Questions about building from scratch?

[Äߧý∩†H♠H䎀]

Alright at first I was thinking about getting a computer from avadirect and having most of the components installed there. And buying a few other pieces from tigerdirect and putting them in myself. As far as my internal computer knowledge I know how to connect new components into slots that were pre occupied but have not connect everything piece by piece. If I decide to go this route a computer programmer down the road that has built his own should be able to help me put everything together.

Know to the question what all do I need to order? I'm pretty sure i've got everything but if I need anything further please let me know. Also when I order each component seperately will it come with the cables I need to connect it to?

Tower: Now as long as it's a ATX tower with the dimensions shown for the motherboard I want it should work with intels 775 sockett correct?

Psu:

Motherboard: Asus, P5n32 for a raidmax rx-9gt midtower

Processor: Will the core2duo processor come with all the cables I need to connect the hard drives,usb ports etc?

Memory:

Video Card

Hard drive: Does it come with a hard drive cable?

I'm using my current DVD-RW,CD-RW, and DVD rom drives in my new computer will I be able to use the cables that came with my gateway computer for this?

Soundcard: I know the board i'm looking at has intergrated 7.1 sound but I should still have a PCIe slot for a new soundcard when I have the cash to upgrade correct?

Modem:

I there is anything else I need to order or a cable kit please hook me up with some links were I can get it. I was ready to order from avadirect but after adding the prices up from other sites for all the components it was almost $300 cheaper to order all the pieces and install myself. I feel like i'm missing something i'm still suprised at the price difference maybe that is just the hidden cost of putting it together sense through there site they say there is no setup fee?

The main reason i'm considering going this route if not to much of a pain would be extra money for some parts I wasn't going to buy, With the processor and some other components they are running deals with added software, and the harddrive was running a special with a big rebate and a full security suite. Most of this was from tigerdirect. I've seen alot of recommendations for newegg.

If I find out when I order each part it should include everything I need to hook it up i'll probally shop around tonight and find the best combo between price and extra's included. Thanks a bunch i'm new at buying this way but I want to get the most for my dollar. Like I said before I have somebody that has built his own computers before so i'll get his help when i'm ready to put it all together that way I know what i'm doing next time!

 

[kchi55]

tower atx mid-tower or full tower is fine.
motherboard any sized atx motherboard is fine.
processor will not come with cables and stuff, the processor only comes with the small processor itself and a heatsink. the hard drive cables come with the motherboard and the usb slots are integrated onto the motherboard.
power supply, i would recommend a 500+watt powersupply from any reputable company.
system memory and videocard depend on what you want to be able to accomplish with this computer, therefore you'll need to be more precise on what you want out of this investment.
hard drive is usually an oem package with only the hard drive, so no no sata cable, the motherboard as mentioned before will include this.
optical drives, though the new motherboard should include cables for these too, you can definitely re use the old cables on your old dvd rw cdrw on your new motherboard.
soundcards are a plus if you are into gaming as it frees up processes on the cpu since you actually have a card dedicated to sound. sound cards use pci 1x slots not pci e 16x slots, the only thing that can go into a pci e slot as of now is the video card.
you still need an operating system, windows xp home oem or professional should do it for now. otherwise you're set. i can help with your picking out of ram and video card once you tell me what you want to do with this pc. you'll also have to decide which model of core 2 duo you're comfortable with.

 

[Äߧý∩†H♠H䎀]

Alright thanks i'll get back to you in a little bit with all my choices i'm in the middle of cooking dinner

 

[Äߧý∩†H♠H䎀]

Well i'm looking at doing a few different things with this computer. I run a dual monitor set up so I always have something running in each window. The most common programs I run are as followed.

Dreamweaver 8
Fireworks 8
LimeWire
Windows Media Player
Creative's Media Player when ripping music to my mp3 player
Full tilt poker
Newer video games
DVD burning
Downloading Music
Storing pictures

Looking at getting a TV tuner with my savings for recording and burning tv show's etc

I like to play around with other software such as home design, animation, and movie editing for when I get my TV tuner. I plan on buying vista 64bit the media version when it comes out. I was really impressed with some of the options with the standard XP's current media addition.

 

[kchi55]

um..so i guess, if you're excited about windows vista.. you'll probably want to be fully prepared for it. vista's requirements are pretty up there right now so i'd recommend...
a 7600gt if you are considering to upgrade to a 8800gtx or r600 video card in the near future, or a 7900gt/x if you won't be doing any upgrading in the near future.
i'd recommend 2 gb of reputable ram... corsair, ocz, crucial are all decent brands, for ram timings, the lower the better.
i haven't had much experience with dreamweaver 8 and fireworks 8, i have them installed i just haven't gotten the chance to play with them yet since i'm still trying to figure out photoshop cs2 so i don't know how demanding and stressful those programs are on a computer. but the above are my suggestions, i'm basically treating the apps up there as a pretty demanding game so.. yep

 

[Äߧý∩†H♠H䎀]

Ya I was looking at getting OCZ ram. Heres what I was planning on getting. I was curious what the difference in timing's are? This comes in at 5-5-5 I saw some at 4-4-4 and some above the 5-5-5. Definately going with 2gb's to start out.

I'm still up in the air with the graphics card what is the main thing I should focus on with a graphics card? Is the biggest thing the clock speed I should be looking at? I've seen alot of cards with 256mb alot higher priced than some of the 512mb cards. I really don't want to spend over $200 on the graphics card.

Below link to OCZ ram.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=2205992&sku=O261-9018

 

[Äߧý∩†H♠H䎀]

As for planning to upgrade the graphics card I was probally going to buy a identical card and run them in SLI. So whatever I buy now i'll be buying another one probally within 2 months.

 

[kchi55]

uh.. well i'd recommend buying parts from newegg, most of the time they're cheaper and i think that newegg is more reliable.. for a graphics card, you should probably look at the amount of pixel pipelines first, memory interface isn't as important as one would think.. the clock speed is important too, but in my opinion that comes after the amount of pipelines. if you want to go sli and not go overboard with the money, a pair of 7600gts is fine. just keep in mind that direct x 10 cards have been released and more will be released around the same time as vista is released. so if you really want to take advantage of windows vista, you'd want to get a dx10 card, but as of now they're pretty expensive $400+ so i suppose sli'd 7600gts is fine.

 

[Äߧý∩†H♠H䎀]

LOL i'll get a card with direct x 10 when the price drops! I'm sure running 2, 512 cards in SLI should be alright for vista although I may miss out on a few features. I'm going to check out newegg now. I've seen alot of post with people recommending that site. I'll see what I can find.

 

[D-Lew]

Yeah I would recommend the 7600gt for what you're looking for or if you're looking to go all out, 7900GTO, but those are constantly sold out. They're cheaper and way faster than my 7900GT KO 512.