New Project: Tell me about building a PC from scratch.

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
21

The only boob I know of is the one that’ll be piecing together this new CPU. :smiley:

After reading through the thread again, I guess the most appropriate term I can think of will be “Frankensteining” this PC together. It’ll be mostly new parts, with the old case I have. I’m not looking for blazing fast speed, but I do want the PC to be useful for surfing the Web (text based stuff), emailing, central file storage for my (and my wife’s) laptops, basic media playing onto a widescreen LCD TV, but most importantly, a central hub for the wireless innerwebs and printers in the house. I plan on it being the SkyNET of our new place out West.

Now that I think about it, can anyone tell me of any difficulties in running output to a large TV screen? I don’t think I need S-Video outputs–the newer TV has a PC cable input.

The place you’re most likely to run into trouble is if you’re buying cutting-edge components. The newest CPUs and video cards are always hot.
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So, would it make sense to oversize heatsinks and such? I have absolutely no problem drilling holes into the side of the old case. But then again, I wonder if I have a big enough box. . . I would think a larger sized tower would be enough to start, no?

Tripler
I will make up a sticker that says “Mothership: SkyNET” for it when I’m done.

22

Please make sure that your case is a standard ATX case.

23

Don’t plan on saving money doing this.

Because:

  • you will have to spend more on an OS than computer manufacturers do (unless you go with a free Linux one).
  • you will pay more for your components than computer manufacturers who buy in volume. (And you will probably opt for better components – they are looking to squeeze every nickel out of their component cost; you are likely to say that one’s a little better, and only $10 more, I’ll get that.)

And this is not even considering the value of your time in assembling it. But if you enjoy it, that’s not a cost.

So you will spend more money & time than if you just ordered a basic computer from one of the manufacturers. But you will end up with one built just for you, customized with the parts you wanted, carefully assembled by someone who cares about it, and with the knowledge to easily do repairs or upgrades. Go for it!

24

I’ve been working with computers for 30 years, and I’ve never once heard someone complain their computer was running too cool.

And I’ll second that comment about saving money. Building a computer is just like homebrewing beer. Making your own costs more than buying Coors, but it’s yours. Designed by you, made by you, to fit your tastes and no-one else’s.

25

I’ll second the recommendation for consulting Toms Hardware Guide. But then again, I’m always building with an eye to running modern games. I need some idea how different CPUs and graphics cards match up.

For my first PC, I fretted over getting the best parts so that I could comfortably experiment with overclocking. You know what? I never bothered to overclock. Not worth the hassle. These days, once I have an idea what I want for a motherboard, NewEgg.com will have suggested processors and memory listed, so I don’t even do a lot of research anymore.

Also, I have given up trying to sharpshoot for better prices than I can find on NewEgg, because in the past such things were rare to find. It may be that Tiger Direct has a better deal for you once you know what you want. But I can tell you that I have been very pleased with my nearly decade-long experience with NewEgg’s rapid shipment and their return policy.

When considering a case, you can usually get one that looks good to you no matter what other feature it has. And most new ones will be well designed for cooling, though you may want to attend to this detail anyway just to make sure the thing will be good for future upgrades that may be even hotter. I have only recently replaced a case I bought ten years ago, because the stakes on heat have just gone through the roof in that time. But here’s a detail you’ll be very glad you paid attention to through the years: how easy is it to open up and close again? How easy is it to pop a component out and back in securely? Observe:

The Antec El Cheapo
[ul]
[li]The back has to be screwed on and off (a problem ameliorated by replacing the back screws with thumb screws)[/li][li]Your drives will have to be screwed by hand with four screws, two of which are hard to get to (for which I recommend using dab of that poster-hanging putty to keep them on the tip of your non-magnetized screwdriver)[/li][li]It’s tightly arranged, and it’ll be a huge pain in the ass to arrange all your cords to fit[/li][/ul]

Compare:
COOLER MASTER COSMOS 1000
[ul]
[li]The side panel pops open with the press of a lever[/li][li]Loads of room[/li][li]You get a whole rack for hard drives which are screwed into removable carriages, and your other drives can be slipped in and clinched in place without a screwdriver[/li][li]Comes with a guide for your motherboard form factor so you don’t put risers in the wrong place[/li][li]Looks like it was made by the Cybermen[/li][/ul]

Now, as to power supplies, you probably think that this is the oldest tech in the machine and therefore the most reliable and why the hell should it cost an arm and a leg except because of a huge conspiracy? You’d probably be right, but when after a long time I stopped trying to get amazing bargains on power supplies, I started having a lot fewer computer problems. So, if you enjoy replacing power supplies, go for cheap ones. It may just even out over the years. But I’m enjoying the peace of mind of not replacing the damned things every nine months or so.

