Building a computer

[Rexoar]

Hi guys. I'm going to build a computer so I need some advices. I've only found a few parts that I could use, but i hope you guys could help me complete my computer with your recomendations

This is what I've found:

Chassi: ANTEC Chassi Super Lanboy
Motherboard: Abit IC7 Max3
CPU: Intel Pentium 4 3,2 processor (a little unsure)
Harddrive: Need some recomendations, and I also wonder what Raid 0 is...
PSU: Need help to find a good one.
Memory: I've thought about Corsair, but I don't know which Corsair to pick.
Videocard: Sapphire Radeon 9800 PRO
Soundcard: I havn't looked, but if you recomend any just tell me.

I really appreciate your help, and I hope I can complete my computer after your help. Please tell me what you think is good and what I should change with my computer.

Thanks /José

[SilentDeath]

harddrive - samsung spinpoint ones are suppost to be good, quiet and fast. all 3 of my drives are maxtors which i also think are v good.

psu - CWT 450w at scan.co.uk its exactly the same as antec 450w, but about £20 cheaper

mem - unless you want to overclock your cpu, http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatal...k_Only_25.html should be good enuf

soundcard - does that mobo have onboard? if not i dont know which to recomend but i would stay away from creative based cards...

[Stewart]

Yeah, but don't get 2x256, if you can't afford 2x512, then get 1 stick of 512, and add another later. If you're gaming, you'll want the extra RAM.

Forget Corsair, get a few sticks of Crucial RAM. £55 for 512mb of DDR400, and it'll do everything you want it too, without costing silly money.

Swap the Pentium for a Barton 2500+, clock it at 2.2, for an effective 3200+, and whack the lot into an Asus A7N8X Deluxe, or an Abit NF7-S.

Don't bother with a sound card, as those boards have sound storm, which is superb.

Hard Drive: Samsung Spinpoint or Maxtor Diamond Max wont see you far wrong. Nice and cheap now, at about 120-160gb.

PSU: Antec, Enermax, Sparkle, etc, etc. 350w or above. Not looked into all this 'CWT are Antec's but cost nowt' stuff, but if its not too good to be true, then its a good deal.

Cheers.

[Rexoar]

Thanks for all your answers, but which memory should I pick? Corsair TWINX512-3200, 512-3700, 512-4000 or 512-4400? And what is Raid 0? Should I fix it?

Thanks /José

[BlueBot]

I forgotten what it stands for now, something like Reliable Array of Independant Disks, or something like that...

Anyway Raid-0 is the most basic format of Raid, it is also called striping. It basically writes data over 2 (or more) drives, effectively creating a partition over multiple drives.

The advantages as I see them?

Greater performance, although 2 drives won't be double the speed of 1 drive...

Simple and easy to implement

Lots of boards now have support for Raid-0

Dis:

If one hard drive dies then you lose of all your striped data, not just what was on your hard drive. However I've worked my way through my fair share of drives and I've only gotten rid of drives due to limiting case capacity of actual HD capacity, I've never had any reliability problems.

Go for Western Digital Special Edition drives, fairly quiet, pretty quick, not too expensive and very very reliable, just always make sure that you have an active cooling solution on your drives.

Hope this is of some help

Steve

[quarryman]

Yeah, b.................... 350w or above. Not looked into all this 'CWT are Antec's but cost nowt' stuff, but if its not too good to be true, then its a good deal.

Cheers.

hey vaul whatever happened to the story with you and the faulty mobo form overclockers? did that ever get resolved? sorry, i know that's a while back.

[Allen]

I forgotten what it stands for now, something like Reliable Array of Independant Disks, or something like that...

Anyway Raid-0 is the most basic format of Raid, it is also called striping. It basically writes data over 2 (or more) drives, effectively creating a partition over multiple drives.

The advantages as I see them?

Greater performance, although 2 drives won't be double the speed of 1 drive...

Simple and easy to implement

Lots of boards now have support for Raid-0

Dis:

If one hard drive dies then you lose of all your striped data, not just what was on your hard drive. However I've worked my way through my fair share of drives and I've only gotten rid of drives due to limiting case capacity of actual HD capacity, I've never had any reliability problems.

Go for Western Digital Special Edition drives, fairly quiet, pretty quick, not too expensive and very very reliable, just always make sure that you have an active cooling solution on your drives.

Hope this is of some help

Steve

It's Redundant Array of Independent Disks, not that it matters too much. Don't bother with it unless you really need the extra performance or have the money.

Samsung Spinpoint hard drives are good, I have a 40GB version and it's dead quiet and very reliable too.

[BlueBot]

It's Redundant Array of Independent Disks

well I was close, oh so close :-)

Steve

[funnelhead]

Actually it stands for: 'Redundant Array of InEXPENSIVE Disks' as it was invented to provide better perforance and backup with multiple smaller (cheaper) volumes.


F

for those who will scorn me:
http://www.storagereview.com/guide20...hdd/perf/raid/

[Stewart]

hey vaul whatever happened to the story with you and the faulty mobo form overclockers? did that ever get resolved? sorry, i know that's a while back.

*Dies*

Well...

I did, after a very long fight with Overclockers get a second NF7-S, alas, this one broke after only 5 days (even the first one lasted 3 weeks). Fair play to Overclockers, they sent a third, which was switched to an Asus A7N8X Deluxe, and all is now well.

Not sure why the NF7-S boards kept breaking... still the Asus works fine, so I'm happy.

[dgr]

Actually it stands for: 'Redundant Array of InEXPENSIVE Disks' as it was invented to provide better perforance and backup with multiple smaller (cheaper) volumes.


F

for those who will scorn me:
http://www.storagereview.com/guide20...hdd/perf/raid/

WELL ACTUALLY YOU'RE BOTH WRONG.

Google shows 26k hits for inexpensive, 47k for independent. many large scale review / info sites use both, so i'm going to guess that in fact - the acroynm means either/or.

Kinda like liNux/lInux.

dgr

[daniel_owen_uk]

It's Inexpensive m8 always has been always will be.

PROOF

Although lower down it does say independent too

[Allen]

Strange, I've never heard of Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks... But Microsoft's site mentions it being that and Redundant Array of Independant Disks. So I call that we were BOTH RIGHT, not BOTH WRONG!

[Rexoar]

Thank you very much for the help. Soon finish but I can get a P4 2,6 for almost the same price as the P4 2,4. To the question, is the 2,6 as good as the 2,4 to overclock? And which cooling should I use to the 2,6/2,4 (the one who can get the best speed)

Thanks for your help /José

[s3v]

It used to be INexpensive, but when SCSI soon became EXpensive they changed it.

[Allen]

It used to be INexpensive, but when SCSI soon became EXpensive they changed it.

LOL! That would make sense. Redundant Array of Expensive Drives (RAEP) would sound and look a bit horrible...