Building a computer is expensive? - Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community

Dibbler · 03-14-2004, 08:19 PM

Every time I talk to a computer geek about buying a computer they recommend that I build one myself because it's so much cheaper. But, whenever I go through the internet and price out all the components and software needed I end up with a price about $500 higher than I would spend for the same computer with same specs as the one at Dell.com. So how do I go about building a cheap "gaming" computer for less than $1200?

merkerguitars · 03-14-2004, 08:30 PM

No.1 where are you shopping????? For a gaming computer at retail prices I can get way under the price of a dell. Plus if you build yourself you can get most parts with a 3 year warranty

BigGov · 03-14-2004, 08:31 PM

Are you including the price of a monitor?

VF19 · 03-14-2004, 08:57 PM

Maybe it is because you are choosing top-notch components.
Computer manufacturers (probably- I dont really know) use the cheapest parts they can find, therefore your final cost may be more but you are getting the best components.
My 2 year old HP mobo doesnt even support a PCI video card, and there's no AGP. This is probably because they chose the cheapest soulution (and for a $1200 comp I was pretty pissed when I found out). That is why I built my last comp.

Even so, most people (like me) save tons when they build their own comp.

Destrox · 03-14-2004, 08:57 PM

Quick off the top of my head of recent things i've looked at.
2500+ barton - 90
nf7-s - 80
512mb pc3200 ram - 80
random case - 50
120gig hdd - 90
9800pro - 200
standard 19" monitor - 220
wireless logitech mouse and keyboard - 72
16x dvdrom - 33
z5300 speakers - 140
os - 95

total - 1150

want cheaper but still better then most any prebuilt under 1200?
ati 9600 - 130
z640's - 70
logitech inet keyboard - 15
ms optical - 19

total - 972

Lasereth · 03-14-2004, 09:00 PM

A Dell is easily worth it for non-gamers and non-computer enthusiasts. For those that want more performance for the price, then custom building is the way to go.

www.newegg.com is the best custom-building PC site out there. They have an excellent RMA service, and pretty damn good prices. The big issue here is the RMA service: if something comes fucked up, you get another, no questions asked. A majority of companies on the Internet have NO return policy.

Here's a couple of setups I'd go with:

Athlon 64 Setup

GIGABYTE GA-K8VT800M Motherboard - $96
Athlon 64 3000+ Retail - $227
Corsair XMS Extreme Memory Speed Series, PC3200, 256 MB x 2 - $124
Lite-On 52x32x52 CD-RW - $38 OEM
Samsung Floppy Drive - $9
Maxtor 80GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive - $82
Whatever Case You Want® $50
ENERMAX EG365P-VE(FCA) 350W Power Supply - $59
SAPPHIRE RADEON 9800PRO Video Card, 128MB DDR, 256-bit, DVI/TV-Out, 8X AGP - $229

The total on the Athlon 64 computer is $914 before shipping.

Intel Pentium 4/ 2.4C GHz 800MHz FSB, 512K Cache, Hyper Threading Technology - Retail - $163
ABIT 875P Chipset Motherboard for Intel Socket 478 CPU, Model "IC7-Max3" - RETAIL - $186
Corsair XMS Extreme Memory Speed Series, PC3200, 256 MB x 2 - $124
Lite-On 52x32x52 CD-RW - $38 OEM
Samsung Floppy Drive - $9
Maxtor 80GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive - $82
Whatever Case You Want® $50
ENERMAX EG365P-VE(FCA) 350W Power Supply - $59
SAPPHIRE RADEON 9800PRO Video Card, 128MB DDR, 256-bit, DVI/TV-Out, 8X AGP - $229

The Intel system is about $940 before shipping.

These prices are a month or so old, so they're actually cheaper now. If you got either of those computers, it'd be hundreds (if not a thousand) dollars cheaper than Dell. Try pricing out a PC on Dell for $1,000 -- you'll get incredibly lower performance and a whole lot of software packages that you don't want to waste money on.

