Building your own computer

JackieHollow

Hey all. Delurking for a bit here, to ask a question of those much wiser than I. I'm looking to build my own computer soon. Right now I'm still in the researching and saving up stages. I have to admit while I'm adept at running a computer, the actual MAKING of one is REALLY new to me.

My question to you...

If you were building a machine from scratch, what would you include??

I am looking into Windows 7 when they release, CS4, and LR2. Those are probably my biggest programs.

Art Scott

Expound abit more on what you mean by...what would you include???

I am running win Xp Pro 32bit and my new system supports and recognizes 4gb of ram......my motherboard is an XFX 8200 and I have an AMD 5200 PROCESSOR, OCZ 750WATT PS,.......2 LG DVD/CD REWRITES WITH LIGHTSCRIBE.......2 250gb drives (C & D) holding just the software that is running constantly and then I have 3 1 tb drives that house my photo library, 3-500gb externals for music and software (original downloads....if it came on a disk it is hosed else where on the disk as well as on these 3 drives)

JackieHollow

Thanks Art. That's kinda what I'm looking for. The type of CPU, RAM, etc everyone is using. I've been doing lots of research, trying to figure out what will be the best for me. I know I want several hard drives, after reading about installing programs alone on a hard drive. I'll admit it's all rather confusing for me.

jeffreaux2

If you plan to build a pc that is close in specs to what HP or others offer there is really no way you can do it more efficiently.

If, on the other hand, you plan to build a high end machine of high end components then you can save a LOT of money.

I doubt I would build anything less than a quad core processor powered machine. The pentium Q chips are generally faster than the Athlon chips these days.

The newest, fastest are the new Pentium Core i7 processors. You should research to see how much you want to spend on things such as a motherboard, RAM modules, etc. Don't skimp on the non-moving parts either. The case, for instance, is what will keep your investment cool. There are any number of directions you can go, but I recommend using even the cheapest processor of the latest design. It's footprint....or socket...will allow you a mounting design that will allow a faster processor as an upgrade later on as the prices drop.

njjuliano

Great info below.

If you are looking at low end models, there really is not much difference in buying vs building. Take into account the building time, it makes no sense not to buy a prebuilt one. If however, you are going to a mid to high level ($1100 and above), the difference is worth it to build yourself. From getting better parts, to better performance, you're getting a better machine if you built it yourself.

I like the i7 and the marks its been getting.

jeffreaux2 wrote:

If you plan to build a pc that is close in specs to what HP or others offer there is really no way you can do it more efficiently.

If, on the other hand, you plan to build a high end machine of high end components then you can save a LOT of money.

I doubt I would build anything less than a quad core processor powered machine. The pentium Q chips are generally faster than the Athlon chips these days.

The newest, fastest are the new Pentium Core i7 processors. You should research to see how much you want to spend on things such as a motherboard, RAM modules, etc. Don't skimp on the non-moving parts either. The case, for instance, is what will keep your investment cool. There are any number of directions you can go, but I recommend using even the cheapest processor of the latest design. It's footprint....or socket...will allow you a mounting design that will allow a faster processor as an upgrade later on as the prices drop.

budman101

I have built several computers for friends and family. Let me say up front that if you are building a system to save money, you won't. The Dell's and HP's at lower price points are inexpensive because they are subsidized by all the "trailware" (most call it crapware) that is loaded on the machines. But if you are building a system to get the most bang for the $ then a custom system is for you.
Your first choice will be processors. Intel has the new i7 that blows away anything else on benchmark tests. But its cost is over $500 for processor alone......... Now lets build a real world system.
My personal choice for a first time build is an AMD platform. I just don't like the way Intel attaches the fan and heatsink to the motherboard.
The cutting edge on AMD processors is the phenom quad core. PS does not support quad core but future versions may. The newest quad core AMD is a Phenom II socket AM3, $180. I do all my builds with ASUS motherboards just because I never had an issue with one, a decent one will set you back $140. You will also need DDR3 RAM at least 4 GB for $70. Here is the place where you don't want to be cheap, the video card. Get an NVidia or ATI card and don't skimp ($250+). Next are hard drives. Use a very fast but small HD as the boot drive. WD raptor 300GB for about $230 and a big slower drive for the scratch drive. Add a third or external drive as your photo storage drive if you wish. Segate or WD 750GB for about $90. If you are going to build a system tomorrow I would not hesitate to install Vista 64bit. With the new service pack its not a bad OS, but I will upgrade in a minute to Win7 when it comes out. Dont forget a case and power supply a decent combo with a minimum of 650 watts of power will be about $150. The best place to price out various options and combos is NewEgg.com, I have purchased all my computer and electronics from them since 2002 and never had an issue.

JackieHollow

Thanks everyone so much!!!! I'm not trying to duplicate a Dell, or HP. I want better. That's why I'm wanting to build my own. I knew it would cost, which is why I am still in the saving up for/ researching stage.

