My new( Now old) PC.

Igotmilk

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This is a post I made on another forum about my fisrt PC build. It is a little dated. I have always purchased pre-made PC's because the prices seem so cheap, but I feel I got a lot more for my money with this build and I am confident of all the parts and the ability to get drivers for new OS's as they are released.

Here is my parts list:

Motherboard: Abit NF7-S $104.99
CPU: AMD ATHLON XP 2500+ "Barton" 333 FSB PROCESSOR CPU- RETAIL $90.00
RAM: 2 X Mushkin DDR 512MB PC3200 222 - Black Hi Perf Level II $278.30
Video Card: ATI RADEON 9600 PRO 128MB 8X AGP DVI/TV RETAIL $170.00
HDD: MAXTOR 160GB 7200RPM Serial ATA Hard Drive Model 6Y160M0 8MB OEM $131.00
Case: CHIEFTEC Server Chasis (Aluminum Workstation Tower with Plastic Front Cover) $72.00
Power Supply: ENERMAX EG465P-VE(FM). 460W Power supply for AMD K7, K8 & Pentium4 $78.99
Total: $925.28

At first I was considering with going with two sticks of 256MB of RAM and am still not sure I made the right choice. I should not need the 1024MB of RAM, but I decided in case I wish to upgrade a little in the future that I could still hopefully keep this ram and with the $136.30 price difference I took the chance.

OK, I ordered all my system parts from NewEgg on Veterans day (Nov. 11th.) in the afternoon Eastern Standard Time. This was one of the most enjoyable experiences I have had with this PC so far. I immediately started having buyer's remorse about the case. After I ordered I kept reading the forums and two case threads started! There were some good cases posted and I started to second guess myself!

Lesson 1: do not read the board after ordering prior to receiving parts. This can make you second guess yourself and as in my case could cause you to roll up in a little ball in the corner crying like a girl
This is what was so fun. My shipment was broken into two parts. The case coming from LA and the rest coming from Trenton, NJ. I live very close to NJ but very far from LA. I tracked my two shipments through FedEx and the biggest question I had was when the parts would arrive. The stated delivery time was prior to 4:30 PM EST on Monday November 17th. I actually figured both shipments would arrive the same day but that the day would either be the Friday (Good) or the Monday (Bad). The worst case scenario for me was to have one shipment arrive on Friday and the other on Monday. That would have just ticked me off. Well as I tracked the packages I could not be sure until I awoke the morning of the 17th and both packages were in the local final destination waiting to be put on a truck and shipped to me. Now I knew I would HAVE to leave home at 2:00 in the afternoon so this was as tense for me as an Alabama boy watching the World Championship Mud-Flap Racing race with a hefty bet on the side. This was the home stretch and it was close. At 12:00 I still had no sign of a FedEx truck and again was beginning to second guess myself. I knew that we have had FedEx deliveries after 6:00 some nights but I was betting that since it was a Friday that FedEx dude was gonna' try to rush his route so he could meet up with his buddies and heckle the UPS boys at whatever watering hole Delivery Professionals gather at to get their drink on. I have to assume that with their knicker-like shorts it is very dimly lit. So the clock tolls one and still no delivery, now I am freaking, wondering what will happen if I am late or if I can make it back before the delivery. But none of this was necessary as the FedEx girl (Yes a girl!) made it at 2:46:53 EST November 14th in the Year of our Lord 2003.

Shoot! Now you know I gotta' open this stuff and check it out! I start opening boxes like a professional box opener at the Mr. Universe of Box opening trials to be held next Boxing day. Everything was there.

The first thing I noticed was how light the case is. I should not have second guessed my case choice. The one I got is GREAT! I love the way it looks and I love the space and the weight of it. Shoot, and unlike other things I have fallen in love with I am sure that this thing will not be packing on 300 pounds and telling me "But you loved me when I was lighter! I am still the same case on the inside!"

Yeah, Like I said this case is great. I grabbed all the documentation and headed out. I did not get home until after 12:00, but when I did I started the assembly. This is the first PC I have built from parts, and I have primarily used Motherboards.org for information. So this was a little slow at first. I stayed up until 3:00 but I had to get up at 8:00 to go out for the day. I was not finished with the assembly yet but I felt I had made good progress. I was happy about all the parts I had ordered and was looking forward to getting this thing rocking. So the next evening when I get home I put a couple of more hours into it but I had to go out and get my drink on. I left home at a little after 11:00 and made it home by 2:00 for a post celebration assembly party. This is where I pretty much finished everything….well for the most part. I was unable to get it to read floppies. I had snagged the Floppy and some old dopy CD R/W drive from my old rig and I could not install Win2K cause' it wanted the SATA drivers from the diskette, WHICH IT COULD NOT READ! I checked all the connections and played with it for a while then hit the sack.

