Building a Computer.

[ripcurl15]

I'm going to be getting into building computers. I took and old computer apart, and feel fairly confidint that i could build one if I had all the parts to build it. I know all the types of parts i need, butnot specific modles and such.

Realisticly how hard would it be to build one? i have basic knowledge of parts and such, and am pretty good with windows. I guess what i'm trying to say is it worth it for me to buy a all the parts and try it, or am i just gunna waste my time.

Also, what do you think i should buy? This is a budget project. I'd like the total of everything to be about $350- $400 excluding monitor and keyboard. I'd like a half way decent video card, i wanna play source, I will use this computer for alot of gaming and websurfing, thats about it i have another computer that hold all my music and such. but if thats not feasable, then i'll jsut play cs 1.6. Also around 160 gig hd. 1 gig of ram? A dvd burning drive, an internet card, and a wirelesscard then anything else you guys like.

I dont know what companies are good and who makes the parts i should buy so links to newegg will help as well thank you very much.

 

[pkrush]

Does your budget include a monitor/keyboard/mouse/OS? If it does, then I'm sorry but there's no way you can build anything decent for $400. If your budget doesn't include these, than you should be fine with something like:
Biostar Tforce 6100 motherboard
AMD Sempron 2800+
Western Digital 160 gigabyte hard drive
1 gigabyte of Corsair Value Select memory
NEC DVD Burner
Antec case with power supply
Total cost- $390.17 without shipping
You'll probably also want a decent video card, which is going to be about another $100 at least, but you can get that later and the onboard video should be more than good enough for Counter-Strike 1.6 and maybe even Doom 3.

 

[Cinna696]

It is not that difficult, however i would recomend you read a few guides on the process before you actually go at putting the parts together.

400$ to build a gaming machine is unacceptable anyway

case mb psu http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16856101238 MSI MBOX 75$

cpu http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819104245 Semp 2800 75$

gpu http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16814122206 6600GT AGP 139$

hd http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822135106 WD 80gb 8mb 7200rpm 53$

Total : 409.89$ w/o shiping

while the barebone box from msi may remove some of the diy aspects, (i got one for work cause its low costs but it performs well) one could say since you are new the less complicated the better, the motherboard has onboard internet jack
i noticed it is lacking a cd rom drive of sorts but with such a tiny budget and your intentions of gaming just scavenge one or go with this NEC

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16827152058 38$,

raises the total to 447$ without shipping

 

[ripcurl15]

i already have an operating system, monitor mouse and keyboard. they may get replaced later.

$400 was jsut a ball park estimate, i will probally pay much more than that , but when i buy items it will be spaced out. so i'll probally have more money. but for startes i jsut want a casey, and stuff so i can start building

 

[pkrush]

In that case, you probably want a motherboard with a PCI Express slot so that you can upgrade to a newer video card later.

 

[Cinna696]

it shouldn't take anyone more than an hour to assemble a computer, not taking into account wire management etc.

if you just want to start building, and get more parts later on.

Antec SLK 1650b http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811129150 350W PSU 62$
AMD 64 3200 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16819103537 145$
EPOC Nvidia 6100 onboard video http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813123262 69$
nec dvd burner http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16827152058 38$
corsair ram 1gb (2x512( http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16820145440 69$
80gb wd hd http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?item=N82E16822135106 53$

Total 434$

with this you can just upgrade to a much better pci-e card later on and not be subject to socket 754 . you can use the onboard video solution for CS 1.6 till you upgrade to a video card as the onboard will struggle to play cs:s at the lowest settings

 

[Skott]

Putting them together isnt hard. Its troubleshooting the problems that you may encounter that'll get people pulling their hair out. Troubleshooting can be a lengthy process depending on the problem. Basically its a process of elimination. You keep trying different things until you find the exact problem then fix it. Basically its a methodical process. You'll get better and faster the more PCs you build though.