Building a new system

[rond36]

This is the system I am planing on building. I'm going to buy the parts as I can afford them so it might take a while to gather all the parts and some might change as new items hit the market. They may have 3GHz processors before I can afford a 2.2GHz
Antec SX1040B (black) W/400W power supply
Asus P4S333 W/audio and NIC
Intel P4 2.2GHz (northwood)
Asus iPanel
512 MB Corsair PC2700 CL 2 DDRSDRAM (256 X 2)
100GB Western digital 7200 RPM WD1000JBSE W/8MB buffer X2
Plextor 40X12X40 CD-RW PX-W4012TA/SW (black)
Sony 1.44MB FDD (black)
ATI All-In-Wonder Radeon 8500DV 64MB DDR AGP W/TV in and out
Viewsonic G90MB (black) 19" short depth monitor
MS Intelli-mouse optical 5 button
MS Natural Keyboard Pro
Creative Inspire 5.1 Digital 5700 Speaker system
MS Office XP Pro W/publisher OEM
Duel-boot Windows ME and XP Professional OEM
This system will be different because I will have nothing in the PCI slots only the AGP
and nothing on the com ports, parallel port, or PS2 ports everything is either onboard, AGP, or USB.
I will be networking the new PC with the one I built in October (and using now) (http://www.pcguide.com/ubb/Forum3/HTML/000728.html) so they can share the printer, scanner, and SDSL internet connection

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I think Windows XP and Microsoft use more of my bandwidth than I do!
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[This message has been edited by rond36 (edited 02-08-2002).]

[diurnal]

Sounds like youll let me build that for you huh? http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif
So your going onboard sound?
I'd get the Audigy if your getting sound.
They sell 40X Plextors now?
Can i have it
http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/cool.gif

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Murph's Law: 1.Everything takes longer than you think
2.If anything can go wrong it will
3.Nothing is as easy as it looks

[rond36]

They sell 40X Plextors now?

can get it here (http://www.plextor.com/english/products/40_12_40a.html) here (http://www.googlegear.com/ggweb/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=330603) and here (http://www.essencompu.com/nupplysingar.asp?ID=1650)
and here in black (http://www.harddrive.com/)
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I think Windows XP and Microsoft use more of my bandwidth than I do!
WindowsBBS.com (http://www.WindowsBBS.com/index.php?referrerid=115) Is back online, check it out

[This message has been edited by rond36 (edited 02-08-2002).]

[diurnal]

Cool they finally up the rw to 12x, i need one

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Murph's Law: 1.Everything takes longer than you think
2.If anything can go wrong it will
3.Nothing is as easy as it looks

[Brian G]

hey, I just posted a question like yours. I am looking for ideas.
I have gotten behind in the hardware out there. I may use some of your ideas.
Things may have changed. But I know it used to be a good rule of thumb to stay away from onboard sound or video. And I just read an article on the
Audigy card giving a lot of ppl trouble. Especially with XP. I wish I had the article to pass on.
I like the Asus name. I have a ABIT in my older pc and have always thought highly of them both. I am also using a Plextor now. From my research before buying, Plextor looked really good. I just had to send it back to the company for repairs, (8months old). They were really good about it. Even though it broke pretty quick, I think I'd still stick with Plextor. I may have just got a bad one.
Why did you choose the ATI over Gforce? They just came out with a G-4.
Even though there is probably not any games out that can use it. The hardware is ahead of the software, I think. I have read good about both.

I already have 2 PC'sd like you will be doing. And find that by networking them, it takes strain off. I use the older one for all the printing,scanning, etc... I enjoy games, so that leaves more resources open on the newer PC.
And lastly, I also have my HD's partitioned so that I can play my games on 98. I kept 982nd ed. over ME. ME crashed to often to suit me. I liked it, But it just didn't seem to stable.
Oh, yea, you said you were getting a OEM of XP. You might want to check Direct Deals. They had the XP Pro for around $145. I paid $158. Pretty good deal.

peace be with you


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Peace be with you

[rond36]

But I know it used to be a good rule of thumb to stay away from onboard sound or video. The sound on this board is reviewed as being as very good. I can always take the SB Audigy MP3 out of my present system and put the SB Live card back in
Oh, yea, you said you were getting a OEM of XP. You might want to check Direct Deals. They had the XP Pro for around $145. I paid $158. Pretty good deal. I can get XP Home OEM for $88.00 and XP Pro OEM for $140.00 here (http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduct.asp?submit=manufactory&catalog=90&manufactory=1149&DEPA=1) and MS Office XP Pro W/ Publisher here (http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduct.asp?submit=manufactory&catalog=45&manufactory=1149&DEPA=1) for $292.00. All full versions.

