drager773

So I am extremely new to building pcs and the thought of it really really intimidates me. Hope the helpful people here are TSF can answer my many questions so I gain a bit more confidence. Here we go then!

What essentials tools do I need to build the computer with? Small phillips screw driver... ummm I don't know what else.

Do I need a Anti-Static Wrist strap?

Am I better off getting an AMD Phenom II Quad or an Intel quad?

I'm kind of skeptical about SLI/Crossfire...Is it worth it?

Do I need 2 Hard Drives? One for storage and one for back ups?

Can someone here link me to a guide on what to do after building a pc? BIOS/Installing OS

Is overclocking hard? Will it destroy my system overttime?

Mid Tower or Full Tower? I really like this case for its looks but, I don't know if its big enough for a large video card or has good cooling for overclocking

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811156078

Where do I need to install fans in my case? I was probally going to buy better fans and a CPU cooler.

I kind of am leaning toward an AMD Phenom II X4 Black Edition 955 BE processor because of all the great reviews and the cheap price on newegg.com, its only 189.99. I also like to Multitask and I think it will fit my needs by reading all the reviews.

Ok thats all I can think about now, I'm really nervous about building a pc and maybe someone could link me to a recent computer building guide that I can read up on. All the guides I've seen are from 2004 and lower.

I forgot to mention I will be playing games, watching movies, and downloading torrents off of this pc

Phædrus2401

Antistatic wrist straps can be useful, but aren't strictly necessary. As long as you have some part of yourself touching the metal of the case while installing components (to equalize charge) you shouldn't have any problem with static.

Right now the best bang for the buck for high end gaming systems is either the Core 2 Duo E7x00 series or E8x00 series, or the AMD Phenom II x2 or x4s.

You're right to be skeptical, SLI/Crossfire aren't usually worth it.

You don't need two hard drives, it's convenient to have a backup, but it isn't strictly necessary.

The BIOS should already be in ROM so no need to install it, as for the OS just pop the disk into your CD drive and reboot the computer, it should bring you to the install screen.

Overclocking isn't really "hard"... But you have to know what you're doing. It will shorten the lifespan of your computer, and also cause it to run hotter and consume more electricity. However it can give significant increases in performance. It's a calculated risk. If this is your first time you probably don't want to start overclocking just yet.

Mid tower should work for any but the most powerful builds. However, full tower will give better cooling. It depends on how much you want to spend on the case and how much room you have for your computer.

The Antec 300/900/1200 series already has good quality fans in it, and the ones in the CoolerMaster cases aren't bad either. At most you might need to buy a side fan, I recommend Antec or Scythe. As for a CPU cooler, if you aren't going to be overclocking then an Arctic Freezer Pro 7 should be all you need.

It's a good CPU.

http://electronics.howstuffworks.com...a-computer.htm

drager773

Wow thanks for that great reply Phaedrus. Well back to the drawing board, been trying to decide on a build for the two months. ONe more thing could someone suggest some good components I can use, So far I got this stuff

Case - Antec 1200 (Looks good from all the reviews)

CPU - AMD Phenom II X4 Black Edition 955 BE

Hard Drive - Western Digital Caviar Black 750 gb or 1tb idk

Monitor - Acer 21.5 in. Widescreen w/ HDMI

Thats all the parts that I know I want... here going to list the parts I dont know too much about

Video Card - was thinking about the Sapphire 4890

Mobo - I dont know about this one at all, really clueless. I know its needs HDMI and Internet on it

Optical Drive - Was thinking about one of the Lite-On DVD Burner

CPU cooler - Don't know...Zalman or Arctic Pro 7 looks good...

If I left anything out please correct me

P.S. Also do I need to buy any extra cables/screws/standoffs/stuff like that?

Phædrus2401

Go with the 750GB, the higher the hard drive capacity the higher the failure rate (generally). Don't get me wrong, the 1TB drives are still very good, but the percentage of those DOA or dead within the first year is a bit higher than the 750GB or 500GB drives. Not a huge concern, but worth considering.

The Sapphire Radeon 4890 is a very nice graphics card. Better than mine, lucky. It will manage all games at their highest settings at a 1680x1050 resolution, though you may have to drop down to 1440x900 to get good framerates on some of the most demanding games.

Don't know much about AMD motherboards myself, I'll leave that to another tech. HDMI is on your graphics card, though, not the motherboard (unless you have integrated video, which you won't need with a 4890).

Lite-On is good.

The AFP7 will work well if you just want a cooler, quieter PC, the Zalmans are generally intended for overclocking though an Zalman 9500 would work about as well as the AFP7.

You'll need RAM. Of course, that has to wait on what motherboard you get, an AM2/AM2+/AM3 board will take DDR2 RAM, while an AM3 only board will take DDR3. As for brands, I recommend Asus or Gigabyte.

You also forgot a power supply. In the range you're looking at a Corsair TX750W should do quite nicely:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139006


I'm gonna log off for tonight, hope the information helps.