iPhone 3GS from AT&T. Free Shipping
PC hardware: Building PC
Re: Building PC
by benoddo - 8/13/04 6:45 AM In reply to: Building PC by 1bejayIt all depends on what you want to do with your PC. If you are into PC gaming, or heavy duty video editing, then I suggest you do your homework and build your own. The only draw back is that you become your own technical support.
All off the shelf systems these days can handle the tasks most people ask of their machines such as web surfing, e-mail, word processing, spreadsheets, photo editing, and graphic design. And buying a system from a reputable company like Dell, support is only a phone call away. Even if the support person is somewhere in India.
something else to consider
by frankzxcv - 8/13/04 10:28 AM In reply to: Re: Building PC by benoddowhile state of the art machines are generally cheaper when bought from dell or similar, do you really need a 64 bit system to read e mail? I just built a very nice spare system for $130, using old parts like pc133 memory and ebay motherboards and chips. Once you have the skill to DIY, if you can stand being a year or two behind the technology curve, you can save a LOT. and most people don't really need more than a PIII.
for a long time there was a pressing need to buy latest and greatest, there were very obvious benefits, but now the economics are more like buying a new vs used car.
I've got a 450 mhz PII machine here that just won't die, does everything, and since it's never on the net it never gets viruses or parasites. also it doesn't overheat like these 1.8 ghz AMD chips which die on me once a year. most of its part are available on ebay for less than $20.
of course, used is used . . .
--fj
Re: Building PC
by CANNIBAL - 8/13/04 10:38 AM In reply to: Building PC by 1bejayI have been working with computers since 1974, so this is a "no brainer" for me. I always build my own.
If you are going to start BYO start with a really good case, I have a Lan Li Full Tower- lots of room to add drives and stuff and easy to work inside. This case didn't come with a power supply so an Enermax EG651P-VE was added to insure adequate power for future peripherals.This is the NON TECH part of your system so it should be good to go for the next few systems you build.
The TECH part is gonna be a matter of choice and need. My experiance is to get the best you can afford, in my case not a problem so I currently am running a ASUS A8V(939pin)mb with AMD64FX53, 1gig of Crucial PC3200 platnium, 80gig MAXTOR SATA mirrored RAID array boot, 2 120gig MAXTOR 7200rpm storage HD's, ATI AIW 9800Pro128,DVD-RW, CD-RW, flash drive, ect.
This is a high end system and would have cost close to $3000.00 to buy from a vendor. My total cost was $1080.00 for the mb, CPU and 2 SATA drives. Everything else was recycled from older systems.
Re: Building PC
by coreman76 - 8/13/04 10:46 AM In reply to: Building PC by 1bejayThere are valid arguements for each I will highlight the most important, which is for you? It is a matter of what you need and your technical expertise (you don't need that much to assemble a PC.)
Purchasing a PC from a company such as Dell or Gateway:
1. Pre-Assembled, Pre-Configured, and Pre-Tested.
- This means that you just gota plug it in and it works!
2. You have someone to turn to if you have problems.
- All OEM's offer toll-free technical support.
3. You get a Year (or can buy more) of Hardware Maintence from the same place.
- No having to troubleshoot problems with your PC down to the component level and then trying to get the vendor to replace the defective part and justify why it is defective. Less hassle.
4. Pre-Configured, Pre-built PC's are a good value.
- Try assembling the same components at the same price! Often you will find the best you can do is save a few 10's of dollars over the OEM PC. Also, to you may have to order components from multiple vendors to achieve the cost savings!
Points to raise for assembling your own PC.
1. Performance.
- You can achieve higher performance by using top quality components over OEM's.
2. Customizable, Personable.
- You can have that custom paint job case with the cool graphic etched in the side window of your glowing red LED's in the case!
3. Lower Cost when compared with premium components.
- If you need more memory, or a faster video card then Assembling it yourself will actually save you money. Here is how it works, when buying a Pre-built OEM system they achieve cost savings from bulk component purchasing as well as assembly line efficiency. When you need these extra's compare the price they charge to install these over their standard Pre-built system components, it is often %30-40 more to add these premium components because they have to add these (labor).
So bottom line is,
If you need a basic PC, OEM's are the way to go.
If you need that speed demon of a system build it yourself if price is a concern, or else just buy an Alienware PC!
-Corey
Re: Building PC
by web86 - 8/13/04 12:02 PM In reply to: Re: Building PC by coreman76Are USB components,IE Drives, Burners, & Capture cards as good as PCI ones?
Re: Building PC
by seeker5000 - 8/13/04 11:03 AM In reply to: Building PC by 1bejayMuch cheaper AND the same money gets a much larger, more versatile system that can use previously accumulated hardware (example: choosing a motherboard with both PCI and the older ASI slots).
HINT: Don't stint on memory quality -- DIMM sticks AND power supply (which supplies memory voltages). Either can give you subtle operating headaches that are difficult to track down.
