Noobish Question about Hardware Parts

With newegg... is there a way I can build a computer and have it come assembled? I would never be able to assemble a bunch of hardware parts on my own

Yaco78,

Newegg does not assemble the parts...you would have to do that. Other computer places will however..I just don't have much experience with them.

Do you have any experiencing adding RAM or hard drives to a computer? If so, you might be surprised how easy it really is to assemble your own machine. Most things only plug in 1 way.

Here are a few websites with some tutorials if you are at all interested
Build Your Own PC | PCMech
The First-Timer's Guide to Building a Computer from Scratch - Hardware Installation - Lifehacker

yaco78 said:

With newegg... is there a way I can build a computer and have it come assembled? I would never be able to assemble a bunch of hardware parts on my own

yaco

I dont think newegg builds but you could have a local computer store build it for you. just be careful abt warranty and part choice. Its not as hard as you might think but maybe you want to read abt building one for a few days before you make your decision

Ken

Yeah, the hardest part is really making sure that you are buying parts that are compatible with each other. The actually assembly is not very difficult at all (i know that sounds crazy...but it's true).

With this forum, we can certainly help you to ensure that you get the correct parts. Do you have any friends that are good with computers.....if we could get you into the right parts...maybe your buddy could help you with any questions you have during assembly.

I'm currently aiming at :-

Budget = up to £500 ($800 USD) but any saving on this would be good!
(No need to include monitor, keyboard, mouse in that)

Room to add extra HDD's, RAM, graphics card in the future if necessary, so I guess choice of case, PSU, motherboard and CPU needs to take this into account and be suitable to last 3yrs+ until the next likely PC replacement.
Naturally reliability/quality of components is important - ? maybe overclocking would be a step too far.

Would like to be able to play the latest games on higher graphics settings.
I'm not sure of the advantages/need of choosing the option of 2x graphics cards (SLI?) as opposed to one big one.

No need for wireless, just ethernet will be fine.
Connectivity available via USB, firewire and eSata would be good to have.

Also, is there any difficulty in working out the cooling requirements?

Being in the UK I'd probably be buying parts from ebuyer.com or scan.co.uk

I don't expect to be given a full list of parts to go out and buy, just really need to be pointed in the right direction and highlight any important things to consider that are easily overlooked.

Any advice appreciated.

Given that budget and the fact that you want to game on it...I'd say to get a video card in the $150-$200 range.

In the case area, I am very impressed with my Antec caes. Cooling is great and the fans are very quiet and the cases very easy to work on. The Antec 300 is very popular...although it's a tight squeeze with the latest gen video cards. The Antec 900 series is extremely popular. I personally have a P182 and have been thrilled with it.

I'm also a big fan of the Corsair modular power supplies. The 520 or the 620 is extremely popular and the fact that it's modular keeps the wiring to a minimum inside of the case which helps to promote airflow.

Without overclocking, I generally don't find a need to be really concerned with cooling or airflow. As long as the case is decent, the stock retail coolers and stock case fans will get the job done.

As far as mobo goes, stick with Asus, Gigabyte, DFI or MSI (in my opinion). All of these will provide USB in the back and USB headers for the extra USB ports in the case. Plus, it's pretty common these days to have 1 or 2 firewire ports and a header for firewire hookups in the front of the cast. eSATA is also becoming more popular. My board has an eSATA card that you put into an empty slot in the back and it connects to some of the SATA controllers on the mobo. So, I think the mobo should provide you will all the connectivity needs that you will have.

Thanks pparks1 for giving those recommendations of decent brands for case, PSU, mobo - gives me something to go on.

Am I right in thinking that the most important decisions to be made first of all are getting the right case, PSU, mobo, CPU as everything else is easier to upgrade in future?

Specifically, any thoughts on mobo/CPU combos?
e.g. would I quickly regret saving money by going for AMD AM2, or is it a much more sensible choice to get AMD AM3 depite the extra cost, then of course there's the Intel choices which seem even more confusing - dual core, quad core, i7 ??

Then there's the question of RAM - i'd probably opt for 4GB initially making sure there's room to maybe double that in future as necessary - but i'd have to decide either DDR2 or DDR3 at the beginning??

Sorry for all the questions but the more I look into it, the more complex it gets!

Personally, I'm a believer that Intel is providing the best bang for the buck right now...so if I were buying it'd be a Core 2 Duo, Core 2 Quad or Core i7. The Core i7 decision comes down to budget...pure and simple. The chip, the mobo and the DDR3 ram are a little more expensive....so if you are firm on your $800 budget...you might want to go with a Core 2 Duo or Core 2 Quad to keep the price down a bit. I just built on a Core 2 Quad (Q9550) and it's a beast of a machine in my opinion. Of course, the big issue here is that with the Core 2 Duo or Core 2 Quad..you would be using an older LGA 775 mobo and those are the last generation and you won't have that many future upgrade options. Of course, I don't forsee a need to replace a CPU like a Q9550 in the next 3 years given how powerful of a CPU it is.

4GB of RAM is a great place to start. Most decent mobos will have 4 RAM slots, so you will only likely be using 2 sticks to start and can just add 2 more down the road.

Don't worry about the questions...that's the reason that I check this place so often. :)

Here is a quick list of some parts that I put together stateside for just about $800 even...you can use it as a reference...

Intel Q9550 CPU $219
Newegg.com - Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 Yorkfield 2.83GHz 12MB L2 Cache LGA 775 95W Quad-Core Processor - Processors - Desktops

Gigabyte GA-EP45-UD3R $99
Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GA-EP45-UD3R LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard - Intel Motherboards

4GB G.Skill PI ram, DDR2 800 $52
Newegg.com - G.SKILL PI Black 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model F2-6400CL4D-4GBPI-B - Desktop Memory

GeForce GTX 260 896MB video card: $155
Newegg.com - EVGA 896-P3-1255-AR GeForce GTX 260 Core 216 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards

640GB WD Caviar Black SATA 3 HD. $75
Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar Black WD6401AALS 640GB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive - Internal Hard Drives

Antec Nine Hundred Case. $108
Newegg.com - Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case - Computer Cases

520W Corsair Modular power supply. $90
Newegg.com - CORSAIR CMPSU-520HX 520W ATX12V v2.2 and EPS12V 2.91 SLI Certified CrossFire Ready 80 PLUS Certified Modular Active PFC Compatible with Core i7 Power Supply - Power Supplies

Samsung 22X DVD Burner. $25
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827151175


Total ~$823