I’ve decided to build my own PC, but have a few questions. I’ve picked out the following components:
Case: CoolerMaster Elite 330
Power Supply: OCZ 500W StealthXStream
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-G31M-ES2L
Processor:Intel BX80571E5400 Dual Core 2.70 GHz
RAM: 2 x Kingston Value RAM 800MHz DDR2 NonECC CL5 2GB DIMM (for 4GB in total)
Graphics Card: PNY GeForce 8400 GS PCI-E 256MB
Hard Drive: Seagate 500GB Barracuda 7200.12
DVD-RW Drive: Sony DRU 870S
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium
This will be the first time I’ve ever done this - I think all these parts are compatible but could somebody with more experience of building PC’s please take a look and tell me if there are any compatibility problems?
Can you also please tell me whether the fans supplied with the case and the PSU will provide adequate cooling for this rig, or should I buy an additional fan? (That case comes with a fan, and there is also one unused slot to accomodate an additional fan).
Finally, the above motherboard has integrated graphics using an Intel chipset. Some of my older games won’t work with Intel’s integrated graphics chipsets so I was thinking of getting the above graphics card as well; will having both the integrated graphics and a dedicated graphics card cause problems?
It looks like you are trying to save money in ways that are a bad idea. There is (or wasn’t) anything wrong with a GeForce 8400 GS at one time but it an old and cheap card now. Do yourself a favor and spend an extra $50 - $75 on a much better but still reasonably priced ones. Video cards are extremely important when it comes to gaming and some other applications as well. They are complex processors on their own and often as important or more than the CPU. You can have integrated graphics and a card as long as the motherboard has the right type of slot for the card you buy.
Also, you are cheaping out on the hard drive as well. Spend a few extra dollars and buy at least a 1 TB of storage for your main drive. It won’t cost that much extra. I don’t know what your goals are exactly. You can buy systems like this pre-built from the big box stores for about $400. It won’t be a screamer and it won’t save you money to build it yourself but it will be perfectly serviceable as long as you get a better video card and you can get some education out of it which is always worthwhile.
You don’t need any extra fans. These aren’t the specs for a bleeding edge gaming machine. You just need the regular CPU fan (thermal gel too. IMPORTANT!) and the power supply fan.
No. The heatsink will come with its own thermal compound pre-applied.
If you really want to get into really aggressive CPU overclocking, you would want to remove the stock fan and heatsink, remove the stock thermal compound and put on some better parts and compound. But this is unnecessary unless you really plan to push the CPU.
I’ve had an Intel Core 2 Duo, stock fan, heatsink and thermal compound in my own rig for nearly three years now. Overclocked it on day one from 3.0 to 3.6 Ghz. No temperature problems whatsoever.
That said - at the very cheap end, it looks like Tom’s does recommend the Radeon 4650 as a good value card - which is the card you linked, and I’ve had decent experiences with Asus. So your idea isn’t a bad one. If you plan to game, I’d go up a price tier or two though.
In this case it will be problematic, this card is a bare minimum PCI-E card. We don’t even bother with the 256mb models in my shop anymore as the 512-1GB versions are usually only $5-$15 more for ALOT more performance.
We are putting a 9400GT 1GB in our “budget” gaming rigs. Card price like $70
I’d disagree with this point, as long as your case has room for multiple drives. Yes, you will eventually fill up 500 GB, but it’ll take a little while, in which time hard drive prices will drop enough that you can get a second drive for much cheaper.
A fair point. I suppose I should more accurately say WRT graphics memory, either you have enough or you don’t. There’s a performance step change between these two states. But once you have enough, there’s almost no performance increase in getting more.
I can only speak for gaming;
You are probably correct in saying that 256 is too little these days. But 1GB is still probably overkill. It never hurts to have more graphics memory, but there’s probably not much difference currently between 512 and 1GB unless you really want to max out FPS on Crysis. I’ve been playing a fair number of current games with the same 512MB Radeon 4870 for a while now, 1680x1050, good settings with no problems. And going up to 1GB won’t future-proof you - and that’s important. The chipset, clock speed and memory speed are all more important than total memory.
I’m just extrapolating from past trends. Every time I’ve gotten a new computer, I’ve said to myself that I’d never be able to fill up that much hard drive, but it always turns out that I manage to do so eventually. I don’t know precisely what will end up filling up a 500 GB drive, but I think it’s safe to say that something will come along.
Again, though, it’ll take a while. So you might as well wait on more space beyond that.
OOooh a PC build! I love building a new PC, I’ve built at least a dozen of them for fun.
If you want to save some money for now, you can just use the integrated video until you buy a better video card. I play a lot of games, and I haven’t had any interfere with an integrated video card. Then again I normally buy AMD/ATI parts, so I don’t have a ton of experience with Intel/NVIDIA builds. Problems you could run into is if you put a dedicated video card in, you might have to disable the integrated video card in the BIOS first. The motherboard will have a manual that will show you how. Motherboard instructions are actually helpful!
Your CPU will come with everything you’ll need to put it in.
On my gaming rig/office PC I use a 160 GB hard drive for windows, and a 1 TB drive to keep all my crap on for when I inevitably cause things to go bad and I have to format. That way I don’t have to worry about losing my files. What I’m saying is you should keep the 500 GB drive and then buy a 2nd, larger one later.
Some other things you may not know about as well;
Don’t put the cover on the case until you boot it up. You will always forget to plug something in. Always.
The RAM sticks will only go in one way, but they take a little bit of force. The tabs on the sides will click into the RAM when it’s in right. Now that I think of it, everything only plugs in one way.
The CPU should need no force at all to install. If not, it’s going in wrong or the pin latch isn’t up.
Touch the side of the case before touching anything in your box to ground yourself.
Plug the power cable in LAST when plugging things in. Unplug it FIRST when going to work on the inside of it.
Cables are a pain in the ass to get out of the way.
If your power cable has an Earth line, as in the U.K., then you should leave it in, so the PC is earthed while you work on it. If it’s only got Live and Neutral (as in the US, I understand), then remove it as above.
No you should not leave the power cable plugged in. It does not do any good and it is a potential risk. You don’t care about the computer being grounded you care that the computer is at the same potential as the person working on it. Having power to the power supply means that there is something at high voltage on the computer you are working on. It does not mean that you and the computer are at the same potential. For that you need a wrist strap or the like connected between you and the computer case.
All desktop computers I have seen in the US have three pronged grounded cords. Grounded outlets have been the norm in the US for decades. Some older homes may not have them but that is getting pretty rare these days.
500GB should be more than enough for me. Even my current 80GB hard drive has plenty of free space left, and I do not plan on using my PC for space-hungry tasks like storing movies or video editing.
Thanks for replying everyone, however I have one more question:
I just noticed that the Radeon 4650 card I linked to earlier uses PCI Express 2.0 (x16). However, the specifications for the motherboard I plan on using simply mentions a PCI Express (x 16) slot; no mention of the “2.0” at all. Does this mean that the Radeon 4650 won’t work with this motherboard?