# The Computer Building/Tech Thread (All Operating Systems and Novices Welcome)



## MaxOfMetal (Aug 19, 2010)

So, some recent "tech talk" in some other threads has motivated me to start this one. 

While I'm not too proficient in the building of computers, I've seen that a lot of folks on here are, and I'd love to have them chime in with some tips, as well as pictures and specs of some of the machines that they assembled. 

We're just about the first generation to have such access to the components and knowledge to build our own high power computers, and at such a low price. 

Like I said, this is open to all skill levels, and operating systems (please no PC vs. MAC debates). I wish I could add more to this original post, but I just don't have the experience to do so. 

Let's have at it fellas!

Some helpful links:
Newegg.com - Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptop Computers, LED LCD TV, Digital Cameras and more!
CompUSA.com - Computers, Laptops, Televisions, Software, and Electronics from the All-New CompUSA!
Geeks.com - Computer parts, Laptop computers, Desktop computers, Computer hardware
CPU | Computer Parts USA ® - Motherboards, Processors, Memory (RAM), Cases, & More!
HowStuffWorks "How to Build a Computer"
How to Build a Computer - wikiHow
Build Your Own PC | PCMech
How to Build a Computer - Your Guide to building a PC
How to Build your Own Computer - Illustrated, Step-by-Step Guide


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## djpharoah (Aug 19, 2010)

Almost pruned this one in my haste - but now it's in the right forum.


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## MaxOfMetal (Aug 19, 2010)

Ah, I forget we have a computer sub-forum here.  

Thanks for the move Mesh!


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## TreWatson (Aug 19, 2010)

I've been looking at newegg. everything is really cheap.

i know what I'mma do for my Xmas list this year.

...since I'm already buying my guitar gear before the year's out. xD


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## Hollowway (Aug 20, 2010)

Here's a question: I'm interested in getting a decent computer with a high end graphics card. Realistically, component for component, how much could you save building one on your own, ordering from newegg, for instance, as opposed to Digital Storm, ibuypower or cyberpower? When I go through the configurators on those web sites, they show the price adjustments for each components, and they appear to be less than 5% or so of street price. So is building your own more for fun or for saving?

On a side note, I got an MSI GX640 which is an unbelievably strong laptop, and I can't configure a desktop for anywhere near as close, price wise. Go figure.


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## slothrop (Aug 20, 2010)

Anyone can build their own PC, it's easier than most people think. 

I have had nothing but good luck with Asus motherboards. I usually buy from tigerdirect only because I like their website better than newegg.


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## Customisbetter (Aug 20, 2010)

Hollowway said:


> Here's a question: I'm interested in getting a decent computer with a high end graphics card. Realistically, component for component, how much could you save building one on your own, ordering from newegg, for instance, as opposed to Digital Storm, ibuypower or cyberpower? When I go through the configurators on those web sites, they show the price adjustments for each components, and they appear to be less than 5% or so of street price. So is building your own more for fun or for saving?
> 
> On a side note, I got an MSI GX640 which is an unbelievably strong laptop, and I can't configure a desktop for anywhere near as close, price wise. Go figure.




buying from pone of those retailers is a great idea. I actually have a GX610 myself.


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## chaosxcomplex (Aug 20, 2010)

So if I were to buy something like this: AMD Quad Core Complete PC Kit - Asus M2N68-AM PLUS Mobo, AMD Phenom X4 9450e CPU, Crucial 4GB DDR2 RAM, Seagate Barracuda 1TB HD, Samsung 22X DVDRW, Ultra CPU Cooler, PowerUp ATX Case, 450W PSU at TigerDirect.com (just the first one I came across)
How hard would it be to assemble? Is it all just a matter of plugging stuff in, or is there soldering involved? I really need to build a simple but powerful machine, pretty much for recording...processor power, lots of ram, good connection options (usb, firewire, good soundcard) I'm not all too concerned with graphics, the only games I play are the Command & Conquer games, and the occasional stupid game at addictinggames or miniclip...


