ordered parts for a new comp

[goingganzo]

i have ordered parts for a new comp
MSI NX7800GT-VT2D256E Geforce 7800GT 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card
AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego 1GHz FSB Socket 939 Processor
CORSAIR XMS 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Unbuffered Dual Channel Kit System Memory Model Twinx2048-3200c2
MSI K8N Neo4 Platinum SLI Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI ATX AMD


i will be using a 120 gig wd drive and a external cd rw drive
my case is a super antec aluma boy with the 120 mm case fans.

now my questons.
should i use the stock cpu cooler? and if not with one? i am going for silent running.

[audiobliss]

Man, that's gonna be an awesome computer. And I would say an aftermarket cooler, maybe something from Thermaltake, not really sure what to recommend.

[bobman1235]

I've had good luck with this company if you decide to go aftermarket. That's a pretty nasty system you have set up there.

[faster100]

Gonzo seems to go over the top with his project :D ie: the Sub
use aftermarket heatsink/fan for sure..

[Shizelbs]

Very nice. I have had nothing but very positive experiences with MSI products. They seem to manage nice software bundles with their hardware too.

[PolkThug]

Fun! I just got my ATI Radeon X850 PRO 256MB yesterday. It was a Christmas present for myself.

[Strong Bad]

I'd have to name that beast - SKYNET

Gonzo gonna build terminators in his basement with that thing and take over the world!

Gonna be a sweet system.

John

[Markymark]

nice build. It looks very similar to mine just a little beefier.
Good choice of RAM; expensive but well worth it if you want to overclock (which these AMD procs seem to desire).

[Markymark]

Oh, if you aren't overclocking, leave the stock cooler. AMD has adequate coolers nowadays. I've had my 3500+ (stock 2.2) running at 2.42 for a few weeks and the temps barely went up so I wouldn't worry too much about it. As long as your case breathes well you will be fine.

[steveinaz]

Awesome setup, I've been building mine for 15 years but I think I'll just do a packaged Dell next time around.

[CrBoy]

Oh, if you aren't overclocking, leave the stock cooler. AMD has adequate coolers nowadays. I've had my 3500+ (stock 2.2) running at 2.42 for a few weeks and the temps barely went up so I wouldn't worry too much about it. As long as your case breathes well you will be fine.

Overclocking or not, it's always better to go with an aftermarket cooling system, the cooler the better... specially with AMD chips. If water cooling is too much, a good copper heatsink from some company like Thermaltake would be enough. :D

[Early B.]

Very cool.

Can a novice build his own computer nowadays or does one need to have a fairly high degree of knowledge and experience to do it?

[bobman1235]

Actually putting it together is the same level of dificulty it's always been - you definitely need a fair amount of knowledge about how stuff fits together, and what does what, and y ou need to know how to install windows from scratch, with all the drivers and whatnot for your hardware.

Novice is a pretty strong term... ther'es some computer idiots out there.

[steveinaz]

Very cool.

Can a novice build his own computer nowadays or does one need to have a fairly high degree of knowledge and experience to do it?

They're easier than computers of about 10 years ago---back then you had to program BIOS and plethora of other settings, but it is not for the beginner. What you could do is try a "barebones" system first: Motherboard/CPU/Memory installed, you do the rest. This is also a very economical way to build. Stay away from OEM parts on your first build though, get retail boxed parts that come with everything you need until you gain more knowledge. My BIG rule, don't go cheap on the motherboard--skimp other places but a good motherboard is the key to upgradeability and a stable/flexible system. Personally, I love ASUS, been using them from day 1.

It's a ton of fun once you get educated.

[AsSiMiLaTeD]

I use an aftermarket cooler in all my PCs, but for different reasons. I use one in the gaming PC for better performance, in the HTPC for quieter operation, and in the secondary computers for aesthetic reasons.

