Building your own computer

S

shankle

Weaksauce
Joined
Sep 28, 2008
Messages
89
I'm getting pretty disgusted with Dell and HP.
Have been programming for 40 years. Have decent mechanical skills. Not an engineer.
Have taken out disk drives, floppies and batteries.
I generally feel that I could assemble a PC, if I could get past the nightmare of what and
where to buy the parts.

A friend of mine had his PC built locally. In my opinion he got a piece of junk. They put
crappy parts in the PC. Didn't give him a OS disk and no way to restore his computer
when it failed. They also went out of business.

The question, I guess, is should I even attempt this? Seems like I could buy the wrong parts
or bad parts or not compatible parts. In other words a nightmare..... Might wind up costing
me more to learn what to do than buying one.

I don't need a new one yet but I have some time to do some thinking and learning.
I guess what would help me a lot is a book on building your own computer for Dummies.
Nothing is ever easy....
 
You have come to the right place!

You don't need a book.. Once you get all the parts its pretty simple to put them together.
 
Getting the parts is the kicker. That's why I need a book on whtat, where and how...

Nope this is to complicated for me. Would wind up costing a lot because of my mistakes.

SO, what manufactures would you recommend besides Dell amd HP??
Not Gateway...
Dells computers now cost about $400 more than an HP and HP gives you more than Dell.
However I don't like the Os setup in an HP. I would want to buy one with NO OS installed
and I don't think they would seel one that way.
 
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I would HIGHLY recommend building your own computer. It is very simple and easy once you have all the parts in front of you. I built my own rig about 4 months ago and will NEVER buy from Dell or HP ever again.
Finding where to get parts depends all on where you live. I know NewEgg.com charges tax in Ca, so I bought nearly all my parts through Amazon.com. I also bought a few parts through TigerDirect.
First thing you need to do is post us your budget, so we know what kind of system you are looking to build. Low end? Medium end? High end? is it for gaming? multimedia? programming?

Check the sticky to answer the questions we need to help you.
 
A basic configured PC is very easy to assemble parts for.

motherboard,ram,hard drive, optical drive, case, power supply, keyboard/mouse, processor and monitor... and of course an OS (windows).

If you're a newbie just go to newegg.com and start with a motherboard/cpu combo and go from there.
 
Building a computer isn't complicated; all you really need are a screwdriver and some patience.

There are plenty of guides available in the GenHard FAQ sticky that will help you in physically building your computer.

As for parts selection, there are plenty of people here that are willing to help you out. Just answer the questions in the "Asking for Build Help?" sticky and we'll take it from there.
 
If you can work a screwdriver, and have the patience to not hit, slam, jam, cram, or otherwise force things into place, you probably have a majority of the skill necessary to put a computer together. After that, its just knowing what parts are compatible and understanding what parts will meet your computing needs. (e.g. one video card vs. another, a power supply that will meet your power requirements, a Blu-Ray drive vs. a regular DVD drive, etc.)

Book wise, there is actually a PC Building for Dummies book out there, or something named similarly. If there's a Fry's, Barnes and Noble, or Borders by you, you could probably find that book very easily. There's also the Idiot's Guide version too. The Hacks series I also believe has a PC Building Hacks book or something similarly named as well. All of those are very informational.

For the last 10+ years I have built and maintained rigs for myself, family, friends, and the occasional person who's in your position - sick and tired of preconfigured crap. Its not that hard to build. Troubleshooting on the other hand is a mixed bag of difficulty. If you have the time to watch TV or anything else, you have time to learn how to do this without messing it up.

That said, tiraides is right. Answering questions in the Asking for Build help is a good starting point.
 
There's a section on these forums where you can post your budget and what you need and we will work together to figure out the best setup.

The biggest thing you need is patience. If something doesn't work at first, don't get frustrated, just look here for help and you will find it.

Physical assembly is simple. Go slowly, check your steps. If something seems wrong, don't force it, just stop and ask us.
 
Thanks guys, I think you all have turned me around again.
I assembled a satellite disk and aimed it with the help on line from a guy in Michagan.
So maybe I can hack this with your help.
Don't spend any more of your time with this post as I am going to do a lot of reading
and checking out places recommended here. Hardest part for me will be the picking
what to buy and what goes with what.
 
shankle said:
Hardest part for me will be the picking
what to buy and what goes with what.
Click to expand...

Again, if you make a new thread with the questions answered from the sticky "ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS FIRST!", we can easily help you with that.
 
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