Building a new home computer

Pininfarina_

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FINAL: Going to price match some stuff on NCIX and see if I can switch over to them since Id much rather pick up stuff in store.

-note: I am reusing an optical drive. Its old school (uses an IDE; mobo has) but hopefully it'll work.

Case: Cooler Master Elite 342 (mATX case) If someone can recommend something, please make sure its available in either NCIX or Direct Canada

PSU: Corsair 430W (80+)

Mobo: ASUS M4A88TD-M (mATX board), 4250 integrated, USB3+SATA3


CPU: AMD Athlon II X2 250 3.0GHZ


RAM: GSkill 4GB

HDD: Western Digital 500GB 7200RPM 6GB/S (WD5000AAKX)


Windows 7



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OLD:

I dont have any experience when it comes to building computers, only swapping one or two parts out as they get old.

When my parents told me they wanted a new computer, I thought it would be a good idea to try my hand and building one from scratch.

Needs: Casual computing
-very basic
-watching dramas
-sending emails
-downloading music
-uploading photos
MUST DO ALL THIS SMOOTHLY.


I was thinking of 4 gigs ram, dual core, onboard graphics.

Lite-on DVD burner Decided to try and reuse old one.

380W Antec PSU

Rosewill Blackbone Case I think this one is overkill.

MSI Mobo with solid onboard graphics

GSkill 4gigs

AMD Athlon II dual core


Samsung spinpoint F4 320gb


and of course

Windows 7

Im not getting a hard drive because my parents want to shove the old hard drive into the new computer. Will there be any issues with that? If so, how will old data be transferred onto the new drive?
 
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When installing the motherboard ensure there aren't any extra screw mounts that will prop up against the motherboard and short circuit it.
 
Motherboard risers will be included in the hardware that comes with the case. In my opinion, you're better off getting a cheap 7200 rpm hard drive and use your old drive for data storage. You'll need a fresh format to install a new copy of Windows to avoid driver issues.
 
Oooo ok, thanks for the tips guys!

So what do you think of my parts selection? Is my case overkill?
 
If you're not gaming or doing video editing, have you thought about getting a laptop? Hook it up to an external HDD or NAS and they can make a decent media center, as well as being portable when they want it.

Also, you might want to check out mini-ATX cases/mobos if graphics aren't a priority, as they have the advantages of being smaller in storage and lower heat/power consumption. I believe Shawn tried a build some time ago, try to search for that thread.

Either way, I do concur that if you don't need a discrete (aka not onboard) graphics card than a tower case is definitely overkill.
 
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Naww my parents dont want a laptop.

So what kind of case should I get?

Also, is newegg canada a good choice for parts? Is it a hassle to return not working stuff? How long does shipping take?

Also, I clicked checkout after I selected all my parts, but in the grand total, there was no shipping costs or tax, does it get displayed after you input credit card info?

Gonna go make a post over a toms hardware and see what the nerds there have to say XD

edit: I just realized I selected 2 gigs of ram. Facepalm.
 
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Also, I clicked checkout after I selected all my parts, but in the grand total, there was no shipping costs or tax, does it get displayed after you input credit card info?.

I haven't looked at all the parts yet (it's late at night and I can't be bothered with that much of it yet), but on particularly large orders, Newegg tends to offer free shipping. I just bought a monitor from them for $150 and it had no shipping cost or tax (tax is state based, or seeing as you appear to be in Canada, province based... can't answer on that one specifically).
 
I haven't looked at all the parts yet (it's late at night and I can't be bothered with that much of it yet), but on particularly large orders, Newegg tends to offer free shipping. I just bought a monitor from them for $150 and it had no shipping cost or tax (tax is state based, or seeing as you appear to be in Canada, province based... can't answer on that one specifically).

EEEE A REPLY. I've been monitoring this thread....im so sad......

Im in BC but I guess it's considered a large shipment.

Also, will everything there be compatible? How is deal with newegg for RMA stuff?

