Building My Own PC

[Sabbeh]

Would this be cheaper than buying it already built from a shop?

The spec. I am after is
AMD 1.1ghz (looking to OC)
Abit KT7 Mobo
256mb RAM (133)
GF2 MX 32MB
SBLIVE 1024
Coolercase Tornado
DVD drive / CDRW
speakers

Also how fast do you think I could overclock this spec. to?
Is there any way to electronically test the temperature please?
Ta

Sabs

[Nozzeh]

Well seeing as you can't buy the CoolerCase in the shops...

[TODave DEFENCE:]

Well, think about it. You won't be able to find a shop selling those exact components in a ready built PC, so they'll have to order them for you.

So once they have them all, they will either build it for you or you can build it yourself. Which do you think will work out cheaper? :) :)

I built my current PC and I'd never buy another ready built one again.

[[BA]Mo]

There's a high likelyhood that you could find a very similar spec PC on sale from some direct supplier and it'd be cheaper and less hassle than building it yourself. I know from bitter experience building yer own PC can be a frustrating nightmare...or be all over in an afternoon.

All very good upgrading your own PC...buying bits, sticking them in...joyous rapture. But if your building a WHOLE one, why not buy it prebuilt? (cheaper, works out of box, free software, warranties..terrible support when it fails :E etc etc)

I'll prob never buy a prebuilt PC again because I buy comps in bits and upgrade...but I see little logic in spending more money, time and stress (plus getting less for your money) on building a brand new pc.

In saying that...if your gonna o/c then your gonna invalidate your warranty...and maybe not get all the spanky peripherals you want. Why you wanting to o/c a 1.1ghz anyways? :p

[PADDYBOY]

Trouble about buying a PC from a manufacturer is that they always cut corners somewhere unless you specify exactly what components you want in it - and when you do that it doesn't work out any cheaper.

btw - you don't have a lot of headroom in a 1.1 gig CPU for overclocking - you might hit 1.2 or 1.25 if you are VERY lucky ...

[Nozzeh]

I'd just build it yourself. As the others have said it works out better overall, plus you have the upside of knowing exactly what you've just put in your wonderbox - hence how to fix it if/when it goes wrong.

I also doubt you'll be able to overclock that to much above 1.15 without some serious cooling.

Also, those Tornado cases are rather (read: "****ing") loud. If it's in a room where you sleep, or it's going to be on 24hours, I'd also order some earplugs.

[Sabbeh]

Would it be better to get a different case and fit a few quiet fans?
Coz it is in my room and it will be on 24/7 probably.

If the 1.1Ghz cant be oc'ed that much would it be a better bet to go for a lower duron (800 or something) and over clock that a bit?

Ta for the help all.

[NumbNutz]

Go for the lower spec Duron m8 and save yourself a few quid. I've got a 650 clocked at 800 and it's a nice piece of kit. The other's are right about the 'Tornado' cases, they are noisy. I've got one of the GlobalWin 802 cases (same chassis as the Tornado) but without the holes cut in the top and side. I've got fans mounted on the front and back for airflow which, with a good heat sink and fan on the CPU, keeps the temperature down.

You can get a Duron 800 and a GlobalWin 802 and keep the costs down. This would also give you a chance to overclock far more than the faster CPU would let you.

[TODave DEFENCE:]

Originally posted by PADDYBOY
Trouble about buying a PC from a manufacturer is that they always cut corners somewhere unless you specify exactly what components you want in it - and when you do that it doesn't work out any cheaper.


My point exactly. If the original question is one of 'This is the *kind* of spec I want, but doesn't have to match exactly', then sure, get it ready built. But if you want those *exact* components, then it will be cheaper to build it yourself.

Building a PC really is not difficult. The only difficult bit is getting the harddisk formatted. You need a good boot floppy for that with the CD drivers on it (or you can alter the BIOS to boot off the CD and use the Win98 CD). Just get lots of information beforehand about what can go wrong. The first time I put my processor in, I didn't push it in far enough, so nothing happened when I switched it on. Fortunately I'd read about this problem and printed off some ideas of how to fix it. So it's a good idea to get yourself armed with all the info you might need.

But don't be put off. Thousands of people build their own PCs successfully. And once you've done it once, you'll get the bug. I've just started doing up my case, painting it a nice colour and putting a fan hole in the side for better cooling. Put some nice wire mesh over the hole too for neatness. I look at it and think 'Yeah, I built that'. There's no way I would dream of hacking holes in the side of a £1000 ready built PC...

Building it yourself takes away some of the mystique. Whipping the case off and having a poke about inside becomes as comfortable as switching the thing on.

[NumbNutz]

TODave - I agree with everything you just said :rolleyes: I could never 'buy' a PC off the shelf now.

[Nozzeh]

It's also a good idea to have a second PC to hand, incase you run into problems and need to nip on IRC/messgaeboards to ask advice.

I'm going for a Duron 800>1000 myself and currently have a GW 802 case.

Currently, with a 120mm intake fan, mounted under the drive bays, an 80mm exhaust to the rear of the cpu and 2-5500rpm 60mm fans on the CPU itself it keeps my ageing Celeron 400 around 27oC idle up to 30-ish under load. This leaves the case temperature around 19-20oC. I really like the case, so roomy, really accessable, nice and cool and a fair few mounting points for fans.

Well worth the £50-odd it retails for now.

As for quiet fans, unfortunately, for the main part, cooling comes with a tradeoff for noise. There are exceptions to this I'm sure, but I don't know anything off the top of my head (others might) in the way of fans that push a large amount of air whilst remaining reasonably quiet.

Also, you'll be wanting a 300W PSU. I noticed earlier while browsing around that there is a 'Whisper Quiet' (http://www.theoverclockingstore.co.uk/cust-productinfo.php?codeid=800146) PSU out there, although whether it's worth the £66 asking price I have no idea.

[KaTmAi]

Cooling will be an issue with clocking it, I guess that you just have to make sure that you dont go over the top with the cooling, and unless you want to have an inbuilt cooker (perfect for late night games when the toaster for them poptarts is a long way off :) make sure you got enough cooling).

As for the Duron idea, aparently they are serious kit, and looking at some of the benchmark results they seem to be the way to go.

As long as you setup the ram etc etc correctly in the bios etc, you are quite possibly going to get better performance, due to the fact that your gonna most likely get a better configured pc.

Try to get a nice killa strip of pc133 ram and make sure that its CL2, and then if it will do it turn on 4 way interleave or whatever its called..... for some killa memory performance..... ooh and the DRAM speed set that to turbo if ya can.

Cheers

[Edited by KaTmAi on 16-12-2000 at 02:10 AM]