I'm taking everything into consideration. I know I want at least 8 gig of ram, preferably more, or a way to add more later... But when I start reading about motherboards and processors, graphic cards, etc. I really get confused easily. There is so much out there!!

Y'all have been a big help!

dogwood

Art Scott wrote:

I am running win Xp Pro 32bit and my new system supports and recognizes 4gb of ram.

I could never get XP x32 to recognize more than 3 GB ram. Are you using a Physical Address Extention?

So one tip on building your own PC-- if you plan to use SATA drives you *MAY* need to install the MB drivers via floppy disk. And you have to do it before installing the OS. I just built an awesome system and got all my apps and OS on one HD, then plugged in several more SATA drives and XP x64 won't recognize them (nor will the BIOS). I'm 99-percent sure it's a driver issue and since they are MB drivers, it's not possible to just install them like normal. They need to install off a floppy when the OS is installing.

I may have to reformat the HD and start over :cry

budman101

That's a strange one. The only time I ever had to install drivers from a floppy was when I built a few with on board RAID configuration or a eSATA that uses an older Silicon Image chipset. XP with SP1 and Vista recognize SATA drives natively. The chipset drivers you install off the driver CD that usually comes with the motherboard will usually include the drivers for the network and onboard audio.
By the way I have not built a system with permanent floppy in years. I install the RAID drivers then remove the floppy drive when I finish the build......OH! I just noticed that you used XP64. XP64 is kind of flakey, I only did one build with it and never again.
By the way here is a link to AnandTech's guide for building a system from $800-$1800 http://www.anandtech.com/guides/showdoc.aspx?i=3542

moe

budman101 wrote:

I have built several computers for friends and family. Let me say up front that if you are building a system to save money, you won't. The Dell's and HP's at lower price points are inexpensive because they are subsidized by all the "trailware" (most call it crapware) that is loaded on the machines. But if you are building a system to get the most bang for the $ then a custom system is for you.
Your first choice will be processors. Intel has the new i7 that blows away anything else on benchmark tests. But its cost is over $500 for processor alone......... Now lets build a real world system.
My personal choice for a first time build is an AMD platform. I just don't like the way Intel attaches the fan and heatsink to the motherboard.
The cutting edge on AMD processors is the phenom quad core. PS does not support quad core but future versions may. The newest quad core AMD is a Phenom II socket AM3, $180. I do all my builds with ASUS motherboards just because I never had an issue with one, a decent one will set you back $140. You will also need DDR3 RAM at least 4 GB for $70. Here is the place where you don't want to be cheap, the video card. Get an NVidia or ATI card and don't skimp ($250+). Next are hard drives. Use a very fast but small HD as the boot drive. WD raptor 300GB for about $230 and a big slower drive for the scratch drive. Add a third or external drive as your photo storage drive if you wish. Segate or WD 750GB for about $90. If you are going to build a system tomorrow I would not hesitate to install Vista 64bit. With the new service pack its not a bad OS, but I will upgrade in a minute to Win7 when it comes out. Dont forget a case and power supply a decent combo with a minimum of 650 watts of power will be about $150. The best place to price out various options and combos is NewEgg.com, I have purchased all my computer and electronics from them since 2002 and never had an issue.

Excellent guidance.

Kyle D

This past November I built myself a new computer because my old desktop was very long in the tooth. Being a starving University student I had to build it on the cheap. I was able to build this system for around $600 CAD after taxes and shipping. It then took me about 3 hours or so to slap it together and get windows installed.

- Asus P5Q motherboard
- Intel Pentium Dual Core E5200 running at 2.5ghz (it's a wolfdale C2D with less cache, so it's along the same lines of an E8400 but with a slower clock speed and less cache)
- G. Skill DDR2-1000 ram, 2x2GB
- LG. Sata DVD-RW dual layer drive
- Seagate Barracude 7200.11 500gb and 640gb hard drives
- eVGA GeForce 9800GT, 512mb, dual slot cooling
- Antec 300 case
- OCZ StealthXtreme 500w power supply
- Xigmatek HDT-S1283 heat sink and fan for the processor
- Thermalright LGA 775 bolt-thru kit to more securely attach the heatsink
- Arctic Cooling MX-2 thermal paste
- Vista Ultimate 64 bit (got it from a friend for free)

For the most part, I leave it running at the stock settings of 2.5ghz. But I have overclocked it as high as 4.0ghz and it booted, but I've only been able to get it stable at around 3.8ghz. I've decided I want to keep not overclocked for as long as possible and when it starts feeling slow to me I'll probably overclock it and leave it like that.

