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Main => Main Forum => Topic started by: tapnout on June 25, 2005, 01:38:35 pm

Title: Building comp. have questions.
Post by: tapnout on June 25, 2005, 01:38:35 pm

I"m building a computer and i was wondering if you guys can look over all the parts i'm going to purchase and see if they are all compatible. Mainly the motherboard and the hard drive. The hard drive says its an ATA 100 and the motherboard says it supports ATA 133. Does that matter? Also how big of a power supply will i need? Is 220W enough? Can someone explain that? Thanks.
 
Update

Title: Re: Building comp. have questions.
Post by: Dire Radiant on June 25, 2005, 02:09:46 pm

If you're spending more on a CD burner than your motherboard then I'd say you have your priorities all wrong. Dump that PC Chips board, theyre trash. Invest in something better like Abit, Asus or Gigabyte then replace the horribly overpriced burner with a Dual Layer DVD burner (for less money!) I hope you're not planning on doing anything even remotely 3D with that video card. If not then its fine. Those older Radeons have very nice 2D image quality. A 220W power supply will NOT be enough. You want at least a 350W supply. Preferably more.

The real problem is that you havent told us what the PC is going to be used for. The requirements hange drastically with the application.

Title: Re: Building comp. have questions.
Post by: tapnout on June 25, 2005, 02:20:49 pm

I'll only be using this computer to back-up and play my CD-G files (karaoke). That's the reason why i need that plextor cd-rom. Its one of the few cd-roms that can read both audio and graphics on a CD-G. The video card is just for the s-video. I'll look for a new motherboard. Why do i need more power? I just want to know so i know how big of a power supply to buy. The machine will only be used as a karaoke player/backup system.

Title: Re: Building comp. have questions.
Post by: Dire Radiant on June 25, 2005, 02:26:34 pm

In that case I'd probably stick with the cheap motherboard. No sense getting an expensive one for that application.

Power requirements vary according to the components in your PC. That Athlon 2400 needs at the VERY least a 300W supply. Athlons suck a lot more power than Intel chips. Personally I wouldn't go with anything under 350. Insufficient power will cause stability problems and you'll end up crashing at the drop of a hat.

Title: Re: Building comp. have questions.
Post by: tristan on June 25, 2005, 06:59:06 pm

Wattage has no bearing on how good a power supply is. Make sure it has AT LEAST 15amps on the +12volt rail to run a socket A motherboard.

You may get away with less on a micro-ATX, but it's best to not have to buy another one due to problems. Here's a goos one that's not too expensive:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817153006


...edited for clarification and link....

Title: Re: Building comp. have questions.
Post by: rsoandrew on June 26, 2005, 04:44:40 am

Unless you're really intent on building  the computer from scratch (which isn't necessarily bad), I'd look at buying one from someplace like the Dell factory outlet.

I bought my kids one there last Christmas for a little less than $300 bucks shipped. Watch http://www.techbargains.com/ They always have the best coupons and systems deals listed.

Title: Re: Building comp. have questions.
Post by: markb on June 26, 2005, 05:02:57 am

I'll second the power supply, I would say a 350watt PSU for that system.

BTW I use a PC chips mobo on a machine I own and it is perfectly okay,  nothing flash but it does the job and has been rock solid. If your using it for a Karaoke machine then it will be fine.

One tip on the PC chips mobo if it is an older stock board you may need to flash the bios to run a sempron processor, PC chips tell you how to do this on their website.