Putting together own PC...

hello all,

Hopefully this is the question for here.
I was just wondering about putting together my own PC. I was looking at
Dell and it got pricey quite quickly. It was recommended to me that I look into
putting together my own one for the saving that it would offer.

I know my way around a PC, installing/taking out cards, wires, cables, motherboards, etc. but now, thinking of getting components myself, kind of makes me feel less enthusiastic about it...i could imagine myself incorrectly putting the motherboard to the case wrongly,rendering it useless !

My questions are:

1) Is it as easy as people tell you?

2) Are the basic components just the motherboard (get a processor, slap it on, attach power), hard drive, cd and floppy disk? I presume cabling come with the different components and then it's a matter of attaching everything...are there any pitfalls regarding the installation of components that i would need to watch out for?

I've been looking at Komplett.ie and everything can pretty much be purchased there

Any help on this would be great, I feel like a new computer but can't feel too happy about giving dell a lot of money for something which, i feel, isn't the most up to date system.

Thanks very much

joePC

The best thing is to build your own computer. As for building it yourself it can be tricky, I've build about 80 PC's so far I have it down to a fine art.

I can still remember my first PC, it was a total nightmare to get going took about a week to finally get rid of the really, really small, stupid problems. I learnt alot so I would recommend building your own just make sure you have someone on backup just incase somthing does go wrong you dont understand.

Thanks joePC.......

Mutant_Fruit

its pretty much as easy as we all say.

Think of it like this, if theres more than one place it fits, then it doesn't matter which place you put it in.

Its impossible to put anything in the wrong place, or backwards. Once you buy your parts your flying. Just don;t do something stupid like forget a power supply, or power cable. When you have your list of every part you are going to buy, post it here, and we'll prompt you on our opinions on each part, and point out what you forgot.

Also, if you want a bit of "what order should i put them in" advice, just ask.

My advice on putting it all together is to put the CPU in first, then heatsink on top. THEN put the mobo in the case (making sure you have all the needed screws in place to stop it touching off the side of the case)

Now throw the rest in, pci cards, agp cards, ram, hd's, cdrom/dvd-rom drives etc. Screw them in where needed. (Space out the hd's as much as possible, no point in cramming them beside each other unless you're going to put a fan beside em to keep em cool).

Next attach the cables from the hd's and cdroms to the motherboard, and attach the power cables from the supply to the hd's and cd-roms. Also the graphics card if the card needs more juice.

Now you need to whip out your mobo manual (and case manual possibly) and connect up the on/off button, and on/off/sleep led, and whatever you have that needs to be connected up.

Now you check everything is plugged in fully. Then you plug in the main power supply and wait for the smoke to clear. If nothing has exploded, you're onto a winner. Press the power button, and it should turn on.

Estimated time to completion: 3-4 hours for a beginner. 1-2 for a pro.

Take your time handling the pieces, no point in rushing through it to find you accidentally fried your cpu cos you were throwing it around to hard. Just take your time, hold everything firmly by the edges, and everything should be ok.

Don't be too afraid if it doesn't boot up first time, you've probably forgotten something small. If the worst comes to the worse, Komplett (and most suppliers) wil have no problem replacing the broken item.

bbbbb

Hi MoonHawk,

Building your own PC is not that difficult. I managed to build my own (& its still going after 2 years!!!). Took longer than I thought, and I'm not sure if I did in fact save money, but maybe got slightly higher spec components than I would have otherwise. The hardware was relatively straightforward, if a little nerve wrecking (handling an expensive processor is nervy). The longest job was installing the OS (don't forget the cost of this) and then down loading and configuring the latest drivers. When you build the PC it just has the BIOS on it. I can't remember how many times I had to re-boot while installing, good old windows....

As components you'll need:
- a tower/case. This usually includes the power supply
- a motherboard.
- a CPU
- heatsink and fan for CPU
- memory
- graphics and sound cards (unless embedded in the MB)
- harddrive
- floppy (handy for installing and a boot disk)
- CD/DVD
- modem card (this doesn't go in until after the OS is installed)
- monitor/keyboard/mouse/speakers. You may have these already.

