Build My Own PC

[Emo]

I'm thinking of buying the different parts, and building myself a computer instead of buying one.
A lot of people say that the big advantages of this is that you pick out what parts you want to put in and the whole thing costs much less $$$ than if you want to buy it from the store.
I haven't started on the "buying parts" part, but I have done some research on different sites on how do assemble the parts and so on... I guess for now the only scary part for me is how to set up the OS, because each site tells me differently how to set it up.

Can anyone give me some tips about this?
If you have done it, can you tell me some do's and don't?

P.S. Also where is a good place to buy the parts? Online, or the store?

Thanks a lot!
-Emo

One don't is not to use an OS by M$

[Emo]

Just when I thought I will make something good out of this and actually save money, I see this >>> HERE
For $1,100 this PC is perfect for me, and a newbye like me in PC hardware and all, now I'm thinking is it going to be more trouble than to just buy the thing.....

What should I do?


-Emo

[alex_read]

I spent £1200 on a PC I built 2 years ago.
I can now buy the rough equivalent for 800.

It's not worth the time & effort & you'll find that you can buy one cheaper than you can build it...

[HarryW]

£1200 two years ago and it's £800 now?!? How on earth can it be worth that much?! A top of the range PC from 2 years ago should be worth pretty much ***** all now.

In general, I would expect a PC you build yourself to cost roughly the same as a pre-built PC, but there are pros and cons to both. Pros - you get to know your computer inside-out, and you have completely free choice of components. Cons - No warranty, so if it goes wrong you fix it yourself, and it's probably an untested configuration, so conflicts might occur.

Personally I think if you are confident you don't need to rely on anyone for repairs, build it yourself. Otherwise, get one pre-built.

[alex_read]

State of the art, one of the first usb modems, voodoo2, soundblaster live added last year, granted, but

Basically, you can get a £600 PC with all the peripherirals mine has, but you won't get the quality (why I built my own)

[Technocrat]

Originally posted by Emo
I'm thinking of buying the different parts, and building myself a computer instead of buying one.
A lot of people say that the big advantages of this is that you pick out what parts you want to put in and the whole thing costs much less $$$ than if you want to buy it from the store.
I haven't started on the "buying parts" part, but I have done some research on different sites on how do assemble the parts and so on... I guess for now the only scary part for me is how to set up the OS, because each site tells me differently how to set it up.

Can anyone give me some tips about this?
If you have done it, can you tell me some do's and don't?

P.S. Also where is a good place to buy the parts? Online, or the store?

Thanks a lot!
-Emo

I have been building custom computers and repairing every type of computer for years now and let me tell you I would never, ever buy a store bought computer. After seeing the kinda of stuff they put in them.....I dont know how they get away with that stuff. Thank god Packard Bell died, they were the GODs of computer crap. Anyway back to the topic.

(1) Building you own computer is less $$$
Not true, by the time you buy the parts, shipping, tax, time to do all this plus putting it together, it is usually more. Add to that the fact that if you dont want to use bad/cheap parts in your computer the total cost will generally be more. How much more, well that depeneds on what kind of parts you use. I just built my computer and I used all high end parts and compared to what people would think is a "comparable" I paid about $500 more. I did plenty of price checking and got the best prices I could find. But I got a higher quality MB and a Ultra Geforce 2 with ram faster than what is on most of the "comparable" computers. I think I did pretty good and I am damn happy with what I got.

(2) Setting up the OS is hard
Not anymore. Its actually really easy these days. Most Full versions of 98/ME come with a start disk that does most of the hard work for you. If you follow the instructions you should be fine.

(3)Can anyone give me some tips about this?
Ya do your research on every part you want (If you dont want crap). Dont be cheap on the Motherboard and video card. These two things are some of the most important parts of the comp. Being cheap on these two things will hurt you. RAM, CPU, Sound, HD you can get away with being alittle bit cheaper on.

(4)Also where is a good place to buy the parts?
I buy from a number of different places. Check out pricewatch.com and computershopper.com for price compares. Check out each site to see how they look before you buy.

[amesjustin]

I just started building a new one:
AMD Athlon 1.2Ghz
256 Mg Ram
Tyan Motherboard with 6 PCI, 1AGP, 1ISA
ATI 64 mg Video
30 gig HD w/ 4mg buffer
32x8x10 CDRW
Mid-tower case
windows ME

That is all I ordered cuz I have the rest already - $869 (US)

the PC I am on right now I built in 1997 - Pentium 1 200 Mhz - 32 mg Ram
10 gig HD
16 meg video
CD & Diskette only

paid $1000 in 1997