The next morning I played around a little more and still had no success. I tried another floppy from an older system and same deal. This was the most frustrating thing about the whole process. Since it was Sunday I decided I would go to Best Buy and pick up a $9.00 Floppy. No dice! Best Buy has one $9.00 Floppy drive and it is priced at $25.00! Screw them! I'll show the man! So I go to a few other stores and the same story pretty much. I ended up giving up and going home. I did not work on the PC anymore on Sunday. The next day I got hold of a floppy from a friend, very cloak and dagger since we met in a parking garage for "The Exchange".

OK, this one worked so on Tuesday I got the operating system installed. Then came the updates! Over 56K!! (Screw the man I am not paying $40.00 a month for Broadband….unless it includes the broad!) Well this was NOT working out. So I had to download the patches at work and burn them to CD. Now everything is up and next week I can start to over-clock, but this thing rocks! It is not the fastest PC but it seems to be stable, light, quite, and if I can say so myself handsome. One thing I did notice was that MotherBoards.org is mentioned in the front of the manual that comes with my ATI RADEON 9600 PRO.

I appreciate all the help and advice I got from everyone here and wish you all the best in the future!

Lessons I learned:
Don't freak out and second guess until you have at least seen your goods! I know that if you order online that you have to wait, but take up knitting or something.
Next time I will just buy a new floppy drive since it was not worth all the problems I had trying to save $9.00 by keeping the one I had.
 

JAMiAM

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Sounds like a nice, sensible system. I wish I had the patience and the faith (with respect to potential return issues) to order online for parts. As it is, I always end up spending a little more, to be able to have a store and live people to bitch to, face to face, if things go south.

How's that PSU working for you? Enermax is a good brand, but I'm trying to get some feedback on noise levels. The last box I built is too dang noisy, primarily from the PSU fan. Would have been good for a server in a closet, but under the desk I keep scooting away to keep from getting sucked into the case.
 

Igotmilk

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Originally posted by JAMiAM
Sounds like a nice, sensible system. I wish I had the patience and the faith (with respect to potential return issues) to order online for parts. As it is, I always end up spending a little more, to be able to have a store and live people to bitch to, face to face, if things go south.

How's that PSU working for you? Enermax is a good brand, but I'm trying to get some feedback on noise levels. The last box I built is too dang noisy, primarily from the PSU fan. Would have been good for a server in a closet, but under the desk I keep scooting away to keep from getting sucked into the case.
The Power Supply is GREAT. It has two fans. One on the bottom that sucks air from the case into the power supply and one in the back that blows it out. There are 3 other fans in the case and EVERYTHING seems pretty darn quite. I have it on my desktop right next to my monitor and hardly notice it at all.


I found ordering from NewEgg is cheap and fast. Plus I have heard all over the Internet and from friends that they have GREAT customer service.

I had ZERO problems so I cannot say for sure.

Try them, I recommend them.
 

Jim H. Moreno

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Dude, did you really need a floppy? If I were to order one, would I have a choice? I have not used a floppy drive in over 4 years. I didn't think those old things still existed.
 

Chicken_Salad

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2.8 gig pentium
gig ram
radeon 256mb video

It just arrived :banana: :toast: :horse: :D :thumb:



Dude, did you really need a floppy?

famous last words
 

Igotmilk

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Originally posted by Jim H. Moreno
Dude, did you really need a floppy? If I were to order one, would I have a choice? I have not used a floppy drive in over 4 years. I didn't think those old things still existed.
Yes, I needed it to load the SATA drivers for my HDD. When you are installing Windows XP, Windows NT, Windows 2000 and possibly Windows 2003 you get to a point in the install where it prompts you to hit "F6" to load your SCSI drivers. It only wants these drivers from a floppy. :crazy: Pisses me off. :mad:
 

jeff norton

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Originally posted by ChickenSalad
2.8 gig pentium
gig ram
radeon 256mb video

It just arrived :banana: :toast: :horse: :D :thumb:



Dude, did you really need a floppy?

famous last words
amen.... I still use it *constantly* working w/PC's, Servers, ect...

So, was it worth the $$$?
 

