Oh boy. I'm giving myself a big pat on the back for building a computer from scratch but damn, what a process I had to go through. I started at 6 this evening and just got done and it's now 2:30 in the morning.

Let's see, I used one ASUS P5N32-SLI SE Deluxe for my mobo, an Intel Core 2 Duo at 2.4 gig per proc for the CPU, one BFG 7800whateverthehellitisOC for the graphics card, 2 Gigs of Corsair RAM, a Gigabyte aftermarket phase-change CPU cooling, one sweet Coolermaster Wavemaster case for the enclosure, two Seagate Barracuda hard drives; one at 80 gig one at 250 gig (the OS still won't detect the larger hard drive in spite of my best efforts) and an Antec NEO 550 watt PSU to power the damn thing. I'm not counting the Turtle Beach Riviera sound card because I haven't put THAT in yet, dammit. Oh, and I can't forget the luscious Dell 21 inch widescreen LCD monitor I picked out.

I'll say two thing about building your own computer, anyone can do it if they've got the detemination, a stack of Maximum PC mags hanging about the house plus a couple of those "gee it really isn't all that hard to build your own PC" books (if there was any justice in the world such books would be right next to the "Remove Your Own Appendix and Save Big on Medical Bills" just to warn you)and a LOT of time on your hands. Keep that part of having a lot of time on your hands in mind. Second, you WILL be in for one hell of an experience.

So, what's it like to build your own computer? Let's see, FIRST you read about the build process from books, magazines and online websites. You read tutorials, you read about the latest gear you start getting an idea of what you want. THEN you hit the online stores like TigerDirect and Newegg and start reading reviews of what people thought about the parts they bought. THEN you go and read professional reviews and see what THEY thought about the stuff you want to buy. You narrow down the parts you want and when you're about to order the stuff, it's suddenly out of stock!:rant: I first planned on building an AMD system but just before I ordered the parts, the CPU I wanted went MIA and I haven't seen it since! So you repeat the process, and it IS a major headache. Eventually, you come up with something workable and order the whole shehbang, dammit.

THEN the stuff comes in. There's your brand spanking new $1500 computer in 27 seperate parts and four pound pieces and you get to learn the joys of reading manuals and being careful to assemble it in such a way as to not kill the whole thing before you get the chance to boot it up. Some of the things I had to face;

That God-damned Socket 775 cpu thing is way, way, WAY beyond delicate. I had read that you can't drag the CPU across the socket and that the entire interface was delicate. I had no idea what I was about to face. The CPU has no holes for pins to insert into, just zillions of contacts that the pins will rest on when it's dropped into the socket. I lifted the CPU cover and found what looked like a forest of 1/32nd of an inch human hairs sticking up and I'm looking at it and I know that if I bend just ONE of those miserable excuses for pins, I'll have killed the entire project. I could've sworn I had dropped that damn CPU on one side then another, which is another little activity that guarantees a broken computer, I wasn't happy.

To further complicate things, I had to install that Gigabyte CPU fan and heatsink cooler right on top of that socket. The heatsink is secured with two spring retention arms which applies unbelieveable amounts of tension on one side before you can get to the other. Then entire time I'm bending down those retaining arms, the motherboard is creaking rather ominously and I'm scared to death cracking the CPU socket or the Mobo. To make matters worse, when I got down securing the heatsink and promising myself I'll never remove the frapping thing again, I found I had it installed backwards and I HAD to take the heatsink off and put it right back on again! All the while I'm listening to the mobo creak, it seemed to be saying I just killed a two hundred dollar mobo. The odds of my little project being a success suddenly seemed a hell of a lot slimmer. Needless to say, I was nervous.

The RAM modules seemed to do their best to resist going into their little slots, I pushed down on those damn things till I was sure I was about to break something before they snapped into place.

The power, reset, HDD activity lights have to inserted into the right places and I had to go through one of my "build it" computer books to find out that it's the WHITE wire that is generally the ground wire. Some of those switches are polarized and if you get it backwards, the computer won't boot.

