Computer Assembly

[chipmaster]

Chipmaster's Christmas came early:

I just got a very very expensive computer (well, not a complete computer) that I would value at at least over $500 if not over 1K for $32.50.

On to the comp. I got it from an eccentric friend, who's father had attempted to build the computer, but failed to get it to work. Apparently, he was annoyed to the point where he just wanted the computer out of his life and told his son (my friend) to try to sell it to one of his friends for $12.50. I was first on his list because apparently, I'm the resident nerd. I couldn't believe the offer, but went straight to his house none-the-less. The computer was legit, and he only wanted another $20 on top of what his dad wanted, so he could "milk it." Honestly, the computer was worth more than that to me, but I'll take what I can get, right? Just to be clear, it's not like I robbed them of this computer. They're quite wealthy, and they insisted that they wanted no more than $32.50. I protested, saying that it should cost more, but they were having none of it.

He didn't tell me any of the specs of this thing, but the case alone is worth more than I paid for the entire thing. After looking through it, here's what I got from him. I'm not sure of the models of anything yet, and I might need some help determining this as it's not readily apparent:

*Motherboard. I'm not sure of the brand, but it says PT88OPro-A7 Combo on it.

*Processor. I'm not sure of the brand. The fan on it says intel. Could I have scored a core duo?!? :D

*Two Sticks of Corsair ram. They are each 512mb, making 1 gig of ram total. There are two of them, and the mobo allows for two more.

*Some sort of card in a PCI slot. I believe it's a sound card judging from the outputs it has in the back.

*Some sort of disk drive. Is it dvd, cd, dvd r, cd r; I have no idea...yet

*A SATA harddrive. I have no idea how much space this thing's got.

*Power Supply. Looks very professional. Again, I have no idea the model of this either.

*Coolant system. Really good lucking. I have no idea what the brand is.

*Awesome case. Way better than my current case.

*Power cables SATA cables IDE cables

I wanted to get this topic up ASAP, so I haven't taken it apart yet or given it thorough analysis. I did take some pictures (to prove I'm not full of shit). Here they are.












What do you guys think? Did I get ripped off? lol 8)

Here's my current list of things to buy for this computer:

*Monitor
*Graphics Card
*Keyboard

Also, I have extra supplies around my house which I may use which include:

*Power cord
*DVDRom Drive
*Floppy Drive
*CDR Drive
*Assorted IDE Cables
*Mice
*Harddrives
*Ethernet Cards
*Graphics Card (really old crappy one, but may be good for getting it set up before I get a better one)
*Mobo (sentimental value and the pursuit of knowledge is the only reason this relic remains in my house)
*Printer card (it has the serial port as an output and it plugs into a PCI slot)

Anything blatantly obvious that I'm missing. Before I get specific suggestions about what to buy, I want to better understand the parts I have. If this requires better pictures or the disassembly of the computer just inform me. I'm going to devote all of my free time to building this thing in the coming days. I'm so excited!

[Arcane Wizard]

I see three options:

1) Ask them what's in it.
2) Boot it up and run Everest.
3) Google every little word on the hardware you can find.

[todlangweilig]

[DigiTan]

Did he say what was wrong with it?

[chipmaster]

I've only gotten vague replies about what was wrong with it. Mostly dealing with windows not being able to boot and only being able to go into safe mode. This doesn't really concern me as I'll be putting linux on it ASAP.

Digi, I remember reading your topic on how you are going to be building a computer as well. I think it'd be helpful to post each other tips and what to do and not to do as we go. Plus we can compete to see who will create the better rig. Although, I got a head start, I don't think it's anything too big for the creator of Robot Wars to come back from ;)

After removing the fan I've discovered that I have a 3GHZ P4. Rats. I was really hoping I had gotten a core duo. I'm not sure what socket type I have, but I'm strongly considering upgrading from this.

[todlangweilig]

[Arcane Wizard]

3.4Ghz HT is still pretty good...

