Building a comp Created 19 years ago2005-07-06 01:07:18 UTC by RacerX RacerX

Created 19 years ago2005-07-06 01:07:18 UTC by RacerX RacerX

Posted 19 years ago2005-07-06 01:07:18 UTC Post #118981
I'm sick of this p.o.s. buggy-ass lemon of a comp that's never been right the whole 2 or 3 years I've owned it, and I know that some of the nerdiest computer geeks in the world reside in these forums ;) , so I was wondering: Can you point me to a site (updated in the last year) that will educate me on what I need to know in order to build me a new machine?

I want to build my own because I'm poor/cheap. I'm not so knowledgable about these things, but will learn if I can get a better comp for the money. All the sites I found that gave step by step instructions were pretty much outdated so I was wondering if anyone knew of something more recent,

Thanks.
Posted 19 years ago2005-07-06 01:38:20 UTC Post #118982
It's just knowing about what type of hardware is out there and how it performs I guess. I'm doing the exact same thing you're gonna do. I've selected the parts, which I'm going to put into my existing case.

I've never done it before, but here's my points on what you need:

1. Something to put it all in - A case, in other words.
2. A good PSU - Look for the amount of Watts. The higher the better
3. The actual computer itself - This includes the motherboard, CPU, RAM, GFX card, sound card (most motherboards have on-board sound cards, so if you're not picky, you can just use that).
4. Hunt around. Get the cheapest Internet prices (from stores that are in your country of course), copy the prices and the sites down and take them to computer stores. You'd be surprised at how cheap you could get it.

For my future PC, I'm getting an AMD Athlon 64 3200+, ABIT AN8-V motherboard (which has PCI-E), a gig of GeIL DDR400 PC3200 RAM and a GeForce 6600 GT 128mb PCI-E graphics card. This is setting me back by around $850AUD.

If you're looking for something that will sustain you for a while, this is a fairly solid rig. jaardsi is getting something quite similar to it as well.
AJ AJGlorious Overlord
Posted 19 years ago2005-07-06 04:51:20 UTC Post #118997
Don't skimp on anything! It really doesn't work. The most boring components are presently pretty dirt-cheap (disk drives).

The rated power output of a power supply is fairly important, but it's vital that it's made by a good company too.

Incidentally, I intend to upgrade to something a bit above what Anthony's going for around Christmas.

PS: I also recommend, personally, that you go for a 64-bit CPU, which means, in the present day, an Athlon64.
Seventh-Monkey Seventh-MonkeyPretty nifty
Posted 19 years ago2005-07-06 05:31:19 UTC Post #119007
The system I'm getting this summer is quite similiar:
Mobo: MSI K8N SLI Platinum
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 3200+, Venice, Socket 939
RAM: 2x 512MB DDR 400MHz
GPU: GeForce 6600GT 128MB PCI-E
HDD: 250GB SATA
That would be some ~1000 euros.
Posted 19 years ago2005-07-06 06:08:20 UTC Post #119016
Oh yeah, forgot the Socket 939 thing. Don't bother with 754.
AJ AJGlorious Overlord
Posted 19 years ago2005-07-06 08:14:43 UTC Post #119041
A good PSU - Look for the amount of Watts. The higher the better
Not quite as simple as that. As 7th said, it needs to be made by a good company. To me, this is Very important, I don't want to buy a low budget PSU that fries my mobo ;)
But I would say that you need at least 500W

Oh, and DDR Ram is cheap atm, so buy now, when DDR3 arrives the prices will go up.
Posted 19 years ago2005-07-06 08:19:36 UTC Post #119042
Yes. Excuse my negligence on that part.
AJ AJGlorious Overlord
Posted 19 years ago2005-07-06 08:29:05 UTC Post #119045
Ah, I forgot the case, it's Antec Sonata Piano Black 380W.
Posted 19 years ago2005-07-06 08:55:07 UTC Post #119048
PSU wattage isn't everything. You could have a PSU with 100000 amps on the 5v rail, but 1 amp on the 12v rail. I know, that just wouldn't work at all since the motherboard will draw over 1 amp on the 12v rail but it's an example. It also needs to be high quality too. I've owned some pretty cheap power supplies in my time, mostly bad, a couple of them are good mind you (only Fortron PSU's though). My list of decent PSU manafacturers:

Zippy/Emacs (They used to make PSU's for PC Power & Cooling until PCP&C could afford to build their own. Very very very good, but noisy.)
PC Power & Cooling (Mixed opinions on this one, some people say they are shit, but I've been using them for years with no problems. They can handle my insane overclocking very well. They make a PSU which peaks at 1kw ;) Nuff said. Incredibly noisy though!)
OCZ (They don't make their own PSU's, but they get them made up for them. Good stuff though.)
Antec (Ok, they outsource their PSU's too, but I've used them and have no complaints.)
Fortron Source Project (aka FSP Group. Very cheap, yet very very good. I have tons of these lying around.)

