Please help with building/buying a new system.

[innocentbastard]

I am looking to buy a new system. I know it is cheaper to build it yourself, but I would rather buy a very basic system that I can just add to and upgrade myself because I am not sure how comfortable I would be assembling everything.
I would most likely be looking to pick up the bare essentials such as the basic memory, small harddrive, mobo, pcu, nic, case, case fans, and OS preassembled. I would then be adding or upgrading the following, harddrive(adding a second), video card, soundcard, memory upgrade, cd-rw, dvd-rom, and anything else I think of. I am aiming for less than 1500.00 for everything. I will probably not be overclocking, but I tend to lean twords Intel since I do own stock.

Oops forgot...this pc will be primarily for gaming and internet.

 

[Zukatah]

Uhmm why don't you want to build it all yourself. It can be a really fun exercice and you truly know what's in your computer. If you are afraid it'll be difficult, there is many follks here that are here when you need them and it's the best technical support you can get (it's even free... crosses fingers that it'll stay that way). A P4 system is really easy and you can't mess with the CPU when installing the heatsink, it's an idiot proof system and really easy to do (2 levers...). What I may suggest you to do is read a bit on building a computer, open your case and try to install the basics (RAM, CD, floppy, video card, sound card...) so you have experience. If you mess up with it, it's no big deal since you are building a new rig anyway. A thing that is frequently forgotten in guides is not to build your computer on carpet (don't laugh, some people here already did it...) and stay away from static electricity.

Have fun !

 

[innocentbastard]

I have done some of the basics, and the more I think about it the more I will likely build it myself. I am just unsure about whether I want to tackle mounting the pcu and heatsink and thermal paste and mobo.

 

[Chaotic42]

Well here are some products that I can recommend from my own experience:

1. Western Digital SE drives, namely the 80GB version. Runs very nice and is quiet
2. PC Power and Cooling PSUs. All of my crashes went away after I purchased one two years ago (until my recent heat probs that is)
3. Crucial memory
4. Pioneer DVD drive. Very very quiet, especially compared to my Shuttle 50x CD-Rom

Hope this helps.

 

[kjacobs]

Hi,
I felt the same way; I built my own PC last November and the forum folks were great. Check out how to build one at www.pcmech.com. The detailed steps convinced me I could do it myself, even though my teenage daughter said, "Yeah, RIGHT, Dad!".

Ya won;t save a ton of money but the satisfaction is priceless (sorry, Mastercard commercial).

I too had replaced single components and was worried about the things like CPU and BIOS settings. And attaching the CPU WAS the worst but everything went together in a couple of hours. And I enjoy getting packages of components in the mail; almost like Christmas!

Good luck!

Ken

 

[PatrickT]

I didn't have the know-how to build one so I hired a tech from one of the stores. I picked my parts and had him vet them, making sure they worked together, and when everything came in he came over and we spent 1.5 hours and I had a new computer. It is so nice to not have to put up with the installed crap and company policies. Another consideration is that a lot of the basic units such as you're describing come with really low-end motherboards.

When you consider you have to buy and operating system the do-it-yourself isn't really cheaper but it's better and more satsifying.

 

[todpod]

Consider something like mwave.com, they let you customize your bare bones with MB, mem etc then add you HD and other componets

 

[Zukatah]

If you want to see how to install the CPU/Heatsink properly, you can head over there if you have a fast connection or here if you have a slower one.) For the thermal paste, there's an example of how you can do it along with the pencil trick, installing the shim and overclocking the Duron. If you wish to go P4, you have to spread the thermal paste all over the heatspreader (metal surface). There are videos and I think it is the best way to learn if you don't know a friend that can put up a system. It's much better IMO than trying to learn with a text only page.