building a pc

the_jocky

building a tower .
after xmas i am going to read up on putting a tower together.
if anyone has had the time to put there 1st tower together . how long did it take and what was the hardest/trickiest part
would i get the components for 300 euro

EOA_Mushy

LOL to the 300euro... Im afraid you will not turn up much for that :eek:

Haveing the right parts is about the only tricky bit for 1st time... (unless you know your stuff, and been lazy so far... )

(Merry Christmas to one and all)

the_jocky

300 ... no monitor just the basics as a tester mate .
any info would be greatly appreatiated.

gamer

get amd athlon at least 2400,or faster ,pick out compatible motherboard,get fast memory,512,good large easy to open case,using ur existing monitor,and keybord,u,will need mb with pci express and agp slots,then see how much money,u have left,u cud use ur old hd or buy 1 on boards,.ie and buy grafix card secondhand,once u have fast mb and memory, u can always upgrade graphics and sound,most mbs have 5.1 dolby surround at least,make sure get a 400watt power supply ,thats compatible with the motherboard.

gamer

komplett have cheap motherboards and agp graphics card on sale,,b grade,look at komplett.ie\clearance.make sure u hold onto all receipts ,for 3months in case theres a technical problem,,ur receipt is your gaurantee.

gamer

make sure u get fast motherboard with correct cpu slots for amd,for 300e, u wont get intel,,and centrino is a crippled cpu,waaaay sloyer than amd cpus,in my opinion.get compattible ddr2 memory,compatible with the motherboard,make sure power connector will fit ur mb.get sinlge cpu motherboard.

gamer

lokk at boards. for sale,,computer, crumple is selling athlon 2400 cpu,and motherbord,,today..at a good price,,and other pc components.

commited

This is probably the best you'll do from komplett for that money...
To be honest - save up more and dont bother doing a "tester". Building a PC isnt hard at all.

Q-Tec Midi tower ATX L-MD02, Black w/350W AMD/P4
NEC DVD±RW burner, ND-3550A, 16x, Dual, Black OEM
Samsung SpinPoint P80 80GB IDE ATA/133 2MB 7200RPM
Upgrade Kit AMD Sempron 2500+, KM400A, 256MB, AGP, Onboard VGA
TwinMOS PC3200 DDR-DIMM 256MB CL2.5 Memory 184-P (for DDR-PC400MHz)
Total: 302.01

So basically, save up more money and buy a really good base that you can upgrade slowly if you want a good machine. If you just want something to do office things on, then the above is fine.

commited

Just looked at the above - gamers given some dodge advice, so I'll try to clear it up for you...

u will need mb with pci express and agp slots

Not really necessary - if you're spending €300, you wont have that luxury anyway. Your best bet is to go PCI-E, but you wont build a PCI-E system on €300.

make sure u get fast motherboard with correct cpu slots for amd,for 300e, u wont get intel,,and centrino is a crippled cpu,waaaay sloyer than amd cpus,in my opinion.get compattible ddr2 memory

The centrino is a laptop cpu and they are actually pretty quick. Both AMD and Intel have their merits, but AMD are generally much better value.
DDR2 memory IS NOT compatible with AMD chips.

Second hand would be your best option if you dont want to upgrade at all, because Socket A/AGP etc is outdated now.

gamer

if u wanna be future proof then just get mb with pci graphics slot and ddr memory thats amd compatible,if ur on 300elimit,,u will have to get amd.if its cheaper get a mb with agp,theres still some fast agp cards avaidable.if u r a gamer u,d be better to get pci graphics on motherboard.

ethernet

I started mine last December. I was just fifteen! Luckily, I had an old monitor [just 15", though].

I bought a lot from www.dabs.com. Found service top notch and snappy delivery. Good prices too, especially when compared to the retailers [i.e. PC World]. I was kicking myself after I saw a price difference of almost €40 between the prices for a Pentium 4 3.2 GHz processor with 1 MB of L1 cache.

Settled for a 915P motherboard with 800FSB. I insisted on at least 1x PCI-E16x connector.

