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Building a System
Revised on
June 4th, 2003
 If
you think that building your own system is daunting, think again.
The only thing you need is a screwdriver and some money. We recommend
buying all this new. More frustrations and anguish from building
a system stem from the builder not fully understanding the compatibility
of the components. When you get a pile of parts in a box from
your friend or coworker that you think is fine, you'll soon discover
that it's in a box for a reason.
We are going to focus on one
system here. I could go into all the variations of CPU, Motherboard,
Video cards and Sound boards but I won't. I could fill a novel
with all the combinations. I just want to keep it simple.
 The Case
A lot of people say you should start with the motherboard but
I disagree. I think the most important option is the case. Choosing
a good computer case is critical to running a good computer system.
Its most likely going to stick it out with you for 3 or 4 motherboards
and upgrades, so pick one you're going to like for a long term.
The case should have at least
the following:
- 300 watt power supply that is
2.03 PC compliant. Make sure the 5vsb line has at least a 2.0amp
rating!
- two 5 inch drive bays
- two 3 inch drive bays
- good ventilation in the front
near the bottom and in the back. See AMD's tech paper on cooling. I like cases
that have an extra place below the power supply in the back of
the case to mount a fan for better cooling.
The case I use and like is the
 Antec
SX630
 CPU or Processor
Choosing the CPU is the second
most critical choice when building a system. Personally I like
the AMD Athlon. It's cheaper and faster than most Intel models
for it's class. I have benchmarked this CPU against other Intel
competitors and have found that the Athlon does outperform the
Intel chips after splitting hairs. It should also be said that
when you benchmark these chips like I have the difference is
marginal but the price difference is as much as 30% off for the
Athlon's.
My personal Favorite is the AMD
Athlon 2400+ CPU. You can get these for under $100 and for the
most part, it's a great all around CPU for most people. If you
look over on Pricescan.com, you can
find a good price from one of the vendors there. They come in
two types; 1) OEM and 2) Retail or Boxed as they say. What's
this OEM and Boxed stuff about? OEM CPUs are just that. Just
the CPU. Shipped to you like integrators or computer manufacturers
get them. Plain package all by itself. Here's a major piece of
advice, get a boxed unit. Boxed units carry a longer warranty
than and OEM unit and you're more likely to damage a OEM unit
by fiddling around with it during installation, something the
reseller counts on.
 Motherboard
I have 4 boards I like these
days. Most of the people I encounter in my shop want something
for just surfing the net, checking email, and running quicken.
Maybe a little website editing and things like that. Some want
something with a little more power, and then some (very few)
want a monster.
1)
The Asus
A7N266-VM all in one board. All you need is a DDR memory
chip, a hard drive and then a Athlon XP CPU. Asus recently upgraded
the BIOs on this board and I have successfully installed the
Athlon XP 2400+.
2)
The Asus
A7V333-X. This is a few levels about the A7N266-VM with
support for the AMD 2.8GHz Athlon XP CPU, 333MHz FSB, UltraDMA
133 IDE hard drives, USB 2.0 (6 ports in all), and onboard sound
and support for PC2700 memory. It's a great little board for
user that want a bit more punch.
3)
Asus P4P800
Deluxe. This is a absolutely awsome motherboard. Asus
has done it once again producing a mobo with more options than
the Space Shuttle (I know that's not saying much). This motherboard
4)
Intel
Video Card
Really there are only two choices
here kids; nvidia and ATI. Personally, I like ATI. Why? Well
when it comes right down to it, these two cards run neck and
neck when it comes to performance. Really, go read the reviews
out there on TomsHardware, Anandtech and the like. The reason
I like ATI is when and if I have problems, they have always,
promptly, fixed me up. Meaning, I got a return card in the mail,
cross shipped (they take your credit card and ship you another
one, when they get the bad card they credit you) and on my doorstep
gettng me and my client on happy street. The number one thing
I can say that is bad about ATI is the little fans that keep
the card cool go out every now and then. ATI has always fixed
me up though and replaced the fan. They do make you send in the
whole card and that's a pain, but they do stand behind the product.
When I've bought a nvidia card,
I must say, I've been screwed more times than not. Whether I
buy retail or wholesale, nvidia based cards have been a problem
for me. So, I like to endorse ATI.
