SATA vs. IDE

[FlyingPenguin]

I will also encourage you to get a BRAND NAME psu. You do NOT want cheap crap. Stick with Antec or Enermax. Personally I recommend the Antec True Power line - like a 440 watt.

You will regret it if you short change yourself on the PSU. It's NOT just about power. A cheap PSU has poor voltage regulation which can cause mysterious lockups and blue screens that you'll never figure out. Start out with a quality PSU now, or you'll wind up buying another one later.

I don't buy anything but Antec for myself and my clients. I've been burned too many times by cheap PSUs.

Modern high-end mobos and video cards are VERY finicky about voltage stability.

[fogus]

Hey again,

Well, I am very confident about my PSU after reading the reviews on it. And BTW I read one review that said that they had an Antec PSU go from 5V to 4.3V in only 7 months, so that casts some doubt in my mind about the quality of Antec. My bro Shmithers is going to lend me his PSU, which he has already ordered. It looks really perty, and all the reviews are top rate, and besides, he says that I can just buy him a new one in a few months. He wont have his PC for years, as he calculates that it will cost him more than 2K Canadian to build. (my biggest trick is getting my dad to buy the screen. You see, he needs something larger than 15� to view AutoCAD files in, and something with a faster response time. He is using 15�, and a response time so slow that when you are scrolling at any rate there is NO way that you can read the text. Its really sad. Must be like 48ms response time or something. So all I do is say that he needs to buy a new screen. Over and over and over and over until he realizes that he really does need one. So he decides on a big 19�. Then I decide to build a computer, and wheedle funds out of him to construct it. My mom will end up with our current computer, and I will get the new one which I will share a bit with Shmithers. Then I tell my dad that I am willing to go for a 17� and he can have our 19�. We have three screens. Guess who gets the 15�. You can see that I'm very tricky…)

Tomorrow morning is the big order! I got a surge protected power bar today, just to safeguard my investment (investment of persuasion). LOL, I'm going to have so many fans I'm going to go nuts. Two for the PSU, one for the graphics, one for the hard drive that came with the case, and two on a heatsynk that I was able to add to my kart thanks to a price drop at NCIX, one blowing out on the back, one blowing out on the top, two pulling in air from the side, and of course one for the CPU. Letme see, that's 2+1+1+2+1+1+2+1=11. Wow. As I am very new to the world of homebuilt PCs that sounds like having 50 bathroom fans installed into one bathroom or something. Oh well, at least we don’t have to worry about the mirror getting foggy .

Yeah, I read those thermapaste instructions, Blade. Very good of you to come up with the same ones I was talking about. Hehe. Do you suggest wearing latex gloves while we install things like CPUs? Would that make static? If I have a homemade copper bracelet wired to the case and around my arm, would I be protected from static? The copper bracelet was made from copper pipe, and it was sanded down to remove any coating that might have been on it.

I got a sweet deal on a mouse/keyboard at our local Future Shop. The mouse that we wanted that cost 50 we got for 50, but it comes with the media keyboard that we wanted too. Both Logitech. I've used the keyboard before, and I love it (got it for my dad and he loves it too ).

I guess I'm going to be doing a lot of transferring of files when I get the new PC hooked up. (Hmmm, and I'm going to have to think of a good name for it. And maybe get an artist friend of mine to come up with a symbol . My symbol that I use on PCA is some of her work actually.) I think I will just use X drive for that. The speed on those things are sooo impressive. They take a while to start transferring stuff, but once they get going, man, they go!
Shmithers says that the chipset can overheat sometimes. I have a lot of air flow in my case though, so I really need a special fan for it? I do do a lot of data transferring, so maybe he is right.

Do I have to worry about getting air pockets in my thermapaste? Seems like this would be the main concern, besides worrying that some idiot would pour the whole tube of past on one FX 55. I have heard about the “wear in� time of the thermapaste. Have any of you experienced such a thing? I think I will make a chart of my CPU/HDD/System temperatures over time and post it up here.

Anyways, I'll talk to you all later when I get things all ordered and arrived. One last question though: I have these temp sensors that came with the case, and they say “don’t pull� on a label on the cables. They don’t say what not to pull, just not to pull them. The temp sensors have covers on them, and Shmithers think that we can't pull the covers off the sensors. This seems kind of ridiculous. Perhaps something was lost in the translation. The manual for the case might have as well said “look at this pretty case!! Isn't it lots pretty?! Go buy another one!!�. LOL, it was basically pure advertising, and the authors had no idea that it was supposed to be used for something besides selling. I think that it means that we shouldn’t stretch the cables attached to the sensors to get the sensors to where we want them. What do you guys think? Also, where do I put these sensors? Are they for surface contact? I have three of them, and they all have labels. One says “HDD� another “CPU� and a third “System�. How do I attach each of these? Where does the system one go? It doesn’t look like any for them were designed to reach the PSU, so I assume they don’t go there. I heard my bro also say that the CPU ones go right between some of the pins on the processor. Is he right? What about the HDD one? Does it go below my heatsynk?

