# Forum Home Renovation Television, Computers & Phones  Home made computer

## rrobor

I would be interested to know how many people assemble their own computer.  My last one was the easiest ever. Got myself an E7400 processor a 1 gig graphics card 650W supply 500G hard drive, case and motherboard for $560. The case was a laugh, I couldnt do without my computer so as I was going to use my old case I thought Id try the local tip shop for a case I could transfer its innards to.    Well there were 2 there  in a lot better condition than my 8 year old number so I bought both for 10 bucks.  Only problem I had was a front LED for the supply, got that round the wrong way cos the plus was green.   But its an easy and safe build, the supply is sealed and you only got 12V and lower out,  and you get a book showing you where to plug things in.   Took 2 hours and saved about 500 bucks.

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## deltoid

Yeah, I've always built mine. Bought a laptop the other year though so I'd stop tinkering with the inside of my computers. 
It is getting pretty fool proof with putting them together now, the main problem is if you have any issues with it once you have plugged it all together. But there are a lot of computer forums out there to point you in the right direction if you have problems. 
The hardest part is putting the heatsink on the CPU but even that has gotten pretty easy now. No longer do you have to fear punching a hole in your shiny new motherboard with a screw driver as you are wrestling the heatsink's clamps into place.

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## rrobor

Ah thats even old hat, Processor I got came with the heatsink installed and the guy I bought it from Installed it on the MB for free so no heatpaste paste or any of that.

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## deltoid

ohhh fancy. I'm building up a little file server at the moment and the board I plan to get has the processor soldered onto the board. Saves me installing it, of course means I also can not upgrade the processor but I'm sure I'll survive.

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## Gooner

A while back I was running a side business of selling PC's. Would buy all the components, put them together and install at customer sites. Building the PC's usually wasn't the time consuming bit. It was installing and updating all the software and drivers. I was always very pedantic and made sure the latest BIOS, hardware drivers, Windows Updates, Anit Virus updates, etc were always applied. Took hours... but I did have a slower internet connection back then. 
I always have done my own PC work, but I think the days of the traditional PC are numbered. I still have a "beige box" PC at home but nowadays always use a laptop. When the PC box dies, it will be replaced by another laptop. No great need for desktop PCs at home anymore methinks.

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## Master Splinter

> No great need for desktop PCs at home anymore methinks.

  ...so I take it you've never played Crysis at 1920x1200 with 4x antialiasing and all the other eye candy maxed out, then...

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## Gooner

> ...so I take it you've never played Crysis at 1920x1200 with 4x antialiasing and all the other eye candy maxed out, then...

  Well actually, thats another point. I believe the days of PC gaming are very much numbered. Already it has become a niche market. 
Problem with PC games is that everytime you buy one you feel like you have to upgrade your processor, graphics card, etc. Why not just buy a PS3 or XBOX and have a standardized platform and you are guaranteed that any game you buy will run just as the developers intended. 
Although I don't really play games anymore, I will admit the "depth" of some games on PC are better compared to consoles and probably the only thing keeping PC gaming alive. But the days are numbered I tells yas..

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## rrobor

Im with MS there , you cant get a laptop to fly as high as a desktop. How could I drool over Lara Croft if I didnt have the triple clocked mother board with a processor fan of a size designed to cool the average sized house.

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## Gooner

> Im with MS there , you cant get a laptop to fly as high as a desktop. How coul I drool over Lara Croft if I didnt have the triple clocked mother board with a processor fan of a size designed to cool the average sized house.

  Yeah, but with a laptop you can bring Lara to bed.

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## chipps

When the 6800 AGP card arrived, everybody I gamed with suddenly started tinkering.  :Biggrin:  
Was forever changing mem sticks, MB's & CPU's, power supplies & even had 5 fans   :Shock: . 
Then PCI- Express arrived....... 
The time had finally come to stop blowing money for the sake of eye candy  :Roll Eyes (Sarcastic):

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## Master Splinter

PC gaming days numbered?  Nahhhh, you cant play a FPS well on those horrible gamepad controllers...give me a mouse and keyboard any day.  And your XBOX will run until it gets the RROD and a chip falls off the circuit board from overheating...and I don't buy Sony products for any reason. 
The latest ATI 'budget' graphics card (the 5770) gives you 1.4 terraFLOPS of computing power and a gig of RAM for around $160...the 5870 gives you 2.7 teraFLOPS for about $500 so you can even run the extreme hi-def version of Half-Life without stuttering.  Hummmm...upgrade time again!!!

