iamjero

I have had the same ol computer for years now and I have maxed out the RAM, upgraded the video card, upgraded my OS, and added another hard drive. Now I have finially come to the conclusion that its time to turn the 550 p3 into a jukebox.

Now that I am looking at getting a new machine I have seriously been considering putting one togeather from scratch and all the info I have been able to gather so far says its relatively easy so I have decided to go ahead and give it a shot. Can anyone with experience building PCs give me any advice? Any web sites would be great. I googled it and found a pretty fair amount of info, but I have to admit that getting started has been pretty intimidating. Any help or advice would be great.

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Lasereth

The number 1 best site on the Internet for computer parts is www.newegg.com . They're not the cheapest (even though their parts are pretty damn cheap compared to most), but they have EXCELLENT RMA and return policies. If your parts come broke, you get a refund no matter what. They also have excellent tech help.

Putting together a computer is pretty intimidating the first time, just like you said. You need to know all sorts of things like which processor manufacturer you want to go with and which videocard company you want to trust. If you can give a price range of what the new computer can be built with, then many people here can give you suggested computer combinations.

You're already ahead of most people by knowing what RAM, hard drives, and videocards are. I think you'll be fine as long as you buy parts that are compatible with each other.

If you want to know specifics, just ask. Give us a price range, and we can definitely give our advice on the best computer for the money. You're making a good choice by building it yourself -- you'll get way more performance for the money.

My last question: are you gonna use this for gaming? Gaming computers are a bit different than the average computers. They're more expensive, but much more powerful.

-Lasereth

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Vespertine

Lasereth said it, Newegg is the way to go. I built my last computer from scratch using them. Worked out quite nicely.

I've heard of other people using Pricewatch as well, though I have no personal experience with them.

ChrisJericho

Yes newegg.com is by far the best place to get computer parts. I like them so much I wear one of their shirts !

Last summer, I like you decided it was time to dump my P3 500 mhz system with the PC100 Ram and build my own.

Let me tell you, the process of of building the PC is pretty easy, the difficulty is just picking out the parts that fit your price range and give you the performance that you need. I personally built an Intel P4 based system, but no matter what parts you get the assembly is pretty simple and long as you follow directions.

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nanofever

I have a great analogy for ordering a 400 dollar off of pricewatch...

Imagine that you have two curtains infront of you. Each curtain has a hole about 4 inches wide. You are instructed to whip "it" out and put your wang in one of the holes. One curtain has a porn star behind it and the other has a 400 pound gorilla. Do you really want to take that kind of chance, it might be sweet but what if it isn't ?

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iamjero

The primary function would be for gaming. As far as what I willing to spend... I guess whatever it takes to end up with something high end enough to play flight sims and edit video

The thing I am most worried about is making sure the parts are compatible. I have a lot of research to do.

What is the advantage of getting a motherboard with 64 bit ready and 32 bit onboard and what kind of front bus speed I need.

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"Ideas are far more powerful than guns. We don't allow our enemies to have guns, why should we allow them to have ideas?"

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powerclown

http://www.buildeasypc.com/index.htm

http://www.dansdata.com/buildpc.htm

http://www.pcmech.com/byopc/index.htm

Another vote for newegg.com for parts.

Have fun!!

merkerguitars

Ok so you want to be a geek…….here’s some tips on how to build a computer…choose parts….and generally how to build a kick ass box that is a lot of bang for the buck….

Why should you build your own computer???? Well we will count all they ways imaginable.

It’s totally custom….any way you want it you can build it that way.

Every individual part has a warranty. Usually you can get parts with a 3 year warranty that don’t cost much more.

Sometimes its not cheaper than a Dell or a Gateway…but you can literally save about $1000 building you own systems if it is totally decked out.


First of all….find out what you want to build it for??? Is it gonna be a basic internet computer or are you gonna build a balls to the walls dvd burning….video gaming/video editing junkie.

First of all is choose your parts.

Pretty much for motherboards I recommend one that has only onboard sound, lan and raid controller, try to get one with an AGP slot…..no matter what you might have to upgrade you video card.

Otherwise if it’s a bare bones system that won’t do much than internet you can get some good boards with everything on it for about $60.

Motherboards comes in two sizes typically, Micro ATX and Full size ATX, you will need to know this to properly find a case that won’t be crammed.

Then pick what type of processor are you going to use.

Pick a processor for what type of board you want.

There are two types

Intel (Celeron, P4)

AMD (XP of all types of variations also known as Socket A)

Typically I choose AMD a lot of bang for the buck and if you buy them retail they come with a 3 year warranty.