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I think Windows XP and Microsoft use more of my bandwidth than I do!
WindowsBBS.com (http://www.WindowsBBS.com/index.php?referrerid=115) Is back online, check it out

[This message has been edited by rond36 (edited 02-09-2002).]

[rbaker]

May I ask why you will have a double boot system (XP and ME)? Also if you were going to use 1 gig of ram would you use 4 sticks of 256 or some different combo? Finally what do you estimate the cost of that system would be if you were ordering the parts in the next 30 days?

thanks

bob

[rond36]

May I ask why you will have a double boot system (XP and ME)? I have software that will not install in XP and I have some that run better in XP so I run the older programs in ME and the newer ones in XP. Also if you were going to use 1 gig of ram would you use 4 sticks of 256 or some different combo? Corsair PC2700 CL 2 DDRSDRAM is only available in 256MB DIMMs King Max has it in 512MB DIMMs but it is CL 2.5. I want 512MB PC2700 CL 2 the only way to get this right now is with 2 256MB DIMMs. Finally what do you estimate the cost of that system would be if you were ordering the parts in the next 30 days? Around $3000.00 give or take $300.00

------------------
I think Windows XP and Microsoft use more of my bandwidth than I do!
WindowsBBS.com (http://www.WindowsBBS.com/index.php?referrerid=115) Is back online, check it out

[rond36]

Well I did it! I ordered all the parts for my new system yesterday can't wait to get them and build it I bet it is going
to scream. This is what I ended up buying

Antec SX1040B Black full tower case with a 400W power supply and 2 extra 80mm case fans for a total of 4

Soyo P4S Dragon Ultra Sis 645 chipset socket 478 mother board with audio lan and raid supports PC2700 DDR

Intel Pentium 4 2.0GHz (northwood) 512 cache with HSF (didn't buy the 2.2GHz because those last 200MHz cost about $1.00 each) http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/eek.gif

768MB Corsair PC2700 333MHz CL2 DDRSDRAM (256X3)

2X Western Digital 100GB hard drives UDMA 100 with 8MB buffer

Plextor 40X12X40 CD-RW with black bezel

Pioneer 16X40 DVD ROM slot load with black bezel

Sony floppy drive with black bezel

ATI All-In-Wonder Radeon 8500DV 64MB DDR video card with TV in and out (so I don't mis Star Trek because I am on the computer)

Viewsonic G90MB 19" 1600X1280 .22 dp short depth flat screen monitor (black)

Creative Inspire 5700 5.1 Digital sound system

MS Intelli-Mouse Explorer

MS Natural Keyboard Pro

MS Windows XP Pro Plus OEM (includes MS Plus for Windows XP)

MS Office XP Pro with Publisher OEM

Duel-boot Windows ME and XP Professional OEM

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I think Windows XP and Microsoft use more of my bandwidth than I do!
WindowsBBS.com (http://www.WindowsBBS.com/index.php?referrerid=115) Is back online, check it out

[This message has been edited by rond36 (edited 02-25-2002).]

[BigBlue66]

Holy smokers. Looks like you got a Cadillac there. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif

Have fun!

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This space reserved for highly intelligent observations and witty remarks.

"Once I thought I made a mistake, but turns out it was the other guy."
Myself

[mjc]

I thought it looked more like a Porsche.....

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mjc
Links list:Computer Links (http://www.dreamwater.org/tech/mjc/index.htm)

Celts are the men that heaven made mad, For all their battles are merry and their songs are all sad.

[Whyzman]

Rond,

Whew, sounds awesome! http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/tongue.gif http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/wink.gif

Whew, did you do this with a home equity loan? http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/rolleyes.gif How much did this BadBoy set you back? http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/frown.gif http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

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May all your dealings in life be win/win!


Whyzman
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Reserved for Punishing Humor...A Pessimist's blood is always B-negative!

[bassvax]

Sweet system http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif

The cost issue is amazing...I built a monster machine for my kid earlier this month and it cost about 300-400 less than what I paid for building mine.

Mine-1.0GHz T-Bird/512MB/GF2/Platinum 5.1 SoundBlaster/Asus A7V133 KT133a
His-1.67GHz AMD XP 1900/512MB/GF3 Ti500/Asus A7V266-e KT266a

I'm still impressed with thos Antec cases...those extra fans are cool in that they connect directly to the power supply instead of to the mobo..