-Lasereth

Paq · 03-15-2004, 12:55 AM

i just built the computer of my current dreams using parts from newegg.com zipzoomfly.com and a hard drive from staples with a $30 rebate, but you could just as easily get teh same price from newegg ($65 for 80GB with 8MB cache)

anyway, here goes,
P4 2.8 ghz with 800fsb, HT enabled, $180
Abit IS7 mobo 800 fsb ht compatible, $95
ram: i got the cheapest pair of 256 pc3200 chips i could justify at about $90, kingston value ram kit. If i wee to buy again, i'd probably get something wth a 2.5 cas but what i have is very stable if you aren't overclocking.
DVD rom/CDRW combo drive, I really like this thing and at $40, it's a steal ($10 rebate from zipzoomfly)
sapphire ati radeon 9800pro $210, but i just saw it for $199 on www.slickdeals.net after $50 rebate from best buy.
17" crt monitor. I can't STAND the look of LCD screens when i am editig pictures, so i stuck with the $89+10 shipping CTX monitor from newegg. I really like it.
keyboard and mouse yu could get for $15-30 depeding or reuse yours.
speakers: i'm reusing my packard hell speakers from 1995, but i'm goig to buy some 4/1 flat panel/subwoofer combo soon for $30 from compusa
case: i picked out a 400watt midtower from newegg for $26+12 shipping. I actually like it, very roomy, but i did cut myself a couple times with the rear. No big deal, just gtta be careful. Mine came with 2 side fans.
I bought a modem bc i use dialup, but if yuou have ethernet/whatever, the lan hookup is on the mobo, as is the sound card, 8 usb ports, 2 firewire ports and 2 optical ports for sound if you're going that far. The sound on this thing rocks.
so i came up with abut $800 +/- $100 for a very stable system that flies for me. original glquake runs at 300 fps in 1024/768 32bpp mode. i haven't tested it thoroughly yet, but it seems to be very stable running winxp pro.

Word of caution. If you have winxp now and you want to put it on the new computer, you're going to have activation issues...i spent 2 days getting them solved...microsoft help wasn't very helpful....

ummm...so that's my rig for less than $900

www.cyberpowerpc.com has a really nice configurator for whatever you want and prices are pretty comparable to what you would get doing it yourself, but maybe a bit more expensive and you're not as flexible. Then again, you could save a bit by buying your graphics card from newegg instead of them.

still, you have no idea hw happy i am with what i put together and it's probably the most stable computer i've owned...except for when i screwed up the bios. don't touch the ram timings if you hvae cheap ram

lasereth helped me out quite a bit, his recommendations are always good.

I also thought about the IC7 mobo, but the IS7 tested higher in a lot of applicatios and is about half the price. if you want, you could put the extra towards more ram. 512 is nice, but i recently creamed photoshop with a 500 mb tiff.

also, he's definitely right about the software you get on other computers. I seriously think makers like dell, gateway, etc, charge more for software than they do for hardware, or else it's about even. seriously, how many word processing/database programs do you need

I know office is not worth the extra expense for my computer.

Anyway, goodluck, i hope it all works out. I know you can build a great computer for less than $1000 easily.

KUGR · 03-15-2004, 01:37 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Destrox
Quick off the top of my head of recent things i've looked at.
2500+ barton - 90
nf7-s - 80
512mb pc3200 ram - 80
random case - 50
120gig hdd - 90
9800pro - 200
standard 19" monitor - 220
wireless logitech mouse and keyboard - 72
16x dvdrom - 33
z5300 speakers - 140
os - 95

total - 1150

want cheaper but still better then most any prebuilt under 1200?
ati 9600 - 130
z640's - 70
logitech inet keyboard - 15
ms optical - 19

total - 972

Z-640's are on sale at amazon for $47 shipped

SecretMethod70 · 03-15-2004, 02:46 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by KUGR
Z-640's are on sale at amazon for $47 shipped

crap dude, I don't even need new speakers, although mine aren't anything amazing, and that's tempting. $47....sheesh!

