markf Posted September 17, 2003 Share Posted September 17, 2003 I came up with this workstation config. about a month ago. It was based on reading a thread in this forum from last April. I got too busy to move forward with this but am now ready to "bust a move". My questions to you all (especially Greg H.): Do you see any incompatibilities between components? Is my choice of processor/Mboard still a reasonable bang to buck choice? This will be my first build. I have assembled a good selection of reference/help/tutorial stuff and have summoned the nerve (and $) to go for it. Thanks in advance for your valuable comments. Here's the link WishList Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg Hess Posted September 17, 2003 Share Posted September 17, 2003 Marc, When I go to the link, I see my wishlist...not yours . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markf Posted September 17, 2003 Author Share Posted September 17, 2003 Greg, I hope I get this link correct. I log onto NewEgg and open the list, then I copy the url and paste it into the utility here WishList SuperMicro board is out of stock so I may have to wait or find it elsewhere or substitute (lightbulb turns on in head)Did you mean that you would wish to have this system? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg Hess Posted September 17, 2003 Share Posted September 17, 2003 No mark, I mean I can't see your wish list . Try emailing it to me. crossbow@3dluvr.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markf Posted September 17, 2003 Author Share Posted September 17, 2003 Greg, I e-mailed the wishlist to you. I also e-mailed it to myself and I am going to try pasting the new link here. WishList Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Barbarash Posted September 17, 2003 Share Posted September 17, 2003 Looks like a very nice box except for the lack of video card. The 450 watt power supply should be more than enough, good motherboard for it's price, and the audigy 2 is allways a nice add on. :angecool: I can't think of anything else I'd look into except maybe firewire (Allready forgot whether it was specced on the motherboard or not...) for peripherals like cameras, scanners, and the all important portable MP3 player! David Barbarash Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markf Posted September 17, 2003 Author Share Posted September 17, 2003 David, Thank you. i forgot to mention I'm planning on getting an nVidia Quadro 750 from a site other than newegg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sawyer Posted September 17, 2003 Share Posted September 17, 2003 That is a pretty sweet looking system. Wonderful price tag on it as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigcahunak Posted September 18, 2003 Share Posted September 18, 2003 Man what was true for April is long dead... The new hot motherboard for Xeons today is the ASUS PC-DL deluxe. Newegg has it for $279.99. It has all goodies on it so the sound card you have in your list wont be necessary plus it has raid, SATA, supports faster memory and ... cheaper Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markf Posted September 18, 2003 Author Share Posted September 18, 2003 bigcahunak, Thats great to know, especially since the Supermicro MB is out of stock. Can you advise if the ram I have speced is correct for this board? Also, Am I correct in thinking I'll need to add a usb card? (Edit) I went to the Asus site and the board does have USB. It also appears the ram I speced will work ok. Thank you! [ September 18, 2003, 09:33 AM: Message edited by: markf ] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigcahunak Posted September 18, 2003 Share Posted September 18, 2003 The RAM will work, but you'd definitely wanna change it to something faster than 266mhz. I'd get the fastest cause price difference is minor, and you never know where you gonna end with the sticks you buy, so you might as well get the latest technology with is always backwards compatible. DDR400 (3200) Mushkin, TwinMos, Kingmax, Gail and even Crucial (if they reached 3200 speeds) No mobo today comes without USB 2.0 on it. If it does - I wouldn't get it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markf Posted September 19, 2003 Author Share Posted September 19, 2003 bigcahunak, Thanks for pointing out the ram issue. I see the ASUS MB supports DDR333 RAM. I have now speced DDR 400. Am I correct in understanding that there is no compatibility conflict here? Thanks for your help. I hope to pull the trigger and order this stuff today. Yikes Here is the link to my updated configuration WishList Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigcahunak Posted September 20, 2003 Share Posted September 20, 2003 Hi Mark All looks good to me, accept: Why only 1x512mb of RAM? I'd definitely get some more (flavour looks good) Hard drive - not that there is anything wrong with what you picked, but: the way I like setting up a machine is trying to avoid slaves on an ATA cable, hence one device per cable (master). Now, since your mobo (this asus) has an onboard SATA controller, I'd consider getting a SATA hard drive. Doesnt have to be a killer like the WD Raptor. Again, thats not for the HDD speed itself - its for the system speed for accessing all other drives. Also, it helps routing the cables inside the case (SATA cable is so thin...) Another thing - you might want to read this article about the asus mobo. What they were mostly dissapointed was the relatively poor overclocking it showed, which I can only assume you werent interested in, in the first place. Greg: Do you happen to know anything about a release of a 800mhz fsb Xeons? