BigT4187

Today I received the rest of the components for my new rig. I was really intimidated about putting together my own PC. I have been around PCs for quite a long time, but never took the leap of faith to assemble one myself. I usually purchased a ready made PC. I was really surprised how EASY it was. It took me only about 1.5 hours to assemble the hardware. I won't be able to install the OS and other software (GR of course!) until Monday. (It's killing me!!!) The final rig is ... ASUS P4G8X Deluxe mobo P4 2.53 Ghz 533 FSB, 512 L2 Cache Processor PNY Geforce4 Ti4200 64MB video card 1 GB Crucial PC2100 RAM LiteOn DVD drive LiteOn 52X CDRW drive 120GB HHD (Several partitions) 4 80mm case fans (2 front, 2 rear) 17" monitor (CRT) I think that is it ...... I'm sure I left something out. Anyway ... I powered it up and got into the BIOS without a problem, so first thing Monday is the software! I hope I can sleep this weekend! Thanks to all of you here who have put up with my questions and posts. It is appreciated more than you know. I hope to pass along the knowledge to another some day. Thanks again ...... BigT

I don't think GR supports that view ....... maybe GR2 ....

I use AnalogX POW ... go here. You can edit the pop ups that you want to kill. Works great for me!! BigT

I use a Cordless Optical Microsoft IntelliMouse Explorer and love it! I would buy another .... or a Logitech. I haven't heard much about the creative mice.

Hello all. When the parts for my new rig are assembled I want to use a headset for games so I don't bother the rest of the family. I don't have a front headphone/mic port, though. I was thinking about getting one of these. How do *you* switch between speakers and headphones? Thanks. BigT

Hiya Mark and welcome. The people here are great and very helpful. Enjoy your stay!! BigT

My plans have been for building my new rig have had a set back for a month or so. My wife gave birth to our first child last week! A 9lb, 9oz boy! Anyway ... when I do build the rig I want to use imaging software for backups. I want to capture an image right after OS install and all of the updates from Windows Update. At work we use Ghost 7.0 and it works just fine. Does anyone have any pros & cons for Ghost vs. Drive Image? As always, thanks for you input.

good luck. that kind of thing is frowned upon here .....

sorry Xavier .... currently i have 600MHz going .... very soon it will be 2530 MHz ......

Is there a team already set up? If so, can someone post the team number?

Nothing offical as far as I know. I know that all of the GR2 domain names have been purchased, though.

I don't ... yet. I have been thinking about starting. Let's start a GR.net folding team. Anyone interested???

OK ... you've convinced me. I'll get one ..... Thanks guys!

I will be building a new rig in the next few weeks and have been toying with the idea of skipping the floppy drive. I can't tell you the last time I used a floppy. Other than flashing th BIOS I don't see the need. I have a USB thumb drive that I can use to flash. Any thoughts? Thanks

you could say that .....

If you are looking for free picture hosting I use villagephotos.com. They have free accounts and pay accounts. The free accounts are limited to 25 images (I think) and a certain bandwith per day. Tony

OK .... the time is very near for me to purchase the components for my new PC. Here is what I am pretty sure I am going to buy ... Chieftec Dragon case (Thanks Stinger) Windows2000 Pro SP3 360W Power Supply ASUS P4SDX Deluxe mobo P4 2.53GHz Northwood w/512 L2 cache CPU NVIDIA Geforce 4 TI 4200 either 64MB or 128MB (Thanks DarkRanger) 512MB RAM - see question below I will be using my existing hard drives and optical drives. I have a question regarding RAM. The mobo supports Dual Channel DDR333 RAM. I was thinking about getting RAM from either Crucial or Corsair XMS in one 512MB stick. I know that I would get more performance if I have two sticks, but the budget will only go so far for now. I will get the second stick within two months. Can someone tell me more about the Corsair memory with the platinum heat displacer and the pros and cons with using the Corsair XMS memory over the Crucial? Thanks in advance. Tony

I have the issue of Computer Shopper with the day-glo orange cover. I think it is the second article in a series of articles. It is a good article to read for the newbie in assembling PCs. Also there are a lot of references on the 'net that the guys here have pointed me to. Thanks to them, I am looking to start putting my new PC together in a few weeks!!

DarkRanger: You are correct ... I just found the old posting. The main reason for "purchasing the card twice" is budget. Can you recommend a video card?

