I want to try building a PC. I don’t need a fancy games machine. Just something simple and functional will do. The plan is to get some used parts off eBay.
What I want to know is, is there going to be any compatibility issues between CPU and motherboard? If the socket type is correct, and the FSB speed match, are they guaranteed to work together? Or are some models going to be incompatible.
Also, does the FSB speed need to be exactly the same? Will a fast motherboard work with a slow cpu? Or vice-versa?
Support the Intel 3rd and 2nd generation Core i7 and Core i5 processors in the 1155 package
Intel Z77 single chip architecture
Support 4-DIMM DDR3-2600(OC)/2400(OC)/2133(OC)/1866(OC)/1600/1333 up to 32G maximum capacity
Biostar has a CPU support Tab on the page I listed. Giving the exact models that are compatible.
I don’t see the i5-3340 cpu. So the cpu I used as an example isn’t compatible. It’s for the Ivy bridge chipset and this mb uses the Intel Z77 chipset. The cpu’s Chipset support must match the mb.
anyway, click the biostar link and click the cpu tab for the list. Anything on the list will work.
other brands have a similar list of compatible cpu’s for their mb’s.
Compatibility issues are primarily based on the ‘chipset’ used by the motherboard (the controllers that handle communication between the cpu, memory, drives and other parts). This will define the cpu/socket type and memory. Other sockets, for video card and hard drive for example, are pretty much generational; current mother boards are gemerally PCI-E for the video card and SATA for hard drive.
The other issue is motherboard form factor - the type of case needed. This will mostly be ATX but there are compact models and server form factors as well.
Here is an online’system configurator’ reference tool offered by a local computer chain. I am sure there are others, but this is the one I am familiar with. You can choose a case or motherboard or cpu and it will give you the compatible products to choose from. It is a great way to see what works together and price comparisons. Canadian dollars - US prices likely to be somewhat cheaper.
For your needs you really do not need to worry about big power supply of video card. Lots of cpus and motherboards with integrated video that are more than adequate.
There are plenty of online tutorials for assembly. The trickiest part is probably mounting the heatsink on the cpu. It is pretty much screwing the motherboard into the case and plugging stuff in from there.
is there going to be any compatibility issues between CPU and motherboard?
Yes.
If the socket type is correct, and the FSB speed match, are they guaranteed to work together?
No.
Or are some models going to be incompatible.
Yes.
The only thing you need to know about motherboard and CPU compatibility is that motherboard makers tell you which CPUs the board is designed to use.
You can start by knowing which CPU you want to use and then search for moboards that support it, or you can start with the moboard and then select from the CPUs it supports. Personally, I always start with the moboard.
The Tom’s Hardware site has tons of information for system builders and good forums where you can get help.
If you are building your PC to save money - it will only work if you are trying to build a gaming PC that will be $2000+ plus to buy pre-made. For a normal everyday PC - you will probably spend more by the time you are done building the PC / installing the OS - which I am guessing will be Windows.
If you are on a budget - take a look at the refurbished PCs at stores like microcenter or Lenovo outlet or the same. Here is the price breakdown you should look for :
1> Motherboard
2> Memory
3> Hard Drive
4> Case
5> Power Supply
6> CPU - CPU fan / heat paste
7> Video card (if you don’t like the onboard video card)
8> DVD Drive - make sure the DVD drive is compatible with Motherboard (IDE/…)
9> Fans/Cables
10> Operating System - Windows $$ or Linux or your choice
One thing I learned when building a new PC recently: Don’t mix memory speeds (ie, 1600 MHz with 1333 MHz). The motherboard will go with the slower speed, and the faster memory will be wasted.
I agree with am#####: if you’re not trying to play cutting edge games at max resolution, and aren’t doing protein-folding calculations professionally or rendering Pixar’s next movie, your best bet is just buying a refurbished PC for $120 from the local computer store. It will work guaranteed, include an operating system (which for Windows would cost $100 bucks right there), and be plenty good enough for web surfing (even watching movies), writing stuff, ripping/listening to MP3s, looking at photos, or whatever else you want to do.
If you try and get separate parts, you’re either going to spend way more than $120, or spend tens of hours and untold anguish tearing apart junked systems trying to find parts that are not broken in some hard-to-discover way, and don’t have incompatibilities that only show up after hours of work putting things together. Really, unless your time is only worth pennies an hour, it’s not worth it.
And you don’t even need to look at specs. Anything a reputable store sells you will be good enough for what you want to do. Well, you could look at RAM: 2G is probably a minimum and more is slightly better, but don’t pay more than $20 for more.
Theres not many things in this world better than the feeling of selecting the components and building a pc. I’ve always read reviews and researched every component that I used. I know the Intel chip set on my MB, the type of CPU, video card etc. All the reviews were printed off and saved with the mb manual. I do it because its fun and extremely satisfying.
