Anyone built their own PC here?

[Viking 0]

not with todays hardware and software. For the most part its plug and play. Then you just have to upgrade all your drivers, software patchs, and service packs.

I'v built my last two computers and the only problem i had with my current setup was a motherboard driver issue that suds helped me resolve with a boot disk.

Its so much cheaper and you get better componets when you build your own. Just be prepared to fix your own stuff b/c you won't have a Dell fix my hunk-o-shit hotline.

I swear you must have footprints on the back of your helmet - chicagoskydiver
My God has a bigger dick than your god -George Carlin

[Jeff.Donohue 0]

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you are your own tech support.

Actually, I outsourced myself to India. That was probably a bad move from a satisfaction standpoint, but I'm way cheaper than I used to be.

[wildcard451 0]

bwahahahahaha


that was a good one.

[pilotdave 0]

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If you have never built one before.....don't even think about watercooling one. You have no need for it. Just get a good heatsink and a fan. Stock cooling WILL NOT CUT IT. Look at the heatsink I ordered with mine. Massive does not begin to describe it....but then again, I know I am gonna be running mine hard.

Don't forget to get thermal grease!

I agree about water cooling. My old system sat in a cabinet with poor ventilation (I left the front open and the sides off the case to help). It ran pretty hot, but no problems. Only stock cooling too. I looked into water cooling the new one and found that it's WAY more of a mess than I wanted to get involved with. I was looking at an external "radiator/tank" for the coolant, not one of the internal ones. Well as soon as I read what it takes to move the PC once the cooling is installed, I gave up on that idea.

My new PC has stock cooling only... a decent power supply with 2 fans, one big case fan on the back, one stock AMD heatsync with fan, and built in fan on the video card. That's it. I even overclocked it a little with no heat probs at all. There's room on the case for a front fan, which I should probably install. But that's just bonus.

Cooling only becomes critical when you really push the limits of your processor/video card/whatever.

For a pretty standard system, I wouldn't worry about it too much. Stock cooling works fine.

BTW, your wish list doesn't work. Make sure it's shared, then use the link to email it to yourself. Then post the link here. That's the only way I could figure out.

Dave

[ChasingBlueSky 0]

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you are your own tech support.

Actually, I outsourced myself to India. That was probably a bad move from a satisfaction standpoint, but I'm way cheaper than I used to be.

Rumor is that some consultant offshored the contract he was given. Never did a day of work and made good cash that way. 5 contracts at a time? No problem!

_________________________________________
you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me....
I WILL fly again.....

[SudsyFist 0]

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that suds helped me resolve with a boot disk.

What are you doin'? You'll ruin my rep!

[ChasingBlueSky 0]

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Cooling only becomes critical when you really push the limits of your processor/video card/whatever.

Cooling is a pain in the ass. Can't figure out why mine is having so many heat issues. Alumn case, fans on each HD, major HSF combo that pushes the heat out the back. Three case fans, nice fan in the PS., heat spreaders on the DDRAM, fan on the back of the video card that pulls the heat out the back, bundled cables, SATA cables, thermal grease, HS on N bridge and S Bridge and reseated HSF combo twice.

Only thing I haven't done is pull the HSF off the video card.

Might use this as an excuse to upgrade this winter. Those new nvidia cards are looking sweet and I want one of those new dual cores CPUs, and that expansion card that pulls off some of the physics computations (when does that thing hit the market??) 2gb of DDRAM2 sounds nice as well :)

_________________________________________
you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me....
I WILL fly again.....

[ChasingBlueSky 0]

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I know I am gonna be running mine hard.

Gonna see you online again or is that just for the pr0n?

_________________________________________
you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me....
I WILL fly again.....

[GTAVercetti 0]

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I know I am gonna be running mine hard.

Gonna see you online again or is that just for the pr0n?

Some of those pron sites eat bandwidth and CPU power like crazy if ya don't got your Flashblock extension on!

Why yes, my license number is a palindrome. Thank you for noticing.

[wildcard451 0]

Bo, I'll be back online when I get out of this ICU month I am doing now, and when I get this box built.....so about another week.