If you want more advice, I would hover over to XtremeSystems and make a thread in the general hardware section, rather than posting here. Many of the people there have been building systems for years. I am there too, so there will be at least one familiar face there to help. [/pimp]
m0p m0pIllogical.
Posted 19 years ago2005-07-06 10:28:06 UTC Post #119086
Tagan are excellent, too. I have an incredibly quiet PSU from them; it really is almost silent. Utterly inaudible.

Also consider that good PSUs will be capable of stretching up to much higher wattages than their constant rated output. Mine is, I think, rated at 480W, but it can push up to about 630 for sixty seconds (allowing all the power to spin up drives, etc., when the PC is started up).

If you really need some serious power, you could always use two PSUs (or more), but you'd need to have a peek at the ATX/BTX spec. to figure out how to turn on the one not connected to the motherboard.
Seventh-Monkey Seventh-MonkeyPretty nifty
Posted 19 years ago2005-07-06 11:13:13 UTC Post #119096
Seventh-Monkey, yes, that is it's "peak" power. The PSU on my dual-6800 system is an 850w PCP&C which can peak at 1kw. It's a bit overkill, but yes.
m0p m0pIllogical.
Posted 19 years ago2005-07-06 13:28:15 UTC Post #119148
I believe 430W is plenty for most builders. I have an Antec 430W myself, and it serves me well (including the Radeon 9800 Pro).

If you want more building advice, you can also head over to www.techspot.com

Good luck.
satchmo satchmo“Ever tried. Ever failed. No matter. Try again. Fail again. Fail better. -- Samuel Beckett”
Posted 19 years ago2005-07-06 13:36:21 UTC Post #119151
A kilowatt? Lunatic :P.

You could run an electric chair on that...
Seventh-Monkey Seventh-MonkeyPretty nifty
Posted 19 years ago2005-07-06 13:53:02 UTC Post #119154
You could run an electric chair on that...
Force Feedback. :P
Posted 19 years ago2005-07-07 12:38:40 UTC Post #119437
Thanks for the info :)
Posted 19 years ago2005-07-08 01:45:21 UTC Post #119581
stop. plz.

kthxbai
Posted 19 years ago2005-07-08 02:05:53 UTC Post #119585
That's it. I am now contacting the moderators regarding you. Any more spam can, and probably will result in you being banned from this site.
AJ AJGlorious Overlord
Posted 19 years ago2005-07-08 02:08:46 UTC Post #119586
I think Anthony is right you are spamming! I found exactly nothing in this site about mapping you are just avretising it! :P Anyway this site stinks. :lol:
Posted 19 years ago2005-07-08 02:12:42 UTC Post #119587
hey chill its just for a game i need to get people to click for the game please don't tell
Posted 19 years ago2005-07-08 02:16:28 UTC Post #119589
Then spam it on AIM where it's actually relevant and not a forum in which it supposedly links to a mod or tutorial.

I haxed all your posts anyways so they have no more links.
RabidMonkey RabidMonkeymapmapmapfapmap
Posted 19 years ago2005-07-16 16:50:17 UTC Post #121329
Posted 19 years ago2005-07-16 16:58:02 UTC Post #121333
Oops, thats not my HD.
Posted 19 years ago2005-07-16 17:00:44 UTC Post #121339
2002 = XP. Same thing.

WAIT, WHAT!? You put XP Home on that beast!? Get Pro from somewhere!

Great PC, though. I hope to upgrade to something slightly under that in a few months' time.
Seventh-Monkey Seventh-MonkeyPretty nifty
Posted 19 years ago2005-07-16 17:04:49 UTC Post #121341
Well, I didn't actually put it together yet, I'm waiting for the last pieces to arrive (hopefully Monday). I hope I don't mess it all up :o

What will pro do for me?? I'll be doing very little less than gaming and mapping on it.
Posted 19 years ago2005-07-16 17:12:01 UTC Post #121344
It's pretty easy to put stuff together. In the future, I recommend Zalman cooling stuff for air cooling. Wonderful stuff.

Home is just, like, Pro with bits torn out at random. It's really restrictive for anyone who... well, does anything technical. Your choice, but I would never use Home myself.
Seventh-Monkey Seventh-MonkeyPretty nifty
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