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Getting Help Building Your Computer
An anonymous reader submitted an excellent story about getting help when assembling a PC from scratch. I'm sure many readers here know how harrowing the experience can be, and will appreciate this entertaining tale of lilliputians helping
in this rite of passage.
Here the first time i put my machine together i was worried to death about cracking my processor or pushing to hard. this guy has time to make a slide show out of it. Showoff.
You are an idiot.. You didn't even click the link - Otherwise you would have realized that it's funny as hell.
Clever.
--- We need more Ron Paul!
Sure but can they build a Mac?/ 09/15/ 1918233&mode=thread&tid=181
http://apple.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02
Nice new way for some ppl to learn how to build a pc. Would hae ben interesting if I didnt know the story already. gj.
The first time around is kinda tough... but if you've done it once, you can do it again easy enough. Just have to make sure to RTFM for the mobo to set your clockspeed correctly and make sure any jumpers are where they go.
Well, that's for a home type PC... servers are a different beast, there's a lot more options.
The last time I told someone that a bunch of little green (and other colored people helped me put something together, it took me 3 weeks to get out of observation.
OS Software is like love: The best way to make it grow is to give it away.
I'm typing this post from the very computer that I put together from scratch.
I think that it would be much better if people taught themselves how to build a computer. If you teach a man to fish, he's just going to ask you questions. Don't give in to the temptation of "friendliness". I may have gone to Kreskin to improve my SAT score, but that doesn't mean you should go to your friends to help you build your computer.
I got a 1600 on the SATs.
Now only if I could train my legos to walk out of CompU$A with all the parts AND put it together, I could set up a nice racket.
I remember my first server system. I was suppose to be the expert (checkle). it was a gateway 233 (super fast for it's time) I had to install an HP suresture, writable CD, and SCSi hardrive. My first problem was what the hell was i thinking customizing a gateway. I had to cut a notch out of the board to ge the tape to fit. the board didn't recognise the SCSI kudoes to adaptec who not only helped me get it working but also gave me a few extra tips. Then I had to set up pllindrome which was backup software it required IPX what teh heck was IPX, needless to say after one sleepless weekend I got it working. My latest server is a Dell 2500 with a custom linux install.
Everything's new to someone.
Score for the humor aspect.
the process would be easier with better mobo manuals. I've had the majority of difficulties stemming from insufficient documentation of the motherboard. Sometimes we non-engineers find a pile of engineering acronyms less-than-useful. This looks like a good service.
I no longer have to stick in a couple dozen 64 K ram chips, or run debug to execute some code in a ROM chip on my MFM hard drive controller to partition a 20 MB Seagate drive. I don't even see nearly as many of those jumpers, and don't have to figure out whats on each IRQ. Good thing I can't swap those motherboard power plugs anymore. That made a funny sound.
... what distro was subsequently used and, more importantly, who the heck installed it =)
Thanks for the Kubrick reference!
as it has images..
Seriously though? This is why geeks never have a social life. Its cause they are too busy playing with their toys.
- Tempestdata
I am the editor for the category on DMOZ.
o s_and_Tutorials/Build_Your_Own_PC/
http://dmoz.org/Computers/Education/Hardware/HowT
Any additional submissions would be more than welcome!
...but how much static electricity did those little feet pick up?
Kudos to the mirror host, by the way.
Yeah, I have a webcomic...
And this is funny because...?
The middle mind speaks!
Not as funny as this link. or would that be 'harrowing'?
If you actually ordered mobo from 1 place, video card from another, ram from 3rd place, and so on, wouldn't you get killed on the shipping costs? This has always puzzled me. Are people buying raw parts at local retail somehow? How?
Also, when some site like ars technica puts up their "our favorite system" articles, and you go to buy the parts they reccommend, do you ever notice that for many parts they're never actually for sale in a findable place? By findable I mean pricewatch. How do you guys do it?
The funniest part was using the Swiss Army Knife to do the assembly. I suppose it's possible, but I was LOL. And none of the "lilliputians" were wearing (ainti-static) wrist straps - bad form!
The first time I assembled a computer, I scratched the bottom of the motherboard on the mounting points. I completed the build, but was presented with random crashes. Found out the scratch spread metal filaments across multiple paths, fortunately rubbing the area clean solved the whole thing.
Well now it's my turn to help teach one of my friends how to build a computer! A learning experience for him indeed.
I do like his use of Lego men on the site, although the 'Red Shirt' Lego man was very lucky to survive (considering their expendability).
Are you local? There's nothing for you here!
Now use the time saved not clicking and do something worthwhile. That is all...
Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.
The first time I put my machine together I found it so easy I started a business doing it! 600k later I filed for bankrupcy. Basically you cant compete with dell because you cant get parts as cheap as they do.
The Oil Change
These days the parts are easy enough that even lego people can put them together, plug and play, like lego's themselves. Now a manual from back in the day when they really had to do some work would be nice.... Oh wait, that would involve scores of pictures involving lego's with jumpers now, wouldn't it?
...anybody else notice the DPI on that Palm Pilot? I'm envious!
A few minutes and a long sigh later, I turned the computer back on and everything worked. Since then I triple check that everything's unplugged
Linux User: "Fuck them, let them figure it out themselves and get their hanks cut on a cheap case. My modded nitrogen boxen runs great. Gentoo rocks! vi is best!
Vax User: "What? All computers come with COLOR? Heaven bless! CGI for everyone! 4 colors should be enough for anyone."
Lindows ala-Walmart User: "YeHaw! Easier than building my own plow! Ya'll come back now, ya hear?"
Windoze User: "Dude, I got a Dell. Let's run Windoze Update and watch TechTV."
Hollywood Squares just finished shooting "Dynamic Duo" week. Amoung the "celebrities" are Burt Ward and Adam West.
That should of course be "anti-static". Ain'ti-static is poor English. (note to self: click on preview.)
debug
g=c800:5
and that is deemed funny???
it was a friggin' nightmare!
Vacuum cleaners suck. Kings rule.
"How hard is it? Slashdot: News for fucking idiots. Stuff that matters to idiots."
