Just started assembling my first computer build last night...., Critiques and tips welcome Options

[Fastbird]

Roughly, think of a rail as a circuit in your house. A circuit can only handle so much current, so you can only plug so many lamps, appliances, etc into one -- this is why using power bars to hook a couple dozen devices to one outlet is a bad idea.

Multi-rail power supplies means multiple circuits. For instance, my old GameXStream was a four-rail PSU at 18A each on the 12V (big drain devices need 12V) rails. If I ran two video cards, I'd want them on separate rails since their combined draw is greater than one little rail can handle. On the other hand, my current EliteXStream has one 12V rail capable of handling 62A; if this were a house circuit, every device in my entire home can be plugged into one outlet.

Interesting. So if I upgrade the vid card I may want to look at a PSU upgrade too then.

Good news is that after tearing the mobo out of my wife's DV1000 laptop, I managed to find that the diode once again had separated, so after a quick resolder this morning it's back up and running! I rock.

[Nartanian]

Did you put some arctic silver?

[Fastbird]

Did you put some arctic silver?

No, I used OCZ Freeze.

[soulshadow]

Your case does not offer much in terms of upgrades especially if you want to go dual SLI / Crossfire. Not to mention you motherboard, but overall this is a good PC, if you want to type on a word processor, and since it takes up hardly any space its good for a small cramped room like dorms ect. You didn't you settle for the PC-1066 ram instead of PC-800? 1066 will make the most use out of that CPU not to mention that speed wise it is faster. Just load it with VISTA 64 and you have a machine that can go 24/7.

[Fastbird]

Your case does not offer much in terms of upgrades especially if you want to go dual SLI / Crossfire. Not to mention you motherboard, but overall this is a good PC, if you want to type on a word processor, and since it takes up hardly any space its good for a small cramped room like dorms ect. You didn't you settle for the PC-1066 ram instead of PC-800? 1066 will make the most use out of that CPU not to mention that speed wise it is faster. Just load it with VISTA 64 and you have a machine that can go 24/7.

Price was a factor, and the 1066 was markedly more pricey than the 800 (I got a sale deal w/a mail in rebate). I'm NEVER going to need to go dual SLI or anything, crossfire came up because it's a ready option on this board. I don't game at all. I got it for using as a media player since my office is next to my forthcoming baby's nursery, to use for photo and video editing, and your typical computer user stuff (web surfing, website development, ect). If I wanted to build a hard core gaming rig the build would have been MUCH different, but I just don't need something like that.

I went with the SFF because I like it. I'm not cramped for space at all, I just don't see a need for a huge tower hogging up space when it could be more effectively utilized in other ways.

No vista for me. I've got XP Pro and don't see changing from that for a LONG time.

[Bitter]

i'm not up on AMD, but for the intel c2d the 800 vs 1066 thing is pretty moot. not a huge difference at all.

i threw together a budget pc for exactly what you're using yours for. E5200, 2GB 1066 (had laying around), 9400GT, some spare hard drive, ocz stealthstream 600W, and an asus pq5l deluxe or something board all packed into a mid tower rosewill case (they make some nice cases btw). whole thing came in at about $400.

[Fastbird]

I think I may actually get to turn the blasted thing on tonight. I got stuck fixing the wife's laptop on Friday night/saturday, and also on Saturday it was a pre-planned "baby stuff shopping" day. That SUCKED........but we got a lot of things we needed. So today, after I get this fighter movement off the ground, I have to do some lawn work, and then I get to play!

And no, I'm not neglecting my Celi. She's tucked away safely in the garage.

[Fastbird]

Hmmm.......something's dead. No post, no beeps, no nothing. When you initially turn on the power the PS2 keyboard lights up, then nothing. No monitor.

I have gone so far as to try with the mobo out and on a piece of cardboard, and the ONLY things attached being the CPU, PSU, CPU Fan/sink, and RAM. Zero zip nada.

[Fastbird]

Hahahahahahahah.......oh boy. We have post.

This was my newbishness showing big time. There was an extra integrated cable on the PSU, what looked to be an 8 pin. I discounted it thinking it was redundant and my 24 pin was all that was needed. Upon closer inspection, the 8 pin was actually two connected 4 pins, and I hadn't connected the CPU power connector by the processor.

I found this out by finally finding a review of the Ultra XVS 600W PSU........and realized my mistake. Plugged it in, and though it wasn't going to do anything, then.....BEEP! And the monitor comes on.

I am such a newb.

[Nartanian]

Haha too funny. So is your pc runnin now?

[MercuryFree]

I can't read it clearly, but does that 600w PSU you have say it has a 35A 12V rail on it? That's pretty small. A Corsair 650W has a 52A rail.

I didn't look at the case ahead of time to see that it was a small case. I understand about the heatsink now.

I'm running a core 2 quad system, overclocked, with 4gb of ram, 3 hard drives and an 8800gts 640mb on a 500W enermax liberty with a single 32A 12v rail from 2005. Have NEVER had it kerplode on me. People with 700W+ power supplies without multi-gpu are wasting their money.

He'll be fine methinks.

This was my newbishness showing big time. There was an extra integrated cable on the PSU, what looked to be an 8 pin. I discounted it thinking it was redundant and my 24 pin was all that was needed. Upon closer inspection, the 8 pin was actually two connected 4 pins, and I hadn't connected the CPU power connector by the processor.

lol my mate just built his first computer a fortnight ago and did the same thing. Lucky I was there to help or he'd have been pretty sad!

