A few questions before purchasing...

[Mosley]

I am about to purchase the things I need for my upgrade. I have the CDROM/monitor/keyboard/3.5 drive/mouse/HDDs. I am getting everything from Newegg.com except for the memory, which I am getting from Crucial.com. I have listed everything, and have a few questions at the bottom. Thanks.

ANTEC SOHO File ServerTower ATX Case Model SX1040BII with 400 Watt Power Supply
Specifications:
Form Factor:ATX
Expansion Slots:7
Fans:2x Standard Rear Fans:
Power Supply:400W P4 Compliant ATX12V

ABIT IS7,Intel 865PE chipset for Socket 478 P4 ATX motherboard RETAIL
Specifications:
Supported CPU: Intel® Pentium® 4 Socket 478 processors
Supports: Hyper-Threading Technology
Chipset: Intel 865PE + ICH5-R
FSB: 800/533
RAM: 4x Dual DDR333/400
IDE: 2x ATA100
SATA: 2x Serial ATA 150 Connectors up to 2 Devices, Supports Raid 0
Slots: 8X AGP, 5x PCI
Ports:2xPS2, 1xLAN, 6xUSB, 3x IEEE 1394, and Audio Ports
Onboard Audio: AC97 6-Channel
Onboard LAN: 10/100 Ethernet

Intel Pentium 4 / 2.4CGHz 512k socket 478 Hyper Threading Technology 800 MHz FSB - RETAIL
Specifications:
CPU: 2.4GHz
Type: Pentium 4 Northwood
Cache: 512K
BUS: 800 Mhz
Socket: 478
Retail box (with Heatsink and Fan)

ATI RADEON 9800 PRO 128MB DVI/TV 8X AGP RETAIL
Specifications:
Chipset: ATI RADEON 9800 PRO
Memory:128MB DDR
Bus: AGP 8X
Eight parallel rendering pipelines
Four parallel geometry engines
256-bit DDR memory interface
Full support for Microsoft® DirectX® 9.0 programmable vertex and pixel shaders in hardware
Integrated TV Output support up to 1024x768 resolution
Supports Resolutions up to 2048x1536 at 85Hz
Ports:VGA + DVI + S-Video

Ram: Two 512MB DDR PC3200 (1 Gig total)

Regarding the processor, what is the difference between retail and OEM?

Regarding the video card, what is the difference between retail and bulk?

Any recommendations? Suggestions? Comments? Am I missing anything? Do I need cables, or any other miscellaneous items?

[Abbadon]

processor: retail comes with heatsink & fan, oem is just the processor. That's the only difference as far as I know.

vidcard: no idea what the difference is.

Comments etc:

What are you going to do with this machine? It's a bit overpowered for just surfing and office-applications. For gaming and the like it's excellent.

You don't seem to be missing anything, I'm sure you thought of stuff like "a screwdriver" and such ;).

The proc you chose is real nice! Excellent for oc'ing should you want to (excellent without oc'ing as well by the way :) ). Beware though! The heatsink comes with some kind of patch at the bottom to serve as a thermal agent between the hs and the proc. Get it of, clean the hs real nice and use some real thermal paste (like artic silver from thermaltake) in stead. This is because those patches are cr*p. They do their job, but not very well. (if you're going to oc, be sure to research lapping)

The vidcard you're getting is nice as well. Might be worthwhile to take a peek to see if there is a 256mb ram version out and what the price difference is. Won't matter much performance-wise today, but it will matter in half a year / a year.

Great choise of case. The included psu is nice as well. It comes with power cable included and a little bag with tons of screws. IDE and SATA cables usualy come with the mobo. You should check your manuf-site to be 100% sure.

What brand is your ram?

Move the fans or add some so you get positive air pressure inside the case, this helps in keeping down dustbunny procreation.

And just out of curiousity: what are you paying for this rig?


Hope I said some stuff you can use!

Greetz & have fun

Abbadon

[pentachris]

Regarding the processor, what is the difference between retail and OEM?
OEM doesn't come with a heatsink and fan. Also, the warranty is probably only 30 or 90 days as opposed to (I think) 3 years with retail.

Regarding the video card, what is the difference between retail and bulk?
With bulk, you get the card and a driver disc, probably in just an antistatic bag. With retail, you get a nice box, maybe a game demo, and free technical support from the manufacturer (for what that's worth :rolleyes: ).

[Mosley]

Thanks for the help!

This computer will be for surfing, gaming and web programming. I also want to get some of the higher-end stuff so I dont need upgrade for a while.

Where can I get thermal paste?

The brand of the RAM is Crucial. That is the brand name, correct? Well, I am planning on buying it from crucial.com. Is this a good idea? Is it good RAM?

$80 Case
$109 MB
$171 CPU
$364 Video Card
$180 RAM

$904 Total

[pentachris]

Crucial is good RAM. Since you're getting the rest of your things from newegg, I'd go ahead and get the RAM from newegg (they carry crucial) unless there's a big price difference. I don't think you'll have any problems ordering direct from crucial, I'd just rather only have to place one order and worry about one package.

Get your thermal paste here (http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproduct.asp?DEPA=1&submit=Go&description=arctic%2Csilver).

[Budfred]

Keep in mind that when you use thermal paste it probably voids whatever warranty you have on the CPU. Even though it is better for cooling, it is trickier to use and there is some risk of damaging the CPU. I am not sure that Intel will void it, but AMD does for sure...

[Mosley]

Can anyone else comment on the thermal paste and the warranty? I am a little nervous of doing this. Should I just use what comes with the chip so I dont void any warranty?

[pave_spectre]

I think the general opinion is that thermal material that comes standard with heatsinks is fairly second rate and that replacing it with Arctic Silver is well worth it and if you use a reasonable amount of care can be fairly easy to apply.
I dont know about Intel but some of the AMD thermal material (there seems to be several varieties used) are worse than useless.

The warranty is definitely known to be voided with AMD processors, but you may need to find out if that is also the case with Intel.

As I said it can be well worth it to replace the stock compound with Arctic Silver, but if your not comfortable doing it then just go with what comes with your heatsink.