My I/O template refused, stubbornly, to stay in place and I was fiddling with that for a good twenty minutes.

You guys have no idea how relieved I was when I pushed the power button and the computer very nicely booted up and did the POST thing without a single complaint. I was even more relieved when I managed to get Windows XP installed.

I've still got to install my soundcard, I hadn't even tested the sound yet, I still have got to convince Windows to format my second hard drive and I've still got to rearrange the wiring is such a way that it doesn't look like a rank amatuer just threw the entire computer together. :eek: Then I've got to get the damn thing hooked to the 'net.

Right now, the new computer is alien. I had no idea just how much I customized the one I'm currently using till I looked at Windows in its default settings. The look and feel of my old computer, I KNOW where everything is at. It's like moving into a new house, after a while things are arranged the way you want them and you can find your way from point a to point b in the dark. I'd still be working on that damn PC but I'm too tired and just glad I got to where I'm at right now.

Would I recommend one building their own computer? If and only if you're real picky about what you want in the computer (that IS a good point, my case is so much better in both looks and build quality, the PSU isn't one of those third rate jobs that infect Dell, HP and Gateway systems, I didn't build a system with under powered RAM which slows computers to a crawl, I've got a heatsink that is going to keep that CPU and the capacitors around it nice and cool), you want to further you're knowledge about computers in general, you have the manual dexterity of a surgeon and are serving a penance for whatever misdeeds you did in your past lives.

It's a long and rocky road building a PC, but I think it'll be worth. If people are interested in this post, I'll keep you informed about what's going on. Right now, I can say that I BUILT my own computer and for all my fumbling I know that from here on out I can only get better, dammit.

After you built your 1st one you'll never go back to buying a PC already made. They are really quite easy to build once you do it once & you can completely customize them to your needs.

You also save a lot, I have several PC's and I upgrade at least one every 2 years or so, but I don't need to buy a new case, new floppy drive, new harddrives etc - just new mobo & chip.

Very cool, I am no computer whiz and all of this is very Greek to me, but I can appreciate the time it took to make it from the bottom up. I have to cheat and either get my boyfriend to do it or pay the computer tech at work to do it for me. Borghunter was a big help with recommending what I needed to upgrade and such.
congrats on the new system.

Yep, this is a pretty typical "I built my computer" story. Congrats! It's the best way to save money, but yes, it can sometimes be a bit frustrating.

And actually, for the record, if you have a basic computer repair kit (about ten bucks at Staples, Radio Shack, or whenever; includes screwdrivers and a couple other tools), a bent CPU pin is not catastrophic. I did that a while ago with my Athlon XP 1500+ computer, and I managed to fix a bent pin and get the computer working just fine. You just have to be careful not to break one off. That is indeed instant death to your CPU.

Congrats man. It's the best way to do it

Sorry for the delay guys, life and my girlfriend's kids caught up with me for a while, not to mention non-stop tinkering with my computer.

After you built your 1st one you'll never go back to buying a PC already made. They are really quite easy to build once you do it once & you can completely customize them to your needs.

You also save a lot, I have several PC's and I upgrade at least one every 2 years or so, but I don't need to buy a new case, new floppy drive, new harddrives etc - just new mobo & chip.

You're right, Drew, now that I've got my new computer in working order, I'll never go back to paying someone ELSE to build one for me. I got exactly what I wanted and I'm not afraid of having to dive into the innards of my system to do anything from routine dusting to swapping out parts.

When I compare the hardware I got for the price I paid to what Dell had to offer, I came out ahead and I don't have to worry about proprietary parts.

To be honest, I can't knock on Dell too much. My old computer I got was a Dell, thankfully I knew enough to seperate the good parts from the junk. That computer served me well. I learned a lot on it and had that thing stroked, tweaked and polished to exactly how I wanted it, dammit.