I fixed the link to the components that I ordered today. I should be building it tomorrow night. Let's hope it all boots. After new years I may be adding another video card and 2 more GB of ram to it.

Here is the new Comp

Lenmme know what you guys think.

[pilotdave 0]

Looks cool. Why such expensive RAM? Does it really make a difference? I only went with 1 gig, but it was only about $80ish. 2 gigs of the same type of RAM for $278?? Why?

I really liked that case too but it was just too expensive. I wanted a $25 case with built in power supply but settled on a much nicer $50 case and a better power supply.

And $277 for a sound card?? Built-in sound on the motherboard (with 5 channels) was plenty for me. Sound couldn't be any better through my little tiny computer speakers. They do the trick for me.

The best thing I bought, which wasn't on the wish list, was a Wacom tablet. I still can't draw but I really do like it more than a mouse.

Dave

[GTAVercetti 0]

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Bo, I'll be back online when I get out of this ICU month I am doing now, and when I get this box built.....so about another week.

I fixed the link to the components that I ordered today. I should be building it tomorrow night. Let's hope it all boots. After new years I may be adding another video card and 2 more GB of ram to it.

Here is the new Comp

Lenmme know what you guys think.

drop the floppy. Haven't had one on my PC for 5 years.

I also agree with pilotdave on the soundcard. Motherboard sound can be QUITE good these days. It is not like a few years ago. I got dolby 5.1 and all that good stuff on my inboard sound.

Here is a quote from Anandtech.com:

"Even in the mid-range segment, we don't feel that an add-in sound card is a requirement. For most people, you would be hard pressed to notice a difference between integrated and discrete audio solutions. This is especially true if you're going to use a typical speaker configuration that costs less than $200. What we list here are strictly alternatives, and you might want to try the integrated audio before insisting on an add-in sound card. Half-Life 2 performance on a moderate system was virtually unchanged after upgrading from integrated audio to an Audigy 2 ZS, and to our ears, there was no major difference in sound quality."

I say, go with the onboard sound from that motherboard, save the 277. If it sucks, buy a card. No harm, no foul and you may save some bank.

Why yes, my license number is a palindrome. Thank you for noticing.

[pilotdave 0]

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Cooling is a pain in the ass. Can't figure out why mine is having so many heat issues.

What's it got for a power supply? That can make a HUGE difference. If you've loaded it with fans and they don't help, try a new (more powerful) power supply.

I didn't believe it until a friend was having cooling problems. I bought him a case fan which didn't help (but it did light up in blue to improve the look of his dead computer). He could only get the thing to run for more than a few minutes by opening the case and aiming a big fan right at it. When he finally got a new power supply, the problem was instantly fixed.

Dave

[wildcard451 0]

The floppy stays, but it is also a memory card reader....that's why...and I am a big fan of boot disks, so I always keep a floppy drive in. Not like it takes up space.

I run sound in and out of my home audio system so I always keep a nice sound card in the box. Plus, I like the fact that the processor on the sound card offloads the sound processing duties from the CPU when playing games. Makes a difference overall, at least to me.

I hope this baby lives up to my expectations.

[ChasingBlueSky 0]

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Cooling is a pain in the ass. Can't figure out why mine is having so many heat issues.

What's it got for a power supply?

A very nice 480w PS. Thinking of upgrading to the modular PS to remove even more cord clutter.

_________________________________________
you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me....
I WILL fly again.....

[pilotdave 0]

Dual core isn't the best for gaming...yet. Games don't take advantage of it, but they will in the future. I really got it so my computer isn't totally bogged down while rendering video or things like that.

BTW, you gonna try Windows XP 64 bit edition? I thought about it, but read some really bad reviews so I'm waiting a while on that.

Dave

[GTAVercetti 0]

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The floppy stays, but it is also a memory card reader....that's why...and I am a big fan of boot disks, so I always keep a floppy drive in. Not like it takes up space.

I run sound in and out of my home audio system so I always keep a nice sound card in the box. Plus, I like the fact that the processor on the sound card offloads the sound processing duties from the CPU when playing games. Makes a difference overall, at least to me.

