Computer Advice part a billion jillion

[Fobb]

As you can tell from the title, I've had numerous problems with my PC, but everytime I brought them here, my computer lived to see another day. Well, the last time I brought it here, it was diagnosed dead...yes that's right. My computer passed away middle of last month. Let's have a moment of silence for the best dam computer I've ever had.
*silence*


Okay, now to business. I am now faced with the task of creating a new one. My pops suggested I make a new one from scratch, which I plan to do. So I want to ask you which parts I should look at. My budget is $1000. I have to buy practically everything besides maybe the CD/DVD drives. So suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Please and thanks?

[Kaoru9124]

I'm sure there are at least one or two parts you can scavenge from your previous machine, if it's less than 3 or 4 years old. Pretty much everything since 2000 has had at least a 20GB hard drive, which is more than enough for Windows and a few programs, and sufficient for some music and other assorted files. Plus, you can always replace it or add another drive later. You already mentioned optical drives, so I assume you're transferring those as well.
So far as buying parts, if you can buy online, I'd recommend www.newegg.com . Their prices are pretty good, the selection is great, and their shipping is decently fast. Order your stuff on Sunday evening, and you'll most likely have it by Thursday or Friday afternoon. Since your budget is $1000, looking into a 64-bit setup would definitely be a good idea. You can still set up a basic 64-bit rig for around $4-600, and be more future-proofed than you would be buying a 32-bit Sempron or something.

[Neo0tak0n]

Make sure you tripple check compatability before buying parts.

[Chicito]

If you don't have anti virus software around, save money and download AVG free edition (http://free.grisoft.com/doc/1). Does the job of Nortons or Mcafee but it's free. Best free anti virus software you could find.
(and it doesn't kill your RAM).


Heres a list of programs that are freeware and could save you $$. Click here (http://forums.facepunchstudios.com/showthread.php?t=95441), everything from office programs to games and of the such.

As for your hardware, I don't know what you intend on using your PC for so I can't really recommend anything.

[Leader Desslock]

Wasn't it just the hard drive that dies in your old machine? If so, I recommend you replace the hard drive. You should be able to pick one up cheaply enough. Avoid Maxtor drives. If you decide to get another Maxtor drive, PM me.

[Bernard_Monsha]

If you are building from scratch start here (http://www.motherboards.org/)

[master terrence]

make sure you find a motherboard first
then...
Hyper-Threading Technology
then... send it to me <.<

and desslock is right, yuo can open it up and UNPLUG the harddrive then remove it and put a new one in... or you can get a new box and motherboard and use the old RAM and DVD drive and wireless card and whaterever else and save yourself tons of money.

[Animematt55]

save up more and get a really nice system. i was able to afford an ATI Radeon x1900xtx, AMD X2 64 4200, and a really nice motheroard wich i cant remember the exact name.

[emotoaster]

Hey Fobb I also suggest reusing your HD if you can, but if your comp. "died" I guess that will probably be out of the question. Can you tell us what you do with it? Gaming? School? Music? ect.

[Warabit]

1st)Do you know how to assemble an entire PC from scratch? Depending on the hardware you may need to know how to more things than you may think.
2nd) Intel or AMD? That will effect which motherboard you need to buy
3rd)Use anti-ESD precations
4th) I have to disagree, I advise starting with the processor then motherboard. After that it it doesnt matter.

Your Gonna need:
-Processor(make sure you have compatable fan/heasink, and heatsink compound is good to use as well)
-A compatable Motherboard
-Ram(at the very least for WinXP 256MB, and remember to utilize Dual-channel)
-HardDrive(If you get sata be sure the motherboard supports it)
-Video Card.
-Modem/network card(if you need)
-Sound Card
-Floppy drive(cheap, and good to have)
-Power Supply, make sure it has enough watts to power your entire system and then some, because when it starts up the hardware requires a bit of a "surge" to boot.
-Lastly the case and a couple case fans.
I think thats it.

[dr ochanomizu]

... My pops suggested I make a new one from scratch, which I plan to do... So suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Please and thanks?
If you are trying to save money by building a computer from a scatch, you are not going to save much. On the other hand, if you are using this experience to build a personal knowlege, it's worth while. It's not just the hardware you're talking about, the software will eat your budget up quickly.