Siberian HEAT

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Originally posted by Jim H. Moreno
Dude, did you really need a floppy? If I were to order one, would I have a choice? I have not used a floppy drive in over 4 years. I didn't think those old things still existed.
You can get away without a floppy as long as you aren't in the small subset of people (such as IGM and myself) who need to hit that damned F6 key when loading windows. My last PC I opted out of a floppy since I wanted to ditch that old technology...and everything worked great until I needed to reload it. I had several floppy drives on hand...but they were all old POS's that never seemed to work right. Then, while installing one directly off the mobo temporarily solely for the purpose of installing Windows I had it hanging out the side of my case (yes I do this for a living!) and accidentally sent a shock into the floppy, up the cable, and sending the floppy controller straight to hell! Lucky for me the board already had other problems that warranted an RMA so I got off easy. However, when the replacement came back I had a fresh floppy drive waiting to be put in. So, not having a floppy drive seemed cool at the time, but for lazy bastards like me it makes more sense to just cover all my base and keep it in there for the occasional rebuild.

I do all data transfer on a 512mb USB key drive. That's where it's at!
 

Igotmilk

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Originally posted by ChickenSalad
2.8 gig pentium
gig ram
radeon 256mb video

It just arrived :banana: :toast: :horse: :D :thumb:
:thumb: Way to go man! :thumb:

Mind if I ask who you got it from and how much it set you back?

You will not notice the dif between 256MB and 128MB on the video card and neither of us should notice much dif in the 1024MB of RAM over the 512MB for normal gaming.

Good job though. Does it have that "New PC Smell"? :toast:
 

Siberian HEAT

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For the record, I buy almost all my PC parts (which is a lot) from Newegg. Their RMA policy is outstanding and both times I had trouble with a product they sent me a brand new replacement in a timely fashion.

Can't say enough good things about them!

:thumb:
 

Siberian HEAT

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Newegg ships 2nd day Fedex for free to the USA. Newegg also carries a wide range of parts from generic to top of the line...which means that as long as you don't need the goods that particular day they are great to use. Prices are better than retail, although certain PC shops might have a part or two slightly cheaper. I am fairly picky though, and most local shops usually have to special order my stuff anyway...so using an online vendor works best for me. It gives me something to do when I am at work LOL (ordering parts for personal use!).
 

Mantis

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Man, I *wish* I had your day job! ;)

I have some great suppliers here in Edmonton due in no small part to the fact that I move so much hardware for them over the course of a year. But it's so annoying to be able to check out all the deals (through commercials, magazine ads, internet) available in the US, and find out that we can't take advantage of any of them here! DOH!
 

Igotmilk

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Originally posted by Shane Sohnle
What kind of rates do you pay for shipping? And does it really beat the prices of shopping locally?
Hi!

Shipping for almost every one of the parts I listed above was FREE! The only thing I have ever paid for NewEgg to ship, and it is on the list, is the computer case. Some cases they will ship for free but my case cost me $17 to ship.

But the case weighs 17 pounds and is in a rather large box so I think I did well. When I price things out I usually take my time and make sure I am getting what I want and what I need and I am not getting ripped off. So when I price things I include shipping.

Another place, that I have not dealt with, that I hear is very highly rated is "ZipZoomFly.com" but when I checked against my list of parts they charged more or at the best the same.

If you have ANY questions about building a PC please feel free to ask. :toast: I may even be able to answer! :thumb:
 

Boar

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Originally posted by Shane Sohnle
What kind of rates do you pay for shipping? And does it really beat the prices of shopping locally?
Shop locally, pay globally. ;) Not really, but I tried putting money in the local economy at one computer shop. Eventually I found that the RAM they sold me was bad and I also couldn't find a good case from them. I too like Igotmilk have found no problems shopping at Newegg.com. I ordered two Antec server cases from them and two Antec Enermax PSU's. I'd recommend getting RAM from Crucial directly -- they've got the best prices and the best RAM (and if you order through the link at http://www.pcnineoneone.com/index.html they will be grateful -- they give the BEST computer advice on the internet -- real pros there).

The only thing I would order "locally" would be a UPS because they're so dang heavy and shipping costs reflect that. You get a much better choice online than you can get through most local stores, and that especially indicates Best Buy and CompUSA.

I've built three systems now -- my latest is a P4 2.53 Ghz build on an MSI mobo -- super system. The two before that were an Athlon and a K6 III system. It's fun to do and instructive. My latest venture (with much help from the nice people at PC911) was to set up three computers in my house on a network via a Linksys Router.
 

Mantis

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I don't have any problems building them (I do that for a living), but I just wanted to check out how it goes for all of you that shop online.

I think I'm better off just sticking with my suppliers, as I get some pretty good discounts due to volume (over $50K at my largest account last year). But I thought it worth investigating to see if anyone outside of the US can rave about online system shopping!

I usually just end up waiting to do an upgrade until I already have a decent order to fill for customers, and then I have an even easier time getting some sweet deals on the couple things I might need. "Oh yeah, Liu; that one is for me!"

:terms:
 
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