First build, advice appreciated.

Makaveli

It's about time I got around to getting myself a new PC. My current one is well past it's sell by date at this stage and struggles when a few applications are running, so gaming has pretty much been out of the question for quite a long time.

I want something that will play the current crop of games at a fairly decent level, and something that will last me for a while. I realise DX10 is on the horizon, but to be honest if I put this off again now I dunno if I'll ever get around to getting a new rig.

Here's what I've speced up. I'd appreciate some advice on the selections. Also, are there are any conflicts in my choices?

• Cooler Master Centurion 5 Black/Silver (Without PSU)
• Cooler Master Real Power 550W w/Power indicator, SLI, ATX/EPS, 20/24pin
• Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 2.4GHz Socket LGA775, 4MB, BOXED w/fan
• Asus P5WD2-E Premium Intel 975X (LGA775) PCI-Express Motherboard
• OCZ Gold PC6400 DDR2 2048MB Dual Pack, w/two matched 1024MB PC6400 XTC DIMMs
• NEC DVD±RW burner, ND-3550A, 16x, Dual, Black OEM x2
• Western Digital Raptor 36GB SATA 16MB 10000RPM
• Western Digital Caviar SE16 250GB SATA2 16MB 7200RPM
• Sony Floppy Drive, 3,5" 1,44MB Black, Internal

For the graphics card, I was originally looking at this XFX GeForce 7600GT 256MB GDDR3 XXX, PCI-Express 2xDVI/HDTV, 590/1600Mhz, but it seems the motherboard is more suited to ATI cards (ATI Crossfire or some such) rather than NVidia. Would this cause problems? The other card I had in mind was Connect3D ATI Radeon X1900 GT 256MB GDDR3 TV Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express).

Are these cards okay? Would they be able to handle games like Half Life 2, Doom 3, Far Cry, Prey etc without too much bother?

The 7600GT is on special offer this week at komplett so to be honest I'd prefer to go for that as it's the cheaper option.

I've no intention of overclocking at this point in time. It's just going to be used as is.

Also, as it's my first build I was wondering do all the cables and screws and stuff come with the components or do I need to buy them seperately? Do I need to buy more case fans or will the ones that come with the case suffice?

Anyway, all advice and comments welcome.

Cheers

Dingatron

Very nice but with a big outlay like that I would go for a 7800GT/7900GT graphics card or the ATI equivilant. Worth the extra in the long run. You might pick up a cheap 7800GT as they don't make them anymore.

Anti

First off that motherboard might need a flash to get it working with the conroe. So play it safe and get the one in my sig or another with the intel 965 chipset. The graphics card is a good choice. it has a very attractive price, and is more then capable of playing the games you want.

Makaveli

Which graphics card is a good choice the 7600GT or the X1900?

I'm kind of pushing my budget as it is, so I dunno if I could really stretch to 7800GT or 7900GT at the moment anyway.

If I get the 7600GT I can get your mobo Anti, as the saving there will offset the increased cost of the mobo.

Anti

The 7600gt will be fine mate. its a little firecracker of a card

K.O.Kiki

nVidia GPUs will run fine on any mobo; in fact, I'd advise nVidia since you're going Intel (as Intel pulled Crossfire support when ATI & AMD merged).
And the 7600GT is a damn fine card; I'd only recommend buying the (€100 dearer) X1900GT if you plan on resolutions higher than 1280x1024.

As for cables, only real reason to buy extra ones are so that you get UV-reactive ones, or rounded floppy or ATA cables (for DVD-drives); hell, 2 SATA, 1 rounded floppy & 1 rounded ATA would be about €25 or less (try OcUK)

Oh, and all fans are installed in that case.

Makaveli

Ok, cheers for the help guys.

Makaveli

Actually, if I change motherboard to the Asus P5W DH Deluxe WiFi is the ram I picked still compatable?

This should work instead yeah?

2Gb DDR2-667 (PC2-5400) OCZ Gold GXT Dual Channel kit (2x 1Gb DDR2-667 PC2-5400 240 pin Gold GXT modules), 240 pins, DDR2 DIMM, 667 MHz, CAS4, Rated 4-4-4-12, Gold covered XTC heatspreaders, unbuffered, non-ECC, 1.9V

Dual-channel DDR2 800/667/ 533 - the 800/667/533 refers to the MHZ yeah? WTF is the 5400, 6400 etc all about? Man it's just confusing. The original ram I selected is 800MHz does that mean the board does support it?

PogMoThoin

If your gonna oc go for the faster ram. it'll give you headroom when you oc. if your leavin it on stock, go for the cheapest.

K.O.Kiki

PogMoThoin wrote:

If your gonna oc go for the faster ram. it'll give you headroom when you oc. if your leavin it on stock, go for the cheapest.

I thought that worked the other way around!