All works excellently under a dual-boot config [almost tri-boot if I manage to emulate Tiger under PearPC in Windows or Linux -- has anyone else here tried this?]. Keep us informed

SouperComputer

All works excellently under a dual-boot config [almost tri-boot if I manage to emulate Tiger under PearPC in Windows or Linux -- has anyone else here tried this?].

Yes, its almost pointless and incredibly slow even on the best of hardware!

you might know this already, but Apple are moving to intel beginning next year. OS X has been running on x86 since 2000 but was kept a secret.

Anyway, to make a long story short, OS X runs on a PC with a CPU that supports SSE2. Of course this is illegal, as the OS is only meant for developers working on the intel development units.

Nukem

Tell ya the truth if you spend 300e on just some new parts it will kill you when you decide to go bigger. Try the FS Hardware forum and get some cheap 2nd hand decent gear?

Could get lucks like http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054866324 free!
Or really cheap parts http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2054866462

the_jocky wrote:

if anyone has had the time to put there 1st tower together . how long did it

First rig took me bout 3hrs without OS - just liked playing and sayin "jesus how does this fit and where does it go?"
Hardest part i reckon is wiring the mobo with the case if you case has loads of fiddly bits (USB,Firewire....etc....) & I got big dumb hands too!
You'll fly through the rest!

Explosive_Cornflake

First build took me about 3 hours. Hardest part was getting the mobo into the case, and onto the IO back plate at the same time. Can do them in under 30 minutes now. Expensive lego, very easy, but save up[ a bit more first than 300 beans, get something you can work with in the future. There is no point in building low end stuff, works out cheaper with dell in the long run (xp licence, warranty, support).

ethernet

SouperComputer wrote:

Yes, its almost pointless and incredibly slow even on the best of hardware!

you might know this already, but Apple are moving to intel beginning next year. OS X has been running on x86 since 2000 but was kept a secret.

Anyway, to make a long story short, OS X runs on a PC with a CPU that supports SSE2. Of course this is illegal, as the OS is only meant for developers working on the intel development units.

I saw the screenshots of "About this Mac". I'm just interested in experimenting. Is it a PC if it's running on the x86 architecture?

BopNiblets

If it's a quiet AMD PC you want, the stock heatsink and fan cooler (that comes with the CPU) probably won't be very quiet.
BUT, it will do the job, not as well as a zalman or something, and it will be easier to attach with it's pre-applied cooling transfer pad.
No messy sticky cooling goo! (that stuff scares me )

commited

any 80mm heatsink with a quiet 80mm fan will be near inaudible. That's what I'm buying post xmas, as well as a couple of silent psu fans because the din from my athlon is ridiculous!

K.O.Kiki

ethernet wrote:

I saw the screenshots of "About this Mac". I'm just interested in experimenting. Is it a PC if it's running on the x86 architecture?

PC=personal computer, so yes. It's really just a question of OS.;) OS, geddit?

gamer

go 4 amd cpu and compatible motherbord ,and ddr memory,400waat power unit.centino is too slow 4 games or multimedia,u could get secondhand hd from boards.ie, 40gig,or 60 at least.once u have fast cpu,memory,and motherboard, you cudput in old pci graphics card if ur short of cash.

david

gamer wrote:

go 4 amd cpu and compatible motherbord ,and ddr memory,400waat power unit.centino is too slow 4 games or multimedia,u could get secondhand hd from boards.ie, 40gig,or 60 at least.once u have fast cpu,memory,and motherboard, you cudput in old pci graphics card if ur short of cash.

Eh Centrino is for laptops, I run a 1.73 centrino in my laptop and it flies, yes, it can handle games and multimedia if you have decent graphics in your laptop. Go AMD imo.

FYI my laptop with 1 gig ram, 1.73 centrino, and INTEGRATED intel graphics (crap i know) can run Need For Speed Most Wanted on mid-high display settings, no latency whatsoever.

christophicus

there is an asus or abit mobo for a tower that supports pentium M

commited

Yes Dothans are supported and adapters are available, but I think gamer meant celeron not centrino