My son is running Unreal Tournament on XP Pro with onboard sound and its kickin' (so far so good bassman http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif )

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See Emily Play

Flush 'N' Forget (http://www2.apex.net/users/hwuswtp)

[rond36]

It's built, it's not a Cadillac or Porsche it is a Lamborghini Diablo VT witha trunk the size of a box car (hard drives). The video card has cable TV input and comes with a radio frequency remote control that doubbles as a wireless mouse now I can lay in bed and watch TV and or surf the internet. I should have bought a wireless keyboard so I don't have to getup to enter user name and password http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif The sound on the mother board is awesome it sounds better than the SB audigy MP3 in my other system I have it hooked up to the creative inspire 5700 amp with fiber optic cable. This baby realy screams it is clear off the bar charts in SiSoft Sandra 2001te Pro I ran the burn in for 48 Hrs and not one lockup or crash. I am having one problem though in Win ME when I do a warm boot it closes every thing down mormaly but when it is supposed to boot back up it goes into standby mode but mouse and keyboard won't bring it out of standby have to hit the reset button to get it to boot back up Windows sees this as a normal shutdown no improper shutdown or scandisk on restart it isn't causing serious problems it's just a pain because this case has a recessed reset button and you can't push it with your finger need to push it with a pen or something with a point. I have downloaded the update that is supposed to add 2 sec to the shutdown time to allow the hard drive to write it's cache to disk thinking this might be the problem but it didn't help. Is there any other way to add time to the shutdown process? this problem is only in ME. XP works just fine so I am thinking it is software not hardware or BIOS settings. Also I have heard that Win Me has trouble with more than 512MB of RAM installed so I didn't install all the 768MB only 512MB is there any way to limit the amount of RAM Win ME uses so i can install the other 256MB DIMM for XP. One other thing my copy of XP Pro came without activation. It made it to the screen asking if I want to activate I said yes knowing that the network cable was not pluged into the router and could not access the internet it skiped the screen asking for the country you are in and went to the you have activated your microsoft product. I did the same thing with Office XP Pro but it didn't work had to plug the cable in and try again

------------------
I think Windows XP and Microsoft use more of my bandwidth than I do!
WindowsBBS.com (http://www.WindowsBBS.com/index.php?referrerid=115) Is back online, check it out

[saphalline]

Originally posted by rond36:
I am having one problem though in Win ME when I do a warm boot it closes every thing down mormaly but when it is supposed to boot back up it goes into standby mode but mouse and keyboard won't bring it out of standby have to hit the reset button to get it to boot back up Windows sees this as a normal shutdown no improper shutdown or scandisk on restart it isn't causing serious problems it's just a pain because this case has a recessed reset button and you can't push it with your finger need to push it with a pen or something with a point. I have downloaded the update that is supposed to add 2 sec to the shutdown time to allow the hard drive to write it's cache to disk thinking this might be the problem but it didn't help. Is there any other way to add time to the shutdown process? this problem is only in ME. XP works just fine so I am thinking it is software not hardware or BIOS settings.


Funny you should mention that Win ME problem, because I have the bad stand-by bug, too http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/frown.gif I have an Antec SX1030 case (very similar to yours) so I know how much of a hassle it is to keep a darn pen on top of my case for when my Windows gets leaky. Other similarities: RAID and sound on motherboard (I have an Asus A7V266-E), Plextor CD-RW drive (16x10x40), Pioneer 16X DVD drive, and a Microsoft mouse and 19" monitor (probably not contributing factors, but hey). I also have two hard drives in mine, but not in RAID, just separate. I haven't DL'ed any Win ME updates yet so I can't help you there, but felt I had to say something after seeing your problem and your config...

As far as I can tell, it's either a straight-up Win ME problem (not entirely inconceivable, ME has a bunch of stability issues) or a combination of hardware factors not working well with ME. If it is related to hardware, I'm inclined to think it may be the mobo BIOS needing an update because our other hardware is top-notch and time-tested (no prototypes or no-name parts or anything like that). I don't know much about your mobo, but mine was brand spanking new, hot-off-the-press, just out of beta testing when I got it, so I thought that might be it.

Options (if you really can't stand to use a pen as a boot-up device): Switch Win ME to 98SE (not guaranteed to fix problems) or even Win 2000 (lesser gaming support); forget dual-booting and just stick to Win XP; let your finger nail grow really long and then file it into a point (at least you won't need a pen anymore!).

Personally, when I go through my mandatory upgrading sweep this fall, I'm switching over to Win XP Pro. Or maybe Lindows...

[rond36]

I have done everything that I can think of to fix this problem even tried running with 256MB RAM at 200MHz flashed my BIOS to the one released Friday 3/8/2002 assigned an IRQ for AGP and I can't think of any thing else I can do

------------------
I think Windows XP and Microsoft use more of my bandwidth than I do!
WindowsBBS.com (http://www.WindowsBBS.com/index.php?referrerid=115) Is back online, check it out

[mjc]

Rond,

I think it is time to chalk it up to a quirk of ME and move on...also have you triple checked every power management setting in ME?

