[Off Topic] Building a computer

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Privet

Privet

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Apr 4, 2011
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Hey is anyone here quite knowledgeable in the building a PC arts.

I'm looking to build my own PC for the first time due to my current one seeming to be dying. I don't want to spend too much prob 800 at most and it will be mainly used for gaming. I have found some parts on microdirect, but not sure if that's all I need or if they are even compatible.

I will list the components if anyone is interested in helping me, thanks.

CPU -http://www.microdirect.co.uk/home/product/42314

Case - http://www.microdirect.co.uk/home/product/51967

RAM - http://www.microdirect.co.uk/home/product/48886

GFX Card - http://www.microdirect.co.uk/home/product/52179

PSU - http://www.microdirect.co.uk/home/product/41003

MoBo - http://www.microdirect.co.uk/home/product/46786

HD - http://www.microdirect.co.uk/home/product/42256

SoundCard - http://www.microdirect.co.uk/home/product/27080

Fan (Not sure I need this) - http://www.microdirect.co.uk/home/product/47096




Thanks to all who help, I will keep updating this if people do help until I have decided on a final build.

Thanks again.
 
Mate go to a shop in gateshead called "Computer Orbit", they build your comp from scratch and you can choose everything that goes into your computer.

Mine took 1 week to make, but it was worth the wait.

1000GB ram, an amazing graphics card, 22 inch 1080p computer screen (it's ****ing massive), along with an excellent video card that makes videos look awesome.

3.2 GHZ processor. A good fan to keep it cool. It can play every game that's coming out currently.

Overall it was £679, but i bought it in a Christmas period where 100 quid was knocked off the price. So i suggest going to down for a visit to their shop, and they'll literally answer all your questions and offer you full support.

You can buy already built computers, or they give you a massive list of different things, and you can choose what goes in.

You can choose the motherboard, RAM, the processor, everything!

http://instore.computerorbit.co.uk/

Their website.
 
Heavy Metal Toon said:
Mate go to a shop in gateshead called "Computer Orbit", they build your comp from scratch and you can choose everything that goes into your computer.

Mine took 1 week to make, but it was worth the wait.

1000GB ram, an amazing graphics card, 22 inch 1080p computer screen (it's ****ing massive), along with an excellent video card that makes videos look awesome.

3.2 GHZ processor. A good fan to keep it cool. It can play every game that's coming out currently.

Overall it was £679, but i bought it in a Christmas period where 100 quid was knocked off the price. So i suggest going to down for a visit to their shop, and they'll literally answer all your questions and offer you full support.

You can buy already built computers, or they give you a massive list of different things, and you can choose what goes in.

You can choose the motherboard, RAM, the processor, everything!

http://instore.computerorbit.co.uk/

Their website.
Click to expand...

But where is the enjoyment in that - why not just buy a pre-made one then?

As a suggestion to Privet I would spend more time considering the CPU and look to spend more on this (if I'm honest upto £200) as this is the MAJOR component. Also spend a bit more if possible on better quality memory. Finally, yes you need fans, you need to keep the cpu cool (I would suggest a water cooler but these are more expensive)
 
yoshiyella said:
But where is the enjoyment in that - why not just buy a pre-made one then?

As a suggestion to Privet I would spend more time considering the CPU and look to spend more on this (if I'm honest upto £200) as this is the MAJOR component. Also spend a bit more if possible on better quality memory. Finally, yes you need fans, you need to keep the cpu cool (I would suggest a water cooler but these are more expensive)
Click to expand...

Because it's not pre-made. You get to choose everything that gans in your PC.
 
I got about £590 atm, but will be closer to a grand soon. Might check them out cheers, Tash.
 
When you get the RAM research the motherboard specs to see if matched Dual Stepping is better than none. I have seen people SLOW down their machines by mis-matching the memory.

Decide on which operatin system you use. I tend to use XP and it will be a long time before I move to Windows 7 and I will only do so when I can't play Eve Online any longer on my rig.

When you get the kit the important thing is to build it slowly. For example, I run a memory test on it for 24 hours to see if the CPU and the memory is fine. This works by abusing the machine with obscene prime number calculations and tests the hardware to the limit. I do this before I go near an operatinng system.

When you install the operating system on a PC what I try to do is to get a fast system drive (that's C:) and it doens't have to be large. I have taken delivery of a new 130GB hard drive which spins at 15,000 rpm. that will be my system disk. All applications will be on aother drive.

The swap file (Control panel > system > Advanced stuff) will be set so that all graphics bull is set to minimum and that the speed is maximied. So what if my XP has quare edged windows, no shadow. I want speed and no nonsense. Turn off all that semi-translucent nonsense. If it ain't on top I don't wish to see it. The important thing here is to set the Swap File to be a fixed size and to make sure that it's put onto another drive, perhaps the D: drive. By fixed sized size; I mean make the minimum size qual the maximum size.

If you live behind a proper firewall router (I mean a proper one and not one that Sky tells you so) then you can turn off the machine's firewall settings.

Make sure that you REMOVE Windows search application. It's hopeless and screws up the performance of the machine. If you need to search for something then go to voidtools.com and look for Everything.

Also remove stuff like MSN, Outlook Express (unless you use this) from the Windows Applicatons option. If you design websites you will need the IIS turned on but remove as much nonsense from there. Remove Media Player too. You can get VLC which is better anyway and plays FLAC files (and don't tell me that you play mp3; if you do get your ears tested) and VLC performs best if you get one prior to version one. For films get Media Player Classic.

Go through the services and find the ones which are on and that you don't need. Look in the registry for the startup folder and remove nonsense such as Adobe and Google update applications which do nothng useful which you can't do yourself. In fact, keep an eye on what is started up at boot time. Keep this lot pared down.

