how do you build you own desktop?

Sarick · Post by **Sarick** » Wed Oct 06, 2004 12:37 pm

I read "building your own laptop" article. It is awsome. But I was wondering if you guys have a article for desktop..l searched the forum and the main page.But didnt didnt find one. Does any have a link to a site or article in this site on how to build a computer? thank you in advance.

Post by **Apoptosis** » Wed Oct 06, 2004 12:54 pm

Sarick,

First off, Welcome to the forums!

Building a desktop PC is pretty simple and if you can use a screwdriver then you can build your own custom PC. By doing so you'll save a bunch of money, build with the parts you want, and get braggin rights.

Doc Overclock a good friend of mine from Europe has a guide that is pretty up to date and is a great starting point.

Feel free to look it over and let us know if you have any more questions. Everyone in this forum is more than qualified to help you out.

Apop

infinitevalence · Post by **infinitevalence** » Wed Oct 06, 2004 12:58 pm

werd were more than happy to help walk you though the process.

eric m. · Post by **eric m.** » Wed Oct 06, 2004 2:28 pm

building your own pc is a great idea. in fact, i would be surprised iif more than one or two people here didn't build their own PC. so it's very common to make your own computer setup from a bunch of parts.

you will have a better computer for less money, and besides that, it's fun. i just have one suggestion. whatever you decide you want to buy, ask us here and people can tell you right away if it is a good idea to purchase or not. sometimes there are things just as good for less money, and then there are places where you don't want to cut corners on price or it will just be a big headache for you later.

Amy · Post by **Amy** » Wed Oct 06, 2004 2:36 pm

Apoptosis wrote:Everyone in this forum is more than qualified to help you out.

Aww, shucks.

Thanks, apop

infinitevalence · Post by **infinitevalence** » Wed Oct 06, 2004 2:37 pm

we know your smart enough to add more than just aesthetic and decorating advice.

Amy · Post by **Amy** » Wed Oct 06, 2004 2:46 pm

Now, seriously, I actually have built 2 pcs before (believe it or not). Actually building the computer is very simple, but the problem is knowing exactly what to buy. That is when you have to look at what you want your pc for and how much you want to spend. If you already have a pc, you can always reuse parts, especially the disk drives (HDD, CD/CDR, floppy, etc.). Just to get you started, here are the basic parts you will need:

Case
Power Supply (you can often get the power supply with the case)
motherboard
processor
heatsink/fan
ram
video card (if the motherboard does not have onboard video)
sound card (if the motherboard does not have onboard sound)
hard disk drive
floppy drive
optical drive
network card or modem (if motherboard has no network card)

When researching the parts, make sure they are compatible with each other. I would start by finding the motherboard you want, and then researching the processor. Those are the two most important decisions to make since they will determine how good your system is (for the most part). You will even want to make sure that the case you buy is the right size for the motherboard you get, etc.

I am a "laywoman," so a lot of the terms these guys use in here go way over my head. I am not up-to-date on all of the coolest new toys, but I do know the basics, so feel free to ask me anything when it comes to putting it together (it makes me feel smart). Everyone else can answer the tough questions like, "what brand" or "what speed" you should use.

eric m. · Post by **eric m.** » Wed Oct 06, 2004 2:56 pm

ok i have an idea. how about if you put how much you want to spend, because to be honest, you can spend $400 total on a new computer, but you can also spend over $5000, literally. there are video cards that cost over $600! and CPUs that cost over $1000. but then there are also $9 video cards. so if you kind of give a reference point, as well as what you want to do with the computer, anything can pretty much be done.

you can always save money on things like DVD RAM drives if you're just going to be playing games, and use that money for something else.

personally, i like to allow myself at LEAST $350 for lighting such as cold cathode, EL wire, and various things that blink and flash. lasers and smoke machines are also fun, but optional. actually, no they're not. you gotta have lasers.

Immortal · Post by **Immortal** » Wed Oct 06, 2004 3:40 pm

hmm, i dont recall ever building a rig with lasers, or smoke, or el wire or cold cathode or any sort of bling actually.
The only thing i have is my OTES cooling system and my Herucles card that have green and blue LED's and then i had an LED fan... but i replaced it...
some people just want a plane rig!

<------ Guilty as charged.....