Heh the troll was trolled by the article. That's classic!
Hell, everything's integrated into the motherboard these days..
Motherboard + CPU + RAM + HD + Case + keyboard & mouse. Plug everything in where it fits!
I don't know any more if it is cheaper, but the thing is that you get exactly what you want and you can make sure it is quality stuff.
What lead me to start building my own was that I could never find a pre-built computer that had what I wanted without going to the ridiculously expensive guys like Alienware.
My stuff also doesn't have the habit of failing (except for that one time I blew up a PSU over the course of a week by hooking a system that should have 350 watts to a poor old 250 watt PSU) because unlike Dell, Gateway, et al. it is not crap.
Tim
Omnia vestra castrorum habetur nobis.
Steven from the Dell commercials built the computers....hmmm i'm confused.
Building the hardware isn't my speciality, but a word of advice. Watch out for the M$ virus. Linux seems to remove it.
What is he DOING none of little gnomes the man hired are grounded. I have burned a motherboard by shocking. Please be caeful!
Help I'm a rock.
Why would R2D2 be hooking up a turbo button on a new AMD system?
Spend the extra 50-60 bucks on a good case, cheap cases suck, and nothing ever lines up right (i.e. Motherboards, Cards, etc). Make sure there is plenty of room inside the case, a removable motherboard tray is nice for when you are installing the heatsink on the processor and when you are installing memory!
I want my rights back. I was actually using them when our government stole them after 9/11.
Don't let Wesley Crusher get a hold of them.
So, geeks are lilliputians now?
That'th wondeful newth, thweetie !!!
That is the (at risk of sounding gay) cutest thing I've ever seen. I wonder how he managed to get the suckers to stand up, holding the various parts, without falling. Tape or glue or something?
SuPz.orG
Luckily, all of them are made out of plastic.
What we call folk wisdom is often no more than a kind of expedient stupidity.-Edward Abbey
C'mon...R2 would know what CSLK is! He can fix the hyperdrive on the Millenium Falcon with one arm and even hack into the Deathstar computers (heavily firewalled;). He KNOWS what CSLK is!
Just another,
Stoopid Monkey
Am I the only one who doesnt' know palm LCD's have red backlit screens ? In the dark red wont dialate your eyes, plus it's cool.
TechTV is like Comedy Central for geeks :)
i don't think its a real palm, i think its a chunk of plastic shaped like a palm with one of those things w/ the plactic sheet on top, u press on the sheet and it sticks to the back and makes a color difference, i'm not sure how to explain better than thet, i remember getting them in gradeschool attached to chunks of cardboard
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
They're made of plastic. No static buildup.
Oh... And sometimes you had to turn the plugs around on the second try...
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
You shouldn't be reading Slashdot. Start off with a site with training wheels first, like, uh news.com, or wired.com.
You write like a four-year-old. How do you expect anyone to bite when you sound like a Life Skills student?
Obligitory:
BSD user: RTFM
How ironic :)
Ive been spending the last day or two working on getting a 486 dialup gateway up and running... its an IBM PS/Valuepoint 25Si thing...it is 12.41 bogomips :) Its running Debian stable, with 2.4.18, has a 210 mb hdd, and 16 mb of ram. Its a tempoary replacement for my 386 ( Im making up a special case for my 386 ).
Had a bunch of troubles with the serial stuff built in... setserial thinks its a 16450 UART, and the onboard serial controler thingys dont want to run my modem at 115200 baud.
After much fruiting around, just 15 minutes ago I started rummaging thru my collection of spare parts, and tried some of the multi-IO cards... and just 5 mins ago I tried a baby serial IO one, it appears to be a 16550A UART, and handles 115200 baud no worries :) And thats what im posting this msg thru :)
So there is some useless information for you :)
Um,
register a company (it only costs $20 in Utah, and you have to file sales tax forms, but it takes about 5 minutes a quarter...) Then you get parts wholesale, any decent sized city/town should have a few computer parts wholesalers, and if not, you can order from wholesalers in other cities, and get all the parts from 1 place and pay 1 shipping fee. Someone posted something about not being able to compete with dell because they get parts cheaper.. but I'm confused, when I build my systems I can get better quality parts, and exactly what I want, generally for 300-400 less than a comparable system from Dell... But, whatever.
building your own computer is obviously as easy as playing with legos, but i wanna computer that is legos!!, anyone have any links to cases built out of legos?, that idea came to me while i was looking @ those pics, wouldn't that be cool
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
I feared for my life...
Government of the people, by corporate executives, for corporate profits.
Who needs CD protection methods, THIS is where it's ah, woo ha! :( some are blacktron, i forget the rest, they are all pre 1990 though.
I remember those old Lego types... forget the names though
such old men building such new computers...
i wonder what they would call themselves... Dell-Tron?
-=Errors always defy logic.=-
Aren't we the epitome of Geekiness? Please tell me all of us on /. know how to build a decent PC clone system. I think I'm going to cry if people start asking, "What's a PC clone?"
-- Game Developers: Stop porting badly-textured games from crappy console systems!
*** I had a
I've been putting together computers for 6 years now, its was easy then and even easier now, back then cables could easily been put in upside down, fortunately this rarely hurt the device an easy way to tell is the hard drive or floppy light would come-on and stay on its a signal right away that you did something wrong, the hardest part was that damn at power connecter could be put in 2 ways luckily I've never burned out a MB putting them in backwards the most that would happen is the computer wouldn't turn on, modern pc are really easy to setup, if you buy the cpu&mb at the same place they'll be nice to you and set the jumpers for you (most of the time) the other parts are easy to plug in cables have notches so you cant plug them in upside down the hardest part is connecting the power and reset switch, but if you pay attention to the mb manual its a snap
Can't get the link, slashdotted. But my suggestion to all new computer builders is to not first put the motherboard on top of a metal case to make sure it all works first, and then have a family member(dad) come randomly push down on the mobo thus shorting it out in a puff of smoke. Also, trying to tape aluminum foil into the section of the circuit which shorted does not work. Ah well, the fun, and the ability to send it back, saying it was defective when I got it.