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mjc
Links list:Computer Links (http://www.dreamwater.org/tech/mjc/index.htm)

Celts are the men that heaven made mad, For all their battles are merry and their songs are all sad.

[rond36]

Triple checked power management settings can't find a problem but it did reboot normaly once tonight but just once than it was right back at it. Like you said I am just going to have to live with it. I think I can do that as long as I don't start getting errors and data loss.

------------------
I think Windows XP and Microsoft use more of my bandwidth than I do!
WindowsBBS.com (http://www.WindowsBBS.com/index.php?referrerid=115) Is back online, check it out

[rbaker]

Hey Guys and Gals,

I have been following this thread with particular interest. I am interested in buying a power system along the lines of the one discussed here. However, I do not have the expertise or the skill to build it myself. I was interested in getting something from Alienware but after reading some disturbing comments from some dissatisfied customers regarding support and quality I have backed off. Would any of you have suggestions about from whom I might purchase a top of the line system. I have had Dell, Gateway, TriStar, IBM, Northgate, Apple, and a few other brands over the years with no particular allegiance to any of them. The last Dell I ordered had to be returned because of a ghost writing problem they couldn't figure out. Any suggestions would be appreciated. I have budgeted between $4K-$5K. I know that some of you here could build a comparable system for $3K but as I said, I am not skilled enough to do it myself. A little direction please. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif

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Baker's Law #1: Never shoot the cook.

[YODA74]

I would try to find a Repuatable PC Builder in Cinncinatti check out their references real good and call some of their customers, tell them what your looking for ,what you need and go from there,and definetly ask them about their warrenty policy!If your not a tweaker then stay away from any board like Kr7a/raid and AMD Xp's stay with the (little P4 combo's)Guess we can tell where my loyalty lay's (AMD, just my personal preference) http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif

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Death has come to our windows.

-- Jeremiah 9:21
(undoubtedly a Biblical reference to a Microsoft product!)

YODA74@carolina.rr.com

[rbaker]

Thanks Yoda,

That is a good place to begin. There is one small firm with which I am familiar that may fit the bill. I appreciate your response. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif

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Baker's Law #1: Never shoot the cook.

[saphalline]

Originally posted by rbaker:
Hey Guys and Gals,

I have been following this thread with particular interest. I am interested in buying a power system along the lines of the one discussed here. However, I do not have the expertise or the skill to build it myself. I was interested in getting something from Alienware but after reading some disturbing comments from some dissatisfied customers regarding support and quality I have backed off. Would any of you have suggestions about from whom I might purchase a top of the line system. I have had Dell, Gateway, TriStar, IBM, Northgate, Apple, and a few other brands over the years with no particular allegiance to any of them. The last Dell I ordered had to be returned because of a ghost writing problem they couldn't figure out. Any suggestions would be appreciated. I have budgeted between $4K-$5K. I know that some of you here could build a comparable system for $3K but as I said, I am not skilled enough to do it myself. A little direction please. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif


Man, I wish I had $4K-$5K to spend on a PC! Mmm... nice...

So yeah, anyway, going with a small REPUTABLE shop is a good idea, and definitely talk to their customers. Any good shop won't be afraid to give you a list of customers to call (with the customers' permission of course). When you do finally pick a shop, get a list of the components and post them here! Well, make a new message thread. If there's one thing computer hobbyists love almost as much as choosing their own parts, it's helping others choose theirs http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif.

And I am rather curious to see how much PC power you can get with $5K...

[rbaker]

To All

Since I live in Cincinnati, OH I would be happy to entertain in recommendations that any of you may already have about a good little shop to custom build a system. The shop I have dealt with is/was called Professional Computer City and they put together systems under their name brand of Patriot. It was nothing special but it has run uninterrupted (except for power grid blackouts) for lo these many years. I use it only for my voice mail system for my business but it has been on for many years. I believe it still has Windows 3.1 on it. In fact I believe I have it running in DOS mode. It has a 5 1/4 drive but no 3.5. Starting to date it a little huh? But I digress, this new computer is for doing the work of my business. I do mostly data keeping (accounting, budgets, invoices, schedules, word processing, and internet.) I do have some graphic applications for stock charting programs and such but I am interested in speed mostly and reliability. I want a good sound system because they are available but I am not a gamer at all. Don't even have Flight Simulator. Solitaire and occasionally chess.

I do appreciate your help. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif

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Baker's Law #1: Never shoot the cook.