Homebuilt FAQ?

[Andy]

Hi,

I'm in the market for a new computer. I had been looking at getting
a Dell or a Gateway, but I am wondering if I would be better off
building my own. I am something of a flight sim enthusiast, so my
primary goal is to build a machine that would run FS9 as fast and as
smoothly as possible.

My budget is $2000 give or take a $100 or so. My problem is the
confusing array of motherboards, video cards, sound cards, drivers,
bios, etc. I don't want to spend a ton of money on the top of the
line motherboard if it performs the same as a cheaper model for the
processor I am using. Right now I am thinking about using the Pentium
3.2GHz (not the extreme edition as I think the price/performance ratio
is too high). But I don't know much about the Athlon, and whether
that really is a better performer.

I am also concerned about compatibility issues. Will my combination
of motherboard, processor, memory, sound card and graphics card all
get along. What would be most helpful would be a tried and tested
recipe of components that I could put together. Is there a faq
anywhere that would help me out?

Thanks in advance,

Andy

 

[ToolPackinMama]

Hi,

I'm in the market for a new computer. I had been looking at getting
a Dell or a Gateway, but I am wondering if I would be better off
building my own. I am something of a flight sim enthusiast, so my
primary goal is to build a machine that would run FS9 as fast and as
smoothly as possible.

My budget is $2000 give or take a $100 or so.

::boggle:: Wow. With that kind of a budget you can get a really nice
system.

IMHO you'll get more for your money with a homebuilt, but if it's your
first time you should take some time to do research and get informed
about the procedure.

Make it easy on yourself and get a "barebones system". That way the
motherboard, CPU, etc. are going to be compatible with each other.

 

[D. Rogers]

Andy -
You've taken the first step correctly in identifying what you would like to
use your system primarily for and establishing a budget.

You could buy a decent OEM box for $2K but you end up with alot of crapware
pre-loaded on it and not much flexibility to upgrade later on when your
needs change again.

You could also build your own and run the risk of not getting it right the
first time. If you are a hardcore gamer then it is important to do alot of
research before building a system. The fastest machines are more expensive
and are very time consuming to build and generate alot of heat.

I would recommend you build your own, but don't go all out on the latest and
greatest the first time. I would do research at www.tomshardware.com or go
to a local computer shop (not a large retailer) and bug the heck out of them
until you decide what to do. Try to build a stable system first and then
ramp it up if it doesn't meet your needs.

FWIW I also am a FS9 enthusiast. The system requirements aren't really that
much. It runs very smooth on my older homebuilt system. Here's what I
have:

Epox 8K3A+ motherboard (I'm a longtime fan of Epox boards)

Athlon XP1800+ processor (I also like AMD)

Samsung 160GB hard disk (Samsung is very quiet)

GeForce4 MX440 64MB graphics card (I don't recommend this card for FS9. It
doesn't display water textures and only supports DX7).

512MB DDR PC3200 (OCZ Technology. Not the most stable in the world, but
works fine if you pump up the voltage a little. It has a copper heat sink
factory installed).

Sparkle Power FSP400-60GN 400W power supply (It is very noisy and doesn't
have an external switch. I made some mods to it and now it is quieter.
Sparkle power supplies are very stable, but I would recommend that you do
some homework before buying a power supply or a case that already has one.)

Speaking of the case, get a big one that is screwless. I personally like
the Antec cases. I have one of the server cases and paid big bucks for it,
but I love it and can change hardware in seconds. It also has lots of room
for ventilation.

Lastly, if you buy your hardware locally that's great, but if you don't then
I recommend newegg.com for all your stuff. They are by far the best online
vendor I have ever used.

Good Luck

 

[ToolPackinMama]

You could buy a decent OEM box for $2K but you end up with alot of crapware
pre-loaded on it and not much flexibility to upgrade later on when your
needs change again.
True.

You could also build your own and run the risk of not getting it right the
first time. If you are a hardcore gamer then it is important to do alot of
research before building a system.
True.

