Im thinking of building my own pc has anybody got any tips?

Question

I want to try and build a cheap but good gaming pc and woundering, has anybody done this? how much did it cost? and can you just add anything to a motherboard i.e installing a couple ov 1mb ram and a gaphics card and then is that it or do you have to purchase extra components to make it run effiiciently

Answer 1

Yes, I've built four of them in the past. This year I was going to build another until I price what I could buy one for compared to building one. Today, it's cheaper for Dell or HP to build them then I could going out and buying the parts. I was blown away. So I bought one for the first time in 15 years I own a store bought computer.

Answer 2

I've always had good luck with "white box" pcs. They're upgradeable. I've been shocked at some of the factory boxes. I can NOT imagine a modern pc without an AGP port and only 2 pci slots -- you get what you pay for. Don't buy a pre-assembled HP or Dell at Costco off the shelf. They're way out of date.

A gaming pc takes more wats. You have to get a bigger power supply to drive all that RAM and high-end graphic card. Search on the web for build your own. Problem is: Dell computer has a production line called "white box" and you'll have to search around them.

The factory boxes have such crap as pci cards that have custom software drivers. When you try to swap or upgrade you end up you find the mfg web site doesn't support. Once you say "dell" they tell you to go to dell support.

Besides OEM XP sucks and it sucks big time.

I've been very happy with the following recipe. I had a spare tower cabinet laying around but that would be $60.

AMD athlon 32bit 1300+
on ASUS motherboard. $21 (ebay)
Samsung 200gig HD. $80
RAM was $140 for 2 meg
Nextzeile 650 wat power supply $35

I had the video card, the keyboard, the floppy and the mouse laying around. I had the ethernet card given to me. I have a closet full of CD-R and CD-dvd-r.

I used a free OS called ubuntu which is a linux distro (runs right out of the box)
I keep 10 meg formatted with Win98SE to run a couple of software packages.

The main thing is the ASUS motherboard. It links all the bus with everything left on auto. Total assembly time was 45 minutes. Total OS install was another hour. Took WIN a little over another hour (installed it first).

If you buy a used motherboard without the processor, make sure the manual is available online or a home brew recipe will never work.

Answer 3

You first Pc is always hard to build;
I did it several times and despite initial problems (configuration) everything went in a such wonderful way. ... but a gamming PC usually is better and almost expensive as an usual sold in magazines;
Your main problem is the operational system, once most computers always come with legal license and you must buy it to install into your home made.

1. How much are you planning to expend?

2. Get technical specifications (your minimum limits)
Minimum of 256MG video, 1Gb DDR Ram, Dual Core pentium or Athlon 64, Ultra Ata HD (minimum of 7200 rpm).
You must know if motherboard are compatible to your processor and video card (AGP or PCI Express?) 400Hz minimum or 333?
I advice you to buy few specialized magazines to start your research and then, go to the internet specialized forums to understand better about it.

3; After a good research, several standards and available prices, you will choose better seller to provide all componentes to install your new computer.


Motherboards:
ASUS, GIGA, MSI are good ones.
Winchester can be Western Digital or Samsung, SATA
VideoCards: NVIDIA is a good option but attention to your motherboard, once they have specific buit solutions to one or another video core.
Processor: usually I'm use to prefer Athlon 64;

Choose right video card too:

Answer 4

Make a budget and stick to it...

A good gaming pc can cost up to 1400 pounds....

My recomendation is to buy a pre-made pc for about 400 , these pc's usually come with a huge processor and hard disk... but poor ram and graphics card...

but its the ram and graphics that make a gaming pc, so why worry, for 400 quid you can have the bulk of the system there...

1 gig stick of ram costs about 80 pounds, and a decent graphics card about 120

a lot of the costs revolve around you competancy in pc and upgrades.

But 800 should give you a good computer avoiding the manufactorers mark up.

Answer 5

Yeah...

Here's a Tip: DON'T.

Buying a system that has already been integrated and tested... assures components work together. Memory types and bus speeds are ususally BEYOND the novice.

Identifying bottlenecks, and dealing with them is one of the key concepts.

HOWEVER if you want to re-invent the wheel...

Start with the OS and be sure all your components are on the HCL.

Be sure to package the most and fastest MEMORY you can afford, followed by the speed and stepping of the processor.

Oftentimes, a pre-configured system is CHEAPER.

Oftentimes a re-conditioned (factory new) system is the best deal.

Start with a price you wanna pay... and work backwards.

You can spend 8,000.00 on a systems.... easily if you like.

Answer 6

Remember the power supply!!! If you choose hardware that is higher end, go with enough power like 400w or more. Its critical to get enough power.
Next, the case must breath!...ventilation and fans. Moving air is good, but moving air across hot parts will allow you to use them longer than a day.
These in my opinion are the 2 most important things to keep in mind when biulding a gaming comp ( a comp for the purpose of anything else wouldnt have to be so involved), cooling, and power.
Graff's- hmm...ask peeps whats good.
RAM- get that according to your MoBo spec's, but I push mine to the limit. All of this can be done cheap, and its fun to do.
Building a pc forces you too take good care of it, when a prefab'd pc seems to not.

Answer 7

okay, i'm not too sure about the computer, since u didn't give me a budget
but i'll give you some parts that are cheap

Intel Core 2 Duo E6300
Asus p5nsli Socket T Nvidia nForce 570 SLI Intel Edition motherboard
2gb OCZ Ram (1 if you are on a tight budget)
2x 7600GTs in SLI (or 2 7900GTs, depends on your budget)
Zalman CPNS9500 cpu cooler (so you can overclock)
Sound Blaster Audigy 4 sound card
Seagate Barracuda 7600RPM harddrive (your pick of the size)
and case you want
and BOOM
i estimate it is about 972 dollars
all depending on what you get
a 7600GS is another option for the video card

Answer 8

Building your own PC is easy. Obviously it won't work if vital components are missing and there are components that won't work together.

The biggest problem is static electricity. The charge you can pick up walking across the carpet is enough to destroy many computer components. It's worth getting hold of an antistatic workstation - that's an electrically conducting rubber mat connected to earth and to you so that any static drains away. Most computer component suppliers stock them.

Answer 9

For best performance use IntelP4 915 Motherboard
512 Mb Ram
80 Gb HDD
LG DVD-RW
Microsoft Keyboard & Mouse

I think its enough for better gamin

Answer 10

Go for the duel core processor it is especially for gamers and make sure you have all driver for everything on your mother board before you put it all together.