Building your own Computer!

I personally think some people on the replies are a bit harsh but, also believe it is hard to get a real discussion going on any certain subject specifically.

We could use a bullet pointed list of types of hardware that are compatible with eachother. Like DDR3 won't fit an old HP board from the 90's or even the 00's.

With the uses of Arduino that are possible on MB's it's endless. With a Dynohub, you could build a whole trip computer to rival a Cadillac HUD with holographic display and all.

Anyways, with the gamut of information available in the Tavern... This would be a great addition! You do need some of these skills to post here anyway. NO COMPUTER OR THE LIKE, NO POST!

One thing I don't wanna see, Ads for alienware! They are over rated and over priced!

KCvale said:

So, with $1,500 what part's would you buy I can get from Fry's Electronics around the corner to make a fast dual screen Windows desktop geared to web, pics, and business and not games?

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Any Intel i3 4xxx series, ($120-$140)
This is already overkill for what you need, but if you want even more power, an i5 ($220ish) or i7 ($320ish) will knock it out of the proverbial park.

2x2GB or 2x4GB DDR3-1600 ($60-$90)

H8x or Z8x/9x LGA1150 motherboard, look at the video outs for what you need ($60-$300)

500GB-3TB HDD, I recommend 7200 RPM ($50-$150)
Having 2 drives with swap file on 2nd drive will slightly speed up the system.

Optical drive, if you don't plan on burning discs then a standard DVD or BD-ROM drive will work ($20-$40)

400w-600w PSU, any brand but Rosewill ($30-$80)

Case? You don't appear to use them! I recommend you do because a case forces air across VRMs and keeps dust out of the insides of slots.
Video card? You don't need one, the onboard on any LGA1150 processor will be more than enough unless you game or CAD.

Windows 7 ($?) arrrrr, matey, if you go 4GB RAM, then 32-bit. 8+GB RAM, you should use an x64 version.

If you have any questions, let me know. I keep current knowledge on hardware and am a member of a half dozen PC forums.

Hi Dave!
Due do my poor monitors and eyes I couldn't read much of anything in your giant paragraph posts but I did catch this...

AssembleThis said:

As for as your ancient CRT's if they are that good and you like having your eyeballs burnt out I recommend you keep them for your next build. Think of all the money you will save.
Lol ten years out of a build, your joking right? Advancement in technology makes leaps and bounds.
AssembleThis

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Leaps and bonds indeed, and if you pick right you can get something still useable 10 years later, my current system is functional proof of that, but I have the $ and it's time to upgrade my experience at my work PC and that starts with a new display system.

This is what I have now:



Note my shop desk is 5' wide and 3' deep.

My plan is to replace both monitors with something like this:
http://www.lg.com/us/monitors/lg-34UM95-P-ultrawide-monitor





Monitor with Stand (WxHxD) 32.7" x 18.5" x 6.8"
Monitor without Stand (WxHxD) 35.6" x 20.2" x 7"

ULTRAWIDE 21:9
ULTRAWIDE QUAD HIGH DEFINITION
SRGB 99%

I am open to other less expensive options but you get the jest, one big awesome display to fill the whole area in front of me with whatever I want to see which is usually a dozen things.

Once I settle on the display I'll get the PC parts and OS I need to take advantage of it now and down the road for years as I keep loosing my sight.

A really big Quad HD display for a PC display when you have a nice 65" HET sounds dumb when I won''t be sitting in my shop to watch TV, I spend a good 6-8 hours every day at the thing doing something important and I deserve it ;-}

Newegg is on my "no buy" list. It's kinda like the "no-fly" list except you never ever get off no matter what you do.

I ordered some RAM from them years ago. They shipped "signature required", sorry nobody home. I contacted them and said we both work, leave it in the alcove, everyone does, it's safe, nothing gets stolen. Sorry, sig required. After 3 tries it went back and I paid shipping both ways.

Burn me once...

Now I'm retired and here all the time. And I will never ever buy anything from newegg again. Even if it's less cost. Even if they ship free. Even if they offer a free trip to Hawaii.

