Call me a newb, but what exactly is a RAID array? I'm trying to understand this, is it something new that's out to control your hard drives? Confused

evilburl · Posted: Fri, 13 Feb 2004 02:06:52 Post Subject:

Hi spyder, click on this http://www.utexas.edu/cc/vms/about/raid.html

raid 0 is the most popular,someday I'll have 2 hd's to do the raid thingy

Spire · Posted: Fri, 13 Feb 2004 02:51:45 Post Subject:

Read up on RAID, RAID 0 uses two drives to make one, but almost twice as fast, RAID 1 makes two drives the same as one, but with total all the time backup... You need to research.

For now, get the SATA drive, trust me, you will be more happy that you did. We will explain why later!!!!

**Doctor Feelgood** · Posted: Fri, 13 Feb 2004 07:47:45 Post Subject:

These guys did an intro to RAID, too:
http://www.computingondemand.com/articles/begraid/raid_part-1.shtml

I use RAID 0 for speed... Two 40GB drives now show up as one 80GB drive (which I then partitioned to my liking)... and speed benchmarks nearly doubled!

SpydeR · Rated PG-13 Joined: 10 Feb 2004 Posts: 45

eek, hrmm, I'm kinda confused now. Once again I said I'm new at this but does everything fit? Look at what I'm looking at and tell me if these match up and will fit, (red circles)

Will my Case fit with my Motherboard?

Look at these two, you may have to copy/paste the url link into the window.

Case: http://spyderalias.topcities.com/case.jpg

MotherBoard: http://spyderalias.topcities.com/MB.jpg

/shrug maybe it's just me but it looks like it doesn't fit =/ Is it possible to pop that metal thing on the case off?

-SpydeR Pirate

**Doctor Feelgood** · Posted: Fri, 13 Feb 2004 17:25:52 Post Subject:

That works... Looks like a standard ATX case and an ATX mobo... The drive cages in you rpic probably make it look smaller, but they are above the motherboard.

SpydeR · Rated PG-13 Joined: 10 Feb 2004 Posts: 45

While I'm installing Windows XP Home, should I format for FAT32 or NTFS? I really don't know the difference between the two, except for FAT32 is older and can be read by older version OS's, while NTFS is for the newer... ? /shrug

-SpydeR Pirate