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I have a quick pole question for you. If you had the choic between two hard drives, of equal RPM (7200), equal space (120), same company (Segate), nearly equal price (115) but one had a SATA connection, and the other had an IDE connection, which would you choose and why? How much faster is SATA? What is the speed of IDE?
Thanks for the input. I'm getting very close to making the "big order" .
SATA.....quieter. ALOT quieter. Smaller connection wire size=better airflow in yer case. Seems somewhat faster than IDE. Not shockingly faster, but a little faster. At least mine does. The Hitachi 120GB I have in the new machine is much quieter and faster than the 80GB WesterDigital SE in the old machine (old meaning 9 months).
SATA over EIDE (PATA) any day. 150 Mbit versus 133 right off the bat. And yeah, the SATA versions generally are quieter for some reason.
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“The Government of Spain will not applaud those who set the world on fire just because they show up with a bucket.” - Prime Minister of Spain, Pedro Sánchez
SATA is alot newer and IDE is likely to be phased out over time, though ofcourse the faster and quieter is better too If you are thinking ahead, SATA is the way to go, and with that Seagate 5-year warranty, you will have it awhile
SATA, just because a lot of newer MB's coming out have lots of SATA ports.
Otherwise, the increase in speed between the 2 interfaces is moot since they'll practically never crack the 133mb/s barrier... but if the SATA controller is built into the chipset as opposed to being a seperate controller chip, then it'd defientely be a good way to go.
Ok, I'm going for the order of parts tomorrow (thats Friday, and I am very excited!) and I want to check in with you to make sure that I'm not doing something utterly stupid like leaving out the motherboard or PSU.
Here is what I plan on doing:
Buying:
AMD Athlon 64 bit, 2800+
Kingston valueram PC3200 512MB 400MHZ DDR 184PIN DIMM memory CAS3. (planning on another stick later, of course. As long as it is the same speed, can I go wrong? Does the second stick have to be Kingston?)
DFI Lanparty UT NForce 3 250 GBps, socket 754
500 Watt power supply. XG – the Vigor
120 GB, Segate, 7200 RPM, 8MB cache, SATA (thanks for the recommendation guys)
VANTEC HDC-502A aluminium hard drive cooler 50MM FANS 5000RPM 24CFM
DVD burner, Dual layer, +/- 16X
Windows XP, Professional
Microsoft office 2003 for student and teachers
Floppy drive, 3.5� black
MGE XG Quantum ATX mid tower case
Onboard, 8CH Audio(Dolby 7.1, 8ch supported)
Gigabit LAN(with nVIDIA Gigabit Ethernet)
Logitech laser mouse, 16 bucks
Arctic silver 5 thermal paste
A 17� LCD screen (not included in order, buying from a guaranteed source. I.e. no missing pixels), hopefully 8 MS, 500:1.
Using what I already have:
MSI GForce 4, 4200, TI, APG 8x 64MB on board RAM
Speakers
Keyboard (it really sucks, so I will buy another one later, but it will work enough to set up the bios. I hope…)
And then carefully sticking it all together with Shmithers (who seems to have the magic touch with computers). I have most of the mother board manual already, and I have read a lot about applying thermo paste. Could some of you perhaps share some of the most common (costly/deadly. I.e., I'm not to worried about chipping the paint on my case, so don't count that as a mistake, lol) mistakes? I'm sure I can learn form a few of your stories about building PCs, and not have to make the same mistakes. I think my dad will excommunicate me if this computer doesn’t work (half way kidding), so I REALLY REALLY appreciate the help on this guys.
So far the total is 1040 Canadian, including the software (which costs a LOT), but then I will have to add some for the SATA connector, and a screen.
never forget the motherboard standoffs, that can be a costly mistake, one which will delay you till the RMA comes back
second stick doesn't have to be Kingston but its always more preferable for them to be matching to avoid possible compatiability issues, besides that ValueRam is actually not so bad anyways
For good detailed instructions on how to apply arctic silver click here
It'd be good if you have an anti static band to wear. They are cheap. But if you don't, just be sure you tuch metal (like the case frame) to discharge any static before touching any parts and before instaling them.
Be sure all pci/agp cards are fit in properly and all power cords are in all the way too. If at first you get no boot, reset the ram or video card. Always start with just the very basics. The mobo, cpu/heatsink-fan, video card, power supply, ram and cd/dvd drive. It's easier to troubleshoot and if no boot.
Once you boot and install the operating system fully, then add in the remaining pci cards one at a time.
Who makes that power supply? Some of those 'pretty' ones are made by known bad psu makers like powmax/deer. I'd use a known good psu like Antec, Enermax, Global Win, etc..
And I'd get a good heatsink/fan for the cpu like anything from Thermalright, or a thermaltake silent boost/venus 7. Zalman makes a good one too, the 7000 something.
Congrats on a nice system! :chug
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Yes, I do have standofs. They came with the case, and I expect more (un nessisary ones) will come with the mobo. Do I need rubber washers to seperate between the screw and the mobo?
Don't cut out on a quality power supply, especially if your going to be running a DFI motherboard. Spend the extra money for an Antec, Enermax, etc....etc. DFI boards are notorious for not cooperating with good power supplies.
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I haven't used the new SATA drives yet, as I'm still on my SCSI Cheetah 15k rpm drive, with 2 IDE drives as storage.
