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.

Comments

wish I had these when making my first server.

[Brigadier]

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.

huh?

[Laplace]

And this is funny because...?

Oh yeah, harrowing.

[Moderation abuser]

I feared for my life...

go to google newsgroups

[Billly Gates]

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.

And I retire

[ealar dlanvuli]

I'm going to make a karma whore account, I really find miself disinterested quite often anymore, sorry.

~ealar