[Charles Mckinna]

So I've just been putting together the parts Overclockers finally deigned to send me... And I'm lacking anything to connect the HDD and DVD drives to the motherboard. Great work there, Overclockers. Useless prats.

For the HDD, you'll need either http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812270093 or http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812104035. For the DVD, you'll need http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812104035 unless it's some new DVD drive I haven't seen yet.

But yeah, that svcks pretty bad that they didn't send the cables...

[Brooks Hardison]

For the HDD, you'll need either http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812270093 or http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812104035. For the DVD, you'll need http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812104035 unless it's some new DVD drive I haven't seen yet.

But yeah, that svcks pretty bad that they didn't send the cables...

You've never head of a SATA DVD drive? I think most of them nowadays are SATA.

[Albert Wesker]

For the HDD, you'll need either http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812270093 or http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812104035. For the DVD, you'll need http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812104035 unless it's some new DVD drive I haven't seen yet.

But yeah, that svcks pretty bad that they didn't send the cables...

Almost any DVD drive you'd order today will also be SATA, at least I'd hope if it was something a PC hardware site pieced together for you. That is weird though, I've never gotten a new motherboard that didn't include a handful of SATA, IDE and floppy cables. What motherboard was it?

[Britney Lopez]

You've never head of a SATA DVD drive? I think most of them nowadays are SATA.

I mean, I figured they existed, but I don't know which one theundoneone has. I just haven't had to buy a CD/DVD drive lately so I guess I'm not fully up-to-date haha.

[Kortknee Bell]

Most of the time you can get away with just a screwdriver. Might need a certain sized wrench depending on how the CPU's heatsink is attached.

CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103808 - $164
Motherboard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128378 - $110
GPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102857 - $300
RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231277 - $85
PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139002 - $140
HDD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152181 - $55
Optical: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151188 - $25
Case: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811119197 - $90
OS: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116754 - $105
Monitor: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236049 - $230

Total: $1,304.89
$35 in Mail-in Rebates

If you think you're ever going to run more than one GPU, you might want to swap out the PSU for the http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817139012, which has 4 PCI-E connectors as opposed to thr HX620's 2. If you plan on overclocking, or live in a warmer area, the http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16835233029 ($45) is an excellent heatsink. A cheap pair of 2.1 speakers will probably run you $20-30, keyboard and mouse $15 if you don't need anything fancy.

Not bad, but can dig deeper into the combo deals to shave off some bucks...or get better hardware.

GPU + CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.325753...or...http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.326025

Extras:
Soundcard: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829132006&cm_re=asus_xonar%2d%5f%2d29-132-006%2d%5f%2dProduct...or...http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16829102024&cm_re=creative_titanium%2d%5f%2d29-102-024%2d%5f%2dProduct
MOUSE: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16826104318&Tpk=logitech%20g500
KB: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16823175103&cm_re=saitek_eclipse%2d%5f%2d23-175-103%2d%5f%2dProduct

[Alexandra walker]

Not bad, but can dig deeper into the combo deals to shave off some bucks...or get better hardware.

GPU + CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.325753

I was gonna link that originally, but the 5850 in that combo is $360, so it still ended up costing a few bucks more than the 955 and a $300 5850 separately. Unless I suppose the double lifetime warranty is worth the extra monies to ya.

[Jessica Raven]

Here are HD Tune benchmarks for both:

http://img528.imageshack.us/img528/7244/1tbblackwe6.jpg

http://www.zen53583.zen.co.uk/benchmark.jpg

Well... I suppose that sort of settles it for me. Forgive my ignorance, but does RAID0 require any additional hardware like using RAID arrays, or... something else?

EDIT: And I think a heatsink would be a good idea, considering I live in Hawaii. Although I think I might wait to buy this until May, when I'm home in California, since the difference in shipping is about $170.

[Claudia Cook]

Well... I suppose that sort of settles it for me. Forgive my ignorance, but does RAID0 require any additional hardware like using RAID arrays, or... something else?

EDIT: And I think a heatsink would be a good idea, considering I live in Hawaii. Although I think I might wait to buy this until May, when I'm home in California, since the difference in shipping is about $170.

RAID 0 requires a RAID-capable motherboard (it will mention RAID in its specs) or a separate RAID controller, and two (or more) identical disks.

[Calum Campbell]

So I have been using my brother's old laptop recently to try out Ubuntu. However, it randomly decides to make the screen look like http://img704.imageshack.us/img704/758/downloadrg.jpg It isn't overheating (at least I don't think it is, the Graphics card temp was only 58 degrees Celcius), but when my brother used it he would let it overheat a lot. So has he caused permanent damage to the laptop or is there something I can do to prevent this?

[Nichola Haynes]

I was gonna link that originally, but the 5850 in that combo is $360, so it still ended up costing a few bucks more than the 955 and a $300 5850 separately. Unless I suppose the double lifetime warranty is worth the extra monies to ya.

Fair enough...there's still the GPU+OS combo though:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.298043

:P

[Eire Charlotta]

That's DDR2. Won't go with the GA-MA785GMT-UD2H motherboard, which takes DDR3. Let's see if we can find you a 4 RAM slot DDR2 motherboard, so you can fill it out to 4GB later.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128394
or
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128376
or
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131324

CPU:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103681
or if you can stretch your budget a bit,
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103694
or better yet,
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103680

but the GA-MA785GM-US2H and Athlon II X2 250 are probably the most bang within your limited bucks.

