# Two questions



## kalen3285

Hi,

I have a couple questions.  The first is about a hard drive.  I'm looking to purchase a new hard drive (Western Digital 120 GB SATA150).  I read somewhere you have to have some kind of controller card for SATA.  Can anyone tell me about this?

Second, I'm looking to get more memory.  I have a Dell Dimension 8250 with 512MB memory, but I don't remember what type of memory I have, or the computer's capacity (if it has one).  Does anyone know how I can find this info?

Thanks.


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## ian

Re the second question, I found this on the net, looks like the maximum memory capacity is 1.5gig
http://www.4allmemory.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=search.memorySearch&model_id=-71


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## Rick G

SATA requires not only a new controller card but a different power supply as well.  The psu has seeperate connections for a SATA drive.  You will also need to make changes in the bios to get the SATA drive to work. You may want to consider a Maxtor Raptor HDD instead. The psu that comes with the 8250 is only 250 watts and not big enough to add a SATA drive.

Unless you are running Windows 2000 or XP you cant use any more than 512 mem.  If you can don't bother to go over 1 gig of ram. Instead get faster ram and replace your existing ram.  Unfortunatly most store brand computers don't tell you what speed ram you have.  You may be able to tell by physically looking at the ram and reading the label or markings on the ram.


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## kalen3285

Thanks Rick.

Okay, in response to you, yes, I'm running Windows XP.  Also, I found that I have RDRAM.  And it seems to be quite expensive.  Is it possible to use a different type of memory if I replace it all, or am I stuck with the memory type I have?  Lastly, why do you recommend the Maxtor Raptor?  I've heard of them but don't know much about them.  Thanks again.


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## Rick G

Your computer is not reall set up to utilize the SATA to the best advantage, A Maxtor Raptor is a very high rpm and very low access speed hdd, the best out there right now.  SATA is usually only used when you want very fast and Raid configuration.  But money, honey!
Bad new on the memory side, yout stuck with rdram, but the good news is that you have more than enough, why do you want more on a computer that is essentially out of date and the cost of ore memory would almost be enough to build a great custom computer to your own specs.  Using some parts from one of my old computers, I built a 3.0 screamer for $600.


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## kalen3285

Thanks again Rick.

Well, after looking around, I think I may just build a new comp using a lot of my existing stuff.  I see what you mean the price.  It isn't too much.

edit:  Okay, one more question.  Since I want to do video editing, I need at least one IEEE1394 port.  The motherboard I was looking at had an IEEE1394 on it.  The board you suggested didn't.  Does that mean I can't get firewire?


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## Rick G

sorry meant the MSI865PE-NEO2-PFISR at $125 at newegg,com


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## Rick G

the MSI865PE-NEO2-PFISR has it for $125 at new egg.


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## kalen3285

Rick, I was wondering if you know anything about cases.  I was looking at this one: 



It looks pretty nice.  Keep in mind I am looking for something that looks nice yet functional.  If there are any others that you would recommend please tell me.  Thanks.

Edit: sorry the URL didn't show up.

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProdu...1-150-048&catalog=7&manufactory=BROWSE&depa=1


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## Rick G

Cases are an obsesion with me. I have been to many sites to investigate cases and have come to a couple of conclusions for my tastes and needs.

1. Aluminum cases rule, better heat dissipation, lighter and usually better looking.
2.Never buy a case with an included power supply except those from Themaltake, Antec or cheiftec. The case/psu combo almost always have overstated ratings.  Thry to find a psu with 36 to 40 amps on the 5v and about 18 to 30 on the 12 volt rail and then only beleive half what you are told.  Check in to tomshardware.com  , they are doing a test of 15 different psu's.  Most builders don't give near enough thought to the psu, but it's the one thing that runs evrything else.  Go over board and get something in the 350 to 450 range and be prepared to spend $60 to $100.
3. steel cases heavy, stronger and more durable if there are kids and pets around. They are also cheaper. But keep in mind that if you want to get into building computers and playing with them you will be moving that heavy case around a lot.
4. If buget permits, get a case with removable mobo tray. makes changing stuff a lot easier.

Remember that you have the decision to make of buying a pre odded case or modding it yoursels, or clean simple with no mads. Check out the new Diablo case, wicked!  Also check out Chenbro Bomb.

I have choice no. 2 and love it. Just changing the case made my temps go down 8 deg C. my Thermaltake is the clone to the Cheiftec Dragon.


No1. choice     Thermaltake with enermax psu.
no.2 choice Cheiftec Dragon Silver Aluminum with antec true 380
no 3. choice.    Coolermaster but expensive.


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## kalen3285

Thanks for the advice.  I think I'll go with the Chenbro case.  It looks really nice.  I have a couple questions about it.  First, on the front panel at the bottom where the USB ports are, I see there's a FireWire port but it has plastic in there.  Is it possible to remove that plastic piece and put a FireWire plug there?  Second, how much power do you recommend?


