Preserved Topic: building my own PC

Hi:
I am intending to get a new PC, I aimed for Dell at first, then I thought about buidling one myself, and I have some concerns before doing so. Will the system be stable as vendors like Dell make? about how much cheaper is it? any good online or whatever shopping I can pick up parts so I can start building?
thanx

Just go out and get a Dell. It will save you headaches.

As for pricing, I don't think you will come out good from building your own PC especially when you can get a nice Dell system for 1000 bucks with monitor. But then, If you build your own, most likely you will have better potentials for upgrades down the road. It's all up to you.

I just bought a new Dell about a month or so ago and I absolutely love the thing.

No problems with it at all and it runs perfectly.

Well, galaxal, building a computer has a lot of advantages but you have to make sure you know what you're doing.

Unless you're very experienced, a built computer won't be as stable as a premade one simply because you won't have the facilities to test hardware configurations or the knowledge base that is available.

However, I'm a big supporter of people who would like to build their own system because I do it myself. I'm a bit of a techhead, so I don't mind rooting around in the guts of my pc (in fact, I leave the cover off for better ventilation and easier access).

Now, depending on what you want, you'll probably get a good price break on the hardware compared to a ready made system, but you'll have to spring for the software and that's going to cost a pretty penny. If you already have a computer, you can cannibalize it for parts and install your software to the new one.

One of the most important points is to do your homework. Look around the net and see what configurations work well for you depending on what type of computer you want. See what motherboards work well with what video cards and what other configuration concerns you might have.

Also, you can cut a few corners by buying cheaper parts but one thing you do not want to do that with is your motherboard. You can get away with a crappy soundcard, but you really need a good mainboard.

Now, you'll need a list of things to get and the prices. This list will change depending on your wants. Also, a really good resource for parts is www.priceline.com. That's if you are going to be buying your parts on the internet, which is much cheaper even considering the shipping cost. The only thing is waiting for them to arrive.

If you give me some idea of what you're looking for, I can give you a sample parts list and the price.

hehe, I think I'll get a premade then, thanx.

I think Dell is good, in my opinion, HP and Compaq suck, Gateway is good, the one in my classroom in school is only 200mhz, 32mb ram, and it run pretty smooth, the thing is, it's very expensive, so I don't think Im going to get gateway. So I think I'll go for dell 8100.

you guys have comments about what I said about those different vendors?

You're right about HP ~totally~

And the only real advantage to building your own is that you can choose the components. No on-board shit for me; I want real sound and video cards, as well as modem, that can be replaced when they screw up (as opposed to changing the motherboard)

You tell 'em Allewyn.

I like building my own.

If you take some time to get some good advice you can get a good deal and it's really not as difficult as it sounds.

It really depends on how comfortable you are with the process

I have a couple of tips. get good brand name parts ASUS and ABIT are both good motherboard companies. I can't speak of RAM I've only had one bad experience with RAM. It's really pretty basic though so there's not really a brand name. (I'd get PC133 SDRAM it's cheap and usually good)

Processors are pretty simple Intel or AMD. AMD seems to benchmark better per dollar these days. The thing to check is your motherboard manufacturer's website to see if they say anything for your particluar board/Chipset combo.

Creative is your best bet for a sound card. good support and they've been at the top of the heap for ever.

ATI and Nvidia are the ony 2 real games in town for video. here's the thing ATI makes cards Nvidia makes chipsets. you can by Nvidia based cards by many manufacturer's. The one tip I have is that use the Nvidia refrence drivers off of their site. ATI makes the whole cards. Really generally Nvidia is better for gaming ATI is better for video editing and almost always have the TV out option but in this instance it depends on your use. (I've been using Nvidia cards for use but I'm a gamer)

If you need a Network card I like Lansys and 3com.

If you decide to go with a manufacturer I recommend Dell not from personal experience but because they tend to use the best components (most on this list are used by default on Dells but as options on others)

my .02


Walking the Earth like Kane

If you know what you're doing, or have the time to learn, I'd say build your own.
About 1.5 yrs ago I built my own. I use it for some pretty high-end stuff...video editing and music creation and the like. Looked into buying an Avid or Media 100 system, would have cost about $25,000. Built my own, software included, for about $10,000. Have to say that it is easier to upgrade and when things break, as they ALWAYS will, I know how to dig through and fix most of the problems myself. The one thing that you do have to allow for is time. It took about 3 weeks to get everything stable and working together. Is 3 weeks worth $15,000? In my case, yes.

mobrul

ok build your own now...
make it work. get betters parts when you need them.
I agree with bitdamage. about the brands but i think he is forgetting some things:
Terratec for sound. Real good sound (&support) for a real good price.
(the more advanced terratec cards can be found in a lot off digitals sound studio's)
ASUS 7100 combo/deluxe videocard, you get an tv-tuner and video (from the vcr ...) in/out. They put an nVidia MX2 chipset onit (which happens to be a good deal for your money)
Matrox G450 videocard. The best card you can get for design, dtp, photoshop and all other 2d things. Not that good at 3d (poor at Quake3)

Maxtor Hard drives
IBM Harddrives (if you can afford them..!)