[chipmaster]

[todlangweilig]

[chipmaster]

Yea, but what about the mobo and graphics card. And are core duo's any better than AM2's (isn't that just the socket type or something)? Plus I want to be confident that it will all work with each other as I've never built my own computer before.

[Arcane Wizard]

There's no such thing as Core Duo > AM2 or vice versa, you have to compare every model you could get and the memory you could get with it.

Core Duo = core type
AM2 = socket type

[chipmaster]

Alright, how does this build sound:

Motherboard: ASUS P5W Delux $230
*http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16813131025

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo @ 1.86 Ghz $190
*http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16819115005

Video Card: EVGA 7600GT $140
*http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16814130017

TV Tuner: KWORLD ATSC-110 $70
*http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16815100140

So this is going to cost me around $630 minus rebates (looking like $35) plus shipping (hey maybe I can get that free).

Plus I'll be keeping the ram, dvd burner, hdd, power supply, and cooling system from the current system.

[DigiTan]

Core 2 Duo E6300 is really good. For the longest time, I was split between E6300 and Athlon X2 3800+/4200+ because of the benchmark similarities. With GeForce 7600GT and DDR2-800 SDRAM you can probably get tripple-digit frame rates in all but the most recent games. Or pretty close.

[Arcane Wizard]

You can get the same result plus AM3 support for next year for a lot less money if you go with an AM2.

Artic Cooling case with 500W power supply and 2x80mm + 1x120m fans (89)
KINGSTON 2x512MB PC6400 RAM 4-4-12 (125)
Maxtor SATA-2 7200RPM 8MB Cache 160GB DiamondMax 17 (49,95)
Asrock ALIVENF6G-DVI Nforce430 2000MHz buss 8GB max RAM RAID 0,1,10 Gigabit LAN onboard GF6100 (65)
AMD Athlon™ 64 X2 EE 3800+ (139)
7600GT (139)
LG L1919S -SF 19" 1400:1 (209)
Pre-delivery service: assembly and boot test. (30)

As you can see prices are a bit higher, but shipping/delivery is much much cheaper (like 10 bucks or something) so it evens out. So I listed the euro prices above but with convertion and shipping you'd end up paying about the same in dollars. Getting the 7600GT in a week or two, as money doesn't grow on trees so I want to see how the 6100 works out first and how much I'm left with. Though, since I already have a LG 1919S 19" monitor I could just get the 7600GT instead of the second monitor. I'll probably do that and buy the monitor for 10 euro less at a shop nearby when I need this system for productivity as well as games. I'm ordering this afternoon or tomorrow.

What kind of RAM do you have in that thing now? Might be worth/requiring upgrading.

[chipmaster]

[Arcane Wizard]

I wanted to go Intel Core Duo first, but though they have a slight performance edge, the price/performance ratio just isn't worth it for me unless we're talking quad core Xeons or something.

The RAM is good, I just didn't see you say anywhere if it was DDR1 or DDR2, and you'd need/want DDR2.

[DigiTan]

Yep, I was going to buy that Core 2+Board combo, but when they said that deal was over I know I'd go with Athlon X2 (which was still barely in my price range).

[Adm.Wiggin]

Would it be too much to ask to have "Assembly" changed in the title of this thread? It seems a little confusing to me, as Assembly usually has a different context around here ;)


It's like going to see the Village expecting a horror... It's a good movie, but you get Genre Confusion because it's not actually horror.

[NETWizz]

First things first, get the motherboard manual from the BioStar website and print it. Make certain it is the right manual.

Next, ID your memory and also find out the speed i.e. DDR2 400/533/800

What power supply do you have?

You need to find these things out. Also, ID the hard drive and the optical drive and the sound card as best you can. You may have to look for the vender and look at what products they offer and try to identify it by picture.

The gist of what I am saying is to identify what you have.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Now, Identify the Intel Processor In Box its core type bus speed, etc. Prescott perhaps?

Finally, using your motherboard book or website, identify compatible processors and memory types. Make sure you are compatible. I can see that it takes PCI-Express.

