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FIRST TIME builder - any advice?

post #1 of 9
7/21/07 at 5:17am
Thread Starter 
As the title states,

I'm a first time builder. I've ordered everything from Newegg, except the CPU. I'll wait till the Intel price drop for a CPU and I'm still shopping around for a 20"-24" LCD. I'm leaning toward Samsung since I've got a 32" LCD tv from them. Suggestions?

Here's what I got:

* COOLER MASTER Stacker 830 Evolution RC-830-KKR3-GP Black Aluminum ATX Full Tower Computer Case - Retail

* Real Power Pro 1000W Power Supply - this come with the case in a bundle

* ZALMAN 9700 LED 110mm 2 Ball CPU Cooler - Retail

* SAMSUNG 18X DVD±R DVD Burner With 12X DVD-RAM Write, LightScribe Technology Black SATA Model SH-S183L - OEM

* Western Digital Raptor WD1500ADFD 150GB 10,000 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive - OEM

* Logitech Classic Black USB Standard Keyboard 200 - Retail

* CORSAIR Dominator 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model TWIN2X2048-8500C5D - Retail

* EVGA 122-CK-NF68-A1 LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 680i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail

* 2x EVGA 768-P2-N831-AR GeForce 8800GTX 768MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Video Card - Retail - Running this in SLI!!!

I have Windows XP Pro and Windows Vista Ultimate (both bought from school). I plan on installing Vista since I mostly bought this stuff to play Crysis in DX10. I've never used it before, but it seems like a necessary evil for next-gen gaming.

============= QUESTIONS =============

Did I make any bad hardware choices? Everything seems top of the line according to the Newegg reviews, but are there any combinations that may not work well together?

Any suggestions for a first time builder? I've got Arctic Silver 5 for the CPU + Heatsink.

Should I incrementally install components?

1. PSU + Case + Mobo + CPU + GPU 1 --> test power on / post
2. ... + RAM --> test power on / post
3. ... + DVD --> test power on / post
4. ... + HDD --> test power on / post
5. ... + GPU 2 --> test power on / post

OR should I just plug everything together, turn it on and pray?

I read this thread in the forum about failing mobos http://evga.com/forums/tm.asp?m=78381 and I'm totally freaking out now. The parts haven't even arrived yet and I'm starting to panic. Is this a very common problem? Has everyone here added extra thermal compound as recommended?

Should I put everything together, check that all the components work, then take it all apart to add the thermal compound as suggested in the above thread?

============================================================

Any advice would help. I'm a total n00b builder, but I know my way around individual components. Thank you all.
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post #2 of 9
7/21/07 at 4:33pm
I'm in the exact same place as you cept I haven't ordered anything yet...I don't even know what posting means! Whats the difference between 1066 and 800 ram? Will I notice the difference?
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post #3 of 9
7/22/07 at 2:13pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by stuckinasquare3 View Post
I'm in the exact same place as you cept I haven't ordered anything yet...I don't even know what posting means! Whats the difference between 1066 and 800 ram? Will I notice the difference?

posting= POST= Power On Self Test

1066 vs 800, if you can afford 1066 do it, if not, 800 is just as fine, no real hit of preformence

and building your first rig is fun, my advice is have someone around who does know how to build them, and ask as many questions as you can come up with

and rub your power supply for good luck and proper grounding


install all the parts you have in your comp, get the proc, and boot it up, see what happens, if you installed everything correctly and its all working then you did good

DONT FREEK OUT, just calm down and relax, if you live in a very dry heated area, you have dont have much static to worry about, just keep grounded

and about the price drop, that wont be instantly, you cant go to newegg right now if a price drop happened yesterday and get it for that price, once newegg orders more from intel once they drop the price, those proc's they buy will go down, newegg still needs to make profit ya know

adding better cooling to your north bridge/south bridge doesnt help much, unless your a huge overclocker, which i highly doubt you are since youre building your first rig ever

artic silver is nice, but it needs a "burn in" period, i think its quite a few hours, over 12 or so, so the properities can settle correctly

hope this helps!

