Noobish Question about Hardware Parts

[yaco78]

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

 

[pparks1]

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

 

[zigzag3143]

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

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

 

[pparks1]

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.

 

[srq2625]

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

Short answer - No.

Longer answer - Why would you want them to have all the fun. A LARGE part of the fun of doing a self-build is to actually get all the boxes (of the parts) in room and slowly build that monster computer from scratch.

As has already been said, if you do the research to make sure you get decent/good parts, don't skimp on the power supply, case, or the MBO, the rest is easy. Read the MBO manual so you know where all the jumpers and headers are. Then start putting it together.

Short course, some steps not included

• Download and save newest drivers for all your hardware.
• Get re-dressed. You need to remove all man-made fabric and wear only natural fabric - especially if you live in a dry climate. The man-mads usually (but not always) encourage a build up of static charge and this, when discharged will ruin your day.
• Inventory all the parts, make sure you have everything. It's a real pain to get part way through the build and discover that you are missing a part that is still to arrive (DAHIK).
• If you are working in either a dry climate area or in heavily A/C environment, seriously consider a grounding strap.
• Get out the MBO
• Install the CPU
• Install the memory - installing the memory before the heatsink is easier as some of the larger heatsinks get in the way of the memory slots.
• Install the CPU heatsink, if you are air-cooling. If you are using some other cooling technology - I can't help you there as I've not used anything but air.
• Install the hard drive(s) in the case. Sometimes they stick out far enough that they get in the way of installing the MBO.
• Install the CD/DVD drive(s)
• Install the MBO in the case
• Mount expansion cards (graphics, sound, etc) in the MBO
• Connect the header leads from the MBO to the case (power switch, reset, HDD LED, etc)
• Route connector cables betweent the drives and the MBO
• Install the power supply unit.
• Route power cables to the MBO, drives, etc. Hmmm.... is there room to work around the heat sink, cables, etc to plug the power into the MBO - should be but you might have to back up a couple of steps and re-order things.
• Double check that all is connected correctly
• Connect mouse, keyboard, monitor.
• Cross your fingers and turn on the power. If life is good, you MBO will see your graphics card, successfully complete the Power On Self Test, and see all the memory and drives. If you get a lot of strange beeps and/or flashing lights (depends on your MBO), you have one or more issues. Consult your MBO manual for troubleshooting steps. You may need to download and install a BIOS update for your MBO. But, don't do this unless you need to and are sure of your power - having electric fail part way through a BIOS update will ruin your day.
• Install your O/S, drivers, etc, check your Device Manager to see if all hardware is recongnized. Correct with proper drivers if not.
• When it's working, close the case and enjoy.

The bottom line - once you've done the research, building a working computer is really not a lot more than making sure you put all the round pegs in round holes and the square pegs in the square holes.

 

[Sope]

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.

 

[pparks1]

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.

 

[Sope]

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!

 

[pparks1]

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.

 

[pparks1]

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/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151175


Total ~$823

 

[Antman]

Oosa is such a great country. I am not recommending Dell, just referencing a good deal.

 

[Sope]

..........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.........

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.....
.............
Total ~$823

That's a great help!
Gives me a good basis and some ideas to work from.

Unfortunately the equivalent list of parts from a good value online supplier in the UK comes to £666 which is $1100 :shock:
Looks like going for Core 2 Duo would maybe knock about £100 ($165) off that which would bring it closer to the mark.
Could get away with a smaller HDD but that wouldn't make a great deal of difference.

Hmm....needs some more consideration. Not sure whether I'll be building it before or after Christmas (I've already sorted my pre-order copy of Windows 7 !) so maybe by then the exchange rates will have improved or there will be some better deals about.....maybe

Thanks for your time, I'm sure I'll be coming back with more questions in the near future.
Cheers.

 

[Sope]

Oosa is such a great country. I am not recommending Dell, just referencing a good deal.

Yeah...this is the sort of thing that's available in the UK
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/167291
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/167292

 

[Sope]

I've also considered this AMD Phenom 9500 2.2GHz Quad Core, 4GB RAM, 640GB HDD, DVDRW, Card Reader, nVidia GTS250, NO OS (£400=$660)

Main disadvantage I can see is there's no option to add more RAM and probably some of the basic components are lacking in quality.
Suppose it depends how quickly it will become outdated....but if it lasted 2yrs+?

I would much prefer to have a go at building my own system but sadly cost and value for money are factors that have to be taken into account.

 

[pparks1]

Your other option would also to be knocking down the case just a little bit. That Antec 900 is a bit expensive, you can get an Antec 300 for about 50-60% the cost.

And if you have time to wait, the prices and the power levels are simply going to increase...that's the way that it always is.

 

[Sope]

Your other option would also to be knocking down the case just a little bit. That Antec 900 is a bit expensive, you can get an Antec 300 for about 50-60% the cost.

And if you have time to wait, the prices and the power levels are simply going to increase...that's the way that it always is.

Antec 300 looks good (certainly is popular).

I notice Corsair do a 450W HX Modular PSU in UK (not available in N&S America) which is 30% cheaper than the 520W, and with 7yr warranty. I'm guessing this would probably be enough for my needs? (I don't foresee me going for SLI or adding a stack of extra drives)

I could also knock the cost down a bit if I go for a 500GB 16MB cache HDD.

I'm concerned I may regret going for a dual core rather than a quad CPU looking ahead (I believe most games at the moment still only utilize 2 cores but I guess that will change in the near future?).

I'm still keen to do a self build which I'm now doubting will save me much cash but I'll be getting better components, more options to upgrade in the future and more satisfaction.

I can wait a few more months, and in the meantime keep an eye out for discounts too.

Thanks for all the advice, much appreciated.

 

[HerrKaLeun]

I have a dual-core at 3.5 GHz and it is fast enought for me. But most of my applications (Matlab, energy simulations) iterate and are single threaded by nature.
I see that when the virusscan works, defragmenting etc. both cores are used. So I think in real life (and W7 certainly does a good job using multiple cores) a quad is good. Especially for games assuming you still run something else (firewall, bittorrent, borwoser, antivir etc.). In the future more software will be multi-core.

My case probably is rare with single threaded applications, MP3 video... all is multi-core. Even with single -threaded applications W7 uses multiple cores better. I talked to the Trane Trace support and they said Vista is 20% faster than XP with their software jsut because the traskmamanger (or whatever) uses multiple cores better in single threaded application. future OS probably will even improve that part.

 

[Antman]

Yeah...this is the sort of thing that's available in the UK
Zoostorm Advanced Gaming Desktop PC - Desktops at Ebuyer
Zoostorm Gaming Desktop PC - Desktops at Ebuyer

Those are C2D w/DDR2. I linked to i7 w / DDR3. Not the same.

 

[Sope]

Those are C2D w/DDR2. I linked to i7 w / DDR3. Not the same.

Understood, although I was actually trying to show what is available in UK relative to my price range - sadly (for me) US prices are much better than UK

 

[Sope]

Oosa is such a great country. I am not recommending Dell, just referencing a good deal.

Out of interest I've just gone and looked for that Dell PC from a discount UK website, I couldn't find an exact match but something very close (i believe) here is priced at £769 which is $1266 US :shock:

Still prefer to build my own though, but it shows it's going to be more difficult than I thought to beat some pre-built systems on price v spec.