There are plenty of articles on the web as to what to do, I bought an O'Reilly book (PC hardware in a nutshell).

One key thing to do is make sure you're components match. This is likely to be an issue mainly for the mother board, CPU and RAM. Each of these comes in 2 or 3 different flavours. My board is Socket-A for example. For the Ram, it's the type (DDR nowadays I think), size (no. of pins) and FSB (front side bus) speed, which needs to match the board. Too low and may not work, too high & you may have spent more than you needed to. Generally these all come in similar speeds, this would only be an issue if you were mixing older components.

Hope this helps.

Art_Wolf

I dont know from personal experience but I was advised not to build my own pc unless I was going all out on it - else I was told its generally cheaper just buying.I could only scrape together €1'500 so thats why Im buying from Dell

Capt'n Midnight

Originally posted by joePC
The best thing is to build your own computer. As for building it yourself it can be tricky, I've build about 80 PC's so far I have it down to a fine art.

I can still remember my first PC, it was a total nightmare to get going took about a week to finally get rid of the really, really small, stupid problems. I learnt alot so I would recommend building your own just make sure you have someone on backup just incase somthing does go wrong you dont understand.

Thanks joePC.......

And it's always the stupid little things isn't it ...
You could practise taking apart and reassembling an old PC - leave out one part each time to see the symptoms.
Also a lot of places like Jaguar and Marx etc. will also build up a PC for you for a wee bit more than the cost of the components - if you are spending a grand or so and aren't comfortable you could consider it..

Mutant_Fruit

its rarely cheaper to buy from dell, or any other manufacturer. it nearly always works out better value to buy seperate parts and build yourself. you also get quality parts, not cheap stuff.

EDIT: i'm sure people here would put it together for a small fee too. I know i would.

zAbbo

building a pc = easy
troubleshooting it = not easy

unkel

Most of the people posting here have put together a system or two

If we think back we have to admit to ourselves the first one was tough enough, especially if that was a good few years ago, with not much help like here from boards.

While building the pc, there was no internet at home (no old second pc, cause this was the first one) and there was no internet at work period

These days it's very different. As you have already seen from the support of the people in this thread, you WILL get help. And if you can't get it together at all, post a new thread in this board looking for someone to call to your house and get it all working for you. They might charge you just a nominal fee or someone might even do it for nought

Go for it. You get GREAT pleasure out of building your pc and one thing is guaranteed: you will never BUY a system again, you will BUILD :cool:

Best of luck m8

Creamy Goodness

one of the best things about building your own pc is that if it goes wrong you don't feel as bad as you do if u buy a computer from say like dell and it goes wrong you don't feel cheated in any way.

if you are still unsure about putting one together use www.elara.ie they use quality parts and will build for you.

Sir Random

Originally posted by MoonHawk
I know my way around a PC, installing/taking out cards, wires, cables, motherboards, etc. but now, thinking of getting components myself, kind of makes me feel less enthusiastic about it...i could imagine myself incorrectly putting the motherboard to the case wrongly,rendering it useless !

You've probably already done most of what's needed to build a PC.
Get a good sized case so you've plenty of room to work with cables etc.

From my own experience, here's some tips on the best order to install things.
Fit the mobo to the mobo-tray, then attach the cpu & heatsink/fan and insert the ram. Some ram requires a lot of pressure to insert and it's easier/safer to do it outside the case (it's easier to support the rear of the board if it's bending under the pressure).
Put the mobo/tray beside the case and attach the front panel switches, LED connectors and PC speaker.

Install all your drives in the case with a thought to where the IDE connectors are on the mobo. I have my HDs near the bottom of the case so the empty bays above can store all the loose cables away from the mobo.

Replace the rear panel on the case with the one that came with the mobo and then slide the mobo/tray into the case and secure it (carefully guide the PS2 and com ports into their slots on the rear panel).
Attach the Floppy and HD/CD/DVD IDE cables.
Now install the PSU (if it's not installed already) and connect it to the mobo & drives.
Install the video, sound, lan cards etc.
Wire up any case fans and temp sensors and you're ready to rock!