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## Ashore

Had built two and upgraded memory and chipsets on several ,
then with the last one I went to the computer fair , had checked out exactialy the board , chipset , power supply and game card I wanted , the only thing I would decide on the day was the box and extra fan , after haggling about prices settled on one stall and picked a case that they had , so the nice asian lady then said he'll be back in 1/2 an hour you pick up then ,
 I told he I would take it now 
No not together yet
What I had failed to understand was that their tech would put ir all together for me , which he did and then test run the unit , a lot easier than bringing home the bits and doing it myself  :Biggrin:

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## Ashwood

I still much prefer my big tall box over a laptop, even though I don't do gaming at all. 
- ability to keep the interior cool (compared to a laptop), 
- less cramped keyboard, separate number keypad, 
- ability to customize as you want, add an extra (or change the) harddisk/ ram/ dvd-rw unit/ graphics card, large monitor, etc, 
- less reliance on the shop/mfr should an individual component fail 
- ability to switch OS without worrying too much about not being able to support highly specific drivers, etc, 
- in a fault situation, the ability to manually shut down without unscrewing/pulling out the battery 
Some of the above, you could still add on for laptops, but at a $$$ premium. Besides the fact that you can get a PC at much lower $$ for the same specs/performance.  
I don't argue with the portability of laptops for travel, but for my static home PC, I won't be chucking my box big tall box away anytime soon. 
I assembled my own PC once in the past, but the fee/labour for assembly is so minimal that nowadays I just choose the parts and the shop does it, including doing the running in cycles.
I then put in my own OS. There are so many suppliers of newly assembled PCs on ebay nowadays at prices which beat any physical store and from my experience on these, the reliability of the assembled PCs has been A1.

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## Gooner

For those that want portability and desktop convenience, a laptop with docking station is the best setup. At least that way you can dock it and use a standard mouse with big LCD screen and normal keyboard. They you can always undock it so you can sit on the couch and surf, or at the kitchen table, etc. Also useful for when you want to plug the laptop in to the big-screen TV etc. May be an extra cost involved, but laptops have come down a long way and I believe worth the extra expense. If PC gaming is your thing though, then stick to the desktop.

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## chipps

> If PC gaming is your thing though, then stick to the desktop.

  Second that..... 
Nothing like needing the extra FPS & big screen for solitaire  :Game joystick:

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## rrobor

No for me, Ive got an office with a nice big easy chair where I can relax and enjoy the computer. I do appreciate Gooners reasons  for the laptop mobility in that penultimate post. He is a young man and that will settle down as time passes.   But the comfort of printer , fax , scanner and various other tools right at hand for me is the way to go.

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## Gooner

> No for me, Ive got an office with a nice big easy chair where I can relax and enjoy the computer. I do appreciate Gooners reasons for the laptop mobility in that penultimate post. He is a young man and that will settle down as time passes. But the comfort of printer , fax , scanner and various other tools right at hand for me is the way to go.

  Yeah, well I guess I am still relatively young and I don't quite yet need all those extra peripherals to get off. It still all works naturally. 
What exactly do you _do_ with a printer, fax, sca..... never mind.... I probably don't want to know.  :Smilie:   :Adult:

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## rrobor

OK Gooner I admit defeat Im off to buy a laptop.

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## Scottym74

OK, I guess I must be a bit old school too, as I still prefer my traditional PC tower. I build them myself, upgrade bits at a time, and use the left-overs in my spare PC. I also like to tweak (read over-clock) mine some-what. I just love the satisfaction of puitting the whole thing together and then messing with it to see what it's truely capable of. For example, my main computer has an E6550 cpu running at 3.7ghz (2.33 is stock) 4gb of RAM, 2tb of hard disk and a HD4850 PCIE graphics card (also overclocked). And yeah, I like my FPS games :Rolleyes: .

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## Bros

Just built a new PC. Researched the MB didn't need graphics card so used the on board and got a more upmarket processor. Bought from computer store 400klm away. Assembled it had a problem as I forgot the MB aux power supply a search if the internet fixed that up.
Forgot to get internal modem so bought a cheap one locally. Had a bit of trouble setting it up as the driver software had a virus straight from some chinese backyard.
Everything went fine for a week then crash with the blue screen of death. Tried to reload windows got half way through crash.
Pulled out he modem card and reloaded windows fine and hasn't missed a beat. Went back to the computer shop for a refund and lo behold they told me they have withdrawn then from sale. Got a modem card elsewhere.
Moral of the story if you buy real cheap expect the unexpected.
Fitted a new Hard Drive to my old one and my 12yr old grandaugher thinks it is great for talking to her friends

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## peter80

Still a FPS at heart. After buying my first two computers from shops i found i was getting promises given to me that the machines couldnt live up too. Me being the noob i was trusting sales guys to do the right thing.
Anyhow after the last shop purchased PC started crashing during game i decided to round up the components and build my own.
5 years ago i built my first using an AMD4200 cpu, 250 gig HD,2 gig ram, Asus Mobo 2x 7800gt's in sli. in the 5 years i used it i only had a power supply fail and even up till today it still plays* nearly* every game.
Have just completed my new one 
i7 2.66 Quad core cpu
10,000rpm 150gb hard drive
GTX 295 graphics
4gig ram
850w power supply
Windows 7 
I also use a 26" monitor 
It absolutely flies. i no longer use a large hard drive as i find it slows the unit, instead i have a 1tb external hd.
For those who have used 3D mark 06, my first pc used to manage around the 6000 fps overall.
The new one without any tweaking is more than 18,500 fps. Aint anything out there that it cant play.

