I must be insane but....I am thiking about building my own.

[Poohbear09]

ok, I think that I must be absolutely insane, however when I fixed the computer here at the office I must have been bitten by the "computer bug" and I have found that I want to build one from scratch
What I want to ask you wonderful people is where do I start? I know that I will need a Motherboard,a hard drive,I have a brand new CD Rom and Floppy.(because we were going to install them on the other computer)

What kind of Mother board is best and what should I know before I buy it?

What kind of Hard drive should I buy for it as well?

I don't want to spend more than a couple thousand on it. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Thank you saphalline fot he suggestion to move where this belongs http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif

[andreadebiase]

It`s hard to tell everything in a message. I can tell you how i started and what I recommend to do. I built my pc and it`s doing great althought obsolete now (1GHz Athlon):
so

1) I first bought a very nice book on how to buid pcs (precisely Mark Minasi`s "The complete PC upgrade and maintanance guide" but there are many others very good out there).
2) I spent lot of time on choosing parts but mostly and VERY important the the motherboard. You can find many sites on pros and cons about different brands, chipsets and so on (I chose then a FIC AZ11E, great but now too old ofcourse)
3) spent no time on choosing the CPU, I knew I would go with AMD and not intel (they are cheaper and so the mobos). I first got a Duron 700 and later upgraded to Athlon 1000MHz.

The book tells you everything on how to build a pc and you can acquire the first know-how (I knew nothing about pcs). This forum is great at giving you many many additional hints and advices. Shop your parts on the internet. Whatch out for bad sellers (there are seller rating sites too) and good luck.

bye


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#!@$*%.....just format the damn C:

[Gallaeglagh]

First off if you skim through the posts here you'll find plenty of recommendations.

You also need to ask yourself some questions first. You seem to have some idea about dollars which is a good start. Then what is it that you want to do? Games, websurf, video edit, music, office applications etc? Do you want the best video and sound cards? the fastest processor?

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The most likely way for the world to be destroyed, most experts agree, is by accident. That's where we come in; we're computer professionals. We cause accidents.
Nathaniel Borenstein

[saphalline]

Originally posted by Poohbear09:
ok, I think that I must be absolutely insane, however when I fixed the computer here at the office I must have been bitten by the "computer bug" and I have found that I want to build one from scratch.

Hey, that's how I started. After finishing all possible (safe) upgrading paths for our family's old Compaq, I decided a new one was needed. Of course, my first was for me!

What I want to ask you wonderful people is where do I start?

I agree with andreadebiase on getting a book. Pictures are often worth a thousand dollars when it comes to building your own computer. The recommendations and specific parts will often be out of date within 6 months of printing, but the overall ideas will hold true today.

When the book fails and questions must be asked, you can come running to us for answers http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/wink.gif.

What kind of Mother board is best and what should I know before I buy it?

That of course depends on what processor and RAM you will use. These two things should be decided before anything else. They represent your "platform" and can make or break your first-time experience. If you want to make a cheap starter system, it probably isn't the best idea to go for dual Xeon's with RDRAM. Get the idea?

I don't want to spend more than a couple thousand on it.

That shouldn't be too much of a problem. I put together a pretty good system for only about $1320: Athlon 1.2GHz, 256MB DDR RAM, GF2 Ti 64MB graphics card, 60GB HD, DVD & CD-RW, 19" monitor, 4.1 speaker system, laser mouse, etc. I could have been cheaper, too! I got my mobo hot off the presses so it rung it at $180! Ouch! This was so I could upgrade to an Athlon XP (in a few months) using the VIA KT266A chipset, but about 2 months later it was half that. So if you have a $2000 limit you should be able to get mucho power!

Thank you saphalline fot he suggestion to move where this belongs http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif

You are quite welcome. I usually comment in this area (I'm better at theory than practice http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/wink.gif) so when I saw the word "upgrade" in a troubleshooting forum, I thought I should say something.

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Windows 95: A 32-bit extension of a 16-bit overlay for an 8-bit OS that was originally designed for a 4-bit processor by a 2-bit company that can't produce 1 bit of good software!

[carl58]

it would be a big help if we knew what you plan to do with this computer . You are probly wise to go flat out high end on some things and mid range on others . and things are changing so fast in the harware that the main thing to be shuer of is that you can upgrade . by the time the 1000mhz prossers are obsolete the 2000mhz prossers will be close to it but you pay 4 times as much for a difference you need to measure with electronic timers. stay in touch.

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this is a nice place you have here

[Poohbear09]

Thank you so much for the information. This PC will be used for office applilcations, be networked, some internet use, and not have any sound equipment attached. No games or intense graphics. I am purchasing a book as you have suggested, and I have been shopping around(on-line). I checked with a local wholesale distributer for computer parts and they wanted a huge chunk of cash($165) for a Motherboard plus ($75)for each thingie for memory. I said http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/eek.gif "that's nice" and promply left headed for my computer and the internet... I will keep you all posted on what I come up with.

[saphalline]

For basic office apps, you may not need to go any higher than a bland ol' Celeron! It's a processor that's already been topped out and won't be in production much longer, but it's also a wise choice for a low-end business PC (Intel is preferred by businesses). My mom's is a Celeron 800 system and I plan to move it all the way up to 1.3GHz (maximum Celeron) eventually. At those speeds, any processor is fast enough for office apps, for like the next 3 years. Add to that the fact that the Celeron is the easiest darn processor to pair with onboard sound and video (built into the mobo) which saves a ton of money for you who doesn't want games or sound equipment. Expect a Celeron 1GHz to sell for ~$70 and an upgradeable mobo (up to max speed) to sell for ~$90. The motherboard should have the i815ep chipset on it, just post a request if you want some links to websites that sell these. You may have preferences on where you want to shop; I know I do!

Now the memory (RAM) is where the Celeron lags the competition. Maximum of 512MB (compared to 2GB or more for other processors) but then again, since even WinXP runs just fine on 512MB, will you need any more for an office PC? Probably not, so just get one module of RAM with 256MB of PC133 SDRAM. That way, you can get another one of these later and have max RAM with minimal cost. Oh and order your RAM from http://www.crucial.com/store/listmodule.asp?module=SDRAM%2C+PC133&Package=168%2Dpin+DIMM 'cause they have the best IMHO and free 2-day shipping! When you go to the link, choose the one that says "SDRAM, PC133 • CL=2 • Unbuffered • Non-parity • 7.5ns • 3.3V • 32Meg x 64" under Part Details with a Module Size of 256MB; it should be $80.09 under Web Price (ea.). It looks a little complex but choose the one I told you and you should never have any problems with your RAM.

So now you've chosen a pretty high speed processor, a motherboard that will support it up to its max speed, and enough RAM to keep most versions of Windows happy and giddy. That's about all I can tackle in one post http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/wink.gif. Catch ya later.

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Windows 95: A 32-bit extension of a 16-bit overlay for an 8-bit OS that was originally designed for a 4-bit processor by a 2-bit company that can't produce 1 bit of good software!