Shopping for a new comp. (It CAME!)

Alright so everything came..

Well except the Case to put everything in.

At first I knew how to do this but now I have a question mark on my head from Metal Gear games. =P But hey I can figure it out. IF not I can go to the store.

I'm going to post of pictures on what I have soon. =)

I have to wait another day to get my case. =(

Specs on it?

Sure.

Motherboard: ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe 939 Socket
V-Card: Geforce 7800GT
Power Supply: Aspire 520W
Processor: AMD 64 3200+ Athlon 939 Socket
RAM: Corsair 2gb
HDD: 8mb cache 250 GB (I know I should've gotten 16mb cache but oh well)
CD-RW: 52x32x52


I have to say... the Powersupply is freaking huge =P

woo congratulations on creating a beast! Don't forget those pics.

It's funny, I just finished re-building my main machine yesterday with very similar specs:

Mobo: EPoX EP-9NPA+SLI (nForce4 SLI)
CPU: Athlon64 X2 4200+ (dual-core woot!)
RAM: 2 GB Corsair XMS Platinum
Vid: eVGA GeForce 7800 GT (will add another for SLI later)
Power: OCZ PowerStream 600W + SLI

HDD1: Samsung 160GB SATA
HDD2: Seagate 200GB SATA

Pioneer DVD-ROM, Plextor DVD+/-RW, Plextor CD-RW (yes, 3 optical drives )

Now I can encode video and play GW at the same time! Yay!

Pretty slick Dex. You running those hard drives in RAID?

Nope. Hafta be the same size to do RAID. I'd love to get a nice $300 controller and do RAID-5 one of these days tho!

My HTPC (home theater) has my old desktop hardware + 2 x Seagate 7200.8 250GB drives in a RAID-0 for all of my recorded TV shows, ripped DVDs, and music. RAID-0 is nice, but if one of the drives conks out you lose all of your data...

I'm uploading a couple pics of some the parts.

But anyway I'm already having a trouble to how to install the optical drive (CD) and the HDD. Mainly because where or what 'cables' I'm suppose to use.

The HDD doesn't that the IDE connector input... (The huge flat black cable)

It has small four pin input (data input) and something else..

I'll still look into it.

Edit... Nvm I found out how to do it. ASUS gives a good booklet. =P

Also is there anyway to make a boot up disk for windows XP... I have the activate code..but the disk is gone for it... and I don't want to sink so much money into a new one. I went to the microsoft website and no help there (I need ISOs and crap to make a new disk =P)

Anyone to answer my question?

Are you saying that you don't have a Windows XP CD at all? If that's the case you'll have to borrow/copy a friend's (make sure it's the same type of license - OEM, retail, etc.) or purchase one. If you look on Pricewatch.com there are several vendors that sell a CD without the license for $20-$30.

Hey, can you just use your hard drive from the computer you are posting from?

And waht are your vies on AMD signle cores vs. dual cores?

Nah. You can't do an install from another Windows install, and you generally don't want to use a Windows install that is configured for a different motherboard. Better to do a clean install.

Dual-core is great if you do a lot of multi-tasking (playing GW and burning a CD at the same time, for example). Since most games are single-threaded processes dual-core will not give a performance boost directly -- it can just make more resources available to run multiple applications at the same time. If you want a direct performance boost you need to run multi-threaded applications (which most games are not, like I said). However, there may be multi-threaded games in the future (but probably not in the next year).

If you have the $$$ and you like to multi-task, or you run multimedia and/or engineering software that is multi-threaded it's the way to go.

Well I don't have a disk at all so thanks for the site.


I hooked it all up now I got the tower and everything hooked (CD drive works and the everything seems fine)

BUT I can't get the monitor to show anything.. =P I hook it up to the v-card (The card actually has an adapter for a monitor) and when I hook it up and power it up I just get a black screen. When I turn it off and then on the monitor says for a sec that it doesn't detect or the cable is disconnected.

Once again nevermind. Had a guildie help me. (Had to push the v-card harder/further into the mobo since it's new)

So everything is fine... just need an OS

My friend has a Dell 9100 with a 3Ghz Dual Core and 3Gb of Ram. (2x1Gb & 2x512GB 533Mhz)

He uses it for everything from gaming to work. For his work he does Security for allot of Fortune 500 companies on down. Having the Dual Core is a God-Send. He can run up to 5 different OSes at the same time. I am amazed while over at his house watching him do this.(and it is on a spiffy cool UltraSharp 2405 FPW 24" widescreen to boot) He gets more work done at home then he ever could at his place of employment. His superiors know this and never bother him if he hardly ever is "in at work". They realize that he can make them allot more money by leaving him alone and letting him do his thing. He also is very good at customer relations and he ends up going out(either Driving or Flying) to see customers and closing the deal since he knows both sides of the coin.

When the newer Dual Cores come out in 2007...look out...it will only get better.

Hmmm. So if I take my current hard drive, and plug it into the computer I am building, do I uninstall and reinstall windows xp? Or do I have to wipe the hardrive, and buy a new XP install disk?

I can't really wait until 2007, so the AMD X2 3800 I am set to get will have to do.

You don't have to wipe it, but I personally find it more satisfying to start with a fresh install with every new computer. If you stick with the install already on it, you'll probably just have to update the driver database for your new hardware.

Meh, as long as I don't have to go out and buy a new XP disk, I am fine with wiping and reinstalling. It will allow me to sleep easier at night lol.

And as for the AMD X2 3800, compared to the 3500 which some people have said is better because of cache size, can someone translate this into easier for people like Alias X to understand language please?

What does OEM mean anyway for a OS?

Retail = Bought from store
OEM = Pc Maker bought Windows and provided with the PC / new pc / hardware purchase only.

Thanks. Well I bought windows XP (More money for Bill =P )

So when I get the OS and make sure everything is working I'll let ya know and pics. =) Should get it working by the end of this week (friday maybe)