I searched around extensively before I was content with places to buy components. These are my (and many other Slashdotters I've seen) favorites. http://www.newegg.com and http://www.mwave.com
came in a kit, circiut board, and components.
I had to soldier it together.
Its really pretty easy these days, espcially compared the the DOS 3 days.
We do live in a time where I can put together a system, and have linux up and running in about 45 minutes.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
The first PC I assembled myself was an 8086. After getting hold of all the pieces I needed, I accidentally plugged the motherboard power in back-to-front. When I switched it on, it was unusually quiet (funnily enough) and smoke started pouring out the case openings. You learn pretty quickly not to to those kinda things.
.. probably off shooting movies (:
WHERE WERE THE LEGO MEN THEN, HUH?
Ladies, form queue here -->
Always, always, ALWAYS put the CPU and fan on [b]first![/b]
I think this is what IBM is doing right now... Or was that Compaq.
Jonahweb.com has stuff.
How many times are you guys going to run this damn "story"?... Honestly...
Not if you're from Texas. =D lol
Oh, man that was great... I wish all computer manuals were like this! :)
http://www.nothlit.com/lego/lego.html
http://lego.dave.dk/
http://www.osuweb.net/~ahaning/lego.html
http://home.attbi.com/~andy0058
http://www.chaos.lu/lego.html
Just a few more mirrors for when this site goes down...
Oh.. and if I am not totally mistaken, at one time there was a "letter of protest" from the "lego workers union" or something similar actually posted on Andy's home page. It is not there now, don't bother checking, but if anyone happens to have a copy and wishes to post it, go for it!
Oh come off it, don't try to fool people with that old 'static electricity' scam. I bet you try to get people to stick their razor blades under a pyramid to sharpen them.
The whole thing was a crock we invented back in the 80s when the yields of the fabs was not exactly good. We told the customers who rang up to complain about a bad one 'static electricity'.
Then we hit on the idea of these stupid wrist bands. The guy who 'invented' those later on went on to 'invent' the abdominizer and magnasoles. They were originally made to sell to people visiting executions down in Florida when they still used the electic chair as part of a 'share the experience' package. Kindof a sicko idea I suppose.
If you don't believe me go put on your best rubber soled shoes and run up and down on a nylon carpet then ground yourself on the cpu of your PC that you removed earlier. Oh and while you have the thing out you can remove some of those sharp spiky pins we put on the back of them. No IC ever needed more than 8 pins, its a fact, we only added the others because it makes them look cool, you can remove the others with a pair of pliers.
Something else that most people don't know, you can fry most CPUs in a microwave for long periods of time without damaging them. Just make sure you wear a wrist band while you do so.
Only thing to watch out for is that you don't accidentally discharge the battery backup for the microcode while you are doing all this. That might cause your CPU to misfunction so experiment at your own risk!
Looking for an Information Security student project suggestion?
Try http://dotcrimeManifesto.com/
Asus makes the best motherboards, and they are available in all price ranges. If you are building an Athlon system, seriously consider the A7V-333, it is worth the price, and it has everything you could want in a motherboard.
I want my rights back. I was actually using them when our government stole them after 9/11.
bullshit .. if you can build objects out of lego you can build a pc, it's NOT difficult at all.
.. and hook up the video card.
:-P
I have a 1800 Althon system with the GeForce 4200 card that runs like a top with XP.
Although Intel would have you believe that the P4 is what makes the net "come alive", it's really your graphics card and internet connection.
As a previous poster stated, get a good case from newegg.com
I recently built my system, spending ~700 bucks and had no problems with any of the parts I purchased from them. As always, check the guides at tom's hardware, sharkyextreme, anandtech.com
Good luck and remmeber not to run on the carpet before you build it together. Personally, I never had a problem with static electricity except for one time I touched the bottom of HD and fried it. Good thing it was a work computer though
Live web cams
Why does slashdot still exist? Banner ads can't be worth that much.
The absence off beer (or cola) and pizza makes it clear that this tale is a complete fabrication!
^_^
...and for those of you who want real HOWTOs, guides, etc., to make your own Lego-man picture essay, check these out:
here,
here,
here,
here, and
here
moto411.com
RTFA. Fuckwit.
Think nothing is impossible? Try slamming a revolving door.
that was funny. i like red and r2d2... and i am to lazy to login too... sheesh
Nivoset
I had legos when I put my first 386sx25 together at age 10, I wish I'd thought of having them help... you wouldn't believe how silly I felt when I realized i had both the IDE and floppy ribbon cables in backwards. (and no, they weren't keyed, striped, or otherwise marked, pfeh.)
Yes. I build comptuers at home for local people here, and I can make something with the same specs as a Dell or Compaq or any retail company, and save about $400
Dude, you're pimping for DELL!
I just put in a Jetway Mobo last month that had a jumper for the FSB setting, of all things. Damn thing came with the wrong setting enabled too, my Duron wouldnt boot. Had to RTFM and change it.
The funniest part was using the Swiss Army Knife to do the assembly. I suppose it's possible, but I was LOL.
That knife is a Victorinox Cybertool. My last two systems were put together using one of those. Very handy (8 screwdriver bits!)
Paul
if you live in or neer a city greater then 30k people chances are you have a computer parts store in the area, sure you could save a little more money buying online but its hell a lot easier to return to a local store, I've never spent more then 500$ setting up a system that kicks that pants off anything dell or gateway has to offer esp for gamming
No shit?!
Well I'm a monkey's uncle!
Can you give me the website of a wholesaler or two so I know what to look for?
Find out about hardware reliability first. I got burned trying to build an athlon system. Some AMD chipsets are unreliable or incompatible with certian pheripherals. (rumour has it that a defective transformer was used on some VIA chipsets) First generation athlon owners still can't use nvidia cards without some serious reliablity problems regardless of the os. The bad transformer does not like the spike in power that geforce cards use. Both companies blame each other for the bug.
