Well, I’ve noticed that a lot of people here have mentioned building their own computers, but I don’t remember who. What I’m interested in is:
-What your computer consists of
-What brands for parts do you prefer
-How often you upgrade parts
-Any other interesting info (ie, when you built it)
I started my computer last year in January. Back then it consisted of a pentium 233 and 40 mb of ram, with a bunch of othe rold hardware. Eventually I completely changed it.
My computer right now:
-PIII-450
-192 MB pc-100 ram
-64 mb DDR GeForce 2
-56k modem
-20.4 gb hdd and 13 gb hdd
-Soundblaster Live! Value
I also have a scanner, printer, 19" crt monitor, digital surround sound system, wingman pro joystick, optical mouse, internet keyboard, and a mic.
I’m partial to Creative Labs products. I’ve had satisfactory performance from their products and are usually among the first I look at when I think about upgrading.
My computer right now:
-PIII-500
-512 MB pc-100/133 ram
-32 meg TNT 2 ultra
-56k modem
-40 + 27 gig hds
-Soundblaster Live! Value
21 inch DELL OEM Sony Trinitron Flatscreen Monitor
Soundblaster live
Altec Lansing ADA 880 speakers and sub
10x IDE Pioneer DVD
12X IDE Plextor CDRW
USB IOMEGA ZIP
ANTEC CASE
I’ve built a lot of PCs. Interestingly building is often quite a bit more expensive than buying complete setups but you get to cherry pick your own parts. Re critical input items you left off the mouse and keyboard, I personally like the latest sculpted Logitech mouseman mice and the latest MS natural keyboard pro.
Here are some hardware review and survey sites for you
I build my own, but I don’t have much brand loyalty as to components. I just get whatever’s getting good reviews.
My current computer is:
celeron 366 overclocked to 558
256Mb Ram
17G Maxtor HD
6x DVD
40x CDrom
TNT2 (overclocked to Ultra)
Savage4
soundblaster live! value
17" CTX monitor
15" Packard Bell monitor
Abit bp6 motherboard
Sparkle 250W power supply
generic floppy, keyboard, optical mouse, case, ethernet
I didn’t build my PC, but it was custom-built by a local company (that has since gone under.) I bought this PC in early 1999.
I was able to choose some of the hardware it would have (like I know a damn thing! HA!) But that was fun to have some choices. I expect when I get a new PC (which won’t be for a year or so) I’ll have it custom built again.
What little I know about my PC:
~450 MHz AMD K6-2 CPU. A friend upgraded it from the original 333 MHz.
~128 megs PC-100 RAM. Upgraded from the original 64.
~Soundblaster 64 AWE soundcard
~Rockwell 56K Flex modem
~Video Card (upgraded to) Hercules Stingray 128/3D (whatever that means.)
~Asus P5A motherboard (I wanted it because I knew Asus was a good brand, and it had USB.)
~6 GB HDD. 10 GB HDD added a few months ago.
~Windows 98.
~Internal 100 MB Zip drive.
~6x Sony Spressa USB CD-RW. (I share the CD-RW drive with my iMac.)
I got some nice Yamaha speakers for it. But they’re on the iMac now. The PC has some cheaper speakers (but they’re OK.)
I haven’t built one yet but likely will the next one, in a few months. I didn’t know anything my PII 350 didn’t do fast enough for me until I got into editing photos a couple months back. [Change a layer, wait 2 minutes. Repeat.] Aside from a fast CPU and lot of ram, is there anything else in particular that can help speed it up? (I know there are $1000+++ videocards out there, but I thought they were only for special 3-D modeling programs, and that’s a bit steep anyways) - MC
I learned to make mine by talking to guys on the BBS’s. Then guys on the Internet.
However, most importantly I learned from the guys on the Internet how to get rid of Update fever. That’s when you see a new faster processor or what not & you MUST have it.
I simply read all the nitemare stories of guys who did that & that cured me of that fever.
I didn’t build the one I’m currently using (overexpensive gift from parents) but I have built ones in the past, and plan to purchase the parts for a new one on the 21st.
I’ll be buying:
45gig, 7500 rpm HD
256 or 512 MB of cas-2 SDRAM (cas-2 pushes the price up to around $80 for a 128MB stick)
1gighz t-bird chip, accompanying raid or scsi mobo (chip is down to under $190 now!)
probably a full tower. I’m sooo tired of trying to find room in my current mini tower.
either a cdrw or a dvd player. can’t decide. probably not both.
probably a new video card. This should be the most expensive bit - around $300 for a blazing fast geforce2 with 64mb. might settle for a decent geforce2 with half the memory for half the price
Welp, if anyone here has any recomendations, I’d appreciate them. Especially for a dvd player with on-board decoding (not that that may matter much if I get the 1gighz chip :)) that is linux compatible.
One thing a friend of mine told me. It is essential that you use thermal tape or thermal grease with the t-bird, it apparently will overheat in no time without it.
