my new computer > your new computer

[e mag]

there are also some places on the internet where you can buy a custom comp that they will build and send to you. one i know of is www.gamepc.com. they are a little expensive but have good components to choose from. you could also buy all the parts and assemble it yourself or have someone else do it, its not that hard if you read the instructions though. just so you know you will need to buy a case, power supply, motherboard, cpu, heatsink, ram, harddrive, cd/dvd drive, graphics card, sound card, and maybe some other things depending on what you need. some good places to buy from are www.newegg.com, www.compuplus.com, and www.tigerdirect.com. if you do buy all the components it would be a good idea to post what you will buy here or on a computer forum to make sure it will all work together.

[MantisMag]

if you've never built a computer before or at least mucked around inside for a little bit i wouldn't recommend doing it yourself. open up your computer and take a look inside. would you feel comfortable hooking up all those little cables that go to your powerswitch etc.? do you know which way ide cables go? i've screwed this up a time or two and couldn't figure out why my computer wouldn't recognize my devices. do you feel comfortable dealing with jumpers? you're going to have to with your drives abd possibly your mobo. do you feel comfortable with dealing with a lot of delicate pins on the bottom of your chip? you better be careful with that. and for a first timer i'd say DO NOT get a heatsink like mine. way too easy to fry your processor if you screw up. get one that just clips right on. or stick with the retail HSF. building yourself is loads better than buying from a major OEM. if you do it right it'll last longer and perform better. however if any of what i just said gives you doubts either go someplace that'll let you choose all your components and then put it together for you or find someone you TRUST. not just any kid who seems to play with computers a lot. as you can see from me and mark there can be a lot of disagreements on the best way to do things even between two guys who seem to know what they're doing. and if you get some overclock happy kid you could be in for some trouble besides spending more than you want to on fairly useless stuff.

when i get home i'll post a site that has some good quality built to orders for relatively cheap. can't remember it right now.

[RamboPreacher]

Got you all beat. I have an 8086 with 16k RAM, and a serial port for a super, extended high-capacity cassette strorage retrieval unit.

Of course ther is no DOS, there is no Diskdrive.

really though... I do have a 386sx/16 with 4 meg of ram and a full 112 meg hard drive! this baby screams and Rise of the Triad runs okay on it, but only if I run QEMM and loadhigh all the drivers. Anyone know of any good ROT servers with IPX connectivity?

[Demobilized]

Well my dad owns a computer company haha so i think i can find someone to do it sense it seems like i run a high chance u screwing it up. Sorry to hijack your thread mantis but it seemed i could just post my questions here.

Also will looking through the sites that build the computer for you to see what kind of devices and things ill be needing and just go and buy those parts seperate? Does any of that make sense?

[MantisMag]

hey no problem. the question was pretty relevant to the topic. i built a computer. you wanna know about building a computer. it's all good. yeah you could do that. see what people like falcon northwest, and alienware put in their computers. and then copy that.

you could use mine for a template if you want. when i chose my components i was going for the best price/performance ratio i could. although i did spend a lot of money on the case and power supply i figured they were worth it since i'll be hanging onto them for a while. i can pm you if you like and we can talk about why i chose the components i did.

[FutureMagOwner]

[FooTemps]

Originally posted by MantisMag
foo - our computers are about the same. besides mine being prettier that is. i've got a better video card. you've got more ram. you have a dedicated sound card but my mobo's sound is better. i spent just a little more than you. closer to $1000. with my cooling setup i'll probably be able to overclock more than you though.

Yours may look better... but mine is a SEXAY BLACK case! lol, it's still cheapo though. Argh, I should have gone with the same level msi board... that way I would have a computer better than someone elses... lol

[MantisMag]

looks pretty good FMO. just a few concerns i wanna point out.

panaflo fans are very nice. and quiet too. where are you putting that? is it going to be a case fan or a cpu fan? if it's going on the cpu does it come with a heatsink? cause an 80mm fan won't fit on the retail sink. if you look at my pictures i have an 80mm fan on there. that sucker is HUGE compared to the processor as is the heatsink it rests on.

i don't know anything about the reliablity or performance of samsung hard drives. i usually stick to WD and Maxtor. i also prefer to get the 8MB cache models. i don't know how much difference it makes... actually i can find out. my second hard drive only has 2MB of cache. i'll let you know later how much difference it makes.

i also don't know anything about WORKS power supplies. i'm always very leery of PSUs i've seen too many from dell's and hp's and such go bad. so i stick with either antec or enermax.

finally unless you're a major audiophile and have some really sweet speakers. i'm not talking computer speakers either. i'm talking real speakers. or if you're into music production. then you're not going to need the eX. the regular audigy2 is fine. if you need all the I/O ports get the audigy2 platinum. but the eX really isn't worth it for most people.

[FutureMagOwner]

o ok thanks.


the fan i have no idea where im putting like i said i personally have no idea could you maybe get me the product codes of what you recommend from newegg for all the stuff to make a functioning computer?(besides the stuff i mentioned since if i managed to convince my mom to get anything like this we'd scrap the monitor and speakers and graphics card from our gateway since they arent bad.


and im not an audiophile i like a clean sound but it doesnt have to be perfect.

[e mag]

i would recommend a western digital harddrive too. you can get the 120gb special edition for around 150$, maybe cheaper with rebates, i just got a 180gb one for 180$.

[Flamebo]

Originally posted by e mag
i would recommend a western digital harddrive too. you can get the 120gb special edition for around 150$, maybe cheaper with rebates, i just got a 180gb one for 180$.

I got dual 80's pretty cheap. The 8 MB cache on these SE's makes all the difference.