Build a computer?

[Nuzzolese]

Have any of you ever built a computer? Is it easy or what? Is it worth it? I can go to a place where they will build it for me, or I can buy the parts individually and put it together myself which would be cheaper. I intend to use the computer for internet use, writing, saving lots of files like music and video files, and photos and word documents, very simple photo editing, playing music and playing DVDs and burning music and DVDs.

The store can give me what they call a pro media center system which includes AMD Athlon64 3000A with 1 gig (it says 1024MB DDR PC3200 RAM), 250 GB (wd 8m 7200 HDD), nVidia GeForce 6200 128MB for watching video files, and the OS is Windows Media Center, it has a DVD burner and a TV tuner plus wireless keyboard and mouse and a remote and that's all $1099 and they'll build it for me.

I have to admit I don't even really know what a lot of that stuff is, but I know 1 gig is pretty good for what I plan on storing on there. Then I can add on Windows XP Home for $109, the monitor is 17 inches and it's $259 and then I was going to also get some $30 - $50 speakers and possibly a larger screen TV to hook up to watch DVDs on. It's a basic system.

Anyway what do you think? Suggestions? Experienced comments? Buy like this and have them build it? DIY? Building it myself could be really rewarding and I'd learn a lot in the process because now I know nothing at all.

Is it a simple matter of buying compatible parts and clicking them together according to the instructions? Or is it pretty complicated?

One thing I don't know about though; if I build it myself buying their parts, I don't know if they'll help me at all or provide any assistance in the event of problems.

[TurdBerglar]

i built my last computer


you don't need to spend that much for what you're using it for

[Dr Deaf]

Originally Posted by Nuzzolese

Have any of you ever built a computer? Is it easy or what? Is it worth it? I can go to a place where they will build it for me, or I can buy the parts individually and put it together myself which would be cheaper. I intend to use the computer for internet use, writing, saving lots of files like music and video files, and photos and word documents, very simple photo editing, playing music and playing DVDs and burning music and DVDs.

The store can give me what they call a pro media center system which includes AMD Athlon64 3000A with 1 gig (it says 1024MB DDR PC3200 RAM), 250 GB (wd 8m 7200 HDD), nVidia GeForce 6200 128MB for watching video files, and the OS is Windows Media Center, it has a DVD burner and a TV tuner plus wireless keyboard and mouse and a remote and that's all $1099 and they'll build it for me.

I have to admit I don't even really know what a lot of that stuff is, but I know 1 gig is pretty good for what I plan on storing on there. Then I can add on Windows XP Home for $109, the monitor is 17 inches and it's $259 and then I was going to also get some $30 - $50 speakers and possibly a larger screen TV to hook up to watch DVDs on. It's a basic system.

Anyway what do you think? Suggestions? Experienced comments? Buy like this and have them build it? DIY? Building it myself could be really rewarding and I'd learn a lot in the process because now I know nothing at all.

Is it a simple matter of buying compatible parts and clicking them together according to the instructions? Or is it pretty complicated?

One thing I don't know about though; if I build it myself buying their parts, I don't know if they'll help me at all or provide any assistance in the event of problems.

i find it odd that this has no replies. so nuzz what will you do with the other 249 gigs of storage space on that western digital HD? </snicker>

at the price i'd think it'd be best to have the shop assemble it for you. surely that price includes a warranty that might not be available if you assembled it yourself. i'm not too computer savvy, but i think it might be best to spend the extra $80 on XP pro. i heard home is really shitty. upgrade to the 19" flat LCD. i've never heard of people running computer dvd players to play on a seperate screen. are the sound and video cards integrated into the motherboard, or are they independent components?

i'm not saying it can't be done, but why would you, when a stand-alone dvd player can be had for $69? if you have a decent stereo or mini system you can easily run your computer beats thru it with a headphone jack to RCA set up. the cable might cost you $12-18 at radio shack. otherwise if watching DVD in the proper 5.1 / 6.1 ratio is important to you: spend another $29 and get this.

good luck with it.

