building steps?

L

leza

I would like to know from your experience when you decided to build/design a
computer, what is the first steps to start with? I mean which part you would
select first?? (the CPU, mb, memory etc) and why? How do you select these
components and why? The market if full of different brands name (there are a
lot of mb for example) how you keep update with what is in the market and
what is good for your? thanks a lot.
 
J

JK

leza said:
I would like to know from your experience when you decided to build/design a
computer, what is the first steps to start with?

Figure out what you want to do with the computer, and what your budget
is. Then figure out what processor to get. From there, you can choose the
motherboard, ram, and other components.
I mean which part you would
select first?? (the CPU, mb, memory etc) and why?

I would choose the processor first, as it will determine what type
of motherboard and ram to get.
How do you select these
components and why?

Based on price and performance.
The market if full of different brands name (there are a
lot of mb for example) how you keep update with what is in the market and
what is good for your?

First figure out what you want to do with the computer. Then figure out
your budget. Make a list of the things you need, and what you would
prefer if the additional cost is not high. Decide whether an AMD
or Intel processor provides the best performance for the price for
your needs. Choose exactly which model of processor to buy
based on your needs and budget. Now you can choose the
motherboard based on the features you need and your budget.
 
R

Ralph Mowery

I would like to know from your experience when you decided to
build/design a
Figure out what you want to do with the computer, and what your budget
is. Then figure out what processor to get. From there, you can choose the
motherboard, ram, and other components.


I would choose the processor first, as it will determine what type
of motherboard and ram to get.


Based on price and performance.


First figure out what you want to do with the computer. Then figure out
your budget. Make a list of the things you need, and what you would
prefer if the additional cost is not high. Decide whether an AMD
or Intel processor provides the best performance for the price for
your needs. Choose exactly which model of processor to buy
based on your needs and budget. Now you can choose the
motherboard based on the features you need and your budget.

I think you are right on. Decide on how much you are going to spend and
what you want to do. Then decide on the processor and that will determin
what kind of motherboard you will have to have. It is much differant if you
are putting together a cheap system for a child to send off to college vers
an all out gamming machine or vidio editing machine. For college you may
get buy with a single board computer (one like I just put together where the
vidio, sound and even the 1,7 ghz processor was soldered on the MB. It only
cost me about $ 75. It was for a seperate computer to run some programs
in my ham radio room.) To do vidio or photo editing it would be very slow.
I payed almost twice that for a good P4 motherboard that had only the sound
on it. Then another $ 140 or so for a P4 at the time and almost as much for
a vidio card. This was for the main computer I use. I could build three or
4 cheep computers or one good one for about the smae price.

After the processor and MB look at the vidio card. It makes a differance if
gamming or just surfing the internet. Almost anything will do for the
inernet. For high end gamming you can spend as much as you do for the
processor. Then look at the hard drive size and see what you want to do.
The 80 mge drives seem to be about the deciding point now. Memory is
usually cheap enough to install atleast 256 meg and 512 is not that much
more but not needed if you do not work with big files or vidio.
 
B

bobb

I would like to know from your experience when you decided to build/design a
computer, what is the first steps to start with? I mean which part you would
select first?? (the CPU, mb, memory etc) and why? How do you select these
components and why? The market if full of different brands name (there are a
lot of mb for example) how you keep update with what is in the market and
what is good for your? thanks a lot.


It's not a glamorous as you make it sound. There is no "designing."

All PC parts and pieces are interchangeable, different memory types
are slotted differently so you can't physically use the wrong type of
memory if the Mobo doesn't allow, and modern bios and OS nowadays
autodetect and autoconfigure most things.

It all comes down to how much you wanna spend, it's really really
simple.






-bobb
 
R

Ralph Mowery

All PC parts and pieces are interchangeable, different memory types
are slotted differently so you can't physically use the wrong type of
memory if the Mobo doesn't allow, and modern bios and OS nowadays
autodetect and autoconfigure most things.

That is a very broad statement. Most computer parts are not interchangable.
The processor has to match the motherboard, vidio cards will not just plug
in any motehrboard, there are several kinds of memory that will not fit the
slots and you need to know the speed. It is more difficult now to put
together a system. If you are ordering the parts by mail and can not see if
they will fit the slots you may wind up with pieces that you can not use
together. Some mother boards will not have the correct slots for some
cards.
 
R

Roy Coorne

JK a écrit:
....
I would choose the processor first, as it will determine what type
of motherboard and ram to get.
....

When choosing the CPU you might wish to take into consideration the
prices for the Boxed versions of Pentium 4 and Athlon XP, resp. (which
include the CPU cooler) and the fact that the P4 boxed coolers are
quite good whereas the AMD boxed ones are considered of minor quality.

<my 2 cents> Roy
 
B

BarryNL

JK said:
leza wrote:




Figure out what you want to do with the computer, and what your budget
is. Then figure out what processor to get. From there, you can choose the
motherboard, ram, and other components.


Yes, the major choice is probably, is it going to be a games machine? If
so then you probably want to consider putting a lot of your budget into
the video card. If you just want a general machine then choose for a
cheaper video card and put more money into either the processor or more
exotic peripherals like DVD burners.
 

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