FWIW I also am a FS9 enthusiast. The system requirements aren't really that
much. It runs very smooth on my older homebuilt system. Here's what I
have:

I agree with you about Epox and AMD. I like Seagate hard drives: fast
and silent.

GeForce4 MX440 64MB graphics card (I don't recommend this card for FS9. It
doesn't display water textures and only supports DX7).

If you were to invest in a new vid card, which would you choose?

Speaking of the case, get a big one that is screwless.

You can get a cheap case and buy cheap thumbscrews for it.

Lastly, if you buy your hardware locally that's great, but if you don't then
I recommend newegg.com for all your stuff. They are by far the best online
vendor I have ever used.

I like newegg too, but mostly because they have a good selection. I
think they charge too much for shipping, but then, most people do
nowadays.

FWIW, if I had 2000 bucks to blow on an all-new system, I'd get a
gorgeous big new monitor. Nothing makes your favorite game come alive
like a beautiful big display. I upgraded to a 19" flat-screen CRT
recently, and it improved my enjoyment of Morrowind immeasurably.

FWIW, my 'puter is an AMD Athlon XP 2200+ CPU, a Epox 8RDA+ motherboard
(NFORCE2 chipset), 120 G. 7200 RPM Seagate ATA 100 HD (dual-booting
WinXP Pro and SuSE Linux 9.0), 512 MB of 2700 DDR RAM, ATI 8500 DV
Radeon All-in-Wonder AGP video card (64 MB), a LiteOn CD-RW/DVD combo
drive, an RCA cable modem, and a TEAC floppy drive. I use a gorgeous
Envision 980E 19" CRT display. I love my flexible, washable, Mini-VIK
"Virtually indestructible keyboard", and my Evoluent Vertical Mouse. I
got one of those fancy cases with the window in it. Raidmax makes many
very nice, inexpensive cases. I paid less than $50.00 for mine.

My next big upgrade will probably be a newer generation ATI
all-in-wonder vid card.

 

[Big Daddy]

Hi,

I'm in the market for a new computer. I had been looking at getting
a Dell or a Gateway, but I am wondering if I would be better off
building my own. I am something of a flight sim enthusiast, so my
primary goal is to build a machine that would run FS9 as fast and as
smoothly as possible.

My budget is $2000 give or take a $100 or so. My problem is the
confusing array of motherboards, video cards, sound cards, drivers,
bios, etc. I don't want to spend a ton of money on the top of the
line motherboard if it performs the same as a cheaper model for the
processor I am using. Right now I am thinking about using the Pentium
3.2GHz (not the extreme edition as I think the price/performance ratio
is too high). But I don't know much about the Athlon, and whether
that really is a better performer.

I am also concerned about compatibility issues. Will my combination
of motherboard, processor, memory, sound card and graphics card all
get along. What would be most helpful would be a tried and tested
recipe of components that I could put together. Is there a faq
anywhere that would help me out?

Intel, Intel, Intel...

Your best bet is a system built on an Intel chipset, probably the 865PE. I
highly recommend the Asus P4P800 Deluxe. I just bought one for my brother
for Xmas at ZipZoomFly for $125 and shipping was free. Honestly, for the
money, I'd get the P4 3.0 GHz. Price/performance ratio is much better than
the 3.2. The Asus board, as well as most currently produced, will run the
upcoming Prescott CPU's. That means, when the prices come down some, you
can upgrade as high as, I think, 3.6 GHz.

Athlon definitely has a better processor right now, but no Windows to take
advantage of it. It won't be for awhile before they release 64 bit Windows
for it. Also, (I'll get flamed for this) I believe that it's better to make
your first build on an Intel system because compatibility is much better.
Via, SiS,and nVidia make decent enough products, but when you're green at
building, stay with something you're more confident with.

