Bit the Bullet

[TonyK]

so to speak.

Have parts coming from newegg.com that will result in a new computer for me. It will be a 3Ghz P4 with 2GB of DDR memory and a 160GB SATA HD. I have 2 IDE HDs (200 and 250) that will come over from the old system as well as a CDRW and a DVD +/- RW (Sony). :)

The case has a 350W PS and I am thinking of getting a 400W PS to replace it with. The case is a Cooler Master with 2 fans (120 rear and 80 front). We will see how cool they keep the beast.

Take care,

[Watchin]

Sounds real sweet Tony! Wanna come do mine too...

I'd check your need for the 400W PS first though.
I thought I needed to change mine until I added up the run time drain and
the peak (startup) drains on my system. I found that the 350W was enough
because the newer disks suck in a lot less current that the older units.
The EIDE units are pretty good.
Also don't forget that the CD and DVD won't be spinning
or working while the rest of the drives are spinning up.
You can also put a spin up delay on some drives to load balance the
startup drain (look for jumper setting on drive controller).

Might save you $100 or so on the rebuild...

ps - I've got 10gb, (2) 80gb, and 160GB Eide drives,
dvd-rom/cdrom, dual level dvd writer connected to Asus MB
with 1GB DDR and P4 2GHz, 10/100 Nic, 1394 2socket, USB 2.0
4 socket, WinTV card, Nvidia Geforce 4 MX440 video
and I just popped out a Tekram SCSI card and 2 20GB SCSI disks.
This all ran fine with the A-Open 350W PIII compliant supply I've got.
(the Asus MB has an adapter for P4 on P3 supplies).

Only reason I pulled the Scsi card was that the disks were getting old
and the bearings on both were starting to scream, time to retire them.
Now I need to replace a couple of fans as well.

[Talvan]

Sounds good Tony. Any particular reason you didnt go with a 64bit processor? Also, I have been hearing about compatibily issues with Nvidea video cards and Nvidea MB Chips sets, just wanted to give you a heads up on that.

My server is running a 350 watt powersuplly, and granted I am not running a big processor(AMD 400mhz) but I am running 5 80mm case fans, and a 3 fan 5 1/4 bay cooler(call me paranoid), 3 EIDE HDD, 1 DVD +/- RW. I havent had any problems out of mine.

I currently have a wishlist on Newegg aswell for a new RAID server. Havent gotten all the specifics worked out yet, but I am thinking Asus A7N8X MB, AMD 2500+, 1GB 2700 or 3200 RAM, 4 Seagate 160GB SATA HDD, 1 80GB EIDE HDD, 2 DVD RW, ATI Radeon 9550 256mb Video, onboard sound, PCI SATA RAID card with 0/+1, Antec 550W PS(which I am now rethinking), and all the cooling I can fit. and So far I am up to about $1300.

[TonyK]

Okay, here are my specs. Add to this a CDRW and a Sony DVD +/- RW plus I may move my USB 2.0 PCI card. I don't think I'll move the Ultra IDE 133 card I have because the system has Ultra IDE 100 controllers. And it comes with 3 Firewire connects with two ports (one front and one back) which is about all I need at this time. I am thinking of moving the Firewire card though. My IDE 200GB and IDE 250GB drives, which are only a few months old, will move over as well.

I wish the case could take some more fans. Unfortunately it does not look like it will. I might get a fan on a PCI card. Anyone have experience with those units?

Take care,

COOLER MASTER Cavalier 3 Silver/Blue ATX Mid-Tower Case With 350W Power Supply, Model "CAV-T03-UWA SILVER" -RETAIL
Specifications:
Case Type: ATX Mid-Tower
Color: Silver/Blue
Material: Aluminum Bezel, SECC Chassis
Drive Bays: 5.25" x 5/0, 3.5" x 1/4 (external/internal)
Expansion Slots: 7
Front Ports: 2 x USB2.0, 2 x Audio, 1 x IEEE 1394
Power Supply: Cooler Master 350W
Cooling System: 1 x 80mm front fan, 1 x 120mm rear fan
Motherboard Compatibility: ATX; 12" x 9.6"
Dimensions: 8" x 17.2" x 19.7" (WxHxD) more info-> N82E16811119054

ABIT "AS8-3rd Eye" 865PE Chipset Motherboard for Intel LGA775 CPU - Retail
Specifications:
Supported CPU: Intel Prescott LGA775 Processors
Chipset: Intel 865PE MCH + ICH5R
FSB: 800MHz/533Mhz
RAM: 4x 184-pin DIMM for Dual-Channel DDR 400/333 (Max. 4GB)
IDE: 2x Ultra ATA 100 up to 4 Devices
Slots: 1x AGP 8x/4x, 4x PCI
Ports: 2x PS/2, 1x COM, 1x LPT, SPDIF In/Out, 8x USB2.0(Rear 4), 3x IEEE1394(Rear 1), 1x LAN, Audio Ports
Onboard Audio: 6 Channel Audio
Onboard LAN: 10/100M Ethernet
Onboard SATA/RAID: 2x SATA150 with RAID 0/1
Onboard 1394: 3 Ports up to 100/200/400 Mb/s transfer rate
Form Factor: ATX more info-> N82E16813127194

DIAMOND nVIDIA GeForce FX5200 Video Card, 128MB DDR, DVI/TV-Out, 8X AGP, Model "Stealth S90" -RETAIL
Specifications:
Chipset/Core Speed: nVIDIA GeForce FX5200/250MHz
Memory/Effective Speed: 128MB DDR/Not Specified
BUS: AGP 4x/8x
Ports: VGA Out(15 Pin D-Sub)+TV-Out(S-Video)+DVI connector
Support 3D API: DirectX®9, OpenGL®1.4
Cable/Accessories: 1 Cable, 2 CD
Max Resolution@32bit Color: 2048X1536@75Hz