Before you build one, you have to know what tasks you want the computer to do. For example, it you are planning to do video editing, you'll need fast CPUs, a large memory, and a large storage. It means it's going to cost but if the computer only going to do routine tasks such as surfing the net or the word processing, you'll be wasting money by outfitting your computer with the top the line devices.

You can get the latest dual core 64 bit architecture CPU to lesser Celeron. You can get SATA hard drive or slower version. Or you can choose a faster DDR2 memory or a slower memory, plus LCD screens to CRT. There are lots of choices.

You may want to read up on technical aspects of what each thing does at this web site:

http://www.tomshardware.com/index.html

TS

[VSh]

If you ask such questions here, I think you didn't assemble computers before. It isn't difficult but you need to learn how. Try disassemble and assemble your old computer twice at least. Try figure out what is dead there. Try to repair. Probably, it is all you need.

[Raziel_MGS]

again with tomshardware.com, they built a budget gaming rig for like $500 so check it OUT!

[Fobb]

UPDATE:

I appreciate the site suggestions, and that freeware post Chicito suggested is definetly gonna take up a lot of my time (not in a bad way). And after I found out the hard drive was dead, right after that, I found out something else was dead too. I replaced the harddrive, if only temporarily to recover my files (I found a friend who knows how to, and is willing to do it for free). When I told my dad about it, he said it was a really old computer, and needed to be replaced. He also is helping me out with a few parts, because working at Intel has its ups:

I don't need to buy a new CD/DVD drive
My dad is gonna help me get a dual pentium 4 processor with a compatible mother board.
I have a floppy drive or three laying around that I can reuse
I can probably take fans out of all the other dead computers laying around the house

My dad is gonna help me build the computer, but the only reason I am asking for help getting parts is because he said to look them up myself. He wants me to LEARN! THE NERVE (just playing). I was gonna buy a Dell, but he said, they wouldn't meet my needs. And I have all the software under control. I still have almost every CD. It'll be a household computer, for doing every day work like Word or Excel, but it's gonna need extra stuff to because I game on it, and there are a lot of programs that I run on there such as Photoshop and all it's counterparts, Vegas 5.0 (video editing software), and a lot of industry stuff (if that's what I should call it). Is there anything else I should explain?

[dothacker5]

Nah dude your better of with AMD's dual cores way much better.
Video card http://shop4.outpost.com/product/4650298?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG

Hard drive http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822144014

Those are what I can think of right now but that video card is a great deal.

[Fobb]

The first link didn't work.

My dad is gonna get me the dual processor cheaper, so I'm gonna go with that.

[dothacker5]

Oh sorry wrong link. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130283

I forgot your dad worked at intel my bad. But the intel cores either way are over priced and lackluster in the power department from what I've heard.

[Fobb]

That GeForce looks sexy...

I'll research on both. Thanks for the heads up dot.

[dothacker5]

Your god damn right it does. It'll play about anything out right now like oblivion, FEAR, HL2, and CS source.

[emotoaster]

Case- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811119068
Hard Drive- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822144129
Processor- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103735
MotherBoard- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813128009
Video Card- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130017
RAM- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145566

Insert Keyboard, Mouse, Monitor, and Speakers and you got yourself a fine product. :P

[Fobb]

Case- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16811119068
Hard Drive- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822144129
Processor- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103735
MotherBoard- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813128009
Video Card- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130017
RAM- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145566

Insert Keyboard, Mouse, Monitor, and Speakers and you got yourself a fine product. :P
Nice! Thank you!

[emotoaster]

I was bored so I figured I would help :D anyway I would just douple triple check compatablity before hand...

[Fobb]

I will, thank God you were bored. lol

[master terrence]

you should have a few hundred $$ left over.

[Fobb]

Hopefully, but if anyone can find any more parts, keep them coming please. But I'll go with these as "default"

[Warabit]

I recomend trying this card (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814143057) :D

[Fobb]

I recomend trying this card (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814143057) :D
:) *looks at price* :x

[emotoaster]

Not all of us have that kind of money to throw away :P

Fobb with the system I got for you it should last for ever and you should still have enough left over to get a new monitor, and some software (GAMES).

[Pickie]

If you plan to go with AMD I suggest you wait til July 24th as AMD plans on cutting prices on the processor.

