Need Help making my own computer

clerus21 · Posted: Fri Feb 20, 2004 12:29 am Post subject: Need Help making my own computer

Can anyone please tell me what to buy? I mean I think I'll get the Amd64 3400+, but I have no Idea which motherboard to get, videocard, soundcard, powersuply, etc, I mean I want it to work as well and smooth as posible. (almost regardless the money).
For example I dont know if I should get a MSI motherboard or an Asus one, and which models....
Please give me some tips.
Thanx

thumper · Guru Joined: 06 Dec 2002 Posts: 554 Location: Venice FL

While I cannot answer your question in detail, check this link out for a start http://www.northgate.com/estore/config/index.cfm?config_Id=303

Good luck in your quest.

George

secondshadow · Guru Joined: 23 Jun 2003 Posts: 362

Personally I bought an MSI-K8T800-Neo FS2R (6702) and it works great. There were some issues with cool'n'quiet, but that was fixed using a bios someone else linked here in the forums. The only other issue is with the 3rd ide channel, which actually uses the SATA controller anyway, so eh...no biggie...I'll just use my other promise card for the extra HD.

scoobydu · Posted: Fri Feb 20, 2004 11:23 am Post subject:

Try here -> http://www.amdzone.com/articlesearch.cfm?SearchValue=&Category=175&CategorySearch=Get+Listing

For the Opteron the asus is a good board, but when they tested it against my MSI, they couldn't tell the differance! So I went for the cheap MSI option. Also because the MSI was ATX and would fit into my existing system.

When I bought mine there were only really two viable options so I went for the cheaper one, as I'm sure more manufacturers will develope better boards that I can upgrade to later.

Of course all this depends on the money you have available.

Alot of people with the FX64 chips seem to use the MSI Neo, but you'll have to do some googling to find out a bit more .... checkout some of the reviews on the web

http://www.amdmb.com/article-display.php?ArticleID=269

etc
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thumper · Guru Joined: 06 Dec 2002 Posts: 554 Location: Venice FL

Another tidbit of info when building your own machine, here is a bit on video cards:
http://www.linuxhardware.org/article.pl?sid=04/02/18/2331228&mode=thread

A side note, while I'm using the ATI 9600 Pro and it works ok (no drm), I think the NVIDIA folks provide much better Linux support, and I'd use one of their cards had I built my own, but this time around I had to watch my expenses.

George

johnmc

Spend some time researching at hardware review sites like Tom's Hardware, Anandtech and the like. StorageReview is good for disk drives. There are probably a lot of new sites, I haven't built in a couple of years. SharkyExtreme used to be good, but it's changed quite a bit.

Read motherboard reviews, paying particular attention to the chipsets and which CPU's match those chipsets. Also pay attention to RAM types. Once you decide on a certain CPU or chipset, your choices become simpler. Look at the photos, too, and learn to identify the different parts on the motherboards

Also read video card reviews, hard drive reviews, case reviews, power supply reviews, you name it, review it.

Motherboards, cases and power supplies will conform to some standard, like ATX. They're designed to work together in their type - don't try to mix different types.

My personal preference is that motherboards shouldn't have sound, video, SCSI or RAID onboard. It keeps the board simpler and I'll add better quality stuff anyway. But to each his own. I like ASUS quite a bit, and have had good ABIT boards in the past, too. I like jumperless designs, and prefer Award bios. I had an MSI board once, didn't really care for it but that was a long time ago and with a Cyrix cpu...

Nvidia video driver support for Linux has been good, as Thumper says. If you're going to run Linux on it, it's wise to research the components and make sure there's driver support.

I'm really no expert, but when I build a new machine I spend a while reading up on all the new stuff. I only build for myself and my wife, and I've had good luck so far.

Good luck!

5a\/ag3 · Posted: Mon Feb 23, 2004 12:17 pm Post subject: X86-64 Boards

Here are a couple of boards to consider

Asus SK8N http://www.asus.com
Asus SK8V http://www.asus.com
Tyan K8W 2885 http://www.tyan.com
Tyan K8w 2875 http://www.tyan.com
MSI Master2-FAR www.msi.com.tw
Iwill DK8X or Iwill DK8N http://www.iwill.net

these would be my choices for a kick-butt rig :wink:

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jesterspet · Posted: Mon Feb 23, 2004 1:06 pm Post subject:

I would suggest you look at this posting for some informitive links.

Research your options carefully, since this is most likely your first foray into the 64bit computing realm, the more you know before you buy the better prepared you will be for any problems you may run into along the way.
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