Why buy one...build it yourself (How to Build the Perfect Computer)

Name: cjkace

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Product:	How to Build the Perfect Computer
Date:	05/05/01 (161 review reads)
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Advantages: You get the computer that you want

Disadvantages: more expensive than buying from a big company, need to be very careful not to break anything

First lets dispel a myth. Building a good specification PC will NOT save you any money. Computer system builders can buy the parts a lot cheaper than you can, simply because they buy in bulk. So why build your own PC? For the joy of it and because in building it you will know each and every part that is put in it, which makes finding and installing the latest drivers easy.

Second, here are some goldens rules. Decide what you want to use your PC for. Find out as much as possible about every component you plan to buy, if there are any incompatabilities, by checking on the various hardware websites (www.anandtech.com, www.tomshardware.com, www.hardocp.com). Most of these sites have links to others so you should be able to find what you want to know. Finally see if you can get hold of a book about building/repairing/upgrading PC's. I recommend Scott Mueller's Upgrading and Repairing PCs but it may be too technical for some.

Here is a checklist of a what you will need.
Case - can be desktop, mini, midi or full tower but must be ATX format.
Processor
Processor Heatsink & Fan - to cool the above
Motherboard - must be able to take the processor obviously
Memory - 64Mb is minimum, 128Mb recommended
Hard Disk - as big as you can afford, preferably 7200RPM and IDE
Graphics card - dependant upon the use of your PC
Sound card - dependant upon the use of your PC
DVD Drive - buy a CD-Rom drive if funds are tight otherwise get a DVD drive.
Floppy Drive - still useful even nowadays
Mouse - whatever you prefer
Keyboard - whatever you prefer
Monitor - 17" is minimum nowadays. Buy a good 17" rather than a poor 19"
Modem - Either internal or external but must be hardware driven NOT a winmodem (sometimes called controllerless)
Operating System - whichever you prefer

Extras - Printer, CD Writer, Scanner, TV Card

This is the basic list. Now decide what yo
u want to use your PC for. If it's office use (word processing etc) then a large quick hard disk, 128Mb memory, mid range processor (800Mhz), low end graphics card, low end sound card, 17" good quality monitor, cheap speakers, good quality keyboard and mouse, Cd-writer (for backups), modem.

For general home use it's all of the above but a good mid range graphics card, good soundcard, good speakers, DVD drive and slightly faster processor (1GHz)

A top of the range games machine needs the best of everything, but savings can be made. Buy a slightly older model of graphics card (Geforce 2 GTS instead of an ultra for example) as by the time the games need more, this years new hardware will have dropped in price substantially.

With all of the above in mind let's put together a great mid-range system for general home use (gaming, internet, office work etc), based on an AMD Athlon 1Ghz processor.

Shopping List (all prices from Dabs.com current @ 6th May 2001)

Case - AOpen Full Tower ATX 300W - £76.37
Processor - AMD Athlon 1 Ghz (133Mhz FSB) - £133.94
CPU Cooler - Coolermaster EP5-6I11-A1 - £11.75
Motherboard - Asustek A7V133 (Without Audio) - £131.60
Memory - Crucial 256MB PC133 SDRam - £78.24
Hard Drive - Maxtor DiamondMax+45 30.7Gb - £117.52
DVD Drive - Pioneer DVD-116 16xDVD - £63.44
CD-Writer - Mirai CD-RW 40r 16w 10rw Internal IDE Burnproof Retail - £163.32
Graphics Card - Gainward Geforce 2 Pro - £217.37
Sound Card - Creative Soundblaster Live! Player 5.1 - £56.39
Speakers - Cambridge Soundworks DTT2200 5.1 Surround Set - £75.19
Floppy Drive - Sony 1.44MB Internal 3.5" - £10.57
Keyboard - Microsoft Internet Pro USB & PS/2 - £29.37
Mouse - Microsoft IntelliMouse Explorer USB & PS/2 - £36.42
Monitor - Sony CPD-E220E 17" - £222.07
Modem - US Robotics 56K Message Modem External - £88.12

Total Price = £1511.68

These pric
es are just from one site and by buying different makes and shopping around it is possible to reduce the total by £100 - £200.

Right, here we go. Hopefully everything has arrived intact and is now sitting in your living room in boxes. I recommend building your new PC on a table, have a 4 way extension handy and get the following tools together -

small flat head screwdriver
Phillips head screwdriver
Small needle nose pliers
earthing strap
pair of scissors or cable cutters
cable ties

Firstly remove your PC case from it's wrapping, remove as many sides as possible and the front fascia. The front can be especially hard, but be careful not to stress anything too much. Plug your case into your socket BUT DO NOT SWITCH ON THE POWER. This is to ensure that a good earth is running through the chassis. Attach the earthing strap to the case and the other end to your wrist.