Well this post seems long enough, so I'm going to say goodnight to all.

P.S., I wonder if I could get extra home school credits for doing this PC project. Hmmm, I will talk to my councillor about that.

[RexHavoc]

Personaly, I'd use the money from the hard-drive cooler (you will not need it) towards a faster cpu or better video card. GF4?....It might run Sims2...might.

[nexus_7]

every powersuply is going to have a random bad one, or for cheaper brands a random good one. same thing happenes with cars, or anything else that is manufactured.

Its just Antec is a quality product and usually proforms like one.

Greg

[Pugsley]

I use the cheapo PS in my "servers" cause they are older dual P2 and P3 and arent as finiky about power. Also they dont even have video cards so it doesent matter.

But yea its not all about watts... alot of them specs are when the PSU is at 20 degrees and not when its actually hot. Atleast with antec the power rating is what they will produce after they have run in a system for a few hours and have had a chance to heat up.

Hell i could build a 2kW PSU that according to proper rating woudl be a 2kW PSU when you first turn in on but then after 30 when it heats up it could only be a 200w PSU... Its verry possible. My expensive PSU is a Zallman. Its stable and noiseless. (as far as I can tell) and runs my OC2500 and 9600 just fine.


Edit: SOB didnt even realise this is off topic... oh well its whats being talked about.

[fogus]

Ok,

First I have to tell you that my gforce 4 was the most impresive graphics card I have every used, so don't insult it! JK, but it is seriously a good card. I have run CNC generals on top quality PERFECTLY, not a frame missing, and that is a farily demanding program. I have also used R4 on my card, and it is nearly flawless. I dare you to test your cards on it. Im talking about the TI version of the Gforce 4 here. I got it two years ago and it was $400, and yes, I did get it from an honest dealer.

However...

I took your advice and I got my dad to buy me a BFG gforce 6600 GT OC AGP8X 128MB VGA and DVI output. This seems like a fairly nice card, which has only got 5 star ratings so far, and I anticipate that I will be giving it a similar rating.

I wish that I could have gotten a better processor, yes, you are right here. I do anticipate that it will be fast enough for my purpses though.

I will let you know how the powersupply works out. It arived today, and it looks like something that I will be proud of.

I also got a media keyboard and mouse from Logitech, total of $50 CAD, so quite the deal.

The order has been shiped today, except that MS office and the extra 4 USB ports are back ordered. I will have a running computer in the next week or so if all goes well.

PS, I realized that I can also strip some ram out of my old computer, which will give me a total of 1.5 gigs of ram in my new comp . This will definitly improve performace . I usualy like to have alot of stuff load directly to the RAM on startup. I did some regediting one time and discovered all sorts of beautiful things that can improve performace, but I suppose I should have mentioned that in the software forum.

Thanks again for the advice.

[eGoCeNTRoNiX]

Originally posted by fogus
Im talking about the TI version of the Gforce 4 here. I got it two years ago and it was $400, and yes, I did get it from an honest dealer.

I got a Ti4400 for $125 US which is $152 CAD in 09/03 so I think you got the really really short end of the stick..

eGo

[nexus_7]

Pugsley, you also use my enermax.....hows that working for ya...actually, you ever swap the LED's in that?

just giving ya a hard time.

Greg

[Absolut Talent]

Originally posted by eGoCeNTRoNiX
I got a Ti4400 for $125 US which is $152 CAD in 09/03 so I think you got the really really short end of the stick..

eGo

lol, i got my ti4600 for about that much...

[fogus]

Hmm, maybe I should double check that price. It seemed like alot, although it might have been 200, but that I honestly thought it was 400. Now that I think about it though, there is no way on earth I could have bought a $400 card. Perhaps it was one of those fishes that kept on growing.

What does everyone think about the GT 6600?

[Pugsley]

Originally posted by nexus_7
Pugsley, you also use my enermax.....hows that working for ya...actually, you ever swap the LED's in that?

just giving ya a hard time.

Greg

Yes i know about that. I was using that one up untill a week ago. And no the fan is still sitting here on the desk right where i left it when i got back.