Building my first PC

[nycflasher]

Building my first computer.
Any advice/suggestions?
Tommorrow, as part of my A+ Certification, we'll be assembling one in class.
Tonight, however, I'm drawing up plans for the one I want to build for myself.

Right now I have a Mac G3 and a Toshiba laptop.
This will be a PC desktop I'm building.

Would love some input from someone who has done this before, mainly on how to get the most bang for my buck.

That's what Hugh Grant said, doh!

 

[DKSuddeth]

whats your budget like?

 

[nycflasher]

Originally posted by DKSuddeth
whats your budget like?

hmm.
I suppose unlimited, as I think I should be able to build myself a real good computer at a reasonable price. Well, let's say $500-$1500.

I paid close to 3 grand all told for my G3(17" monitor, scanner, internal dvd/cd, 6GB HD, 392 MB RAM) so if I can build a sweet PC for $1000 or so I'd be real happy. Am I close?

 

[jimnyc]

For $1000 you should be able to build an outstanding computer!

Here's a few sites to check out for parts and or complete/barebones systems:

http://www.tigerdirect.com
http://www.newegg.com

I would buy a barebones system from tigerdirect. It'll be shipped with a case, floppy drive, power supply & motherboard (depending which of the many setups you can choose from). This will run anywhere from $150-$500 depending on which model you choose. Some of the kits actually come with the whole 9 yards! The parts all come in one box and you'll need to assemble yourself.

This is what I would buy seperately:

512Mb memory minimum
Video card (preferably 8x AGP)
Hard drive (great deals for drives between 80Gb and 120Gb)
Sound card (I don't like built in, I would get a soundblaster)
Monitor (You can get great deals across the net)
CD/RW - Dirt cheap, you can get a 52x writer for less than $50)
DVD writer - Again, dirt cheap, can be bought for around $50, maybe more if you want it to come with software like DVDXcopy

You should be able to do this for about $750.

Here's one I am looking at:
Chieftec Dragon Mini-Tower Red ATX Case with Front USB, FireWire and Side Fan
Ultra 400Watt ATX Power Supply with 120mm LED Cooling Fan - Titanium-Color
SOYO - KT600 DRAGON PLUS - VIA Socket A ATX Motherboard with Audio, AGP8X/4X/2X/1X, IrDA, USB 2.0, Firewire, Serial ATA and 10/100Mbps Ethernet LAN Support
AMD Athlon™ XP2800+ / 512K Cache / 333MHz FSB / Socket A / Processor / Barton Core
Ultra Copper Base Cooling Fan For AMD Athlon Processors Up To XP3000+
Ultra 512MB PC2700 DDR 333MHz Memory
PNY GeForce4 MX440 Video Card / 64MB / AGP 8X / TV Out
Seagate 120GB / 7200 / 2MB / ATA-100 EIDE Hard Drive
Artec CD Burner / 52x32x52x CD-RW / Beige
Keyboard and mouse

$529!!!!

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicat...ls.asp?EdpNo=860180&Sku=S450-4102 R&CatId=332

 

[nycflasher]

I speak English, Spanish and $529!!!
Checking that system out, looks like a great deal thanks for all the info.

I'll be back, to quote the governator....

 

[DKSuddeth]

I'd go with a 128 MB video card though.

 

[nycflasher]

Is that for porn collector?
Ha-ha, j/k.
Yeah, I want to go with high end specs like a huge hard drive(100 GB or so), lots of RAM(512+ MB), and I guess a 128MB VCard, fast processor, UPS, CD-R/CD-RW, and last but not least.... a flat screen monitor. That last part will be the price-breaker I'm sure.

 

[DKSuddeth]

128 MB video cards need only one word to justify it.....GAMES!!!!

 

[nycflasher]

Originally posted by DKSuddeth
128 MB video cards need only one word to justify it.....GAMES!!!!

I used to play Quake and Myst.

 

[NewGuy]

Since nobody asked the most relevant question, what are you going to run?

What will be the OS?

 

[nycflasher]

Originally posted by NewGuy
Since nobody asked the most relevant question, what are you going to run?

What will be the OS?

Win 2000 Pro and/or XP.

I might partition my drive and run 2000 Pro, XP and Linux.

 

[nycflasher]

Originally posted by Sir Evil
Jim has the right idea! you can build a kick ass machine on your budget! It's the only way to go as far as I am concerned, why pay so much more when ya can do it yourself!

Yeah, no doubt.
Now I have to decide between buying a bare-bones kit and buying all the components seperately through comp. fairs and online auction.

That $527 system def. gives me a good point of reference!

 

[NewGuy]

Originally posted by nycflasher
Win 2000 Pro and/or XP.

I might partition my drive and run 2000 Pro, XP and Linux.

Be aware of drivers. If you are going to run Linux, you need something fairly new or use older/more mainstream hardware.

If you run XP, you use a gob more resources than 2k.

Using linux on older slower equipment will always give you equal or better performance than windows anything on new equipment, though.

I have a pentium 333, and an amd 350 both running slackware which outperform an 850 AMD with win2k.

I also have a 386 with 8 MB of mem with 2 300MB HDs and win 3.11 which cruises the web in dos faster than my 850 on a T1.