Also check brand name relibility. Some reliable brands occasionaly have duds but you can rest assure that the chances of getting burned are smaller. MY athlon abit motherboard for example can't run reliable with not only geforce cards under linux, but its incompatible with sound blaster lives, certain ATI cards, and even netgear nics! If you put in a neatgear nic, the machine won't even post! Yes I have a 400 watt powersupply. This really pissed me off.
Try to buy only intel unless you know what you are doing(mod me down if you like but I am just giving you me experience with them). Try to avoid motherboards that try to spueeze new excessive overclocking features. Excessive overclocking can make a system hot and unstable. Also look at the chipsets. Intel, has the most reliable chipsets while SIS and VIA are at the bottom. Also avoid chaintek, soyo, Epox, and shuttle motherboards. Soyo recently has been getting alot of heat and use to be an excellent motherboard maker but things have changed due to a %50 failure rate reported by some slashdot readers.
The good motherboards are Asus, Intel, Twain, and gigabit. Stick to well known parts and also check the newgroups or search under groups under google and google will search the newsgroups for you. Also look into purchasing a slightly older motherboard that still supports your cpu and ram. Because of the race with Intel/AMD, motherboard makers are racing out with half baked bios's in their latest boards that are filled with bugs. You can buy the latest and greatest but do not be supprised if you have to flash it several times. Write down the name of the motherboard model and the terms unreliable or problems and count and read the amount of hits you get.
Also moving parts break first so please buy a great fans and cooling supplies. Cheap ones are very noisy and will overheat your system when they break.
http://saveie6.com/
Their ResellerRatings page is damned impressive. I haven't bought much from them so far (only a hard drive recently), but they'll definitely get first dibs on my future purchases.
iSKUNK!
A+ for this gentlemen's reference to Dr. Strangelove .
Well everyone else is suggesting stuff so I figure I will too. I'm looking to buy a PC in the UK sometime soon and for the past couple of months I've kept my eye on the prices. Here's my contribution:
Dabs.com
Tried and trusted. I've bought plenty of stuff from these guys in the past with 100% satisfaction. Their site is a little annoying but they have the widest selection of stock by far. Their prices are very good if not the best. Product information (when available) is not terribly informative so you should know what you're looking for before you arrive.
Aria.co.uk
Only bought a couple of things from these people and had no problems. Less stock than dabs but their prices are good. Specifically, they've got the best prices on Athlon XPs (1800 - 2100). And their CPU coolers & PSUs are cheap too. Product info on this site is poor and the design isn't much better.
Overclockers.co.uk
Bought one thing from here and again no problems. Not a great deal of stock but the stuff they do have is top notch (in most cases). Their prices are slightly off-par, however they've currently got the best price on some CDRWs, HDDs and sound cards. Good product info available. These guys know their stuff. Their site design leaves to be desired.
Overclock.co.ukOverclockingstore.co.uk
Not bought anything from here yet. Their prices are reasonable but I've not found anything I wanted cheaper here. A large selection of overclocking stuff available and a pretty poor selection of regular components. Good looking site.
Tekheads.co.uk
Bought stuff from here without any problems. Their site is good and prices vary. Mostly reasonable and sometimes better than dabs. They've currently got best prices on sound cards. Product info available is ok.
Kustom.co.uk
Nasty site but they have a selection of stuff you'll have a hard time finding elsewhere. Mainly oriented towards cases and accessories. Bought a couple of things from these guys, again, without any problems.
Crucial.com/uk
OK, this isn't a retail site, but Crucial sell their RAM online at price up to £30 cheaper than elsewhere. If you're looking for ECC Registered 512MB PC2100 DDR chips like me, then you'll appreciate the £119.69 price tag.
CCLComputers.co.uk
Not bought anything from here yet but I certainly plan to. Simplistic site but very navigable. A good selection of stock and they've got the best prices on some CDRWs, AIW Radeons and the sweet sweet Iiyama Pro 452.
EBuyer.com
Not bought anything from here either. Not too keen on their site but they're one of the few who offer Antec PSUs, with a reasonable price too.
Scan.co.uk
Found this thanks to other posts in this discussion. Have to say I'm very impressed. A tasteful cut-to-the-chase design with decent product information. I was surprised to see just how wide a selection of stock they have. Not as large as dabs but they stock some decent stuff. I was surprised to find the dual Athlon Gigabyte mobo on there. Their selection of hard drives leaves to be desired but the rest is OK. Best prices on Enermax PSUs.
There are other sites out there too, such as Simply.co.uk, Action.com, Globaldirect.co.uk, Dcsplc.co.uk, Stuff-uk.net, Insight.com and Jungle.com but I've yet to be impressed. In particular, Jungle.com is probably worth avoiding. I've heard some horror stories.
So to wrap things up I'd have to say that if you can build your own PC it's definately worth doing so. The pre-built systems you can get may be cheaper and may have an amazing "2GHz P4, 60GB HDD DVD, Scanner etc.. etc..", but on the inside the components will be from Happy Shopper or Value Land and you'll get about as much performance out of your system as a frightened donkey.
However, if you're going to build your own PC you need to know exactly which components you need/want beforehand. These sites will have the stock you want but in most cases won't give you accurate or useful product information. It's a lengthy process but it's worth consulting newsgroups and/or online reviews. Storagereview.com, for example, has a leaderboard where you can get up to date on the decent and not-so-decent hard drives.
There are countless hardware review sites out there. It's worth searching for the product comparisons. Tomshardware.com and Anandtech.com are popular sites worth a look.
Good luck!
a
I live in a giant bucket.
Yes, you are.
A Radeon 9700 by itself costs $400. What do you use the other $100 for?
It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.
Don't forget that the best way to cure intermittent crashing is to pull all your cards, wrap them in aluminum foil, reinsert, and power up.
And those grey things hanging by power lines called "transformers" are really pinyatas. That's why they're always up so high. Back in the 80s, they used to be full of childrens' toys. Barbie dolls, GI Joe, Transformers, and such. Mostly Transformers, that's how they got the name. They still have toys in them, though, because the FDA said they couldn't be filled with harmless heroin lozenges (didn't want to take the chance of the kiddies knocking them loose and eating them off the ground with the lead paint chips (though why the first paint flakes would matter, and not any to come after is beyond me)). And they're made of metal to take some abuse. I mean, who wants a soggy pinyata?