Thanks for the help. With an expensive trip coming up in mid March, I won't be making a purchase until around March 20th. Think that will still be the best deal around then?

Ravin

[Greg Swan]

Thanks for the help. With an expensive trip coming up in mid March, I won't be making a purchase until around March 20th. Think that will still be the best deal around then?

Ravin

Most likely. The CPU industry has been rather stagnant for quite some time with little changes in pricing...especially for the CPU price range you're looking at.

[Margarita Diaz]

Most likely. The CPU industry has been rather stagnant for quite some time with little changes in pricing...especially for the CPU price range you're looking at.

K good to know.
Though I'll probably ask here again around that time just to be certain

Ravin

[Tikarma Vodicka-McPherson]

Alright, everything seems hooked up right on the new rig, but I have something of a problem. I'm getting no input to the monitor, and the GPU fan doesn't spin at all. And the power supply is connected. Help?

[Rebecca Dosch]

Alright, everything seems hooked up right on the new rig, but I have something of a problem. I'm getting no input to the monitor, and the GPU fan doesn't spin at all. And the power supply is connected. Help?

Try using just one stick of RAM. If a stick doesn't work, try out each of the sticks until you either get one that works or can confirm that none of them do.

[Gemma Flanagan]

Try using just one stick of RAM. If a stick doesn't work, try out each of the sticks until you either get one that works or can confirm that none of them do.

One, the other or both, makes no difference. Still no input to the monitor.

[Elizabeth Falvey]

One, the other or both, makes no difference. Still no input to the monitor.

Well, I had the same problem when I built my first computer. I RMA'd the RAM twice, RMA'd the CPU once, and RMA'd the motherboard once, and finally it turned out to be the motherboard because after they fixed what seemed to be faulty memory slots, it worked just fine. But I don't know for sure what's wrong with yours, I'd wait for the users who are more experienced with this kind of thing to come on and help you.

[Romy Welsch]

Well, I had the same problem when I built my first computer. I RMA'd the RAM twice, RMA'd the CPU once, and RMA'd the motherboard once, and finally it turned out to be the motherboard because after they fixed what seemed to be faulty memory slots, it worked just fine. But I don't know for sure what's wrong with yours, I'd wait for the users who are more experienced with this kind of thing to come on and help you.

Alrighty. My flatmate's finac?'s dad does all that computer fixin' stuff so I might see if he can give him and phone and get ideas if no one else here has any. I really don't want to have to send anything back to Overclockers <_<

[Danielle Brown]

Update: Tried with the RAM and GPU from my flatmate's computer that we know works fine, but still no signal to the monitor. Motherboard?

[Bee Baby]

Update: Tried with the RAM and GPU from my flatmate's computer that we know works fine, but still no signal to the monitor. Motherboard?

I had the same problem and it turned out to be my CPU. Not really sure though. :shrug:

[CRuzIta LUVz grlz]

Maybe :shrug:

I'll start transferring components across to my flatmate's mobo bit by bit when we next have time, should help identify the culprit part.

[Jinx Sykes]

I'm thinking about doing an upgrade one of these days and I'm a bit out of the loop at the minute. I currently have an AMD 4400+ which is struggling a bit these days, and I'm looking at upgrading to a Core 2 Duo or maybe an i7 depending on prices and I'm wondering what you guys would recommend. I'd like something around the ?150 range, preferably not much higher than that. I also need a new motherboard to go with it, and I'd appreciate suggestions there too.

I'm thinking maybe an E8400 or E8500 if I go for a Core 2 Duo as they are pretty well priced, although I'm wondering if I should go ahead and get a quad core of some kind.

[Daramis McGee]

Speaking of that RAID0 thing... It would be cool to have four 250 GB hard disks make up one 1 TB hard disk. :drool:

[Dustin Brown]

Having done a little more research I'm leaning towards going for a quad core, and I'm thinking of getting either a Core 2 Quad or a Phenom II (i7 is still too expensive). What would you guys recommend out of say a Q9550 and a Phenom II 940 for example? As far as I can tell, they are both roughly the same in terms of performance (correct me if I'm wrong) but the Phenom seems to be cheaper.

I'm really not bothered whether I go Intel or AMD because I need to replace my motherboard and RAM either way, so it's all about price/performance.

[Ryan Lutz]

Socket 775 is basically a dead end, so there wouldn't really be a worthwhile upgrade path from the Q9550 without a new board, RAM and CPU. For this reason I'd go with the Phenom II. The 940 is AM2+ though, and while it looks like AMD doesn't plan on dropping support for AM2+ with it's upcoming Phenom II X6 chips, it may be worth it to go AM3 if you want to increase your chances of an easy upgrade path in the future. In that regard, unless you're planning on overclocking, it may be wise to get the Phenom II X4 925 or 945, which are AM3. Plus, DDR3 is about as cheap or cheaper than DDR2 now.

There's no such thing as future-proof, but I personally think AM3 would be the smart buy if you're looking for good price/performance with a wiggle room in the future.