For TV output, this is not a problem. Just get the right cord and your PC-input ready TV should have no trouble working as a computer monitor. Me, I don’t have a DVD player/stereo/ect, what have you. I have a computer connected to my PC. I can show DVDs without concern for regional coding, and with Logitech’s wireless gamepad I can play games on it like it was a console. I can use services like Hulu or Netflix-On-Demand to watch television. If you wanted to, you could even set it up as a TiVo-type device. There are video cards out there made specifically for this purpose. Way better in my opinion than buying a bunch of other hardware – one machine can do it all.

26

We’ve been building our own machines for the last 10yrs or so. My preference, if you have the room in your house, is to go with a BIG case. I use a full size tower. Why, you ask? Because it gives me lots more room to fit my hands in, I get lots less frustrated trying to wedge all the parts in, and the air flow is better, around your components.

If you aren’t worried about saving every last $, my suggestion is to actually find a good computer parts store, got in on a Tuesday evening (some time when it will be slow), and start picking someone’s brain. They can help you get components that are compatible (reducing frustration) and if you do have problems, then it’s only a car drive away to replace/return something.

One thing I’ve learned, don’t skimp on the size of the power supply. Video cards take loads of power. Lots of it. The cost savings between a 600watt and a 500watt power supply is not that much, but it’s a total PITA if you undersize it. Maybe $10?

Oh, and does your old case have front/top USB and headphone jacks? The newer cases have gotten smart and started putting those up front, where people actually can use them (novel idea, huh?). If your old case doesn’t, that alone is a reason to get a new one.

27

What do you guys think about onboard video vs. a separate card?

28

Separate every time.

29

Here’s my case:

2 250 mm fans on the side, and a thermometer on the front, just in case. My fan motors actually burnt out, but after I installed replacements it seems to be doing fine, so I think it was a case of a defect rather than the fan, my friend hasn’t had any problems with his and he’s had his longer than mine. Only other real con is that the case is HUGE and prohibitively heavy (though if you want to deter thieves…).

On the plus side, it’s spacious so you have room to work in and the disk drives/hard drive spaces are both separate and they’re screwless (so really easy to install, it’s pretty much just popping pegs and inserting the plastic clip into a rack).

30

Personally, I agree with Quartz and I’d always go with a separate card.

But if you’re not planning on playing videogames, editing videos and large images, watching movies, and other video-intensive tasks, you can save quite a bit by going onboard.

31

Depends on what you’re doing. If you’re playing the latest games (or, I suppose, doing serious 3-D CAD work), then separate is necessary. If you’re running a TV, it depends on what the on-board video can do.
If you’re just web-surfing, word processing, file-managing, and print-serving, onboard video will be plenty good enough.

Oh and Tripler, one small piece of advice: if static electricity is ever an issue in your house (and it’s not a bad idea anyway), get in the habit of always grabbing a metal piece of the case with your off hand before picking up a part in the other hand (especially memory!). I think fancy wrist straps are overkill for amateurs, but static can zap computer parts.
I wouldn’t bother oversizing cooling components until you see it’s necessary. There’s not much point in replacing the heatsink/fans that come with the CPU (and video card if you decide you need a hot-rod card); the main issue is airflow through the case. And you can always change that later if things seem hot (you should be able to get temperature readouts from the motherboard/CPU), by adding fans or cutting holes.

32

An add-on video card will also support two monitors.

33

I really wish someone somewhere had told me about this when I built mine. I fried two motherboards and spent hours on the phone with tech support, friends, etc, trying to figure out why nothing was working. Nothing in any directions anywhere said anything about putting the motherboard on risers. I was not a pleasant person to be around for those few weeks.

Also, I found that there are other issues which no one can really tell you about, but if they hit you, will drive you crazy. For me they were:

  • Once I fixed the mobo, the OS wouldn’t load. Turns out my BIOS was not capable of handling my CPU. WTF? Took a long while to figure that one out with tech support, and again, I was not a pleasant person to be around for those couple of weeks.
  • Trying to even get the CPU into the motherboard. Nice, expensive chip and motherboard, and here I am trying to clamp the retaining arm down so hard that it’s bending the chip and board. And it still won’t close. More muscle, more bending, more visions of yet another trip back to Microcenter with broken parts…
  • Trying to get the RAM installed. Like the CPU, they were insanely difficult to mash into the slot. These things look like they should fit together like legos, but I found out the hard way that many times, they don’t. It took me a good two hours to seat two little sticks of RAM. Again, not a pleasant person to be around that evening.
  • People talk about having a nice, neat, cable-managed interior. Mine is not. It simply can’t be, because of my video card and general layout of the motherboard. And my tower is pretty spacious. I spend a decent amount of time fighting with the cables whenever I have to crack the case, and I dread it every time.