sixate · 03-15-2004, 05:03 AM

Building your own PC is waaay cheaper. I just went through Dell's website and built a PC as close to what I built as I could, and it cost nearly $800 more than my PC, and my shit is still better. It all comes down to knowing where to buy parts. NewEgg and ZipZoomFly are the only places I buy from.

kutulu · 03-15-2004, 09:11 AM

Another problem with buying a pre-made system is that with a lot of them you are stuck with proprietary hardware. I had a PIII VAIO and one day my burner just wouldn't open. The drive itself was working but there was no way to open it.

I thought, oh well, I can get a new burner for pretty cheap. I go to remove it and realize that it is a custom sized drive and can only be replaced by sending the whole computer to sony and using their parts. Instead I spent $80 on an external that was pretty slow. At that time I vowed to never buy a factory made pc again.

I just built one and I love it. I got everything from newegg and zipzoomfly. Shipping was free on everything but the case.

Gigabyte Pro2 - 105
AMD 2600+ - 105
2 x 512 MB Corsair RAM - 150
Optorite 8x DVD+/-RW, 48x CD-RW - 110
Asus 16x DVD-ROM - 30
Floppy - 7
Samsung 160 GB SATA HDD - 130
ATI 9600 PRO AIW - 220
Case 40 (+10 shipping)
Soundblaster Sound card - 20
Win XP - 90

Total is just over $1,000. Personally, I'd go with a lower processor and spend the extra money on getting a full GB of RAM. As long as the mobo can handle an upgrade, you can do that in about a year. Chances are that whatever you are uprading from is much slower than a 2600 (or P4 2.6) so the extra power wont even be noticed. I plan on buying a 3200 when the prices are more reasonable.

Another great thing is that you really know a lot about your computer.

monstadog · 03-15-2004, 09:39 AM

I've built my last 5 computers myself, its not a money thing, I know exactly whats in them, how they're set up, build quality etc plus I got all the fun of building them, cant beat it!

theburner · 03-15-2004, 10:07 AM

Dibbler! What is up? Sorry I have been out of the loop on Xbox, but kid duties have been eating up my time.

I am building my first tonight, and let me tell you it is way cheaper. Especially if you can reuse parts from your first computer that may not be obsolete.

I have updated my Drives, Graphics card, DVD ROM, CDRW, Floppy, so I am reusing those in my new system. I worked up a config on Alienware (expensive, I know!!!) and it was $3400. By reusing parts and building myself I am about $1500 into almost the EXACT system. I say exact because some of the older hardware isn't quite exact, but some of the newer hardware is better than the Alienware. Overall I am coming out way ahead.

Also, PC MFG's use the cheapest crap they can find to keep costs down. So comparing mobo to mobo won't be as easy as you think..

My 2 cents? You are way better off building than buying.

kutulu · 03-15-2004, 10:42 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by theburner
Especially if you can reuse parts from your first computer that may not be obsolete.

Also, PC MFG's use the cheapest crap they can find to keep costs down. So comparing mobo to mobo won't be as easy as you think..

My 2 cents? You are way better off building than buying.

Recycling is a great idea for it. Certain things like a floppy drive, and possibly cd drives can be reused until they no longer work. Why waste money (and resources) if you don't have to?

You also get to make the system YOU want. Not what the company prepackages. Not everyone needs a $200 graphics card. Most people (common pc users) would get by just fine with a cheap card or maybe even integrated graphics.

My old VIAO had integrated graphics and I ran Quake III just fine on it. My porn looks better, but it's not THAT much of a difference.

There is a large intimidation factor that goes with building a system. You don't need to know a lot about computers to do it.