There are lots of other Co's that sell computer parts w/o ridiculous shipping polices.

Wouldn't buy it for free. I don't care about their problems, I care about my problems.

Everything gets left in the alcove. $1200 home theater receivers, $300 shipments of lobster and caviar, $1000 vacuum tube amplifiers.

Everything but $60 worth of RAM sticks. Newegg can ram their sticks up their brownie, never ever again.

They are the only Co. I ever dealt with that had that ridiculous policy and that's why I'll never order from them again.

Easy.

Hey Dave,

Do you want people to actually read what you post?

Try throwing some line and paragraph breaks in because I for one have stopped even trying to read your gigantic run-on posts.

Of course I got my money back. Less shipping both ways. So, not all of it.

I went to Fry's and bought it there. I buy lots of stuff there. Sometimes I have it shipped too. They don't have ridiculous "sig required" shipping policies.

Buy all you want from Newegg, you like 'em you can use 'em. Me, never again.

I am not suggesting that you stop using them, why are you suggesting that I should?

Forget it, not gonna happen. That is my way of dealing with Co's that have unacceptable behavior. They never ever get any more business from me.

AssembleThis said:

I've been building them for over 40 years. Just think about it.

Dave
AssembleThis

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40 years! - what? you start out with an Altair or something?

20 yrs here. 486-33 and on from there. Knew Linux (Slackware 2 commandline stuff) and OS/2 Warp in mid 90's. Finally "gave up" on both taking over and removing Windows from the World the turn of the Century. Between in competent promotion by IBM of it own operating system and the endless in-fighting between KDE and GNOME, not the mention the endless "re-inventing the wheel" and "perpetual alpha-beta state" of nearly all Linux software (ironically the Kernal is and always was solid - it was always the GNU stuff on top that was never "finished". and the all too many Distros - too many for any one to become a center of focus.

Exception being - lately (since 2006 or so) Ubantu (Linux's Microsoft! - a pox on their house! Early one the best distro was SCO (BAH! DEATH TO SCO (I think they finally died after 14 yrs in court) - those that made war on Linux to save themselves even though they sold the best Linux distro in the late 90's!!! (Caldara Openlinux).


Suse was always the most consistent distro these last 20 yrs, and lately (post 2008 or so - LinuxMint seems good. I try them every year or so - but "gave up" may moons ago in truth. There is only so many "no sound", "no video", no Wifi" device driver bull**** nonsense I can take - and 20 yrs of it is enough for me. I speak the truth. 1998 installation of Caldera Openlinux with KDE 1 installed with video, and sound support (no net though - I had a "winmodem" back then and Linux had no support for those things - until 2004 - which by then most of us had DSL and so support was not longer relivant! Last year I installed both Mint and Suse - nether had sound support, only one offered Wifi support for my PCI wificard (and then it was spotty - hang up every ten minutes!). Linux script kiddies are too interested in making "Purdy" window-wigets and effects to be bothered with making decent device drivers! SO people could actually install and USE Linux!

---------sorry got mad and ranted thinking of all the non-progress (and actual reversal IMO) of Linux as a protential useful tool.

-----I know quite a bit about PC hardware and willing to help anyone with any questions.

-same with "Pirate" Radio and soon hopefully TV - been in that scene since the late 90's

-- also Sims - flight/driving/space games

and finally if anyone has interest in Space - check out Space Engine and "Lifelive42" Youtube channel with all his space exploration videos

https://www.youtube.com/user/LifeLive42

JTMedia and Cronoversitar(sp) are two others of similar talent.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvAAdHQG7Ys&list=UUD7jEDKUclN2vni45zw6ILw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3vlxnqpnCUM&list=UUTd6fuQ8Y72Q1rwjn4-WfLQ&index=40

After checking the prices on individual parts and a new OS I caught the right sales at Fry's Electronics on Monday (Labor Day).

KCvale said:

This is what I had last week:

Note my shop desk is 5' wide and 3' deep.

