Building my first computer
 

As I am building my first computer, I was wondering if ne one had weblinks for good tutorials that I could follow, if I got lost?? I am a little scared, since this is my first time.

hmm..let me look.

First of all..what are your parts? We can help you if we knew.

Without knowing what you want, here's a starter

http://www4.tomshardware.com/howto/20010115/index.html

My advice is to take your time, and not force things. Check everything twice. Don't get frustrated.

Words to live by in any endeavor I suppose....

Thanks for the advice, and here is a parts list, everything including the case...
 

Aluminum ATX CSX-288 Case/Power Supply
Motherboard: Asus P4S800, SIS 648FX
Processor: P4 2.8C GHz
Sapphire Radeon 9700 Atlantis 128 MB DDR
Harddrive: Maxtor 120 Gb
Floppy Drive: Sony OEM Floppy Drive
DVD Drive: MSI 16X DVD
Montior: Princeton 18.1 inch digital LCD

Thank you very much for the suggestions

good parts, if possible I would replace the sis with a intel board if you haven't order the parts yet.

Have you done small work like cd rom replacement, memory and hard drive upgrades, and stuff like that before?

Yes, for sure go with an intel chipset instead of SIS. Asus P4P800 Deluxe or ABIT IS7-G. SIS makes S & J. Spend a little more for piece of mind. No mention of the memory but don't skimp on it either. Corsair and OCZ are expensive but they do make great stuff. Kingston Hyper X and Mushkin makes cheaper but quality stuff. Good choice on the Vidcard and HD but if you've got the cash go SATA.

Now for some advice on the build. Go SLOW!! and check everything twice. Place the mobo and I/O shield and check your stand-offs before you start screwing it in. (I can't tell you how many times I've had to pull a mobo for a patron because they did'nt check the placement of the screw stand-offs). Read the hell out of the instructions on seating your CPU, HSF and memory and put them on before you place the mobo in the case. And lastly when you have it all done do a final check before you plug it in. Make sure everything is pushed down as far as it can go, plugged into the correct place and cables are not stretched and straining (they will eventually pull themselves out if there is alot of tension)

Go slow, check everything twice and read the manual and you shouldn't have a problem

YOu didn't mention how much power that power supply is.
Make sure it's 350 or more.

reply
 

unfortunetly, I already bought the motherboard because I found it for 80 dollars, and with HT and 800 FSB I thought that was a good deal and its a 420 watt P4 power supply.

I am also adding 1 GB of PC 2700 DDR RAM

My parts are coming in this week, so I will probably buildit this weekend, so I will let you guys know how it went.

Whats so bad about the chipset I chose?

personally i would upgrade the 9700 ot a 9700 pro. the 'pro' makes a huge difference.

otherwise, nice system

links for how-to-build a computer:
Tom's Part 1: http://www.tomshardware.com/howto/20020904/index.html
Tom's Part 2: http://www.tomshardware.com/howto/20020918/index.html
PCMech Guide: http://www.pcmech.com/byopc/
Mother Boards Guide: http://www.motherboards.org/articles...es/924_11.html
Tweak 3D Guide: http://www.tweak3d.net/articles/howtobuildapc/

Biggest advice I'd go with is just install the bare min. The MOBO, the MEM, the CPU, VID CARD, and the HD. Make sure you have a good install of your operating system and when everything checks out, then install the rest, DVD etc.

Secondly, no matter what the BIOS that came with the MOBO is probably going to be old. But BEFORE updating, let us know so that we can assist you. You don't wanna screw up a BIOS update!! But the Asus EZ Flash that will come with your MOBO works great for me.

Also, the drivers on all your stuff will more than likely need to be updated as well. And get DirectX 9.0a

Make sure you have ample ventilation and use a mobo sensing software to monitor the temps and fan speeds. Also why go 2700 when you can have the mighty 3200 that your MOBO accepts?

Good luck...keep us up to speed and I'll point you to some benchmarking tools to use and post up to compare with others.

I went with the 2.8 with HT technology so I thought that going higher to 3200 would not be necessary, I kinda assumed that it would be too much, plus there is the cost issue.

he's talking ram speed.

OOPS... did not read that right....

main reason is I got two 512 sticks for 40 dollars each.

Come on

http://ic.pricegrabber.com/product_i...706746_125.jpg

1 GB DDR (400) TwinX1024-3200LLPT Corsair XMS

You know you want it. Hear it calling your name? :D :lol:

Hmm at that price I think you're in for a rude awakening.