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## Mr Violence (Aug 20, 2010)

Hollowway said:


> Here's a question: I'm interested in getting a decent computer with a high end graphics card. Realistically, component for component, how much could you save building one on your own, ordering from newegg, for instance, as opposed to Digital Storm, ibuypower or cyberpower? When I go through the configurators on those web sites, they show the price adjustments for each components, and they appear to be less than 5% or so of street price. So is building your own more for fun or for saving?
> 
> On a side note, I got an MSI GX640 which is an unbelievably strong laptop, and I can't configure a desktop for anywhere near as close, price wise. Go figure.



Do not buy from iBuyPower or CyberPower. I have gotten one machine from each and they both were DOA. Cyberpower gave me a dead motherboard and after screaming at the tech support staff that said, "It's too difficult an operation for a user to perform to change a motherboard," they finally just shipped me a new motherboard and I installed it, bought new RAM because 1 stick was crap, too. I used that PC for 7 years.

iBuyPower is basically the same stuff. Bought one for my friend and he had nothing but problems, as well. Motherboard was dead on arrival. Hard drive died after a month or 2. Waited on return service for about 6 months before saying fuck it and buying whatever parts he needed from newegg.com.



In my opinion, you can buy a pre-built PC for MUCH cheaper than building one from scratch. It is fun to build your own, but newegg.com, bestbuy.com, tigerdirect.com always have refurbs floating through there, some of them with pretty beefy graphics cards and all of them cheaper than building one. The configuration option on many PC websites are going to turn out more expensive than a prebuilt, mainly because they're customizing the PC for you, and it costs more.

The upside to building your own, though, is that you have absolutely without question everything you want and need in a computer. The flip side of that coin is that PCs are so plug and play nowadays that you can probably add anything you need to a prebuilt that you paid a couple hundred less for.



I used to build my PCs, but my recent one is as follows:

Intel i7 920 2.66Ghz
9GB RAM
1TB Hard drive
GeForce GTX 260
Card Reader
Asus Tower

It was about $800 bucks as a refurb through Best Buy. You just have to search a little bit for the best, but my bottom line is at this point in time, pre-built PCs are cheaper than building your own.

TL;DR:
Prebuilts are cheaper.
Homemade are more fun and have everything you required in a PC.


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## chaosxcomplex (Aug 20, 2010)

Any brands/products to avoid? Based on bad experiences, as opposed to brand loyalty, of course...


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## Mr Violence (Aug 20, 2010)

chaosxcomplex said:


> Any brands/products to avoid? Based on bad experiences, as opposed to brand loyalty, of course...



A lot of companies that used to be shit aren't that bad now. Everything is usually salvageable, except for those two I mentioned earlier.

The 300 dollar one you got from Tiger Direct is nice and upgradable, but does it come with an operating system? Do you have a monitor, mouse, keyboard and speakers?


On Sale : Desktop Computers - BestBuy

Refurbished Computers, Refurbished Computer, Refurbished Desktop Computers, Refurbished Desktop at TigerDirect.com

Magic MICRO Computers. PC, Barebones, Computer Systems, Parts Online

Always check refurbs. Also, MagicMicro is a solid company. Helped my friend buy a PC from there in about 2004 and he still has it and it's still going strong.


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## chaosxcomplex (Aug 20, 2010)

Mr Violence said:


> A lot of companies that used to be shit aren't that bad now. Everything is usually salvageable, except for those two I mentioned earlier.
> 
> The 300 dollar one you got from Tiger Direct is nice and upgradable, but does it come with an operating system? Do you have a monitor, mouse, keyboard and speakers?
> 
> ...



It does not come with an OS, as far as I can see. I do have the ability to get XP (legitimately) installed through a program I volunteered for at a school near me. I have a mouse, keyboard, shitty monitor, speakers, extra nVidia video card, plus all the stuff from my POS Gateway E4100. Well, I guess it's not really a POS, it's just the second one that I had a MOBO go kaput on.

