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Anybody built their own computer?
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rwemyss
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I still recommend either Newegg or TigerDirect for most components.
If you get what you want selected FIRST, then pricewatch.com is a good way to find shops with good deals. Usually you're best off using only one or two vendors to keep shipping costs down.
As far as recommending a mobo and processor to purchase, as well as your RAM, video card and hard drive... well, that's all highly dependent on your tastes. For many cases it is like the difference in Coke and Pepsi... some prefer one, some the other.
1) Is to decide which route to go on the processor, AMD or Intel. The Core 2 Duo processors are currently the fastest on the market, but AMD just made a price drop in the last few weeks on the Athlon 64 X2 to make it more cost competitive. Check out a nice comparison article from Anandtech.
AnandTech: Intel Core Duo (Yonah) Performance Preview - Part II
If these are too rich for your blood (aka your budget) I would look more at the Athlon 64 line, although others would say look at Core Duo first.
2) Once that selection is made you need to decide on the chipset you want your mobo to have. Intel, Nvidia, ATI and VIA all make chipsets for the Core 2 Duo... Nvidia, VIA, and ATI all make chipsets for the Athlon lines of processors.
3) So you've decided on a processor and its corresponding chipset, so which mobo to choose? Yet again, there are about 10 flavors of vanilla here. All I can say is to stick to a major manufacturer (Abit, MSI, Epox... someone mention any I missed) and check their website for what options they offer with your selected chipset. The common denominators are number of expansion slots (PCI, PCI-X, AGP, RAM) as well as on-board LAN options, or even whether or not there is a SATA controller onboard (finally a highly common thing). I had an MSI in my machine for a very long time and was happy with it... it died around Christmas and I moved to an Abit, which I am also happy with.
4) Choose between ATI and Nvidia and grab the video card that hits your price point. One thing to double check here is that if the card is PCI-X, the mobo you selected better have a PCI-X slot, conversely if it is AGP, your mobo will need an AGP slot.
5) As Dr. Rosen says, get good RAM. You will be able to find the supported RAM speeds in the specs of the mobo you selected, and try to get the quickest supported. There are a few major manufacturers of quality RAM, including Corsair and OCZ.
6) You'll need your other peripherals such as DVD-R, hard drive, case and power supply, keyboard, mouse monitor, etc.
Good LUCK! As you can see, building your own computer can be a very deep customization procedure. The site linked to above, Anandtech, is a good source for quality in-depth information on most of these topics. Often I skimp on the quality of components because I'm a risk taker, but to not risk being liable if you aren't happy with the performance of the machine you build, I say get good stuff.
:lol:
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Just to expand and comment on the post above -
1. Don't get a motherboard without PCIe for video. AGP is done now. Only reason to get an AGP motherboard would be to use your old card and save money. But, any you save now will be thrown out 3 years from now when your card wont keep up and you'll have to get a new mobo and graphics card.
Motherboards - I like ASUS a lot and they typically have the most options in their bios making it easy to work with and tweak. If you decide to get into overclocking a year from now, you'll have tools to easily do it on most ASUS boards. Plenty of others like this as well. I've had Abit, ASUS, and MSI boards all within the last 7 or 8 years. Can't say anything bad about any of them. However, some were better than others due to features. Research and look around overclocking sites. Might never use it, but maybe you will if you get more into computers.
If you want to game and you're buying new parts, I'd suggest a DirectX 10 full feature card. Some budget DX10 cards on out (or coming real soon), but I'd say get one of the $300-$600 DX10 cards out there. Of course, this is not budget driven, just the best computer you can build now.
If money is no object, buy 2 and get an SLI motherboard that supports dual channel graphics cards. Both will be used parrallel to give you pretty much the best graphics going now. I've seen quad setups, but at the time they didn't have all 4 running parallel so it wasn't a benefit so much as monitor support (running 4 screens all with jacked up resolution and graphics running).
I prefer AMD as a system builder because it's generally a lot cheaper. I haven't looked at chips in a year or two so I haven't seen what the recent price wars have done. I know AMD 64 X2 chips were getting cheap, but there's probably some new ones high end. No problems from my AMD64 3200+ that has run 24/7 the last year or two. Intel is probably a bit more builder friendly for newbies because there aren't as many different options for everything else. You give up some overclocking options and timing setting generally with Intel setups.
But, AMD v Intel is really just a choice as both are fully supported nowdays.