Can someone please explain to me the difference between a nvidia geforce 2 mx400 and geforce 4 mx440se? Also, is there much of a difference between card manufacturers or are they pretty much the same since they are all using the same nividia video chipsets? I am looking for a "budget" video card for a system that I am building. I am looking for a 64MB video card that is 4X (the mobo I am going to buy has a 8X AGP slot). I don't want to spend too much on the video card now, just something that will last me until more funds become available. Thanks for your input. Tony

DarkRanger: I am looking to spend about $300 on the mobo & CPU. I would like something for "down the road" upgrading. I would like to get a P4 system. On board sound doesn't matter to me. I have a SoundBlaster Live Value card from my current system that I can put in the new one. I would like to have 533 FSB and the ability for fast RAM (PC2700?) and at least a 4X AGP slot, although 8X would be nice. Also, on board USB 2.0 & FireWire would be nice, but not really necessary since I have PCI cards for both of them already. That is all that I am certain about. For anything else I need some advice and direction. I already have a case (thanks Stinger) and power supply. I am going to need a middle of the road video card since I now have a NVIDIA TNT2 32MB video card. I have been thinking about using that video card for a while until I save some more money for a new one. Thanks to EVERYONE for their advice. I value your opinions. Tony

I am going to be building my first PC in a month or two. I want to go with a P4 system. Do you have any opinions on the ASUS P4PE BP motherboard? Here's a link ...ASUS P4PE BP Motherboard Any opinions on this mobo .... and any suggestions on other mobos would be appreciated. Also, I have noticed that on some mobos there is one blue PCI slot. What is that for? Thanks in advance. Tony

Please bear with this newbie. In my current system I have two hard drives and a DVD drive and CDRW drive. My question is regarding the optimum configuration of the IDE channels and how the drives are connected. Currently I have a 27GB hard drive as the master and a 120GB (2 partitions) as the slave on one IDE channel. The second IDE channel has the DVD as the master and the CDRW as the slave. Everything works just fine. I am really asking this question for when I build my new system (in a few months I hope). My plans are to use the 120 GB drive as the master (40GB for my "C" drive and an 80GB partition for digital video editing) and the 27GB as the slave (downloads, MP3s, etc). Should I use this configuration or have each hard drive as the master with one of the optical drives as a slave on each. Or buy an IDE PCI card and have the two optical drives on their own channel? Your input and advice, as always, is welcomed and greatly appreciated. Thanks, Tony

Wow! Thanks for all of the advice guys! Keep it coming. Since we are talking about it ... here is what I want to do. On my new system I am going to use my existing hard drives, CDRW drive and DVD drive. I know that I need a new mobo, CPU (would like to stay with Intel unless someone can convince me otherwise .... I am open to suggestions), and memory. I run Windows2000 Pro now and will probably install that on the new system unless someone can give me a good reason to go with XP .... or XP Pro. My problem is I have never built a PC before. I have installed RAM, PCI cards, hard drives, etc. It's just that I am a little nervous about installing a mobo, power supply and CPU. I've heard horror stories about people blowing up thier CPU or mobo with faulty installations. As for a mobo ... I would like something that will last a few years and will allow me to upgrade my CPU and RAM without buying a new mobo. I don't know too much about FSB speeds. I would assume that a 500 FSB is better than a 400 FSB. Can anyone shed some light on that for me? I don't think that I will be overclocking but I would like to have the system be cool enough so I don't run into problems. That being said, I assume I will need a few fans. If I go with a P4 CPU I would like to get a least a 2.0 GHz. As for RAM .... I would like at least 512MB. I don't know much about the speeds of RAM so some help and guidance would be GREATLY appreciated. I have $250 saved so far. Hopefully in a few months I will have the rest. Can anyone of the experts out there suggest a web site to look at for "how to's" on buliding a PC for a newb? You guys are a great example of a "community" on the web. I truly do appreciate all of your help. Please keep it coming. Feel free to email me or PM me. Sorry for the length of this post. Thanks again. Tony

I currently have a AGP NVIDIA RIVA TNT2/TNT2 Pro 32MB video card(according to device manager). Is the NVIDIA GFORCE 2 MX400 a good upgrade? I have seen them on Ebay really cheap .... between $25 - $40. I am going to be building a new system for myself in the coming months and was wondering if this card will get me by for a while. Of course I would love to be able to afford top of the line, but there is a budget of around $600. My current card has been working fine since I purchashed my Dell system in 1999, although GR sometimes runs a little slow. My current system is ... 600MHz P3, 512 MD PC100 RAM. Before you laugh too hard I will be upgrading very soon. Any words of advice? Thanks! Tony