Paq · 03-15-2004, 10:58 AM

heh, yeah, RTFM on the mobo manual. My case had wires going everywhere, so i was a bit lost when hooking them up to the mobo and i think i still screwed up the "turbo led" hehe

otherwise, my first P4 system went off w/out a hitch, powered up first time, everything ran smoothly and it's all great so far.

but seriously, it's not as hard as you'd think. Just be sure to get retail versions if you're really uncertain and OEM versoins if you're pretty sure you don't need the extra warranty/software. i bought retail proc, mobo, dvd/cdrw, and hard drive, oem for graphics, case and ram. id' suggest retail definitely for the proc if you're going with intel bc it comes with the fan/heat sink taht you'll definitely need unless you're going with upgraded cooling

kutulu · 03-15-2004, 11:50 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Paq
heh, yeah, RTFM on the mobo manual. My case had wires id' suggest retail definitely for the proc if you're going with intel bc it comes with the fan/heat sink taht you'll definitely need unless you're going with upgraded cooling

Same with AMD. That way you know that they approve of the heatsink and fan for use with your processor.

theburner · 03-16-2004, 06:35 AM

There are tons of wires, and it can be daunting. Just don't let it bother you, and get to connecting. Before you know it you will be done.

kutulu · 03-16-2004, 08:06 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by theburner
There are tons of wires, and it can be daunting. Just don't let it bother you, and get to connecting. Before you know it you will be done.

That was my strategy. I wasn't expecting so many wires, but the mobo had a good manual that was very clear about what when where. One helpfull thing was that most wires only fit in one place facing one direction. If everything could have fit anywhere, I'd still be trying to make it work.

Paq · 03-16-2004, 10:42 AM

yeah, i had trouble with my power/hd/reset buttons to mobo wires bc the case had diff instructions from the mobo..

lots of fun

Lasereth · 03-16-2004, 10:50 AM

Ha ha, I put my old K6-2 in a new case I got from NewEgg. Neither the case or the motherboard had any instructions on where to put the power, reset, LED's, etc. so I just plugged the power cable in a slot one at a time until it turned on. I got it in the second try!

-Lasereth

theburner · 03-16-2004, 12:00 PM

My Mobo is well marked and laid out, but they don't indicate the direction of some of the pins.
Other than that the Fan Cables were a bugger. 4 Fans, Temp sensors.... Bugger.

03-14-2004, 08:19 PM	#1 (permalink)
Dibbler Psycho Location: Initech, Iowa	Building a computer is expensive? Every time I talk to a computer geek about buying a computer they recommend that I build one myself because it's so much cheaper. But, whenever I go through the internet and price out all the components and software needed I end up with a price about $500 higher than I would spend for the same computer with same specs as the one at Dell.com. So how do I go about building a cheap "gaming" computer for less than $1200?

03-14-2004, 08:30 PM	#2 (permalink)
merkerguitars Buffering......... Location: Wisconsin...	No.1 where are you shopping????? For a gaming computer at retail prices I can get way under the price of a dell. Plus if you build yourself you can get most parts with a 3 year warranty __________________ Donate now! Ask me How! Please use the search function it is your friend. Look at my mustang please feel free to comment! http://www.tfproject.org/tfp/showthread.php?t=26985

03-14-2004, 08:31 PM	#3 (permalink)
BigGov WoW or Class... Location: UWW	Are you including the price of a monitor? __________________ One day an Englishman, a Scotsman, and an Irishman walked into a pub together. They each bought a pint of Guinness. Just as they were about to enjoy their creamy beverage, three flies landed in each of their pints. The Englishman pushed his beer away in disgust. The Scotsman fished the fly out of his beer and continued drinking it, as if nothing had happened. The Irishman, too, picked the fly out of his drink but then held it out over the beer and yelled "SPIT IT OUT, SPIT IT OUT, YOU BASTARD!"

