Did I cover all the bases?

[Toasty]

Getting ready (probably) to order all the components for my new PC and I was hoping you guys could read over my list and see if I'm forgetting anything. I'll be using my current monitor, mouse, keyboard and speakers, so those are already covered, but it's the essentials that I'm worried about. On my list are:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800+ 2000MHz HT Socket 939 Dual Core Processor - Retail
ASUS A8N5X ATX AMD Motherboard - Retail
CORSAIR XMS 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM Dual Channel Kit System Memory - Retail
BIOSTAR Geforce 7800GT VN7800GT Video Card - Retail
Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 SATA NCQ 3Gb/s 160GB 3.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM
Seagate Barracuda 7200.9 80GB 3.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM - I gotta have two HD's, I just do
GENERIC 18" 2-Head Red SATA (SERIAL ATA 150) Cable - OEM - A pair of these (do I need one for each drive, or are they like some IDE cables, with a master and slave on the same cable?)
NEC 16X DVD±R DVD Burner Silver IDE Model ND-3550A - OEM - A pair of these, they're cheap (I have a spare IDE cable I can use for them)
AeroCool Masstige BLK Black Computer Case With Side Panel Window - Retail - (I will be painting over that ridiculous logo)
ENERMAX Liberty ELT500AWT 500W Power Supply - Retail
ZALMAN CNPS9500 LED 92mm 2 Ball Blue LED Light Cooling Fan with Heatsink - Retail - Might as well be prepared in case I want to OC

For now I can go with Linux or another freely obtained OS until I decide which version of Windows to go with - I just want to make sure the hardware will all work together properly.

That's about what I could squeeze into my budget; not quite top-of-the-line, but a lot better than a four-year-old 1.6GHz Pentium 4. So, did I miss anything crucial, or is there anything you'd recommend replacing? Will the CPU and/or fan/heatsink come with thermal paste and whatever else is required to attach it to the motherboard? Will the case come with screws for mounting drives? Sorry if that's a lot of questions, but it's my first time putting together a computer and I don't want to mess it up.

To anyone who's built their own PC before, how difficult is it? (Hopefully a little easier than installing a modchip in a PS2 because that gave me some trouble...) I've installed and replaced lots of cards and drives over time, but never actually built one from the ground up.

 

[BoggyB]

Dual channel memory usually comes in matched pairs, and must be installed in the correct pair of slots for best performance - the motherboard manual will tell you which pair to use.

You need one SATA cable per drive as each drive has a direct connection to the motherboard. Your motherboard will probably come with a couple of cables. Watch out as your board may have two SATA controllers on it - if you want to use hardware RAID or JBOD both drives must be on the same controller. SATA drives also have different power connectors - the power supply you chose comes with them so don't worry about that.

The retail processor comes with the stock cooler, which usually has contact thermal paste on the bottom. Sometimes you have to peel a sticker off the heatsink first, and then you just put it on top. You don't need seperate thermal paste, and the stock cooler is usually fine as long as you're not overclocking or using bleeding edge kit.

You may also need a floppy drive to install Windows if you plan on installing Windows on the SATA drives. This is because very early on in the setup Windows needs the drivers for the SATA controller, and I think it only accepts them on floppy. (IIRC, you press F6 when it prompts for a RAID or SCSI driver, and then after a bit it asks you to insert a floppy disk with the drivers). The motherboard should come with either those drivers on floppy, or the necessary files on CD along with instructions for putting them on a disk. Linux shouldn't have any problems as long as you have a recent enough distro.

The case will come with lots and lots of different screws, don't worry about that. It'll probably also come with a handful of little stand-offs for the motherboard. Just check where the screw holes are on your motherboard, and clip those stand-offs into the case in the right places. It'll be awkard to get some of the screws in.

Thinking about that, the motherboard should come with a ton of random cables and extra backplanes. It also might still have some things set by jumpers, so check the manual when you get it.

Building a PC isn't too hard. You'll probably spend a day, maybe two, putting it together and installing Windows (depends on how fast you go). Make sure to take care about static electricity. While hard disks generally don't care, motherboards, processors and memory care a lot. Just follow the usual precautions (don't shuffle around on the carpet, always ground yourself to the metal case, always handle cards by the edge and don't touch the pins on the processor) and you'll be fine.

The order you put things in doesn't really matter, but you'll probably want to get the motherboard in first while you've got plenty of space. Before putting the motherboard in check if it came with a replacement backplate (some have a different connector layout on the back) - if it did then fit that first.

I think that's it, but I'm sure others here will correct me if I missed anything.

 

[Hexidecimal]

He's right, you shouldn't have to buy any cables. Looks like a good system, except that you should be able to get a 7900GT for about the same price and WAY better performance. It's actually a crap time to buy a video card, since the DX10 ones are coming soon.

 

[Toasty]

Got the same suggestion for the video card in another forum I asked this in! So, I changed the card as suggested and also selected an Antec Sonata II case/fans/power supply instead of the ones I listed before, as all I could find for it were shining reviews and a nice price tag. I dropped the unneeded cables and used the extra money to get two 160GB hard drives instead of a 160GB and an 80GB, and got a 4200+ X2 CPU instead of the 3800+. (I actually ordered it at the beginning of the week too, which is nice, since I almost always order stuff a day or two before the weekend and then have to wait longer.) Nothing left to do now but to study my homebuilt PC book some more and wait... Thanks a lot!

 

[ScottJC]

Building a PC isn't too hard. You'll probably spend a day, maybe two, putting it tog...