For buying parts, Online Coupons | Cash Back and AnandTech: your source for hardware analysis and news have great tech hot deals forums. ALWAYS check there first. Anandtech is great for hardware reviews as well. Newegg is great. I've had good luck with buy.com. Some folks like TigerDirect. You'll find horror stories for all these sites (except newegg most likely) but in the end, they are reputable business that have been around. They should work out fine. Some shops on Pricewatch can be less than desirable. Resellerratings.com is a good resource, but can't be trusted all the time. Simply put, those with problems are always more vocal.
I've always built my own systems. For around $1000, you can build a downright impressive machine. Doing it yourself means you know everything inside it and why it's there. No clutter. No unneeded software, etc. But, what you save in money could be spent in time getting it up and running. First one or two systems can be tough while you're learning. You got a good resource here and other forums, though. There's a few of us here that can probably help in most any situation you run across.
1. Don't get a motherboard without PCIe for video. AGP is done now. Only reason to get an AGP motherboard would be to use your old card and save money. But, any you save now will be thrown out 3 years from now when your card wont keep up and you'll have to get a new mobo and graphics card.
Motherboards - I like ASUS a lot and they typically have the most options in their bios making it easy to work with and tweak. If you decide to get into overclocking a year from now, you'll have tools to easily do it on most ASUS boards. Plenty of others like this as well. I've had Abit, ASUS, and MSI boards all within the last 7 or 8 years. Can't say anything bad about any of them. However, some were better than others due to features. Research and look around overclocking sites. Might never use it, but maybe you will if you get more into computers.
If you want to game and you're buying new parts, I'd suggest a DirectX 10 full feature card. Some budget DX10 cards on out (or coming real soon), but I'd say get one of the $300-$600 DX10 cards out there. Of course, this is not budget driven, just the best computer you can build now.
If money is no object, buy 2 and get an SLI motherboard that supports dual channel graphics cards. Both will be used parrallel to give you pretty much the best graphics going now. I've seen quad setups, but at the time they didn't have all 4 running parallel so it wasn't a benefit so much as monitor support (running 4 screens all with jacked up resolution and graphics running).
I prefer AMD as a system builder because it's generally a lot cheaper. I haven't looked at chips in a year or two so I haven't seen what the recent price wars have done. I know AMD 64 X2 chips were getting cheap, but there's probably some new ones high end. No problems from my AMD64 3200+ that has run 24/7 the last year or two. Intel is probably a bit more builder friendly for newbies because there aren't as many different options for everything else. You give up some overclocking options and timing setting generally with Intel setups.
But, AMD v Intel is really just a choice as both are fully supported nowdays.
For buying parts, Online Coupons | Cash Back and AnandTech: your source for hardware analysis and news have great tech hot deals forums. ALWAYS check there first. Anandtech is great for hardware reviews as well. Newegg is great. I've had good luck with buy.com. Some folks like TigerDirect. You'll find horror stories for all these sites (except newegg most likely) but in the end, they are reputable business that have been around. They should work out fine. Some shops on Pricewatch can be less than desirable. Resellerratings.com is a good resource, but can't be trusted all the time. Simply put, those with problems are always more vocal.
I've always built my own systems. For around $1000, you can build a downright impressive machine. Doing it yourself means you know everything inside it and why it's there. No clutter. No unneeded software, etc. But, what you save in money could be spent in time getting it up and running. First one or two systems can be tough while you're learning. You got a good resource here and other forums, though. There's a few of us here that can probably help in most any situation you run across.
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You will save quite a bit of money with a home build. It's really not that tough if you take it slow and pay attention. It's pretty easy to figure out how most things go together and your mobo book should be a good guide (except for the dang front switches). The link below is a great guide for your first build. He's a great help on the other computer forums I post on and helped me.
mechBgon's guide for first-time newbie PC builders
As for parts, newegg is a great place to start but make sure to check pricegrabber to make sure they are competitive.
Also, while my builds are all AMD, the new Intel chips are faster then anything AMD has out right now. However, you could get a great deal on an AMD because of this. Maybe you could post your parts before you order and let us give you some advice.
mechBgon's guide for first-time newbie PC builders
As for parts, newegg is a great place to start but make sure to check pricegrabber to make sure they are competitive.
Also, while my builds are all AMD, the new Intel chips are faster then anything AMD has out right now. However, you could get a great deal on an AMD because of this. Maybe you could post your parts before you order and let us give you some advice.
rwemyss
Formerly MODest
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- Sep 29, 2004
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