Tips on building a new computer?

[Slater]

Alright, so... I've diagnosed the problem with my computer and why it is crashing and... I've ruled out absolutely everything that's not directly hardwired to the motherboard.

Yes, I am royally, utterly screwed as far as any hope to fix this computer. It officially is dead on the highest level.

I could send it in to Best Buy to have the motherboard replaced, but since it isn't under waranty, that would cost me nearly as much just to buy a completely new and better computer.

But I don't wanna do that. I've heard that it's worth it to just take the time to construct a computer from the ground up... less costly and better performance

The thing is that I'm a computer science major, not a computer engineering major. So... I was wondering, what do I need to undertake this?

I've already got the memory (1GB, DDR SDRAM at 333 MHz) and a SATA HDD that seem to work perfectly fine together... but nothing else...

someone help the n00b out here, pl0x

Edit: Oh yeah, and I'm on somewhat of a tight budget as it is... minimum wage here... I don't need something that can like load every polygon in BF1942 in 1ms from the time the game starts. I'd like to be able to play games and listen to music comfortably... not too extravagantly... ^^;
(well I would, but the budget...)

[Kenshin17]

Try going to newegg.com and searching for parts.

I would STRONGLY recommend upgrading to DDR 400 or better yet DDR2 667. You will need a motherboard (they have sound on board) if you wanna game you'll need a video card (go PCI Express x16) you'll also need a DVD or DVD-bruner. Burners on Newegg go for about 36 bucks.

As far as brands, go ASUS for the motherboard and video card. And for chipset look at the Nvidia chipset cards.

If you want me to search for my recommendations for you I can try. You can PM me if you want. Just let me know what you wanna spend.

Oh do you have a copy of XP already?

[Mithrandir]

The above is pretty good advice. I've had good luck with ASUS, and better RAM is always good.

It's all about how much you wanna spend.

Though in fairness, the more times I've built my own boxes, the more I've been frustrated with the process. It ends up not actually costing me any less, though the machines usually *are* faster.

[Warrior4Christ]

ASUS aren't the only valid motherboard brand. Gigabyte boards are good value too.

Yeah, so basically the chipset determines what features/ports/connectors the motherboard will have, so decide on this first, then choose a motherboard with that chipset. I also recommend the nVidia nForce chipsets.

[Slater]

aha, I see.

Yeah, my eMachine has nForce on it; it was pretty good.

also, 1GB isn't considered a lot of ram any more? Darn...

[Kenshin17]

Well its decent, but I was referring to the speed of the RAM. 333 RAM is painfully slow.

I wasn't referring to motherboard chipsets, I was refering to video card chipsets. But it is a good idea to know the mobo chipset too.

[Mithrandir]

Well, you can get 2 GB of 667 MHz ram for about $80 these days.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231108

It would almost certainly make a world of difference in the access times for you. Think of it this way:

1. Practically everything goes into RAM.
2. That RAM is twice as fast as what you currently have.

I'm a bit surprised that the "computer science" major you've got going isn't explaining some of this. I guess specialization is happening everywhere.

[Kenshin17]

Hm...but that RAM lacks heat spreaders and is not a brand I have ever heard of. Are they good?

[Mithrandir]

That was mostly to show that it can be done for cheap. I'm not convinced you need the heat sinks, if you have a good enough box - but it's possible.

[Slater]

Heh, my school's computer science and engineering teachers believe that we don't need the technology that we currently have floating around out there. So they claim: the days of being able to create brute-force hardware and programs is coming to a harsh end, so we must learn to be more efficient with less than our predecesors have been using.

Or something like that. The same people say that gamers are lunatics who are responsible for us needing such demanding hardware, and... well I am a bit of a gamer.

What the heck, 2GB for $80? 667 MHz? Hmm... why not?

[Kenshin17]

Heat managment in a computer never hurts But your right a good well ventilated box will ease the need for major cooling equipment.

But dang would I love to build a monster liquid cooled gaming powerhouse

[Warrior4Christ]

He said he's on a budget. I've never had any heat issues with memory. I don't think it's really an issue.

[Slater]

[quote="Kenshin17"]Heat managment in a computer never hurts ]

I've been... thinking of doing that...

I just need a nitrogen compressor. Anyone know where I can find one cheap?

[Kaligraphic]

Have you tried www.cheapnitrogencompressors.com?

[Mithrandir]

/me looks at the tag problems.

[Slater]

Never seen that site in my life, but it looks somehow... familliar...