In mathematics, one does not understand things, one merely gets used to them.
--VonNeumann
There is a computer show every weekend by me (Michigan). They have resellers that buy stuff at whole sale and sell it at the show. I put a AMD XP1900 together for about $350 minus monitor, CDROM, Video card.
Look in your local paper and see if you have any shows by you.
I didn't use the preview button, so get over it!!!!
Mike
A lot of people don't remember the classic garage style PC upgrade - the PB-MAX mod.
To sum it up for those who haven't heard of it, what you do is remove all of your cards, your CPU, your RAM etc.... basically any place where there is some sort of electric contact being made. You then slather on a healthy coating of peanut butter. Now I know you are saying to yourself "but I just watched tech tv and they told me gold connecters are best!" but believe me when I say this: you can keep your fools gold because the true gearheads know skippy is the shit. My tests have shown that smooth PB tends to offer the biggest performance gains altho I've heard word that some of the newer crunchy brands are posting some nice numbers so your mileage may vary.
Just remember if you are new to the peanut butter mod scene use a plastic knife to apply it - otherwise you may ruin your hard-earned kit.
Play safe!
- Toby
some are blacktron, i forget the rest
[Malcolm X voice]
We didn't land on Sark and the MCP - Sark and the MCP laaaanded on US!
[/Malcolm X voice]
--saint
Ahhh, yes...future geek in progress. Corrupting him as we speak.
Zodiac Survey
http://www.essencompu.com. My personal favorite. I used to order from newegg and switched only because Essential is sometimes (but not always) cheaper. I think they're Pricewatch whores, but they are very reliable. Just thought I'd chime in.
That's probably the hardest part of building your first computer. Finding a good cheap reliable place to buy parts.
It can be. Or you can get an ultimate machine, it depends on what you use. The point is that _you_ get to choose what you want to pay for or not.
The main reason I DIY is because the major OEMs _all_ spend WAY too much money buying the latest CPUs from Intel. Why this is regarded as vitally important I fail to understand, as do several others in another discussion today
If you pick & choose your stuff, you _don't_ have to pay top dollar for a gazigahurts processor - you can buy a somewhat slower one for FAR less money. I find that a CPU that's 1/2 to 2/3 as fast as the "current" offerings will co$t about 1/4 the price (or less), saving me money. I regard this as a good deal. Another thing I look for is an AMD processor. Others may not. Obviously there are a large number of people "out there" (in the 85% market) who believe that CPU speed is vitally important, and that it's _gotta_ be Intel, and they may be better off buying from a big OEM who caters to this concept. I usually find that my machine is disk, modem (a BIGGIE) or cache-bound anyway, a faster CPU does little to speed up a system in general. But 2.6G is faster than 2.4G, right? Maybe. A little. But in NO case will it be 40% faster or worth 40% more.
I use plenty of secondhand stuff as well. If you can get useful stuff used you'll save gobs of money. Of course you have to define "can get" and "useful", but these are less slippery terms than, say, "is".
Shop around. Learn what to pay, and more importantly what _not_ to pay. Reading pricewatch or cheapbytes might spoil you, their prices are LOW so as to compete with yer local computer store even after the shipping.
Remember the commercial where they said "Parts is parts"? They may have been talking about chicken nuggets, but the principle applies well to all sorts of things. I've extended the theory considerably:
"Parts is parts, and computers is parts, and if you put enough parts together you get a computer". But you _also_ get to choose what you want, what you want to pay for, and what you don't.
Exceeding the recommended torque is not recommended.
You just need to get to know the right people -- ie: people who know where the stores are (computer stores are notorious for pathetic/non-existant marketing).
For example, if you're in the K-W area, here's where you can shop:
N.E.W.S Consulting
MaxiMillion
SellTek
Burnt Circuits (Well, they once were in K-W)
PC Waterloo
There's more I can't think of right now, and one wholesale place that (IMHO) baits 'n switches (well, considering my anger on the phone, no switch, but lots of bait) that I won't mention. All these guys specialize in different stuff.
Or walk up and down College St. in TO -- there's about 20 shops side-by-side there.
Or, save a whole lot of money and go here (My guess is they'll have 80 Gig HDDs for $130 CDN this time).
If you could be told what you can see or read, then it follows that you could be told what to say or think - BoC
You apparently missed the line: First, I used my pretend palm pilot to explain to R2D2 -------
Where in Michigan?
Believe it or not, gentoo users use nano.
At least that's what it ships with stock. My first command in gentoo?
emerge emacs
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
No, just the only moron to conclude that palms have a red backlight from reading that article. ;-)
Seriously, my Palm 3x has an indigo-green backlight as has every palm I've ever seen.
The figure labeled as "Space Police" is actually the ORIGINAL BlackTron figure.
Kudos to the Strangelove reference. Obviously, they were worried about a Geforce gap...
Vote Technocratic! Government by killer robots!
I had to think about your sig for about 10 seconds......then I pissed my pants. Thanks for the laugh!
Would be better without the the the the the typo... ;-)
You can also overclock your old pentium to death!
There's a tutorial just here: Overclock a P133 to 1 Ghz!!!
I'd rather be sailing...
everyone knows that GI Joe men would be much better suited. He-man to lift the drive, and Skeletor to amin. the whole thing, using R2d2 merely as a consultant (he's retired from grunt work, after all, having left the field a long, long time ago)
you mean the cyber tool? I got one, its a great tool to screw in stuff in a computer.
Its got a bunch of screw heads and everything.
You can't take the sky from me...
http://www.pranxsters.com/techslate.html
http://www.beemania.com/photos/2002-02-26_ToyPDA /default.htm
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
"In order to put a computer together from scratch, you must first create the universe."
-- adapted from Carl Sagan
that's funny ;)
mine was modprobe 3c59x
how'd you skip that part?
When he has the dialog between the Blacktron and the Space Police, he got it wrong. They're both Blacktron, there were two types of them. The one in mostly black was the old school version, and the one with the B was the newer one.
