Can a modestly knowledgeable computer guy build his own computer?

Factual Questions
1

Not sure the GQ is the right place for this, but…

I’m no computer geek, but you know…I read slashdot from time to time. I can install new hardware on existing PCs without any trouble (hard drives, CD-ROM, RAM, sound cards, what have you). I understand for the most part how a computer physically works and I generally understand OS software, especially Windows. I’ve even dabbled at programming from time to time. As I understand it, building your own computer requires:

  1. Buying a bunch of compatible parts that suit your needs (motherboard, CPU, RAM, Hard Drive, Sound card, etc.).
  2. Placing said parts in some kind of cover and connecting the various wires.
  3. Installing some OS.

What I want to know is, when I get down to the details of the above steps, do I have the technical know-how to accomplish this or am I going to have to post on message boards for the next 3 months trying to figure out why my CPU is overheating, my BIOS won’t let me partition my hard drive, and what the strange smell coming from the tower is?

What skills do I need to have to be able to do this?
Will I be able to do it with one of the on-line walk-throughs?
I’ve never really dealt with motherboards beyond connecting new devices to them, is it difficult to connect a new CPU with a new motherboard and generally set up everything else (i.e. fans, power supply, etc.)?

Lastly, if the actual physical building part of it is fairly straightforward, how difficult is the software configuration? I’d like to put Linux on my new system (for the price, security and lower memory requirements). However, I know next to nothing about Linux. Will I be able to make a boot disk for linux fairly easily and use it to set it up on my newly build system?

Thanks.

2

The big things are very obvious… where to plug in the CPU, how to attach fans and such, how to put in RAM and expansion cards.

The devil’s in the details… when I built my first PC, I didn’t know that I had to put little risers on the PC case to keep the motherboard from touching metal (when you buy a motherboard, it comes with a little pack of screws… the risers are typically bronze-colored things that look like screw extenders).

Then there’re things like maximizing airflow… putting one fan in the front of the case sucking in, and another fan in the back of the case blowing out (if you have two fans sucking in, you don’t get good airflow), or putting the thermal grease on the processor (one guy I knew only put a small dab on, and was getting overheating problems).

Once you’ve done it once, however, it becomes second nature. As long as you’re relatively familiar with the basic components and terminology, any online guide should do. However, if you don’t know the difference between DDR and DDR-2, or AGP and PCIe, then make sure you consult a more knowledgeable friend before you make your purchases.

3

By the way, most BIOSes are pretty smart and automatic these days. If you’re using typical hardware, it shouldn’t be a problem to set up. In fact, it’ll likely set itself up.

Just make sure you get name brand parts. Saving $20 on an el cheapo motherboard may SOUND like a good idea… BUT IT ISN’T. BEWARE the el cheapo motherboard. It’ll shank you in your sleep and run off with your woman.

4

While what SPOOFE says above is all pretty much true I’d have to add that unless you’re doing it for fun or a learning experience there’s no financial advantage to building your own PC anymore. Actually there hasn’t been for awhile now. PCs are a commodity (i.e. the parts cost as much or more than a whole unit).

And while it can go smoothly it can also be an unbelievable (and never ending) nightmare. The big PC companies like Dell and HP manufacture their own motherboards and they rigorously test compatibility amongst all components of preassembled systems because tech support is an enormous profit killer for them.

Because there are so many different brands of peripherals out there and, therefore, endless possible combinations there’s always the risk of A+B not working with C and it can take you hours of sitting on hold with various tech support people before pinpointing it.

Believe me, I’ve been there. Although this was a number of years ago and things are better now. :wink:

5

No financial advantage, eh?

  By my (likely flawed) calculations, buying all of the components of Dell's $499 desktop would cost far less than $499.   In any case, I can understand how the prefab PC might be cheaper than the sum of its components, but I thought doing the labor myself would more than off-set the difference...what about software?  I feel like when I buy from Dell/Gateway/etc.  I'm paying for a lot of software I don't need.

  I mean, yeah, I'm interested in learning how to do it, but I'm not interested in * paying * to learn how to do it.   :p
6

It depends. Ready-built PC’s typically have an in-house motherboard, which, in my experience, are often limited in their expansion slots (sometimes they only have two or three PCI slots, whereas most common motherboards feature five or even six). They also often skimp on components, putting meager video cards, generic RAM, and put only the bare minimum amount of cooling in.

(Alienware, of course, is an exception, but their towers are usually a lot more expensive than a Dell.)

The only exception is if you have to buy a whole new operating system and software, which is what often puts the home-built PC over-the-top in terms of competitive pricing. Similar result if you buy all the parts from a local computer store as opposed to ordering online (which can easily save you 20-30%).