Celerons are typically for you bare bones computer that will never see any heavy use (internet and email only)

P4 are expensive but some people want them so you can use them to.

Then chose a case, you can fit a micro ATX in a full size ATX case, but not the other way around.

You can spend anywhere from $50 on a case to $400. It all depends on what you want. Pick one with at least a 300watt power supply (400watt if you going to have lots of hard drives and other accessories like burners and a huge video card)

Then if you have a motherboard with an AGP slot. Pick out a card you can spend anywhere from $50 to $400 for a card……find one that suits your needs.

Then buy your accessories, you can have a DVD burner CD-RW Drive or CD-ROM or a DVD/CD-RW Drive. Usually for a computer I chose a DVD/CD-RW drive…it does too functions and provides a lot of bang for the buck. And always remember you can always upgrade later.

Then pick out a floppy drive if you need one.

Then is time to pick out a hard drive, I always buy the Western Digital Special Edition with the 8mb buffer. It’s faster and has a 3 year warranty and only costs about $10 more than the 1 year warranty 2mb buffer version.

Now your ready to finally assemble……..this is where the fun begins…

Clean off an area to work…a kitchen table works great…plus in a kitchen you probably won’t have to worry about static electricity problems often…that’s where I built most of the computers I’ve built for customers.

Get the case box and open it…pull the case out and set it aside…I use the case box to hold all the boxes for the components for warranty purposes if they need to be returned.

Grab yourself a garbage bag to start tossing stuff.

First grab your motherboard box. Open it and start making a pile of manuals and Driver CD’s

Save the static bag. I use the motherboard bag for storing all static bags.

Set the motherboard down on the kitchen table. We will now prepare it to be inserted in the case.

First grab your processor. Pull it out of the packaging and set it aside.

Lift up the lever on the motherboard and put the processor in (make sure it is going in the correct way it should go in with little effort) Then press the lever down. Ok your almost done with the processor. Now comes the heatsink. There are two types, the Intel type and the AMD type. Most likely the heatsink that came with your processor already has thermal grease on it.

Instructions for Intel Type

Press heatsink down until all four corners click.

Flip the two white plastic levers all the way.

Plug in the CPU fan.

Instructions for the AMD style

Put heatsink on with stepped side facing the plastic ledge on the cpu socket. (put it straight on doing it at an angle will mostly likely crack the cpu die)

Gently slide the one end of the metal retaining clip that does NOT have the screwdriver hook on it onto the edge of the socket.

Then take a screwdriver and gently clip the otherside.

Plug in the CPU fan.

Now put in the memory (make note of the orientation) and press firmly in until it “clicks”

Then look in your motherboard manual and see if there are any jumper setting for the buss speed you need to set. Some need to be set and some don’t

Now time to get the case ready for the motherboard first pull off the one side of the case.

If you have a different back panel swap them now while nothing is in the case.

Now you will get the little brass standoffs with your case….look at your board and thread the standoffs in to match with your motherboard. (screw them in tight, cause if you ever have to take the motherboard off the standoffs will come off with the board)

Now you should be ready to install the motherboard. Gently set the board inside the case and line it up with the jumpers…place all the required screws in needed to secure the board to the standoffs.

Next hook up all your switches, leds and front usb ports if you have them.

Now mount the drives. No need to get them super tight, they aren’t lug nuts.
Now hook up all the IDE cables. Remember that if the drive is on the end of the cable set the jumper on the back of the drive for master and if it’s in the middle of the cable set it as slave.

Then plug in power to all the accessories.

Then plug in power to the motherboard.

Now is the time to install your video card and all other cards you might have.

Now you should be ready to go J

Double check everything….jumpers…power….fan hookups…..

Don’t put the side of the case on yet though. Just in case you have to troubleshoot and plug and unplug stuff. Don’t put the side on until you know the computer is all ready.

Now you should be able to install your favorite OS and go…enjoy..

I might of forgot some stuff….feel free to correct me….

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arch13

Also,

www.Pricewatch.com - a site of lists. select the component you need and it will give you a list of retailers that sell it in price order from lowest to highest. I've built 75% of all my machines using nothing but pricewatch, and everyone here has used it at some point.

www.Tigerdirect.com - whenever i need a well priced motherboard+cpu combo, this is who i use. I'm native to miami where they're located and go to the warehouse to save on shipping, but they have some of the most renouned combo's and barebones systems to start your project if you need a jump off point. They deal strictly in OEM components (if you don't know what that is, ask and we'll be happy to explain it), but are neweggs best competition and equally as renouned as newegg. again, everyone here has sourced things from them before.