03-14-2004, 08:57 PM	#5 (permalink)
Destrox Metal and Rock 4 Life Location: Phoenix	Quick off the top of my head of recent things i've looked at. 2500+ barton - 90 nf7-s - 80 512mb pc3200 ram - 80 random case - 50 120gig hdd - 90 9800pro - 200 standard 19" monitor - 220 wireless logitech mouse and keyboard - 72 16x dvdrom - 33 z5300 speakers - 140 os - 95 total - 1150 want cheaper but still better then most any prebuilt under 1200? ati 9600 - 130 z640's - 70 logitech inet keyboard - 15 ms optical - 19 total - 972 __________________ You bore me.... next. Last edited by Destrox; 03-14-2004 at 09:23 PM..

03-14-2004, 09:00 PM	#6 (permalink)
Lasereth Knight of the Old Republic Location: Winston-Salem, NC	A Dell is easily worth it for non-gamers and non-computer enthusiasts. For those that want more performance for the price, then custom building is the way to go. www.newegg.com is the best custom-building PC site out there. They have an excellent RMA service, and pretty damn good prices. The big issue here is the RMA service: if something comes fucked up, you get another, no questions asked. A majority of companies on the Internet have NO return policy. Here's a couple of setups I'd go with: Athlon 64 Setup GIGABYTE GA-K8VT800M Motherboard - $96 Athlon 64 3000+ Retail - $227 Corsair XMS Extreme Memory Speed Series, PC3200, 256 MB x 2 - $124 Lite-On 52x32x52 CD-RW - $38 OEM Samsung Floppy Drive - $9 Maxtor 80GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive - $82 Whatever Case You Want® $50 ENERMAX EG365P-VE(FCA) 350W Power Supply - $59 SAPPHIRE RADEON 9800PRO Video Card, 128MB DDR, 256-bit, DVI/TV-Out, 8X AGP - $229 The total on the Athlon 64 computer is $914 before shipping. Intel Pentium 4/ 2.4C GHz 800MHz FSB, 512K Cache, Hyper Threading Technology - Retail - $163 ABIT 875P Chipset Motherboard for Intel Socket 478 CPU, Model "IC7-Max3" - RETAIL - $186 Corsair XMS Extreme Memory Speed Series, PC3200, 256 MB x 2 - $124 Lite-On 52x32x52 CD-RW - $38 OEM Samsung Floppy Drive - $9 Maxtor 80GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive - $82 Whatever Case You Want® $50 ENERMAX EG365P-VE(FCA) 350W Power Supply - $59 SAPPHIRE RADEON 9800PRO Video Card, 128MB DDR, 256-bit, DVI/TV-Out, 8X AGP - $229 The Intel system is about $940 before shipping. These prices are a month or so old, so they're actually cheaper now. If you got either of those computers, it'd be hundreds (if not a thousand) dollars cheaper than Dell. Try pricing out a PC on Dell for $1,000 -- you'll get incredibly lower performance and a whole lot of software packages that you don't want to waste money on. -Lasereth __________________ "A Darwinian attacks his theory, seeking to find flaws. An ID believer defends his theory, seeking to conceal flaws." -Roger Ebert

03-14-2004, 08:57 PM	#4 (permalink)
VF19 Banned Location: back to my old location	Maybe it is because you are choosing top-notch components. Computer manufacturers (probably- I dont really know) use the cheapest parts they can find, therefore your final cost may be more but you are getting the best components. My 2 year old HP mobo doesnt even support a PCI video card, and there's no AGP. This is probably because they chose the cheapest soulution (and for a $1200 comp I was pretty pissed when I found out). That is why I built my last comp. Even so, most people (like me) save tons when they build their own comp.

