Help with building a new computer

boris_ · 2008-08-16 20:04:20

Hello !
I decided I'd build a custom computer since I dual boot and my current one is getting old (I'll use it for Arch experiments later). I'm counting on my dad to put the thing together, and I've built a list of components. Now I'm asking you, will this thing work at all ? ( I don't want to purchase parts that won't work together, also, is SATA compatible with SATAII?)
So here's the list :
EDIT : Asus P5Q - http://www.mimovrste.com/artikel/238004 … us-p5q-775 -100€
Case Spire BlackFin V SP-3005B - http://www.mimovrste.com/artikel/241002 … apajalnika -20€
RAM Corsair DDR2 4GB 1066MHz (TWIN2X4096-8500C5DF) -136€
Processor Intel Core2 Quad Q9400 2,66GHz, 775 -266€
Hard disk Seagate 500GB, 7200rpm, 32MB, NCQ, SATAII - http://www.mimovrste.com/artikel/206003 … ncq-sataii -80€
DVD NEC AD-7201A LightScribe crn - http://www.mimovrste.com/artikel/200002 … scribe-crn -24€
Power supply Power LC6550GP 550W - http://www.mimovrste.com/artikel/240001 … 550gp-550w -40€
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
-666€
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
GFX Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4870, 512MB, PCI-E -http://www.comshop.si/Article.asp?articleid=57973-250€
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Cost: -916€

As you have noticed, most pages are in my language (well almost all), because I couldn't find english ones. I'm sorry about that.
Please, tell me if everything is compatible.

Edit: Almost forgot. I probably won't be able to get Arch on it for some time because of ATI drivers (I'll install XP and later dual boot)

Thanks,
Boris

Last edited by boris_ (2008-08-19 07:17:57)

whargoul · 2008-08-16 22:04:21

I don't see any problems with components although I'm unsure about the DVD drive.
But I think you eventually will be happy for your ATI card. They have make a lot of improvement this year, so it could only be better (and hopefully 100% free).

arew264 · 2008-08-17 02:47:54

I would avoid the ATI card, not because it's a bad card, but because ATI's linux drivers are sh*t. Literally. They're unstable and a pain to set up.
If you're going to buy a high end graphics card, go nVidia because nothing would suck more than buying an expensive card and then not being able to use it properly because of graphics glitches.

Acecero · 2008-08-17 03:20:49

arew264 wrote:

I would avoid the ATI card, not because it's a bad card, but because ATI's linux drivers are sh*t. Literally. They're unstable and a pain to set up.
If you're going to buy a high end graphics card, go nVidia because nothing would suck more than buying an expensive card and then not being able to use it properly because of graphics glitches.

There is nothing wrong with using ATI's catalyst driver, it does work much better then the opensource drivers do on my ATI card and it's not a pain to setup either.

boris_ · 2008-08-17 06:11:17

Which high-end nvidia card do you people suggest ? Also, should I stick with Intel, or should I buy AMD processor ?

zenlord · 2008-08-17 09:53:40

Stick with Intel. Several years ago, AMD was on top of the game, but sadly, this is no longer the case for laptop and desktop CPU's.

Your computer seems ok, with these remarks:
- your cpu is one of the latest batch and your motherboard is from an older batch (P35). I would suggest choosing the P45 because it accepts 1333-CPU's, and I think the quad core you want to order won't work on a P35 (check the product listings)
- ALWAYS go for a brandname power supply. It is often overlooked and in many cases the cause of (hard to diagnose) instability. ANTEC, TAGAN, OCZ are some of the better brands out there.
- the Ati driver has grown a lot lately and as far as I know, all big issues are gone. I don't know how well the newest cards (yours is only a few weeks out) are supported, but I would guess that support is added once the new driver arrives (one every month). If you scour the forum, you'll find a lot of people struggling with the nVidia-drivers also - so there's no safe bet. In the long run, I would place my money on Intel (for non-gamers) and Ati though, because they are opening up to the community.

Zl.

boris_ · 2008-08-17 12:08:51

Which motherboard do you suggest ? I can't find this P45 in the store. There are a few Asus motherboards there as well. Are they any good ? Can anyone reccomend me a motherboard which supports all my components ?

