Whee building new computer

[Thief Silver]

Well as I said, I'm gonna build a new compute from scratch, I seem to have been out of date on some technologies but I read up on SATA today which seems fairly neat.

But to avoid making any major fuck ups in my building process I'm going to rely on TNL.

I think I'm gonna go with the case (razor?) linked

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...bP180B%2bBlack

my only concern is the motherboard I'm looking at is
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813188017

The dimensions of a MoBo the case will hold are 12" by 9.6" which this motherboard is exactly, does that mean it's going to be a huge pain in the ass to put this thing in and that it'll be right up against the walls? or does that size take into account extra spacing around the MoBo.

CPU I have is a Intel Dual Core E6400 I bought a while ago with it's really shitty CPU fan, but Trial sword recommended

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835118223

Which looks fairly solid to me.

Now I have NEVER actually bought a sound card, I always just went with the On Board. Would it be worth it to go ahead and purchase

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16829121122

?

For a Hard Drive, OEM with a 3 year warranty sounds like a good deal to me

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136076

Some of my questions are, how noticeable of a difference is SATA, I haven't used one before? Obviously I have no choice but to get one, luckily this MoBo has an IDE that is not in some retardedly pain in the ass location for my DVD drives.

My Video card is a GeForce 7600 GT so it's at least PCI-Express (Last time I bought a motherboard I forgot to pay attention to that lol).

I don't know what needs to be said I think I got everything covered, I have some RAM that should fit (though I may want to look into buying better RAM).

[George]

Go for Seagate for the HDD. 5 year warranty, highly dependable.

Your case and mobo are fine. They'll fit without a problem. Whether or not you'll fit a Zalman heatsink is up to you, you definitely should measure that.

[Thief Silver]

Well luckilly someone who reviewed the heat sink gave the measurements for it.

The Heatsink/fan is 66 mm which is about 2 1/2 inches.

21.3" x 8.1" x 19.9" (H x W x D) are the measurements for the Case so I don't really see any reason that wouldn't fit.

[George]

Also, if you're worried about SATA, it's possibly the easiest thing ever. It makes the unwieldy IDE cables unnecessary, making far less clutter and promoting better airflow. I know Dyne wouldn't recommend it, but having both SATA HDDs and Optical drives makes your life so much simpler, and the only reason I would advise against it is if you ever wanted 4+ HDD's in a RAID formation.

[Dyne]

the height and footprint are only one thing to look at in a heatsink. a lot of times people think they're okay only to find out a mobo cap is in the way or something else unexpected. in most cases you should be okay but there's a lot more to worry about when choosing a cooler.

[Thief Silver]

http://www.newegg.com/product/produc...82E16820145015

Seems like a good deal on 2 gigs of RAM as well,I may just sell off the rest of my RAM if it's not as good for cheap or something. (Or keep it for backups).

Also someone said it was 66 m in the review, but the actual specifications say it's 85 which is about 3 Inches. So if the case is 8 inches in width, minus the inch or so taken up by the Motherboard there should technically be 4 inches with the expected dimensions.

Does that sound like it'll work to you? I can't figure out a reason it wouldn't work, and if you have a better suggestion for a fan please by all means

Actually I'm confused by the IDE/PATA connector on the Motherboard, it looks like It plugs in on the outside? or at least it's off the board and with the way the case is that means it'll be all the way on the bottom? Augh how the hell am I supposed to plug in 2 DVD drives with just an IDE Cable >.<

Also one thing I've never really asked about and never paid attention to was, what would I need in order to say, plug in my PS2 and play it on my Monitor? a TV tuner card?

I need to pull my head out of the ground, so the IDE/PATA cable that comes with the MoBo is a wierd version of the IDE cable, I'm hoping/assuming it's longer than the normal ones?

[Thief Silver]

Thinking of dropping the sound card for the sake of saving money, not sure how much it really matters. Worst case I can buy one at a later time methinks.

Ugh I do almost want to shell out the cash for Vista but damn that's so much more money lol.

[bandit]

I personally dont have a use for sound card. I had a sound blaster audigy on my old computer and never used it. So i removed it and sold it.

[Thief Silver]

Yeah I think for now, for the purpose of saving moneys, I shouldn't bother at all.

[Thief Silver]

So with:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811129017
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822148245
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145015
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813188017
(2 year Service Net Replacement Plan - 19.99)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16835118019

And $30 shipping that totals

$500 :/

I'm wondering if maybe I should try and cut back on something but it all seems fairly necessary. The most expensive piece is the Case (Which is wierd cause I use to just go for the cheapest case possible lol). Damn was hoping to spend less than that but I can't really see anything that I can cut out or replace with something just as good.

There's been constant saying "You can make a gaming rig that'll last 5 years for $500" but this which seems fairly average in power is already $500 to buy, that's excluding a decent video card and Drives, as well as a monitor.