Posted: 9/27/2002 2:35:42 PM EDT
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I am so sick of my Gateway going tits up every 6 months (like clockwork) that I have decided to build my next computer myself. From what I've heard it's no more difficult than building an AR (which I've done successfully). Anyway, have any of you built your own computers? If so, could you point me towards some resources you found helpful? I'm a first timer so any help is greatly appreciated! Thanks... Matt |
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I personally think it is easier to build your own computer, less specs to worry about. You start with a good case and power supply. You must decide on how expandable you want it to be when you pick this part. That is do you want a tower, mini tower, or desk top type. Most pick the mini/mid tower just for space/airflow through the case. I think ATX (?) is one of the better ones. We got ours for around 35 bucks. Frys carries empty cases as well for about the same price. Next pick a mother board that supports the processor you want to pay for. pIII,pIV or AMD equivalent. You should also note how expandable it is, how many slots, what the bus speeds are etc... Around 100 bucks for the board, 200-300 for the processor. Then a hard drive, cd-rom, cd-rw, dvd-rw/rom drive need to be picked out. Some are combinable for a price. If you picked the tower, it is usually cheaper to buy all the pieces seperate, but remember you will probably only have 8 ide total pieces you can put in. Hard drive around 100 bucks for 80 GB some more some less. Western Digital, or other name brand. 3.5 inch floppy about 5 bucks. Sound card- some sound blaster compatible should run about 12 bucks or you can go for the bigger and badder for around 150. I went cheap and didn't have a problem. I play a lot of games. Old and new. Video card. Again you can go cheap I paid like 40 bucks for mine with 8 meg on it(I think it may be 16 meg) or you can go for the baddass ones again and spend up to 200 or so. All in all about 2 years ago we built a pIII 600 with 20 GB hard drive cd-rom and a seperate cd-rw video card, sound card, 17 inch monitor for around 600 dollars. Be aware, some of the name brand computers can build almost the same system for the same price or close. You are at best saving only a few bucks now a days. The only good thing is you know exactly what was put in your computer. |
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It's not that hard. Most things only plug in one way. If it's tough to put together, don't force it. Use an anti static strap to be sure you're not all staticy. You will probably end up spending a bit more than a new computer, but have better parts if you do it. You don't have to get the latest and greatest to have a kick ass machine. Buy a quality case and power supply, and you won't regret it. PC Power and cooling used to have quiet power supplies that worked really well. I think at this point i'd be getting a 350W supply for most computers. |
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I personally think it is easier to build your own computer, less specs to worry about. You start with a good case and power supply. You must decide on how expandable you want it to be when you pick this part. That is do you want a tower, mini tower, or desk top type. Most pick the mini/mid tower just for space/airflow through the case. I think ATX (?) is one of the better ones. We got ours for around 35 bucks. Frys carries empty cases as well for about the same price. Next pick a mother board that supports the processor you want to pay for. pIII,pIV or AMD equivalent. You should also note how expandable it is, how many slots, what the bus speeds are etc... Around 100 bucks for the board, 200-300 for the processor. Then a hard drive, cd-rom, cd-rw, dvd-rw/rom drive need to be picked out. Some are combinable for a price. If you picked the tower, it is usually cheaper to buy all the pieces seperate, but remember you will probably only have 8 ide total pieces you can put in. Hard drive around 100 bucks for 80 GB some more some less. Western Digital, or other name brand. 3.5 inch floppy about 5 bucks. Sound card- some sound blaster compatible should run about 12 bucks or you can go for the bigger and badder for around 150. I went cheap and didn't have a problem. I play a lot of games. Old and new. Video card. Again you can go cheap I paid like 40 bucks for mine with 8 meg on it(I think it may be 16 meg) or you can go for the baddass ones again and spend up to 200 or so. All in all about 2 years ago we built a pIII 600 with 20 GB hard drive cd-rom and a seperate cd-rw video card, sound card, 17 inch monitor for around 600 dollars. Be aware, some of the name brand computers can build almost the same system for the same price or close. You are at best saving only a few bucks now a days. The only good thing is you know exactly what was put in your computer. |