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markf Posted September 21, 2003 Author Share Posted September 21, 2003 bigcahunak, Thank you again for your aassistance. This is not my area of expertise .... but I'm learning. I had intended to have speced 1 gig of ram, thanks for pointing out the error. After your suggestion about hard drives' I looked at the options and reviews. The Raptor seemed like the clear choice. The drive has two optional data cables available, 90 and 180 degree, and a power adapter. I couldn't tell from the mother board info if I need these. Thanks for your comments updated list here WishList Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigcahunak Posted September 21, 2003 Share Posted September 21, 2003 I have the raptor myself. We both dont need it. Any of the "slower" 7200RPM hard drives would be more than enough. The idea is to free a regular ATA channel for whatever else you might want to add to your system (more HDDs, CDR, DVD, ZIP...). I believe the ASUS will arrive with all necessary cables, including the SATA ones. Other than that, if you want to spend more for a faster HDD (which you wont feel its speed, but with a smaller capacity than go for it. And, if you do get the raptor for a system Hard drive, get another one for storage, and maybe in an aluminum internal rack. Good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Christopher Nichols Posted September 23, 2003 Share Posted September 23, 2003 Building your first computer is always a bit scary. These days, it has gotten a lot easier. be thankful that isa is no longer. The things to watch these days is memory. make sure you get the right type of memory for the right mobo. If you are not sure, ask the seller if can check for compatibility by installing proc and memory. The fee to do that is usually very low ($10 or so) and cheaper then a restocking fee for incompatible memory. The rest is very simple, and pretty fun. BTW, do you know another cgarchitect in telluride called Luke? Can't imagine there are many of you. Originally posted by markf: bigcahunak, Thank you again for your aassistance. This is not my area of expertise .... but I'm learning. I had intended to have speced 1 gig of ram, thanks for pointing out the error. After your suggestion about hard drives' I looked at the options and reviews. The Raptor seemed like the clear choice. The drive has two optional data cables available, 90 and 180 degree, and a power adapter. I couldn't tell from the mother board info if I need these. Thanks for your comments updated list here WishList Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markf Posted September 23, 2003 Author Share Posted September 23, 2003 Christopher, Thank you for the encouraging word. I have recently met Luke. He pointed me to some dyi tutorials. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg Hess Posted September 24, 2003 Share Posted September 24, 2003 Odd...I never got an email with the Quote. I wonder if the spam filter killed it. The only "real hard" part of building a computer is the heatsink/cpu installation. With a P4 you can do this in your sleep. An athlon requires careful percision. But is significantly easier then the first gen's. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xgarcia Posted September 24, 2003 Share Posted September 24, 2003 Cracked athlon chips...those were the days. Or better yet the smell of burnt smoke filling your dorm room. Hahahah. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg Hess Posted September 24, 2003 Share Posted September 24, 2003 I cracked my first athlon CPU. Has a tiny chip on the lower left side of the core. Still runs great (thankfully). Also fried a 1.333 Tbird. (Luckily at the time the 1.333's were only like 50 bucks) So I just went and replaced it with a 1900+ XP. I've also destroyed my share of intel's as well. Guess you don't get better unless you screw up a whole lot in the begining . Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigcahunak Posted September 24, 2003 Share Posted September 24, 2003 Originally posted by Greg Hess: I cracked my first athlon CPU. Has a tiny chip on the lower left side of the core. Still runs great (thankfully).Built lots of AMD rigs, never experienced the feeling of cracking them... I do have one cracked 1.4 Tbird which I got from a friend after cracking it and thought it might be risky to run it like that. It still runs though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
xgarcia Posted September 24, 2003 Share Posted September 24, 2003 You guys remember the old pencil unlock trick onthe first few thunderbirds? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markf Posted September 24, 2003 Author Share Posted September 24, 2003 Thank you all for your help. I finally got it together to order all the stuff yesterday. If I run into touble or questions I will post them here otherwise I will post the results of my first build when I get it running. The people participating in this forum are great. It reminds me of the vibe at the Max forum several years ago. Max forum is still good it's just changed a bit, like all things, over time IMHO Thanks again! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigcahunak Posted September 24, 2003 Share Posted September 24, 2003 Originally posted by xgarcia: You guys remember the old pencil unlock trick onthe first few thunderbirds? hehe That 1.4 tbird I mentioned (exactly above your reply) is OCed with this pencil trick. It has been like that for over two years now... Mark, good luck. BTW: I dont know how far you are from Denver, but Mushkin, which is a great memory manufacturer, are in there (not too cheap though). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg Hess Posted September 24, 2003 Share Posted September 24, 2003 Hehe the pencil trick rocked. Pure genius. I cracked the core of the 1.0 ghz Tbird when a FOP32 Globalwin's clip snapped. The heatsink flew off (luckily the machine was off) and took a bit of the cpu with it. I emailed globalwin, and their response was "thats impossible", we'll send you a new clip. After reading some reviews I found out it was called a "chip killer" and vowed never to buy one of their products again. They never did send me a replacement clip. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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