AdMMM

My first PC was hard, granted it all booted up fine straight away, but the few little things like trying to correctly fit HDD LEDS are annoying!

Anyway as someone said Building = easy but Troubleshooting and generally getting the PC to run the way you want it to = HARD!

However, the feeling you gte once you've sucessfully built your own is nice tbh!

http://buildyourown.org , v good site!

OfflerCrocGod

unkel stop your giving me flashbacks!!:D; I wish I could go back in time and kick myself for all the stupid things I did...... It's a learning process; the first will be the toughest lesson, after that it gets easier. As has already been said once you build your first you wont want to go back and buy computers anymore - you'll just build them(unless of course you are very busy). Any probs just give us a shout anyway.

Col_Loki

Yea ill second (or 3rd that) , building your self is the way to go !!

But you more lightly than not will have a hi-cup along the way (like me )
[1st PC]
I was so carefull when building my first setup read everything twice in the manual, checked every thing.........painfully slow .

Worst thing was it didnt work, slight power surge for a second and nothing........ pulling my hair out, re-fitted everything (cept the mobo to the case), tried different PSU's (almost tried a dell - phew) . Turned out a week or 2 later and loads of MSI help boards in between i had put one little screw in the wrong place and it was shorting the board on power up....... those were hard times .

Now its so easy, and takes no time at all........plain sailing since then (touches wood)

unkel

Originally posted by OfflerCrocGod
unkel stop your giving me flashbacks!!:D

I was only being general

Originally posted by COL_LOKI
i had put one little screw in the wrong place and it was shorting the board on power up......

Ouch yeah now that hurt - me remembers only too well :eek:

Woden

Originally posted by COL_LOKI

plain sailing since then (touches wood)

i'll attest to that.

unkel

Originally posted by Dataisgod
i'll attest to that.

same here :cool:

Ronaldo7

I built my first one last March because i wanted features like 8*AGP and USB 2 which dell couldnt provide me with when i asked. And the fact that they are so expensive...

Anyway, i knew it was all about mounting the mobo to the case, and then putting the components in. I got mine built in a day. I spent abotu three hours wondering why my motherboard ports were not aligned to the back of the case properly. This worried me. Then i found this metal port on the floor...and realised it fit my motherboard ports so i had to kick the one out from the case and put in this one that came with my motherboard and hey presto. Piece of Piss. No problems. It started up first time and i was exstatic with what i had done. All in all. Piece of Piss.

Valentia

I'm over 50. Built my first PC about 7 months ago. Have built 5 more since for friends. Now I can do it in about 2 hours (operating system excluded). Way cheaper and better spec than buying it.

Last one cost €609 without monitor, and it's a flyer, from parts got from Komplett. And I aint no genius.

Go for it, the satisfaction, and the surprise when it all works, is fantastic.

Col_Loki

wondering why my motherboard ports were not aligned to the back of the case properly.

That gave me a massive fright first time, holding the motherboard up to the back of the case thinkin there not goin to allign....... looked in the motherboard box, no metal backing plate to be seen. All sorts of things flying through my head (ie did i get the wrong case, did i get the wrong motherboard, am i screwed etc)..... bout 5 mins of secarching (which included the box several times) i found the feckin thing and was so damm relieved i can tell ya .

Its so funny to look back on, have built quite a few systems since and normally have a smile on my face when putting in the backing plate !!

Venom

Originally posted by Art_Wolf
I dont know from personal experience but I was advised not to build my own pc unless I was going all out on it - else I was told its generally cheaper just buying.I could only scrape together €1'500 so thats why Im buying from Dell

Dude, for €1500 you could build yourself a damm sweet system that would blow the proposed Dell purchase away.

Everyone,

Thanks for the information there, it's great to hear encouragement for something like this, I think i'll go ahead and try it then, i've been looking up components on Komplett, so as soon as i get the time, soon hopefully, i'll start buying the parts and try to feel my way along with it.

I'll certainly post here again, should a problem arise...it's great to know that a forum of help is readily available like this, so thanks all, i'll try this

unkel

Best of luck

Stark

http://buildyourown.org , v good site!

not there anymore.