I hope this baby lives up to my expectations.

If it is a memory card reader, that is cool, But bios can be set for CD-ROM booting these days.

I do think the sound card is still overkill. You can get very good ones for much cheaper; Creative Audigy 2 ZS is still very viable and only 75 bux. I also doubt you could tell the difference unless you are using professionally recording music. But hey, I am not the one buying.


Looks like a cool system.

Why yes, my license number is a palindrome. Thank you for noticing.

[pilotdave 0]

Hmm. What kind of heat issues do you have? Instability/crashes? What kinda temps you running at?

Dave

[ChasingBlueSky 0]

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Looks cool. Why such expensive RAM? Does it really make a difference? I only went with 1 gig, but it was only about $80ish. 2 gigs of the same type of RAM for $278?? Why?

Helping my friend build his new system - saw the difference between 1 and 2gb. Not that much for 90% of the work you do. 1gb is plenty for most gaming machines as well. However, I did notice that game transitions were a bit smoother with the 2gb in there.

Going with high end, low latency memory is good if you are going to be pushing your machine to output top end graphics. Seeing Doom 3 run in VERY HIGH graphics mode is a site to behold. Even with 2gb of typical value ram you wouldn't be able to push your machine that much - one error or a slight bottleneck at that level will slow or hault your machine.

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I really liked that case too but it was just too expensive. I wanted a $25 case with built in power supply but settled on a much nicer $50 case and a better power supply.

A good aluminum case is one giant heatsink - always a wise move. There are a lot of junk cases out there with items not needed, but there are some that do a great job of heat containment better than others.

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And $277 for a sound card?? Built-in sound on the motherboard (with 5 channels) was plenty for me. Sound couldn't be any better through my little tiny computer speakers. They do the trick for me.

I was having sound issues and swapped from my Audigy 2 to the onboard Nforce 2 audio. Couldn't tell that much of a difference. Ambient sounds and echo effects are a bit over accented by this on board stuff, but the 5.1 sound is still good for watching movies and listening to MP3s.

However, the X-Fi card does two things - offloads some work from the CPU and apparently has a away of making your low quality MP3s sound closer to CD quality. I've yet to hear it, but I am tempted to get one just for that aspect.

[ChasingBlueSky 0]

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Hmm. What kind of heat issues do you have? Instability/crashes? What kinda temps you running at?

Dave

The heat mon that came with the board has the ability to crash XP, esp if I have a game like BF2, Q4 or WoW running. Can't get a good read on the heat when it crashes. I have turned on the emergency shut down mode just in case. It just locks up - which makes me think its either the CPU or Video card. Things haven't locked up in a bit because I went McGuyver and interfaced a powerful box fan with the side of my case until I chase down the problem....hasn't crashed since :)

_________________________________________
you can burn the land and boil the sea, but you can't take the sky from me....
I WILL fly again.....

[wmw999 2,589]

I built my own Pilot Chute -- does that count? It was a square one, and it didn't really work very well, so I don't imagine you'd want the pattern

Wendy w.

There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

[j0nes 0]

"God machine" question

Just curious why you opted to go with a motherboard that has integrated video on it AND no AGP?

Why not get one without integrated video and has an AGP slot?

[SudsyFist 0]

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"God machine" question

Just curious why you opted to go with a motherboard that has integrated video on it AND no AGP?

Why not get one without integrated video and has an AGP slot?

For all this time, I've been picturing you as a chick.

Now I feel like a drunk Marine who was just starting to get his groove on with that shady Thai prostitute...

[wildcard451 0]

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"God machine" question

Just curious why you opted to go with a motherboard that has integrated video on it AND no AGP?

Why not get one without integrated video and has an AGP slot?

Cause AGP is old hat. These boards have no integrated video. New video cards run in PCI express slots.

[pilotdave 0]

As he said, AGP is outdated. PCI-express 16 is the latest for video cards. And his motherboard is SLI compatible which means you can actually install 2 video cards with a bridge between them to make them act as one.

I decided one $200 video card was enough for me so there was no point in SLI. But I definitely went with PCI-express for video.

Dave