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## Rick G

I looked at the Chenbro case and am assuming you are lookeing at the "BOMB" case? Chenbro makes a lot of cases so not sure which case you have seen. The best and easies way to modify a case and add ports is to get an aftermarket baybus (fan controller) that has additional ports built into it. There are a lot of them out there, check at newegg.com or xocide.com. 
Check out the Xocide Scorpio-X at xocide.com, nice stylish case for little money, room for 7 fans and then get a sepaerate psu.  OR go to newegg.com and loot at the Cheiftec Dragon cases. They have a rated 420 watt psu with them, but see next paragraph first.

PSU's are quite another story.  You can actually get a 500 watt rated psu that does not have the output of a 300 watt rated psu.  In psu's name brand is evrything. Antec, Themaltake, Enermax, Foxtron, Flower are all good.  As for hiw much, it all depends on what and how much you are putting into the computer.  I always tell people that I will only recommend at least a 350 watt psu and "more is better".  I would recomend that you go with a good 400 watt, that way you have enough power to run evrything and more headroom to make changes or add additional devices down the road. One of the best, Antec true 430.


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## kalen3285

Yea, I was refering to the bomb case.  Sorry I didn't say that in the last post.  I tried going to xocide.com but I couldn't get it to load.

Okay, on to the next thing.  If I don't plan on overclocking (I'm a wimp, I don't like risks), how many fans should I get?  And is any certain brand better others?

Also, is it worth it to get round cables?  I see those at newegg and I just wonder if it's worth it to buy them.  Thanks.

edit:  figured out why the site didn't work.  it's xoxide.com, not xocide.com


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## Rick G

The Bomb is only equiped to use 2, 120mm fans and has a side window so why not get a couple of colored led fans to fit in both spots. Brand is not so important but if possible get fans with ball bearings instead of bushings, might last longer but hey, they're cheap

Power supply, big question.  I always recommend as much overkill as possible.
You could probably get away with 350 good clean watts.  Antec, Thermaltake, Enermax, Foxtron, best bet a Antec True380 or True 430.

No over clocking, boy you are a wimp.  If done with knowledge and care there is not near as much risk as evryone assumes.

Give me the specs on what your'e going to use in your new system and I'll annoy you with my comments.

Rick G


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## kalen3285

Who knows, maybe I will overclock.  Most likely I'm not going to be doing this until summer anyway, so I might change my mind by then.  I just like to do my research early.  Anyway, here's the specs:

MSI Neo2-PFISR Motherboard (the one you recommended)
Either keep my 2.6 Ghz chip or buy a 2.88 Ghz with hyper threading
Kingston HyperX 512MB DDR500 memory
Samsung 120 GB SATA hard drive
ATI Radeon 9700 TX video card (came with my dell, works good enough for me)
Plextor 708-A DVD+/-RW drive
LITE-ON 48x CD burner

I think that's everything important.  If I forgot anything just tell me.  Thanks


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## Rick G

kalen3285 said:
			
		

> Who knows, maybe I will overclock.  Most likely I'm not going to be doing this until summer anyway, so I might change my mind by then.  I just like to do my research early.  Anyway, here's the specs:
> 
> MSI Neo2-PFISR Motherboard (the one you recommended)
> Either keep my 2.6 Ghz chip or buy a 2.88 Ghz with hyper threading
> Kingston HyperX 512MB DDR500 memory
> Samsung 120 GB SATA hard drive
> ATI Radeon 9700 TX video card (came with my dell, works good enough for me)
> Plextor 708-A DVD+/-RW drive
> LITE-ON 48x CD burner
> 
> I think that's everything important.  If I forgot anything just tell me.  Thanks




Why bother with the hyprthreading unless you are going to be opening a lot of apps at the same time? Keep your 2.6 and lightly overclock (no damage and easy) to 2.9 or even 3.0.  My 2.4 is at 3.0 and I have no Hyper-t.

Why a SATA, very expensive and not as good as Maxtor Rator. Did I mention very expensive? If your going to stick with your vid card no need for SATA and its speed. Did I mention very expensive?

What are you going to put it all in? Case and PSU are very important.  Most people figure any power supply with 300 watts will do the job, but nay not so.  Many PSU's are rated at Peak instead of sustained watts so be very carefull there.  Case is important to et good airflow to keep it all kool>  AND speaking of Kool, there are a lot of very nice cases out there, might as well put all tha pretty fancy stuff in a trick case.  Did you know that the MSI boards have a northbridge fan that is tri color leds?  Side window anyone?