One question I have...Can a 32-bit system use more than 4G of ram? I was under the impression that it can't recognize more than 4. Over the weekend I asked a friend who handles IT problems at work. He said that I was misinformed...

EDIT TO ADD::
I have a few questions...
My MOBO on the Gateway that's down has 4 RAM slots. Most of these that I'm finding only have 2. Are there any downfalls to that?

Is it better to have something like 4 - 1G sticks or 1 - 4G stick, or is there really any difference?

EDIT #2::
So now I'm thinking...what about just getting a bad ass new MOBO for the machine I already have? What do I have to consider for that?


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## slothrop (Aug 20, 2010)

chaosxcomplex said:


> So if I were to buy something like this: AMD Quad Core Complete PC Kit - Asus M2N68-AM PLUS Mobo, AMD Phenom X4 9450e CPU, Crucial 4GB DDR2 RAM, Seagate Barracuda 1TB HD, Samsung 22X DVDRW, Ultra CPU Cooler, PowerUp ATX Case, 450W PSU at TigerDirect.com (just the first one I came across)
> How hard would it be to assemble? Is it all just a matter of plugging stuff in, or is there soldering involved? I really need to build a simple but powerful machine, pretty much for recording...processor power, lots of ram, good connection options (usb, firewire, good soundcard) I'm not all too concerned with graphics, the only games I play are the Command & Conquer games, and the occasional stupid game at addictinggames or miniclip...


No soldering involved, just some small screws and plugging things into the motherboard. I didn't look but check to see if that motherboard has onboard video or if you need your own video card.

You'll also want to pick up a tube of Arctic Silver thermal paste for the cpu, it costs a few bucks.


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## Prodigy179 (Aug 20, 2010)

Mod edit: discussing piracy is against the rules. Enjoy your nap.


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## Spinedriver (Aug 20, 2010)

For anyone in Canada, I just "built" my own pc through
Extreme PC and they were great. 

The 'build it yourself' menu is super easy to use and you can get it assembled, burned in & tested for $75. Personally, I probably could have built it on my own but if for some reason a part was defective or missing, the $75 more than makes up for the hassle of returning said part, waiting for a replacement, them saying it wasn't the component and that I didn't handle it properly, etc... 

That being said, it was roughly a week from the time I submitted the order to when it arrived here.

This was in March when I ordered it so prices may have changed since then but what I got was:

Cooler Master HAF 932 Red AMD edition case
AMD x6 1090T processor (oc'd to 3.8 Ghz)
Asus M4A78T-E mobo
Cooler Master 212 cpu fan
2x 2 Gb OCZ 12800 DDR3 ram 
Seagate Barracuda 1.5 Tb (7200 rpm) hd
2 x LG dvd burners 
Vapor-x Radeon 5870 video card

all for $1,600 Cdn. So, that should be pretty much all the system we'll need for a good long time. I'm sure I probably could have done better in a few areas but given the budget I had at the time and the prices the parts were, I think I did well. I mean I still have no use for USB 3.0 and probably won't for a few more years, so paying extra for a motherboard that had it seemed like a waste. Same for the ram, it was $157 for the 4Gb when I got it but now it's only $130 and the PC3-16000 memory is $150 or so. Everything is cheaper AFTER you buy it..


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## AK DRAGON (Aug 20, 2010)

slothrop said:


> Anyone can build their own PC, it's easier than most people think.
> 
> I have had nothing but good luck with Asus motherboards. I usually buy from tigerdirect only because I like their website better than newegg.



I always used an ASUS boards ever since the AMD K6/2 days. I have never had any issues with them.


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## goth_fiend (Aug 21, 2010)

agreed, I have the asus crosshair and I love that mobo, the newest bios update allowed me to throw in a phenom 9960 black edition quad-core in it, asus are awesome


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## Prodigy179 (Aug 21, 2010)

Spinedriver said:


> For anyone in Canada, I just "built" my own pc through
> Extreme PC and they were great.
> 
> The 'build it yourself' menu is super easy to use and you can get it assembled, burned in & tested for $75. Personally, I probably could have built it on my own but if for some reason a part was defective or missing, the $75 more than makes up for the hassle of returning said part, waiting for a replacement, them saying it wasn't the component and that I didn't handle it properly, etc...
> ...



