Building a PC - what were your experiences?

Hi,

I'm thinking of building a PC soon and I've done some research into PC building.

However, there are some things that I'd like to ask the users on this site:

1. What kind of PC did you build? (server, normal sized PC, mini ITX etc)

2. What were your experiences? (any problems, was it worth the effort)

3. Did you use second-hand parts? And what is your view on using those?

4. How much money did you spend? (roughly, don't need exact figures)

5. How much time did it take you to build it?

Thanks for any help,

Isoguy

1. Built a normal pc for everyday use but mainly gaming...(internet, movies, music etc etc)

2. At the time (back in 2003) it was my first pc build. I've played around with fixing them and replacing parts...but never a full build from the bottom up.

3. I bought all my parts new from places like newegg and tiger direct. I didn't want to use second hand parts because I wanted a fully new computer...I don't mind using second hand parts though...

4. lol, for everything (parts, monitor, keyboard mouse...) it had cost me around 2k for the complete build.

5. Time wise it didn't take me long...had a bit of issues with my drives at first but it was quickly resolved. Took me 1 night (really a couple hrs cause it was my first time lol) to get the parts installed...and to install the software it took me a few more hrs...especially to make sure everything was updated

Quote:

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Originally Posted by isoguy

Hi,

I'm thinking of building a PC soon and I've done some research into PC building.

However, there are some things that I'd like to ask the users on this site:

1. What kind of PC did you build? (server, normal sized PC, mini ITX etc)

2. What were your experiences? (any problems, was it worth the effort)

3. Did you use second-hand parts? And what is your view on using those?

4. How much money did you spend? (roughly, don't need exact figures)

5. How much time did it take you to build it?

Thanks for any help,

Isoguy

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1. ATX
2. Loved it, Knew everything that goes in.
3. All new, Everything came from newegg, I wanted to know what was going in there.
4. $720
5. 2 hours

You never asked what we built either. Mine was a NZXT Gaming case, has 5 120mm fans, NZXT fan controller. Guts is Gigabyte MB, 8 Gig DDR3 Ram (voltage was increased by .75v) Has a AMD Deneb Quad Core 3.2ghz, 4x 1tb HDD's (SSD coming soon :)) 1 sony Bluray writer 1 sony dvd burner. Nice system, love it

Quote:

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Originally Posted by tristan

1. ATX
2. Loved it, Knew everything that goes in.
3. All new, Everything came from newegg, I wanted to know what was going in there.
4. $720
5. 2 hours

You never asked what we built either. Mine was a NZXT Gaming case, has 5 120mm fans, NZXT fan controller. Guts is Gigabyte MB, 8 Gig DDR3 Ram (voltage was increased by .75v) Has a AMD Deneb Quad Core 3.2ghz, 4x 1tb HDD's (SSD coming soon :)) 1 sony Bluray writer 1 sony dvd burner. Nice system, love it

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Holy $&/?....... Look what the cat drug in....

How are you?

Sent from my iPad using WiiHacks

Thanks for the help guys!

Will check out newegg soon...

Quote:

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Originally Posted by isoguy

Hi,

I'm thinking of building a PC soon and I've done some research into PC building.

However, there are some things that I'd like to ask the users on this site:

1. What kind of PC did you build? (server, normal sized PC, mini ITX etc)

2. What were your experiences? (any problems, was it worth the effort)

3. Did you use second-hand parts? And what is your view on using those?

4. How much money did you spend? (roughly, don't need exact figures)

5. How much time did it take you to build it?

Thanks for any help,

Isoguy

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1. Big Ass Case...ATX AMD 6 core processor. Actually an upgrade of mobo, ram, processor, vid card.
2. Gigabyte board I think it's called 890FXA-ud-5 isn't as great as I expected, but it's got a ton of usb 2.0 and some 3.0 ports
3. Haha 2nd hand parts... yeah... I had a 2nd hand video card in there for a while until I could afford a new one. The vid card had a windows experience index of 2.0 lol. I couldn't run Angry Birds! Nope 2nd hand parts are not good. The OTHER vid card I had before the REALLY crappy one was a 2nd hand xfx card... Damn thing got so hot the capacitors popped.

4. well...I originally paid $300 for the power supply...1100W. The ram was g-skill ripjaws 1333 2x4gb. Scored a vid card from Amazon (usually I go newegg, but Amazon cheaper this time.) HIS radeon 6950 with 2gb ram..$269

Well...I suggest you take your time ! Do your research too... Picking out a motherboard is the first thing you should do.....Actually before that you should find out what you want to do with the pc, and what features you want. Like Do you need usb 3.0 yet or SATA 3 (6gb/s)? Do you need to spend high $$ on a video card? I've recently built 2 systems for my mom, and my sister. Both with the same boards (Biostar A880G+) They're great little micro atx motherboards. $65 on newegg right nowand it's got a video card built in. It's only got 2 ram slots....8gb is enough tho. Throw in a dual core or quad core....even 6 core processor....I picked ANTEC Earthwatts power supplies cuz they're decent, and cheap enough. My sister was very happy with it. She can play the sims 3 just fine with the onboard ATI Radeon HD 4250.
Don't buy a motherboard that's just came out....might be sorry cuz it could be a lemon. :S
Wait for a good deal.... Newegg has sales all the time. I'd wait for the prices to go down more on Hard drives. Don't buy a segate/Maxtor.... I'd only buy a GOOD WD Black label 640 GB or trusty 1TB Western Digital Black WD1001FALS! For sata 2 hdd's.

I hope I helped you.. If you can read my ramblings. Happy building!

Thanks frogger, your advice is appreciated!

One thing though, you mentioned a mini ATX motherboard with a video card built in. Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't most "bonus" graphics cards low in performance?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by isoguy

Thanks frogger, your advice is appreciated!

One thing though, you mentioned a mini ATX motherboard with a video card built in. Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't most "bonus" graphics cards low in performance?

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Yes obviously for $65 for a motherboard with onboard video card it's going to be lower in performance. I still think it's a good deal if you're not heavy into gaming. The ATI Radeon HD 4250 got a score of 4.5 out of 7.9 for gaming graphics. You can always buy a card if you need more. For my mom and my sister I didn't need to buy a better card.

It is a biostar a880G+ (am3 socket )as I mentioned above. It's a good choice for a budget AMD build.

Thanks - I will probably go with a separate video card though. It's not that I'm really into gaming, but if I want to play a game in the future I need a good graphics card.

Again, thanks for the help!