Topic: Anyone Build Their own Systems Here? (Read 16747 times)

Rondo_GE · « **on:** January 22, 2004, 01:32:30 pm »

Just curious. I want to build my own system just for the hell of it and would like to know good people to buy parts from and a good place to get a "how to" or a website to go to if your stuck. I don't know if you save all that much money but it seems like a lot of fun and a good way to update your general PC knowledge.

My Systems Analyst days are over but I still like fooling around with systems.

Also does anone have a recommened configuration/hardware? I can spend about 1K...monitor not included...I have plenty of them laying around.

Iceman · « **Reply #1 on:** January 22, 2004, 02:18:56 pm »

Well, here is my setup. I've had zero problems except my recent bad sector error, so I'll suggest a Seagate drive instead of Western Digital.

Asus A7V8X-X Motherboard
PNY 2700 DDR Ram (1 512mb stick)
AMD XP 2800+
ATi Raedon 9600 Pro 128mb
Western Digital 120gb 7200 RPM HDD
SoundMax Audio

Anything else you'd care to know? I would suggest two sites.
www.newegg.com
www.tigerdirect.com

Between the two of them you should be golden!

Dash Jones · « **Reply #2 on:** January 22, 2004, 03:06:49 pm »

Hmmm, I buy premade computers and then change the components in an upgrade. Typically I buy a cheaper computer, or one without any additions but with a fast enough processor to satisfy me, and upgrade Vid card, Sound Card, RAM, Harddrive, and occasionally one or two other components (put in a DVD writer, etc.). Hmmm, I get my parts either from office supplies, or my father

or a computer shop that is local (typically privately owned, these places have many parts sometimes at great prices).

If you go that route however, check the motherboard and the specs of the computer you are buying first to see how upgradeable it is. It would be a shame to buy a computer with 256 MB RAM and find out that you can only upgrade it to a max of 512 instead of something like 1024 RAM. The key component is check how upgradeable the computer is before you buy it, if you go my route.

As for putting it together, I have almost always gotten help from either my father, or one of my uncles in putting in the upgrades.

jualdeaux · « **Reply #3 on:** January 22, 2004, 03:17:31 pm »

The first thing i would suggest is to take your time choosing what you want in it. Go to places like Tom's Hardware and read a lot of reviews and articles. This will give you a good working knowlege of what is out there that you can choose from.

As to where you get stuff at, I don't have ay real suggestions. I use one online place www.buy.com and one local shop for most of my needs. I prefer to shop at places that I trust and i just don't trust many online places.

E_Look · « **Reply #4 on:** January 22, 2004, 03:22:35 pm »

Monitor not included (as I already have a dandy KDS 19 inch CRT)...

... I just built (a couple of days ago, as a matter of fact, and my first ever, at that [all because HP, Compaq, Dell, Gateway, Sony, and e-Machines won't include extra bays nowadays in the cases of their more affordable machines]!) a new rig and in an older design Codegen steel case my brother in law gave me , after I took out the included 300 nominal watt power supply:

AMD Athlon 64 3000+ cpu chip (power/cost ratio heavily in favor of AMD over Intel)
MSI K8T Neo FIS2R motherboard
two sticks of 512 Mb Kingston ValueRAM DDR 400 RAM
ATI Radeon 9700 Pro w/128 MB RAM
Western Digital 120 Gb SATA HD
IOMagic 52x Combo DVD-ROM/CD-RW drive
Iomega 250 Mb Zip drive
Antec True Power 430 W power supply
and of course, the obligatory FDD, this one by Samsung

(The only problem with any new system is that SFC1 runs buggily on them. Oh well, at least there's OP, EAW, and SFC3, still.)

Now, I'll agree with Iceman that Newegg is an excellent source to get comp parts. I got most of the major components there. But I found on Yahoo shopping's site, an online store called Qtek:

http://store.yahoo.com/qtek/

Some prices on some items are quite good and if you're looking for an affordable, more old fashioned clicky keyboard (Focus FK-2001; requires AT-PS2 adaptor) like I was, then it's not a bad site to look into. They even gave me free shipping on a backordered item and it came only a couple of days later. I got some smaller items there, like the floppy, Zip drive, keyboard, case fans, and a laser toner cartridge.

Also, MicroCenter is pretty good on various items if they have a sale on them. I got my Radeon 9700 there for half of its original list price (when it first came out) and the DVD/CD drive for just a few tens of bucks. If there isn't one in your state, they are online at:

http://www.microcenter.com/

And don't snub Best Buy! When they have a sale on HDs or video cards or DVD or CD drives, it can be pretty good, too. Again, if no store near you:

http://www.bestbuy.com/

Incidentally, my new machine DOES NOT HAVE the "de rigueur de jour" (at least for the kiddie set) blinky LEDs all over the place nor the braggart's plastic window on my side panel. I'll only suffer LEDs (and red ones at that) on my old HP calculator. Besides, one day, even 400W may not be enough (oh the electric bill!) and I don't want even a microamp to get wasted on a nonessential as a cosmetic light. But I'll consider putting the AMD sticker on it somewhere.

