Help me -Clueless wants to build

I am a soccer Mom who has a 13 year old son who is making movies and therefore needs a better computer.

He has a birthday coming up, so I thought I might give him a new PC so he will have the capabilities that he needs. Also, he is a video gamer, so I suspect that he will be expanding from the Wii to the PC also.

Here's the rub - I know nothing about building computers other than it's cheaper than buying. I've changed hard drives, mother boards, modems and memory in my past, so I'm not really worried about assembling one from scratch. (If I should be - please somebody stop me! )

So, who can tell me where to shop, and make suggestions about what to buy? I do not know where to start.

 

how much are you willing to spend or how much do you want to spend??????
what type of games is your son in to?????

 

The good news is that prices on DDR2 memory and hard drives have really dropped in recent months, and prices on good PCIX video cards are starting to level out. And DVD burners can be had for about $45 (on sale, $55-$60 regularly). Don't go cheap with the power supply! All the PCs power goes through it, and that is the life blood of the machine so you want it as clean and stable as possible. You can build a good gaming PC for about $700-$800, and a freekin' monster gamer for about $1200. Of course, with computers, the sky is really the limit... with quad core extreme CPUs, and dual SLI or Crossfire video cards, and huge wide screen LCDs, spending over $3000 is not unheard of. Keep in mind, anything that is top of the line (and top dollar) right now, will be mid grade in a year or 18 months. Personally, I'd buy a high end, mid grade PC right now (about $900 or so) and I'd be sure that it had plenty of upgrade and expansion options for newer CPUs, video cards, and what not. That way you can always add more later. Now, as to where to buy.... of course, the best prices are online, I can't argue with that. But you should look for a small, local, independent PC store.. a "mom and pop" type of place with 3 or 4 guys. You might pay a bit more, but they usually make up for that with service and help, and you can probably sit down with a tech and build the PC with him, asking questions and getting pointers the whole time. And when you're ready to upgrade, many of the indy PC shops will offer you some trade in value or 'buy back' value on your parts if you buy the upgrades from them. Will some faceless internet e-tailer do that for you? I think not!

 

ive always used newegg.com to buy most of my pc parts they have good deals and reliable service.www.newegg.com

 

It's not to hard. But when you buy the parts they don't usually come with intsall instructions. The 1st one I ever built took forever now it takes about 30 minutes.

I agree Newegg.com is one of the best places to get your stuff. Just make sure you get everyting that is needed. It is very easy to overlook a fan, a cable or something small.

Get a good sized workspace and lay out the motherboard, processor, Processor fan and RAM. Install these before you mount the motherboard in the case. The processor fan can be a pain but it is not impossible.

Mount the motherboard into the case (you will need to use the brass risers that come with it)

Once the board is in the case then I connect the case wires (pwr button, front USB, HDD, Reset button, speaker ... etc.)

Then the power harness (AMD boards are a little different then Intel boards) to the board from the power supply. I turn it on to get an error beep just to verify the processor is seated properly. Then unplug from the wall.

Mount all hardware in the case (hard drive, cd rom etc.)

Connect all hardware cables from the hardware to motherboard (IDE, SATA)

Connect power from power supply to hard drive, cd rom, fans ect.

Connect monitor, keyboard, mouse and power on machine, and go into the BIOS (the motherboard book will tell you what button to press during start up usually F2 or DEL)

Somewhere in the BIOS look for BOOT SEQUENCE and make sure the CD Rom is the first boot device. BEFORE you save and exit out of the BIOS put in the Windows CD, then save and exit the Bios.

If you were sucessful you will go into the Windows install screen and just follow the directions and select the defaults for your options.

 

I don't want to discourage you, but I question whether it's really cheaper to build your own computer anymore. It certainly used to be, but for some years now the computer market has gotten pretty cut-throat and I think it's not any cheaper, and maybe a bit more expensive to build your own. I like to build my own machines (I've built 3 in the past two years -- two for myself and one for my girlfriend -- and learned something from each project), but I like to know my hardware inside and out and be sure I have standard connections and that I don't have a lot of crappy software and "free" offers that use nag screens and which require a lot of uninstalling. I think these are all good reasons to "do-it-yourself", but I don't think I save much, if any, money.

