D.I.Y - build your own rig

[3chordcharlie]

Originally posted by: ^Sniper^
Thats a good idea but only if you know how to go online and d/l the latest drivers if the upgrade needs them. Using old CD drivers could result in games/apps crashing. My sister has never built a PC before but she knows what each and every component is in a PC. But she knows nothing about socket/slot types or where and how to get drivers. Shes been on a PC for several years. Just doing your own upgrades is good but IMO not quite enough. Ppl who wanna build PC's def should read around alot about each socket/slot type thats in a intel/AMD PC before buying/building.

Or live in rez at college. I learned a lot my first year there from yelling into the hall 'why doesn't this work!!' and some floormate or another wandering in and explaining it.

 

[Sniper82]

Originally posted by: 3chordcharlie

Originally posted by: ^Sniper^
Thats a good idea but only if you know how to go online and d/l the latest drivers if the upgrade needs them. Using old CD drivers could result in games/apps crashing. My sister has never built a PC before but she knows what each and every component is in a PC. But she knows nothing about socket/slot types or where and how to get drivers. Shes been on a PC for several years. Just doing your own upgrades is good but IMO not quite enough. Ppl who wanna build PC's def should read around alot about each socket/slot type thats in a intel/AMD PC before buying/building.

Or live in rez at college. I learned a lot my first year there from yelling into the hall 'why doesn't this work!!' and some floormate or another wandering in and explaining it.

3chordcharlie thats another good idea. If you know someone who can explain stuff to you thats much better than reading about it online.

 

[LED]

Without knowledge and training not to mention support that people get from Forums like this then it's the luck of the draw in most Cases and how well built it is can not be determined until time or another experienced person looks at it. I can not count the times that a person who did it themselves bring to me a Rig that I fix only to chuckle at how terribly it was built

 

[narcotic]

Originally posted by: 3chordcharlie

No, but I would recommend those people to start doing their own upgrades, and byt hte time they need a new system, they'll have a better idea what's going on.

I deffinitly second that! That's exactly how I started, when I wanted to install my first CD-RW on my dad's PC.
I bought it without having a clue of what the pc looks like inside, but I was optimistic (and naiive).
Surprisingly I managed to install it fairly easy, which encouraged me to do further upgrades, 'till I eventually got to know all the major parts of a pc and decided to built my own rig instead of buying a built one.

 

[Sniper82]

Originally posted by: LED
Without knowledge and training not to mention support that people get from Forums like this then it's the luck of the draw in most Cases and how well built it is can not be determined until time or another experienced person looks at it. I can not count the times that a person who did it themselves bring to me a Rig that I fix only to chuckle at how terribly it was built

Yeah my bro inlaw had never built a PC before but knew a little about them. He built one for a friend of his acting as if he knew what he was doing. Said him and his friend spent several hours that night trying to get it going. At the time I hadn't don't alot of builds but knew how to install a mobo. He asked me to look at it but claimed he thought something was dead.

Well I go to his house to see that the PC would not power on. When you hit the power button the fans would just twitch. First thing I did was take the board out a tried without the case. As I was taking the board out I noticed he didn't use standoffs on the case other than where the I/O shield was. As soon as I seen that I knew that was the problem. Took me 20 mins or so to fix the problem that they spent hours on. Needless to say his friend was happy and my bro inlaw was embarrassed because they spent so much time on it.

Also forgot my bro inlaw hates to be wrong .

 

[Cheesetogo]

Originally posted by: 3chordcharlie
Building a PC isn't rocket science, but unless you like the idea of putting in 15-20 hours (on a 'first build') and at least 4-6 if you're fairly good at it (by the time you install an OS and have all your other hardware and software fully installed) then you will be better off buying something pre-built.

You can do it in an afternoon, the second time, but expect to spend a weekend if you've never done it before.

Unless you have some interest in it, or want something significantly different from what's available through system builders, there's not much point. And I say this as someone who has NEVER purchased a pre-built system.

Umm...15-20 hours? What are you talking about? I put together my first system in an hour, and my second in about fifteen minutes. It took me about 20 minutes to put most of the stuff together, and then I spent about half an hout trying to figure out where the cables from the front of the case went with my awful documentation. Puting together a computer is easy and safe. If your scared of frying a componet, get a quality psu and some rubber gloves or fequently tuch the case. Oh, and don't build on carpet.

 

[MonkeyWrench4000]

I think Compusaguy is nuts. I build computers all the time, for small businesses and homes, and I have hardly ever run into any compatibility problem. I have never used any expensive power supply in my life, I always use the no name brand one that comes with that $20 case special.

Building a computer is not only easy, its near impossible to screw up.

I would like to see a source showing the many many computer parts that dont work together, because I have never had a piece of hardware that refused to function on a certain mainboard, or with another piece of hardware.

 

[Waylay00]

Thanks to the OP for a good post that assures those who might be a little intimidated about their first build. I know I was scared, (and still am, for I haven't built my first PC for ME yet, but I've had the chance to build one at the local shop under the owner's supervision). I do recommend wearing an anti-static wrist band. I know that the chances of static elec. frying components is low, but why not spend that extra $2 to make sure that it doesn't.

 

[Bonesdad]

The actual building of the PC is really simple, as long as you do your homework before hand. Oh yeah, and some COMMON SENSE helps too. Be reasonably careful with the components...anyone can push a card in and use a phillips head screw driver. Just do your homework before you buy stuff.