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numist

merk's got it.

From experience, Id reccomend you to stay away from dual systems, they are more prone to failure, and are more prohibitively expensive. I have mine, and the main advantage is pure power, but most people would never use the power in their entire lives...

Get reviews on the stuff you buy, do your research, you wont regret it.

aarchaon

What kind of motherboard do you have numist? I haven't seen any dual processor motherboards in any online stores.

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thephuse

um.. someone recommended Pricewatch, but someone else said elsewhere that pricewatch was not trustworthy... can someone clarify? thank you

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Lasereth

That's probably the funniest thing I'm gonna read today. Too bad it's 100% true.

-Lasereth

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Mastershredder

Newegg all the way. Any place that has great prices, ships mega fast, and sends out gifts just for being a loyal customer goes down as great in my books. Ask all my friends, i'm always sporting a Newegg shirt or hat every once in a while.

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Caphreak

im ALWAYS sporting a Newegg shirt or hat EVERY ONCE IN AWHILE

;P

Yep, pick a price range, and since it will be a gaming machine, pick a video card first.

Then build the PC around the video card. Some other good things are Barton processors and Dual Channel RAM. Also, putting your OS on a 36GB Raptor speeds things up a lot.

bltzkriegmcanon

Pricewatch is good for one thing and one thing only. Posting different prices. That's it. All the lowest prices companies, for the most part, have extremely low ratings on ratings sites like resellerratings.com. However, if you do go on to a site like Pricewatch, I suggest having another window open to resellerratings, just so you can check the firm that has whatever item at a whatever price so you can check their rating. If you check a store like newegg, who has a rating of 9.8, you're pretty much safe with them. However, if you choose a store on pricewatch that has a fairly low rating, say like, PCBoost, with a rating of 4.75, well, you're probably gonna get the shit end of the stick with those guys.

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Lasereth

Bltzkrieg has it right -- Pricewatch is useful every now and then, but for the most part, it's simply there to provide you with a list of the worst companies on the Internet.

Don't get me wrong, there are a *few* companies listed on there that are reputable, but not many. Go to www.resellerratings.com and check their rating. Some places have a 0 out of 10 return policy out of 300 reviews...no one wants to do business with a company like that. NewEgg.com has a 9.8 rating after 6,000 reviews. SIX THOUSAND!

I honestly wouldn't buy from any company other than www.directron.com , www.xoxide.com , and www.newegg.com .

If you do want to take your chances with Pricewatch, please check Reseller Ratings first. If they're not on there, I wouldn't even consider buying from them. NewEgg is the best...the extra price is worth it.

-Lasereth

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cas305

Lets start a newegg post..... They rule having been ordering from them for years!

iamjero

I guess I want to spend less than Gateway or Dell would charge but enough to have a balls to the wall system. Ill be using it for audio and video editing and gaming. My old machine will be my music storage/internet surfer.

So far I have been looking at a Soyo P4I Socket 478 Motherboard with Pentium4 2.2 GHz Processor here are some of the specs....

Intel® NetBurst™ Micro-architecture
400-MHz System Bus
512-KB L2 Advanced Transfer Cache
Hyper-Pipelined Technology
Streaming SIMD Extensions 2
Rapid Execution Engine
128-Bit Floating Point Port
SIMD 128-bit Integer
Execution Trace Cache
Advanced Dynamic Execution
Thermal Monitoring
Built-in Self Test (BIST)
IEEE 1149.1 Standard Test Access Port and Boundary Scan

The Motherboard can be upgraded with a 3.06Mhz P4 @ 400Mhz FSB. (by the way can anyone explain what a front side bus is) Plus it'll hold up to 2 gigs of DDR SDRAM.

I am assuming I will need a 400W power supply. And how important is it that I have a seperate cooling fan for my processor?

__________________
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- Joseph Stalin

Lasereth

Don't get a 2.2 GHz P4. It's a rip-off for the performance that an AMD chip will give for the same price.

Those specs you listed aren't useful. The main things to look for when buying a motherboard are: FSB support, AGP 8X support, PCI slots, SATA support, onboard LAN, and RAM quantity/speed support.

A FSB is sorta hard to explain. To put it in simple terms, it's the maximum speed that your processor can "communicate" with the RAM and the rest of the system. It's a good idea to get RAM that's the same speed as the FSB.

Intel doesn't make 3.06 GHz P4's at 400 MHz. They make 533 MHz FSB and 800 MHz FSB 3.06 P4's.