Now take out take out your motherboard, and familiarise yourself with the layout of the ports by consulting the manual and observing your board. Dependant upon the case design you could put the motherboard in now, but some cases make it more difficult for you to then affix the processor cooler, so we'll do everything out of the case. Lift the lever on the processor socket and insert your processor, being carefull to line up the pins. Athlons have pins missing on the corners which match the socket BUT they are very easy to bend. Once you are sure the processor is correctly aligned, lower the lever and lock the processor in place. Now sit your cooler on the processor (Coolermaster fans have a small plastic tape that need to be removed from the bottom first, but some supply paste which must be spread thinly on the actual processor core), tilt the spring until it slides under the socket tab, then using the small flat screwdriver, push down on the other end of the spring clip until it is fixed on the tab opposite. This can be very difficult and GREA
T CARE is needed to avoid the screwdriver slipping and damaging the board. Now attach the fan power cable to a socket on the board which will be labelled in your manual as CPU Fan header (or something along those lines.)

Next find the memory slots, and insert the memory. It only fits one way so don't force it. Consult your manual and put the memory in the lowest numbered slot, usually slot 0. Now you are ready to put the board in the case. Dependant upon the case you may have to fit brass risers first, which the board then screws into. Once the boards in, attach the power cable (only goes in one way) and make youself a cup of tea.

Finished your cuppa? Then off we go again.

Fit all of your drives in their repective positions, adjusting the small jumpers on the backs of the drives to -
Hard drive - master
DVD Drive - master
CD drive - slave
as you fit them, being careful how long the screws are as if you use screws that are too long they can foul the drive mechanisms, but generally all drives come with the right screws and a diagram of where the go. Attach your floppy drive cable to the floppy drive and the floppy connector port on the motherboard. Now attach your IDE cable to your hard drive and the motherboard, making sure it goes in primry IDE port. Attach the two other drives together using the other IDE cable, fitting that one into the secondary IDE port on the motherboard. Consult your manual if you are in any doubt what so ever. The main thing needed with building PC's is patience.

Now it's time to fit the graphics card. Locate your AGP slot, which is brown in colour and should be the top most slot on your board. Line up the card and then remove the corresponding cover from the back of your case. Slide the card, taking care not to touch the circuits and screw it to the case chassis. Attach your monitor to the graphics card port at the back, turn on the power and boot up your machine for the first t
ime. Now attach your mouse and keyboard to the case, being careful that they go in their respective ports, which should be marked on the back of the case.

If everything has gone to plan, the speaker should beep once, find the drives and then tell you that the hard disk doesn't have a system on it. Re-boot and then enter the BIOS, by pressing DELETE. Carefully consult your manual and make sure that
1 - the drives are set to auto-detect
2 - UDMA is enabled for your IDE ports
Modern motherboard bios's are configured so that you shouldn't have to adjust anything at the moment, but if in doubt read the manual.

From here it is a matter of installing your operating system. Some people might say that you should get all the hardware in first, then install the OS, but the less you have in at the moment, the easier to diagnose errors. Before you can install your OS, you will need to set up your hard disk. For ease of explanation let's assume that you are installing Windows 98.

Put the Windows 98 floppy into the drive, and re-boot your system. When prompted select the option to install CD drive support. After a minute or so you should be left with a flashing cursor and an A:\ prompt. Type FDISK. Select yes when asked if you want to enable support for large disks. You are now asked whether you want to
1 - create DOS partition or Logical DOS Drive
2 - set active partition
3 - delete partition or logical dos drive
4 - display partition information

Select option 1, and unless you are planning to partition your drive into 2 or more parts, select option 1 again. Follow the on-screen prompts, making sure that you set the size at 100%. After a couple of minutes your drive is ready to be formatted, so exit fdisk back to the A:\ prompt and re-boot. When you are back to the A:\ prompt type FORMAT C:. Select yes when warned that you are about to lose all information, then go make another cup of tea.

W
hen your drive has finished being formatted and you are back to the A:\ prompt again, insert your windows CD-rom into your DVD drive, type D:\setup and Windows will begin installing. Most of the install process is automatic, only asking you for the serial, what your location and time is and what name to give for your machine. Unless you are part of a network type something simple in, such as Home.

When you are finally presented with the familiar Windows desktop (it may or may not ask for motherboard drivers, if so click on cancel), remove the floppy, re-boot and enter the BIOS again. Find the section which asks whether you have a Plug n Play OS installed and set it to yes before re-booting. Once back to the desktop, insert your motherboard drivers cd-rom, install, re-boot, then insert your graphics card drive cd-rom into your other drive, and install the drivers. Windows will undoubtedly re-boot and you will be back at the dektop once more, only now you will be able to change the size of your dektop and the refresh rate.

After this, installing other cards and hardware is just a matter of following the steps for the graphics card (if internal, but remembering that you will now be plugging cards into the PCI slots which are generally white) and the relevant port on the back of your tower if external. When I built my PC, I installed my modem next, and got my internet connection set up, so that I could download the latest motherboard and graphics card drivers and install them before I added the sound card. Again it is easier to cure any problems if you don't have much to go wrong in the first place.

If you are in any way nervous about building your own PC, then read as much as possible before hand. Visit websites, borrow books from the library or even buy the afore mentioned Scott Mueller's Upgrading and Repairing PCs, now in it's twelth edition. The feeling of satisfaction when you have your own, hand-built PC is really quite good
. Another advantage is that when you build your own, you gain confidence and knowledge, and will be more inclined to try and solve problems yourself, rather than spending money on expensive technical support.

If you decide that building your own PC is the way to go, then good luck, be careful and keep all the boxes, manuals and receipts.

Cheers - Craig

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