Re: Building PC
by krisstarr - 8/13/04 11:46 AM In reply to: Building PC by 1bejayWith the best of the ready builts having at least 1 in 5 having serious problems within the first year I build my own. Some of the name brand computers have a 4 out 5 failure rate within the first year. The low cost of Brand Name computers seems to result in very low cost components being inside. I build using the best quality parts and it costs me more just for the parts then a Name Brand costs already built at the low end. At the high end I can build them for less if I do not count my labor. It is not very difficult to build my own, most of the time is finding the best parts at the best prices. Only a couple of hours to assemble the machine then a day to load software.
Build your own and you will save time and money in the long run. Much less likely to have a breakdown.
Thank you, Kris
hear, hear
by frankzxcv - 8/13/04 12:48 PM In reply to: Re: Building PC by krisstarrthe ready- builts are generally "maxed out" in terms of their components' "upgrade-ability," so if you ever want to add more memory, more hard drives, etc., sometimes you will discover that you have to buy a whole new system for that one improvement. if you build with your own components you usually get more options in terms of pci slots, ide channels, etc. also you don't have to buy proprietary peripherals from the vendor like cd drives, you can get anything from anywhere and it will generally work. - fj
Re: Building PC
by Laurence123 - 8/13/04 12:53 PM In reply to: Building PC by 1bejayIt is my opinion that it is better to build your own computer because you get all the components thatyou can reserch yourself on the Web and not just be given what components the people like Dell or Gateway etc. have managed to get a deal on(or wish to unload) to save money. You can buy the very best of components.
Building a computer yourself is not nesessarily the cheapest way a to go but you will ( if you do the rearch) get the what you want.
Laurence
Re: Building PC
by willemakit - 8/13/04 3:26 PM In reply to: Building PC by 1bejayThat is the half the fun of building your own PC, learning about all the different boards and what makes them different.
It comes down to what you want in your computer; do you want it to look good? Or just work really well.
Do you do a lot of gaming, if you do then you will need the latest and greatest Video card if not, and you will watch DVD’s then a good video card with lots of ram will be fine (and save you half the money)
Are you going to be video editing or audio? In most cases if you are doing that, you want to insure you have fast hard drives 8 Meg buffers, fast access time. Most serious video and audio people have their files and O/S on one drive, and put their video and audio files on a second separate drive.
You need to do your own research, and then research the best places to buy your parts.
For me, I go with a name Brand mother board, you do get what you pay for when it comes to mother boards. Some can be finicky with O/S's so I like the Intel boards or the Asus something of that caliber.
I have built many systems, and all are different depending on my use. So as a basic system, with min. requirements it’s pretty hard to beat the big manufactures on price, except that you will have a better quality machine if you pick the better parts. If you are making a high end machine, you can usually save some money, and again, have a better quality machine, if you know what you are doing, and have done your research. One good place to find out about boards, drives, chips is tomshardware.com .
Basic Items you will need to buy: 1. Case $25 and up, 2.Mother board $45 and up, 3.Chip ? Intel or AMD both are excellent no matter what anyone says, they both have pros and cons. $60 and up 4. Hard drive $50 and up 5. Video Card $25 and up 6. Ram should be at least 512K of ram Pricing depends on the system u build 256K is good, but for a little extra 512 is great. All depends on what you are using it for, I do web design, and have some powerful programs up, so running programs like Photoshop, dream weaver and surfing the net can slow you down, so I use a gig on my developing computer. In my database computer, I only have 256K. 7. Most motherboards have an eithernet card build in to the board, if not, you will need that for either networking $5 and up, or for high-speed Internet.
8. Modem, $5 and up some motherboards have that, if not and you want to fax you will need that as well. 9. Audio cards that depends on you. I have 5.1 channels on my Intel mother board, and I like it. My friend is an audio nut, so he has a separate board for audio. $10 and up. 10. Floppy Drive (Just for old times sake) $5 and up. 11. CD Player or Burner. Or both, Burners are so cheap, and store a lot of information. $30 and up 12. DVD player or burner, this you don’t need, unless you are watching movies… or Store LOTS of Data.
That’s it in a nut shell, with basic prices, you might be able to shop it, and save a bit more, but that is around the bottom end of the prices, the top, is anything u want to spend…
Good Luck.... the best part is the fun in the learning process, once you have done it a few times.... you'll wonder what all the fuss was about, it is pretty easy.
Willemakit
Re: Building PC
by Simba7 - 8/13/04 11:40 PM In reply to: Re: Building PC by willemakitI think you mean M (Mb), not K (Kb).
I'm an AMD fan myself. I've found that they give more bang for the buck, and lately Intel's been trying to copy them (which is ironic).
256Mb of RAM is good. Anything higher is even better. Windows loves memory and the more you have the better it'll run. I have 1Gb in my workstation and it rocks.
