Topic: Anyone Build Their own Systems Here? (Read 16746 times)

TB613 · « **Reply #20 on:** January 23, 2004, 04:07:47 pm »

While I have never really seen any net savings when building a system myself I also think that it is the way to go if you are comfortable inside of a PC. Any savings by DIY will usually be eaten up by using better quality / higher end parts. The worst part of building you own PC that I have run into is connecting the small (HD indicator, power switch, etc) case connections since those must be done when the motherboard is in the case and they are on the tiny side.

The suggestions for an AMD based machine look good so I will direct my comments to the Intel side of the equation since I just built a new machine myself.

For an intel based system go with a P4 with the 800 Mhz Fron Side Bus and a motherboard with the 875 chipset that supports dual channel DDR RAM, if you are not interested in overclocking the Intel 875PBZ is an excellent although comparatively expensive choice. The 875PBZ has Serial ATA with RAID 0 and although there is almost no difference in performance between SATA and parallel ATA the easier configuration with no master / slave jumpers is nice in itself. If you do go with SATA HDs make sure that the power supply has the serial power connectors or that you get the adapters if you use Seagate SATA drives which are native SATA and use the new style power plug. As far as graphic cards go the best bang for the buck is with the mid to upper mid range cards however, avoid the price leader mid range cards such as the ATI 9600 SE (I am unsure what the Nvidia equivalent is) which are rather crippled and not worth the money in my opinion.

TOCXOBearslayer · « **Reply #21 on:** January 23, 2004, 05:54:13 pm »

A few things.... if you can.... take your time...

I am finally getting the last parts for my 3.06 GHz 1 Gig of DDR 450 MHz RAM, MoBo, Case, powersupply, 240 Gigs worth of HD (on two HD's) SB sound card (this was a gift) for under $700 by getting everything on sale.

Just looking at vid cards now and since I save so much on the system, I may splurg on the vid card.

BTW, my favorite price checking place is Price Watch

They monitor LOTS of places for LOTS of parts.

Good Luck.

E_Look · « **Reply #22 on:** January 23, 2004, 10:53:58 pm »

Some of the SATAs, like my WD 120 Gb SATA HD, has both power connectors, the new SATA power connector and the older four fat pin one. I used the old style connection just because the setup diagram for my video card says to connect it to the hard drive's power cable.

By the way, I intend to keep my fairly high end system a looooong time before any next one, so I wouldn't be properly considered a "regular" scratch-builder of computers. (Now, my brother in law is another kind of guy! He had built at least five, if not six or seven systems over the last two years at the longest... I wonder if he will have doorstops for all doors in his house... )

But I might slap together two more, for the kids, as the ones they're using are unmentionably old.

By the way, does anyone have any advice for overriding an onboard graphics chip with an add-on graphics card? In case it's helpful, it's an old HP (P2) Celeron system. I even tried using their step by step instructions from their website... still no go; the system simply refuses to recognize the "new" (GeForce 2 MX 400) card. Everytime it is inserted into the AGP slot, the computer just won't boot. I don't want to build another one to replace this oldie just yet. This new Athlon 64 unit set me back a k-buck.

Dash Jones · « **Reply #23 on:** January 24, 2004, 12:47:55 am »

Hmm, couple of things for you to check, and something I have experience with.

First off, make sure that the old drivers are wiped, and the OS is rebooting, or resorting to the default drivers...which are very generic drivers. This it should be doing if it doesn't have the drivers for the old integrated chip. Also make sure that the new drivers are installed properly.

Now if you've followed ALL the instructions, I've found that many tech people seem ignorant of the fact that many integrated chips MUST be disabled in the Bios.

See if it is indeed disabled in the BIOS (be careful though, you could screw yourself by clicking the wrong things in the BIOS), thus enabling the card (actually only needed to do this when I installed the AIW cards from Ati, as that was a function of that particular brand of machine I upgraded).

EmeraldEdge · « **Reply #24 on:** January 24, 2004, 04:11:38 am »

Yeah, the bios would have been my guess, although I wasn't sure if that was in the instructions so I was hesitant to mention it. I haven't really had that much trouble disabling onboard graphics, but then again I haven't done it that much either. I think the above advice is sound. I know with some of the older onboard ati stuff they need you to wipe out the ati drivers and switch it off in the bios before you can do anything with the new card.

hobbesmaster · « **Reply #25 on:** January 24, 2004, 08:25:24 am »

For everyone thinking of building a new computer, if you can wait for a few months (2nd Quarter), AMD is going to release socket 939 which will replace socket 754 and 940, allowing both FXs and Ath64s on the same mobo, and both to be used without registered RAM.