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## D.M.S

home made computer ....

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## Pugs

sweet rig...  
as for mine. 
these are the ones I have put together myself....  *Main PC*  MB: GA-EP45-DS3  <Currently a Asus P5Q while the other being replaced
CPU:  E8600 CPU Cooler: CM Hyper 212 GPU: HIS 4850 1GB < currently the 512Mb version while this is being replaced
Ram: 4GiG Kit DDR2 1066 (2 x 2G) Kingston Hyper X OS: Vista Home Premium SP2 64Bit  HD 1: WD SATA II 150GB VR HD 2: WD SATA II 640GB DVD: Pioneer Dual Layer SATA PSU:  HX 620 Case: CM Storm Scout *Extra Items*  Monitor: Samsung 2253LW
Keyboard: Zboard
Mouse: Razer Diamondback 3G
Audio: Speakers: Logitech R10's
Headphones: Zalman ZM-RS6F+M  *Home File Server*  MB: Intel D915GAG
CPU: Pentium 4 530 775 RAM: 2 x 512mb Legend DDR400 NIC: Intel PRO 1000CT
OS: XP Pro SP3 32Bit HD 1: WD 80GB HD IDE HD 2 -5: 4 x WD 1TB HD SATA II
HD 6 & 7 + Controller: 2 x 1TB WD SATA II + Sunix 2100   Case: CM 334 PSU: CM Extreme Power Plus 550w  *Media PC*  MB:  GA-945GCM-S2L CPU: E6300 Ram: 4GiG Kit DDR2 (2 x 2G) 800mhz A-Data GPU:  Asus 4670 512MB OS: Windows 7 RC 64Bit HD 1: WD 80GB HD 2: WD SATA II 640GB Optical: Pioneer SATA  Case/ PSU: Antec Fusion Black/ 450W earth watts 
While i am at it  *Home Network:*
Internet Connection: Internode ADSL2+ Naked Extreme 50GB/ month @ 20MB/s Modem/Router: Billion BiPac 7404VPNX 
Switch: Linksys SD 2008 8 port GigE Switch 
All on Cat6 that I have installed myself.. on Clipsal C2000 wall plates with the ID window, with ADC Krone Cat6 sockets

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## Shadyone

I have been building my own computers since back in 89... good old days.... did not have everything colour coded back then.  
Since i run my own computer company, i can be a little biased, but i feel that when it comes to computers, both laptops and desktops have their place. 
Laptops also have a increased security risk for files being viewed by others etc, as you can forget it somewhere, while i would like to see someone carrying my Thermaltake Armor + with integrated watercooling, 4 1 tb hard drives, 2 HD5870 Graphics cards, etc... everything coming in at way to many kilos. 
But the reason for posting was to answer original post.  
Building your own computer for most people is like a renovation or extension completed is for me, a real sense of achievement. And good on them. 
But the pit most people fall into is not asking a professional first about the parts, as there are many many parts out there and not all of them work as well together as some do. 
Also after building it is also important to let the computer go through some stress tests etc, to make sure that the ram installed is working 100%, that the CPU can handle the stress on all cores without getting as hot as the outback on a good summers day.  
And to the person that thought desktops were inferior, and that PC gaming is on the way out....... lol on you. 
PC gaming is stronger than ever, and much of this is the PC Gaming's ability to change and to adobt new abilities fast. Take MMO (massive multiplayer online) games, these games are not very good on a xbox or playstation or wii... i got PS3 and Wii, and i can somehow not get myself to even consider great games like Civilisation and red alert, or World of Warcraft or Star Trek Online on a console. Consoles has their place, but so does computers. 
(and the biggest gaming company in the world, or at least the richest, Blizzard, does not even make games for consoles) 
And i would like to see someone try to upgrade the cpu and everything in a laptop, if you do not know what you are doing you are doomed from the start. 
My computers are: 
Main: 
Q6600 Quad Core overclocked to 3.8ghz
12 GB ddr3 ram
2 x HD5870 ATI graphics cards
Gigabyte MB (can not remember model for the life of me)
4 x 1 TB hard drives
1 x 128gb SSD hard drive for operating system
Thermaltake Armor+ LCS tower
Coolermaster M850 Modular power supply
2 x 22" Samsung 2233SW Monitors
64-bitWindows 7 Pro 
Second: 
E9400 CPU
8 GB DDR3 Ram
MSI P45 Neo MB
2 x 1 tb hard drives
1 x 128gb SSD for operating system
Cheap tower (sub $100.00)
650W Thermaltake Power supply
1 x 22" 2233SW Samsung Monitor 
+ 1 Media Center PC
+ 2 Laptops (1 is 2 months old, 1 is 1 year old)

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## lulzwut

MSY is cheap for parts, but be weary as their service is bad and you really need to know what your purchasing before hand. 
As for computers, they are only good as the person using them.  
Mine as followed: 
Gaming
w7 64
i7 920 3.8ghz
12gb 1600
5870
300 vr 
File/web/dev serv
centos
phenom x2 550
4gb 1333
4x 1tb raid0+1

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