80Gb and Higher is suggested, especially with the bloat of today's software (even with NTFS Compression).
As for the Video Card, the ATI Radeon X800 cards are awesome, but you do pay for them. If you want a basic card, a plain ATI Radeon or nVidia GeForce will do (as long as it's AGP).
DVD Burners are getting cheaper and cheaper, and they have the ability of burning both CDs and DVDs. Having a DVD Reader in one bay and a DVD Burner in another bay is handy.
If you have a cable modem, you'll need an Ethernet card. This is better than plugging it into your USB port and you usually have less problems.
As for a modem (if you have to have dialup), use a Hardware modem, not a "SoftModem".. A SoftModem uses your computer's CPU to do everything, as a HardModem has it's own processor, leaving your CPU for other stuff. USRobotics makes a good one.
The case is the personality of it all. You can have a mini, mid, or full-tower case. They also make desktop cases (but I haven't seen anyone use them in years). You can paint it any color you want, or make Lexan windows in it. Use your imagination.
..and as for the Power Supply, at least a 400 Watt Power Supply will be plenty. Enermax makes the best ones, and have a solid warranty.
If you really need a Floppy Drive, at least get a SuperDrive. It can read and write to floppy disks faster, and have support for LS120 SuperDisks.
If you're into Audio, a SB Live! or SB Audigy sound card will reproduce the best and clearest sound. I have the SB Live! 5.1 Platinum card and can instantly notice the difference between my laptop's audio and the SB card. It delivers better bass and clearer treble, not to mention it's louder.
Re: Building PC
by jjcool - 8/15/04 3:12 AM In reply to: Building PC by 1bejayhi, just thought i would mention one thing, when installing a master drive such as the Hard Drive please make sure that the master drive is connected to the end of the IDE cable otherwise the computer will not work correctly.
personnaly i think its better to build your own system its not as hard as what most people think, it may seem like a really big task but you will do fine as long as you read through the motherboard manual and write down the what the motherboard specification is, for example my manual says,
Memory: supports PC1600/PC2100/PC2700, Max 2GB. so i know when i go to the computer shop that my mobo can use those three types of memory and the most it can take is 2GB. (although i recommend you use memory sticks of the same type).
Re: Building PC
by Merav - 8/15/04 4:07 AM In reply to: Building PC by 1bejayAfter reserching the systems and each part in the computers in the shops in town, I found them all severly lacking on some components and over kill on others. I didn't want to go out of town because traveling for repairs is a pain.
My solution was, I had a computer guy build mine for me exactly tho the specifications I needed. We went through each component and matched it to my computing needs. This way I have a computer that meets my needs to a T.
Re: Building PC
by Infosurfin - 8/16/04 12:47 PM In reply to: Building PC by 1bejayGetting a PC built to match what you need it for can save a lot of frustration. First, get knowledgeable about the PC. Take a PC maintenance and repair course at a local adult ed, or go to a seminar for building PCs. Go to knowledgeable print sources like "PC Hardware in a Nutshell", or magazines like "Maximum PC" and "Smart Computing". When you know what you want, check out small computer shops in the area, where you can order the components and brands you want and they may assemble it for free, if you'd like (they's check to see that it works).
Don't rely on companies like Dell for the best assembly. You may find that you need to use their parts if you want to upgrade. (In 9/98, Dell reconfigured their motherboard-power supply connection, which caused non-Dell motherboard upgrades to fry. As far as user support - my brother called them for a printer problem and the Dell support person took him through the steps of FORMATTING his computer. He lost all his PC's info, and the Dell support person quickly 'bailed' with a bogus promise to call him right back. Most places like Dell, etc. design systems with a goal for them to be replaced in 2 to 3 years. Let the buyer beware!
Re: Building PC
by Spdlmt150 - 8/16/04 1:16 PM In reply to: Building PC by 1bejayAfter having built well over a hundred custom systems, I feel that for the average pc user the best deal is to buy brand name. Prices have come down to where Dell can sell it cheaper than I could build it. For high performance systems, custom built is the only way to go, and will be more cost effective. I have worked with many dell/gateway/compaq systems that are more than enough system for the typical home user. For the techies, custom build a godbox & gloat. My system (don't know what the brand name cost would be on it) is a Barton XP2500+ on an MSI KT4V, all liquid cooled, 8X MX440 AGP, 2 gig ECC DDR2700, 4 WD 120 Gig drives 7200RPM striped raid, 52Xcdrw/dvd, 48Xcdrw/dvd, 250 gig external drive, dual redundant power supplies. I know for a fact I couldn't afford that from Dell. The determining factor to the shelf/custom question is this: What are you going to do with it?
| Forum legend: | |
 |
Locked thread |
 |
Moderator |
 |
CNET staff |
 |
Samsung staff |
 |
Norton Authorized Support team |
 |
AVG staff |
 |
Windows Outreach team |
 |
Dell staff |
 |
Intel staff |