Anonymo · 2008-08-17 16:55:08

Here are some motherboards on Newegg based on P45:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductLi … der=RATING

I usually go with ASUS or Gigabyte.

That is if you want an Intel setup.

I would recommend going with AMD/ATI, eventhough they don't have the fastest processor, they have the best chipset. The 780g.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductLi … der=RATING

Try to stay away from Foxconn.

boris_ · 2008-08-17 17:14:09

http://www.mimovrste.com/artikel/238004 … us-p5q-775
What do you guys think about this motherboard from ASUS ?

zenlord · 2008-08-18 23:17:59

I second anonymo when vouching for Asus and Gigabyte.

The Asus P5Q should be good, as it is the successor of the P5K (= P35), which I have used in two or three other setups. All of them were very fast.

At the end of the week I'm assembling my first quad core-system and it will be based on a Gigabyte P45 with ICH10R, which name I've forgotten. I didn't really have a reason to prefer it above the Asus-equivalent...

Zl.

boris_ · 2008-08-19 12:28:21

So which one is faster ? Asus or Gigabyte ?

SiC · 2008-08-19 18:29:18

To be honest Boris, you'd have to compare both motherboards in a review, most motherboards these days are pretty much reference designs for the chipset they are derived from. Any speed difference between the two would likely be statistically insignificant. I certainly don't look to see which motherboards are faster than another, I usually just compare chipsets and features, then price.

boris_ · 2008-08-19 19:25:52

Well we ordered the comp today. Replaced the GFX card with 4850 instead of 4870. For some reason 4850 was almost 100€ cheaper. We had to buy processor at another store because they didn't have it in stock here. Also had to replace Corsair with Geil Ultra 4GB 1066Mhz RAM for the same reason. Motherboard is Asus. Other things are same. Cost about 890 € since the other store charges 20€ more for processor. Now, we're basicaly with the same price and with a cheaper GFX card. This ain't gonna be a good gaming system... Also thanks to all people that posted in this thread. Admin can close it now.

Boris

iBertus · 2008-08-19 19:44:40

boris_ wrote:

Which high-end nvidia card do you people suggest ? Also, should I stick with Intel, or should I buy AMD processor ?

I've got a pair of GTX280 1GB cards in this rig (one for CUDA, one for X) and they seem to be working well with the 177.13 drivers. I do see some graphics issues when using Compiz, but attribute that to the BETA drivers. I really thought about getting a pair of 4870x2s from ATI, but I'm currently tied to the CUDA API and cannot simply change directions (+1 for a API independant GPGPU language). Newer ATI cards have been shipping with same-day linux support for the past few releases and ATI is really making an effort to close the gap.

As for CPUs, I'm a big AMD fan, but for my latest build went Intel. I needed 8-cores and wanted support for SLI (weird, I know) and so the only board that had both of those features was the d5400sx from Intel. It's based off the workstation 5000-series of Intel chipset and is rock-solid stable on Arch Linux. I would agree that you should get a newer chipset with that Intel quad-core.

Still, nothing is going to beat the performance/price of an AMD/ATI rig. I'm probably going that way with my HTPC build later this year. Oh, and you are aware that Intel's new platform (Nahalem or whatever it's called>) is coming out Q4-2008/Q1-2009 and will boast an integrated memory controller and upto 8-cores on a single chip?! It may be worth the wait if you don't need a super fast machine today.

l1ltw1st · 2008-08-28 13:44:17

boris__ If I am not to late, here are my suggestions. First and foremost, the P35's do support 1333 FSB, so if you are looking to save a few $$ (or in your case €€) then a P35 is just fine.

While the 4870 is a monster card (and a good one at that) unless you have a monitor that supports 1920x1200, you are throwing money out the window. Even at 1920x1200 a 4850 will paint the screen nicely on the newest games using Vista, so imagine what it could do in Arch...

