how did you build your very first computer?

[Loop2kil]

I researched and learned as much i could at forums like this mostly. then i just bought the parts and then most importantly I read the manuals before diving in. Only snag i had was somehow a screw had gotten under the motherboard and would not post at first. Removed the screw from underneath the board and the rest is history.

my first build was:

Asus A7V
1 Ghz T'bird
256 mb Micron
Enlight midtower w/300w psu
Voodoo 5 5500

 

[Amaroque]

Originally posted by: Blain
I started reading hardware reviews at AnandTech back in 99. I've been here ever since. :laugh:

I remember those days. I remember reading THG a lot at the time also. :roll:

I've been upgrading ever since my Apple IIe. I was taking chips out, and replacing them. My first "real" upgrade was on a 386SX 16MHz machine. I added RAM. (2 MB added, for a total of 4 MB)

The first computer I "built" in a sense, is when I disassembled a (6 month old) P66 down to a bare case, and put it back together. I was truly amazed it still worked after going through that.

The first computer I "scratch built" was a P200MMX machine...

It progressed very rapidly from there, I was truly addicted.

 

[dashiki]

computer shopper I forgot about that magazine that thing was like 3 inches thick 99% ads it was great!! I bought my first pentium out of that book a A1 Computers Pentium 60 with a 540hdd upgrade for free !!! I also bought my p166mmx from Comtrade out of that magazone man the money I dropped on those computers. the p60 was like 2300 and I got a good deal on the p166 at 1900 with a 17" monitor. I had that monitor until last year it was on my server a Princeton EO70. The mobo from comtrade burnt out after a year or so then i upgraded to the super socket7 and built my first pc out of that. I still have it too in my basement can't seem to ever throw any of them away

 

[Frodolives]

I got an oem mobo from Asus, but I'd downloaded the online manual, plus visited a lot of sites with supposed walk-throughs. Frankly I didn't get the advice I was looking through from those sites, but they did get me thinking of some of the right issues.

As someone emphasized earlier, reading the mobo manual is pretty much the ball game, and you can sometimes get some feedback at the newegg user reviews about which ones have good documentation.

 

[vegetation]

Learned through the usenet and bought through dealers that hung around there. This was back in 92, built my first system, a DX2-66. Top of the line at the time!

 

[impemonk]

went to PC WORLD here in Guam, ordered parts, and then proceeded to McDonalds to eat. After, spent a couple of hours skipping stones in the bay, and then went home. Put on some well grounded footwear, and proceeded to assemble my computer. I followed some of the manuals that came with the parts but its often discouraging and confusing. So, I looked online for some things like properly installing the Heatsink for the CPU, etc.

 

[Blain]

I remember my first build CPU...
It was a P3-450, I bought for $258 shipped. :shocked:
At the time it was a good deal. But now it's like pulling teeth, to get me to spend over $250 for any CPU. :laugh:

 

[Zebo]

Originally posted by: Blain
I remember my first build CPU...
It was a P3-450, I bought for $258 shipped. :shocked:
At the time it was a good deal. But now it's like pulling teeth, to get me to spend over $250 for any CPU. :laugh:

That does sound like a good deal. That was back when Intel was charging avg $500 bones..

definity agree with that $150 premise.. why buy an FX-55 for $1000 when you can make one for $150?

Video cards they got you by the B@lls though. You want performance you got to pay... no such thing as a $150 overclcoking to a 850XT

Edit whoops I see you said $250 for a CPU..nah too way much... change your sig

 

[simeon]

Originally posted by: 1457
i want to build my own computer but i need an indepth guide to start off. how did you start? what guide did you use? any suggestions?

Ah yes, my first build.. I can still remember it like it was 3 days ago... cuz it was.
Ok so I'm a noob. Before this, I had installed some extra ram on my old p2/450 Dell and that's about it.

I read a bunch of articles from different sites on cpu's, mobo's, sockets and chipsets and all that for a few days trying to familiarize myself with all the latest stuff... by then I figured I knew enough about components to know what to buy. Then I hit these boards and discovered I knew nothing... instability, compatability problems, components that shine in reviews but suck in real world conditions, etc. The Anandtech guides and these forums more than anything else helped clear up the confusion.

After reading what the pros here had to say and asking a couple of questions I settled on the parts I wanted, looked for the best price and ordered them. When they got here, I used the guide I had printed out IGN - How to Build a PC to help me along and keep me from killing all these expensive components.

As it turns out, building it was the easiest part of the process. It booted up the first time with no problems and it's still running fine. The only 'glitch' I had was my fault - I forgot to load the motherboard drivers off the disc and spent about 10 minutes trying to figure out why I couldn't get on the Internet (so that I could go to the site and download the drivers!) lol

 

[LED]

Fortunately today there are great resources on this such as mechBgon's.
Unfortunately when I 1st became interested there wasn't much info so I bought Puters and after the Tech support had me open the Case, I found out what a Piece of Cake it was

 

[Midnight Rambler]

Unfortunately when I 1st became interested there wasn't much info so I bought Puters and after the Tech support had me open the Case, I found out what a Piece of Cake it was

Hee hee ... my first "PC" was an IBM PC w/256K RAM and a 360K floppy. The sales rep and I (he instructed me, I then installed ...) swapped out the 8088 for an NEC chip, and I bought additional memory to get to 640K and a second floppy drive, which I later installed at home.
Of course, pre-PC, most stuff for the enthusiast was BYO ... :laugh:

 

[Soubriquet]

My first was a P3 800 flipchip system to take over from a 233 back when 800 was top of the range. I read through all the guides I could find, bought a static strap and researched each component on google for forums discussing compatibility issues and that kind of thing, adding good forums to my favs so I could ask them for help later. Compatibility research is important with DDR RAM especially, you have to look at mobo manufacturer recommendation.

Two years later I discovered why it always ran hot... the CPU HS (branded) had a stabilising ridge that lifted it off half the chip, luckily I had enough silicon on it to fill the gap but you want to check seating of HS outside the case if you can, to get a side view. By then I had learned about copper HS, lapping and arctic silver etc and fixed it, I was really lucky that chip didnt burn out.

These days I dont build top of the range, as you can get good machines for half the cost if you are willing to buy components somewhere behind the leading edge, late version mobos also have more of the bugs worked out already.

 

[jpk]

My first build was a 386 DX40 with math cp. Scrounged a desktop case and used hd from friends. Memory was soooo expensive then. 32 megs of ram was a couple of C notes. First vid card was a Diamond Stealth with 8 megs. Could run Doom pretty good though. Which is the reason I wanted to upgrade from my 8088 XT.

 

[Mokmo418]

1st build was on fall break last year
the nice athlon 64 machine with a few older HDD and a new DVD burner...
Installed like a charm, but i had documented myself. read full mobo manual, mechBgon's guide, asked a lot of question on the forums, even readied a bunch of software essentials to install before getting on the net (even had the XP SP2 Cd sent to me, as i was installing only with sp1)

Fact is, the hardest part was figuring out the wiring (mostly the IDE cables the round ones i had were too stiff to fit)

I had before, added memory to our family system a long time ago, that day i discovered how much dust a computer can pick up (new rig has a filter... best feature ever)

and many little drive changes over the years...