I started in 95. My research always started with Computer Shopper. It was like thumbing through a Christmas catalog. Back then the mb did very little. The IDE disk controller was on a separate expansion card, video,sound, and extra IO ports were all expansion ISA cards. There was a tremendous sense of accomplishment in building a 486dx pc and getting it working.
Its still fun and if someone really wants to learn how a pc works then building your own is a good idea.
yeah I geek out over pc’s. Its one of the few tech areas that captivated me. I changed my college major after taking my first class in GW Basic.
That’s like buying a used vehicle that you cannot test drive before you own it. You get what you pay for. Wanna buy a horse, slightly used?
There are plenty of places where you can buy new and be comfortable knowing it will all work, or have some recourse if it doesn’t. Newegg and TigerDirect are two that immediately come to mind.
you can save money if you are reusing already owned parts like case, power supply, hard drive, dvd drive and memory.
if you need to buy most of the above then buying a whole PC from a store is cheaper.
if you have parts then buying a combination motherboard and CPU from a vendor like Newegg or your local computer store will let you know those parts will work together.
new motherboard use SATA for hard drive and DVD drive.
Having done both (buy and build), this reflects my thinking. Aside from abstractions like “learning” and “satisfaction” the major reason for building a PC is to customize it to your needs in high-end applications like gaming performance, rather than being at the mercy of whatever tradeoffs the manufacturer feels like making at any given price point. For the OP’s requirement, it would not only be easier and safer just to buy a prebuilt system, but probably cheaper, too. Don’t forget to factor in the cost of Windows, especially the retail edition, which can be considerable unless one is going down the Linux route. In a prebuilt, the OEM license granted to large manufacturers is so heavily discounted that it’s practically free.
If you build it yourself you’ll probably end up with higher quality components at a higher cost, but that doesn’t seem to be the tradeoff the OP is looking for. Anecdotally, the first PC I built did have great quality components including a particularly well-regarded heavy-duty PSU. Within a year the PSU had failed. (I replaced it and everything’s been working fine since). Meanwhile I have a mass-market Gateway that’s going on about 13 years old that I’ve hardly ever had a problem with. Don’t think they’re even around any more, but Dell makes pretty solid products for the average consumer even though purist technocrats are always criticizing them!
The days where a part-assembled cheap PC beats a retail cheap PC are long gone. Individual parts retail are too specialized to get a “deal” on the pieces. It’s cheaper to build in a factory, with guaranteed compatible components, and a test after assembly. Plus, there’s the hassle of you debugging the built device if it turns out to not work. For example, I find this at Best Buy:
(On sale down from $249.99)
How could you possibly beat that?
Plus, many of the features - video, network, wifi, disk controller, USB - are built onto the motherboard, which means there’s a lot less pieces to buy and add than maybe 10 or 15 years ago.
I’d agree with the people that are saying “don’t do it”. If you want an office type PC, there’s always a glut of PCs, usually with operating systems, coming off lease. If you want something specialized like a gaming PC or Home Theater PC, or just want the experience, than use new parts so the chances of it actually working are greater.
Ditto what everyone is saying about **NOT **doing it. I started building PCs in the mid-90s and back then it made sense, at least money-wise. You would save quite a bit by doing it yourself (and you’d learn a whole lot along the way!) One of the first big impediments to this came with Windows XP product activation. Now, along with every thing else, you always had to add another $100 to the price of the build to pay for the OS. Then by the early to mid 2000s PCs had essentially become commodities. IOW they were cheaper to buy than to build all round. The only exception is the highest end gaming machines.
Think of it this way: A PC has about two dozen or so key pieces of installable hardware. Each of these devices can be made by any one of dozens of different manufacturers. And each device can have dozens or hundreds or even thousands of discrete settings to manipulate. Multiply them all together and you get several *million *combinations. Sure most will work, but a lot of them won’t and you can spend weeks (and lots more money) trying to figure it out (some PCs I built I could *never *get completely stable). The major PC makers (Dell, HP, Acer etc.) do all this work for you. They either make all the components themselves or work closely with their parts supplier’s engineers to ensure compatibility. They also do literally thousands of hours of ‘burn-in’ testing to ensure as few problems (and therefore expensive returns) as possible.
Go to TigerDirect.com or even BestBuy.com and look for refurb units. They are inexpensive and as good as new.
Just another voice agreeing with the crowd. Don’t do it. It’s a waste of time and money. Building a PC is little more than snapping cards into slots and screwing things in, and it’s not a particularly scintillating experience. Not worth it at all unless you’re a gamer. If you want to get into hobbyist electronics, play with an Arduino or a Raspberry Pi. Non-gaming DIY desktops are expensive and pointless.