Makaveli

Finally got all of the components but have a quick question.

The attatched came with the case, but I don't know what the hell it is or what it does. There's a couple of things that came with the case that I'm unsure about.

As it is I have the mobo and PSU in the case, but don't want to do anything else until I know what this is and if it's needed (hopefully not).

K.O.Kiki

Makaveli wrote:

Finally got all of the components but have a quick question.

The attatched came with the case, but I don't know what the hell it is or what it does. There's a couple of things that came with the case that I'm unsure about.

As it is I have the mobo and PSU in the case, but don't want to do anything else until I know what this is and if it's needed (hopefully not).

Double-check your case manual, but it doesn't look like anything important to me.

JayWasTaken

Makaveli wrote:

Finally got all of the components but have a quick question.

The attatched came with the case, but I don't know what the hell it is or what it does. There's a couple of things that came with the case that I'm unsure about.

As it is I have the mobo and PSU in the case, but don't want to do anything else until I know what this is and if it's needed (hopefully not).

Don't worry about them it's only a rubber grommet your suppose to put them through internal holes in the case but its no biggie if you left them out.

Makaveli

The case manual is complete muck. It's made of metal not rubber, left out anyway.

Computer is alive and well, need to install windows on it tomorrow. Took me far longer to put together than I thought it would but that was mainly down to overcaution.

Have to change the case fan though, sounds like a bloody jumbo jet.

tba

if you are going to get a new fan make sure you get the right size, they come in 120mm and 80 mm, plus if you want it to be quiet get one with a 28db or less rating, bear in mind that it could be any of your fans causing the noise though, cilprits include, the GPU (most likely) the CPU and the PSU check the manufactures sites for the db rating on your components before you get a new fan.

Zalman do very quiet and efficient fans if you have to buy one.

Makaveli

Ok, need some more help, sigh.

I can't get it to read the windows cd. In the BIOS it's set to boot from the DVD Drive but I'm just getting a flashing cursor key and nothing else.

Am I doing something stupid here?

When I take the cd out and put it in again it keeps printing

"Reboot and Select proper Boot device or Insert Boot Media in selected Boot device and press a key"

If the BIOS lists the drive why the hell wont it boot the cd?


*Edit* Problem solved. Only one DVD drive was being detected by the motherboard. Disconected the second one and restarted and it booted (now I have to try and figure out why the drive wasn't being recognised). Does XP Pro need SATA drivers installed or are they already there?

tba

no, xp needs seperate sata drivers

PogMoThoin

You gotta press f6 to load sata driver while your installing windows. You'll find it on the mobo cd (if they didn't give it to you on raid driver floppy). This is the only reason to have a floppy nowadays.

Makaveli

Up and running. Thanks for all the help guys.

Makaveli

Hopefully this will be the last time I have to post in this thread needing help.

I can't get any sound from the speakers. The sound card is a Audigy 2 Gold (SB0240). Drivers are installed and it's set as the sound source in Windows. The card is just seated in the mobo, do I need to connect cables to it? I take it I don't need the CD-In cable to connect to the DVD drive and I can ignore the TAD In input too?

The case came with a HD Audio connector and Ac'97 connector, neither of which fit into the soundcard. There's also a load of little connections that are for Azalia or Ac'97 (there's two labels on the wires that say what each connection does but I don't know what order they go in or where they go). I have attached a picture of the cables.

This is pissing me off now, everything else (bar the second dvd drive) is working and/or installed. No point installing games if there's no sound though.

As for the dvd drive, if I connect the cable to the second drive the BIOS detects only one and if I boot into Windows it doesn't see either. The jumpers are both set to cable select and both drives work. I reckon it's a dodgy cable. Anyway that's not much of a worry now because I do have one working drive but the sound problem is annoying.

Any help appreciated, I'm sure I'm just doing something stupid.

Creamy Goodness

i had that problem with an audigy2 once. look through the software that's installed with it i think it's in speaker calibration where it tests each speaker saying "front left" "front right" etc. there was a little box there saying use digital output or something like that untick it.

it may not be what's wrong with your setup but it's worth a try, i wish i could check it up for you but my pc is in bits on the floor in my bedroom

i don't think you need any connecters connecting to the soundcard maybe someone can clarify that for me.

Makaveli

Thanks for the reply. As you can tell from the pic my pc is also currently in bits on the floor. Need to work on tidying up the cables inside the case.


Edit - Speakers now working. Didn't even change anything, I dunno it's possible I didn't have them turned up loud enough. DVD drive also working now, had to set the jumper to slave. Yay! Everything is in, everything is working.

How do I stop Windows looking for a floppy drive because there isn't one? When I shut down a Continue/Retry error message pops up telling me A:\ is open.

Edit 2 - Never mind, remembered how to do it.