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I personally think it is easier to build your own computer, less specs to worry about. You start with a good case and power supply. You must decide on how expandable you want it to be when you pick this part. That is do you want a tower, mini tower, or desk top type. Most pick the mini/mid tower just for space/airflow through the case. I think ATX (?) is one of the better ones. We got ours for around 35 bucks. Frys carries empty cases as well for about the same price. Next pick a mother board that supports the processor you want to pay for. pIII,pIV or AMD equivalent. You should also note how expandable it is, how many slots, what the bus speeds are etc... Around 100 bucks for the board, 200-300 for the processor. Then a hard drive, cd-rom, cd-rw, dvd-rw/rom drive need to be picked out. Some are combinable for a price. If you picked the tower, it is usually cheaper to buy all the pieces seperate, but remember you will probably only have 8 ide total pieces you can put in. Hard drive around 100 bucks for 80 GB some more some less. Western Digital, or other name brand. 3.5 inch floppy about 5 bucks. Sound card- some sound blaster compatible should run about 12 bucks or you can go for the bigger and badder for around 150. I went cheap and didn't have a problem. I play a lot of games. Old and new. Video card. Again you can go cheap I paid like 40 bucks for mine with 8 meg on it(I think it may be 16 meg) or you can go for the baddass ones again and spend up to 200 or so. All in all about 2 years ago we built a pIII 600 with 20 GB hard drive cd-rom and a seperate cd-rw video card, sound card, 17 inch monitor for around 600 dollars. Be aware, some of the name brand computers can build almost the same system for the same price or close. You are at best saving only a few bucks now a days. The only good thing is you know exactly what was put in your computer. |
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About 8 years ago I started with a 'For Dummies' on PC upgrade and maintenance. It gave me enough information to go from upgrades to complete rebuilds. I've built up everything from 486 machines back then to dual Xeon super PCs last Sunday. If you look around your local book store with a tech section, you'll find at least one book on building your own PC. On line guides can be found at: [url]http://www6.tomshardware.com/howto/02q3/020904/index.html[/url] Tom's Hardware also has a pricing guide and lots of reviews of components. Check it out. |
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The most important thing is to get your information from many different sources. From my experience, many people in computer-related industries suffer from tremendous bias of some kind. Some sites I visit when I'm about to build a computer: [url]www.sharkyextreme.com[/url] [url]www.anandtech.com[/url] [url]www.tomshardware.com[/url] [url]www.webvelosix.com[/url] - A forum, usually has some decent info available (and help, if trouble arises when you are putting it together). To buy your parts, I have had good luck with [url]www.newegg.com[/url] - They fill your order very quickly. One time I ordered at 2 or 3 pm their time (they're in california) and they shipped that same afternoon. Whatever you do, do not buy an IBM hard drive. This one isn't just personal bias--you can search around the internet and find a whole lot of instances of failed drives only after a few months of operation. My brother's failed. They made him send it in before they sent a replacement, and then when it finally came a month or so later (from Turkey), it failed after only a few weeks. They require strict shipping standards (at the cost of $10-15) when you send the drive in, but when they send the replacement they just throw it in a box with styrofoam beads. Maybe I'll think of more later. Good luck. |
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The best par tof building a computer is you already have one. You wont be paying for software bundles and assorted crap from the BIG NAMES. You dont need a monitor, hard drive, keyboard, mouse or CD player(provided yours works now). I just rebuilt my inlaws computer for ~$250. All that was replaced was a new ASUS A7N266-vm, 256 of MICRON DDR 266Mhz memory and an AMD Athlon XP processor. The MB already has a Nvidia graphics chip in it so no need for a video card and it has Dolby digital sound as well. Go to [url]www.pricewatch.com[/url] to find who to get the best deals from. That is how I have rebuilt and started from scratch all but 1 computer I have ever had. [beer] |
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Ive built my own. Its not hard. For building your first computer I recommend buying a "barebones kit". This is a case, power supply, and motherboard/processor. This eliminates some hassle, then everything else just installs easy (cards, drives, etc....). I recommend www.tigerdirect.com and www.adamant.com. Ive also found some good deals on Ebay and Pricewatch, but be careful when using those of shaddy dealers. Goodluck! |
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Quoted: Any suggestions on a top brand for the motherboard? Haven't had any problems with Asus MoBos. Just built a machine on a SuperMicro and I was impressed with the quality--not to mention that the manual was originally written with English readers in mind. I have one Intel D845BG MoBo with a Pentium 4 that went together painlessly: it uses the cheaper DDR RAM instead of the more pricey RAMBUS, has four USB ports and on board audio. |
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Quoted: I've built my own. Its not hard. For building your first computer I recommend buying a "barebones kit". This is a case, power supply, and motherboard/processor. This eliminates some hassle, then everything else just installs easy (cards, drives, etc....). I recommend www.tigerdirect.com and www.adamant.com. I've also found some good deals on Ebay and Pricewatch, but be careful when using those of shady dealers. Goodluck! That's exactly how I built mine. It was very easy and I got exactly what I wanted. The thing I liked best was starting with a totally clean OS. You don't have to deal with all the crap software the manufactures love to fill your machine up with. Worthless stuff that never gets used. |