 Memory
Have you ever had a GPF or General
Protection Fault pop up on your screen? Who hasn't. If you run
Windows ME 98 or 95, then chances are you have. The most likely
cause of a GPF error is one program walking over another one.
The second most common cause is a memory problem. Memory can
go bad. When you are building a system, the most important thing
you can do for yourself is to check with the Motherboard manufacturer
for a list of known good memory chips. All motherboard manufacturers
have these lists and if they don't, pass on it. Crucial.com (where
I buy most my chips) has a drop down list of motherboards and
systems that have verified by Crucial or the manufacturer so
you don't have any problems.
Sound Card
 SoundBlaster
is the kingpin in this arena. I own a SoundBlaster
Live! MP3+ first generation sound card. I play computer games
and listen to music while I work. Personally and professionally
I recommend this card. You can go with a lower end card that
will play music and the games and for the most part will provide
you with most of the functionality that sound cards are supposed
to for about $15 to $20 ( SoundBlaster Ensoniq
). There are other sound cards that come and go in this industry,
but to be honest with you, like my 3dfx card, I've never had
a problem with SoundBlaster and I don't think I ever will. These
guys have been around since the beginning of computer time and
something tells me they will be for some time to come.
Speakers
 There
is a difference when it comes to speakers. I've had everything
from the little desktop 8 inch tall ones to the Theater Surround
Sound model that I currently have. I have purchased several different
models for clients and compared the sets. Frankly its hard to
tell a difference in sound when you buy a quality set. Cambridge
Sound Works, Altek Lansing, Boss, Creative Labs, they all make
pretty darn good speakers. I suggest you go to a computer store
and listen to the models they have set up. If its a good computer
store they'll have at least 5 or 6 sets working. MicroCenter
has 10 sets the last time I was there.
If you really want a good speaker
set, and you buy a good quality sound card like the SB Live!
MP3+ or better, then I suggest you get a separate amplifier with
real stereo speakers that were meant for a home theater. I was
at a friends house the other night and he had set up a set from
Bose that combined with the sound card he had, just knocked my
socks off. Wow! It was really really cool! Very impressive.
  [01.05.00] -
Best speaker/amplifier set I've had the pleasure of hearing to
date (if you can afford it) is the Bose
Acoustimass® 5 Series III Speaker System at $549. You
may find it on the net for less ($375) but you'll have to look
hard.
Combined with a SoundBlaster MP3+ or X-Gamer, its is absolutely
fantastic. Go down to your local Bose shop and check it out for
yourself. Nice. Really nice.
 Monitor
Samsung for most intensified
purposes is most likely the best monitor you'll find for the
price. Again, I've never had one go down, and I've checked with
Samsung and they offer a 3 year replacement policy. You'll find
that you can grab a 17" .26dp monitor for $175 and a 19"
for $225 if you look around. Now if you're a graphics designer
or webmaster and work with graphics a lot, you'll want a Sony,
Mitsubishi or Viewsonic. When it comes to monitors, I tell my
friends to buy what they think looks good according to their
own eyes. People can get quite religious when it comes to their
monitor.
 Looking for a good flatscreen?!?
Well the prices have come down a lot and the quality is getting
much better. A year ago I look at 3 top name LCD monitors. I
played games, ran all kinds of self-tests and concluded it wasn't
for me. It just wasn't there. No here comes Samsung again with
thier SyncMaster 770TFT 17" baby. I picked up one of these
and man I gotta tell you, its the niceest LCD I've ever seen!
Just check out the specs here on Samsungs
site. I've also seen around town LCDs selling for 500$, but I
dunno guys. I'd stay away from these.
Hard Drive
 IBM
Deskstar all the way. Maxtor is my second choice. I don't even
consider anything else. Why should I? When shopping for a drive
make sure that the RPM is at least 7200 and it's a ATA66 rated
drive. 10000 RPM and ATA100 is the rave now, but you'll find
bargains for the ATA66 7200.
IBM and Maxtor drives have proven
themselves time and time again for me. IBM has the market share
and Maxtor has a good chunk of the rest with the others following.
IBM just released the ATA100 specification adding to the ATA66
calling them ATA66+ drives. If you consider getting one of these
drives with the ATA100 specification, make sure your motherboard
has this capability to support it or you'll be wasting your money.
