hey, im new to this game and have only done one hardware change on my PC, put in a RAM stick OOOOH EXCITING! lol
i find the whole PC building thing interesting and am trying to get into it, but its all kind of overwhelming! also i wanna build my own system as i desperately need but im scared about messing the whole thing up lol wires etc, and also i havnt a clue about bios :S btw im 15 and so havnt been to college to have opportunity to use and learn, if ya get what i mean.

what im asking of you is a lil bit of info of when you started, when you build your first machine, were you a newb when you build ur first? all stuff like that ya know, to give me a bit of back up FOR THEIR IS HOPE! lol also did you feel the same way as i am now...???
cheers
btw, im not sure where i should have posted this :S

Better machine for less money... Building a computer is more like putting a 2nd grade puzzle together, all the pieces are pretty big and can usually only go in one way. There's reallyno reason to be intimidated , just take your time and read your manuals when stuck on something. It really isn't brain surgery.

I started the building of my own customer PC's after I saw how much better a friends ran the original Counter Strike and I so badly wanted to run the game as well as him. I was in 7th grade at the time. I at first couldnt afford a new PC, so I did everything that I possibly could to improve my performance (defrag, tweak OS, OC, etc...)

Then I was able to get a few upgrades for my comptuer, which made things run so much better and after I saw the performance increase and how easy it was I started constantly reading up about the hardware to run games.

I eventually was able to afford a decent spec HP, which I bought another 512mb of ram and new graphics card for at the time of purchase to have my first trully worthy gaming computer. (as in I could run everything really well lol)

Then I saw the performance that I could gain from building one custom, so I took whatever components I could from the HP and moved them into a new case and then from christmas and birthdays got other parts to complete the closest thing to a custom build as I could.

By my freshman year in college I was able to build my first custom PC from ground up and well here we are now. I am now a Senior in college getting a degree in MIS (Management Informational Systems) and work in the IT department at Ernst and Young on a summer internship.

Basically...the inabiltiy to run counter strike as well as my friend changed my entire life and is most likely the reason that I am writing this post right now, which is the "why" part of my post. I built custom PC's to be faster than my friends and to play games well. This was also the same time period that I was converted to PC's from console as my main platform of choice. lol...that was probably longer than it should have been.

Best,

3Ball

wicked, and the manuals literally say, plug graphics in port X or w/e?
and also does it matter where i pluf things in for power? or does it all have separate places...

thanks, just the sort of thing i wanted to hear , inspired me to step forward, my nan is giving me £800(aprox $1600) for a new PC, so im not sure if i should buy a new PC off of ebay, which seem to be rather good, and they are very cheep, £500 or so. would i be able to build a good custom PC for £800? i wanna streatch to a high end, top spec graphics, 1TB hdd and such, you get the point... possible??
Are these PCs good deal..?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Complete-8GB [...] .m14.l1308

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/CORE2QUAD-Q6 [...] .m14.l1308

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/CORE2QUAD-Q6 [...] .m14.l1318

cheers for your help

I started studying computer building in early 2006 while I was still saving my money. A friend told me to check out Tom's for more information; the forumz alone helped me get a better hold of what I need and want in my computer. Finally, in late 2006 I built my first rig and I've been customizing it ever since. I experimented on my other computer with installing a new gpu and ram and taking it apart/putting back together before purchasing as 'practice'.
I also bought a few books on building a pc, that helps ALOT especially if you build your rig and it won't work right... If you don't have a spare pc, then you can't ask for help or look for it here.

My only issue I had with my rig was that I had to give my ram a little more Voltage because stock wasn't quite right.

When I was building, I thought immediately back to my LEGO days as a kid.....

Because it was the only way to do it, in my country,(brands were too expensive) at that time.
MS-DOS 5.0 ruled the world. Windows 3.0 was a resource Hog, worse than Vista.
I was 13 i guess.
The only bitching thing was configuring those Sound Blaster 16 bits on Dos. Freaking IRQ conflicts. And remember, there were no forums, and no internet (at least for me). Changing SIMMs (Single In line Memory Modules) at that time was risky bussiness because the sharp steel clips. You cutted yourself like there was no tomorrow.

Welcome to do-it-yourself world. An remembering a saying from a young wise man:

"Man were Man, when they had to write their own device driver"

Linus Torvalds

In 1989 my mom bought me a new PC. Don't laugh... it was an IBM PS/2 30-286. Yes, a 286 10 Mhz w/ 1 MB RAM, 30 MB HD and a VGA monitor. Ugh. Using this computer I took up gaming. Believe it or not, computers didn't have game ports on them back then and I REALLY needed a joystick to play Chuck Yeager's Advanced Flight Trainer. I just ain't flying with a keyboard... ok? So I was 12 and asked mom where I could find a screwdriver at. With a little help from mom (I was afraid to physically force the 8 bit ISA card in the slot) I accomplished my first task. Later I would add a sound card to that computer.