Very cool, I am no computer whiz and all of this is very Greek to me, but I can appreciate the time it took to make it from the bottom up. I have to cheat and either get my boyfriend to do it or pay the computer tech at work to do it for me. Borghunter was a big help with recommending what I needed to upgrade and such. congrats on the new system.

Thank you, shortstuff, it's good to have tecnical advice from a number of different sources, it also ain't bad if you're the type that doesn't wish to get down and dirty with a new build and can have someone build it for you, THAT was a very tempting offer for me.


Yep, this is a pretty typical "I built my computer" story. Congrats! It's the best way to save money, but yes, it can sometimes be a bit frustrating.

And actually, for the record, if you have a basic computer repair kit (about ten bucks at Staples, Radio Shack, or whenever; includes screwdrivers and a couple other tools), a bent CPU pin is not catastrophic. I did that a while ago with my Athlon XP 1500+ computer, and I managed to fix a bent pin and get the computer working just fine. You just have to be careful not to break one off. That is indeed instant death to your CPU.

Now that I'm happily tapping away on my new system, the pain and frustration of actually building is fading away. I had to read my own post to be reminded just how tough it was.

Oh, and if you ever get the chance, take a peek at that new socket 775 pin grid array, I will guarantee that it will make your hair stand on end, dammit.


Congrats man. It's the best way to do it

Oh yeah, as I've stated I'm not going back. The quality of my system is second to none, dammit.

A couple of things. If you guys get the chance and are using Windows XP, go to the windows update site and download Tweak UI and Clear type. Tweak UI allows you to further fine-tune your settings by giving you a few more options. Clear type makes the type you see on most websites, such as this one, 100% better and easier to read.

A few issues I need to resolve.

Spybot search and destroy does NOT like firefox themes nor does it care for AOL at all. I downloaded Spybot, scanned my system and immunized it. After that, I couldn't get my computer to connect to the internet at all, my firefox theme disapeared, AOL stopped connecting. When I diable system immunization, everything works, when I turn it back on nothing does. I'm going to have ask some computer geeks about that.

I have a hell of a time connecting my MP-3 player to my computer and it is a pain in the butt to get my music transferred to my new system. I'm going to have to sneaker-net some of my old songs from my old computer to the new.

Rhapdody will NOT download its software to my new system. I've got a sneaking suspicion that Rhapsody knows the unique MAC address or something unique about my old computer and, as policy, will not allow two computers to have the same account, which is a real bummer at this point, I'm going to have to call those people, dammit.

Other than that, I'm enjoying a widescreen LCD from dell, my system is fast, quiet and powerful if a little bloated at this point, the keyboard I picked out is first rate, my sound system kicks ass and I'm enjoying the process of making this computer truly mine, dammit.

Oh, I forgot, the BIG thing I learned. When you wish to install an additional drive on your computer. After it's installed and is visible in device manager (visible, claims its functioning normally, you just can't access it) you have to go to the Control Panel, select Administrative Tools, select Computer Management, under Storage, you should see Disk Management. From there, select the drive, assign the drive a letter and select format. Do NOT select quick format if it's a brand new hard drive. After your disk is formatted, it will show up with its drive when you double click "My Computer" and you'll be able to use it.

That was one of the stumbling blocks I had to overcome and I hope it will help someone sometime in the future, dammit.

I had considered building my own, safe in the belief that my other would be around to use while I was completing the task. Trouble is, the old one died an unnatural death quite suddenly and I was in need of a new one quickly. I no longer had the luxury of building one while using the other, so a new Dell came in within a few days.

My hat's off to you for completing yours. I've enjoyed reading of your adventures. Good luck with the new machine.

you guys are very talented,well done

I have a hell of a time connecting my MP-3 player to my computer and it is a pain in the butt to get my music transferred to my new system. I'm going to have to sneaker-net some of my old songs from my old computer to the new.

A quick way is to network your old computer to your new one using the new one one as the server. You can then transfer all the files you wish and also access your mp-3 player.