And one thing with a smoke machine... how would you know its the some machine thats smoking and not something else... like the CPU or VPU.....

eric m. · Post by **eric m.** » Wed Oct 06, 2004 4:22 pm

well obviously you know your CPU/VPU isn't smoking because you've got your cooling system with UV reactive dye and tubing keeping it nice and cool. plus, the indiglo backlighting of your hardcano 12 will let you know how warm everything is and sound an alarm, which of course has been amplified to 25 times it's original volume so your neighbor can hear it and call you if you're away from home.

haha. yeah, i went totally bling/rice on my current system, just to be stupid. now that i did it, i totally regret it because i can't even sleep at night with that thing on. i need to take some pictures. it's out of control. my next system is going to be a nice plain black lian-li BTX full tower case with no LEDs. and if there are any LEDs on my motherboards, etc i will break them with a hammer (preferably a hammer with lots of cache, but that's another topic).

Sarick · Post by **Sarick** » Wed Oct 06, 2004 8:27 pm

Thanks alot guys for replying!budget is expandable....because lm going save up money and buy parts by parts over the time. lm thinking of making 2 computer one for installing linux, to learn various computer language and learn stuff like C++ visual 6(or maybe I should just buy a cheap computer?).Other one is for hardcore game,dvd, internet and etc.

I have a unrelated quesition...how come my comuputer(uhhh I guess its cpu or something) becomes slow over time? for example,when I turn on my computer I have to wait like a min before I do anything...it wasnt like that when I 1st got it...

again thanks for your help. I shall check out some parts and ask for your expert opinions.Oh also what computer magazine do you recommend reading?

infinitevalence · Post by **infinitevalence** » Wed Oct 06, 2004 8:35 pm

1. if your going to do lots of compiling then you want to look at the AMD Athlon64's they tend to whip the butts of any intel offerings when it comes to compiling. though you may want a cheap intel machine if you want to have optimized code for p4s as well as amd64.

2. your computer slows down because windows sucks. as you use your computer more and more the registry and assosiated dll, ocx, ect... start getting loaded into memory, they get bloated, mostly the registry that is, and cause the gradual slow down of windows. the best thing you can do to keep it from doing this is by using spyware removal tools, regclean a free app from MS that cleans your reg. and defragmenting your hd. your other option is to always ditch windows and use a real opperating system.

3. computer mag?? why by the time it goes to print its out of date, but if you want to spend the $$ CPU is not all that bad.

Amy · Post by **Amy** » Wed Oct 06, 2004 8:56 pm

The one for Linux does not need to be all that expensive. You can get by on some mediocre parts if you are just playing around and trying to learn stuff. I'd even reuse the drives from your old computer. You may want to consider even reusing your case and power supply (assuming it is a good power supply). Seriously, you could probably build a good computer with a few used parts for just a few hundred dollars. For the hard core gaming, get a budget! These guys can tell you exactly what to put in it for the most optimal gaming, but chances are their "dream gaming computers" are well over a grand or two. You will want a good system, though -- fast CPU and excellent videocard. Read some of the reviews on Legitreviews.com to see what videocards are good and which ones don't live up to expectations. Also check the review forum for information.

LVCapo · Post by **LVCapo** » Wed Oct 06, 2004 10:53 pm

Well, personal opinions aside (some people don't like M$), what usually slows down your system is installed programs and components hogging resources . then you have fragmentation, invalid registry entries, spyware, etc.
After doing a clean installation on my system i install my chipset driver, then direcct X, then video card driver, then sound card and any other peripherals, then I download and install the M$ patches and updates. After doing that I go to Black viper's website and install the "SAFEPRO" registry patch (because i use XP Pro, after doing tghat I go through the control panel's ADD?REMOVE Windows components screen and get rid of any uneeded stuff (Games, etc). after doing that I doewnload and run Ace Utilities,to clean up my hard drive and registry, the I download and run Diskeeper 8.0, the best defrag program avaiable. After doing this try tweaking different setting within your BIOS and within Windows itself. Make sure you have good firewall, spyware, and anti-virus programs and you should be off to a good start.
As far as components, i think it is still a bit early to shell out the big bucks for PCI-Express and DDR 2, to me the performance doesn't yet justify the price. I recommend a socket 939 AMD processor, with other decent components (Video card, PSU, HDD, etc) you should be good to go for a couple of years, and definitely ready for 64 bit OS's, which are starting to gather steam. Listen to what everyone here says, they know their stuff, ask questions and do your homework, and only when you are ready anf comfortable spend the money to get your components....but as Nate said, it is definitely cheaper and better to build yourself, you'll get all the stuff you want and save money while your doing it. i don't recommend any of these "boutique" machines, they slap a good processor in there and call it a bargain, but while you may end up with a few good parts, that bargain is n't a real good deal because they tend to use some real crap supporting parts.

Sarick · Post by **Sarick** » Fri Oct 08, 2004 8:38 pm

Thank you guys for the wonderful advices!