If you buy a ATA100 drive it'll work on your older board, only
at a slow rate.
 CD-ROM
or CDRW Drive
Hewlett Packard & Plextor
are the forerunners here. HP offers steadfast reliability and
a name brand and the challenger, Plextor offers speed and cool
software. Guess which one I chose. HP. My reasoning is this;
I have a HP Deskjet 970Cxi,
a HP ScanJet 5300
USB, and a HP 8100 CD-Writer internal
IDE CDRW. Some time ago my HP scanner died. Just stopped working
one day when I was scanning some pics for the website. I thought...
oh no... I called HP and in less than 10 minutes I was being
told that my new scanner would be on my doorstep in 24 hours
and I was to place the bad one, a older model 4200 non-usb in
the special pre-paid shipping carton and send it back. Nice you
may say? It was 1 month out-of-warranty!
Now you know why I like HP. You
can try the Plextor, if fact, I may be purchasing a external
unit for archiving onsite client data in the near future, but
it'll sure be hard to break that bond I have with HP.
Aside for the cuddling, HP offers
a very competitive product with speeds matching the Plextor in
every area. A SCSI version of a CDRW would be faster, but you'd
be splitting hairs here and you would have to fork over another
$100 at least for a SCSI card, and there would be installation
complications to deal with.
For my money, IDE drive are the
most cost effective solution.
 Modem
8 months ago I was singing the
praises of the IBM 56K ISA DSVD internal modem, but my good buddy
Bill Schmelzer from Ziff-Davis Publishing tells me one day [11-02-00]
that the Diamond
SupraMax 56K ITU PCI internal was a deal at $29 from my local
computer store. So, I pop down and get a few for future installs.
I was pleasantly surprised! Installs in a snap, no conflicts
and easy to update. What a deal. Compared to my CreativeLabs
Modem Blaster 56K which was a pain in the butt to install, not
to mention that software uninstall feature dosesn't uninstall
properly leaving you with a modem in the control panel when you
already removed it.
As you can see from the description
above, you should look for a 56K ITU v.90 PCI modem. Anything
else will most likely cause you problems.
 Network
Card
If you are on a local area network
(LAN) and want a little extra boost from you network and DSL
connections, I like the 3Com Etherlink XL 10/100 PCI (3C905B-TX)
but I've found that the Kingston KNE111-TX 10/100 PCI work fine
for 99.99% of all the other applications. Kingston gets 5  for customer satisfaction from
me. You might ask yourself why you think you may or may not need
a network card? Let me tell you that you do. Even if you don't
have a network at home, its great just in case someone comes
over your house and they have a laptop and want to transfer a
file or something to your computer. And if you don't have a broadband
connection like Cable or DSL, you should and you'll need Network
Interface Card or NIC to facilitate this.
 Floppy
drive
Not much to say here. We don't
use floppies much these days anymore. To be safe, get a Sony
or a Teac 1mbit rated floppy drive. You could also look into
getting one of those SuperDisk's that will read and write standard
floppy disks and 120MB HD disks. They are generally cheaper and
faster than ZIP drives and most newer motherboard offer support
for these devices so you don't need a special software program
or driver to use it. I haven't used one of these yet but people
I know who have say they work just fine.
 Keyboard
This is definitely a user preference.
Everyone have something they like about a particular keyboard.
My favorite is a Microsoft IntlliType Pro. Its suits me. I
did have a Logitech
Internet keyboard but it had software driver issues Logitech
couldn't resolve. All I can say here is choose the one you like
the feel of.
 Mouse
Another look and feel computer
item. Personally, I like a trackball. One like Logitech's TrackMan
Marble Plus with a wheel for scrolling webpages and documents.
This trackball has a unique ability to keep itself clean. The
trackball rests on 3 tiny little balls and the pointer is directed
with a electronic eye under the ball. When you move the ball
with your thumb, the light watches the dots on the ball go by
and then calculates where the pointer should go on your screen.
Really cool. But, I did fib a little on the last paragraph. Once
in a great while (about every 8 months) you need to remove the
ball and take a paper towel or something and clean the little
balls and the electronic eye because dust
Optional Items {coming soon}
Printer
Scanner
PC Camera
Suppliers
Section
Antec ~ Computer case, enclosers, and all
sorts of stuff. They make the case featured in my AMD 1GHz Build
Review.
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