So build if you really want to (or are sure you can save money -- check prices for all parts needed compared to similarly equipped name brand -- or local mom and pop computer shops -- computers) and enjoy it, but don't count on saving much, if any, money. On the other hand, you can certainly overpay for a high end machine, especially a gaming computer. I think the best compromise, imo, is to look for a low priced name brand machine with minimum RAM and a modest sized hard drive and low end (or even on board graphics and sound) and then upgrade it yourself with faster and more RAM and a mid-priced graphics card (make sure the machine has a PCI-Express graphics slot -- AGP cards and the older PCI slot cards are both much slower than PCI-Express). There are some name brand 8800 GT engine graphics cards that are priced in the $250 range that will perform nearly as well (and in some cases even better than) cards costing twice that amount.

Buying a low priced brand name (or a mom and pop computer store machine, if they've been around awhile and are likely to continue to be around for at least a few more years) saves you some of the work and headaches, if you do your homework and choose carefully. And you can then still afford to beef up some of the hardware that matters most, such as the graphics and sound card and RAM, to wind up with a pretty decent machine without paying through the nose. Whereas if you pay the vendor for more and faster RAM and a better graphics card, better sound card, you'll likely be paying a higher markup than if you bought those items on your own.

I also like NewEgg's prices and the buyers comments and info can be very helpful in locating good equipment at exceptional prices.

Good luck!

 

I agree with Eezak here, a lot of times I can build a system and save a little money, but most of the time it is not that much. If you are comfortable doing your own tech support and troubleshooting, then go ahead, it can be fun. If you'd rather have someone to call for help, you need to buy from someone else.

 

Thanks for all the replies. I"m afraid that visiting these forums has made me quite cocky about my ability to troubleshoot. Every time I run into trouble I come here. That's why I got it in my head that I can build this thing.

He doesn't play too much on the PC yet - he plays games on the Wii. He uses the PC for making and editing movies. Our PC is circa 2004, and the graphics card isn't up to the task. It's fine for me and my spreadsheets, but not for anything that's really graphic intensive.

Besides, I'm tired of sharing. We're planning on spending maybe $1,500. From what I saw below, we should be able to make something happen.

Thanks for all the input.

 

Please don't think I want to discourage you from building your own PC -- far from it. I much prefer to build as I then find I can typically upgrade various parts to my satisfaction for 3 years or so, before technology has advanced so much that I need to start all over. (I love to play computer games and that's mostly why I upgrade, as otherwise my computing needs are mostly rather modest.) And even when I do decide to build from scratch again, I typically can use at least a few old parts in an otherwise new machine.

On the other hand, as I stated before, I think it can be rather difficult nowadays to save any money by building your own. Back in the Win 98 days, when I first began to build my own computers, saving money was an important consideration, though even then I just liked knowing exactly what I had in my box and feeling confident I could upgrade it myself when I wanted to.

If you've gained confidence in your abilities by fixing problems with your computer with help from this site, have the patience to read and follow instructions carefully and don't get discouraged easily when something doesn't seem to work right at first...and if you're willing to give up having one place to go for warranty and troubleshooting support, then you are probably well-suited to build your own machine. And you'll learn a good deal in the process which will serve you well as problems occur, as they nearly always do with any computer. Still, I thought you might be interested in this recent thread here on the same topic as yours by a longtime member here, BluesMan:

http://forums.majorgeeks.com/showthread.php?p=1113515#post1113515

Note in particular, down near the bottom of that thread, that he wrote:

"Yep. I can hand pick any components just like I would from a local store, plus its cheaper than I can do it myself. I've had a couple friends buy from CyberPowerPc and they are very satisfied with the end result."