Oh yeah–there are power supply calculators you can use to figure out what you need in that department.

Johnny Angel, not to sound like a hopeless nerd, but I’m in love with that case.

34

They actually make thermometers for this sort of thing? Wow! Hell, even if I don’t need it, it’s still something cool to look at. Tell me there’s one like a little analog oven gauge–that’d be t*ts!

You actually raised and reinforced a good point. “Grounding before touching” is half of my job anyway, but yeah, I don’t want to fry a part before I install it. Thanks for the reminder.

So, wait. . . is there a reference that’ll tell me what BIOS goes with what CPU, or is this something I ought to know before I start ordering parts? And then again, I thought a BIOS was a BIOS was a BIOS–is it different? Where can I find out more 'bout this? You’re talking to a guy who earned his BSE.E. with a lab on an 8086.

Oooh, I like that link. Thank you!

In the meantime, I’ve got some reading to do, 'specially since I’ll be on the road out West this week. Admittedly, between packing and cleaning, I have not been studying into it as much as I should have though. . . been busy.

Tripler
Ideas, ideas, ideas.

35

Sadly it’s just a 2-digit (or at least I hope they didn’t anticipate needing more than that…) Celsius thermometer. It’s for people with parts that run hot or overclockers mostly, so not necessary per se, but even though I don’t really do mad OCing it helped me notice my fans going out (my graphics cards can run pretty hot during extended use so I had to remember to always shut down my computer for the night instead of finishing a dl or something until I got my replacements).

36

Yep. I built a core i7 rig with an nVidia GeForce 260 card based on the techreport guide a few months ago. My first time building a computer too. :slight_smile:

Antec P182 case – it’s a full tower. GIANT. And I needed all the room for the bits and bobbles. :eek: Last video card I installed was about five years ago and I definitely didn’t remember them being THAT big. The aftermarket heatsink that I got for the i7 CPU is really tall; I had to doublecheck that it’d fit in the case before installing it.

Connecting the various bits and bobbles also stressed me because it was my first time not to mention flipping through three different manuals to figure out how the different points in the diagrams done by completely different companies matched up. Plus the online techreport idiot’s guide to system building so that’s four. The whole process took me an entire evening of hooking things up, crossing my fingers as I turned things on, then installed the OS, btw. I had everything up on the dining table with both sides of the case off to facilitate access – I’d really recommend a case that has two removable sides or a removable motherboard tray.

And yeah, they make thermometers. I think they’re laser doodads that you point and pull the trigger on. I haven’t gotten that involved, but I do keep Speedfan (software temp monitor) on which uses the onboard sensors and posts them in the taskbar tray in Windows. No AC + i7 + under-desk = keeping a very careful eye on temps to make sure it doesn’t melt one fine summer day.

37

Actually, with this case the thermometer is just a copper wire (it seems more like a ribbon actually, reminds me of the mag-tape in cassettes kind of, but it’s clearly copper) that runs to a display on the front of the case that just reads XX°[sup]c[/sup]. No lasers here.

38

The BIOS comes with the motherboard. It’s (generalizing) the instructions for cross-handling input from your keyboard/mouse/various ports and all the different components. Each motherboard manufacturer has their own flavor of BIOS. I bought an Asus motherboard and it came with the appropriate bios software on a disk. Once I had everything plugged in it was just a matter of booting from the BIOS disc. People talk about updating their BIOS but with modern components from known manufacturers, it’s not usually necessary.

Since the BIOS is part of the Motherboard, when you buy your motherboard it should tell what CPUs, GPUS, RAM & PCI type slots the motherboard works with. Part of why I went with the Ars build list was that I was nervous about making sure everything worked right together.

39

It was compatible, but not with that particular BIOS version on that particular motherboard. I had to flash the BIOS before proceeding, which may not be a big deal, but to someone that’s doing it for the first time, it’s a bit involved, considering I had no idea how to make that kind of floppy disk, and had to get a floppy drive and temporarily install it on my machine.

40

The secret to cable-managed interiors (ESPECIALLY with spacious cases), is having longer than usual cables. That way there’s room to bundle them and run them around the edges of the case instead of having them spread across the middle and covering components. Doing that will help your airflow, too. Just make sure you aren’t running your cable bundles (especially flat ribbon cables) across something that gets hot.