Doug reporting for duty. Sir.

[PotGuy]

Hello everybody

Im Doug, I'm 15 and live near London. I like guitars, computers and quorn. it may taste like cardboard, but veggies dont have a great choice of food. I will now bore you with a long story about my computer.

About a year ago i got so ****ed off with my current system i bought more memory and another graphics card when i couldnt stand getting 20fps on rtcw anymore. It was then i found the first problem. I have no money. so all i could afford was a crucial 512mb memory stick and a 9600xt. well they didnt help at all.

current ****e system:
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Intel Pentium 4 2.6ghz - the crappiest one money can buy
MSI MS-6577 - old crud motherboard (only supports agp x4 :/)
JVC dvd-rom drive - broken
HP generic cd/dvd rw drive - writes cds up to 4x (in other words it takes a million years to make it do anything)
Radeon 9600XT - upgraded from geforce 4 (didnt make much difference)
280w crap psu - surprised this hasnt exploded yet - the people that made it don't exist anymore :/
1gb of pc 2700 memory - extra 512MB memory made no difference at all
80GB Ultra ATA 100 Hard Drive - full to bursting, overworked and making funny noises
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So i struggled for the last year to put some substantial money together for a new one, except i found the fast, stylish (neon filled) gaming computers were £1500 - £2000.
So i decided to build meself a new comp to save money, and in the last month i have crammed so much stuff about computers into my brain i think i broke it (my brain that is)

This is the basic spec list of the system im building - comments/suggestions appreciated
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AMD Athlon 64 Socket 939 X2 4400+ Processor
Thermaltake VM3000BWA Tsunami Dream Tower Case
Thermaltake Black PurePower 480W Butterfly PSU
Asus A8N-SLi Premium nForce-4 S-939 Motherboard
74gb Western Digital Raptor main boot drive etc
250gb sata II drive (don't know which one yet)
1GB crucial Ballistix pc3200
LG DVD+/-RW Dual Layer Drive
Sony Floppy Drive
Waiting for the new ATi cards in October
Windows XP Pro
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Thanks for reading this far. Sorry i wrote so much.

 

[Me__2001]

thats pretty musch the spec of the system im saving for

i'd think of getting 2 36GB raptors in RAID 0 for real fast boot times and 2 250GB drives in RAID 0 or 1 for everything else

and

 

[PotGuy]

I thought about that except when i bought my psu (which is really great looking) i had no idea what i was looking for. So now that i know what im doing ive realised that i only have 2 sata ports :O

is there any way i can add them or would i need a new psu cos i really like the one ive got

 

[Me__2001]

you've already got the PSU ? you should have atleast 4 connectors on it

if not when you but the motherboard it should have some 4pin to 5pin SATA leads with it, or you can buy them from most places

 

[floppybootstomp]

Keep your PSU. Most Western Digital drives, including Raptors, have choice of 4 or 5 pin connectors on them. Or as Me__2001 says, simply get some adaptors.

Just wondering why everybody overlooks DFI boards when speccing new system? Once you've owned one, you'll stick with them. Every bit as good as Asus boards, but better laid out and lots of useful little features. They look good too.

Best Gamers and overclockers boards bar none, imo.

But, having said that, nothing wrong with Asus at all, they fine boards.

Maybe peeps a bit nervous about straying from the popular choice?

 

[muckshifter]

And a Welcome from me ...



I do hope that your not going to tax our "bad word filter" too much, mind your Ps 'n Qs and we'll get along fine.


Nice spec' there.

 

[PotGuy]

thanks, and sorry xD ill stop the swears

i looked at dfi when i was looking for the m/board, but as im not going to go into any overclocking, i don't really need one. best overclockers board by far though.

so if i get 2 adaptors and stick them on the prephirial connectors then they will run ok, so i won't have to adjust anything?

 

[floppybootstomp]

so if i get 2 adaptors and stick them on the prephirial connectors then they will run ok, so i won't have to adjust anything?

Correct

 

[PotGuy]

nice one

so ill have 2 36gb raptors and 2 sata II 250 gb drives. woo.

 

[PotGuy]

um why are the 36gb drives £80 and the 74gb ones £120? I thought the 36gb drives were £50 :O

 

[Me__2001]

thats about right

http://pcreview.pgpartner.co.uk/search_attrib.php?page_id=11&form_keyword=WD+raptor&rd=1

 

[PotGuy]

darn cant afford that

btw how do i turn off these thread reply emails? drving me nuts

 

[Me__2001]

go into the user control panel on the right, under options

 

[Raje]

welcome PotGuy.... and don't worry... the headache only begins just before build day... good luck.

 

[V_R]

Hello PotGuy!! Enjoy your stay.