soulsaver
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post #4 of 9
7/22/07 at 2:41pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by soulsaver_8229 View Post
posting= POST= Power On Self Test

1066 vs 800, if you can afford 1066 do it, if not, 800 is just as fine, no real hit of preformence

and building your first rig is fun, my advice is have someone around who does know how to build them, and ask as many questions as you can come up with

and rub your power supply for good luck and proper grounding


install all the parts you have in your comp, get the proc, and boot it up, see what happens, if you installed everything correctly and its all working then you did good

DONT FREEK OUT, just calm down and relax, if you live in a very dry heated area, you have dont have much static to worry about, just keep grounded

and about the price drop, that wont be instantly, you cant go to newegg right now if a price drop happened yesterday and get it for that price, once newegg orders more from intel once they drop the price, those proc's they buy will go down, newegg still needs to make profit ya know

adding better cooling to your north bridge/south bridge doesnt help much, unless your a huge overclocker, which i highly doubt you are since youre building your first rig ever

artic silver is nice, but it needs a "burn in" period, i think its quite a few hours, over 12 or so, so the properities can settle correctly

hope this helps!

soulsaver

Actually they did drop already At least, the Q6600 dropped $100 to $299.
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post #5 of 9
7/23/07 at 1:03pm
Theyre are better places to shop for better deals notably one of my favs www.clubit.com. There's also www.tigerdirect.com,
www.buy.com, www.chiefvalue.com and www.zipzoomfly. Its always better to shop around for the best deal and sometimes its not always at newegg. goodluck!
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post #6 of 9
7/23/07 at 1:54pm
ha, I was just going to suggest trying other companies because the egg has the worst price for the Q6600.. Mwave.com is like a dollar less than clubit.com, but both are more than $25 less than the egg
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post #7 of 9
7/26/07 at 3:04pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by dman22 View Post
ha, I was just going to suggest trying other companies because the egg has the worst price for the Q6600.. Mwave.com is like a dollar less than clubit.com, but both are more than $25 less than the egg

i just mention egg often since basicly everyone here knows about them, so its kinda like saying shuttles=sff, small form factor is just too much to type and say *sighs and wipes sweat*


soulsaver
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post #8 of 9
7/28/07 at 5:31pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by soulsaver_8229 View Post
posting= POST= Power On Self Test

1066 vs 800, if you can afford 1066 do it, if not, 800 is just as fine, no real hit of preformence

and building your first rig is fun, my advice is have someone around who does know how to build them, and ask as many questions as you can come up with

and rub your power supply for good luck and proper grounding


install all the parts you have in your comp, get the proc, and boot it up, see what happens, if you installed everything correctly and its all working then you did good

DONT FREEK OUT, just calm down and relax, if you live in a very dry heated area, you have dont have much static to worry about, just keep grounded

and about the price drop, that wont be instantly, you cant go to newegg right now if a price drop happened yesterday and get it for that price, once newegg orders more from intel once they drop the price, those proc's they buy will go down, newegg still needs to make profit ya know

adding better cooling to your north bridge/south bridge doesnt help much, unless your a huge overclocker, which i highly doubt you are since youre building your first rig ever

artic silver is nice, but it needs a "burn in" period, i think its quite a few hours, over 12 or so, so the properities can settle correctly

hope this helps!

soulsaver



good advice.

did you get a cpu yet?
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post #9 of 9
7/29/07 at 5:24am
Give yourslef a LOT of time. I just finished building mine, and it took... 3 hours? cuz i couldnt get some stupid crap plugged in correctly so it wouldnt turn on for a while -_-;

but yea good luck

if u don't mind having an intel core 2 duo e4300, they are on sale @ frys electronics for 79.90. just an fyi
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