Plextor cd-(re)writers (there could be only one the best)


ok now comes some good advice
1) do not buy the cheapest case you can find. you want a 250 Wattt or an 300 Watt power supply in it. (you are going to stuff to much in the machine anway sooner or later so you better get a decent power supply).
2) Pay for a good cooler on you cpu you don't want the new pentium3/4 or the Athlon Thunderbird (amd) fried in a molten mainboard

3) Start reading magazines who do tests from mainboards and other components. (it is easier to read and scribble notes in an magazine while laying in your bed then on your computer)

4) Do not buy Ram online. Just go to a shop and ask the man/woman in the shop the build it in a computer so you could see it is ok.
Even better is to ask if they will put it on the same type off mainboard you want to buy. Then you will be safe always.

Finaly i would say that i like the new mainboard i saw from asus
it is called "Black Pearl" a special editon from the CUSL2-CB board as a present to asus customers. You could config this board completly as you want + you can let your new comp startup with your own logo before yo see the windowslogo...

Anyone who wants to build his own machine may contact me by email
or icq#94375205

Damn i miss mikey milker right know he knew a hell of a lot more from these things...

hope this is usefull info for someone


~Rinswind ~

Look, here's a brief rundown on an example system. I chose AMD because they're chips are generally cheaper, but offer good performance. Also, all prices are in US dollars:

chip:
1 GHz Athlon socket A (200 MHz fsb)
price:
$90

motherboard:
Abit KT7E
comments:
It's a good board and it's got a good track record.
price:
$88

drive:
maxtor 20 GB EIDE UDMA drive
price:
$70

video card:
now, this is going to have a lot of options depending on what you want. If you want to do video editing and other video things you'll want to go with an ATI Radeon card. If you want pure gaming power, you'll want a Geforce 2 of some sort. If you want both, the ATI Radeon is a good card.
price:
$130 - $300

sound card:
Creative Soundblaster Live Value
price:
$34
comments:
A lot of power for only 30 bucks. Very good deal.

RAM:
128 M pc133 SDRAM
price:
$30 - $40
comments:
Contrary to popular belief, you don't have to get name brand because generic RAM works just as well and there will only slight, if any, performance increases. If you really want name brand RAM, go with micron.

CDR/CDRW:
NEC 12x10x32 CDRW
price:
$90

3.5 inch floppy drive/keyboard/mouse:
$30 - $50 total

case:
300W ATX
price:
$50

monitor:
Again, there are a lot of choices depending on preference.
price:
$120 - $400

Total:
Now, if you're going for the cheapest, it'll run about $732 for all the parts I mentioned here. Again, you'll have a lot of freedom with certain parts so you'll be getting exactly what you want, or what you can afford .

I've also built a lot of systems, so I can give you a bit of help if you need it.

why not buy rams online?

Well, sometimes dealers will try and screw you by giving you untested or poorly tested RAM. You should be safe if you get if from a good dealer.

I usually go to www.pcboost.com.

Just a small note. Creative SB Live sound cards have a lot of problems with motherboards based on VIA Apollo KT133A chipset (people had many problems especially with Abit KT6 motherboard). I also experienced problems with ASUS A7V133 motherboard, but after struggling with many different official & unofficial drivers (Creative SUCKS as far as drivers are concerned), it works fine now. More info at the following sites:

• http://www.ipkonfig.com/Articles/Via-SBL
• http://www.viahardware.com/faq/kt7/kt7faq.htm
• http://sfs.homeip.net/personal/cl_faq/

Mr. max is definitely right about that, but I've found that the new drivers usually do an ok job of fixing any problems, and if not, then playing with the IRQ settings will do the trick. Like I said, building a machine is tricky and you should have a bit of experience messing about with your computer if you want to do. Luckily enough, you have several Asylumites willing to help out.

IRQ settings are getting harder and harder to play with though. In win2K you can't adjust them unless you do some playing before running the install.


Also I'd get as much RAM as you can right now since it's dirt cheap


Walking the Earth like Kane

[This message has been edited by bitdamaged (edited 07-04-2001).]

Yeah, since W2K is the first OS with full support for ACPI power management, under that OS all PCI cards will have the same IRQ assigned, because that's the requirement of the ACPI (you can read MSKB for more info). So, if you want to have PCI cards assigned to different IRQs you'll have to disable ACPI before installing W2K (which I don't want to do, since I like the new power management)...