If anyone is good with buidling computers, a little help please.

V

vahn55

Active Member
vahn55 said:
Im looking to just upgrade a little by buying these 3 things and using existing equipment such as HD, Dvd burner, power supply. Im not in need of any gaming intensive computer except for down the road starcraft 2, and diablo 3. Is it a smart move to do this?

A-DATA 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)

Intel BOXDG35EC LGA 775 Intel G35 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model BX80570E8400
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well A-data isn't the most reputable company for memory. I'm not saying their bad or make crappy products but they're mediocre at best.

The only other thing I might say is make sure you computer has good ventilation because sdram has a tendency to run hot.

Other then that, yeah those should work fine. And if there is a problem newegg will go to great lengths to help you out. I've had only good experiences with them.
 
vahn55 said:
Im looking to just upgrade a little by buying these 3 things and using existing equipment such as HD, Dvd burner, power supply. Im not in need of any gaming intensive computer except for down the road starcraft 2, and diablo 3. Is it a smart move to do this?

A-DATA 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
Click to expand...

First of all, not to sound bad, but there's really only one brand of memory worth buying. I repair everything from PC's to High end servers every day and the bottom line is a HUGE chunk of the time blue screens are because of bad memory. Go to www.crucial.com and match the memory with the motherboard you choose, it will be the right stuff, well made, and long lasting. I've been ordering their stuff for almost a decade now and only had 1 dead chip. I've literally ordered several thousand. Don't go cheap on mem.

Intel BOXDG35EC LGA 775 Intel G35 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
Click to expand...


As long as your power supply is rated to match everything you're pushing this should be fine.

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz LGA 775 65W Dual-Core Processor Model BX80570E8400
Click to expand...

Same statement as above. Make sure you cool that shit and I mean COLD. Think of it as a 1000 HPS a mere 1 inch from your plant you want to be shoving iced air through your reflector. Same thing with your proc, and now days video card and memory, keep it as cold as humanly possible. Do not go cheap on your cooling fan or heat sink, if you do you'll have a paper weight in no time.

Also what video card are you running? If you're not upgrading make sure your old one is compatible. I once went several years between new builds and found one day that AGP video cards had been replaced with a whole new slot design. Had to replace the video card I had originally bought.

-RT76


-RT76
 
^^^These guys seem to know more about this stuff, so I'd trust there intellect...but I will say that everything looked compatible...so :clap:kudos to you there.
 
RetiredToker76 said:
Also what video card are you running? If you're not upgrading make sure your old one is compatible. I once went several years between new builds and found one day that AGP video cards had been replaced with a whole new slot design. Had to replace the video card I had originally bought.

-RT76


-RT76
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I had that same problem. since everything is standardizing around pci slots these days. The other thing to watch out for is your HD. a lot of the old HDs use IDE connections (those flat wide grey cables). Newer HDs use sata cables (flat red cables). Just make sure your old hd is compatable.
 
Ive done some research on building my own computer, but aren't heat sinks already installed on the computer? Also would a decent CFM exhaust and intake fan be enough?. I will definitely be purchasing a video card when I need to for now ill use the built in one. Ill be looking into some different ram should I spring for the 4gb still or will 2gb be enough? I am probable going to boot up XP in there also.
 
vahn55 said:
Ive done some research on building my own computer, but aren't heat sinks already installed on the computer? Also would a decent CFM exhaust and intake fan be enough?. I will definitely be purchasing a video card when I need to for now ill use the built in one. Ill be looking into some different ram should I spring for the 4gb still or will 2gb be enough? I am probable going to boot up XP in there also.
Click to expand...

If you're replacing the mainboard and the processor then you'll probably need to change from your previous heatsink and fan. It all depends on what you had before. Make sure your heatsink is rated for your processor and your processor fan matches your heatsink. I built one computer that was water cooled, the system cost around $200 four years ago. Air cooling is much cheaper generally tou can get away with between $30 and $50 for a good air cooling system on your processor. Looking at the pictures from NewEgg it looks like the board you like has a heatsink on the chipset, but doesn't include one for the Processor. The processor you chose has a heatsink and fan with it, but keep an eye on your temps if you can (I usually install a thermometer between my CPU and Heatsink that had a digital read out on the case. I always buy my processors 'OEM' and they never come with heatsinks or fans and generally cost 50 - 100 less depending on the processor.

As far as case ventilation, when you're using Micro ATX you have considerably less space for the heat to dissipate so you want to push as much air through it as you can. I personally use an aluminum case that radiates heat out so I don't have to have as many fans to keep it cool. I still ended up using 2 intake and 2 exhause fans for it though.

Memory is all your call. With 2G you'll be fine running Windows XP and a slew of applications with 4G you could run Vista or maybe Windows 7 whenever it comes out. Old school thought would be 'as much memory as it can take' however today I would say just get the mem you need and leave room for expansion. If you have 2 slots for mem I'd get a 2G chip now and if you need to upgrade later then get another 2G chip. Always leave room for expansion if possible, nothing sucks more than having to replace 100% of your memory because you didn't leave any expansion slots open.

Hard drives you'll have to check your old one (I totally forgot about the move from ATA-100 to SATA.) Depending on the age of your computer you could have a ATA hard drive which won't work in a SATA motherboard. The mainboard you picked out has onboard sound and video so you might be able to junk your old cards unless they're really great cards. (I personally don't do on board because I upgrade my cards on the level of every 6 months.)

I would stick with Windows XP if you already have the disk. I have no ill against Vista but don't see any reason to pay for it if you already have XP especially since Windows 7 is in Beta testing right now.

-RT76
 
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