ALSO ALSO, I just remembered this particular computer will be running wireless internet. There's a card in the old computer thats in the bottom PCI slot and has a telephone line jack thingy. Is that the ethernet card? Can I reuse that?
 
Im in BC but I guess it's considered a large shipment.

Yeah, I'm honestly not sure how they handle shipments to Canada either. I've only ever had them ship to the United States.

Also, will everything there be compatible? How is deal with newegg for RMA stuff?

Everything matches up at least (no rookie mistakes like having a CPU with the wrong socket on the motherboard), and the power supply seems adequate. It fits together from a hardware standpoint, occasionally some pieces of hardware decide they want to conflict with each other for no apparent reason, but if it does, Newegg is very good about their RMA policy, so don't worry.

ALSO ALSO, I just remembered this particular computer will be running wireless internet. There's a card in the old computer thats in the bottom PCI slot and has a telephone line jack thingy. Is that the ethernet card? Can I reuse that?

Yes, that's the ethernet card. No, you can't reuse it, that's a wired network card. Would be pointless anyway, as the motherboard has on-board ethernet. You would need either an internal wireless card or an external wireless adapter to receive wireless internet.
 
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833704045

Would be a good bet for an external wireless adapter. The difference between internal and external is meh. Some purists like perhaps ZeDestructor might come in here and say something like how you can get an extra 2ms of lower latency with an internal adapter but that really means nothing.

I dont think my parents have a cable that can run that long xD

So how exactly will I transfer data from the old HDD to the new HDD?

Is it possible to build the entire computer and hook up the old drive, do a boot on xp, retrieve some files onto an external hard drive, then finally replace the old drive with the new drive, installing windows 7 and loading the files from the external to the internal?


Ill check the pricing on NCIX, thanks raptor.

edit: Actually, I think they might have a cable...........would the card be reusable? How about the DVD burner? reusable or dont risk have it failing and just get a new one?
 
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There's no reason to re-use the ethernet card because the new motherboard (in fact almost any new motherboard) has it built-in. The DVD burner can almost certainly be re-used.

Just to clarify, when you say "like a phone cord," Ethernet is similar shape but should be significantly larger. Just make sure you're not talking about a modem which would have an actual phone cord.
 
There's no reason to re-use the ethernet card because the new motherboard (in fact almost any new motherboard) has it built-in. The DVD burner can almost certainly be re-used.

Just to clarify, when you say "like a phone cord," Ethernet is similar shape but should be significantly larger. Just make sure you're not talking about a modem which would have an actual phone cord.

Its a cord coming out of the back of the wireless router.

Everything on NCIX is more expensive by like 5 bucks or so.....

Still need clarification on the data transfer issue; they have like 4000 photos that need to be recovered @.@

And the case....the old case is smaller by around 2-4 inches in all dimensions.

These ARE good, reliable parts right?
 
Interesting, I always heard NCIX is great because it has free shipping on orders above $50 bucks. I assume you are using newegg.ca not .com like all the links we are posting.
 
Interesting, I always heard NCIX is great because it has free shipping on orders above $50 bucks. I assume you are using newegg.ca not .com like all the links we are posting.

Yes Im shopping on newegg.ca and like Victoria said, I think newegg might give free shipping too.
 
On the data recovery, why not put both the old drive and the new drive in the computer? The new one will be the primary drive but the old one will still be accessible to copy over any photos/documents/etc.
 
On the data recovery, why not put both the old drive and the new drive in the computer? The new one will be the primary drive but the old one will still be accessible to copy over any photos/documents/etc.

Is that possible with windows xp? Are there issues with different RPMs etc....?

Another question is, if I put everything together and it doesnt boot properly, how do I test for failing parts?

How would I test for a dead mobo or a dead psu or a dead stick of ram?
 
You can mix and match whatever hard drives you want. They're controlled and accessed completely separately.

As far as testing for bad parts, it depends on what happens when you try to boot. No power? Probably PSU. No POST/BIOS? Probably motherboard.... boot with just one stick of RAM if you suspect a problem there.
 
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