Hmmm… For some reason I wasn’t notified of these posts. I thought I was abandoned in my time of need!
Generally speaking, how much cheaper is buying online rather than in a store?
I will be using it mostly for surfing, but I want the option of getting some good games. Also, I download videoclips and they are choppy. I would like to eliminate that.
I was wondering about this, thanks.
I’ll take a look at those sites gotpasswords, thanks.
My computer is in a room with no air conditioning. How do I keep the machine as cool as needed?
What tools do I need for this thing? I’m going to buy a couple of tiny screw drivers that are magnetized. A website recommended them for picking up dropped screws.
The hard drive I looked at said it had ultra ATA100 IDE something and the motherboard had ultra DMA. Does that mean that they’re not compatible?
Are there any recommended brands of RAM I should look for?
One website suggested that I make a system disk before I install Windows. How would I do that without an OS? Did I just misunderstand?
Here’s what I’m looking at right now:
AMD Athlon XP 2500+
ASUS nForce2 400 Chipset Motherboard for AMD Socket A CPU, Model "A7N8X
Western Digital Special Edition 120GB 7200RPM IDE Hard Drive
Asus Radeon 9600 SE AGP 8X 128MB DDR Video Card
Creative Labs Sound Blaster Audigy LS Sound Card
What else am I missing? I know that I need RAM, an ethernet card, a case, and a power supply. I already have monitor. And I need to hook up a new printer.
Any brands for anything I should look for or avoid? Any and all tips are welcome.
Apart from the heatsink on the CPU, all you should need is an 8cm fan at the back of the case, blowing outwards, and a 12cm one at the front, sucking in. When you see the empty case, it’s obvious where these go.
A regular crosshead screwdriver should do everything. It’s worth buying an antistatic wrist strap, they’re cheap and it makes sure you don’t damage anything just by touching it.
I’m going to be a bit blunt, but given your apparent lack of knowledge, I would suggest you not build your own PC. Sorry, but when something goes wrong, be it so small as plugging in a LED cable the wrong way around, you’re going to flounder.
Either go buy a Dell Dimension or go to your local PC shop and get them to build you one from which you can learn and upgrade that when the fancy takes you and budget allows.
Other than a standard #1 phillips screwdriver and maybe some tweezers or needlenose pliers to grab mobo and drive jumpers, about the only other tool you’ll need is the mechanical aptitude to figure out the “tab A into slot A” stuff. Most cases now use thumbscrews, so no tools needed for that.
About the most challenging part will be setting up the motherboard standoffs in the case - little springclip nut doohingles that snap into holes in the case. Most cases have twice as many holes as your particular board as there are different shapes and sizes of motherboards. You just need to work out which holes to use and pop the nuts into them. A nut in the wrong spot could potentially short something out on the board, which is usually A Bad Thing.
Be mindful of the “key” nub on the side of an IDE cable connector and the corresponding hole in the socket. They can be subtle and if you ate a good breakfast, you might get it in backwards without realizing. No harm if you do - it just won’t work. Floppy drive cables are also easily flopped.
Hooking up the front panel stuff can be vexing. There’s no standards for the stuff, so the case makers often bring out all of the wires with individual connectors, rather than (say) the front panel USB port as one 4-pin plug. Plan on studying the case instructions and the motherboard layout diagram, and don’t be surprised if you get one or two things backwards, resulting in dead ports, drive activity lights that stay on, etc.
ATA100 vs Ultra DMA is not a problem.
As for memory - Like I sid before, Mushkin’s good stuff. Crucial’s another very good brand.
More often than not, cases will come with fans in them. You just plug them into a spare drive power connector if they have the big 4-pin plugs, or into fan connections on the motherboard if they have the tiny two or three pin plugs. In general terms, you want as many blowing in as blowing out, and normally, the front fans are blowing in, and the rear is blowing out. Pre-installed fans will be set up that way. If you’re adding or replacing, look for an arrow on the side of the fan to show which way it’s blowing.
I work as tech support at Monarch Computer Systems, so I know a little about what I’m about to say.