Dude that seems like alot of money. On Newegg all those parts probably would have cost no more than $900.


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## Spinedriver (Aug 21, 2010)

Prodigy179 said:


> Dude that seems like alot of money. On Newegg all those parts probably would have cost no more than $900.



That's the thing, being in Canada stuff costs a little bit more and at the time, some of the parts were a bit more than they are now. Ordering from the US wouldn't be any more beneficial because not only would I have to pay duty but a pretty hefty shipping charge and even more if I would have to send something back.

I went to Newegg and for all the parts I bought, it came to roughly $1,360. So with duty & shipping on top of it it would have been less than $200 in difference after duty, shipping and what not tacked on.


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## Hollowway (Aug 26, 2010)

chaosxcomplex said:


> One question I have...Can a 32-bit system use more than 4G of ram? I was under the impression that it can't recognize more than 4. Over the weekend I asked a friend who handles IT problems at work. He said that I was misinformed...
> 
> Is it better to have something like 4 - 1G sticks or 1 - 4G stick, or is there really any difference?
> 
> ...



I'd ask what your IT friend means about the RAM. As far as I know, a 32 bit system can't even use the full 4GB, so I don't know what he's talking about. 

Regarding the ram, I'm not sure if there's a performance difference between 4-1GB and 1-4GB, but the price of a 4GB stick is going to cost you a fortune!

As for the MOBO, that would definitely be a cheap option. But if you want to upgrade, you'll want to get a newer MOBO, and then you'll wind up upgrading all of the other stuff. That being said, I just pulled the trigger on a new computer with full plans that I'll upgrade this baby well into the future.


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## Hollowway (Aug 26, 2010)

Those looking to buy, I did my homework, and yeah, Cyberpower and Ibuypower are both horribly rated. But Digital Storm and AVAdirect both have A+ ratings with the BBB. Their prices are just about the same, so if you're East cost, consider AVA, West go with Digital Storm (to minimize bouncing around during shipping). The cool thing about Digital Storm is they give you lifetime free labor on upgrades purchased through them. And life time tech support, 3 year warranty, etc. etc.
Here's what I bought for $1108 or so:

CM Elite 430 (it's a basic midtower case, but it's got one front fan and two top fans).
Athlon II X4 630 (a nice quad core and a good price)
AM3 MOBO (its a cheap one, but still good, I think)
500 GB HDD (WD cheapy)
5850 GPU (badass performance for a great price)
Overclocked CPU to 3.3-3.9
4GB RAM
DVD burner (el cheapo)

EDIT: Scratch the recommendation for Digital Storm. Worst experience ever! Just impossible to reach, unknowledgable about their own recommendations, charges higher than what is posted online, excuses after excuses.


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## yacker (Aug 26, 2010)

Best piece of advice I can give to anybody new to building their own computer: Don't screw the motherboard into the case until after you've made all connections and turned on the computer. The slightest overturn of any one of those screws (that holds the motherboard in place) can short it out and leave you scratching your head as to where you messed up for the longest time. 

Perhaps it would make more sense to screw in the mobo so that nothing moves while you make your connections, but before hitting the power button, loosen all the screws, turn it on, then re-tighten them once you know everything is working.

I know this problem plagued me for several days as well as a friend of mine who refused to heed my advice.....I walked over, loosened the screws and he suddenly had a functioning computer.


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## CatPancakes (Aug 31, 2010)

yacker said:


> Best piece of advice I can give to anybody new to building their own computer: Don't screw the motherboard into the case until after you've made all connections and turned on the computer. The slightest overturn of any one of those screws (that holds the motherboard in place) can short it out and leave you scratching your head as to where you messed up for the longest time.
> 
> Perhaps it would make more sense to screw in the mobo so that nothing moves while you make your connections, but before hitting the power button, loosen all the screws, turn it on, then re-tighten them once you know everything is working.
> 
> I know this problem plagued me for several days as well as a friend of mine who refused to heed my advice.....I walked over, loosened the screws and he suddenly had a functioning computer.



ive never had that problem, and in fact, problems could arise from a motherboard not being screwed down, you could mess up the connections on a card. just dont tighten you mobo as tight as you possibly can, as long as it doesnt move, your fine.