Sethan · « **Reply #5 on:** January 22, 2004, 03:58:41 pm »

Quote:

Just curious. I want to build my own system just for the hell of it and would like to know good people to buy parts from and a good place to get a "how to" or a website to go to if your stuck. I don't know if you save all that much money but it seems like a lot of fun and a good way to update your general PC knowledge.

My Systems Analyst days are over but I still like fooling around with systems.

Also does anone have a recommened configuration/hardware? I can spend about 1K...monitor not included...I have plenty of them laying around.

Motherboard from ASUS
NIC (or modem) from 3Com (US Robotics)
Video card from ATI or NVidia
Sound card from Creative Labs
Hard Drive from Quantum or IBM

Season to taste.

Scott Allen Abfalter · « **Reply #6 on:** January 22, 2004, 04:06:36 pm »

I looked into putting together an mixed components system and instead just bought a PC from HP. You can get a hell of a PC for very little money, and it just wasn't worth the savings to try and do it from mixed components and a lot of shopping, shipping and web-surfing.

Kmelew · « **Reply #8 on:** January 22, 2004, 05:58:06 pm »

Try Directron . They have a good selection of cases, case mods and other accessories.

hobbesmaster · « **Reply #9 on:** January 22, 2004, 06:05:04 pm »

Newegg.com is the best online store IMHO.

Lono · « **Reply #10 on:** January 22, 2004, 08:41:02 pm »

I agree, newegg.com is the shiznit!

I have been extremely pleased with everything I have got there (I just replaced my chip / mobo and RAM).

Definately take your time researching what you want tho, and realise that the latest chips and vid cards run extremely hot!

(especially AMD chips)

An excellent cooling system is an absolute must.

It's really not that hard to do anymore, and I think you'll be well pleased for taking the effort to build it yourself.

p.s. - If your a serious Gamer - do not cheap out on the Vid Card or the RAM

p.p.s. - If you have any questions at all feel free to email me at ishagroup@yahoo.com

Sirgod · « **Reply #12 on:** January 22, 2004, 09:19:21 pm »

Hey Rondo,

I love this company. It's Pc Club. And yes, They sell a few really cheap parts, But they also have some great OEM prices on other things.

Besides that, they are one of the better Part's places here in OKC.

Stephen

Yabrodan · « **Reply #13 on:** January 22, 2004, 09:53:07 pm »

Muhahahah just finished my new system, well pretty much new. The Atholon 64 is sweet is hell can run morrowind with full shadows and everything else maxed and it's smooth as butter. Only thing weird is when booting the system seems to switch off and then restart after stating it can't find a fasttrack raid gizmo or somehint I'll have to look for a way to disable this. That and whats the deal with the stock fan not nearly as loud as my old volcano 7+ I have to keep checking to make sure it is actually on

. For building a system I also recomended new egg and the new Atholon Chips they even made the heatsink installation alot easier on them. As far as the self building is concerned it is pretty easy mostly stuff only fits in one slot one way so you can't screw up to much. If you done upgrades yourself before you probably know what to expect and the software side of things tends to be easier as you don't have watered down ultra comby drives that manufactors like to give you.

SL-Punisher · « **Reply #18 on:** January 23, 2004, 08:47:21 am »

I'd go with an AMD based system with an ASUS motherboard (A7V8X series is an exellent choice)

Go with DDR333 memory at least, which gives you a good choice between price and performance. Get a HD with at 7200 RPM ATA100 and a 8MB buffer. You don't need to waste time or money with the ATA133...there really isn't much difference to be honest. Also make sure your hard drive and CD-ROM aren't on the same cable....it will slow down your hard drive.

Pick up some artic silver thermal compound (It's the best), and get a good CPU fan (Those AMD's run a little warm) A good fan runs about 30-40 bucks. Don't use the cheap 9 dollar fans.

News:

Topic: Anyone Build Their own Systems Here? (Read 16747 times) var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true};

Rondo_GE

Iceman

Dash Jones

jualdeaux

E_Look

Sethan

Scott Allen Abfalter

Javora

Kmelew

hobbesmaster

Lono

Javora

Sirgod

Yabrodan

Toasty0

WillWeasel

E_Look

Scott Allen Abfalter

SL-Punisher

TheBigCheese

Topic: Anyone Build Their own Systems Here? (Read 16747 times)