If you are adventurous, try getting 2 SATA HDD's (I prefer Maxtor) and run a
RAID 0 stripe. Your disk performance is the single largest bottleneck of
any system and this opens it up quite a bit. The HDD's on the most dense
platters are preferred. If you snoop around, you can find out the platter
density.

Unless you're dying to use EAX extensions or something (I find them buggy
and unreliable), the onboard sound on this board is pretty good. The only
complaint is that with a full 5.1 system, Asus doesn't have any additional
jacks and the built-in ones serve double duty. Therefore, you can't have a
microphone and 5.1 surround. I haven't checked out internal connections
since I built, so I don't know if there is a connector in there to run a
bracket to add the necessary additional jacks to have it all.

I'm in the camp that believes money spent now on higher end stuff like
graphics cards is money well spent. It future-proofs your computer for
sometime to come. For example, I built my own system 2 years ago and it's
got regular DDR2100 memory (512 MB), an upgraded 2.6 GHz P4 on the 400 MHz
FSB (overclocked to 2.86 GHz), but I put in a GeForce 4 Ti4600 graphics
card, which was a high-end graphics card at the time. It was very expensive
- $400. My brother's system we just built has a 3.0 GHz P4 on the 800 MHz
FSB and it's overclocked to something like 3.3 GHz. It also has dual
channel DDR3200 memory. However, it's crippled by an ordinary ATi Radeon
9600 graphics card because he got such a steal on it. I just spanked his
computer in 3DMark tests. I scored 10,989, while he scored 8900 something.

 

[Andy]

Your best bet is a system built on an Intel chipset, probably the 865PE. I
highly recommend the Asus P4P800 Deluxe.

I was looking at the specs for this MB and it looks like it's what I
am looking for. If you use the onboard sound, does it chew up CPU
time? I'm not interested (at the moment) in 5.1 sound, plain stereo
will do me nicely for now. Would I be better off adding a sound card?

One other thing occured to me... I will have to buy a copy of
Windows XP, which adds almost $200 to the price of the rig. However,
if I can get hold of a copy of 98 and install that, could I then get
the XP upgrade and go that route? Any ideas?

Thanks,

Andy

 

[D. Rogers]

I believe XP Pro full version is only $139 if you buy it with hardware.

 

[Big Daddy]

I was looking at the specs for this MB and it looks like it's what I
am looking for. If you use the onboard sound, does it chew up CPU
time? I'm not interested (at the moment) in 5.1 sound, plain stereo
will do me nicely for now. Would I be better off adding a sound card?

One other thing occured to me... I will have to buy a copy of
Windows XP, which adds almost $200 to the price of the rig. However,
if I can get hold of a copy of 98 and install that, could I then get
the XP upgrade and go that route? Any ideas?

The board is in my brother's computer. I don't have it handy to give you the
CPU utilization by the onboard sound. I do know that he has a nice set of
Logitech Z680 5.1 speakers hooked up to it and it sounds incredible! I
recommended to him that unless he needed to run EAX extensions for
something that he just didn't bother adding a sound card. Unlike my buddy's
MSI 856PE Neo2 FIS2R board, it has multiple connetions for wiring a modem
and 2 CD/DVD drives to the sound. The MSI board only has 1. The MSI board
had a few nice things like extra sound ports on a bracket so that all your
stuff could be connected, but it skimped in other areas such as the one I
outlined. I'd buy the Asus board again before I bought the MSI.

If you buy from www.zipzoomfly.com, you can buy an OEM copy of XP, provided
that you buy a piece of hardware too. It's $138 for Professional or $90.50
for Home. That's the full version less manuals - not an upgrade.

Check it out, here:

http://www.ZipZoomFly.com/jsp/ProductList.jsp?ThirdCategoryCode=071002

 

[M W]

There is a homebuilt mini-FAQ at

ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet-by-hierarchy/alt/comp/hardware/pc-homebuilt/%5Balt.comp.hardware.pc-homebuilt%5D_Mini-FAQ

I havent touched it in years but the pointers are still mostly good.
cheers-