As posted above, the PSU is key, and by key I mean if you don't purchase a high quality PSU, then the rest of your system will suffer. CPU's and GPU's have become highly intolerant to fluctuations in voltage, and when your VCore is at a minimal 1.33V, a fluctuation to 1.4V is huge and could cause serious damage.

As it relates to SATA and SATA-II, they are and are not interoperable... By that I mean, if your SATA-II drive is setup for SATA-II on a SATA bus, it will do some seriously funky things, if, however, your SATA drive is on a SATA-II controller, the controller will downgrade to match the drive just fine.

Hope that helps

skottish · 2008-08-28 14:14:49

Welcome to the forums boris_.

You're getting plenty of help with your query, so I'll leave that alone. I do highly recommend that you build it yourself however. Go ahead and do it with your Dad's oversight; It will help for your first build. You'll learn so much about hardware, as well you'll be able to confidently do your own upgrades from then on.

haxit · 2008-08-28 14:25:18

Ye your first build is usually the best, because then you want to build more. I also recommend build. For the video card I have a XFX NVidia 8800GT, and installing it is a wizz. NVidia linux drivers are great.
Also, buy a AMD Processor, it won't let you down.

boris_ · 2008-08-31 19:33:42

So, we got home today and built the comp. Dad did it. We didn't plug in cables for front USB and speakers of the case. BIOS didn't detect disks, after some messing we got windoze (XP) to install. BIOS still doesnt recognize the disk (at least is says so). I installed Neeed For Speed Most Wanted. Worked quite well. Gonna install Crysis now. NFS MW worked with max settings.

moljac024 · 2008-08-31 19:41:36

Damn that video game industry! Sucking your wallet dry...

Last edited by moljac024 (2008-08-31 19:41:49)

haxit · 2008-08-31 20:07:18

+1 Moljac. Thats why I download games.

moljac024 · 2008-08-31 20:13:35

haxit wrote:

+1 Moljac. Thats why I download games.

Seriously, who does ?
But you can't download new hardware, can you now ?

I've never been a passionate gamer so I've only bought a few games in my life. I think I may buy Spore....

haxit · 2008-08-31 20:22:41

I've only bought CS:S Nothing else. I wish you could download hardware. That would be EPIC!

moljac024 · 2008-08-31 20:33:42

haxit wrote:

I've only bought CS:S Nothing else. I wish you could download hardware. That would be EPIC!

Well that could be possible in the future (possibly the near future). I can't recall the name of the project right now, but scientists have developed a robot that is in fact a small factory and can make almost anything, including a copy of itself. So, your dream might still come true haxit

EDIT: I've found it. Check it out :

http://reprap.org/bin/view/Main/WebHome
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reprap

Last edited by moljac024 (2008-08-31 20:37:31)

haxit · 2008-08-31 20:35:14

xD
I was watching something, and they used a printer to print a bacteria or cell or something like that. They said eventually they will be able to print out hearts and other organs

moljac024 · 2008-08-31 20:37:59

I've edited my previous post. Check out the links.

EDIT:

http://reprap.org/bin/view/Main/WebHome wrote:

Not counting nuts and bolts RepRap can make 60% of its parts; the other parts are designed to be cheaply available everywhere. This is an interesting coincidence: we can make 60% of our proteins; the other parts are evolved to be cheaply available everywhere...
The primary goal of the RepRap project is to create and to give away a makes-useful-stuff machine that, among other things, allows its owner cheaply and easily to make another such machine for someone else.
To increase that 60%, the next version of RepRap will be able to make its own electric circuitry - a technology we have already proved experimentally - though not its electronic chips. After that we'll look to doing transistors with it, and so on...

There you have it. Just a couple of years before we can download the next-gen video cards and processors
Running low on disk space ? Have a few megabytes ?
That's easy - just download the schematics for a bigger drive and use your RepRap v3.2 to make it

Last edited by moljac024 (2008-08-31 20:49:49)

Arch Linux

#1 2008-08-16 20:04:20

Help with building a new computer

#2 2008-08-16 22:04:21

Re: Help with building a new computer

#3 2008-08-17 02:47:54

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#4 2008-08-17 03:20:49

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#5 2008-08-17 06:11:17

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