I have built tons of computers … much better than buying off the shelf if you have the tech skills to support it after the fact.
As to the original questions of what brands are solid …
ATI - nobody builds a more reliable product than ATI. Great products, solid support, reasonable prices
Creative Labs - as you said above, they have a reliable and powerful product line. I have never been disappointed.
GVC - makers of lowend products using generic chipsets that for some reason seem to perform faster and reliably than other generic assemblers, but for basically the same money. I love their products!!
(my two main machines - as that seems to be the trend here:
Dual Pentium Pro 200 (512)
320Mb ECC EDO RAM
6.3Gb (3*2.1Gb) UWSCSI disk
10/100 Intel NIC (integrated)
10/100 GVC NIC
ATI Xpert '98 8Mb PCI
52X Creative CD ROM (EIDE)
SB16 (integrated)
AMD K6-2 450
128Mb PC100 SDRAM
24.3Gb (120Gb 7200rpm, 14.3Gb 5400RPM) UDMA disk
10/100 GVC NIC
ATI All-In-Wonder Pro (Rage128chipset) 16MB AGP
52X Creative CD ROM (EIDE)
Creative Labs SoundBlaster Live!
Whenever I buy to build a new computer, I always look for sales and combo deals. With the very limited funding I have, I can’t afford premium prices for everything (Although I went all-out for my GeForce 2…and it was worth it!).
Now is a really good time to buy RAM…I just saw a deal: 64 MB pc-100 for $26. That’s just a little under 3 megs per buck.
By looking for deals, it generally takes longer to build a computer, but man it sure saves me the cash. I’ve saved maybe $300 buying like that. It’s all a matter of consideration, comparing, and luck (Ya gotta hope the good stuff goes on sale).
Right now I have one off the shelf machine from Dell. And three machines that I have been built from the scraps of other machines that were built from other machines so now I’m at the point of not knowing where the original parts even came from.
I like to weigh cost and need. Although, when I started playing Unreal Tounament online… I had to upgrade so that I wouldnt suck (didnt help).
Don’t offer to build systems for family memebers. Don’t Do It!! It will turn your life into a living nightmare! Trust me on this one. Working on your own system is fine, just advise them to buy a prebuilt system.
http://www.pricewatch.com/1/33/1281-1.htm
$19 for pc-100 64MB. Shipping extra, but you could visit the company itself if you live near a “Connect Computers” in California.
$20, $21 at Ohio and Virginia stores.
Another PC builder checking in. My main motivation for building/upgrading is to be able to play computer games. So soemthing gets upgraded on average of once every six months. If I could just kick my gaming habit, my PC would waste away from disuse.
Last upgrade was for Diablo2. Went from two P233’s to two PIII 600’s.
Soyo 133 P3 mother board (forgot the model)
Intel 600mhz P2 chip
256k 133 ram
Soundblaster something soundcard
30gig Maxtor HD
17" monitors (KDS? can’t remember, trinitron though)
Old Voodoo3 video cards (soon to be upgraded)
Linksys Printserver/Switch hybrid
My problem is that I can’t let old computer parts hang out in the closet. I feel the need to make something with them. I used half of the old parts to build my brother a simple internet machine (P233). Now, I plan on using the other half to build another P233 for… no real reason at all. I have no idea what to do with it, but I feel the need to build it just the same.
800MHz PIII
256MB PC100 SDRAM
Seagate 7200RPM 30GB HD
Maxtor 5400RPM 13GB HD (used for MP3 storage)
Toshiba 6x32 DVDROM drive
Plextor 8x4x32 CDR/RW drive
Creative Labs Annihilator 2 GTS
Creative Labs Voodoo2 (12MB) (for Glide support)
Creative Labs Soundblaster LIVE!
Hollywood+ DVD decoder
3com 56K faxmodem
VoodooTV/FM 200 TV tuner
Intel Pro/100 Management LAN adapter
and more overpriced stuff for peripherals.
I upgrade whenever the games and graphics apps get too slow for me, or whenever I get enough money (this time, my college bought me $2000 worth of PC equipment, so I got to pick and choose).
I prefer to use only well-known component brands, but other than that, I don’t discriminate.
I run BeOS and Win98SE on this machine.
Like Theios, who posted before me, my leftovers often find their way into other (sometimes completely new) machines.
This thread came at the perfect time as my home computer is going byebye (corrupted files,cant access HD,5yrs old)
A couple questions;
can I use my old Gateway P5-200 tower and just put new hardware in it? i.e. standardised mounting for motherboards etc.
I want to run Autocad at home what should I get at the minimum? I have a p200/32MB/4GBHd now and it laughs at me when I try to run AutocadLT much less R14!
3)I see some links above which I will check out, but where else should I look for parts?
I’m reasonably proficient in hardware stuff \and have a IT manager/programmer friend to help out if need be.
Thanks,
)