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## GTR0B (Sep 1, 2010)

chaosxcomplex said:


> EDIT TO ADD::
> I have a few questions...
> My MOBO on the Gateway that's down has 4 RAM slots. Most of these that I'm finding only have 2. Are there any downfalls to that?
> 
> Is it better to have something like 4 - 1G sticks or 1 - 4G stick, or is there really any difference?



It's definitely better to have 4 x 1GB sticks, as you're spreading the load over 4 sticks going over positions 0,1,2 and 3.

You won't notice a performance difference as such (as long as you're not trying to run a million programs at once) it just gives you the frame of mind that it won't slow you down.


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## goherpsNderp (Sep 8, 2010)

just up(or down, depending on how you look at it)graded my PC case from a Thermaltake Armor (original series) to a LIAN LI Lancool PC-K62. absolutely LOVE it. WAY lighter than my massive car-chasis of a case Armor.

Newegg.com - LIAN LI Lancool PC-K62 Black 0.8 mm SECC, Plastic + Mesh ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

if you're looking for a really nice midtower that's quiet, easy to set up, and offers a lot of nifty features for the money then at least check out it's product page. i got it for $100 on newegg.

my only gripes are that it has 4 fans that all require the little 3-pin motherboard style connectors instead of 4-pin molex, and even with A BLACK MATTE INTERIOR the LED fans are a wee bit bright. *they only gave me ONE 3-pin to 4-pin molex converter, so i ended up having to buy a converter and a splitter separately so all 4 fans would be going.* (my mobo only has 1 fan connector) at least this way i won't forget to turn it off when i go to bed, as it will be too bright to sleep.  ALSO: there is a vent on the bottom for the PSU, but the clearance is so low that unless you have a hard flat surface under the case, it's not going to ventilate well. i had to stick something under mine because i have carpet.

/review


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## The Atomic Ass (Sep 8, 2010)

chaosxcomplex said:


> One question I have...Can a 32-bit system use more than 4G of ram? I was under the impression that it can't recognize more than 4. Over the weekend I asked a friend who handles IT problems at work. He said that I was misinformed...


I believe it's 3.25, 3.34, or some oddball number like that. And no, it can't. Won't hurt anything to install more, it just simply won't use it.


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## goherpsNderp (Sep 8, 2010)

if you have Windows Vista/7 32bit there is a way to trick it into having access to all 4gb of ram, but depending on your needs you're probably better off just going to 64bit. my favorite is called Ultimate Windows Tweaker, and it's made by Microsoft engineers. (supposedly)


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## The Atomic Ass (Sep 10, 2010)

The Atomic Ass said:


> I believe it's 3.25, 3.34, or some oddball number like that. And no, it can't. Won't hurt anything to install more, it just simply won't use it.


Followup to my previous response: Is there anything in particular tying you to Windows? Honestly, if there is no software demands upon your computing requirements, I would recommend Ubuntu. 64-bit for free.

Even if you do have software demands, you might be able to satisfy them with Wine. It seems to work decently for most normal apps I've seen. (iTunes being the half-hearted exception)


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## Hollowway (Sep 11, 2010)

goherpsNderp said:


> just up(or down, depending on how you look at it)graded my PC case from a Thermaltake Armor (original series) to a LIAN LI Lancool PC-K62. absolutely LOVE it. WAY lighter than my massive car-chasis of a case Armor.
> 
> Newegg.com - LIAN LI Lancool PC-K62 Black 0.8 mm SECC, Plastic + Mesh ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
> 
> ...



Nice! I love those Lian Li cases, but maaaan they're pricey! I'm glad to hear it's nice for the money, though. Sucks about the fans, however.


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