Sirgod · « **Reply #26 on:** January 24, 2004, 09:08:43 am »

Quote:

For everyone thinking of building a new computer, if you can wait for a few months (2nd Quarter), AMD is going to release socket 939 which will replace socket 754 and 940, allowing both FXs and Ath64s on the same mobo, and both to be used without registered RAM.

Now that is interesting to hear. Any chance you have a link with abit more Detail for us hobbes?

Stephen

hobbesmaster · « **Reply #27 on:** January 24, 2004, 09:18:41 am »

AMD Roadmap
News article on socket 939

Socket 754 will work for the mean time, but there'll be a lot more upgradeability with socket 939 in the long term. That said, I'm very happy with my Ath64 3200+ I'm typing on...

Tus · « **Reply #29 on:** January 24, 2004, 10:14:06 am »

lets see, just got mine together 3 weeks ago, and was my first comp built entirely from parts i bought

3.2 ghz p4 w/ ht (lil later when i feel confident enough i think i may oc it just a lil

)
X2 Kinston Hyperx 512mb
Asus MoBo
Geforce Fx 5900
Seagate 120gb SATA HD
Sound blaster audigy II ZS
Leadtek Winfast TV Card
Liteo-on DVD/Cd-rw drive
Logitech Z-560 4.1 speaker system
350 Watt Antec powersupply (ya i know i should have gone 400 or more)
Win XP pro
Iogear Miniview micro KVM

hmmm what else... oh ya
A humongous Antec PLUSView 1000 AMG (thing weighs 32 pounds w/o anything in it)

price tag was was just shy of 1400 w/o monitor

only annoy part is i'm not allowed to connect it to the network here... so that floppy gets a lot of use (at least for the small stuff)

all of me parts were bought from www.newegg.com so if ya want go take a look

Tus

David Ferrell · « **Reply #30 on:** January 24, 2004, 01:39:24 pm »

Two sites that should be linked together:

http://www.pricewatch.com
and
http://www.resellerratings.com/

You'll see from the 2nd that NewEgg does really well.

I have built my own systems for about 8 years now.

Later,

Dave

TB613 · « **Reply #31 on:** January 24, 2004, 04:39:24 pm »

Tus, your machine is quite simular to the machine I built this fall.

2.8 Ghz P4 w ht and 800 FSB
2 sticks of Kingston 512 MB RAM
Intel 875 PBZ motherboard that actually has a small amout of coverclocking available- they call it burn in
ATI Radeon 9600 Pro (one of the two real "economy" items in this machine)
Seagate 80 GB SATA HD
Sound Blaster Audigy II LS
Logitech Z-3 2.1 speakers
(as with the graphics I went with a mid-range setup for the sound)
Asus 52X CR-ROM ( the TEAC 540E CD-RW is still in my other machine and may stay there)
430 Watt Antec power supply (yes you should have gotten a larger power supply.

)
Windows XP Pro
Belkin two port KVM (I need to get a four port model though)

A humongous Antec PlusView 1000 AMG (It doesn't weigh 30 pounds although a compass and emergancy rations are suggested when goin in)

The cost was just shy of $1500 which I consider very good since I bought everyting except the Audigy and the Z-3 from a local shop while the sound card and speakers came from Best Buy.

Tus · « **Reply #32 on:** January 24, 2004, 06:14:02 pm »

Wow, talk about similarities lol. hell, i just noticed only 3 parts differ (by brand) from our systems lol

and i definatly agree, compass and the rations are definatly neccesary.... though a map would keep me from getting lost in the cable forest in there (need to get some round ones, the flat ide cables are pissing me off lol) hmmm.... i did think it was 30 some pounds.... must be me thinking of me sound system...oh well, alls i know is that it was a pain moving it from the first to second floor

oh and on a side note, the asus mobo does offer an oc feature which ocs it by a certain % (somthing i will need to check out in the dang book). when i feel comfortable that i got enough air flow then it will be time to see what mo power will do

. of course this will require 3 more fans for the case (can anyone say dust collector....) a larger heatsink and of course more wattage.

tus

Rondo_GE · « **Reply #34 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 #35 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 #36 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 #37 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 #38 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.

News:

Topic: Anyone Build Their own Systems Here? (Read 16746 times) var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true};

TB613

TOCXOBearslayer

E_Look

Dash Jones

EmeraldEdge

hobbesmaster

Sirgod

hobbesmaster

Sirgod

Tus

David Ferrell

TB613

Tus

TB613

Rondo_GE

Iceman

Dash Jones

jualdeaux

E_Look

Sethan

Topic: Anyone Build Their own Systems Here? (Read 16746 times)