Building my own PC: suggestions needed!

Good! I can use that info.

I am also sure I can mount the HD in horizontally. I have also had bad experiences with HDs that were mounted vertically. I have heard that it is better to mount them in vertically, though.

 

Does not matter. Just keep them cool. Side-mounted case fans are more than appropriate.

 

Processors get faster and faster... but the harddisk is still the bottleneck! A Serial-ATA harddisk should be on your list.

 

This board that I got has onboard audio and video that can be disabled in the BIOS. It has four 2.0 USB ports that are expandable. It also has five available PCI slots including one for graphics. I can add what I want, and more. I just tried to plan for a bit into the future. Why go thori=ugh the trouble if I just get a PC for the next year? I'm not rich.

Pardon my ignorance, but what do you mean by "scaleable"?

After I get through with this project, I have to upgrade my wife's Pentium III chip and mobo. She has a server-sized case. Lots of room, many fans...that thing is like 30 degrees inside!

 

You CAN find boards without on-board video. Some (most nowadays) you CANNOT disable truly from the bios end. They're video resources that must be controlled by the BIOS and therefore an IRQ must be set aside for it.

This is the kind of board you do not want.

Most boards today have on-board sound. Can you disable it safely in the bios? Oh yes.

If the board has anything else "penny-any" like ethernet on board that's cool.

"scale-able" is a board that has options for disable-able sound and NO VIDEO ON BOARD. If it's an "allinone" board, it's NOT "scale-able" as much. It's married to hardware you cannot change or upgrade.

Same thing about the modem. If a 56K modem is on-board, it's a no-no. Some of us don't want the board to be pre-married to IRQ's that can never be freed for things in the future. Some bios instances will not let you disable the modem either, but most today DO.

Board must have NO VIDEO ON BOARD and NO MODEM ON BOARD. Hope that makes sense. Again, if the sound is on board and disable-able, that's cool. You're using a NVIDIA that you want to use solo.

You CAN let an on-board video safely co-exist with a slot card. I just wouldn't do that for the future thoughts of scaling things higher because IRQ's are lost. Some IRQ sections are steered for video only....

An "allinone" board is cool if your pocket's tight, but it will stink for you down the road when you're PC100-brand (or PC-Chips) has a fused/ burnt modem, and you need to replace it. You'll in turn have only 2 PCI slots, and one will absolutely be used for sound. See, all-in-one boards have less options by defualt because everyone has limited IRQs.

 

You're right. It is the 875 chipset. I've been doing some reading and it seems that hardcore entheusiests and gamers aren't happy with it, and one guy says you shouldn't use a 533 MHz chip with it, but I ordered an 800MHz chip.

It's also noted the the space is tight on that board, so tight that one cannot remove the memory chip without removing the video card. But, the instructions say to remove the vid card when installing memory sticks, so it seems that there is a method to the maddness.

Anyway, I won't be gaming, just making music, video, and the usual stuff, so I am still satisfied.

 

As it turns out, it does have onboard ethernet. I am trying to determine if it does indeed have onboard video, but I doubt it. It has one slot for a video card, so I guess i'll have to pick one up.

There is no onboard modem.

For my first homemade PC, all sounds good at the moment...

Here is a link to it:
http://www.intel.com/design/motherbd/rl/index.htm?iid=ipp_browse+motherbd_d865perl&

Nope! NO onboard video!

 

Hi Grant,

I've been building PC's since 1985 too. It's amazing how much computer you can get for your money today. How much do you figure you'll spend?

Have fun and let us know how you make out!

All the best,

Gary

 

Gary,

Computers are a bargain. You never really appreciate the cost until you build one. Most people I know still complain that the big bad companies are ripping them off.

I figure I will have this puppy up and running for about $550, and that's not including the new SATA HD and OS. Sure, I could have bought a box with all the stuff I need and more for the same price or cheaper, but I am a kind of hands-on type of guy. I'm never quite happy with what is simply offered. I have to tweak and optimise a bit.