03-15-2004, 12:55 AM	#7 (permalink)
Paq Junkie Location: South Carolina	i just built the computer of my current dreams using parts from newegg.com zipzoomfly.com and a hard drive from staples with a $30 rebate, but you could just as easily get teh same price from newegg ($65 for 80GB with 8MB cache) anyway, here goes, P4 2.8 ghz with 800fsb, HT enabled, $180 Abit IS7 mobo 800 fsb ht compatible, $95 ram: i got the cheapest pair of 256 pc3200 chips i could justify at about $90, kingston value ram kit. If i wee to buy again, i'd probably get something wth a 2.5 cas but what i have is very stable if you aren't overclocking. DVD rom/CDRW combo drive, I really like this thing and at $40, it's a steal ($10 rebate from zipzoomfly) sapphire ati radeon 9800pro $210, but i just saw it for $199 on www.slickdeals.net after $50 rebate from best buy. 17" crt monitor. I can't STAND the look of LCD screens when i am editig pictures, so i stuck with the $89+10 shipping CTX monitor from newegg. I really like it. keyboard and mouse yu could get for $15-30 depeding or reuse yours. speakers: i'm reusing my packard hell speakers from 1995, but i'm goig to buy some 4/1 flat panel/subwoofer combo soon for $30 from compusa case: i picked out a 400watt midtower from newegg for $26+12 shipping. I actually like it, very roomy, but i did cut myself a couple times with the rear. No big deal, just gtta be careful. Mine came with 2 side fans. I bought a modem bc i use dialup, but if yuou have ethernet/whatever, the lan hookup is on the mobo, as is the sound card, 8 usb ports, 2 firewire ports and 2 optical ports for sound if you're going that far. The sound on this thing rocks. so i came up with abut $800 +/- $100 for a very stable system that flies for me. original glquake runs at 300 fps in 1024/768 32bpp mode. i haven't tested it thoroughly yet, but it seems to be very stable running winxp pro. Word of caution. If you have winxp now and you want to put it on the new computer, you're going to have activation issues...i spent 2 days getting them solved...microsoft help wasn't very helpful.... ummm...so that's my rig for less than $900 www.cyberpowerpc.com has a really nice configurator for whatever you want and prices are pretty comparable to what you would get doing it yourself, but maybe a bit more expensive and you're not as flexible. Then again, you could save a bit by buying your graphics card from newegg instead of them. still, you have no idea hw happy i am with what i put together and it's probably the most stable computer i've owned...except for when i screwed up the bios. don't touch the ram timings if you hvae cheap ram lasereth helped me out quite a bit, his recommendations are always good. I also thought about the IC7 mobo, but the IS7 tested higher in a lot of applicatios and is about half the price. if you want, you could put the extra towards more ram. 512 is nice, but i recently creamed photoshop with a 500 mb tiff. also, he's definitely right about the software you get on other computers. I seriously think makers like dell, gateway, etc, charge more for software than they do for hardware, or else it's about even. seriously, how many word processing/database programs do you need I know office is not worth the extra expense for my computer. Anyway, goodluck, i hope it all works out. I know you can build a great computer for less than $1000 easily. __________________ Live. Chris

03-15-2004, 05:03 AM	#10 (permalink)
sixate Registered User Location: Somewhere in Ohio	Building your own PC is waaay cheaper. I just went through Dell's website and built a PC as close to what I built as I could, and it cost nearly $800 more than my PC, and my shit is still better. It all comes down to knowing where to buy parts. NewEgg and ZipZoomFly are the only places I buy from.

03-15-2004, 09:11 AM	#11 (permalink)
kutulu Junkie	Another problem with buying a pre-made system is that with a lot of them you are stuck with proprietary hardware. I had a PIII VAIO and one day my burner just wouldn't open. The drive itself was working but there was no way to open it. I thought, oh well, I can get a new burner for pretty cheap. I go to remove it and realize that it is a custom sized drive and can only be replaced by sending the whole computer to sony and using their parts. Instead I spent $80 on an external that was pretty slow. At that time I vowed to never buy a factory made pc again. I just built one and I love it. I got everything from newegg and zipzoomfly. Shipping was free on everything but the case. Gigabyte Pro2 - 105 AMD 2600+ - 105 2 x 512 MB Corsair RAM - 150 Optorite 8x DVD+/-RW, 48x CD-RW - 110 Asus 16x DVD-ROM - 30 Floppy - 7 Samsung 160 GB SATA HDD - 130 ATI 9600 PRO AIW - 220 Case 40 (+10 shipping) Soundblaster Sound card - 20 Win XP - 90 Total is just over $1,000. Personally, I'd go with a lower processor and spend the extra money on getting a full GB of RAM. As long as the mobo can handle an upgrade, you can do that in about a year. Chances are that whatever you are uprading from is much slower than a 2600 (or P4 2.6) so the extra power wont even be noticed. I plan on buying a 3200 when the prices are more reasonable. Another great thing is that you really know a lot about your computer.

