I’m building a computer. I’ve built dozens, so it’s pretty much old hat to me.
Is anybody interested in a step by step pictorial of the process?
Ralph
Sure just to see your choices in components if nothing. Know the basics but like to know more knowledgable info. Thanks
Dear Ralph,
Components change so quickly. By the time you save up for your “dream” system, it is obsolete…
A primer on matching components/buses etc. would be nice.
How many different case/motherboard sizes?
Do you build in air filtering?
Any preference Intel vs. AMD?
And on, and on…
Thanks.
Sincerely,
Joe Satnik
Joe,
Obsolete is just another word for affordable.
The one I built yesterday was a dual processor rack mounted system.
I bought two AMD Opteron 2.2GHz server cpu’s for $5.99 each. A dual core chip
would have been $60 and up.
I used 3 IDE drives and a hardware RAID controller I already had.
I bought 4GB of 3200 ECC DDR for what 1GB of DDR2 would have cost.
If space or weight are a concern, you have to spend more and get the latest technology.
A dual core system with a one TB SATA hard drive would use less power than what I built.
And fit in a smaller case.
But the extra power cost will be minmal compared to the money I saved.
I have one more computer to build before Christmas. I bought a brand new 2 cpu Opteron motherboard
for $18.99. This Mobo supports dual core Opterons. I bought two 2.0GHz dual core Opterons for $35.
So for $54, I have the “brains” of a 4 proccessor computer.
A new quad core cpu would have been at least $145. A quad core motherboard, $100 or more.
I’ve already saved $200 and haven’t started building it yet. When I buy memory, I’ll save another $200.
Ralph
When I’m buying new parts I use Newegg quite a bit. I bought the case and power supply from Newegg. Off the shelf computers usually have poor cooling and cheap power suppllies. This FSP supply has active PFC and four +12v rails. Most power supplies have one +12v rail. Power supplies are one area I don’t go cheap. If a PS shorts out, you can fry everything plugged in.
(http://www.lscdata.com/users/cabby/_forumfiles/cmp023Small.jpg)
Here with the hard drive cage removed you can see the two 120mm fans that draw air past the HDD’s. Heat is a major cause of hard drive failure. Ralph
(http://www.lscdata.com/users/cabby/_forumfiles/cmp022Small.jpg)
Ralph, Where are you buying your CPUs? I figured I was doing well at $45 for an AMD dual core, but $35 just makes me angry–as does $18 for an Opteron based mobo. And as an FYI, two dual core CPUs does not equal a quad core–the bus speed is slower than internal processor speed, so it’s nowhere near as fast–more like 1.5 times? As it is, I’m happy with my mess of homebuilt machines–three desktops and a few cheapy laptops.
One final thing–what OS are you running? DDR ram and Win7 or Vista don’t go well together–same thing for either of those OSes and shared video.
Robbie Hanson said:
Ralph,Where are you buying your CPUs? I figured I was doing well at $45 for an AMD dual core, but $35 just makes me angry–as does $18 for an Opteron based mobo.
And as an FYI, two dual core CPUs does not equal a quad core–the bus speed is slower than internal processor speed, so it’s nowhere near as fast–more like 1.5 times?
One final thing–what OS are you running? DDR ram and Win7 or Vista don’t go well together–same thing for either of those OSes and shared video.
Robbie,
Two dual core Opteron cpu’s each have their own 1000MHz bus with on board memory controller. What is the bus speed of a single quad core? Unless the Quad core has a bus speed more than 2000MHz, it would be slower at equal clock speed.
Myself, I’d rather have 4 single core Opterons, vs two dual cores. Each Opteron has its own bus and memory controller. But that would take a lot of space.
The 2 processor system I just finished uses an ATX board.
The one I’m working on now uses an extended ATX board. But it will hold 16GB of memory, which takes some space.
I beta tested Vista with both Rambus and DDR. Had no problems at all.
I plan on using W7. I’ll let you know if I have any problems, but I don’t expect any.
I paid $35 for the pair of dual core Opterons, on eBay. But it now price.
Bought the motherboard at geeks.com.
I missed out on a chance to buy a 4 cpu board cheap a few weeks ago. There were several on eBay under $50.
When I checked back, the cheap boards were gone and all that remained were $200-$300.
I have four 844 Opterons that would have dropped right in.
Ralph
Ralph:
You’ll love Win7–I’ve been running it since August(got it for free through the computer science course at college), and I haven’t had an issue yet. It’s just awesome.
I do intend on acquiring an Opteron at some point, but at the moment I don’t have a need for a server processor–I’m either just surfing the web or gaming, and for that an Athlon is (IMO) better with DDR2.
can you build a MAC?
Robbie,
Both computers are special purpose.
The one I just put together runs a mobile DJ rig. I call it a mobile DJ rig, but it is a nice recording rig too.
The rack includes a 12 channel stereo mixer, Yamaha Graphic EQ and a loudspeaker proccessor.
The (two) dual core system will be for video proccessing/editing.
I’d also like to try my hand at a little 3D animation.
Ralph
Andrè Schofield said:You can buy a clone here and save a few bucks. http://store.psystar.com/ For $49.95 they'll sell you the software that will let you install Leopard on any PC.
can you build a MAC?
A Mac now uses standard X86 components and Intel proccessors. They engineered the OS so a special bootloader is required.
The hardware is now no different from a Windows PC.
Ralph
hmmm…that was all Greek to me…All I know is I am damn tired of the viruses, trojans and now rootkits trying to destroy my PC. MS continual “updates” get old too.
I have an eMac I got when I retired 6 years ago, still going strong.
Andrè Schofield said:Linux is free and will run on most anything. Easy to use. Set-up is fast and simple most of the time. If you have some obscure hardware, it could be a problem. If you've used Windows, you can use Linux. After several years of the kid's friends messing up my Windows machines, I built a Linux system for guests. 5 year old kids were able to use it and it was bullet proof. And I no longer had any problems on my Windows systems.
hmmm...that was all Greek to me...All I know is I am damn tired of the viruses, trojans and now rootkits trying to destroy my PC. MS continual "updates" get old too.
The most popular desktop version of Linux now is Ubuntu.
http://www.ubuntu.com/
If you Google, there are many others. Some even have DVD versions you can run without installing. See if you like it or not.
The DVD versions run a bit slower since it is not installed. But they are great to use on public networks. Nothing loads to the
hard drive, so no malware risk at all.
Ralph
Andrè Schofield said:Ya just got to stay away from those porn sites and you'll have far fewer problems with viuses and other bad stuff :o
hmmm...that was all Greek to me...All I know is I am damn tired of the viruses, trojans and now rootkits trying to destroy my PC. MS continual "updates" get old too.
was my son and the damn music sites…
Andrè Schofield said:Still porn just a different variety :D I get all my illegal music from Usenet. MUCH safer.
was my son and the damn music sites...
Here is a deal for you Mac fans. A dual proccessor G5 Power MAC for $359.99
http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=M9454LLA-PB-2R&cm_mmc=geekmail--newarrivals_html--05dec09-_-M9454LLA-PB-2R
Apple has managed to stop sales of the Mac clones, though you can still buy the software to load Snow Leopard on a PC.
Ralph