Click to expand...

This is what I have now:



I bought this PC
http://www.frys.com/product/8171905

Basic Specifications:

Genuine Windows 8.1
AMD FX-8300

North Bridge: AMD 970, South Bridge: AMD SB950

AMD R7 240 2GB DDR3 (video card)
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicat...kwCjCs81CjCE&gclid=CPiittK6wMACFQGVfgodKTwA_w

And a pair of these 24" 1920x1200 flat displays for a 3840x1200 pixles 41"x13" desktop.
http://www.asus.com/Monitors_Projectors/PA248Q/

12GB at 1600MHz 4 x DIMM
2TB SATA hard drive (7200rpmRPM)
24x DVD-RW
10/100/1000Mbps LAN
Sonic Master High Definition 8-channel Audio
1 x 16-in-1 Card Reader

Note in that pic I am comparing IE and Firefox browsers with Win 8.1, I still have a bunch of software to load and I need to plug my old Data SATA drive in but my eyes are happier and so far the box is speedy, solid and quite.

I blew the whole $1500 I had budgeted but got what I wanted for my last PC.

My advice on monitors is don't by a TV unless that's what you are going to use it for, a TV, as no 1080 HDTV is going to give you the up close clarity a real monitor or my case pair of real monitors give you.

Good specs/price.

Good luck with AMD and win8....I hate theses.

There is a neat little program you can download to make Win8 work more like win7 some 'Shell' thing.
After win8 makes you crazy.

All those random restarts and glitches you can thank AMD for.

Sorry if I sound harsh, I have not touched anything AMD for at least 6 years, maybe it has improved.

Everything I have ever tried Linux on ran way better than any Windows OS ever did. Opens web pages faster , boots up faster, wakes up from sus faster, Over all just does it ''all' way better!!

I just got done setting up a triple boot.Virgin Win 7, Win 7 with just about every kind of sofware for any endevors I will ever need. An absolute perfection. Last Ubuntu 14.04 with the classic desk top. Still can not get used to my desk top looking like a phone app lol.

Win 8 ? Still trying to understand what they were thinking? Looks like a great OS? I don't like it yet still. Yes I have used it plenty.


Long story short because of my Win 8 bootloader I was using. Wubi kicked me in the teeth untill I learned what the problem was. I needed to change a RO wording in the boot command sequence to RW. Took a week to figure out. Thanks Micro.

Everytime Windows scews the mass's out of somthing to where they cannot use Linux. Propiatary Bullony that they Nonchalantly ram down our throats. I hate them even more. It is like a permanent lasting Kind of hate too!

Wanna hear a good OxyMoron? '' Microsoft works'' Low blow .. I could not resist. Shoot I have lost weeks off my life making sure I ran a faster OS..


China was going to pull the plug on good ol Windows. They wanted another OS to be installed in their manufactured computers. They were going to reinvent a Linux distro I beleive? I wanna see'em stick it to them.


After the latest proprietary Bios ditty, Microsoft decided we all needed. I hope China kicks them to the curb..As I was just about frothing at the mouth.. Prolly did not effect a lot of folks reading this but I run Linux on every computer I own. If I want a brand new computer with the style and art of Microsoft there you go....they wanna brain wash folks into beleiving they got the only distro.


Not True..

Oh yeah here is my old work horse I be typing on now.. Still a hotrod by todays standards. I had a buddy all happy he bought a new Win 8 computer. It was a clearance model. He was telling me how fast it was. When I got to the house and checked it out? I had to bite my tongue. Was easy to remark with baited breath lol.

This 4 or 5 year old jewel. was my system builder. Back then at a bargan. Cuzz I built it duh lol.

Since this board about a year ago got the Bios reflashed and the better CPU. I am sure previuos limitations are gone now. Bet I can Double my memory. As the CPU I have now knows what to do with it.


Here you go this thing is taking a nap. It is always easy peasy with Linux.. Cant forget my 60 inch flat screen monitor. This is a sound investment for all that saved money..