And, finally, ready-built PC’s typically come with a whole slew of proprietary software and custom tweaks to the OS, so you’re never quite sure exactly what you’re getting… or if you can even safely remove certain programs. Deleting Dell’s picture-manager (or whatever) can introduce instabilities into your system.

Maybe it’s just me, but I always feel better knowing that I started with a blank canvas. Your mileage may vary, o’ course.

7

Building a PC is pretty straightforward now, for the most part it’s just like a cross between Lego and Meccanno.

Things to watch for are making sure you put the bronze risers between the motherboard and the case (my first PC that I built set on fire because I forgot this), making sure you have enough thermal paste between CPU and fan and getting the master/slave jumpers correct on your drives.

While there may be no financial advantage to building your own CPU from the point of buying one, there’s a significant advantage in knowing exactly what sort of quality the components are inside your PC. This led me to build my first one: we bought a Packard Bell PC years ago which was unupgradeable due to custom components. There’s also the “wow” factor when you tell other, less computer-savvy, people you built the PC :stuck_out_tongue:

8

If you’re intimidated, try ordering your basic components from someone like Monarch. Their prices are about the same as you’ll find on newegg, and for only $20 or so, they’ll assemble them for you. So you could have them put the CPU and heatsink on your MOBO, install the MOBO and Power Supply in the case that you choose, and test it all for about $20 or so. Then, you buy the rest of your parts OEM or loose, and install those yourself. Cake!

9

Good thread, slight hijack:

If I build a new system with a tv tuner card and a hugh-jass hard drive, is there software to make my pc run as a tivo? Start recording shows at the appropriate time, stop recording, etc?
How about movie editing software? Suppose I want to remove Jar Jar from Episode I. Is there user friendly editing software?

What are my options for getting the recorded shows to my tv, burn it to dvd or run an “S” cable?

I can’t wait to build this system!!

10

If you have sufficient technical aptitude to fir a replacement hard drive, the given a little care and thought to what you are doing, you should manage without too much difficulty.

Try and purchase as much of your hardware from one source. This has the advantages of
a) Should anything fail, they can’t blame it on another component being defective and try to wriggle out of replacing it. A lot of suppliers try this.
b) You will most likely be able to negotiate a discount, I always get one from my supplier without even having to ask (Chinese guy)
c) I also get free advice when needed, and he will absolutely NOT sell me any hardware with possible conflicts, i.e. Motherboard/chip/memory incompatibilities, Neither will he try and sell me more expensive components than are required.
d) If you ask nicely, they will assemble chip and cooler on the motherboard, insert the memory and check it on a rig in the counter, so you can see it is up and running.

The thermal paste issue is a simple fix. A prepackaged portion is supplied with most coolers and some processors, between two sheets of non-absorbent paper. Peel of one paper, apply to processor, peel off second paper, fit the cooler.

Re: fitting the cooler. This is probably the most hazardous step for most home builds. It is not difficult but there is a bit of a knack that is only usually acquired by some trial and error, and errors are usually disastrous. Too much pressure and the tracks on the motherboard can be damaged, or their connections to the surface mount components. Slip with the screwdriver used to lever the spring clip in place and there goes the motherboard. Exercise extreme car, or even better get your supplier to do this for you (see above)

The rest is comparatively simple, particularly as most boards are jumperless these days, all settings/tweaks done onscreen in the BIOS settings, and the BIOS is usually clever enough to work out most of these for itself.

Do read the motherboard manual before you start though. There may be peculiarities specific to that board that would catch you out otherwise.

If you are going to install Linux, and have no prior experience, I would advise installing some version of Windows first and then Linux, which will then dual boot so you can use Windows as a fall back if you are struggling with some aspect of Linux. When you are completely at home with Linux, overwrite Windows with the Linux installation.

Or use Knoppix, which will run from CD if you wish, doesn’t even need to be installed until you are ready. (As will some of the other distributions that offer a ‘Live’ CD.

11

No special skills. Its not that hard. Plus, your mobo manual should give you the basic instructions.
The first time is probably the trickiest, so just go slowly, and read every manual carefully.

Its a wonderful feeling when you first boot-up, hear the fan, and see the BIOS come up. :slight_smile:

Umm, if you’ve never used Linux before, I don’t suggest you use it. It may not be worth the trouble, although thats ultimately up to you. You can always reformat of course. :smiley:

12

My $0.02 (and I’ve built my last two computers).

It’s not hard, and there are web pages that can step you through most of it, but you should have some basic experience – if you can use a screwdriver, the hardware part is easy, but to get the system running you should know how to boot into safe mode, be able to find, download, and install drivers on the internet, and be familiar enough with windows to know if it’s screwing up.
It could be useful if you can arrange to have internet access while you’re building (i.e. borrow a friend’s computer for a couple days). This was critical for me once, as it turned out I needed to download a patch for Windows before it would boot. That was the hard build, by the way; the other went smoothly.
If you’re doing it purely for financial reasons, though, I’m not sure that it’s worth it, unless you’re starting with a system already and just upgrading it. You can get a lot of computer for $499 these days, and spend no time futzing with it. And if you’re paying for software and starting from scratch, you can reach $499 pretty easily. It makes sense if you’re doing it partly for the fun of doing it, and can get software for free, but not sure it does otherwise.