Life is the sport of champions. Those who lose, die.
The heat comes down operation.
There is something sinister behind the scenes. For evidence, simply check out the second photo. In the background, near a pile of scrap, is a gruesome severed head! There's even a 1x2 puddle of blood!
The horror!
...
... or would you rather have Dell and Compaq fuck you?
apparently you're not supposed to drink stuff while building computers. and you're supposed to be really good at not spilling stuff. i was really bad at that when i decided to help my parents save some money while still getting some quality stuff by building their computer for them.. idiot me, the tower is on the floor, redbull is on the desk (short, fat asian distribution can). of course i knock it over, gets stuck between the power supply and the cd drive in the top 5 1/4 slot, UPSIDE down, and all i hear is it spilling onto the soundcard. hahahahahahaha.
I meant once I finally got to the chroot'ed environment. No sense emerge'ing until that point:)
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
Check out this article on bios settings.
"My mother works for Microsoft now. A whole other cult."
I have set up few friends with older hardware bought and scrounged from various places. Then told them to tinker as much as they want, even if they slag the machine, they're not going to do more than $20 of damage.
This is a lot more ammenable to "having a go" than worrying about toasting a $500 sheet of fibreglass because you pressed on it too hard.
Xix.
"Everything is adjustable, provided you have the right tools"
Dammit, where's my Sword of Troll Slaying +5?
I'm going to make a karma whore account, I really find miself disinterested quite often anymore, sorry.
~ealar
I live in a giant bucket.
Now really? Who else wanted to see the "Old Timer" get a little closer to that Athlon and say something like "Back in my day we had radiators to keep the house warm"?
CGA, not CGI. You kiddies nowadays, can't get ancient acronyms right ...
Silly, Just owing to the fact you could list about 10 hardware sights off the top of you head, and you start making fun of geeks?
Think nothing is impossible? Try slamming a revolving door.
Although it has much better heat transfer properties (and it's price reflects this...) It's problem is that it is also electrically conductive! A work collegue used some on his new Athlon. The only problem was he slipped and got some on those little contacts (the ones you need to jumper for over clocking) - the thing didnt boot simply because he had bridged various pins! (luckily with a magnifying glass, some metholated spirits and a careful hand, the gunk was cleaned off and the processor came back to life!)
BSD user: RTFM
I believe you misspelled "RIP"
I didn't even notice the typo. Funny how you can correct things like that on the fly
-----
For great justice!
The last time I did NOT build my computer from scratch was when I bought my 486 DX2 66MHz way back then...
That experience was enough to convince me never to by cheap premade systems: I had paid extra to get an Intel chip in there because AMD were not quite up to par back then. That extra cost me a bundle considering my budget at the time (I was about 14).
When I got my brand new 66 MHz "beast" to run Sopwith at blazing speeds, I couldn't wait to open the case up and look at my whopping 8 megs of RAM. So I did. The processor was hidden by a small heat sink that I promptly removed.
Seeing those three letters... The horror! My desolation was so great, that I swore never to buy premade systems again. Ever.
Of course the store got a visit from a very angry 14 year old and in return of a few blasphemous remarks, I got my sparkling Intel chip.
I have to say that putting your own system up is quite fun and a great learning experience.
The two things I hate the most though are trying to figure out how those darn case leds connections work and forgetting to check the master/slave/cs jumpers on the HDDs (99.9% of the time).
Good memories. Have fun!
i tried out gentoo after using LFS for a while and i got all confused. maybe its just me, i like to take naps.
http://www.darkridge.com/~jpr5/txt/sysadm.html
classic for anyone that has never seen it
a must see
I've built so many I can't count them and the only ones with problems are athlons. Actually, i've never built an athlon, but people always come to me with thier via/athlon troubles.
I still manage to screw up some small thing every time. Like reversing the LED connectors..or forgetting to hook up the speaker..or not bothering to download a driver. Just last week, a friend of mine (who has built hundreds of computers) built my wife a P4 1500 (while she bathed his cat). When it was done, he turned it on and....nothing. After looking around, we finally took out the DDR RAM (bought on sale from Fry's), and put in a piece of SDRAM. On the unit came...and off I went to Fry's to return the DDR. Came back with the DDR, put it in and turned it on..one POST beep...that's all. Finally, I picked up the book (book? what a concept!) and read: "This mainboard comes set for SDRAM. To use DDR RAM, change jumpers...." Set the jumpers, all fine... DOH!!!!! So now the question is: did the old RAM work or not? With new RAM in, the board at least beeped, with the old it didn't even do that.
Tune in for next week's episode:
"The Story of Andy's Lego Characters Stealing Dollars Out of Relatives' Wallets to Pay For Bandwidth".
If the system is off, you should be able to recover from spills. All you have to do is let it completely dry. If you're talking about sticky stuff, you can probably use a household cleaner to get rid of all that stuff. I've had milk tip over on a desk and spill into a cable modem that was on. I quickly unplugged it, let it dry out overnight, and it worked when I plugged it in the next day. Granted, it didn't work "as well" as it used to, but the cable company replaced it recently because it was so outdated (I was one of the first people in the area to subscribe to the service).
<Amanda`> I just went out to the parking lot in my bathrobe to exchange warez CDs.
This is true. At my job I assemble circuit boards and after soldering, the boards get washed with water. And of course there is no power running through the circuit though.
"the fax machine is nothing but a waffle iron with a phone attached to it." - Grandpa Simpson
1. Don't worry too much. Hardware is a lot harder than manufacturers make it out to be. My Soundblaster Live is coated in a thin layer of dried coffee. It still functions perfectly. That isn't to say that you should start dipping your hardware into pots of coffee with wild abandon, but don't think that you can't apply any pressure or anything. Sometimes you need a little elbow grease to get a card into a slot. (Make sure you're not attempting to force an AGP card into a PCI slot or something, though! :P)
2. RTFM. And if you buy an AMD processor, talk to people who can divine the secrets of the invisible GHz. My Athlon XP 1800+ was running at 1.1 GHz for quite some time, until I found out that, hey, they're supposed to run at 1.53.
