What is Digg?80 Comments
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+44Well, I just thought of one. Mac users!
- jlunski, on 10/12/2007, -4/+22At least you don't have a 50% failure rate... (rim shot please)
- CornStarch, on 10/12/2007, -1/+18Not everyone knows how to build a PC and the article has good advice even for those who do know. It's up on the front page and there is nothing to be done about it, there is no more need to complain.
- hockey, on 10/12/2007, -1/+15I've been building machines from scratch for years now. It's actually not that hard and hardware like software keeps advancing in terms of ease of use. For the most part all you need to "assemble" a PC from scratch is a phillips head screwdriver (and in some cases you may not even need that).
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -15/+29Hah. What kind of digg user doesn't already know how to do this?
- thepotoo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+13yeah, I'll say. It's almost impossible to accidentally ruin components anymore. I accidentally shorted a motherboard the other day. It just restarted, no lasting damage.
Although, I must mention that it is more expensive to build your own rig than to buy a Dell and then upgrade. A low end dell will get you a keyboard, mouse, monitor, case, and PSU all of excellent quality for 300 bucks, not to mention a low end processor (still great for most stuff). Swap out away the video card and RAM, and replace with stuff from newegg, and you've got an excellent gaming rig for sub-$500. Plus, future upgrades require only even less cost (no need to buy the case, monitor, harddrive, etc again. - jasonsfakename, on 10/12/2007, -0/+12Building desktops is easy. I have built about 10 custom computers and never had a problem. Now if this were to show you how to build a laptop computer...then I would be more interested.
- jues, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10I don't see why this guy is going to get dugg down - I have always built my own systems, but it's true - 80% of people will be able to get basic systems from dell for cheaper than a Build It Yourself job. It's only when you start putting in 2gb Ram and 4x 320gb HDD's that it becomes cheaper / more viable to "do it yourself".
But then again, true geeks would never buy a dell for their main rig!!! (unless its your box at work... :P ) - ringo380, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10Let's not turn this into the blatant elitism thread now.
If it's a well-written article, there's absolutely no reason why it shouldn't be dugg, no matter what the skill level in question is. - ringo380, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9Honestly, for the average PC user, it's really not as difficult as some articles/people can make it sound. That is generally just an example of people wanting to make something they know how to do sound difficult so they can attain more respect for it. Or, in the case of this article, to generate more ad-revenue by increasing the page count.
A good way to get off the ground? Go to Fry's Electronics, find the 1 or 2 guys that actually know what they're doing out of the 100 employees working there. They will walk you through the process piece by piece.
Once you get the parts you need, just throw yourself into it. I don't care what anyone says, assuming you're not a total idiot, this will get you learning faster than anything else. Pull up some simple guide on google, spread out your motherboard's manual on the floor, and go at it. From that point on it's all just screwing stuff in, plugging stuff in, and moving tiny little jumpers.
The parts you want, put simply:
A case that's easy to get in and out of, which will sometimes come with a power supply. If not, buy separate.
A quality motherboard
A processor, which will sometimes come with a heatsink/fan. If not, buy them separate.
Hard drive(s)
Optical drive(s)
RAM that fits the motherboard you bought
And that's pretty much it. There are of course specific things you want to look for in each of these products, but that's the gist of it. Most people are also going to want a video card, a decent sound card, an ethernet card if one's not built-in on the mb, but of course those aren't required. - CornStarch, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10Because they have updated the article as of yesterday, so presumably this article has the most up to date information on how to build a PC.
I was thinking the same thing, so I checked the date on the article to make sure it was relevant. - culbeda, on 10/12/2007, -0/+81) Modern motherboards have a rather wide buffer ring around each screw, so your steps will do little (ok, damn near nothing) to increase the stability of the machine.
2) If you wanted to put small rubber washers under the mobo, you might actually reduce the noise of the system SLIGHTLY as the translated vibration from the CPU fan would be lessened.
3) As for the comment about grounding, leave that to all the pretty black wires running to the power supply. ;-)
In large part, a chimp can assemble a PC now. The biggest pitfall people hit is buying a cheap case and power supply. Buy quality and buy a much larger power supply than you think you need. A 600W for non-SLI systems today is commonplace. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -6/+13I have built several computers. Even wanted to dabble in building a laptop but im sorry to say you cant compeat with the big guys like Dell. Tried it and lost.
- tarmithius, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7@thepotoo
The problem with that sometimes is the fact that those companies use proprietary connectors for the power supply. Also the motherboards back-plane connectors do not conform completely to the ATX standard layout so it would be hard to just drop in a motherboard. Dell is the worst for doing just that, they want you to purchase upgrade parts only from them, paying their exorbitant prices along the way. - arkmtech, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7Something most hardware sites forget or outright neglect in their PC guides: USE CHASSIS INSULATORS!!
