[yorkp76]

Hello all, My name is Peter and I am somewhat of a greenhorn. I am building a computer myself for the first time. I have designed a few in the past for others that work great, but thats just it, they were only the designs. This will be the first time I've actually put one together myself.


Heres the system specs for my new build, if I leave out any info you may need just post and I'll add the missing info, but this should be all the essentials:

-Motherboard: BIOSTAR 6100-M9 939 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard

-Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ Toledo 2.2GHz with a Rosewill RCX-Z1 CPU Cooler

***I got the Mobo/Proc in a combo for 125.00USD after 3 day shipping***

-Video Card: XFX 8600GT 256MB 128-bit

-Ram: G.SKILL Value 1GB stick DDR 400 x 2
***with the intention of buying another pair asap after I get this up and running***

-Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar SE16 320GB

-Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer 7.1 24-bit 96KHz

-CD/DVD Rom: SAMSUNG Black 18X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 8X DVD+R DL 18X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16XDVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2M Cache E-IDE/ATAPI DVD Burner

-O/S: Windows Vista Home Premium 64bit or Windows Xp 64bit
***undecided on which yet any tips or recommendations would be most appreciated on this***

-Case: ARK 6099-CA Black Steel with 400w PSU


Ok My first question is, Can I have a Rom drive that is IDE and a hard drive that is SATA 3.0 on the same mobo that supports both types? Like will the IDE close out/block the SATA or vise versa?

Second, on a PCIe x16 video card like the 8600 I've picked, which is low power consumption. I am under the impression that it requires no power connection to the mobo or PSU at all other then the PCIe x16 connection. Am I correct in believing this, or do I need to have a PSU power connection?

Third, the case I've picked out comes with a 400w PSU but most reviews say its a bad PSU and if you value your components do not connect them to this PSU. I like the case but don't want to kill my new computer with the bad PSU. So I am willing to chuck it out for a better one. After searching I found a cheap one, Omega 480W 20+4-pin Dual Fan ATX Power Supply w/SATA. I have tried and couldn't, and don't really know how to find out anything about this PSU.
Now with the questions. If the mobo has a 24 pin connector, will a PSU with a 20+4 pin work? Will this new PSU be enough/ to much? Is it junk? Essentially, will this PSU work for my design and is it good or bad? If this one is no good and others have any recommendations for me heres a few guidelines of what I'm looking for. 400w to 500w, black in color, blue leds if any, quiet because the case is entirely mesh, and have enough connectors for all my components, the case comes with two 80mm fans and has the option to add an additional two 80mm. I am adding two Vantech Stealth SF8025L 80mm fans to the case.

Heres the URL for the case and the PSU I found:

-Case: RK 6099-CA Black Steel with 400w PSU
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16811128029

-PSU: Omega 480W 20+4-pin Dual Fan ATX Power Supply w/SATA
http://www.geeks.com...PSOM480&cat=CAS

I want to go ahead and thank you all first for starting and maintaining this website for all of us out there who need help with this confusing world of computers, and for any and all help and advice any may offer me regarding this post. God bless and take care.

-Yorkp76

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Hello yorkp76 and welcome to geekstogo forum, make yourself at home

That CPU isn't compatible with the motherboard, either you copy pasted the incorrect information or the site made a typo. If you get the appropriate motherboard for that CPU then that RAM won't be compatible either.
You want a socket AM2 board with DDR2 memory.
Omega is a non-brand PSU, your just as likely to fry something with that PSU as you would be with the one coming from your case.
IDE won't block out SATA
20+4 pin connector is the equivalent of a 24pin connector.
Why do you only want 400W to 500W? I recommended no less the 550W for any build.
What are your intentions to use this computer for? I'd drop the sound card (stick with onboard) and put more money into other components.
You'll want Vista home premium 32bit, not 64bit.
The 8600 is a poor card, I recommend getting a high end DX9 card over any lower end DX10 card.
Take a look around newegg.com and zipzoomfly.com they generally have cheaper rates then this computergeeks site you mentioned.
Pretty sure I answered all your questions there if not please post them again and feel free to ask more.
Hope this helps
James

Edited by james_8970, 01 September 2007 - 01:47 AM.