3. Do research before buying parts. Real research. Ignore Tom's Hardware and other 'tech review' sites that get their test hardware free of charge. They are, quite simply, so partial that it isn't funny.
It helps if you're not buying bleeding edge hardware here. Talk to people who actually have the hardware you're looking at. See if they've had any problems. Try to do a lot of digging - you want to find as many combinations of hardware that you can. (IE, processor + mobo, mobo + various cards, etc. Issues abound everywhere.)
Unsafe working conditions 1.The floppy nearly kills the Red one. 2.The little Lego guys are seen Climbing (100~ish feet in Lego Scale up the side of the case without any safety ropes or netting. 3.The Lego's are required to lift substantially greater than their own body weight on multiple occasions? ULWA - United Lego Workers of America??
actually I am happy to see you, however that is in fact a banana in my pocket.
This is the coolest thing I ever saw.
yes i said the d word, yes i will probabbly be flamed. but honestly though. screw all the removeable motherboard tray crap, and the hard drive tray crap. and the whatever tray crap.
I actually bought my parents a Dell 4500. the case is nice (not in a neon-modded, fan galore, translucent or liquid cooled fashion), and actually opens up (almost) like a mac. everything is easily removeable (except maybe the MB), and you never need a screwdriver. not once. not for any of the drives.
if they sold 'em separate i would seriously consider it for a real case for everyday computing. light (relatively), easy access and reasonably quite. hey, why not. it's not like the case came with microsoft (well, the sticker, but that's endurable)...
My life in the land of the rising sun.
I am tryign to build a completely silent x86 based PC for running linux which will be a network server / adsl nat box / mp3 store with sound output. It must be silent to sit in my bedroom next to my stereo
The via eden is perfect for this 600Mhz passive cooled version, however I am having trouble finding a fanless powersupply, fanless cube style case, and a suppler for these in the UK that accepts credit cards.
Anyone know of a supplier? I can only find one that wants checks or noChex before delivery and I don't want this, I wan't to use my creditcard with it's on-line fraud protection and warantie gaurenties etc.
PS For all you spelling zelots out there, I know I can't spell and I don't care - get over it
If you ever drop your keys into a river of molten lava, let'em go, because, man, they're gone.
In the UK they're sold as the Scorpio from Scan and they come with power supply. I have the indigo version and I love it. Best case I've ever had.
And the people shall be oppressed, every one by another, and every one by his neighbour Isaiah 3:5
Star Wars figures and Legos?!
WTF is that about?
I want to see a computer assembled by topless blondes that take breaks to make out with each other and have whipped cream parties.
Lego figures my ass.
There are some odd things afoot now, in the Villa Straylight.
I used to work for a place that did a decent multimedia database, and one of the test videos we had was an Apple training video for engineers. Well, more like an induction video really.
One of the sections showed an engineer patiently assembling a Mac Plus out of various components, and his boss coming in with a client to impress. Boss picked up a board, showed client who nodded sagely, then the two walked out.
Apple's instruction to the engineer? Bin the board. They wouldn't allow it to go out having been handled by someone who might have inadvertantly aplied a static charge to it.
Now - whether this was actually carried through in practice is another matter of course. But it was certainly there on their film.
Cheers,
Ian
Step 1: Build Computer!
Step 2: ???
Step 3: Profit!!
Trying is the first step towards failure.
I remember trying to put in a new sound card in my old 486/DX/66 Packard Bell.. It probably took a good hour because i was so worried about cracking this couple thousand dollar machine, along with the couple hundred dollar sound card.
- what is the definition of simultanagnosia?! I've been meaning to look it up!
Hehe... Thanks Andy and CmdrTaco... i'll have to make some assembly in next month, because i'll buy my new computer also as components :)
Ok, Well after reading the first hundred or so posts I've realized that most of you are strokeing your ego's and not awnsering the man's question!
/. readers do for friends and family!).
.
/.'ers my first computoy was a crappy zenith vic clone that turned up the daisy's to a cup of tea across the keyboard. Peek and Poke are KEWL! The second system I used was a MICOM (Text ONLY! muahahah in beautiful PUKE ORANGE!), and the first color system I ever touched was a comodore 128 (with a whopping 128K). The first system I purchased (I will never buy a name brand again!) was a crappy AST (no they don't exist anymore!) and the first system I built was a 386SX, followed by a K6 266 and then an Abit BP-6 (man $70/processor and there are 2). Now I run a dual Athalon setup (Yes I render stuff and cant work without multitasking). My older computing geek friends tell me of the 'days of yore' when your 'codeing tools' consisted of a hole punch and bristol board cut to the right size, analog computers, and the first IBM/Amdhal S360's that in thier old age required physical battery to operate properly.
Now, Simply put here are some sites that contain a lot of information to digest.
Tom's Hardware
AnandTech
Now here is a list of components to pick, and please do your self a favour and do some resarch before hand, get some do's and dont's and faq's stuck in your skull before spending any hard earned dough.
BTW I build systems on the side for the not so techniclly apt (as I'm sure many
Heres your shopping list
1. CASE w/PS (at least 350W ATX and a size you could "Grow" into)
2. Mother Board (Think long and hard about this one as it is a more important choice than even your CPU or RAM). Personal recomendations include ECS, MSI, Asus, and if you like spending money Tyan. Not to mention Gigabyte, Abit and shuttle, however if you visit the both tom's and anands they will have all the links for you with recent information and benchmarks. 3. CPU (what ever you want to spend on this will directly determine the capabilities of your system hence money=power!)
4. Ram (your options are limited by the capablilties of your motherboard.).
5. Video (again do you play video games or do you simply fart around in office all day and surf the net?). And if you play video games how much power do you need (can you afford to spend upwards of $400 on a card?).
6. Sound (Are you a musicaian, do you want home-theatre quality or is the AC'97 on the motherboard good enough for you?).
