My dream PC - AsusP5K-E, where's my mouse port?

I have been lurking here for a few weeks now studying your
recommendations. I've been playing on
http://www.compudirect.com/cgi-bin/s...FQQIFQodhDNgRA
with their configurator, juggling components, referring to NewEgg and
Asus sites to try and get all info I can.

My current config goes like this:
AsusP5K-E motherboard
Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 3GHz
4 gig (2x2) DDR2 800 memory
WD 150gb 10k hard drive
Antec 900 case
Antec NeoHE 550 power supply
nVidia GeForce 8600GT video card
a new copy of XPpro OEM
floppy
CD
CD r/w

Today I downloaded a users manual from Asus to clear the confusion
about only 1 ps2 port. Apparently there is a keyboard jack but nothing
for a mouse. I currently am using a Microsoft optical mouse - USB or
PS2. When I connect it USB my DriveImage7 boot CD cannot see the mouse
when I need to do a Restore on drive c:, very ungood. How do you guys
get around this problem?
And please critique my current line-up otherwise. This will be my
first self-built pc.
On yes, I'm not much of a gamer, but may try a little if I've got a
hot new pc. I'm probably too chicken to try much overclocking.

John B Smith <crassono_spam@verizon.net> wrote:

> Today I downloaded a users manual from Asus to clear the confusion
> about only 1 ps2 port. Apparently there is a keyboard jack but
> nothing for a mouse. I currently am using a Microsoft optical
> mouse - USB or PS2. When I connect it USB my DriveImage7 boot CD
> cannot see the mouse when I need to do a Restore on drive c:, very
> ungood. How do you guys get around this problem?

Use the keyboard?

A boot CD should definitely let you input through the keyboard.




--
My in-line street skates.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/27532210@N04/2565924423/

Currently filtering out most Google Groups posts/branches.

John B Smith wrote:
> I have been lurking here for a few weeks now studying your
> recommendations. I've been playing on
> http://www.compudirect.com/cgi-bin/s...FQQIFQodhDNgRA
> with their configurator, juggling components, referring to NewEgg and
> Asus sites to try and get all info I can.
>
> My current config goes like this:
> AsusP5K-E motherboard
> Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 3GHz
> 4 gig (2x2) DDR2 800 memory
> WD 150gb 10k hard drive
> Antec 900 case
> Antec NeoHE 550 power supply
> nVidia GeForce 8600GT video card
> a new copy of XPpro OEM
> floppy
> CD
> CD r/w
>
> Today I downloaded a users manual from Asus to clear the confusion
> about only 1 ps2 port. Apparently there is a keyboard jack but nothing
> for a mouse. I currently am using a Microsoft optical mouse - USB or
> PS2. When I connect it USB my DriveImage7 boot CD cannot see the mouse
> when I need to do a Restore on drive c:, very ungood. How do you guys
> get around this problem?

Any options in your current BIOS that can help with the mouse?

Why not get the E8400? Should be cheaper, has more cache and is the 45nm
more energy efficient one.
Personally, I wouldn't bother with the Raptor. I would just get the best
SATA2 (or possibly 2) drive(s) I could get for the money I was willing to
spend on it.
And if your'e not a mad keen gamer the 8600GT will be fine.
The case is a personal choice as much as anything. If it were me I would use
a black or gunmetal Antec P180, but then again, that tends to be the case I
use when I build PC's for others.
--
SteveH

I don't own that mainboard, but I'd expect it to be able to detect a USB
mouse. What is your "legacy USB support" setting in the BIOS setup? "Auto"
should work, but you could try "enable". If that doesn't do it for you, you
ought to be able to navigate around in DriveImage using the tab key.
(Inconvenient, but it should be usable.) You may also need to make sure that
DriveImage has its USB drivers installed, if possible.

(My mainboard is an Abit IP35 Pro. It uses the same P35 chipset as your Asus
board. It has no PS/2 sockets at all. There is an explicit choice in its
BIOS setup to allow USB devices to be recognized by the OS or the BIOS. I
choose the latter, and a TrueImage rescue CD works fine with a USB mouse.)

Other choices:

I agree with another poster that he 8400 CPU may be a better CPU choice, as
it is newer, lower power tech. It may also give slightly better performance
due to its larger L2 cache.(One caveat: the 8400 would require BIOS version
0906 or later.)

I'm not sure that the 150 GB Raptor is worth it. You can get 750 GB 7200 RPM
drives for less money. You won't get the fast head mechanism that you'd get
with the Raptor, but the sustained data rate may be similar (or even higher
for the 7200 RPM drive, due to its higher density). I suggest that you study
further to see which drive would be best for your needs.

The Antec 900 case has the PSU at the bottom. (I have a 900, but I find that
I prefer the traditional top location.) I presume that the 8 pin (really two
4 pin) 12V cable of the Neo 550 will reach, but I suggest that you check
that.

Speaking of the Antec PSU, Here's an alternative:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817703005

(PC Power & Cooling 610 W.) On the plus side, it has a single big +12V rail,
so there can be no issue with the way the power is divided among multiple
rails. On the down side, it's not modular. (Some people - probably rather
compulsive ones - would say that's a plus. I doubt that the contact
resistance in a modular power supply is a significant issue. I admit that
I'm not an EE.)

My own case at the moment is a Cooler Master Stacker 830, which I tried
mainly because it was offered at a good price (at Newegg) for a time. It's
large, but not especially heavy. (It's aluminum.) It's not as elegant as I'd
hoped, but there is a great deal more space inside than with the Antec 900.
The 830 also has a motherboard tray, which was a nice feature for the
initial build. On the other hand, the Antec 900 has space for full-length
graphics cards (like an 8800GTX), so it's not really limited.