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Here's my opinion, I've built 4 computers in the last year (One for me, three for work), and have friends that have/do build them. [b]Motherboard brand[/b] - Shuttle... everyone I know who has used them, myself included, has been happy with them. I am running a P4 1.5ghz works like a charm. [b]Hard drives[/b] - DO NOT GET A MAXTOR!!!!! I have yet to see one, of the few I know of, last more than 4 or 5 months, one was crap after about a week. Western Digital seems to be reliable, we have a couple at work that are going on 5 years with no problems. I've had a 60 gig for a year or so. [b]Power supply and case[/b] - the good news from what I've seen is that if you buy a cheap one to start out with, you are only out about $30-$40 when the power supply goes out. That seems to be the weak link in the cheap cases with power supplies. A good power supply alone is about $50. So buy now or buy later. I'd recommend looking at the case/power supply combos that run in the $70-$80 range. The cases aren't as cheesy and the power supplies last longer. My computer cost me about $800 to build last year: P4 1.5 Shuttle AV40 motherboard VisionTek GeForce2mx400 64Mb video card (you can get the Geforce3 now for the same price - $100) Creative Labs PCI 512 sound card 52x CD-ROM (no burner or DVD) floppy drive Already had monitor, mouse, keyboard, speakers If you buy boxed products, versus OEM, they come with good directions (lots of packaging, and a higher price barring sales/rebates) Edited to say... I bought all of my stuff at Fry's at one time just because I knew it would be one stop shopping. I hate going to that store because the people that work there act like they know crap they clearly don't. I would just rather they say "I don't know, but we have lots of books on the subject over there." They have good prices on their website sometimes [url]www.outpost.com[/url] |
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Stick with name brand equipment....SOYO, Abit, Plextor, Mitsumi, Sony. You will pay a bit more, but the warranties (if you ever have to use them) are worth it. I find the most important part of the computer is the monitor. Get a nice 19" (at least). Sony makes good ones as well as NEC. I have a Mitsubishi myself and love it. You will replace almost all of the components within a year or two (budget allowing), but you will have a nice monitor for 5 years or more. Tom's Hardware has some nice guides for the beginner. I've been building my own for ten years and will never own another "store bought" computer. toast |
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man it is easy. buy a case locally. you will save money that way. 2. buy a motherboard and chip combo. (really access what you need. granted that a 3 ghz sounds cool, but to play any game you can get by with a 2 ghz. big price differenc, enough to buy another ar) 3. once you get the motherboard, find out what type of ram it supports. there are 2 types. pc133 and ddr(varios speeds from 2100 and up) buy 256mb or better 512mb 4. you might be able to salvage the floppy drive from your old box (save 25 bucks) floppys rarely every die 5. look at pricewatch for hard drives. 40gb and above should do fine 6. decide if you want to go dvd, cd, cd burner, dvd burner (2 types) or a combination cd drives are fairly cheap along with 32x cd burners. plain dvd are pretty cheap too, DVD burner is some bucks 7.sound is sound. get a decent card and get a good pair of speakers. you should be able to get this from your old box. 8. Video, get a 64mb card. no need to spend 300 bucks on that. 9. Operating system. Hopefully you can get a full install from a sight that provides backups or at a decent price. i run xp. it is solid NOW. wasnt when it first came out. Most companies have drives for xp now. 10. read and re read the manual for the motherboard. Most motherboards come with "on board" video and audio. Look for the jumpers to disable the onboard video and audio. Since you have installed cards for it, you need to disable them on the motherboard. 11. when you put it all together, always make sure that you DO NOT HAVE A STATIC CHARGE. always GROUND YOURSELF and BEFORE PICKING UP ANY COMPUTER PIECE. one dischage can fry it all. not to scare you, but to keep you from wasting money 12 make sure it is not plugged in. 13 ask a buddy to check it over before you plug it in. it is super easy. just some ground rules. and enjoy you are now out of the sales screw job and you can upgrade your computer for 150 bucks rather than 1000 for a new one. humm more money for other toys. later lojack |
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Most motherboards come with "on board" video and audio. Look for the jumpers to disable the onboard video and audio. Since you have installed cards for it, you need to disable them on the motherboard. This brings up an important point — Wherever possible, try to put each of your I/O ports on a different expansion card. It's a little more expensive than buying either a motherboard or single expansion card with all the ports on it, but if anything dies, you only have to replace that (inexpensive) card. Also, this makes it much easier to trouble-shoot problems — just pull the card and temporarily replace it with a known-to-be-good one. Some of the more obvious places to use this strategy include the serial, parallel, video, USB, Firewire, sound, floppy and HD ports. |