[james_8970]

Hello yorkp76 and welcome to geekstogo forum, make yourself at home

That CPU isn't compatible with the motherboard, either you copy pasted the incorrect information or the site made a typo. If you get the appropriate motherboard for that CPU then that RAM won't be compatible either.
You want a socket AM2 board with DDR2 memory.
Omega is a non-brand PSU, your just as likely to fry something with that PSU as you would be with the one coming from your case.
IDE won't block out SATA
20+4 pin connector is the equivalent of a 24pin connector.
Why do you only want 400W to 500W? I recommended no less the 550W for any build.
What are your intentions to use this computer for? I'd drop the sound card (stick with onboard) and put more money into other components.
You'll want Vista home premium 32bit, not 64bit.
The 8600 is a poor card, I recommend getting a high end DX9 card over any lower end DX10 card.
Take a look around newegg.com and zipzoomfly.com they generally have cheaper rates then this computergeeks site you mentioned.
Pretty sure I answered all your questions there if not please post them again and feel free to ask more.
Hope this helps
James

Edited by james_8970, 01 September 2007 - 01:47 AM.

[Peat Moss]

Wow Peter I'm jealous , is money not an option ? I'd go with Win XP Pro tho and the 550 watt PSU is over kill but just my humble opinion . Wait for the Vista Sp1 patch due in what 2008 , till then I'd shy away . You sound very knowledgeable tho good luck .

[yorkp76]

With all do respect James I'm not sure what Mobo and proc you looked at but the ones I typed out here are on Newegg and AMD's website as a 939 processor (AMD Athlon 64 X2 4200+ Toledo 2.2GHz 2 x 512KB L2 Cache Socket 939 Processor, http://www.amdcompar...n=ADA4200DAA5CD )
and both Newegg and BioStars website show it as a 939 mobo (BIOSTAR GEFORCE 6100-M9 939 NVIDIA GeForce 6100 Micro ATX AMD Motherboard, http://www.biostar-u.....Force 6100-M9 ).
And both Newegg's and BioStars website show the mobo requires 4×184pin DDR 400, and I know of two others who have the same mobo/ram combo and theirs works fine and OC like crazy.
I only want a 400w to 500w watt PSU as I know someone with a similiar build and they are running and OC'ing it fine with a 350w PSU. So I don't see me requiring a whole lot of power as I'm only running one Rom drive, one hard drive, 4 case fans and 1 CPU cooler, and plan on doing little OC'ing.
I have a 400+USD 7.1 surround sound speaker system so I need a quality 7.1 sounds card as onboard only covers 6 channels.
I also have decided to go with Vista Home Premium which I need DirectX10 to fully utilize Windows Aero technology. Plus I can get this card for only a few more dollars then anything in the 7series that would even be close to comparison.
My intentions for this design is for gaming, surfing the net, and CD/DVD reading/burning.
Yeah I love Newegg but the geekstogo.com has some super low PSU prices that Newegg doesn't even compare to.
Well thank you James for the info on the other questions I had, it alleviates my concerns on those aspects, and the warm welcome.


Money not an option. LoL this is a cheaper build to hold me over till I build a C2D SLI comp. This one I've got designed shown here is right around 600.00USD Thats pretty cheap if you ask me, and way better then any premade one you could buy for the same money. You should have seen the C2D comp I designed for a client that ran right around 7000USD and thats before my fees. That was a dream build and he had bottomless pockets. But now he can direct cruise missiles while flying the space shuttle burning dvds and playing oblivion on high settings while downloading music, LoL. Thanks for the advice and well wishes.


-Yorkp76

[james_8970]

Wow, sorry it was a late night Made a mistake with that processor.

If your planning on building a C2D rig later on, why wouldn't you get a motherboard that'll support DDR2 memory, then move the memory to the new rig later on.
Now that I see you have a expensive surround sound system and seem like and auduiofile, I fully agree with the sound card, but if money isn't an issue I'd get the following card, it's brand new and while there may be some hiccups right now it's alot more promising then the xtremegamer. The best of the best, with the x-fi processor.
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16829156005
Again with the PSU, if you plan on buying a high end rig later on why not just get the expensive PSU now?