On the other hand, dropping a new motherboard and processor (and/or adding a new hard drive) into a computer you already have is fairly easy, and cheaper than a whole new computer.

13

I have a system (built it myself) in my living room just for this very purpose.

You’ll need a video card with TV out and a video capture card (the all in wonder ATI cards actually combine both abilities in one board, might want to look at one of those).

A nice big hardrive is also a good thing (160 GB+ IMHO). A decent mobo, CPU and fast hardrive are essential for quality captures ( a decent sound card won’t hurt either).

I’m using an ATI video capture board and a nvidia video card with TV out for my system. I have one 60 gig hardrive holding programs and the OS, and a separate 200 gig hardrive where I capture to.

As for software there’s plenty to choose from, many even free, and most very affordable.

What I use:

  1. ATI’s Multimedia software package for their tv capture card to capture and watch TV on my computer.

  2. Virtual dub (free app) to do any needed editing.

  3. TmpgEnc Xpress and Tmpgenc DVD to encode to DVD spec video and to create DVD’s out of my favorite shows.

I also use several other free DVD software to help out my SO with her German DVD’s (their regionally coded so I make uncoded copies she can watch on the TV while I play on the computer).

The software that comes with the ATI capture card also allows me to schedule recording sessions. All I need to do is leave the computer on.

14

Just to add, you shouldn’t need a boot floppy for Linux. Boots from the CD.
You may possibly need an ME boot floppy to Fdisk a new drive with, depending on the drive size.

Most boot disks are downloadable from Here

15

Thanks Kinthalis!

I printed out your response and may go shopping soon…

16

Why would you need a floppy disk? Windows 98SE, Windows Me, Windows 2000 and Windows XP can all do the format within setup - no floppy needed.

As others have said, you can’t really compete on price anymore unless you’re building a higher-end system. If you just want to build a system that will mimick one of Dell’s $499 Dimension boxes, you can surely find the parts to do just that, but you’re not going to use them as they will suck, being of low-quality. Dell has much more purchasing power in the computer world than you do, I’m afraid.

On the other hand, rolling your own means that you know what’s going into your box and can plan for maximum upgrade possibilities. It’s also a fun learning experience. I’d never use a computer that I didn’t build myself…

17

I built myself a new computer last weekend. I needed a floppy drive for the motherboard raid drivers. It was a big pain to as I had to scrounge around for an old floppy drive and a floppy disk. You tend to need a flopy drive to do things like upgrade the bios etc.

18

As for this, I have an ATI All-In-Wonder Pro card in a Windows XP system that I built a couple of years ago. The ATI card serves as both the video card and a TV tuner card. It comes with Tivo-like DVR software, but I’ve switched to another product I like better called Beyond TV.

Also, there are specialty PC cases sold for use in PCs meant as DVRs. Some are designed to fit in your entertainment center and look right, but the big requirement is quiet fans. My system isn’t built in one of these cases, though.

And of course software is available if you choose to build a Linux-based DVR.

19

The answer that I typically give when I’m asked this question is that yes, building a computer is quite easy. There are very few difficult parts that involve some special technique or are just dextrously difficult (like lining up a certain thing with another). Nearly all cables, wires, cards, and ports are designed to only go in one way.

However, when something doesn’t work properly, this is when the experience and knowledge is invaluable. Even that really isn’t too difficult, as its just a process of elimination and isolation. Knowing what likely causes what is what I consider the difficult thing. What to change if some component isn’t being recognized, etc.

I usually tell people to go ahead, buy the parts, and build everything up. You might get lucky and the thing will work on the very first power-on. (Stop laughing, it does happen).

If things don’t go quite so peachy, there is quite a lot of (free) support information to help (hope you’ve got a backup net connection!).

Recently I’ve been building brushless motors, which is something where the assembly itself is physically difficult.

20

Both these parpagraphs are excellent advice. If it’s your first new build, look for a company that sells motherboards with the processor/heatsink/memory preinstalled (the computer I’m on here is built on such a system from www.novatech.co.uk - obviously a British company, but go to their ‘motherboard bundles’ section to see the type of thing I mean).

As for Linux: yep, install Windows first. However, partition the hard disk (in the XP setup process) to leave a decent chunk for Linux (10MB will be more than enough to play with). Don’t worry if Windows decides to allocate a drive letter or anything to this partition - the important thing is that you don’t have C: spanning the entire drive, which is a headache to change.