For the uninformed, these are small thin paper, plastic, or rubberized rings (often included with your CPU chassis or "case") put on either side of the motherboard screw-holes prior to attaching it to your case. While their effect is often debated within geek circles, over the years I've consistently found that systems where these are installed run far more stable and incur fewer problems that could be attributed to grounding/short-circuiting.
The simplest way to make them? Cover each chassis stand-off with a small square of electrical tape, set motherboard on top, cover each screw-hole on the motherboard with a another small square of electrical tape, and then put in your screws. (If you're nitpicky about looks. you can go in with an Xacto knife and tidy up... carefully.) Voila! Easy adhesive insulators! :-)
Nowadays, most geeks see these as a trivial, unnecessary, and painful step in screwing a motherboard to the stand-offs on the case - But using electrical tape, this takes only about 5 minutes at most, and has potential to save you hours of trouble-shooting. - jues, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7I would have to disagree with you there, thepotoo. About 2 years ago, whilst drunk, I dropped a screwdriver into my running PC, suffice to say, it never restarted again.
- rdcapasso, on 10/12/2007, -0/+6I just got a Dell machine at work for development and it runs so well I'm actually considering buying one as my next machine. Kind of scary since I've always built my own since the late 90s. Maybe I'm just getting old and lazy or something.
- arkmtech, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5@ Heavy: I think you may have been ill-informed on the purpose of a computer case - #1 being to support the circuitry attached to it, and #2 being to protect that circuitry from physical harm.
Motherboards are designed to ground out through the power-supply, not through the chassis. Grounding through the chassis produces faults, often leading to malfunction or damage.
Furthermore, if your chassis is made of a conductive metal (usually alloyed aluminum) any EMI or ESD it intercepts will be grounded to the power-supply, since the two are directly contacted. Generally, a small amount of EMI/ESD produced in a given area (house/office) is acceptable and tolerated by the motherboard in accordance with UL standards. - chubbymidget, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5You mean you can make these yourself now? Holy Crap!
- jues, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4@rdcapasso: Totally, I have some manner of Silver Dell Crap sitting under my desk right now power dual 19" TFTs with RAID-1, 2gb RAM, etc all for under £900 - crazy prices - even runs some of the higher end productivity apps (*cough*Counter Strike Source*cough*) well!
- ilnyckyj, on 10/12/2007, -1/+5"in some cases"=sick pun
- Haohmaru, on 10/12/2007, -2/+6Newegg.com baby!
- stmiller, on 10/12/2007, -2/+5Thanks for bragging, and admitting you are old at the same time. We don't really care.
- felchdonkey, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Great article, don't know how I feel about the phrase "from scratch."
I'd say "from parts" or "from the components up" - I mean, it's not like you were etching circuit boards or anything. You don't have to figure out how to make a system-level call to get the processor to accept input from the keyboard.
Go ask one of the Homebrew folks from the '70s about making a computer from scratch. - thepotoo, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3@tarmithius
Alright, yeah, I'll give you that. But, for us high-tech users, you can drill holes in the back case, attach stand-offs, and screw in your standard ATX mobo. I haven't had a problem with Dell's PSU, so I can't comment there.
But really, a good mobo should last you 6-7 years, unless you really do care about the latest and greatest gaming rig. - intense321, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Oops! Before I get flamed too badly, it wasn't the Digital Rainbow 100 that I built in 1976. I built that machine in 1981. Those were the days of CP/M and VT220.
The machine I built in 1976 had no brand, it used a Zilog Z80 which I later ported over to the Rainbow 100.
Ah yes, the days of building computers with a soldering gun are long gone. You guys have it easy now! :) - tropican8, on 10/12/2007, -1/+3Am I the only one who would like to see a new guide that actually walks you through assembly? I "build" machines on newegg all the time, but if I were to actually buy $700-2000 in parts for a new box, I'd like to have a helping hand to get me over the anxiety of possibly screwing something up while plugging everything into the mobo.
- dudemaster, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Buying the parts from radioshack? Come on! I forged my motherboard from materials I mined in my own backyard.
- Veritas77, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Unless you're building a bleeding edge gaming PC, building your own computer is a complete waste of time; look at it not as a cost savings but as a hobby investment if you do decide to roll your own.
I'm not going to spam digg with my blog posting about this, but I recently went $600 out of pocket to build a PC after a motherboard died and necessitated a total system upgrade. A month later and I'm still trying to get the ***** thing to work right. First the mobo I bought was ***** on delivery. Then my SATA300 drive was ***** on delivery. I build ton's of PCs during the 90's when there really WAS a cost difference. But with the way things are now, it makes MUCH more sense to throw $500 at a box from a retail place. It's just not worth the downtime and tinker time.
If you just can't bring yourself to go to a retail outlet, buy a barebones box and throw in the DVD/HDD. Still won't save you money, but you can keep some Toshiba HDD hand-grenade out of your box. - intense321, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4You call this building a PC from scratch? You guys have obviously not been building PCs for very long. In 1976 I built my first PC from SCRATCH. That meant going to Radio Shack and buying each individual capacitor, resistor, etc. and soldering it onto a circuit board. It was a Digital Rainbow. Buying a pre-fab mobo and CPU is NOT building a PC from SCRATCH.