James

[yorkp76]

No problem man. We've all been there. You should have seen my shock when I first read the post. It was a mad scramble to check if you were right. LoL @ me. But I'm pretty knowledgeable about hardware and have never designed anything incompatible before. So no worries.
I did buy a Sunbeam 580w PSU for 20 bucks and it seems to be a quality PSU and covers everything I need for cheap. I did realize you were right about that, if I plan on OC'ing at all I really need at least 550w. Heres the Newegg URL if you would like to see it:

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16817709011


The C2D rig will be a new computer in itself. And all components in that case will be high end. Its going to run around 3 to 4 k with 30inch monitor. And as I run a landscaping company and its getting ready to be winter, I'm going to wait till the spring when work picks back up and I'm making alot of money again. Thats just the way that type of seasonal labor is. So nothing but the 7.1 speakers will be going from this comp to the C2D rig. And this design I've shown here will then have a 5.1 one system I have sitting here. But I will keep the sound card you recommended for the high end rig I build this coming spring, and maybe it will be even cheaper by then But I definitely want to use the 7.1 system till then so I need a 7.1 card but I'm not really wanting to spend the money on a high end 7.1 card for this build. I've picked out some high end extremely OC'ing ram (4GB Kingston HyperX DDR2 DDR2 800) for the C2D build. Heres a quick run down of the C2D rig if any want to see what I'm building in spring '08:

mobo: Asus Striker
Proc: Intel C2D e6850
Ram: 4GB 2x2 Kingston HyperX DDR2 DDR2 800
Vid: 2x 8600gts in full PCIe x16 SLI
HD: Western Digital Raptor 150g 10,000rpm, Western Digital 500g Caviar SE16 7,200rpm
O/S: Windows Vista Ultimate DVD 64bit
PSU: OCZ GameXStream 700W
Monitor: 30" SAMSUNG SyncMaster 305T

[Troy]

Those PSU's are rubbish, I wouldn't trust them at all. I know you seem to be building a cheap computer for the moment, but I wouldn't skimp and buy a power supply like that.

As for your future build, you might want to hold off deciding on the final parts just yet, as this industry changes rapidly. I would also strongly suggest that you go for one 8800GTS (640MB) over the SLI 8600GTS as it would give you better performance.

[james_8970]

To be honest, your wasting your time thinking about what your going to be building in 2008.
By that time you'll want DDR3 as latencies will have tighed up, not only that, Phenom will have arrived and will likely squish C2D (or I hope for AMD's sake it does). Also, one high end card will beat any dual setup of a lower lineup, hands down. Also by that time the 9 series and possibly something from ATI probably as well.
Also the raptors aren't what they used to be, they are dated to say the least. Newer drives are just short of there performance with multiple times the capacity. Not to meniton that because raptors are a 10k drive, they are less reliable, generate more heat and are louder. Also, I'd never let a OCZ PSU operate on a high end system, I'm not a fan of them to say the least.
Just some things to think about. Good luck with the build
James

Edited by james_8970, 03 September 2007 - 12:12 AM.

[happyrock]

don't skimp on power supplies...doing so is a crapshoot..when it dies it may just commit suicide ...OR..it may go postal and take some of your other components with it ...
you can always bring the PSU into the new system

Not to meniton that because raptors are a 10k drive, they are less reliable, generate more heat and are louder

I will have to dispute this...I have a pair of Raptors in my system that are not noisy or run hot..and have been running without any problems for over 4 years now...they come with a 5 year warranty..
I will concede that the new seagate 7200.10 drives benchmark up close to them now though...

Edited by happyrck, 03 September 2007 - 08:15 AM.

[james_8970]

I have to echo what everyone here is saying about the PSU, I overlooked the fact that it came with the case. Big no, no.
Hitachi's new 1K drive exceeds the raptors in many benchmarks, while I don't have any first hand experience with the drives I only take what other have said about them with the heat issues, however it is known that drives which operate at faster rotational speeds are more prown to error, this of course doesn't mean that every drive will fail, just in one sence more likely to receive a lemon. Also while it does sport a 5 year warranty, I personally wouldn't take the extra chance, as once a drive goes there little to no way of replacing the information unless you want to fork over a lot of money. To me you cannot put a money value on things such as pictures which are irreplaceable.
In the end, what I'm basically pointing out these drives have a terrible $/GB ratio when compared to another drive that has little to no performance difference in the real world difference.
James