Final Parts Check

[Lemur]

Alright, I've got a question about the sound cards. Should I go with the Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi Extreme Audio or the Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-Fi XtremeGamer PCI Sound Card? The latter is about half the price of the former. Also, should I upgrade to the processor I mentioned in Post #12, or is it not worth it?

When it comes to X-Fi sound cards, go with the cheaper option. Very few applications use the special RAM Creative puts on the higher-end cards, so unless you're creating a home music studio with pro applications, don't bother with the upscale stuff.

The 6600 is a pretty sweet CPU, what with 4 megs of shared cache. It used to be the cheapest 4 meg part you could get, don't know if that's still true. I don't think spending much more is wise, what with the law of diminishing returns.

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

Thanks Lemur, I'll stick with the first CPU then.

I think I'll add a soundcard later on, when I have the money. Is it hard to add a soundcard after I've built the rest of the computer?


By the way, costs total to 1157.11 Euro, excluding shipping and extra building costs, which is within my price range at the moment.

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

Out of curiosity, what is a realistic time for a person who builds computers for a living to put this together? I called a local business that says they can do it in an hour and a half. Is this unrealistic?

[Lemur]

That's pretty realistic for an experienced builder. The most time-consuming part, in my experience, is patching Windows, and that takes a long time, even starting with Service Pack 2. My brother is a bit more tech-savvy than I am, so he created a slipstreamed version of his Windows install disc, so that he can re-install and need almost no patching.

But for the physical assembly? Hour and a half sounds reasonable.

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

I got another shop offering me everything including Windows XP install in 2/2.5 hours, so I guess that's not far off. My average price is about 30-35 Euro per hour to put everything together.

I would do this myself, but I'd rather practice with a bare bones kit first, so this computer I'll just get someone else to build.

Is it hard to add a soundcard after I've built the rest of the computer?

[Lemur]

The first build is nerve-wracking and exhilarating and frustrating and, eventually, triumphant. But it's not the best for a machine you want to have up and running smoothly soon.

[Evil_Maniac From Mars]

Which is better - Windows Professional or Windows Home (XP)? I have Windows Home, and I'm used to it, but are there any great advantages Professional offers? I'm not getting Vista yet, not by a long shot.

I'm ordering within the next few days, thanks so much to everyone who's helped me.

[Sigurd]

I guess I could answer this one as I have done it before (all though it has been a while).

Is it hard to add a soundcard after I've built the rest of the computer?

It is not hard at all.

Insert the card in an empty PCI slot, attach the cables that's in the sound card package. (I remember two cables where at least one is attached to the DVD player).
Disable the onboard soundcard (I remember jumpers on the motherboard) by following the instructions in the motherboard manual.
Install sound device drivers.

That should be all (if I remember it correctly).

[drone]

Insert the card in an empty PCI slot, attach the cables that's in the sound card package. (I remember two cables where at least one is attached to the DVD player).
Disable the onboard soundcard (I remember jumpers on the motherboard) by following the instructions in the motherboard manual.
Install sound device drivers.

That should be all (if I remember it correctly).

You can usually disable the motherboard sound from the BIOS these days.

One thing to check when doing this: verify that the IRQs aren't shared after changing your setup. I put in a sound card once, disabled the onboard sound, and ended up with the sound card sharing the networking IRQ. Vista has nothing on that!