Almost There!!!

[radstar]

Ok I have my gigabyte 7N400-l with Nforce2 etc.
I decided on an amd 2500xp desktop as I was afraid the mobile would not work well.
seagate 80g hd with SATA.
A case with 300w psu and no fans (damit!!!!)
all I need now is ram I can pull the fans and cd drive out of my vectra for now anyone have any advice re ram and how to put this all together?
I was going to go for twinmos 512mb 3200 ddr what do you think?

Thanks for the help guys.

[Yawgm0th]

I think three things:
1. This should have been one thread, not three.
2. You will need a quality 350+W PSU.
3. I guess the RAM is okay but if you've got the extra money and are overclocking PC3500 is always nice.

[radstar]

Sorry for going overboard with the threads (overthreading lol) but I sometime feel a thread can die before I get finished so I posted again :oops:

I went with the twinmos 512 as it was cheaper than anywhere else but the guy at the shop got a bit shirty because I am buying my stuff all over town and he's like "waste all this time to save 5 dollars"
bit funny really.
So you think the 300W wont hold up well? Could I just run with it for a while till I save up again and do somemore shoping?
I just want to get this thing up and running first then learn all the other things I need to know like Bios SATA RAID etc.
Like I said this is my first system build and I want to do it right.

Thanks again

[Yawgm0th]

Whether or not that PSU holds up depends on your video card. What card are you getting?

But I wouldn't rely on it too much anyway as it is likely to be low quality. A high quality 200W can beat a low quality 300W sometimes, so unless you can't spend or take the time to save up more money, get a high quality 350W PSU such as an Antec.

[radstar]

I have not thought as far ahead as the videocard I was just going to use this system for building a web page etc and getting the card later is it necassary to have a vid card?
I wanted to buy a 450W powersupply later on in a months time. and a dvd burner and somemore ram.

[Yawgm0th]

is it necassary to have a vid card?

If you want to be able to see anything, yes. Unless your motherboard comes with onboard video (which it doesn't unless you've changed from what you said in the other thread).
You could start out with somethig crappy that wouldn't play newer games well (if at all) for a video card. Something like a Radeon 9200SE. That would run just fine on a 300W PSU. However, if you ever get a relatively modern video card (9800 Pro, for example), you will need 350W+ (at least 400W would be best).

[bigjackusa]

Since you don't seem to be a gamer, here's a vid card at $29us that has exellent 2d screen quality: http://www.ictcompany.com/ver1/produ...em=MG45MDVA16D
It should do quite well for web page design. I have built several machines for an advertising company with Matrox cards. You also won't be experimenting with RAID with only one hard drive either. If you want to use RAID, buy drives that are identical to preclude any problems.

[radstar]

Thanks. Games I like if i can play them. and I do intend on getting another HD asap but I am getting bits and peices as the money comes in.

Regards

[radstar]

I think I messed up :oops: I have a HD with 80GB and SATA
But I dont think my motherboard has SATA its the Gigabyte 7N400-L and I was sure it had SATA but after reading the manual I think SATA only came out on the 7n400-Pro I cant check the MB as its at work but my question is can I still use the HD without the SATA function?

[bigjackusa]

You could either get a SATA controller card (easy to find) or an adapter such as this one (expensive at $40us):

http://arcoide.com/miva/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=ADPS&Product_Code=ARC-SATAH&Category_Code=ACCESSORIES

[radstar]

Thanks big jack your a life saver :lol:

[radstar]

Well I have managed to swap the SATA hard drive for another 80GB 7200 and purchase a gigabyte nvidia FX5700 VGA card.
and finally turned the system on for the first time :D
after getting into the bios I found that the cpu temp was running at around 62 degC is this normal? it said in the bios between 60 and 90 is the range but I thought you guys ran at 40 to 50 deg?

[amd_man2005]

What CPU cooler are you using? Also, did you put some type of Thermal Interface Material/Grease in between the CPU and the heatsink?

Also, you didn't happen to mount the HSF backwards did you?

[radstar]

I am using the HSF from the AMD box that the 2500xp came in and I mounted it as per the instruction and it fitted perfectly. there wasnt any stcker over the heat phase material it had a plastic cover on the HSF assembly and I just removed that prior to installing.
its sitting perfectly squar over the cpu and on the little rubber things on the top of the cpu.
I had to pushdown on the clip with a screw driver to get the clip over the tags and thats it.
Do you think the cpu is running to hot? :?:

[Yawgm0th]

You're going to want some Arctic Silver or a similar thermal compound along with a perlacement HSF. The ones that come with the retail package suck.