Yeah you can get so good at it you can do it in 30 minutes - I could basically strip down my PC removing all parts from the case and put it all back incredibly quickly, dunno why i'd want to do it though - but a day? come now thats a little harsh, even the humble novice wouldn't take that long - 6 hours tops.

 

[BoggyB]

When I first put my machine together (about 5 years ago), I think I spent a couple of days putting it together and installing Windows (though I think I started late afternoon).

When myself and a friend put together his new computer (last year), it took us about a day to build it and install Windows. He had a lot more stuff in his than I did. We started installing Windows at something like 6 or 7pm, and it took a few attempts thanks to a bad stick of RAM.

When I'm working on my own machines, I have a tendency to do things slowly. I find you make less mistakes that way.

When you get down to it, it depends on how much experience you have, how confident you are and how much stuff you're putting in it. Not everyone has built enough comptuers to get it done in under half an hour.

 

[arnalion]

It's preatty easy to build a computer. Install the memory sticks and the cpu cooler before you put the motherboard in the case, just a tip. Remember that ESD can brake the components. The most important thing... be calm ^^. You'll probably have to read the manual on how to connect the front buttons.

 

[revl8er]

When building a pc, the hardest part is usually installing the front usb jacks if you are going to use them. After that, everything is easy. Basically there is only one place where each part can fit with the exception of memory because you have to put it in certain ports. That is a great system btw, maybe one of these days i'll build me another pc with a dual core processor, or just upgrade mine.

 

[WhiteX]

When I first put my machine together (about 5 years ago), I think I spent a couple of days putting it together and installing Windows (though I think I started late afternoon).

When myself and a friend put together his new computer (last year), it took us about a day to build it and install Windows. He had a lot more stuff in his than I did. We started installing Windows at something like 6 or 7pm, and it took a few attempts thanks to a bad stick of RAM.

When I'm working on my own machines, I have a tendency to do things slowly. I find you make less mistakes that way.

When you get down to it, it depends on how much experience you have, how confident you are and how much stuff you're putting in it. Not everyone has built enough comptuers to get it done in under half an hour.

I assemble, disassemble and reassemble smth of 30 machines a day , but that´s my trade, you can put a day period (morning, afternoon, evening) to assemble a comp with care.

Your Pc is fine, toasty, but the vid card thing is true, we will have to change them in the near future.

 

[euphoria]

Plain common sense: naturally you have to pay attention when installing the cpu/cooling because it is possible to break the chip if you're not careful.

You just have to take your time to do it.

And like arnalion said, it's easier to put the RAM and cpu on the motherboard before putting mb in to the case.

And who cares how long it takes? I mean it's not a freaking competition who puts their pc together the quickest.
Main goal is to have a working pc with nothing broken, right?

 

[Doomulation]

The hardest thing is to connect all the loose cables. The power LED, reset LED, speakers and all that. And the USB, and crap... not to mention if you do it wrong, your USB will probably not work or your computer won't start, etc.
The X2 processor, when retail, comes with the paste underneath the fan, as I've witnessed when I unpacked my own dual core. But that's pretty much it.

You can get a little trouble when connecting everything, though, but that's the nature of PCs. If you get frustrated, you can simply take a break and continue at a later time.

 

[Toasty]

Hey, just wanted to let you guys know that all turned out well! I took parts of three days making sure I was doing everything right and when I booted it up last Sunday it worked perfectly, aside from not detecting one of the DVD burners, which turned out to be an easily fixed, loose IDE cable. Power button, headphone jacks and LEDs all worked right on the first try (I had to take a guess at their cables' orientation, but apparently I guessed right). Now my head's spinning as I can't decide what great, performance intensive thing I'm going to try first! :bouncy: Thanks for all the help!

 

[TerraPhantm]

Just so you know for future reference, the part of the connector that has a small arrow on it (kinda hard to say, you have to look closely) is the positive end.

Congratulations on the system btw, can't get a much better priceerformance ratio then your system.

 

[Eagle]

The X2 processor, when retail, comes with the paste underneath the fan, as I've witnessed when I unpacked my own dual core. But that's pretty much it.

Please do not use that paste, its really crap. Use arctic silver. Get a bottle of mostly pure alchohol (90% or higher) and use a lint free cloth, such as a coffee filter, to clean the paste off. Then apply a small bead (very small, like no bigger than half the size of a grain of white rice) of arctic silver to the CPU before mounting the fan. You will get much better cooling performace with this, and it doesn't cost that much.

 

[Toasty]

Actually, the separate fan/heatsink I got came with a little tube of thermal grease, so I used that. I can't remember how hot (or, warm I should say) the processor was when both cores were fully loaded, but it was somewhere in the forties (and the fan never went higher than the 1600's rpm), so I think whatever I used is working okay.

 

[TerraPhantm]

Not a bad temperature, though once you start OCing and increase the voltage, try to keep it under 50. Above that, you start to get some stability issues (when OCing anyways)

 

[Doomulation]

Please do not use that paste, its really crap. Use arctic silver. Get a bottle of mostly pure alchohol (90% or higher) and use a lint free cloth, such as a coffee filter, to clean the paste off. Then apply a small bead (very small, like no bigger than half the size of a grain of white rice) of arctic silver to the CPU before mounting the fan. You will get much better cooling performace with this, and it doesn't cost that much.

Well, I haven't had any overheating problems yet. But if I get to overclocking sometime, I might keep your advice in mind.