Topic: Anyone Build Their own Systems Here?

[Sirgod]

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]

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...  

[Sirgod]

Quote:
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...  

From the second link...
 

Quote:
 AMD Athlon 64 processors with 939 pins will integrate only 512KB of L2, only a half of the size incorporated into today?s 754-pin chips, but will benefit from dual-channel memory controller that is likely to decrease the impact of cut-down cache. Since more advance memory controller is projected to compensate the absence of 512KB of L2, versions with equal model number for 939-pin and 754-pin sockets will work at the same clock-speed. The "FX" parts  will continue to have 1MB of L2 after the transition to Socket 939.

Am I right in assuming that the Cache Is what takes up the most room / mass physiclly in a CPU? Just kinda curious.

Once again, Good read Hobbes, thanks

Stephen

[Tus]

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]

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]

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]

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  

[TB613]

 

Quote:
 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

I do understand the pain in hauling something up the stairs. I have almost two flights (equivalent) to walk up just to get into my house. This has to do with where I live, just think of San Francisco with ice and snow thrown in.    

[Rondo_GE]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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.

 

[Javora]

Quote:

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.

I have an Asus P4C800-E Deluxe motherboard, and I'm sorry to say that I cannot recommend this board.  If you choose a motherboard right now I would go with the MSI equivalent.  If you do not have a whole lot of cash on hand or have had a bad experience with Creative Labs, I would suggest M-Audio (can be found at Newegg). M-makes a good sound card that has fewer problems with most systems.  M-Audio uses more CPU resources but the sound quality is comparable.  Also I have had good luck with Maxtor hard drives as well.  One thing I have noticed is that if you decide to go with AMD CPU/motherboard and S-ATA hard drive.  You will need an extra set of drivers for that hard drive when you load the operating system.  AMD is built on the Via controller and does not have native support like Intel does.  Hope this helps.
 

[Kmelew]

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

[hobbesmaster]

Newegg.com is the best online store IMHO.  

[Lono]

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

   

[Javora]

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

I used to buy from Directron, it's is a very good place to look at different items on the Internet.  Directron's web site is very well laid out.  But I've found their prices to be higher than Newegg and other sites.