It's not the wattage of the power supply that matters the most, it's the quality. Unless you plan on getting a lot of hard drives, a generic 350w PSU should do fine.

You MUST have a fan on your processor or it'll melt. It's as simple as that. Intel fans come with heatsink fans retail.

If you want product suggestions, just ask. There are a few different ways to go when buying custom computers.

-Lasereth

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nanofever

I'm going to indulge in a little bit of cross-posting goodness and explain Pricewatch in slightly more everyday terms.

I have a great analogy for ordering a 400 dollar video card from pricewatch...

Imagine that you have two curtains infront of you. Each curtain has a hole about 4 inches wide. You are instructed to whip "it" out and put your wang in one of the holes. One curtain has a porn star behind it and the other has a 400 pound gorilla. Do you really want to take that kind of chance, it might be sweet but what if it isn't ?

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I'm leaving for the University of California: Santa Barbara in 5 hours, give me your best college advice - things I need, good ideas, bad ideas, nooky, ect.

Originally Posted by Norseman on another forum:
"Yeah, the problem with the world is the stupid people are all cocksure of themselves and the intellectuals are full of doubt."

iamjero

A socket A processor interface means that a motherboard will support AMD processors? And a socket 478 interface means it will support Intel chips?

The type of socket interface determines what type if CPU the board supports?

__________________
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- Joseph Stalin

Lasereth

You got it. Socket A = AMD chips. Durons, Athlon Thunderbird cores, and Athlon XPs all fit in Socket A. Intel Celerons and Pentium 4's fit in Socket 478. The FSB determines which of these processors can fit in their socket. A 200/266 MHz FSB Socket A motherboard will support Durons, Athlons, and Athlon XP's that are 200 MHz and 266 MHz FSB. It'll go up to any processing speed that you want as long as the FSB barrier isn't breached.

Overclocking allows the FSB to be raised higher than you're supposed to be able to, but we'll just keep it to the basics.

-Lasereth

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iamjero

Ok, so I decided to take your word for it and go with AMD.

I figure if I'm gonna splurge on something the processor and motherboard is the place to do it. The Soyo - KT400 Dragon Ultra Platinum - K7VX4 - Socket A ATX MotherBoard with Audio, AGP 8X/4X, USB 2.0 and 10/100Mbps Ethernet LAN Support has all the stuff you suggested to look for and I think the Ahtlon XP 2800+ Processor would go with it quite well. Its 70 dollars more to go with the Athlon XP 3000+ and I dont really see how its any better.

__________________
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- Joseph Stalin

Lasereth

I'd personally skip on the Soyo and get the Abit NF7-S Revision 2.0. motherboard. I personally believe it's the best on the market, and it's actually cheaper than the one you listed on www.newegg.com . It supports a higher FSB and higher RAM speeds/quantities. It also has SoundStorm onboard sound, which is better than most soundcards on today's market. The only motherboard that gives it a run for its money is the Asus A7N8X Deluxe, but it's a bit more expensive. I'd go with the NF7-S.

The processor you chose is excellent for non-overclockers. An Athlon XP 2800+ runs at 2.08 GHz, but the 2800+ model name means it's the equivalent of a 2.8 GHz Pentium 4, and you see how much they cost.

If there is one place to spend a good bit of money on, it's RAM and the videocard. If you know how much you want to spend on the PC then I can tell ya which videocard I recommend.

-Lasereth

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Jephree

Also, don't about the mobo/cpu combos at Fry's, and also check Newegg for deals as well. Good luck.

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arch13

Sorry guy's.
I just tried looking at newegg and couldn't even find a barebones or Mobo+cpu combo section.
I'd never shopped there before and based on this, i have to say I never will. I know the risks of OEM, and I don't ever expect to return things. it's the risk you take for a lower price.
I see that their return policy is very good, but some of use don't want a higher price for a return policy.

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iamjero

On some of the cases Im looking at the USB ports are on the front of the case. The motherboard has the USB ports built into the board so they would be in the back. How does this work?

__________________
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arch13

Actually, the motherboards have two usb ports in back, and pin's on the motherboard for up to four more ports that the case plugs into, so that you have your two back ports and an additional cable running to the board to those two front case ports.

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iamjero

What is the difference between hard drives with ATA-100 and ATA-133 interfaces?

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- Joseph Stalin

arch13

The speed of the data transfer between the hardrive and the motherboard. 133 is standard nowdays. It's the same cable, an ata cable, and ata133 is backwards compatable. It's just a higher throughput of data per second. hardly any user ever puts ata133 to it's limit.
That said you can use ata100 just fine for a lower price and it will work just as well. Again i'm going to stress that either one will work using the same cable.