Defrag the machne weekly. It makes a huge difference. Just general configuration and housekeeping on the PC is worth more than the extra hardware costs and is cheaper.


You mentoned fan. Check the casing and modify it if you have to. Work out where the airflow goes and push/pull the air to make it go through better.

have fun. though it's one job that I hate though I have been building these things since the early 70s when I started off with my own home made circuit boards, components and soldering irons and make my machines from scratch.
 
ClearlyDeludedGloryHunter said:
When you get the RAM research the motherboard specs to see if matched Dual Stepping is better than none. I have seen people SLOW down their machines by mis-matching the memory.

Decide on which operatin system you use. I tend to use XP and it will be a long time before I move to Windows 7 and I will only do so when I can't play Eve Online any longer on my rig.

When you get the kit the important thing is to build it slowly. For example, I run a memory test on it for 24 hours to see if the CPU and the memory is fine. This works by abusing the machine with obscene prime number calculations and tests the hardware to the limit. I do this before I go near an operatinng system.

When you install the operating system on a PC what I try to do is to get a fast system drive (that's C:) and it doens't have to be large. I have taken delivery of a new 130GB hard drive which spins at 15,000 rpm. that will be my system disk. All applications will be on aother drive.

The swap file (Control panel > system > Advanced stuff) will be set so that all graphics bull is set to minimum and that the speed is maximied. So what if my XP has quare edged windows, no shadow. I want speed and no nonsense. Turn off all that semi-translucent nonsense. If it ain't on top I don't wish to see it. The important thing here is to set the Swap File to be a fixed size and to make sure that it's put onto another drive, perhaps the D: drive. By fixed sized size; I mean make the minimum size qual the maximum size.

If you live behind a proper firewall router (I mean a proper one and not one that Sky tells you so) then you can turn off the machine's firewall settings.

Make sure that you REMOVE Windows search application. It's hopeless and screws up the performance of the machine. If you need to search for something then go to voidtools.com and look for Everything.

Also remove stuff like MSN, Outlook Express (unless you use this) from the Windows Applicatons option. If you design websites you will need the IIS turned on but remove as much nonsense from there. Remove Media Player too. You can get VLC which is better anyway and plays FLAC files (and don't tell me that you play mp3; if you do get your ears tested) and VLC performs best if you get one prior to version one. For films get Media Player Classic.

Go through the services and find the ones which are on and that you don't need. Look in the registry for the startup folder and remove nonsense such as Adobe and Google update applications which do nothng useful which you can't do yourself. In fact, keep an eye on what is started up at boot time. Keep this lot pared down.

Defrag the machne weekly. It makes a huge difference. Just general configuration and housekeeping on the PC is worth more than the extra hardware costs and is cheaper.


You mentoned fan. Check the casing and modify it if you have to. Work out where the airflow goes and push/pull the air to make it go through better.

have fun. though it's one job that I hate though I have been building these things since the early 70s when I started off with my own home made circuit boards, components and soldering irons and make my machines from scratch.
Click to expand...

Cheers for all the info, I'll look into it :D!
 
Try Scan.co.uk, you'll probably find better for less money. Don't go for an AMD phenom, the intel icore processors, especially the i7, are much better for around the same price. If you're going to overclock at all, go for a corsair H70 or higher, great little water cooler for your CPU.

It's great fun building your own comp, my current specs:

Motherboard: Asus P8P67 Pro
CPU: Intel Core i7 2600K @ 4.7GHZ
Memory: 8GB 2000MHZ Corsair XMS3 @ 1957MHZ
CPU Cooler: Corsair H70
GPU: Sapphire HD 6990
Case: CM scout Case
Display: LG E2750v 27"
PSU: Cooler Master Silent Pro 850w (Modular)
Xbox Wireless Receiver
Samsung Blu- Ray Drive
WD 1TB Sata 3 HDD 7200RPM
 
http://www.buildyourown.org.uk/forums/forum.asp?FORUM_ID=33 is a good place for advice on building a PC and what to buy.

TheLurker said:
Try Scan.co.uk, you'll probably find better for less money. Don't go for an AMD phenom, the intel icore processors, especially the i7, are much better for around the same price. If you're going to overclock at all, go for a corsair H70 or higher, great little water cooler for your CPU.
Click to expand...

Scan are decent, unless they do their favourite trick of marking something as in stock when it isn't, then not telling you about it until after it was meant to be dispatched and no longer can be for the delivery day you chose.

Also why are you recommending an i7? Unless he's going to be using programs which utilise hyperthreading it's a luxury he won't feel the benefits of, and i5/i7s overclock well enough with an air cooler like the CM Hyper 212 Plus.
 
I used to build PCs when I was a teenager, it's been so long I haven't been doing it now that I'd have no idea what **** is best to buy these days. But if it is of any use whatsoever I'll say I used to regularly use microdirect (who you seem to be going with) to make bulk orders and they were one of the best around for speed and customer service.

Also could you tell me how much your final rig costs when you get round to buying? A mate has been asking me to build him a system for a while now and it'd save me the bother of looking **** up.
 
skalpel said:
I used to build PCs when I was a teenager, it's been so long I haven't been doing it now that I'd have no idea what **** is best to buy these days. But if it is of any use whatsoever I'll say I used to regularly use microdirect (who you seem to be going with) to make bulk orders and they were one of the best around for speed and customer service.

Also could you tell me how much your final rig costs when you get round to buying? A mate has been asking me to build him a system for a while now and it'd save me the bother of looking **** up.
Click to expand...

I think atm that's around 560-590 without Windows. Which i think is pretty cheap.
 
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