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## kalen3285

Okay, I'll stick with my 2.6 Ghz chip.  And the Raptor does look nice, but, since I'll be video editing I need a lot space and (at least at new egg) I'll be paying $120 for about half if not less of the space I'll need.  And also according to new egg the Raptor is a SATA drive.  And also too it is listed at new egg as a Western Digital Raptor.  So if I'm looking at the wrong hard drive or something point me in the right direction.

Anyway, it looks the case with be the Chenbro X-Rider (from Xoxide).  The PSU will either be the Antec True380 or True430.  

I think that answered your questions.  Thanks

edit: Chenbro X-Pider, not X-Rider


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## Rick G

Good choice on the Bomb, I just came back from looking at one, not too shabby.
glad your going to stick wiyh the 2.6 at least for now.
Good choices on PSU.
Sorry meant to say Western Dig, Special edition 120 gig.
Before buying ram, study up on it a bit.  Corsair has a good tutorial on Ram and what all those numbers mean.  I suspect you would be looking at PC3200 minimum and get 2 sticks instead of one, run dual mode ram and get lots more speed.
Let me know when you are ready to build and I'll give you a long distance hand on the build, Bios can be tricky but manual is a great help.
Did I mention that if you get the MSI board you get essentially free tech support from real pros that have a forum only for MSI people.  They are great and you'll see some of my posts there too.

Good luck buddy, you're on the right track.


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## kalen3285

Well I ordered my case today.  Something to stare at until I have enough money for the rest of the parts.  One more question, with the specs I gave you, will I need any cables that I don't already have (and I'm going to get the Western Digital SE 120gb that you recommended)?  Thanks.


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## Rick G

Remember that good parts make for a great whole and the best thing is evry single part is upgradable so don't scrimp if you don't have to. But if you have tolan on which parts are best to get by on the cheap. Good start so far, your'e gonna like the BOMB.


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## kalen3285

Thanks.  If I can I'll update this thread as I buy more parts.  Could be a few months though.


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## Rick G

The case comes with round cables but I don't know which ones, wait and see, then get anyy additional round cables you need. Remember that case has a very nice window and toyr going to see th stuff inside so rounded cables in the right colors make it stand out big time.
Sound like yout well on the road to a great system, when your friends see it, DO NOT SELL IT.
If you need any help let me know.


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## kalen3285

Hey I know this is probably like beating a dead horse but I'll bring it up anyway.  I know you said SATA is expensive, and I'll probably end up not going with it, but what about it exaclty is expensive?  I mean if the motherboard supports SATA and the hd itself isn't very expensive (the cheapest 120gb @ newegg is $100), what else makes it expensive?  Just curious.  Thanks.


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## zkiller

it's new technology, other than that, i wouldn't see why it's expensive. but if you say the hdd itself isn't that expensive and the motherboard has the sata controller on it, well, then it's probably not very expensive.


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## kalen3285

It doesn't seem expensive to me either, but if you look at some of Rick's earlier posts, he's very adamant about how expensive SATA is.


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## Rick G

Hey, I lied and didn't know it. Sata's have come down in price a lot since I last checked them out, my apologies.  If it were my choice, I would go with the SATA as I;ve read that the acess times are significantly faster than std IDE.


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## kalen3285

Hey, I have a question about memory.  What's a good speed.  I've been looking at Corsair XMS memory, and the DDR500 looks nice but is also quite expensive.  It that kind of speed overkill?  If so, what speed will still perform well?  Thanks.


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## Rick G

Memory is quite subjective and depends on the mobo and the cpu.  Remamber that any of the memory speeds will work and the whole system you are looking at is totally upgradable.  SOOO, why scrimp on memory when you can have a brand new upgraded computer just by changing the CPU.  Plus if o/c ing is in the future the higher the spped the better and 2 sticks are much better than one.  I just ordered 2 sticks of Geil Ultra Platinium PC3500 for a total of $96 on special at newegg.com.


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## kalen3285

Do you know of any online guides or books about building your own computer?  I found some that were informative but kind of out dated.  Thanks.


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## Rick G

kalen3285 said:
			
		

> Do you know of any online guides or books about building your own computer? I found some that were informative but kind of out dated. Thanks.


The best bet is to make a list of all the buyable parts that are in a computer.  Then start researching the net on each component.  After you enderstand what each part is and does you will be well able to assemble your own computer. There's not that many parts and if good parts are used they will have their own set of instructions as how to install.  With all parts selected and gathered together in one place, you should be able to have a new computer assembled and up and running in less than 3 hours. Its that easy.


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## imjacktoo

I have two Seagate 80gig SATA HD's at $79 apiece... Now at NewEgg $77.25...
That makes it a 160gig HD in RAID array for $158. Seagate is the only drive that u will need SATA power cables but u can buy adapters to use ur molex connectors. No need for a new PSU...

My benchmarks in PCMark2002 go from around 800 with a WD 80gig drive to 1799 with two SATA's in RAID 0 array...Huge difference..


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