It's hard to not try to talk you into getting a more expensive graphics
card. The 8600GT has a 128 bit memory bus, which may be limiting if you
intend to game on a monitor with high resolution. (24" monitors, with
1920X1200 pixels, are getting to be reasonably cheap.) It's old tech anyway;
must be from late 2006. ;-) The 9800GTX is supposed to be dropping in price
very soon (to $200); I don't know whether it'll drive down the price of the
9600GT. At the risk of being savaged by nVidia fans, the AMD/ATI Radeon 4850
is newly available. It looks like quite a good card for $200, competitive in
performance with a 9800GTX.

As regards the RAM: with 32 bit XP, you won't get the full use of 4 GB. (The
same would be true of 32 bit Vista.) It's supposed to be a fundamental limit
to any version of Windows with a 32 bit address space. Windows may "see"
3.25 GB, but it may vary.

I wouldn't suggest getting a CD burner. DVD burners are cheap, and most do a
fine job with CDs as well. I have had a couple of Lite-On drives die
relatively young (probably not a fair statistical sample), so at the moment
my DVD burner is from Samsung. I like it. It's SATA.

Floppy drives aren't terribly useful these days, but if you need to install
drivers during an XP installation (the F6 thing), they are convenient. Vista
can get such driver files from several kinds of devices (including CDs and
USB flash drives), so it doesn't need a floppy.

I'm not trying to sell you on Vista, although I'm using it (X64). Most of
the issues with it seem to have been sorted out in the past year, but it's
not really a compelling upgrade from XP.


Return address scrambled. Replace nkbob with bobkn.

"John B Smith" <crassono_spam@verizon.net> wrote in message
news:c90l541jv40qrsq7vm5c8vac130fmcfsbu@4ax.com...
>I have been lurking here for a few weeks now studying your
> recommendations. I've been playing on
> http://www.compudirect.com/cgi-bin/s...FQQIFQodhDNgRA
> with their configurator, juggling components, referring to NewEgg and
> Asus sites to try and get all info I can.
>
> My current config goes like this:
> AsusP5K-E motherboard
> Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 3GHz
> 4 gig (2x2) DDR2 800 memory
> WD 150gb 10k hard drive
> Antec 900 case
> Antec NeoHE 550 power supply
> nVidia GeForce 8600GT video card
> a new copy of XPpro OEM
> floppy
> CD
> CD r/w
>
> Today I downloaded a users manual from Asus to clear the confusion
> about only 1 ps2 port. Apparently there is a keyboard jack but nothing
> for a mouse. I currently am using a Microsoft optical mouse - USB or
> PS2. When I connect it USB my DriveImage7 boot CD cannot see the mouse
> when I need to do a Restore on drive c:, very ungood. How do you guys
> get around this problem?
> And please critique my current line-up otherwise. This will be my
> first self-built pc.
> On yes, I'm not much of a gamer, but may try a little if I've got a
> hot new pc. I'm probably too chicken to try much overclocking.

John B Smith wrote:
> I have been lurking here for a few weeks now studying your
> recommendations. I've been playing on
> http://www.compudirect.com/cgi-bin/s...FQQIFQodhDNgRA
> with their configurator, juggling components, referring to NewEgg and
> Asus sites to try and get all info I can.
>
> My current config goes like this:
> AsusP5K-E motherboard
> Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 3GHz
> 4 gig (2x2) DDR2 800 memory
> WD 150gb 10k hard drive
> Antec 900 case
> Antec NeoHE 550 power supply
> nVidia GeForce 8600GT video card
> a new copy of XPpro OEM
> floppy
> CD
> CD r/w
>
> Today I downloaded a users manual from Asus to clear the confusion
> about only 1 ps2 port. Apparently there is a keyboard jack but nothing
> for a mouse. I currently am using a Microsoft optical mouse - USB or
> PS2. When I connect it USB my DriveImage7 boot CD cannot see the mouse
> when I need to do a Restore on drive c:, very ungood. How do you guys
> get around this problem?
> And please critique my current line-up otherwise. This will be my
> first self-built pc.
> On yes, I'm not much of a gamer, but may try a little if I've got a
> hot new pc. I'm probably too chicken to try much overclocking.

There's a "Y" PS/2 connector adapter available for laptops so that you
could use both a mouse and keyboard of PS/2 flavor.

Google's not liking any search string I try, but I know they exist as my
favorite computer store stocks them.

"nobody >" <usenetharvested@aol.com> wrote in
newsKWdnaBqIbB8acfVnZ2dnUVZ_rbinZ2d@supernews.co m:

> There's a "Y" PS/2 connector adapter available for laptops so that you
> could use both a mouse and keyboard of PS/2 flavor.

I bought one of those for my P5K and it didn't work. There must be
something different in the bios on a laptop that allows the Y adapter to
work. In the end I just switched my mouse and keyboard to USB instead.

Thanks very much for the suggestions, I have taken many of them to
heart and modified my components list. On my USB mouse issue, I've
solved it: I purchased MagicISO $30, turned my DriveImage7 boot cd
into an ISO with it, edited the ISO to include mouse files my
DeviceManager called out for the Intellimouse, burned a new boot cd.
After about 3 tries (MagicISO is not too intuitive, gotta really read
translated-English directions) I got one that would boot and the USB
mouse would work! Though I've not yet tried to Restore a c: drive with
it, confidence in high!