MONITOR??
 

I have yet to acquire one crucial element for my pc, the monitor I was looking to buy this one Princeton VL193, because of its digital input. I was wondering if ne one could point me in the direction of a good 17-19 inch digital input monitor. Thanks

Help appreciated. :)
 

Eek! I'm in nearly the same boat as you, iamii.

Unfortunately for me, though, I was born and raised a Mac user. :confused: I remain one to this day, and am typing on an iMac. However, I can see the benefits for both operating systems, unlike some on this board, and think it a good idea to have a PC on the side.

So I've been following this thread with great interest. All of the above links have been read through, and bookmarked. I feel like I know enough about the 'basic' physical installation to do the act, but I have a few questions for the computer whizes out there on TFP...

1 - When I got to the ending of the articles, it started talking about BIOS and a bunch of acronyms I couldn't begin to understand. It looked to me like a lot of command lines, which I know absolutly known. The thought of installing an OS through this BIOS terrified me. Is it simple enough that a complete newbie such as I could handle it, with of course some TFPers help? (All of my friends consider me a computer Guru™, so I can't turn to them.)

2 - Regardless of the BIOS thing, they talked of installing the OS with 'system discs', which turned out to be 3.5" floppies, I believe. Is this absolutely neccessary? I've grown so accustomed to CDs that I was hoping to not even install a floppy drive with the computer. Would that be advised?

3 - From what I understand of the PC world, there is basically Linux and Windows. From my ignorance, Windows is for the more casual user, while Linux is more user intensive... For this first PC, I don't want or need something completely bad ass. I'm not going to overclock, or be working Photoshop from this. It's just a computer to get the basics of building and the Windows world. Which operating system would be best for me? If Windows, which is what I was leaning towards, what version? Are there warez versions I can download, or should I just pay for it? My experience with Macs makes buying OS's very cost oriented... What do you suggest?

4 - Right now, I have no components, nor do I know much about them. I was hoping the TFP whizzes could come up with a summary component by component. Like I said, I'm a Mac user, and used to useing what I buy. Having 20 different choices for motherboards overwhelms me. If perhaps you guys could narrow it down to the two top brands for each component, or even individual things, that'd be great. I just need someplace to start, as I have no idea what to buy.

Cost isn't neccessarily an issue. I have plenty of money, but I'd prefer not to spend a huge hunkload (More than.. 500 or so, excluding monitor... is that reasonable?). Like I said, this be to serve a farked site or anything severe. I just want something kinda basic.

Now I understand it'd be in my own benefit to research this on my own to determine the best scenario. I will certainly be spending a large amount of time researching. However, with juvenile knowledge, I'd be easy to dupe, and a few helpful mentors would be greatly appreciated. I also thought some of you would get a kick and have fun. :)

iamii, I didn't mean to threadjack, and hopefully this leads us both to great computers. I'll certainly be listening to the info they give you, and attempting to absorb it all. :D

Thanks in advance.

hey drawerfixer,

welcome onboard....

I actually got all my parts in today and was getting to work on the PC

I realized with my case came round plastic things and brass spacers... What are the plastic things for??

about needing a floppy drive... If your dvd, or cd rom drive has no problems booting directly from a cd, you don't need it. I know WIn XP lets you boot from the cd itself. But you may still need it if you are going to use recovery programs like norton ghost and all....

I AM FINALLY DONE, thanks to everyone for providing insight to my questions, now I know that there is someone I can turn to when I need computer advise.

Good deal. Now go to HERE and download 3Dmark03 and HERE for PCmark2002 to test your system. Register online and compare your system to others.

GRR. I've posted to this thread twice from the laptop, but for some reason they didn't take. Hopefully this one from the desktop will.... Congrats, iamii. I'm sure you'll get hours of fun out of your computer. With that setup, I don't see how you can't. :P As I have an iMac and I'm leaving for college in a month, I'm rethinking the entire PC building experience. I'd definately like to do it, but at this point it doesn't really make much sense... My nature pulls me toward building the computer, but logic tells me to wait awhile. Most likely next summer. :@ I'm still deliberating. Anyway, congrats!

Drawerfixer, what a coincidence I am myself heading out to College in a month... Where are you going to school? I am going to school in Maryland.

Just a state school here in Colorado. I have absolutely no idea what to major in or attempt in life, so I'm hoping I can figure it out in the next two years.