- Mrkamikaze, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I used to build all my personal systems from scratch. since 97' i have built countless systems. Lately i just buy Dell less hassle and decent hardware.
- mitrovarr, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2Because a $200 pc will be an extremely poor one, and maybe you want something better? Once you get into the midrange desktops, above $1000, it starts to be more efficient to build your own, and you get a better approximation of what you want in a computer, not what some manufacturer wants to sell you. Also, system builders tend toward picking important but subtle components like motherboards, cases and power supplies by the lowest bidder. If you build your own computer, you can use what you want and do your own research.
- tarmithius, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2@thepotoo
I understand you, I was just pointing out the obstacles one may encounter in that adventure, no argument from me. - rouslan, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1That's what I'm trying to say!!! I was joking about the "SO HARD" part.
Read the second part of the comment.
However, this is impressive: http://www.homebrewcpu.com/ - sk545, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1building the pc itself is not the hard part. Its getting all the software/drivers/OS/Bios Options to work together, is where you will be really tested. And when you do get all of that setup, DO NOT FORGET to image your drive.
- jsares, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I started building my own PCs back in the 386 days. You do learn a lot and its a lot of fun. But to be honest I haven't built a system in the last year. I stopped playing PC games and pretty much just use notebooks now. For the average user I strongly suggest a Mac, Dell, or IBM. But for geeks get out the screw driver and then install Linux and have some fun while learning!
- DucksofAnaheim, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Nothing like going to Fry`s with a bundle of cash...and upgrading ;) I`d live in there if I could. You can practically build a space shuttle with all the stuff they carry.
- bliz, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1this is part one...i am looking forward to part two
- tropican8, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1awesome, thanks johanvm
- RMorris, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1 nusblog dugg down for linking a Direct print version link?
I don't get it. - DASH, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Sent me your parts I'll put them together for you. ;)
Its not that big of a deal. Practice by taking apart one of your old systems collecting dust in the corner. Compare the placement of the old parts with your new parts. Most clips and such only fit one way so there is less to muck up. Take the old apart and put it back together once or twice to get the "hang" of it then tackle your new rig.
Take plenty of pictures and post it on digg for all those who are in your shoes. - zaren, on 10/12/2007, -2/+3"What kind of digg user doesn't already know how to do this?"
Me, for one.
I have in my life owned one Windows-capable machine. Well, two, if you count the PII system I bought from my university graveyard to use for Linux testing. I bought it boxed, because it was my first machine, and I didn't have the time or the experience to DIY. I started to look into building my own system once I realized I had expanded my storebought as far as I could, but could make heads nor tails about how to build a machine.
I had no clue what kind of cpu went with what kind of motherboard went with what kind of power supply... video cards and hard drives, memory and swappable components like that, that all made sense. But pulling together the parts that make all those things *and* where to get these things *and* what's the best kind to work with each other work totally escaped me.
And after reading this article on "how to build a PC", it still escapes me. - jfarlik, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I actually propose isolating everything IE
http://www.tomshardware.com/2006/01/09/strip_out_the_fans/
That is my next missions once I can find a solution where I would be confidant enough the case would not leak ever.
PS its recommend (sry pet peeve) - shosterman, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@thepotoo
Also, another benefit with buying factory that I didn't see mentioned is the OS. In addition to the parts you mention you get a Windows product key. When I'm building for others I simply don't want to hassle outside of this.
In short, Dell and others are great at getting you a no thrills bundled machine for cheap, but if you have any desire to add options or upgrade; consider a build. - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1If you want to learn how to build computers on DVD try:
http://www.learntobuildcomputers.com - iceman219, on 10/10/2007, -0/+0another good guide i've come across is here: http://www.myfastpc.com
- TweakFreak, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Ok guys, most of you out here seem to be hardware geeks. I am not. I know almost all the hardware parts I need, but can't fix them together. I will pay $$ to anyone who can help me build a pc. I will buy all the components necessary. I live in Falls Church, VA 22043. Interested in making money? email me ediwakar@yahoo.com
- intense321, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1As a guy who has been doing it since 1976, I would say it's a hobby, just like any other hobby that takes time and $$. It's great to know all the chip architecture.. I love circuits! :)
- Llanowar, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1It isn't that hard to build a pc....
http://common.ziffdavisinternet.com/util_get_image/2/0,3363,i=127310,00.jpg - newAGEwizard, on 01/18/2009, -0/+0Much respect to those who i might honestly call true PC builders... the guys that did it from SCRATCH. Now it's time to combine technologies and "from scratch techniques" take it to the next level. Let's step into the "New Age of Customization" (2012 pun intended!!)... more to come
~newAGEwizard -
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