If you don’t know much about the hardware in a computer, you should look into getting at least a motherboard combo, where the RAM, CPU, and HSF are all mounted onto the motherboard and tested. When I built my first computer many years ago this was the hardest part of the process, and it helps prevent getting any defective parts.
Also, what are you going to use this computer for? If it is mostly for gaming I would look into the Athlon 64 3200. If it is for video/music editing then an Intel chip might be better. If it is just for web surfing, word proccessing, and maybe a little gaming, I would recomend an Athlon XP with the Barton core.
As for motherboards, I would recomend something from ASUS or Giga-Byte. Their boards are pretty reliable.
I would recomend Corsair memory, it is very reliable plus Corsair warrenties the memory for life.
The main diffrence between an OEM and retail box for Windows is that the OEM versions don’t have any tech support from Microsoft. It also doesn’t come with the manual.
If you get a retail box CDROM then it will probably come with a cable, but the motherboard almost always comes with all the cables you might need.
Are you planning on still using the computer you have now? If not you can take some of the parts that dont need upgrading from it, like the 3.5 floppy.
I dunno if i’d go as far as that, diving in and building a computer is honestly the best way to learn. When i built my first computer, i didn’t know much about it. Before i started, i read a lot of hardware websites to learn what all the components were, and how they went together. Luckily, my dad knew a decent amount about how to build computers, so with his help I managed to get it up and running without too much trouble. Now that i’ve built many more machines than him, I’m the one that knows more, and he asks me for advice.
My best advice is call up a friend who knows how to build computers, and ask him or her to come over for a day and help you build it. Make sure they understand that “help you build it” doesn’t translate into “build it for you” – you want to do all the work and learn how to do it yourself for the future, but some guidance will definitely smooth over the difficulties you will encounter with fine details (such as the front panel connectors, master/slave settings, etc.). This way when you run into something you don’t understand, you have someone available to ask. At worst, you could offer them $10 or $20 to sit around your house and play video games while you do the work if they aren’t receptive to doing it for free.
I’ve done this for several friends already, and most of them do their own building now. Your first time is always the hardest, after that it gets easier.
Anyway, as for hardware reccomendations, Asus makes some rock-solid boards, most of the computers i’ve built have used Asus boards, and i’ve only ever had to send one back. Also the Asus motherboard manuals come with a decent set of instructions for building your computer and setting it up, which is invaluble for a first-timer. The A7N8X is supposed to be an excellent board too, so i’d say that’s a good choice. If i remember correctly, it comes with on-board lan and modem, which is great since it saves you from buying those parts, and allows you to transition from your telephone to broadband. Unlike Bob!, I like on-board ethernet, since it clears up PCI slots and helps keep irq’s free so you don’t have conflicts. Also, if the ethernet on the board “wigs out” you can always disable it in windows and install your own ethernet card in a PCI slot.
The A7N8X has on-board sound as well, so you could use that, or buy the Sound Blaster Audigy and disable the on-board sound. I can’t vouch for any quality differences – i would imagine the Audigy sounds better, but then again maybe you won’t notice the difference. shrugs
As Hirka said, Gigabyte is a good motherboard company as well. As for RAM, i personally prefer Crucial, since you can buy direct from them at their website. But Corsair and Mushkin are equally reputable.
For your first time, i’d reccomend to get most of the hardware in retail box form, if it isn’t too much more expensive, since then you get full warranties and such and don’t have to work through a middleman (unless you go through newegg, they’re very good about OEM returns and such). Also, you wont’ end up missing a critical part (like a cable) when you’re building.
And as for cost, you can certainly build a great machine for under $1000, i’d estimate around $600 for a decent AMD system. For reference, i’m looking at building a custom high-end machine this summer, and the cost is coming out right around $1000, with top-of-the-line components.
Anyway, the system specs you listed look great, have fun with it!
Another thought… if you’re planning on keeping your old computer around and using it for anything (fileserver, installing linux as a learning experience, whatever), you would be very wise to invest in a KVM switch, since you’re not buying a new monitor. A KVM switch will let you connect two separate computers to a single keyboard/mouse/monitor combination without having to switch cables over and over and over.
