Noob guide for buying comps???

isamu2 · Posted: Sat Dec 17, 2005 4:46 am Post subject:

so which one do you think would be more suitable for gaming
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thugangel · Ronin Samurai Joined: Aug 27, 2005 Posts: 713

KeLw · Posted: Mon Dec 19, 2005 6:23 am Post subject:

most branded coms aren't suitable for gaming....I SAID MOST!!! not all

godofdeath · Yari Ashigaru Joined: Jul 23, 2005 Posts: 305

is it better to have 1 gb memory as 2*512 or just as a 1*1 gb memory card?

whats the dif btw ddr2 and the stuff like ddr-400 mhz
shoulda listened when my cousin said something about this but when i heard ddr i thought the game!!!!

Jsy3k · Posted: Wed Dec 28, 2005 11:56 pm Post subject:

godofdeath · Yari Ashigaru Joined: Jul 23, 2005 Posts: 305

ok the other question then
whats the dif btw ddr2 and the stuff like ddr-400 mhz

Jsy3k · Posted: Fri Dec 30, 2005 1:09 am Post subject:

It is just the performance difference. DDR2 is a newer RAM type, but only applicable currently some Pentium mobo. AMD boards currently does not support DDR2, only DDR-400MHz is accepted by AMD mobo.
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isamu2 · Posted: Tue Jan 03, 2006 1:19 am Post subject:

im pretty sure amd supports ddr2 i believe its on my comp
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Jsy3k · Posted: Tue Jan 03, 2006 2:03 am Post subject:

kewllilaznkid · newbie! Joined: Sep 13, 2005 Posts: 43

If your not looking into heavy gaming, the processor really shouldnt be much of a problem. As far as for watchin anime, just get a huge harddrive, and nice cd/dvd burner. Oo, and you dont necessarily have to buy it with a huge harddrive. If you find a great deal with a smaller harddrive, just wait till they have sales, and buy a huge harddrive cheap and have someone install it for you.

Raiden · Posted: Tue Jan 24, 2006 1:16 am Post subject:

is there a hard part in building your own PC from scratch?
since I cannot tell which things I'll need when IF I decided to build one.

Installing Internal HD hard(since I got an external HD instead.)? I haven't tried installing one...but is it almost the same as installing a DVD-burner? I just followed on how the Main drive was connected...
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thugangel · Ronin Samurai Joined: Aug 27, 2005 Posts: 713

The hardest part of building a computer from scratch is making the decisions whether if you should get a certain thing or not and how it will affact your future use of it. Generally, a personal computer compose of these main things:

motherboard
CPU
heatsink/fan (which usually comes with a generic when you buy a CPU)
RAM
HDD
PSU (stands for Power Supply Unit)
optical media readers (CD/DVD-ROM)
video card
case
and optional stuff like: sound card, monitor, mouse, keyboard, zip drives, floppy drive, memory stick reader, speakers, etc.

1)In choosing a motherboard, you have to think: should I stick with a 32-bit system or a go where the future is heading which is the 64-bit era. How fast is the 32-bit era becoming obsolete coz the 32-bit processors are way cheaper now? What am I going to use the computer for? Extensive work or games or just media stuff? If one of them is the case, how many PCI or PCI-e slots am I going to need? Before I make t hat decision, how much better is PCI-Express better compared to the previous models and what are the disadvantages? How many USB ports am I going to need? How many EIDE slots or SATA slots do I want to get? Stuff like that. You will also need to find out if the motherboard is good or not by reading reviews from other costumers who have bought the same model. Chipsets like SiS, Via, Nforce?

2)There's a lot of research need to be done for finding the right CPU for your need: Intel vs. AMD, temperature vs. power consumption, application vs. gaming vs. media encoding, and lastly if they're faulty and what's their price range. Do I really need HyperThreading and what are the disadvantages of having one?

3)You would also need to research what heatsink/fan you want to use for your system and how many fans would you actually want to put in your system. Would you like to look fancy and get an orb heatsink/fan? Would you like a system with only heatsinks and no fan so your system is quiet? Or would you go with liquid cooling which is perfect for gamers? You would also need to find out how much thermal paste need to put on between the processor and the heatsink and how smooth they have to be.

4)Are you willing to get the fastest RAM or do you just want a system to run and will buy any model that will run on the motherboard? How much do I want to get? What's the minimum requirement for 64-bit? (1GB) Should I get two sticks of 512mb of RAM or 1 stick of 1gig? Note that having 1 stick of 1gb is faster in performance compared to 2 sticks of 512mb especially on 64-bit systems. And of course, the more the better. Rambus or DDR2 or DD3?

5)Which hard drives are the most trustworthy and reliable? Which one is the fastest? EIDE or SATA? SATA2? SCSI? RAID?

6)How much is enough to run my system? Which one is the most reliable and won't hurt my system? How quiet is the fan from the PSU? Is it Intel compatible or AMD?

7)I guess you already know much about getting optical media drives.

8)AGP or PCI-e? How much memory should the video card have? ATI vs Nvidia? Which model do I want? FX? GT? Ultra? Radeon? Radeon Pro? 1Xx? Temperature vs. power consumption vs. noise.

9)What will fit for my motherboard? How many bays do i want for my drives? My PCI slots? How much room does it leave for my CPU/heatsink/fan? Will the airflow be correct or will it create a vacuum (which is bad for the system)? How sturdy is the case? How will it help if I get an aluminum case?

10)Do I need a new monitor or should I stick with my old one? stuff like that.

Well, these are the basic stuff. Not required if you're like... rich and don't mind wasting money. Otherwise, you'll regret it for not doing research. How difficult to put the system together depends on how new or old the system is. For example, putting the heatsink on the CPU was really hard on systems like Athlon XP +1xxx. The modern CPU heatsinks are easy to lock nowdays. And make sure to ground yourself before touching any parts!! The more modern the systems are, the more sensitive they are to shocks. What's nice about building your own system from scratch is that it feels good when it's done.

godofdeath · Yari Ashigaru Joined: Jul 23, 2005 Posts: 305

hey if you get a self built comp how do you reformat it???

and does using a data transfer cable need two monitors??

thugangel · Ronin Samurai Joined: Aug 27, 2005 Posts: 713

You can reformat any computer. You can reformat by using fdisk or win95/win98 bootdisk. You can't reformat a filesystem that's running under Windows XP with win95/win98 bootdisk, though. You can, however, change your BIOS setting to boot your CD-ROM first instead of your hard drive or anything else (you can access your BIOS by pressing the key that tells you for "Set-up" when you turn on your cmputer). Once you've gotten your BIOS to set your CD-ROM to read first, pop in your Windows XP CD copy and "Save and Exit Changes" from your BIOS. From this point on, your computer should be reading from the CD-ROM and this is where you can format pretty much any drives or partitions. You can set your BIOS to read your primary drive later after you're done with your stuff.

As for the data transfer cables... I'm not sure what you're asking. USB cables are usually used for transfering datas like pictures to and from your digital camera, songs to and from your mp3 player, stuff to and from your printer or scanner, etc. I don't see a relation with that and having two monitors. Sorry ^_^;