what have I done?

Posted: 3/11/2006 8:56:15 PM EDT

1 CASE ASPIRE| XDREAMER II ATX BLK - Retail
Item #: N82E16811144026 $56.99 $56.99
1 MB MSI K8N Neo4-F NF4 939 - Retail
Item #: N82E16813130491 $80.00 $80.00
1 VGA EVGA GF 7800GT 256-P2-N516 R - Retail
Item #: N82E16814130256 $285.00 $285.00
1 CPU AMD|ATHLON 64 3800+ 2.4G 939P R - Retail
Item #: N82E16819103531 $282.00 $282.00
1 MEM 512Mx2|PTR D400 PSD1G400KH R - Retail
Item #: N82E16820220037 $69.99 $69.99
1 HD 250G|WD 7200 SATA2 16MB WD2500KS - OEM
Item #: N82E16822144701 $96.00 $96.00
1 KB&MS ROSEWILL|RKM810BLK WIRELES RT - Retail
Item #: N82E16823201020 $18.99 $18.99
1 DVD+/-RW NEC ND-3550A BK % - OEM
Item #: N82E16827152058 $37.99 $37.99
1 MS WIN XP HOME w/SP2 SINGLE PACK % - OEM
Item #: N82E16837102059 $93.95 $93.95
Item #: COM $-5.00
Subtotal: $1,015.91
Tax: $0.00
Shipping: $42.56
Grand Total: $1,058.47

I am going to be building my first. Did I do okay? How long will it take me to put everything together? Harder or easier than building an AR15? Thanks guys.

Posted: 3/12/2006 1:36:28 AM EDT

[#1]

Easier to assemble than an AR, harder to get running "just right".

Feed it only quality software and keep it clean and you should be fine.

Posted: 3/12/2006 2:55:03 AM EDT

[#2]

Looks like you been shopping @ newegg. I would have gone with XP Pro instead of home. $1,058.47 you got off easy. mmk

Posted: 3/12/2006 6:41:54 AM EDT

[#3]

I disagree with the xp hom/pro part. why spend an extra 100 bucks or so, when not necessary. I would also buy a seagate harddrive instead of the westerdigital harrdrive. all Seagate harddrives have a 5 year warranty.
other than that, its gonna be a awesome system

as usual let me know if i can help

Posted: 3/12/2006 7:55:34 AM EDT

[#4]

WD HD's have a 5 year warranty also. I do love my seagates. mmk

Posted: 3/12/2006 9:15:22 AM EDT

[#5]

Quoted:
WD HD's have a 5 year warranty also. I do love my seagates. mmk

Only the Caviar RE series, and Raptor series have 5 years on them. The Caviar and Caviar SE only have 3 years.

-d

Posted: 3/12/2006 9:16:32 AM EDT

[#6]

Oh, and I'd say stay with Home edition for XP unless you plan on doing some networking junk with it... other than that it you aren't going to get your $100 worth out of it.

-d

Posted: 3/12/2006 9:17:40 AM EDT

[#7]

from what i remember one of our team members works for seagate.

AND all my WD. die a couple months out of warranty. along with my sony dvdrw's

Posted: 3/12/2006 9:56:49 AM EDT

[#8]

Quoted:
Oh, and I'd say stay with Home edition for XP unless you plan on doing some networking junk with it... other than that it you aren't going to get your $100 worth out of it.

-d

I figured XP because this is my first build and it's easy and lots of people know how to fix little things that go wrong here and there. Was I wrong?

Posted: 3/12/2006 2:59:36 PM EDT

[#9]

XP is fine. i just prefer Pro or XP64 but that's just me.
BTW i'm using 2 of the same video cards in SLI. mmk

Posted: 3/12/2006 4:46:56 PM EDT

[#10]

I only have one thing to say.

ESD

This time of the year can be very "shocking".

Be sure to pu a ESD wrist strap.

Posted: 3/12/2006 4:57:11 PM EDT

[#11]

I have no idea what you just said. Is this about static electicity or something? Throw the new guy a bone here, por favor.

Posted: 3/12/2006 5:12:30 PM EDT

[#12]

Ever get a shock when you touch something? That is called ESD and it can destroy computer parts. A ESD wrist strap can ground you so you won't destroy your parts.

Where do you plan on builing it. Is the floor carpet, wood floor?

Posted: 3/12/2006 5:52:50 PM EDT

[#13]

Oh thanks. I remember I had to be careful with that when upgrading my ram on my current computer.

I am planning on carpet. Can i get one of these from compUSA or wcan I rig one up at home? Thanks for the heads up!

Posted: 3/12/2006 7:04:19 PM EDT

[#14]

Quoted:
Quoted:
Oh, and I'd say stay with Home edition for XP unless you plan on doing some networking junk with it... other than that it you aren't going to get your $100 worth out of it.

-d

I figured XP because this is my first build and it's easy and lots of people know how to fix little things that go wrong here and there. Was I wrong?

I was saying get XP Home, not XP Pro.

-d

Posted: 3/12/2006 7:05:30 PM EDT

[#15]

Quoted:
I only have one thing to say.

ESD

This time of the year can be very "shocking".

Be sure to pu a ESD wrist strap.

In all of the years I've been working on computers.. I have yet to have any device die from ESD damage... I think it is more of a scare tatic than anything

-d

Posted: 3/12/2006 7:07:55 PM EDT

[#16]

Quoted:
Oh thanks. I remember I had to be careful with that when upgrading my ram on my current computer.

I am planning on carpet. Can i get one of these from compUSA or wcan I rig one up at home? Thanks for the heads up!

Two things..

Do it on a kitchen counter or table. Doing the work on the carpet is just asking for trouble. Second, If you stand in one spot while working on the computer, just touch some metal inside the computer case. If you have any static, it will discharge at that point and not be a problem. Save the money and don't waste it on a ESD strap.

-d

Posted: 3/13/2006 2:39:08 PM EDT

[#17]

I've done all my builds at home, usually on a carpeted floor, with no ESD strap. I did field service for several years, and didn't use an ESD strap.

The trick is, you have to touch something constantly, so I usually make sure one of my hands or arms (bare skin) is touching something that will ground me. Usually the chassis works great.

Never had a problem.

And for the build, get 1024MB of RAM. If you're gonna run anything worth a darn, you'll like having a gig availble. 512 is the MINIMUM I'd run in XP nowadays if you're gonna do mostly desktop stuff.

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - what have I done?

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