03-15-2004, 09:39 AM	#12 (permalink)
monstadog Upright Location: UK	I've built my last 5 computers myself, its not a money thing, I know exactly whats in them, how they're set up, build quality etc plus I got all the fun of building them, cant beat it!

03-15-2004, 10:07 AM	#13 (permalink)
theburner Canadian Beer Ambassador Location: Cumming, GA	Dibbler! What is up? Sorry I have been out of the loop on Xbox, but kid duties have been eating up my time. I am building my first tonight, and let me tell you it is way cheaper. Especially if you can reuse parts from your first computer that may not be obsolete. I have updated my Drives, Graphics card, DVD ROM, CDRW, Floppy, so I am reusing those in my new system. I worked up a config on Alienware (expensive, I know!!!) and it was $3400. By reusing parts and building myself I am about $1500 into almost the EXACT system. I say exact because some of the older hardware isn't quite exact, but some of the newer hardware is better than the Alienware. Overall I am coming out way ahead. Also, PC MFG's use the cheapest crap they can find to keep costs down. So comparing mobo to mobo won't be as easy as you think.. My 2 cents? You are way better off building than buying. __________________ Take Off Eh!

03-15-2004, 10:58 AM	#15 (permalink)
Paq Junkie Location: South Carolina	heh, yeah, RTFM on the mobo manual. My case had wires going everywhere, so i was a bit lost when hooking them up to the mobo and i think i still screwed up the "turbo led" hehe otherwise, my first P4 system went off w/out a hitch, powered up first time, everything ran smoothly and it's all great so far. but seriously, it's not as hard as you'd think. Just be sure to get retail versions if you're really uncertain and OEM versoins if you're pretty sure you don't need the extra warranty/software. i bought retail proc, mobo, dvd/cdrw, and hard drive, oem for graphics, case and ram. id' suggest retail definitely for the proc if you're going with intel bc it comes with the fan/heat sink taht you'll definitely need unless you're going with upgraded cooling __________________ Live. Chris

03-16-2004, 06:35 AM	#17 (permalink)
theburner Canadian Beer Ambassador Location: Cumming, GA	There are tons of wires, and it can be daunting. Just don't let it bother you, and get to connecting. Before you know it you will be done. __________________ Take Off Eh!

03-16-2004, 10:42 AM	#19 (permalink)
Paq Junkie Location: South Carolina	yeah, i had trouble with my power/hd/reset buttons to mobo wires bc the case had diff instructions from the mobo.. lots of fun __________________ Live. Chris

03-16-2004, 10:50 AM	#20 (permalink)
Lasereth Knight of the Old Republic Location: Winston-Salem, NC	Ha ha, I put my old K6-2 in a new case I got from NewEgg. Neither the case or the motherboard had any instructions on where to put the power, reset, LED's, etc. so I just plugged the power cable in a slot one at a time until it turned on. I got it in the second try! -Lasereth __________________ "A Darwinian attacks his theory, seeking to find flaws. An ID believer defends his theory, seeking to conceal flaws." -Roger Ebert

03-16-2004, 12:00 PM	#21 (permalink)
theburner Canadian Beer Ambassador Location: Cumming, GA	My Mobo is well marked and laid out, but they don't indicate the direction of some of the pins. Other than that the Fan Cables were a bugger. 4 Fans, Temp sensors.... Bugger. __________________ Take Off Eh!