7. Optical devices (DVD, CD-ROM, CDRW, DVDRW?) again functionality direclty determined by price. DVDRW drives cost roughly $300 - $500 and the media is $4 to $8 per (and when you screw up they make expensive coasters). On the other hand I pay about 12 cents us per blank CD-R. (I purchase bulk!).
8. Storage (again price determins functionality). all drives now start at around 40GB and cost about $70 to $150.
9. Printing/Scaning (do you need a multifunction device to deal with the "real" paper world?).
10. Lastly but definitly most important! Connectivity! Will you get DSL? Do you already have a DOCSIS compliant cable provider in your area? or are you stuck with a measly little 56K modem? (I'm sorry I'm biased by my Canauk 3.5MB/s DSL.) The choice is simple if you get a modem stick with USRobitics or GVC. (both have lifetime warrenties). If you get a NIC (Network Interface Card), then you may consider weather or not you'll use the added features of a $50 3Com or weather or not a $10 Realtek will do?
Now you have a lot of foot work to do, quotes are a bitch! I only say that haveing worked in a computer store sales environment. They take time effort and forethought. You will get out of it what you put into it. If you simply think "Ok I'll get one of those dell's or compaq's and add what I need as I go!" well then you will be stuck with whatever decisions you make. Keep in mind computer parts depreceate faster than Ford Pinto's! So if you maintain a steady investment then you will have great preformance at price point that would make any scrouge druel. Stay away from used hardware unles it has a warrenty! Refurbished monitors are a huge saveings and have a one year warrenty. Realisticly you should simply say "This is my budget and this is what I need!" If you know what your doing (after all that reading!) then you'll get a killer deal. If you like you can even email me and I'll send you a quote
A note to the rest of you
Peace can only come as a natural consequence of universal enlightenment ~Tesla
Ewwww.... spoiled milk in a device that generates heat? Yuck!!
Once at work a coworker asked for my help with a computer that wasn't responding to most keyboard presses. It was in a laboratory where stuff (mostly solids) would fall into the keyboards fairly regularly. I flipped the keyboard over only to have chunky curds of 3 day old chocolate milk dump out onto the bench top, my shirt and my lap. Turns out that one of the other coworkers had his young daughter in over the weekend, and she had spilled chocolate milk in *his* desktop keyboard, and he swapped it for the one in the lab without bothering to tell anyone.
I imagine if it had been a device that generates heat, we'd have found out about it sooner...
At the very least, I would have recommended disassembling the modem and rinsing with distilled water and *then* letting it dry out.
A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing -- Emo Phillips
Hey, i've been doing this since 1993 and I occaisionally have problems which usually end up to do with a DOA component. However last weekend I went sleepless over a problem that I never saw coming. I know some/all of you probably already knew this but I have never heard of it before. I just bought a new mb/cpu plus some other stuff(vid card, dvd drive, network card) to rebuild our pastors computer. It was a Biostar mb and an Athlon XP 2.0 cpu plus a cpu fan. I mounted the cpu fine and the fan. put the board in the case and mounted all the new hardward plus the old stuff that didn't die in the meltdown (which resembled the "this msg will self destruct in 5 seconds" from MI). I turned system on, np, and started loading XP. I immediatly got a BSOD right after I hit 'enter' to install XP. Had an error bad_pool_caller. I kept getting this error (after removing all the old stuff, and then even the new stuff replacing it with others that I knew worked. I even put in another MB,CPU and fan that were exactly identical from my friend for whom I am also building a system for) and finally read about it. talked about caches. So I disabled all the caches in the cpu and I was able to install XP.........over 12 hours to do so but it worked. I knew nothing was wrong with the components because it happened with both mb's/cpus' etc. It had to be a setting but I was damned if I could find it. Weekend ends with no sleep and monday arrives. I call up tech support from the ppl i purchase from. Within 2 minutes the guy asked me a question and was able to tell me what the problem was. The CPU fan was on the CPU backwards. the slot for the screw driver had to be facing the PS and not down the MB. He was right!!! Ofcourse he did say that there was a marking on the bottom of the CPU fan that wasn't there but it fixed it fine. Evidently with the fan reversed there was actually a gap between the cpu and the sink so that it was overheating. Ok. Am I just stupid here? (don't really answer that....) Has anyone run in to this before or does everyone BUT me know about this???? This is actually why i love building these things :) It's always an adventure...
Sorahl
How is it possible to take my silly comment about the toy palm pilot as trolling?
Heh. Dumb moderator.
CmdrTaco just flew in from lunch at Taco Bell to bring us this great story, something that got him quite a bit excited (and perhaps even horny) because it involves little green, red, yellow men and lots of Legos.
Very sick indeed for adults to be interested in such things.
Little things amuses little minds...
Was Frankenstein an old Dell into a new case because of a lack of interanl bays. They hold their mother boards in with beads of soder taking this thing out of it's old case took 45 min. and a pair of frickin' needle nose pliers.
I might be the only one in the computing world that might be *against* the bundling of your precious computer cables (at least ide/floppy cables), but I think it allows you to more easily adjust your cables when you need to. (i.e., installing storage and optical drives..) It's easier to trace a cable from the ide motherboard connector to the hardware than it is to unbundle everything because you need just *one more inch* to connect it to your new device. :)
Of course, this only applies to people that change their hardware *constantly*, like I do. (Hey, I like working with my hands, but cars are too dangerous for my tastes. ;)
- vmfedor
I like my women how I like my sugar.. granulated.
I've been building computers for eight or nine years now and nave never used one. I've never blown a component by not using one either. In fact, the only way I've ever had a component die is from overheating or bad set up (I killed a CPU once upon a time on a motherboard with jumpers by setting it up _very_ badly.
Instead of the strap, I keep a running computer nearby and touch the metal part of the case every two minutes or so to dissipate static discharge. I also do this whenever dealing with particularly sensitive components (memory, cpu, motherboard).
This has always worked. So what's with the strap?
Brian
If I'm not mistaken, this is the case.
And the l33t shall inherit the 34r7h.
I have to admit, you certainly have a way with words.
Oh, and my bad on sites.
Think nothing is impossible? Try slamming a revolving door.