Since you're building a high performance machine, I'd strongly reccomend that you look in to the Raptor hard drives by Western Digital. With standard operation and most games, your bottleneck in the computer is going to be your hard drive, you'll notice and appreciate the extra performance the Raptor drives give you. I have one Raptor drive (74GB is the largest one available right now), and all my programs and games are on that drive - then I use my other larger, standard drives for storing all my data.

[AsSiMiLaTeD]

Steve's dead on with the motherboard comment. I got a significant, measureable increase in performance in doing nothing but changing motherboards.

I am also an ASUS fan. There are plenty of good brands out there, ASUS has just always been my favorite.

[Shizelbs]

ASUS does make great motherboards.

I have to disagree though; if you have any sort of technical skill and confidence, and mostly patience, its pretty easy putting a computer together. Just do a lot of research, make sure all your parts work together and are good matches for each other. After that, everything can only go one place. I found it pretty straight foward after doing my research. The only thing truly difficult was putting the dang CPU heat sink.

[POLKOHOLIC]

yea i found applying the thermal paste onto the cpu core the hardest part. must be very careful with cheap heatsinks while installing them or you might end up cracking the core. better ones have some safeguard method in installing the heatsink. look at thermaltake and arctic silver for thermal paste. dont use the stock thermal past or glue that comes on the heatsink...remove it and apply arctic silver to the cpu core instead. a thin layer thats all. it improves cpu cooling a great deal.

[faster100]

3rd agree with steve, I love Asus as well.... recently tried MSI's higher line and liked it..with the Nforce. The cheaper boards kinda stink.. Ive used the 59 dollar ones for second computers and they were slow, went bad and generally sucked..

[Shizelbs]

+1 for the Arctic Silver thermal paste. Good stuff. +1 also for the Thermaltake Heatsinks. Very nice looking too if your case has a window.

[POLKOHOLIC]

man oh man i need to keep up with the johnsons videocard wise. im running a fx5600..Call of Duty 2 at max settings is not very playable in soem action sequences.

[lanion]

I recommend Zalmans top of the line CPU cooler...

I have my computer decked out on Zalmans gear. Zalman 400watt power supply, Zalman VGA cooler, Zalman CPU cooler.... and my setup in all but inaudible. I HATE noisy computers. If you feel the same way, zalman is your ticket.

[goingganzo]

actuey went with stock if i use a aftermarket cooler it will void the warentee. but i did have to get a asus sli premoun bord instead of the msi bord.
3dmark05 skored a cool 6995

[nadams]

Asus boards are awesome! I love all the stuff they include with them. I bought the K8N4-E Delux for a computer I built my Uncle, and it came with 6 SATA cables, 3 IDE cables, a floppy cable, 4 molex-to-dual-SATA power converter cables, a 4 port USB header, a firewire header, and a header with a gameport and two more USB ports. Nuts!

Oh, and stick w/ the AMD cooler, they've gotten better and are quieter than a lot of aftermarket units.

[goingganzo]

yeah i dont have enough slots on the back of my case to hold all the ports. my faverite is the dual sata port with a power conector and all the cables.

[POLKOHOLIC]

Oh, and stick w/ the AMD cooler

I disagree.

[POLKOHOLIC]

one thing i've learned over the past 6 years of extensive computer hardware experiance is...if the component doesn't fail within it's return period - it will be good for a few years or until the user ****s with it.

[nadams]

I disagree.

You care to explain why? Or... not?

[audiobliss]

You care to explain why? Or... not?

He doesn't need to. He agreed with me.

:D

[CrBoy]

You care to explain why? Or... not?

I'll give it a shot... :D

A stock fan & aluminium heatsink will do a decent job keeping the processor within the safe temp limit... an aftermarket fan & heatsink (specially if it's made of copper) will not only keep it under the temp limits but it will lower the temp a few degrees. You end up with a more reliable, long lasting processor...

Less heat inside the case helps every single device (hard drives, video & sound cards, RAM sticks... blah blah blah)

Again, the cooler the better, electronics don't like heat, but everybody knows that, right?

I'm ready to be flamed, bring it on! :)