Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.abit (More info?)

Margaret, here's link to the Targa system mentioned ( for GBP 599, = USD
1050 approx) NB - no screen. I have 17" TFT already.

http://www.targa.co.uk/cms/targa_2 [...] ukt_id=363

Couple of things -
1/ PSU at 300w seems a bit low (have a spare 350w)

2/ Free slots - just 1 PCI free. I assume the dial-up modem is occupying
one slot, which I would probably take out (not needed, use LAN cable modem)
and replace with 2nd LAN card (for home network, via crossover cable to
daughters laptop). Assume PCI and PCI-E are the same thing.

BUT - what the heck are SATA slots (there's 3 free ones) - what kit goes
into those?
(I googled to get the definition Serial-ATA, with info that it's a 4 wire
thin cable connection, which doesn't answer my question - what kit goes into
these slots?.

Finally - now you can see exactly what's there, rather than my condensed
description - still think it's good value for money? Any drawbacks or
reservations?

Would appreciate your comments (and from anyone else who'se lurking around).

Sincerely, Silvabod

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.abit (More info?)

"Silvabod" <nospam@thank.you> wrote in message
> Margaret, here's link to the Targa system mentioned

Oooh, is this a private thread or can anyone join in? Presumably if you'd
meant it to be private you'd have sent Margaret a mail, so...

> Assume PCI and PCI-E are the same thing.

Erm, no. PCI Express sockets are the successor to, and are physically and
electrically incompatible with old style. Assuming they're the same thing
would be a major error.

> BUT - what the heck are SATA slots (there's 3 free ones) - what
> kit goes into those?

Serial ATA hard disks, or, far less commonly, optical drives.

> (I googled to get the definition Serial-ATA, with info that it's a 4
> wire thin cable connection, which doesn't answer my question - what kit
> goes into these slots?.

I'm sure you could get a stack more info than that if you googled a little
longer. For the sake of completeness, Serial ATA cables have seven
conductors btw, not four.

> Finally - now you can see exactly what's there, rather than my condensed
> description - still think it's good value for money?

You could go buy all the bits and build yourself something of similar spec
for that sort of money. The difference would be that you'd then get full
retail bits, which normally come with longer warranties , and of course have
full control over component brand and model.
--


Richard Hopkins
Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom
(replace nospam with pipex in reply address)

The UK's leading technology reseller www.dabs.com

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.abit (More info?)

Richard, no, this is not a private thread. In a previous thread, we
determined that Silvabod doesn't feel comfortable building a computer from
scratch. Otherwise, yes I would normally agree that building one's own
computer is somewhat of a money saver, fun thing to do, and lets you get
exactly the components you want.

Silvabod, if you do want to take this conversation off-line, feel free to
email me. Just remove "nospam" from my address.

See comments within text.

"Richard Hopkins" <richh@dsl.nospam.com> wrote in message
news:43134693$0$6475$cc9e4d1f@news-text.dial.pipex.com...
> "Silvabod" <nospam@thank.you> wrote in message
>> Margaret, here's link to the Targa system mentioned
>
> Oooh, is this a private thread or can anyone join in? Presumably if you'd
> meant it to be private you'd have sent Margaret a mail, so...
>
>> Assume PCI and PCI-E are the same thing.
>
> Erm, no. PCI Express sockets are the successor to, and are physically and
> electrically incompatible with old style. Assuming they're the same thing
> would be a major error.

The latest and greatest video cards, also required in a socket 939 system,
are PCI Express. I know of no other devices currently that are PCI Express,
but more are supposedly on the way.

>> BUT - what the heck are SATA slots (there's 3 free ones) - what
>> kit goes into those?
>
> Serial ATA hard disks, or, far less commonly, optical drives.

Serial ATA is a new, non-SCSI interface for hard drives. There's Serial ATA
(150MB/sec) and Serial ATA II (300). In comparison, existing parallel ATA
or (UDMA) drives are rated at 100 and 133. I haven't yet got my hands on a
SATA hard drive, but I've read that these rated speeds are burst rates, and
the real difference between SATA and SATA II are the electronics, not so
much a speed difference. SATA drives are hot pluggable, and you need a
separate cable per SATA drive, unlike PATA, where you have master and slave
drives on one cable/channel. Here's a brief description of SATA:
http://www.tomshardware.com/storage/20020812/

Currently I know of only two SATA optical drives. They are Plextor 12- and
16x DVD writers, respectively. Personally, I'd stick with PATA for optical
drives and save those SATA ports for hard drives. When I needed a faster
DVD burner, I opted for the NEC ND-3540A. At ~$40 each OEM, I was able to
buy two and have $$ left over from what a Plextor would have cost. (Plextor
does have a larger cache though.)

The specs listed on the mainboard say there are three standard PCI slots,
with none available. (I can't see the one free you mention.) The modem
takes up one. But this mainboard has bultin sound, networking, firewire and
USB2.0, so I don't know what would be taking up the other(s). I looked up
the exact specs of that board. They're here:
http://www.giga-byte.com/MotherBoa [...] K8NF-9.htm

Personally, I would put more than even a 350w PS. But Fortron makes a very
good PS, so you're getting a good, clean 300w there. Since the machine has
a 3-yr warranty, I'd leave the PS alone. (Fine to replace modem w/ network
card. But keep that modem to replace just in case you have to send the
machine for service.) But rather than installing a separate NIC and using a
crossover cable to your daughter's laptop, why don't you simply use a
broadband router with built-in switch and use a regular network cable to
your daughter's laptop? That way you've got extra ports available in case
you want to plug in other machines, you don't have to open up the box. And
.... a wired router probably won't cost any more than a network card will.
Further, that router is a NAT firewall which provides a bit more protection
from Internet nasties than plugging your PC directly into your broadband
modem.

Frankly I can't see anything wrong with this system per se. Looks like a
good value as far as store-bought computers go. Those of us who build their
own PCs will always prefer to build our own. But for people who don't want
to do it, this looks like a good buy ... to me, anyway. :-)

Regards,

Margaret

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.abit (More info?)

OK, I see the free PCI slot. With the modem filling one, that leaves a
third which *should* be available. I'm wondering if the video card is
blocking the third PCI slot. If that "silent pipe" is a heat pipe, it could
easily make the video card wide enough to block a PCI slot.

Regards,

Margaret

Archived from groups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.abit (More info?)

Yea, for me a 300W psu would be a non sequitur
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Non_sequitur_%28logic%29) for me.

I vote no, LOL.

Forrest

Motherboard Help By HAL web site:
http://home.comcast.net/~mobo.help/


On Mon, 29 Aug 2005 16:00:53 -0400, "Margaret Wilson"
<twokatmew@nospam.msn.com> wrote:

< snip >
>Personally, I would put more than even a 350w PS. But Fortron makes a very
>good PS, so you're getting a good, clean 300w there. Since the machine has
>a 3-yr warranty, I'd leave the PS alone.
< snip >