Also, the P5Q can handle up to 16gb of ram and this summer I was considering putting in another 4gb of ram and possibly swapping out the E5200 for a Q9550. I'm not sure about switching to a quad right now. I mean sure quads are awesome but I built this as a budget post processing/light duty gaming rig. So just the purchase price of Q9550 would be about half of what I paid to build the entire system! So I may hold off on going to a quad core system for a while, or until I build my next system in a few years.

kini62

budman101 wrote:

Your first choice will be processors. Intel has the new i7 that blows away anything else on benchmark tests. But its cost is over $500 for processor alone.........

You can get an i7 processor AND motherboard for around $500. Building an AMD system is a waste of money. The older intel Quadcore chips are faster, cost the same or less, overclock much better, all use the less expensive DDR2 memory and you have a much better MB selection.

Gene

dogwood

budman101 wrote:

I install the RAID drivers then remove the floppy drive when I finish the build......OH! I just noticed that you used XP64. XP64 is kind of flakey, I only did one build with it and never again.

Yup. Drivers have been a bit of a pain for my build. I finally ended up reformatting the HD to wipe it clean, then "slipstreaming" with nLite to get the drivers installed via CD with the OS installation.

Seemed to work... but I still have a few things to check. And when I loaded CS4, it loaded the French version! Had to uninstall that and reinstall it and now it seems to be working in English.

HeroOfCanton

I am going to offer some differing opinions so bear with me. These are all my opinions, take them or leave them as you see fit

1:
You don't need to worry about a floppy drive for SATA drivers if you are using SP2 or later XP. SP1 and earlier required you to use the RAID drivers that come with your motherboard on a floppy but that has gone the way of the horse and buggy.

2:
For future compatibility stay away from Intel products. Every time Intel comes out with a new processor you have to throw your entire system away and start all over. AMD, as of the current generation and future according to their roadmaps, makes it much easier for you as you can drop a new proc in and away you go. That being said, the fastest chips on the market are indeed the Core i7's but performance/dollar wise you are going to get your best bang out of a high-end Phenom II or something like a Q6550 from Intel.

3:
Quad Cores, in and of themselves, are not any better than Dual Cores with the current state of programming. There are barely programs out there that can make use of Dual Core processors let alone Quad Cores so if you are trying to save cash you can get a nice Core2Duo and you will be fine. Quad Cores are faster than Dual Cores in certain programs because of the architecture, not the fact that there are more cores. If you come across a program that is capable of addressing Quad Cores then they will be faster than a Dual Core but in a program that can't recognize the difference between the two a Quad Core will only be faster so long as its architecture will allow it to be. Don't get fooled by more cores = better, that's not always the case.

4:
IMO stay away from Vista, 32 or 64bit. Stick with XP32 bit for now and then work towards Windows 7 after its been out for a Service Pack or two. I tried Vista for 6 months on my gaming laptop and then spent another 3 months finding all the drivers so that I could go back to XP, that's how much I didn't like it.

5:
32bit can only address 4GB of RAM. I am running 4GB on my machine but in a WinXP 32bit environment and because of my video card (8800gts 640MB) my available RAM is 4GB minus my video RAM amongst other things. 64bit OS's can address up to 17.2 billion GB and as of about mid-2007 drivers for 64bit environments have become more commonplace so it's gaining ground, albeit slowly.

6:
Always, unless cost is a major major issue, build your own. When something breaks on the Dell's or the HP's it becomes more of a nightmare to fix than if you just had your own system. I whole heartedly agree that in the Celeron / Sempron budget segment building can't touch buying with a 10-foot pole but the heartache with a prebuilt is enough to make me eat Raman for an extra month if I need to.

7:
Always shop at Newegg.com. I have been buying there exclusively since 2004 and I have never, in my 10's of thousands of dollars of purchases for my computer repair business had a problem with them or their partners that wasn't fixed with the first phone call and according to my requests as the customer. I heart newegg.

Feel free to contact me anytime either by PM, IM or email. Computers are my passion and I am always available to help

jeffreaux2

I am currently awaiting a parts order from newegg, amazon, and frozencpu for a new pc build.

-Coolermaster case
-Enermax 1050w power supply
-ASUS Rampage II motherboard
-Intel Core i7 920 CPU
-12 gigs Corsair Dominator series DDR3 1600 RAM
- Sapphire ATi 4870X2 video card
-300gb 10.000rpm hard drive
-1TB 7200 rpm hard drive
-DVD burner
-CPU heatsink/fan assembly
- Vista 64 Ultimate
Maybe by next weekend Ill have it all together!

dogwood

HeroOfCanton wrote:

You don't need to worry about a floppy drive for SATA drivers if you are using SP2 or later XP. SP1 and earlier required you to use the RAID drivers that come with your motherboard on a floppy but that has gone the way of the horse and buggy.

This is not exactly true. Part of it depends on your MB, part depends on your OS. I just did a build of an XP x64 bit system and needed to load the SATA drivers. Floppy was one way, slipstreaming the OS using nLite was another (that's how I did it-- much easier).