And he provides the weblink:

http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/

I've heard of this company and looked at their website a couple of times but haven't ever actually purchased anything from them. I guess I just really enjoy building my own, in spite of the occasional frustrations. (I built a new machine a little over a year ago last, and it fired up the very first time I turned it on and the installation of Win XP completed without a hitch. But I think that's the first time everything went so routinely.)

And yes, if you shop wisely $1500 should get your son a very fine gaming rig no matter whether you buy pre-built or build your own.

One further suggestion...people often post their proposed list of hardware they plan to use to build a system (or that is included in a commercially built computer) to get suggestions and comments (just as Bluesman did in that linked thread above) from people here at MG. Feel free to do that yourself once you start zeroing in on the parts or find a pre-built that looks good to you or if you have a question or worry about a particular piece of hardware.

Best wishes and good luck!

 

We decided to follow your advice, start with a pre-built machine that we can expand on. My biggest "thing" is not knowing which cards and boards are good.

I have had such bad service experiences, with Mom & Pop shops as well as corporations that I'd just as soon learn more about my PC and take care of it myself. I found this forum after the place that built my last computer completely messed up a repair. I've never been to a shop since them.

Most of the time, I just search the forums and find that my answer is already there.

 

Yep, MG is a gold mine of computer info and help. Once you find something that you think would make a good base system to soup up, feel free to post a link for it or list the parts here. Computers and parts are like autos and auto parts, or TV's or whatever...nearly everyone has their favorites to recommend. Let us know how you're coming along and if you get puzzled I'm sure people here will be glad to try to help you sort things out.

Good luck!

 

Hey, I know you've decided to buy a machine and beef it up, but still thought you might want to pick up a copy of the April 2008 issue of Maximum PC. The cover story is "Build Your Own No-Compromises $1500 PC". Right at your budget point! Even if you buy, you'll learn about some good hardware that may help in picking out a pre-built. And Maximum PC is just generally good reading if you're interested in learning more about PC hardware (and software too).

And keep an eye out for other computer magazines with "build/upgrade it yourself" type articles. They come along fairly regularly and you can learn a bit more about tricks and tips to installing hardware from such articles.

 

hi there-im also building my first desktop but hit my first snag last night...i thought i had everything correct and hope i have all the correct hardward and connected properly...but when i went to power up there was nothing at all....is there something obvious i missed like a certain motherboard needs specific power unit wattage?

ive a asus p5k motherboard in the tower and assume the p4 processor i put in it is ok? does it matter if processors come from laptops or desktops as long as they are the right kind?.

 

fmc, bear in mind that I usually come here for advice! Having said that, when I put my pc back together I had that problem and the memory wasn't seated properly.

The lights were "on" on the motherboard though.

Eezak, thanks for the tip on the magazine. I'll grab it today when I'm out.

 

Hi fmc. You really should start your own thread rather than use this one, even though the topic is related. If we get two or three different people with problems in one thread it can get a bit confusing.

In the meantime all I can suggest is that you check all your power connections. And, in addition, are you aware that most power supplies have an on/off switch on them? Look on the back of your computer for a (usually black) rocker switch that should protrude from the power supply through the back of the case. It will likely have one side labeled with a "O" and the other with a "--" (actually an unbroken line). Make sure the end with the "--" is pressed down so that the power supply is getting juice.

If you need additional help, please start your own thread.

Good luck!

 

will do

 

Just thought I should mention, for the benefit of anyone watching this thread, re: the build your own $1500 computer article: that price is for the case and it's internal components and does not include keyboard, monitor and mouse. The article does have specific recommendations for those items, but the $1500 budget does not include them. I've seen what I thought were better (more detailed) build-it-yourself articles, but this one is still pretty good. And, as I suggested earlier, such articles pop up fairly often so keep your eyes out for others that you may find interesting and helpful, both for seeing hardware combinations that work well together and picking up tips about building and upgrading.

And fmc, thanks for starting your own thread. That will not only make things less confusing in this thread, but you're more likely to get noticed and get help from more regulars here at MG with a new thread than by posting in someone else's older thread.