I would next, remount the heatsink with Artic Silver 5, remove the motherboard and make sure the spacers and backplate are done just right and that nothing is shorted, and finally add your new video card and reset the CMOS. Have no drives attached and leave out all cards except the video card. Make sure the ram is placed in a dual channel configureation if appropriate.

Verify the chasis is connected properly and that all of the LEDs and switches work properly. I.e. turn it on and off, hit reset, view the LEDs.. For this you should identify the case and download the manuals if there is any confusion as to the LEDs, the leads, or how to add and remove hardware.

I highly recomend at this point you boot and go into setup. Load the optimized settings, set the time, et cetera. Make sure temperatures and everything is okay and that the memory is properly detected at proper speeds... Now add the Optical Drive and reboot and run Memtest86+ to make sure all is well. Assuming you get a pass and the computer is still working hours later, add the hard drive and then do some diagnostics on it for good measure. I recomend SMART and some diagnostic software that does seeks, reads, writes, confidence test... Just find something that is bootable and run it. Make sure the Bios fully recognizes the drive and in the proper location i.e. SATA0 for instance or Primary Master... You get the idea. Make sure the size is reported properly. If you have a 250 GB drive reported as say 137, you know you need a BIOS update.

Read the service notes on the motherboard, read the reviews, read what is fixed in later bios updates for it...

Assuming everything passes and the hard drive is okay, run Darik's Boot and Nuke and do a quick wipe with 1 pass to completely remove any left over crap, partitions, file systems, boot sectors, viri, malware, master boot record.... everything

In the BIOS, turn off integrated video if it has it before installing Windows. It is best to use only one video source as there is less possiblity of there being a conflict. After it finishes the install, install all of the drivers needed such as the VIA chipset if required, Nvidia Driver for the video card, sound driver, NIC driver.... If everything works well, you may wish to add the separate sound card and TV tuner, but do each separatly and load the drivers separately to weed out any problems. You should download all of your drivers off the Internet to make sure they are up to date.

Install all of your Windows Updates and find a utility like CPU-Z or possibly motherboard monitor, sandra, something that gives you temperature readouts and other information to make sure everything is okay. Assuming everything checks out fine, do a Prime95 tourture test for a good 24 hours or at least overnight. Watch the temperature for a while to make sure it doesn't over heat. If after an hour it has not overheated, it is thermally stable. If the computer is still running in the morning and has produced no errors, it is considered stable in that it gives the proper outputs for various inputs even at exttreme levels of tourture testing.

At this point, you have a known good, proven, tested, reliable PC that will not be any trouble for you.

Since you already got all of the parts, why not use them? Heck, don't buy a new motherboard and processor without first trying to make that one work. A 3 Ghz Pentium 4 may turn out to be all that you need. Obviously that motherboard is simi recent givein the PCI Express and DDR2. I am just saying that if you have any problems chances are they revolve around the motherboard.

Therefore, you must get the motherboard book, read service notes, bios fixes, reviews, et cetera. Also disable unused things in motherboard setup such as integrated video if it has it and integrated sound if you add a sound card. Chances are you reallly don't have to disable this stuff, but it would never hurt. Regardless, the more you know the easier it will be to troubleshoot.

I can already tell you that if it mostly laoded Windows, the processor is okay. Take it from me that there is no part more important than the motherboard and that everythign relovlves around the motherboard; hence, if you identify all of your other parts and compare them to the manual, you may spot a problem.

[chipmaster]

Thanks for the always thorough information NETWiz. I greatly appreciate the time and effort you put into your posts. ;)

I'll definitely follow these steps to find out what the problem he was having with the computer was; however, I have my heart set on a newer processor and motherboard. I do plan on using this computer for very intensive use including running the latest games. That's not to say that I won't follow the steps you have laid out to find out what is the problem with this computer. Instead I think I'll follow them to determine the cause, and then sell the parts that I know work fine on Ebay or something of the like.

I'll post again after I have followed all of the steps laid out for me. Thanks for the help.