[Fobb]

Not all of us have that kind of money to throw away :P

Fobb with the system I got for you it should last for ever and you should still have enough left over to get a new monitor, and some software (GAMES).
That's what I'm going with then, thanks

[cybersamuri]

As you can tell from the title, I've had numerous problems with my PC, but everytime I brought them here, my computer lived to see another day. Well, the last time I brought it here, it was diagnosed dead...yes that's right. My computer passed away middle of last month. Let's have a moment of silence for the best dam computer I've ever had.
*silence*


Okay, now to business. I am now faced with the task of creating a new one. My pops suggested I make a new one from scratch, which I plan to do. So I want to ask you which parts I should look at. My budget is $1000. I have to buy practically everything besides maybe the CD/DVD drives. So suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Please and thanks?
my advice? get a new one from dell. they have some decent systems for under 1000, sometimes even under 500, and their easy to upgrade if necessary.I've been working on computers for the better part of my life, and whenever I have a customer that needs a new one, I refer them almost immeadiately to dell.
and there is always the option of getting a Emachine...though that would most certainly be my LAST option. though they are now owned by gateway and are nowhere near as bad as they used to be, Emachines still come cluttered with lots of "crap" software that I would advise to remove before doing anything on the sys.
however, if your intent upon scrapping up something together, see what you can/can't salvage from your old comp. you may just have to replace a part or so to have a working comp again(but this may also not be the case, depending on your sys).
I advise getting a membership at driverguide.com before you start building, however...it's the easiest place I know of to get the drivers necessary to get your hardware running.

[Lord Dagoth]

He seems pretty set on building his own.

[Fobb]

A lot of people have been saying I should buy it from Dell instead of making my own. I'm confused. Why Dell and why not make it myself?

[VSh]

Dell is the cheapest computer you can find - very popular, with good warranty, silent, but expensive service and bad components.

If you have supervisor for your 1st build, you'd better make it yourself.

[Fobb]

Yeah, I have my dad, he made one, and its pretty kickass. And besides us middle easterns are notorious computer guys

[master terrence]

Yeah, I have my dad, he made one, and its pretty kickass. And besides us middle easterns are notorious computer guys


tell me about it -_-; :lol:

[Warabit]

lol, personally i think dell=HP=COMPAQ=teh devil
custom is the way to go.

[Hybrid Shock]

lol, personally i think dell=HP=COMPAQ=teh devil
custom is the way to go.
the way i see it, if you're asking about computer stuff on an anime forum, Dell or HP, and nothing else

I've been in the industry long enough to be cynical about n00bs that don't know how to build computers... I'd rather them having a working computer from dell then buying parts and pluging in stuff the wrong way....

And when you've seen the ATX12V, ddr2 sticks and the Molex power plugs plugged in the wrong way (and the ensuing aftermath), then you'll agree with me....

[Bernard_Monsha]

the way i see it, if you're asking about computer stuff on an anime forum, Dell or HP, and nothing else

I've been in the industry long enough to be cynical about n00bs that don't know how to build computers... I'd rather them having a working computer from dell then buying parts and pluging in stuff the wrong way....

And when you've seen the ATX12V, ddr2 sticks and the Molex power plugs plugged in the wrong way (and the ensuing aftermath), then you'll agree with me....

I thought for sure you were going to post the Water Cooled system prank/

[emotoaster]

Hey now Water Cooling isn't THAT hard.....I think....

[Warabit]

what I would recommend as an alternative to buying from Dell or HP would be sites like cyberpowerpc.com that give you basically all the options you would have if you built it yourself but they build and test it, plus if something goes wrong they will send you the parts and have a local tech fix you pc for you.

[Hybrid Shock]

what I would recommend as an alternative to buying from Dell or HP would be sites like cyberpowerpc.com that give you basically all the options you would have if you built it yourself but they build and test it, plus if something goes wrong they will send you the parts and have a local tech fix you pc for you.
What's so bad about a Dell or a HP? Or is it a "i hate Tier 1 manufacturers" kinda thing?

Unless you're a geek and build it yourself, there's nothing a Whitebox has over a current Dell or HP.. Hell, they have better thermal management (critcal in this day and age, what with 100W+ TDP processors as standard) that standard whitebox computers...

I thought for sure you were going to post the Water Cooled system prank/

See, i would, but given the stupidity of the lusers in this day and age, i'm sure someone would actually do that...


Can you tell i'm jaded from working in the industry?