However, the industry is moving towards SATA, which is the new standard agreed upon that has just started to appear in use. As the goal is to phase out ATA, you'll want a board that has both ATA and SATA for maximum forward compatability. Also, the cost of SATA drives is still expensive but coming down rapidly. I'd say get a cheap ATA drive for now combined with a board that has both plugs, and move up to an SATA 200gb drive in 12 months when they reach the 125.00 dollar price point.

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keef

although there are many good sites to go out to (such as new egg or microx-press) i will give you advice from someone who has built all of his pcs from parts.....make sure you get all of your parts (or most of them) from the same place....that way you dont have to send your bunk hd back to 1 place, your bad ram to another, your mobo to another, etc. etc.

Mephisto2

OK guys, everyone is giving advice on WHERE to buy.

How about giving advice to the poster on WHAT to buy!

:-)

There are some excellent "mod" sites out there. People who build their own PCs or "modify" their systems are known as modders (or is it moders?). Either way, you will find lots of good advice, technical reviews, how-to guides etc at these sites.

Note that it can be a bit daunting at first, especially at the technical sites, but it's worth keeping at it for a few weeks. You'll be amazed at how much you will pick up.

Some good sites include:

Dan's Data (http://www.dansdata.com/) This is an Aussie site, but Dan writes in plain English, is quite funny and has articles on everything from "over-clocking" your CPU, to building a PC from scratch.

Tom's Hardware (http://www.tomshardware.com/) The Mother of All Technical sites. Great for reviews. Kinda daunting at first. Excellent forums.

Build your own PC tutorial (http://www.hardwarecentral.com/hardw...torials/109/1/) Some good advice here.

Build your own PC tutorial 2 (http://www.pcmech.com/byopc/index.htm) Same thing from PC Mech site.

Build your own PC tutorial 3 (http://www.buildyourown.org.uk/) UK site. Very good!

Build your own PC tutorial 4 (http://www.daileyint.com/build/buildtoc.htm) Old, but has lots of photos so it's good to get an idea of what is involved.


Have fun mate. I know I did...


Mr Mephisto

Lasereth

He re-posted in the Computer Section. The thread in there has a ton of replies, including what to buy, not just where. You posted some really good links though...maybe a moderator should combine the threads or something.

-Lasereth

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ftoledo

My best advice is wait for a computer expo in your area. Shop around and find what you're looking for, at the price you are willing to pay. 8 out of 10 times, you'll find it cheaper than any website without the S&H.

The benefits to that is you get to see and feel stuff like the tower, the power supply, the keyboards and see different styles and models.

Chances are you can get a barebones model from one of the vendors and pick and choose all your other options. By browsing through the eisles, you may get a better chance of picking something you didn't know you wanted or existed.

Good luck.

iamjero

thanks for all the replys. I have doing a lot of reading and comparing. Hopefully I can put something togeather for around 7 or 8 hundred bucks.

__________________
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luser2002

hey folks:

Just my two cents here - Lots of very good advice for iamjero already, but two sites might help anyone else looking at this thread - for gaming PCs, www.sharkyextreme.com puts out a bargain, midrange, and extreme gaming machine outline every month - they take a fixed budget ($1000 for bargain, $2500 for midrange, and $4000 for extreme) and pick components for both an AMD and Intel system at those price ranges, and explain the pricing and the reasoning behind their choices. I put together a system based on their bargain outline and have been very happy with it - runs every game I've put into it well, although for video editing it's probably pretty useless. Anyway, it's a place to look.

Also, living in Canada I find it very difficult to get good prices online, since the vast majority of sites are aimed at the American market. But if anyone is looking for good selection and prices in Canadian, I found http://www.ncix.com very helpful.

oblivion

if you havent bought all your stuff, check out bizrate.com

it searches through newegg and all the other decent comp sites

jvwgtr

I'll also agree with Arch13's TigerDirect recommendation.
If you get their catalog, it has handy charts that shows which RAM, CPU and mobos go together.

Also, a great resource for picking a motherboard is www.motherboards.org. They have a ranking/review system you can browse by platform (AMD or Intel).

My personal recommendation is to get the Abit AN7...
It's got great onboard sound, and is super for gaming & what-not. I've been very happy with mine (from newegg). Get a beefy power supply, though. 400w may just barely cut it with a good video card.

Good luck! Don't be too intimidated - - building a PC is easier than you think, and you'll save a bundle!

oblivion

ive been hearing about new mobos and procs coming out...... so u better watch out for those. Prices might change in a week or two