Building My First PC - Help Please!

[Doomulation]

Onboard sound isn't that bad at all, actually. Msi delivers pretty decent onboard audio. Saves you from buying a sound card, although you might miss out on a gameport. The market is hard these days... there are few motherboards with support for athlon64 and pci express, but there are ones...

And still, there are few good ddr2 memories with low timings. Hmm yes... tricky, tricky.

 

[JinXD]

Hmm, are you sure? Well anyway, your right about the motherboards having USB 2 so it really doesn't matter. You would probably know better than I since I have no experience with USB2 as of yet.

My usb2 HDD works on usb1, but that is the only usb2 device I've tried on usb1. As you say, most new motherboards come with usb2 anyway so it's something Jaz shouldn't worry about.

 

[vampireuk]

You will be suprised at how much pressure you have to put on the heatsink clip to get it locked on.

 

[Clements]

I just picked up an Audigy 2 ZS with 2 games for £60 off ebay, so if you want decent sound in games or just in general, this is a good choice.

If you can't find an nForce4, a MSI Neo2 Platinum (nForce3) is the best 2nd option, and it uses AGP for graphics.

 

[Eagle]

Onboard sound isn't that bad at all, actually. Msi delivers pretty decent onboard audio. Saves you from buying a sound card, although you might miss out on a gameport. The market is hard these days... there are few motherboards with support for athlon64 and pci express, but there are ones...

And still, there are few good ddr2 memories with low timings. Hmm yes... tricky, tricky.

Yes but I need surround support and a line in for my TV capture card and untill they change the design of ATX cases, onboard audio will never be able to have all 3 since the line in port doubles as the rear speaker port. The quality is OK, but it has issues with what you can do and the audigy has a lot better quality.

You will be suprised at how much pressure you have to put on the heatsink clip to get it locked on.

I know what you mean, my first AMD I was afraid I was going to break the chip just getting the fan on there.

I just picked up an Audigy 2 ZS with 2 games for £60 off ebay, so if you want decent sound in games or just in general, this is a good choice.

If you can't find an nForce4, a MSI Neo2 Platinum (nForce3) is the best 2nd option, and it uses AGP for graphics.

I've had trouble with MSI, I personally can't reccomend them. I've gotten boards that had slots that just didn't work properly. My brother got one that they didn't leave enough room to mount it on a standard case and when he mounted it, he was shorting together pin traces with the metal mounting plate.

 

[JinXD]

Yes but I need surround support and a line in for my TV capture card and untill they change the design of ATX cases, onboard audio will never be able to have all 3 since the line in port doubles as the rear speaker port. The quality is OK, but it has issues with what you can do and the audigy has a lot better quality.

Here's hoping some BTX hardware gets released soon, mush better design IMO.

Back on topic, I'd have to agree I wouldn't go for onboard audio. The audio I have on my mobo is/was pretty poor, for example trying to listen to music and 7zip a file/folder meant the sound was fecked. Once I stuck in the audigy from my old PC, disabled the onboard in BIOS, the problem was solved.....

 

[rcgamer]

I just picked up an Audigy 2 ZS with 2 games for £60 off ebay, so if you want decent sound in games or just in general, this is a good choice.

If you can't find an nForce4, a MSI Neo2 Platinum (nForce3) is the best 2nd option, and it uses AGP for graphics.

i got the same audio card with two games(tombraider aod and rainbow six 3 ravenshield) sounds ooooh so sweet dont it?

 

[sheik124]

blah on the Audigy, SoundStorm will never die, never! okay, so I know nVIDIA completly shut down the sound division, but at least its still on our nForce2 mobos, right?

 

[sheik124]

and dont forget the fastest ram: http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=20-145-550&depa=0

why would anyone need that if they don't want to OC?

 

[Clements]

blah on the Audigy, SoundStorm will never die, never! okay, so I know nVIDIA completly shut down the sound division, but at least its still on our nForce2 mobos, right?

Yeah, my nForce2 board didn't not have Soundstorm, just a crappy Realtek codec (like the ones you can only find on the newer nForce3/4 boards), so I was very disappointed. But, now I have the Audigy, and nVidia disbanding their audio division, it's goodbye to on-board forever for me. Drivers are holding up very well.

i got the same audio card with two games(tombraider aod and rainbow six 3 ravenshield) sounds ooooh so sweet dont it?

It sure does. Got the same package as me.

Now I can turn the audio settings up to maximum and have full hardware acceleration and hardware EAX with almost zero CPU penalty that you can't get with most of those on-board solutions.

 

[rcgamer]

if you dont already have it then get some surround sound . call of duty is wicked sounding. unfortunatly for me i got mine when they were still expensive. i think mine was around 115$ but the games more than made up for it so i was happy. besides my girlfriend bought it for me anyway. :happy:

 

[4real]

If you are a noob don't go for the higher priced stuff as people have said.

More the money the more you can lose if you set it up wrong.

I think people have forgot that you are a noob and should build a basic system to start with that you can add to later.

No one has said that you will need to set the jumpers on some boards for the right bus speed and some boards can blow up if set wrong, also make sure you are static free before you start.

best of luck with it anyway

 

[sheik124]

No one has said that you will need to set the jumpers on some boards for the right bus speed and some boards can blow up if set wrong

because I'vent seen a board since 2002 that doesn't have jumperless FSB

 

[2bzy4ne1]

You will be suprised at how much pressure you have to put on the heatsink clip to get it locked on.

Very surprised, I thought I was going to break the processor when I had to put the clip on my pc. :blush:

 

[zAlbee]

I'm very happy with my onboard sound actually. It's a Creative CT5880 chip, which I *think* is the same as the SB PCI 128. If you only have 2 speakers with/without sub, there's no real point in getting an extra sound card IMO. Comes with gameport, and I never had any of the CPU usage problems that JinXD mentioned...

But then I suppose you'll want 5.1 channel sound like everyone else... oh well. onward with useless technology!

Very surprised, I thought I was going to break the processor when I had to put the clip on my pc.

agreed... i thought my motherboard was going to crack.

 

[sheik124]

thats why 3rd party HSFs are awesome, especially ones that use different mounting systems, like my zalman. you put two brackets on the motherboard using the 4 screwholes on the mobo, and then screw the heatsink into it (easy as hell)

 

[james.miller]

Yes but I need surround support and a line in for my TV capture card and untill they change the design of ATX cases, onboard audio will never be able to have all 3 since the line in port doubles as the rear speaker port. The quality is OK, but it has issues with what you can do and the audigy has a lot better quality.

not true. I have the s939 MSI kt8 neo2 platinum and the rear speaker port is seperate to the line in port.

The only time you cant use the line in port is if you use 7.1 mode. then it doubles as the "side" speakers ports.

I know what you mean, my first AMD I was afraid I was going to break the chip just getting the fan on there.

a64's have heatspreaders. You'd break the baord before damaging the chip

I've had trouble with MSI, I personally can't reccomend them. I've gotten boards that had slots that just didn't work properly. My brother got one that they didn't leave enough room to mount it on a standard case and when he mounted it, he was shorting together pin traces with the metal mounting plate.

I had an MSI kt3 Ultra ARU and it was hidious. Make no mistake though, that kt8 neo2 platinum is the finest board ive ever used. I dont even miss soundstorm on my old nf7-s.


Also a note on cooling: you dont need to go and buy monsterous heatsinks. THose of you who use A64's will know they overclock very well even on the stock heatsinks. I can run my A64 @ 2.4ghz all day long on the stock heatsink, and thats with no case fans whatsoever