Fast forward to 1991 and I was the proud owner of a 486 DX-33... a pretty impressive machine for a kid to have in 1991. But it was all work and no play... so I ordered a "MPC Upgrade Kit" In other words... a CD-ROM and a sound card. I got the first 2X CD-ROM made (by NEC) and the installation was a bit much for my limited experience. Everything physically fit and I knew I'd hooked everything up right, BUT IT WOULD NOT WORK. I took my computer into a local PC shop and $20 later my problem was resolved (the sound card I installed conflicted with the existing game port and it needed to be disabled by a jumper) During this time I'd helped several other friends install CD-ROM upgrade kits so we could all game together (dial-up gaming was just becoming an option around this time)

With all of this experience under my belt, you'd think I'd have built my next system... but I didn't. I ordered a Pentium 90 (circa 1993) and once again I had to add a CD-ROM and sound card (4X Teac w/ an Ensoniq Soundscape sound card) This went smoothly and I gamed like a crazy mo-fo on that computer... if a publisher was selling it, I was buying it. Well, I forget the specifics... but at some point a visible electrical spark jumped out of the case and that was the end of the Pentium 90. The details are kinda fuzzy, but there was a POP and it died. Instead of buying a new computer all together, I got a new mobo and processor and took it from there.

The only pre-built systems I've bought since then have been laptops.

The first one that you linked (below) is actually a very nice setup imo. I cant say that I wouldnt recommend it. I personally would build my own, but as long as everything works out with this PC it would be a beast. being that it will be internationally shipped that would worry me a bit though (because of the possibility of damage).

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Complete-8GB [...] .m14.l1308

Best,

3Ball

Mid 1960's there were NO home computer solutions
available at all.
There were some few hardware components, but mostly
a peg board with q-flip flop latch circuits, binary switches,
soldered leads and vacuum tubes for amplification.
Mid 1970's better componentry, still peg board assemble tho.
Early 1980's saw the z80 processor and emerging board
level design, still mainly binary input, machine language.
Latter 1980's and early 1990's is when the home build
frenzy really got going great guns in my own opinion...due
mainly to 'BIG BLUE' and the introduction of the 8086 series
of microprocessors, mainboard design and integrated tech.
I have only bought 3 systems factory made in my life,
and I am an oldie, and every factory system I bought..I
was not happy with and eventually returned them to the store
in favor of building my own once again.....I have a BS,Ms,PHD
in electronics, science, computers and physics..from the Univ. of
Ga, and MIT.
Best advice, if you want any that is....is to read everything you
can about cpu's, mobos, psu's, ram, video cards, and drives as
well as any and all else concerning component level building of
computers....sometimes...as demonstrated here on Tom's forum,
it 'a'int as easy' as it looks....and sometimes it is a breeze.
You made a good choice by coming to Tom's as the forum members
here are mostly all knowledgable and very willing to assist in any
project you may have questions about.
Good luck

On the power supply there will most likely be on set of 4 pin cpu power, and they can only go in one way. If your mobo requires 2, plug them both in, if you see only 1, just plug the 1 that says 12volts on it.

Pci-e is usually color coated red, or like my psu has a dedicated feed directly, that actually says pci-e on it.

The mobo power is pretty easy, and even a monkey can figure it out. It's the largest power plug in the build, and again can only go in one way.

I think you get the point... with some light reading and patience, you should have no problem. If you do, that's what these forums are for, so no worries.

I started building my own PC's when I realized how much cheaper I could make them than buying them. I can build a $6000 Alienware machine for $2000, a $5000 Dell Workstation for $1500, etc. The nice thing about building your own, is that you are in control of the hardware. You know exactly what you have at all times, what it is compatible with, and can build a system to meet your exact needs. Who needs a 500 GB boot drive? Put in a 150GB Raptor or the new Velociraptor.

If you buy a Dell, or HP, or other OEM vendor machine, they are filled with everything proprietary, power supplies, fan connectors, power button connectors, etc. Replacing parts with common parts takes rewiring and is a pain.

I am the IT Manager of a manufacturing business, and build all of our workstations. CAD stations and low profile office machines. Also keep a couple benchmark rigs around for setting 3Dmark records.

My latest build: EVGA 780i FTW, 8GB Patriot 800Mhz, 300GB Velociraptor, QX9650 C2Q, GTX 260 FTW, 600W OCZ PSU.

Also, my main workstation is an 8 Core 8GB Ram, Skulltrail setup. Dual Xeon 5405s.

It is a good time.

I got into it through my dad. He routinely assembled computers to control the processes at a steel mill. Our first machine was a trash-80 and then an Atari 8-bit and a salvaged C64. We were already taking them apart in those days, but there was not a lot that you could do. Then we got a 286 - I think it cost like $1600 bucks and we just modded that thing six ways from Sunday, upgrading components until we went with a full size tower config in the first Pentium days.

We have always had lots of extra components around and could basically whip up a prior-gen machine out of spare parts if someone wanted one. I think that half my entended family is still using these frankensteins.

Seems like in the last few year whenever I go to upgrade components, the platforms have changed so much that I have to do a new mobo, processor, memory, PSU and maybe even graphics in one shot. At least that's what happened this last time around.

Anyhow, building is pretty fun. The manuals that come with your Mobo usually have a decent walk-through, although that's about where their usefulness ends - then you come to Tom's.