This post has been edited by MercuryFree: Jun 8, 2009 - 4:30 AM

[Fastbird]

Haha too funny. So is your pc runnin now?

Yeah, I connected everything, and the only issue is that the HDD is making a god-awful squeaking noise......not too confident about that one.

lol my mate just built his first computer a fortnight ago and did the same thing. Lucky I was there to help or he'd have been pretty sad!

Thank god I'm not the only one!

[Nartanian]

Haha too funny. So is your pc runnin now?

Yeah, I connected everything, and the only issue is that the HDD is making a god-awful squeaking noise......not too confident about that one.

Is it a Western Digital?

[Fastbird]

Yup. 750gb WD Caviar Black. DOA. Sata won't recognize in AHCI or Native IDE. And the squealing and clicking haven't subsided at all. Calling it quits, got an RMA with New Egg already.

[Nartanian]

Yup. 750gb WD Caviar Black. DOA. Sata won't recognize in AHCI or Native IDE. And the squealing and clicking haven't subsided at all. Calling it quits, got an RMA with New Egg already.

Yea, good idea. Don't go Seagate. I have heard a lot of bad things about their 1tb hd.

[Fastbird]

Yup. 750gb WD Caviar Black. DOA. Sata won't recognize in AHCI or Native IDE. And the squealing and clicking haven't subsided at all. Calling it quits, got an RMA with New Egg already.

Yea, good idea. Don't go Seagate. I have heard a lot of bad things about their 1tb hd.

Well I'm just doing an RMA for a replacement right now. If the second one becomes a dud, I'll find something else.

[Sinyk]

I can't read it clearly, but does that 600w PSU you have say it has a 35A 12V rail on it? That's pretty small. A Corsair 650W has a 52A rail.

I didn't look at the case ahead of time to see that it was a small case. I understand about the heatsink now.

I'm running a core 2 quad system, overclocked, with 4gb of ram, 3 hard drives and an 8800gts 640mb on a 500W enermax liberty with a single 32A 12v rail from 2005. Have NEVER had it kerplode on me. People with 700W+ power supplies without multi-gpu are wasting their money.

No actually it's not a waste of money. It is quite beneficial in a couple ways. One is that you are not taxing your PSU at near 100% capacity all the time which helps to reduce heat generated as well as stresses the PSU components. Most PSU's are also more efficient when not running at 100% load, so if your PSU is rated as an 82+ or an 80 Plus, you may want to see where it runs most efficiently because I'm sure it won't be at 90-100% capacity.

Also, I would be much more comfortable running an Enermax (quality brand) closer to 100% load than some PSUs that comes pre-packaged in cases.

Two is that you have upgrading headroom. You may not have multiple GPU's when you build the system, but that doesn't mean you won't have multiple later on. Or what if you decide to upgrade a year or two down the road? That's one less part that you will have to replace.

Also, having a single rail PSU is a better idea than a multi-rail PSU as it is easier to manage the power load and there are no potential losses. Here's a little info about multi-rail PSU's from the PCPC website:

8. ARE MULTIPLE 12-VOLT RAILS BETTER THAN A SINGLE 12-VOLT RAIL?

With all the hype about multiple 12-volt rails (ads claim that two rails is better than one, five is better than four, etc.), you'd think it was a better design. Unfortunately, it's not!

Here are the facts: A large, single 12-volt rail (without a 240VA limit) can transfer 100% of the 12-volt output from the PSU to the computer, while a multi-rail 12-volt design has distribution losses of up to 30% of the power supply's rating. Those losses occur because power literally gets "trapped" on under-utilized rails. For example, if the 12-volt rail that powers the CPU is rated for 17 amps and the CPU only uses 7A, the remaining 10A is unusable, since it is isolated from the rest of the system.

As for Seagate, they had some firmware issues with their 7200.11 series of 1TB hard drives. Those issues have since been resolved and their 7200.12 series work just fine. They actually have denser platters than the 7200.11 series offering better performance. I have been a longtime user of Seagate HDDs and I still find them to be some of the quietest drives you can get. I went WD because of the performance but they are definitely louder than my other 4 Seagates.

This post has been edited by Sinyk: Jun 9, 2009 - 12:34 PM

[Fastbird]

Well, I'm being impatient right now and am HIGHLY considering getting a 1TB Seagate Barracuda and having it overnighted (or comparison pricing at least, the local BB has it for $108 + tax, New Egg is $90 plus shipping). I'm trying to hold out until this WD comes back in. I will be admittedly discouraged if it's noise because as of right now you absolutely can not hear the computer running. This puppy is QUIET.

One thing I did have to do already is bump the DDR voltage. Gigabyte had it set at 1.8 volts, and you could increase in .1 increments up to a .3 total increase. My OCZ Platinum memory is a 2.1v memory, so guess what I had to do?? It was running fine at 1.8 but I didn't want to take a chance and have it start crashing when I was trying to load windows.

[Sinyk]

Often you can get away with running the ram at lower voltages, but some systems require more right out of the box. If your ram is rated for 2.1v, you are safe running it at that voltage. You can also get low voltage DDR2 now that is rated for 1.8v. Extra voltage produces extra heat, but as long as you stay within the rated specs, you should be nice and stable.

[lagos]

I love seagate drives. I never had a single one fail on me, and they are extremely quiet.
I did however read about some issues with the 1tb series, so it might be worth it to research that a bit.