You can pick one up for around $20 or so. IMHO, mine paid for itself in about the first 10 minutes.
Iwould say the exact opposite. It is imperative you build your own computer. Teaches you how it works, and to not be afraid of the damn thing. It’s only a machine.
I worked for Gateway doing tech support for two years. I could talk anyone through damn near anything over the phone. Anyone can do it.
The best solution is if you have a friend who knows a lot about computers, invite him/her over for pizza and beer when you get all the parts. have them there, not to do the work, but so they can explain it to you. (This happens to be my standing agreement with any friends or co-workers who need help with their computers)
If that is not possible, get all the information you can on how to build them, step by step. There are several publications available for that.
And finally, if you simply follow the instructions included with each component, you should be okay as well.
You asked what size case to get. My answer is this: you’re the one sticking your hands inside it, so the bigger it is, the more comfortable you’ll be doing it. Try to find one with a slide out motherboard tray. It’s a blessing when you’re screwing your motherboard down.
And computers are insanely easier to build than you’d think. I’ve been doing it for years, and even if I had the money to buy pre-built machines, I’m not positive I’d do so. I have the same floppy drive that I’ve had for nearly 10 years.
The whole point of building my own computer is to remove the mysteriousness of this machine. Having someone else build it for me defeats the purpose.
I’m giving my old computer away so I can’t use any of its parts.
It’s good to hear the Asus recommendations, as that’s what I was planning on getting.
Well folks, it seems that I have enough information to get started. The next step is to buy all the parts and get crackin’. If I have more questions I know where to go.
Thank you all very much. With any luck my next post will be from my new 'puter.
I’ll still be looking at this thread though, so keep those tips coming!
My case was, by chance, a godsend. It was the cheapest that PC World (UK) had at the time I desperatley needed one. But it has pull-down panels on both side, so you need to unscrew nothing, and you can fit the motherboard and expansion cards without the slightest effort.
This is question about memory. I’m getting 512 MB of DDR PC3200 RAM and I have two options. Buy one 512MB module or two 256MB modules. What should I do? I think I read in one of the threads on the SDMB that one should use two 256 modules. Is that true and if so, why?
This is when you need to plug specific items into the memory sellers’ websites.
I recall you said you were getting the Asus A7N8X. It’s set up to take RAM in individual sticks, rather than pairs, and has three slots, so it can take a maximum of 3 GB. If you want 512 MB, you can do one 512 module, or two 256 MB.
Crucial shows a pair of 256 MB as the most popular option. Today’s cost is $116. (RAM prices can change wildly and quickly)
At Mushkin, they also recommend a pair of 256 MB modules for $170 that will respond well to overclocking. Their “Blue Line” PC2700 will do just as well for you, for $120.
As this is your first build, don’t even think about overclocking just yet. It’s too easy to burn up a processor if you’re unfamiliar with how things behave at normal speeds.
The difference between unbuffered, parity, registered, etc, that you’ll actually care about is that your motherboard runs with non-parity RAM. Parity and registered are primarily used in servers that need maximum reliability.
Go with two modules for one reason only: redundancy. If one of two memory chips goes bad, you’re not totally out of luck. If you only have one and it goes bad you’re screwed until you can replace it.
With regard to registered vs unbuffered, etc - the following comes from thiscomputer memory faq
The main reason that Intel chips are better is because they have a higher clock speed, when you are doing editing of video/music/photos clock speed is more important. The AMD chips have a better when running applications that require floating point unit (I believe that is what it is called) calculations.
AMD newer chips like the Athlon 64 series might close the gap between them due to the higher onboard cache and the faster FSB speed.
I wanted to check to make sure I’m right about something. I looking at this Cd-rw/ DVD- rom drive and it says that it must be compatible with an Intel pentium II processor. I’m assuming that it also works with an Athalon processor. Is that correct?
It also says that it uses an ATAPI/EIDE interface. Where do I look on the motherboard specs to make sure it’s compatible?
