Questions galore

[Pesmerga]

Yay, I've got a couple of questions for you hardware people! This is my first time building a PC, I'd like to do this right the first time

1) Do I need SATA / IDE chords / wire thingies for my 2 cd/dvd drives and 1 HDD? If you could go in detail which chords I will need for the HDD / CD drives, that'd be nice.

2) Agh, where is the thermal glue or whatnot that goes with the heatsink? Good brand names / items specifications would be nice included info.

3) Do I really need an anti-static wrist band? I'm pretty sure I can be diligent and be sure to ground myself every 30 seconds or whatnot

4) When I get the entire thing built, do I need a boot disk of Windows XP? Would a copy of XP substitute as a boot disk? I haven't a clue what this even is, the bootdisk that is. Help!

5) I've got 2 80mm fans and a 420w PSU (Thermaltake) in a case with no lights or shiat like that, is that PSU wattage powerful enough to handle it?

6) Besides SATA / IDE chords, are there any other wires that may not come with the items that I should be aware of?

Thanks for your time.

 

[NonStopableForce]

Yay, I've got a couple of questions for you hardware people! This is my first time building a PC, I'd like to do this right the first time

1) Do I need SATA / IDE chords / wire thingies for my 2 cd/dvd drives and 1 HDD? If you could go in detail which chords I will need for the HDD / CD drives, that'd be nice.

2) Agh, where is the thermal glue or whatnot that goes with the heatsink? Good brand names / items specifications would be nice included info.

3) Do I really need an anti-static wrist band? I'm pretty sure I can be diligent and be sure to ground myself every 30 seconds or whatnot

4) When I get the entire thing built, do I need a boot disk of Windows XP? Would a copy of XP substitute as a boot disk? I haven't a clue what this even is, the bootdisk that is. Help!

5) I've got 2 80mm fans and a 420w PSU (Thermaltake) in a case with no lights or shiat like that, is that PSU wattage powerful enough to handle it?

6) Besides SATA / IDE chords, are there any other wires that may not come with the items that I should be aware of?

Thanks for your time.

1. Depends on your mobo, and hdd, if they both have SATA then you can use a SATA cable, but other wise you can use 2 diff IDE cables, and usually there are at least 2 that come with the Mobo
2. Every pc i built the CPu came with it, or had some wierd sticky kind already on it.
3. Depends on if you have static electicity problems, like if you get shocked after rubbing your feet on carpet, and touching a door handle. But I personally don’t use them : p
4. The original Xp CD will work just fine.
5. Plently
6. Not that I can think of.

-NSF

 

[Pesmerga]

Thanks a bunch.

If thermal glue isn't included, I'm assuming I can just pick some up at my local geek shop?

 

[J_Tweedy]

well if you're buying a gfx card or cpu by itself, then it will obviously come with the heatsink and fan already installed, along with thermal glue. If you're replacing a heatsink, most after market heatsinks/fans come with some thermal paste/glue in atube.

 

[Pesmerga]

well if you're buying a gfx card or cpu by itself, then it will obviously come with the heatsink and fan already installed, along with thermal glue. If you're replacing a heatsink, most after market heatsinks/fans come with some thermal paste/glue in atube.

Oh, so my CPU comes with it's own heatsink?

I guess it doesn't matter, I should get a new one anyway...or should I?

 

[bibble]

the thermal paste is on the heatsink itself usually a gray color

 

[PickledGecko]

"Boxed" versions of CPUs come with heatsinks, they're around £20 cheaper without them and since they are designed to work with the CPU they're sold with they usually suck, from an overclockers perspective. If it doesn't come with thermal paste, a good brand is "Arctic Silver".

 

[J_Tweedy]

If you know as little as you say you do, I don't think it'd be wise to start taking of heatsinks/ replacing heatsinks, and possibly voiding the warranties, unless you're confident you can do it. Retail pack cpus, and graphics cards come with heatsinks and fans that more often than not are perfectly suitable for a normal user- that is, those not wanting to overclock speeds on their hardware. But, for example, my graphics card came with a heatsink and fan that lets me overclock plenty without much change in temperature, so there's no point at this stage for me to get another heatsink.

 

[Asus]

Generally if you buy RETAIL products then the cords and other things you need will be included. If you buy OEM or WHITE BOX items then they may not.

The Retail CPU will come with the heatsink and a thermal pad. If you want to use Thermal greese for lower temps or OCing then I would suggest Arctic Silver Ceramique (non-conductive). Arctic Silver 5 is also good but it is conductive.

I don't use Anti-Static straps either. I just touch the metal case so I'm the same charge.