Many of us have done it. What does it take to do it?Well, it’s Sunday and everyone’s anticipating Monday. Still, it’s a slow day and I would like to know something from those of you who have done this. I would like to build my own PC. You see, I’ve never done that despite the fact I’m pretty good with hardware.
What does it take to do this? What do I need as far as tools are concerned? Where should get reliable parts and components (I’m in the USA)? As long as I’m doing this, should I go for it and make it a dual processor PC? What are the pitfalls i must watch out for? What clever tricks should I know? I know many of you have done this, so there should be many who can respond. Thanks in advance for your participation!
IF YOU INSTALL THE POWER SUPPLY AND PLUG IT IN (to AC in the wall), THE CASE IS GROUNDED. IF YOU ARE TOUCHING IT, YOU ARE ALSO GROUNDED. IF YOU DO THIS BEFORE OPENING THE PACKAGES FOR ALL THE OTHER PARTS AND TOUCH THE CASE FREQUENTLY DURING ASSEMBLY YOU WON’T FRY ANYTHING AND YOU DON’T NEED A STUPID BRACELET. If you have ANYTHING to worry about it’s bending pins, which can be straightened.
here’s the link to a page describing how you can build your own macintosh
http://www.macopz.com/buildamac/
Never done it myself, but it will be my next project.
I’ve built my own x86 systems for years. my recommendations are.
1.)combos. motherboard and CPU. You can usually get a good deal on a motherboard and CPU bundled together as opposed to buying each seperatly. For Instance I got a k7s5a motherboard with an Athlon XP 1800 cpu as a combo.
Powersupply/case combos are good as well, many sites that sell cases let you choose amongst several different power supply models, and they’ll mount it for ou, which saves a lot of headache.
2>) It’s been ebaten to death in this thread, btu don’t go for top of the line. Don;t go bottom of the barrel either. Look at each component on a site like pricewatch and choose the best component you can afford with your budget. You’ll see the trend of how and where prices start to spike, buy accordingly.
3.) Onboard isn;t always a bad thing. For instance my motherboard has onboard NIC and sound. The sound quality is fine for what I use my computer for, and I’ve had no probablems at all with the onboard nic, which elaves two free PCI slots that would have otehrwise been taken up by seperate NCI and sound cards.
4.)Don’t fear refurbished merchanside either. I got a great deal (an warranty) on a refurbished 21 inch monitor (cost me 250 after shipping)
5.) do the research. If you’re going to run windows you can ignore this step. If you plan on tunning anything else, you’ll want to make sure the hardware you’re buying is WELL supported by the OS you plan to use.
“If you think about it for a bit, who buys these OEM components and uses them? Why the PC manufacturers of course! The only people who buy the full retail versions are regular consumers like you and me.”
But remember that Dell for example, is getting NO warranty at all on the CPUs they buy from Intel. If they get a bad CPU from Intel, they eat the cost. But it works like this: Intel sells the CPUs to Dell at dirt cheap because they don’t have to support it, or mess with it if it is defective. But Dell on the other hand, buys so many CPUs that it is far cheaper for them to eat the cost of a defective CPU once in awhile than it would be for them to pay higher prices for CPUs that have warranties.
Ultimately, the only reason NOT to buy OEM is you are a home builder is that the warranty is not as good. Example, OEM CPUs may come with NO warranty at all, or maybe only a 30 day warranty. If you are buying high volume, it is definately worth the risk to save money buying OEM, even if you have to eat the cost of 1 or 2 dead CPUs.
For an individual home buyer, you have to decide how much risk you want to take. For me personally, I think that PC parts are reliable enough these days, and the chance of getting a defective one so low, that I think it is worth saving the money.
So I say, buy OEM. Save yourself money. The chance of getting a defective part are pretty small.
MAKE SURE THE CPU FAN IS PLUGGED IN