Intel LGA 775 Pentium 4 530J 3.0 GHz, 800MHz FSB, 1MB L2 Cache, Hyper Threading Technology - Retail
Specifications:
Model: Intel Pentium 4 530J w/ Hyper Threading
Core: Prescott
Operating Frequency: 3.0 GHz
FSB: 800MHz
Cache: L1/12K+16K; L2/1MB
Voltage: 1.4V
Process: 90nm
Socket: LGA 775
Multimedia Instruction: MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3
Warranty: 3-year MFG

Kingston 184 Pin 512MB DDR PC-3200 - Retail
Specifications:
Manufacturer: Kingston
Speed: DDR400(PC3200)
Type: 184 Pin DDR SDRAM
Error Checking: Non-ECC
Registered/Unbuffered: Unbuffered
Cas Latency: 3-3-3
Support Voltage: 2.6V
Bandwidth: 3.2GB/s
Organization: 64M x 64 -Bit

Maxtor Ultra Series Kit 160GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive, Model L01M160, Retail
Specifications:
Capacity: 160 GB
Average Seek Time: 9.3 ms
Buffer: 8 MB
Rotational Speed: 7,200 RPM
Interface: Serial SATA150
Features: Ideal for high-end gaming and digital video, Ultra quiet operation with FDB motor
Manufacturer Warranty: 1 year

US Robotics 56K V.90 Internal PCI Modem, Model USR263090 - OEM
Specifications:
Interface: PCI Interface
Standards: V.90 and earlier ITU standards
DTE Rate: 115200 bps maximum
Fax Speed: 14400bps more info-> N82E16825104141

Microsoft Windows XP Professional With Service Pack 2 -OEM

[Talvan]

Looks good man, I personally am not a big fan of front swinging doors, they look cool, but I think for practicality they wont work for me. I would rather have all the drives readily accesible. Also if you want to put front panel accessories in, the door kind of gets in the way.

If you find you cant add any more fans from precut holes, you can always cut some holes in the side/top. Dont forget too, you can always add baycoolers like Baycooler, if you cant tell I am a big fan of these. As for the expansion slot fans, I did some research on them awhile back. The airflow on the ones from Antec travels from inside out the back. If I remember right they are 80mm fans. I like to set all my fans up so the fronts pull the new air in and the rear ones push the old air out. Sorry to keep going on, and I am sure you already know all this. I just enjoy talking about it.

[TonyK]

I have 2 bay coolers installed in my current system. They blow directly on my 200 and 250 GB drives. :)

The rear 120mm fan is exhaust (blows out) and the 80mm fan pulls in at the front.

I am not a fan of the drive door either. Cooler Master has a good reputation so I can live with the door... if it does not impede air flow.

[TonyK]

It has 3 fans and enough connections to keep me happy. :)

The new system will not have a floppy drive. I purchased instead a 3.5" card reader. Got new IDE cables for the 2 IDE drives and my DVD +/- RW and CDRW units.

I have 2 out of the 3 boxes already. What arrived was the case, the SATA HD and the modem. Everything else is in the final box which is due here Monday.

[mattchase]

I still have my same old computer, but did just add a nifty new item to it. My DVD burner is a bit on the old side, and I'd been thinking of replacing it for some time but just don't burn enough DVDs to justify it. BUT, there is this cool new technology called Lightscribe that will burn an image / text / graphic into a layer on the disk that a few manufacturers are putting in their drives, and it doesn't add much to the cost of the drive (local price was $130 for a 16x DVD+ / - dual layer from HP...about $100 less than I paid for my previous 2x DVD+ only burner). So after reading all about it for the last month, I finally decided to get one.

I spent the last 4 hours creating a spiffy looking label to put on the first disc (which doesn't have data on it yet!), and am pretty happy with it. It's not silk screen quality which is what they compare it to, but it's close. And the label I did isn't the best example, I used some tough gradations and high contrast and beat up text and whatnot, and it all held pretty well, but grayscale doesn't do my graphic justice. It does use special Lightscribe discs, which cost about 80 cents each, but they are also good quality name brand discs (Verbatim). I probably wouldn't use the Lightscribe discs for personal things, but for discs that you are being paid to make, $1 for a near silkscreen quality label burned into the CD is dirt cheap - and being able to customize it at will is a nice bonus. And yes, you can use any other non-Lightscribe discs for burning without a problem, you just can't label them with the burner.

For anyone willing to wait, I have heard that a color capable Lightscribe drive is about 1-2 years away.

[Talvan]

That is cool, i remember reading something about the technology about a year ago, then it was TAToo and I think it was by Memorex.

[TonyK]

Matt, that does sound neat. As my DVD burner is about 2 years or less old I think I will wait. I am still getting my ROI on it. :)

This morning I moved my existing system from the air strangling hole in the computer desk to the top of the computer desk next to the monitor. Not like I have a tone of space up here. Yet I think air flow will be better. I ran it out of the hole on Sat. and it ran better. We will see what this does. Right now with a 22% load on the CPU (playing Sara McLachlan on iTunes) I have about 36C on SpeedFan.

I should have my parts Monday evening and may start building it Monday night. If the old system behaves itself I will have a 3rd desktop system. Right now I have the P4 1-7Ghz and a PIII-500 (it is my web server). And I have a PIII-600 lappy with 512MB of memory (remember I just revived it with memory and HD upgrades) so I am not hurting for computers.