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I second OSU's comment on "Maxtor" drives. From their tech line, I quote- " We have had a large number of returns from users of Windows XP, and XP Pro. Something to do with how XP writes it's boot sectors. No, we can't explain why this happens, and we can't replicate it in our labs. Why don't you change OS's? ".( Uh huh. Just what I wanted to hear.) Two drives, Under warranty,DEAD within six months.. I either get two replacement Maxtor drives, and switch OS's,- or- I sell these turkeys, and buy real harddrives.. Meplat- |
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Quoted: I second OSU's comment on "Maxtor" drives... A good buddy of mine works for a company that supplies test equipment to all the hard drive makers--he's in sales. I was at his place last weekend for his son's birthday and he, his neighbor and I were talking over a couple of beers. Turns out that his neighbor is a product manager for the former hard drive division of IBM (Now sold to Hitachi). We got on the subject of hard drive makers when I told them I was building a new box for animation. Two things came up:1) We were talking about drive pricing and they both snickered when I mentioned Maxtor as being the lowest cost drives at the local elelctronics emporium (I only use Seagates or IBMs);2) The mean operational lifetime--running time--of hard drives is 18 months. |
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The Asus P4B533-VM is junk. Had one, it was nothing but problems. Bought an Abit BG-7 (same Intel 845G chipset), set up and works fine. You need to download the newer version of the Intel Application Accelerator. I swapped over my Western Digital HD, Nvidia MX-2 400 AGP card, Audigy sound card, modem and the rest of my stuff with no problems. I use 2 sticks of 512 MB 333 PC2700 and it runs a 2.26 P4, it overclocks to 2.68 with no problems, it runs just under 75 degrees with a heatsink and fan. I bought a 400 watt power supply and I am using my 4 year old case. In fact I just sold the old MoBo, CPU, memory and power supply to someone on the AR board. Buy the Building a PC for Dummies - [url]http://catalog.dummies.com/product.asp?isbn=0764507826[/url] [img]http://catalog.dummies.com/productImages/0764507826.gif[/img] Quoted: Haven't had any problems with Asus MoBos. I have one Intel D845BG MoBo with a Pentium 4 that went together painlessly: it uses the cheaper DDR RAM instead of the more pricey RAMBUS, has four USB ports and on board audio. |
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Quoted: The Asus P4B533-VM is junk. Had one, it was nothing but problems. Guess I should've been more specific. I have used Asus MoBos like the dual CPU C4VX without a problem AND I currently own an Intel brand Model D845BG motherboard with a P4 that rocks wiht XP Pro. |
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Go dually, once you've experienced the creamy good smoothness of SMP, you'll never even think of going back. It isn't nearly as expensive as you would think, and the benefits are awesome. I have two running beside me right now and neither cost more than a thousand bucks to put togehter. My newer system is a dual athlon, with 1800 cpu's, 512MB ram, two 60GB HDD, a Sony 32Xcd-rw, a toshiba DVD drive, Radeon 7500 All-in-wonder video card, and an audigy sound card, total price was less than a thousand, just shop around to get the best prices on parts, and never confuse a cheap price with a bargain, Sometimes you can get much higher quality parts for a very small amount more. I recomend that if you cut corners you do it on things like a cdr drive or dvd, rather than on ram or HDD's (I use nothing other than Maxtors, I have had too many IBM's and Seagates fail YMMV), Plextor cdr's are considered the best but they cost way too much, buy a Lite-on drive and save a hundred bucks (they can be had for about $40 for a 48x, you would have to kill four of them to save money by buying Plextor). When building a new PC the case is somewhat important, but far more important to stability is haveing a top notch power supply (especially on a dually), I use Antec but there are others that are very good as well, just don't make the mistake of buying the cheapest case and PSU that you can find, doing that can easily kill a motherboard. The most important thing to remember when building a PC is that CPU's just like AR's, are much better in pairs. check out [url]www.2cpu.com[/url] great information, check out the forums especially the newbie forums, it is a great place to learn without everybody telling you to use the search function every time you post a question. Edited to add: On the power supply I recomend at 350 watts, depending on what you are running in the box, that should be plenty (I am running a 300watt Antec in my dual athlon system with two HDD's and two power hungry CPU's, and it is plenty, no problems at all), don't be fooled with the wattage game at the store, just because the off brand part is marked at some very high wattage does not mean you are getting a high quality part, a good guide is the AMD list of power supplies recomended for Athlon MP cpu's,if it is good enough for MP's then it is good enough for single or dual P4's or Athlon XP's. |