okay this will be short and sweet..

I'm new to the computer building/modding scene, so I need a little help on picking components for my first system project! It will promarily be used for school stuff, multimedia apps, and moderate gaming, with a focus on scalability and affordability..

despite the fact that I am a college student living at home, I don't really have alot of money to work with x.x

so far I've found these parts on Newegg.com that seem to fit my need:
(the build will be done in 3 phases, btw)

Phase 1:
-Gigabyte GA-K8NF-9 Nvidia nForce4 ATX AMB mobo
-AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Venice 1Ghz FSB 939 (lol, no offbrands for me!)
-Sapphire 100119 Radeon x550 256Mb DDR PCIe x16 vid card
-Corsair XMS 1 GB(2x 512Mb) DDR 400 unbuffered dual channel
-Maxtor DiamondMax 10 6L200S0 200GB 7200RPM SATA150 HDD

Phase 2:
-2nd Maxtor Drive for RAID
-NEC IDE DVD burner Model ND-354A (retail)
-Hauppage 1042 PCI Win TV150 PVR-MCE tuner card
-Aspire ATX-AS600W ATX12V/EPS12V 600W PSU
-Chenming 901AD ATX full tower case
-heat management stuff (heat sinks, fans, etc.)

Phase 3:
-total pimpilation

I have plans for that case.. oh do I have plans *rubs hands together all menacingly*

also, if anyone knows where to find deep red plexi in central OK area, let me know!

thanx for your help, and this is a freakin awesome site!

~MikerD

Quote: Originally Posted by CrudeIdol this is a freakin awesome site!

Correct

That vid card is poop. If your on a budget, go for an X800GT.

Welcome to Pimprig and thanks for the kind words about the site.

Looking at Phase 1, I'm not familiar with that system board. I haven't had any experiences with a gigabyte board, though I have heard good things about them. I would suggest getting a different vid card. The 550 is okay however ATI has made better affordable cards. Processor, memory, and HDDs look good to me.

Welcome abooard to PimpRig, CrudeIdol my freind Thrasher2, should be along soon with his welcome greetings and helpful links.

Welcome to the PR

Quote: Originally Posted by CrudeIdol Phase 1: -AMB Athlon 64 3500+ Venice 1Ghz FSB 939 Phase 2: -2nd Maxtor Drive for RAID -Chenming 901AD ATX full tower case

Beware of counterfeits. Going with an AMD is a better choice. just pulling your chain.

Seriously though, you may want to do the raid thing from the start just to save from having to start all over from scratch.
And you will have to put all of the guts in something so why not bump the case to
Phase 1 as well?

Quote: Originally Posted by CrudeIdol okay this will be short and sweet.. thanx for your help, and this is a freakin awesome site! ~Miker

Kick back and enjoy the show....its gona have Games in it.....

Please check out the Sweeet Pimp Links..

• The first link is the Best!!!
• http://team.pcapex.com/
• http://gallery.pcapex.com/
• http://articles.pcapex.com/
• http://forums.uberw00t.com/
• http://www.stanford.edu/group/pandegroup/folding/
• BF2 Game Sever for Pimps

Quote: Originally Posted by Pharaoh Welcome to the PR Beware of counterfeits. Going with an AMD is a better choice. just pulling your chain. Seriously though, you may want to do the raid thing from the start just to save from having to start all over from scratch. And you will have to put all of the guts in something so why not bump the case to Phase 1 as well?

lol, gotta love the typos! I've thought about starting out with RAID, and If I can be patient enouigh to save up the $$ for both HDDs off the start I most likely will

as for what to put the stuff in before the tower, I've got compaq case that I can put them in for the time being.. of course, once again If I can hold onto the $$ long enough to be able to afford all of phase 1 + a case and/or a 2nd HDD I will... I REALLLY want to tear into that tower -drools-

after a few minutes of thinking about it, you're right.. I think I shall move both HDDs to Phase 1

I was initially thinking of getting a 74GB 10,000 RPM Raptors or whatever for the system drive... but ONE of those costs as much as my intended 400GB RAID array! lol

**also**

in response to the vid card suggestions, thanx much! I'm sure I'll be able to slap down a few extra bucks for a better card.. who knows.. by the time I get around to buying all of this stuff (early '06 ish) the prices might come down a bit!

I realize that planning based on prices and technology in this ever changing field is kind of pointless, but it gets me to sleep at night ^^

thanx again for the advice!!

okay, i've been thinkin alot about it lately, and i think i'm gonna make some alterations..

Phase 1:
-Gigabyte GA-K8NF-9 Nvidia nForce4 ATX AMB mobo
-AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Venice 1Ghz FSB 939 (lol, no offbrands for me!)
-Sapphire 100119 Radeon x550 256Mb DDR PCIe x16 vid card
-Corsair XMS 1 GB(2x 512Mb) DDR 400 unbuffered dual channel
-37 GB Raptor HDD for system drive

Phase 2:
-2x Maxtor DiamondMax 10 6L200S0 200GB 7200RPM SATA150 HDD
-NEC IDE DVD burner Model ND-354A (retail)
-Hauppage 1042 PCI Win TV150 PVR-MCE tuner card
-Aspire ATX-AS600W ATX12V/EPS12V 600W PSU
-Chenming 901AD ATX full tower case
-heat management stuff (heat sinks, fans, etc.)

I figure that ultimately the Maxtor RAID drives would end up as dedicated storage drives, so why not go balls out and get a fast drive for the OS and apps? as you probably know, I'm new to this, so any comments/suggestions/wisdom is quite welcome

I have my laptop for major storage stuff at the momen, and the most of anything I have is music (barely over a gig at that, lol!).. the whole of everything on my 80GB laptop hard drive equates to about 20 GB, including the the native OSX and a copy of WinXP Pro running on Virtual PC (horridly slowly I might add x.x)

so there's my thought, I think it all runs out to about $675

I may shave that back a bit, since i have some extra memory I can throw in temporarily

thanx again!

okay so it's been about a month and I still have nothing to show for this project x.x

money is tight and all of that schtick..

anyways so i was looking at gigabyte boards on newegg while oogling the one I'd picked out.. when I find the next one up from it.. well something like that.. I think its called the K8N Ultra-9.. the most prominent thing to me was the second LAN port.. I forget what all it has, but its a good $30 or $40 more than the K8NF-9.. I REALLY like the dual LAN ports, since I'd planned on getting a second LAN card anyway so I can hook up my lappy to it and use it kind of like a gateway/file sharing system.. I'm ALL about unification and all that stuff..

also, I've been hearing alot about Opterons and how they are so much better and less expensive.. what makes them better for the dollar? I've got an Athlon 64 3500+ picked out for around $200, while a *seemingly* equivalent Opteron costs a bit more.. keep in mind that I don't know all of everything about how processors work and all of the details, so I'm mostly just curious.. I'll probably go for the Athlon 64, since I've already narrowed the board down to the two Gigabytes.

thanx again for advice/help/wisdom!

Quote: Originally Posted by CrudeIdol Phase 3: -total pimpilation

*giggles*. now that deserves some pimp rep for sure cause as soon as I read it, I added 'diggity diggity...ohhhh right.'

lmao... i can't stop laughing for some reason about that 'pimpilation'...bravo!