 

[beany323]

to say that not putting in upgrades isnt a big help.. well we know all the knowledge you learn as you go along will make it easier on you. as a matter of fact, i removed my cd burner and replaced it with a dvd dbl+/- this past weekend. the longest part was getting that one retaining screw into the holes cause my screwdriver was like a #2 and the screw was a #1. (i did get it in mind you!). i stuck with cable select and did the whole thing in like 15 mins...

afterwards my son who had been watching me said, that looked easy. i said yeppers, now you try. And he took it apart and put it back together..

i am learning allot as i swap out mem (had to remove all my cards to get to the mem slots.

is it easy? it can be and it cant be. can you do it? yea probably. can you make a mistake, heck ya. take your time and if it takes you 2 days to do it.. then it does.
there is no race or timer. and as you have heard, some guys it took a few hours to do it the first time. just come here, ask allot of stupid questions, (which i seem to do allot of, mind ya) and they will help.

great group of people here and I enjoy very much how they are willing to help everyone one out, (ok cept for that compusa guy, he's pretty much screwed!! :shocked:

laterz

 

[3chordcharlie]

Originally posted by: Cheesetogo

Originally posted by: 3chordcharlie
Building a PC isn't rocket science, but unless you like the idea of putting in 15-20 hours (on a 'first build') and at least 4-6 if you're fairly good at it (by the time you install an OS and have all your other hardware and software fully installed) then you will be better off buying something pre-built.

You can do it in an afternoon, the second time, but expect to spend a weekend if you've never done it before.

Unless you have some interest in it, or want something significantly different from what's available through system builders, there's not much point. And I say this as someone who has NEVER purchased a pre-built system.

Umm...15-20 hours? What are you talking about? I put together my first system in an hour, and my second in about fifteen minutes. It took me about 20 minutes to put most of the stuff together, and then I spent about half an hout trying to figure out where the cables from the front of the case went with my awful documentation. Puting together a computer is easy and safe. If your scared of frying a componet, get a quality psu and some rubber gloves or fequently tuch the case. Oh, and don't build on carpet.

And once you figured out where the cables went, you just pushed the power button and started surfing?

Windows has become a little easier to install, and there's less drivers to deal with, most of the time, compared to the windows 98 days. I would say the average person would have maybe one component that would cause them trouble the first time they build a system (from a driver perspective). It used to be more like 3 or 4. But I would still guess that someone with very little computer knowledge, building their first system withut help, should plan to make it a weekend project.

I'm not bothered by putting a system together at all - I expect to have to reseat something (ram, video card, something like that) the first time I power on the system, and after that it's just a matter of format, install, update, and other software. If you can do all that in 15 minutes, without the aid of a drive image or some such thing that the average 'new' builder wouldn't know anything about, then you are truly a God among men

 

[3chordcharlie]

Originally posted by: MonkeyWrench4000
I think Compusaguy is nuts. I build computers all the time, for small businesses and homes, and I have hardly ever run into any compatibility problem. I have never used any expensive power supply in my life, I always use the no name brand one that comes with that $20 case special.

Building a computer is not only easy, its near impossible to screw up.

I would like to see a source showing the many many computer parts that dont work together, because I have never had a piece of hardware that refused to function on a certain mainboard, or with another piece of hardware.

For a basic system (no multiple hard drives, no overclocking, one optical drive, one stick of ram, no dual channel... ) a cheap psu is usually fine. But it's still the single most likely thing to cause you headaches, be it bad performance due to multiple components drawing too much power from one rail, or inconsistent voltages, or whatever.

Every problem I've ever had that wasn't a defective part was caused by a cheap psu (that's not the case for absolutely everyone, but it is for me). Lockups on my old voodoo2 card, a cd-writer that had a 50% success rate from hdd, and 0% on the fly from the other optical drive, random reboots when i added a second memory dimm; all were cured by a new psu in the various systems.

My theory is if it isn't broken, leave it alone; I have a system with a generic psu in my living room that runs fine, except that it's capable of being overclocked significantly, but for the cheap psu. New users tend to get frustrated more quickly than the rest of us; they aren't used to troubleshooting step by step, and they may not even have an idea of what the right steps even are!

You don't need 500w $150+ power supplies unless you have a LOT of system, but the extra $10-25 to get a good 350 or 400w psu can save a LOT of headaches, and I would recommend to almost anyone to step back their cpu by one step if they need to do that in order to upgrade the psu; because you will frequently have less trouble with the final system.

 

[ShadowBlade]

Originally posted by: bunnyfubbles
compusaguy recommending a Dell... that in itself is pretty funny.

 

[n yusef]

The hardest part of building a computer is really getting the right parts and then getting the drivers working correctly. Almost anyone that has used a screwdriver before can do the actual building. From my experience, reading all of the manuals and using common sense is very important too. I am surprised compusaguy recommended a Dell though; they don't sell them at CompUSA.

 

[ctracyw]

Sorry, but your post is total BULLSH*T.

Many, many PC components do not work together for whatever reason. Even if you were to research and verify that a configuration of various components is good, what happens if the power supply blows up and destroys all your other components? *flushes thousands of dollars down the toilet*

Just buy a Dell.
__________________________________________________________________

I'm a freakin' plumber and I've built 3 or 4 machines for myself. Just finished my latest one last week. Its not rocket science:thumbsup:

 

[DrCrap]

It doesn't take any special talent putting a pc together, but it does take alot of skill messing it up.
Those things today are really DUMB-PROOF, for every part you're "trying to break" while putting you rig together, 50 chineese people (or wherever they manufactor that stuff) allready tried to break it, and made sure it doesn't break, unless you're truely gifted...

-->build your own!