[TurdBerglar]

you don't want a lcd to run movies or games. the ordinary monitors yet bulky have the best picture quality. and you don't need pro. home is just fine

[TurdBerglar]

Originally Posted by Nuzzolese

Is it a simple matter of buying compatible parts and clicking them together according to the instructions? Or is it pretty complicated?

there's certain vital steps that if you do wrong you can completey ruin the pc. like not aplying thermal paste to the heatsink when installing the heatsink to the processor. this will make the heatsink basically worthless and it will cuase your processor to overheat and fry. another thing you could do wrong is intall the ram backwords or not using the #1 ram slot. but if you can follow instuctions closely in broken english you should have no problem.

from what i've seen windows never comes with instuctions. when installing widows for the fisrt time you need to go into the motherboard bios and set it up so the pc will boot up from the cd drive and not the hard drive. there's other things too. once if you have never done any of these things before you should read up on it or have someone help you in building it.


i would advise you to by a prebuilt one

[wavin_goodbye]

if you have the $$ get a mac. 10000X better than any PC

[tracky]

What's your current system? You might not even really need an full upgrade, maybe just a bigger hard drive & DVD burner are all you really need, which you could easily do yourself. Building a complete system is fairly easy, but like turd says, it's also easy to stuff it up. I just get the guys at the shop to do it for me, cause if they ruin a bit of hardware during installation, they have to wear the cost, not me. Plus I'm slack and don't do all the little neatening up they do, like cable tie stuff out the way, etc..

[beastie fresh]

Answering your question, if Ive built a computer, the answer is yes. 3 of the 5 we have are

[TurdBerglar]

you can get a whole system that can do all that you want for like $500.


my old computer did all that stuff without a problem and it's like 5 years old. if eveything on that system was brand new today it would only cost like 200-300 dollars. the only thing that really warrants a fantastic computer for most people is gameing. and since you didn't mention gameing you don't need to spend 1000 dallors. a 500 dallor system should be fine. the most demanding thing that you said you wanted to do with this pc was watching dvd's. that's not very demanding for a computer.

[The Notorious LOL]

depends on what you use it for. If its gonna be mostly just internetting and music maybe or whatever you dont need much. Ive bought a few bare bones systems off pricewatch.com in the past and just added what was needed. The computer previous to the one I use now cost me $500 total excluding monitor and at the time was a really nice machine. I used it for 4 years with little to no problems.

[The Notorious LOL]

turdburglar basically posted the same thing I just did. lol omg


also, dont pay for windows. That shit grows on trees for free on internet

[paul jones]

I built a Police Station with Lego when I wa a kid and the Empire guy with the black round hat thing was the cheif and Han,Lando and some other Empire blokes were cops and people like the bounty hunters and chewbacca were banged up in the cell

[TurdBerglar]

oh yeah, don't even look at dells. way too expensive.

[wavin_goodbye]

just make sure you have good customer support (something dell has)

[TurdBerglar]

just don't fuck the pc up and you won't need customer support

[sheesh]

It's always cheaper to buy the prebuilt systems. However there is a great amount of personal satisfaction to build your own and watch it work.

[GetYourWarOn]

turd burglar is 1337.

[wavin_goodbye]

Originally Posted by TurdBerglar

just don't fuck the pc up and you won't need customer support

you've obviously never used windows/IE before

[TurdBerglar]

Originally Posted by sheesh

It's always cheaper to buy the prebuilt systems. However there is a great amount of personal satisfaction to build your own and watch it work.

you save a hell of a lot with ordering it piece by piece online

[zorra_chiflada]

i remember when i did info tech in grade 10 we kinda built a computer from scratch. i couldn't do it now.

[TurdBerglar]

i built this one online


i could of gone less expensive for what you want to do with it. but i kept with newer technology so it would be upgradeable down the road. and the mouse is wireless and can be use as a romote for watching movies and the system can be easily hooked up to a tv.

[zorra_chiflada]

turd, do you do any casual paid work as IT support or anything, or have you?

[TurdBerglar]

nope never

[Kid Presentable]

Originally Posted by TurdBerglar

nope never

They'd treat you like a rock-star in Oz computer circles.

[TurdBerglar]

i don't really know all that much


there's people out there that know a whole lot more than me

[tracky]

i don't think so best you make our country sound like a bunch of morons who would look up to someone just because they know how to plug a bit of ram into a ram slot.

[TurdBerglar]

australians can't be that stupid

[buddylee]

when you buy a pre-made system you mite get 1 great thing in it like graphic card, the rest will kinda crapy or of fair. Having it build you can make sure you get a what you want.
what every you do don't get a Fry's Great Buy computer.

Look for a small time guy to bulid you one. The him you want a work horse.
also you can get Microst Office / student and teacher Edition for less than $200
better than paying $400 +
Yes you do want to pay for XP if not you dont get updates and it leaves you open for woorms.
Look in you Local http://www.craigslist.org/ you should be able to find anything on thier.

[TurdBerglar]

oh yeah i forgot windows. i think you can get OEM versions for like $60.

and you can easily get office 2003, Norton Internet Security 2005, DVD software and burner software for free.

[tracky]

Originally Posted by TurdBerglar

australians can't be that stupid

yeah that was my point, i didn't realise you'd snuck a post between mine and kid's