Planning on assembling a new system...need help

[Danni4343]

Hello

I want to assemble my own system but I have never done it before. Fear of failure/screwing-up is holding me back.

I have decided to used the ASUS P5B-E mobo.

Here are the few questions I can't find the answers to.

1) Are chipsets included with the mobo or they come with the processor?

2) Is there a integrated graphic card in the above mentioned mobo? If not, which ones are compatible? (I am not a gamer. Just need something decent)

3) What type of ram is compatible with this mobo? How do I figure that out?

4) The most system hogging applications I use are photoshop and InDesign. Is 1GB ram and a core 2 Duo enough to handle that? (using XP pro SP2)

5) Does it matter what case I get? DO I need to keep in mind something/s when purchasing a case?

6) What type of power supply do I need?

7) Lastly, does anyone have a recommended place where I can purchase these parts from in Toronto?

I hope someone can help me out here. As you have already figured, I am a complete noob when it comes to this.

Cheers and Merry Christmas!

[Minsc]

Originally Posted by Danni4343

1) Are chipsets included with the mobo or they come with the processor?

Chipsets? The BIOS, PCI bus, RAM controller, ect, are part of the motherboard if that's what you mean(the northbridge/southbridge/bios chip)... The CPU only processes instructions but it has its own cache. The bios chip is usually replaceable.

2) Is there a integrated graphic card in the above mentioned mobo? If not, which ones are compatible? (I am not a gamer. Just need something decent)

Nope. You can use any PCI or PCI-E graphics card, but not AGP, with that mobo. (You probably shouldn't be using a PCI GPU) If I were you, I'd get one of the lower GeForce 7 or 8 series cards, which should cost you around $100, maybe $50 but I wouldn't go any lower than that. I've heard pretty good things about the Radeon HD ones too.

3) What type of ram is compatible with this mobo? How do I figure that out?

The memory panel on the site says DDR2 DIMMs.

4) The most system hogging applications I use are photoshop and InDesign. Is 1GB ram and a core 2 Duo enough to handle that? (using XP pro SP2)

Most apps will run on anything.. I'm not sure what InDesign is but unless it's a 3D modeller, it shouldn't need too much RAM. I'd get two 1GB sticks if I were you. Whatever you do, make sure you get two sticks of the same size and put one in each channel to improve proformance.

5) Does it matter what case I get? DO I need to keep in mind something/s when purchasing a case?

You'll need an ATX-compatible case. That's pretty much it as long as it has enough drive bays and everything.

6) What type of power supply do I need?

A good one that can supply enough power to your computer(measured in watts). There's a flash applet somewhere that'll let you estimate how much juice your box will use...
Make sure it's a high-quality one. A bad PSU can pretty much fry every other component in your box if it fails and discharges 120 volts of power over the power cables.
I have a 500-watt Ultra X-Finity PSU that I'm happy with. If you get that one, get a big case since it has a lot of cables. Also, modular PSUs will lower the voltages over the lines which is bad.
Make sure to get one with PCI-E and SATA power cables so that you can power those natively instead of using a converter.

7) Lastly, does anyone have a recommended place where I can purchase these parts from in Toronto?

Pretty much every computer shop is overpriced.
Use Newegg( Newegg.com - Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers, Digital Cameras and more! ).

EDIT: And the Core 2 Quad 6600 is a nice, cheap CPU. Many cores are useful if you're mostly using your computer to do work but not so much with games; most games won't benefit much from more than two cores.

[Danni4343]

Thx for the quick help Minsc.

When you go buy a ram, there is a different number present beside the "DDR2" part. I have seen one that says "DDR2 800." What does that number mean? Do I need to take that number into consideration?

And sometimes in brackets it says "PC2 6400" What does that mean?

Adobe InDesign is a newsletter/magazine/brochure designing software.

[Minsc]

Originally Posted by Danni4343

When you go buy a ram, there is a different number present beside the "DDR2" part. I have seen one that says "DDR2 800." What does that number mean? Do I need to take that number into consideration?

And sometimes in brackets it says "PC2 6400" What does that mean?

Those are both the speed of the RAM(with the first number being in hertz and the PC2 in some other unit).

Anyway, your mobo says it can support 800, 667, or 533mhz RAM so I guess you would look for something like DDR2 800 ram. I'd get it confirmed with someone else though. You could post your setup on a hardware forum before you buy it to see what they'll say..