Questions from one who has never built a computer before

  • Thread starter Thread starter Phil Pease
  • Start date Start date
P

Phil Pease

Does a heatsink, cpu fan, thermal paste come with a retail cpu (AMD 2500+)
or do I need to buy these items?

Do cables to connect a retail motherboard (Aopen AK79D) to various
connectors come with the motherboard or do I need to buy these items?

Is a floppy drive necessary?
 
Phil said:
Does a heatsink, cpu fan, thermal paste come with a retail cpu (AMD 2500+)
or do I need to buy these items?
Click to expand...

Dont know about retail, but OEM doesnt.
Do cables to connect a retail motherboard (Aopen AK79D) to various
connectors come with the motherboard or do I need to buy these items?
Click to expand...

Usually the connectors to the case come with the case and the IDE /
floppy cables come with the MOBO.
Is a floppy drive necessary?
Click to expand...

No. Not with a self booting CD ROM.
 
retail boxed CPU's Intel, AMD, Cyrix, all come with HSF's

cables to hook up the drives and CD-ROM come with the MB

floppies are a necessity but not as much as prior years....with the
introduction of the bootable CD-ROM and that option in the bios, its getting
less and less a necessity...but is needed for driver installs that only come
on floppies.
 
Does a heatsink, cpu fan, thermal paste come with a retail cpu (AMD 2500+)
or do I need to buy these items?

Do cables to connect a retail motherboard (Aopen AK79D) to various
connectors come with the motherboard or do I need to buy these items?

Is a floppy drive necessary?
Click to expand...

_________________________________________________________

The retail box versions generally will have the extras you mentioned,
but I'd ask first to be sure. You may get a thermal pad instead of
paste, but that's ok as long as you only mount the heatsink once. If
you remove and remount it a second time, you'll need either a new pad or
paste. See directions on the Arctic Silver website.

No, a floppy drive isn't necessary. The system will work without it,
but if you go that route, be sure to install a CD-RW (not just a CD-R)
so you'll have a means of writing to a removable storage medium. You
eventually will want that at some time down the road.

Of course, floppy drives are so ridiculously cheap, I'd put one or two
in anyway, but that's just me. Practically all newer programs install
from a CD but some older ones require a floppy. And eventually a friend
will give you a floppy with something desirable on it. Your choice.
 
Phil Pease said:
Does a heatsink, cpu fan, thermal paste come with a retail cpu (AMD 2500+)
or do I need to buy these items?
Click to expand...

retail cpu does come with cpu fan heatsink. As thermal paste it does comes
with some paste pre applied. I do recommend removing this (with rubbing
alcohol) and apply acrtic silver 3.
Do cables to connect a retail motherboard (Aopen AK79D) to various
connectors come with the motherboard or do I need to buy these items?
Click to expand...

motherboard does come with various connectors IF it is retail
Is a floppy drive necessary?
Click to expand...

no a necessity but good to have.
 
you NEED a floppy if your installing SATA drivers/similar

i encountered this problem on my a7n8x dlx rev2.0 board when installing
winXP home on my 2 new western digital SATA raptor drives.

there were drivers on the asus supplied driver cd, but winXP install will
not search the CD drive for HDD controllers.

tim
Joseph said:
Phil Pease said:
Does a heatsink, cpu fan, thermal paste come with a retail cpu (AMD 2500+)
or do I need to buy these items?
Click to expand...

retail cpu does come with cpu fan heatsink. As thermal paste it does comes
with some paste pre applied. I do recommend removing this (with rubbing
alcohol) and apply acrtic silver 3.
Do cables to connect a retail motherboard (Aopen AK79D) to various
connectors come with the motherboard or do I need to buy these items?
Click to expand...

motherboard does come with various connectors IF it is retail
Is a floppy drive necessary?
Click to expand...

no a necessity but good to have.
Click to expand...
 
Howdy!

Phil Pease said:
Does a heatsink, cpu fan, thermal paste come with a retail cpu (AMD 2500+)
or do I need to buy these items?
Click to expand...

Yes, with the retail "Processor in a Box" package.

And if it's not in the package, then it's not a retail CPU.
Do cables to connect a retail motherboard (Aopen AK79D) to various
connectors come with the motherboard or do I need to buy these items?
Click to expand...

If purchased as new, boxed, yes. If used or bulk, ask who you're
buying this from.
Is a floppy drive necessary?
Click to expand...

I'd say so for maintenance. But, really, it's not necessary for
EVERYONE.

RwP
 
Phil said:
Does a heatsink, cpu fan, thermal paste come with a retail cpu (AMD 2500+)
or do I need to buy these items?

Do cables to connect a retail motherboard (Aopen AK79D) to various
connectors come with the motherboard or do I need to buy these items?

Is a floppy drive necessary?
Click to expand...

Because I was a first time builder at this time last year, I chose the
following option from
mwave.com:
For $9, they
"Assembly and testing option includes installation of memory, processor,
and cooling fan. CPU settings will be set,
and inital boot will be performed.
http://www.mwave.com/mwave/DEPTBUNCPU.HMX?UID=&CID=&Back=DEPTBUNCPU.HMX?

This was my biggest concern as a first time builder, and as far as I'm
concerned, $9 well spent.

As for the floppy:
They are not absolutely needed, but less than $20...why not???
 
Phil said:
Does a heatsink, cpu fan, thermal paste come with a retail cpu (AMD 2500+)
or do I need to buy these items?
Click to expand...

They come with it. I bought a 2500+ a couple months ago. The stock
setup is adequate for minor overclocking. It came with a wax-like layer
of thermal interface material (TIM) on the HS. Install the HSF BEFORE
installing the mobo. The TIM is easily and harmlessly removed with
coffee filters and 91% isopropyl alcohol if you have to. Then you can
use some aftermarket thermal compound. But don't: just get it right the
first time.

That's a great processor BTW---great choice.
 
check out amd's web site.

they recommend AGAINST using paste

They want you to use the pad that comes with the cpu/fan
 
check out amd's web site.

they recommend AGAINST using paste

They want you to use the pad that comes with the cpu/fan
Click to expand...

_________________________________________________________

AMD wants your installation to be idiot proof, thus the recommendation
to use the pad. Using paste takes a bit of skill and knowledge which
some folks won't have and who would therefore burn up their CPUs.

If I were AMD, I'd recommend the same thing, but that doesn't make it
the only way to do the job.
 
AMD wants your installation to be idiot proof, thus the recommendation
to use the pad. Using paste takes a bit of skill and knowledge which
some folks won't have and who would therefore burn up their CPUs.

If I were AMD, I'd recommend the same thing, but that doesn't make it
the only way to do the job.
Click to expand...

So then what do you recomend is the better option, using the pad or using
the paste? Which would provide better results in the long term? And
finally, how difficult is it to apply the thermal paste to the CPU?

Thanks in advance,

Eric Scofield
 
what about warranty? if you buy it with a pad and then youscrape that off and use paste, something goes wrong....you could be
screwed
 
So then what do you recomend is the better option, using the pad or using
the paste? Which would provide better results in the long term? And
finally, how difficult is it to apply the thermal paste to the CPU?
Click to expand...

_________________________________________________________

The pad is fine, but you can only use it once. If you ever remove the
heatsink, you have to either get another pad or apply the paste.

Whichever method you use, be sure to monitor the CPU temperature under
all ambient temperature conditions. MBM5 seems to work pretty well.
Get it at: http://mbm.livewiredev.com/
 
Back
Top