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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.
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.
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 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...
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!
"This is why geeks never have a social life. Its cause they are too busy playing with their toys."
Or they're too busy playing with Slashdot.
The Oil Change
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."
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!
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.
My biggest pet peeve is in the bios. For all the different settings there is a help button, but all they tell you are the (usually) two options: enabled/disabled.
;)
I have an apparantly unique ability among mankind to create a list in my mind from all available options and to stop adding to the list when I get a repeat. Although this can get tricky when the list contains 3 or 4 items, 2 is quite simple.
What I need to know is what the option actually means, and what it affects! Although I know now, I certainly didn't know what CAS timings were the first time I saw them.
BTW: the lego men were awesome funny.
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.
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."
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?
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
My first time was Harrowing to, then I stoped putting computers together while I was sitting in the path of an apraoching train.
Now, it's not so harrowing.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
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/
.. 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
...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
Use the Google, Luke. It's been done.
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.
Nothing sums up your technical ability more succinctly than "what teh heck was IPX" (typo intact).
How can I hire you to assemble and configure *my* mission critical server?
- Toby
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
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.
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
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...
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."
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!
...
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
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"
Just count yourself lucky you didn't put the AT power connectors backwards. Its physically very easy to do, and there's always a fair chance of nuking the motherboard. Needless to say, I'll always remember now, black-to-black...or was it red-to-red...damn it...good thing none of my computers now use those things.
"(Man) tries to live his own life as if he were telling a story. But you have to choose: live or tell." --Sartre
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!)
I don't believe there was any performance difference between AMD and Intel 486s. The basic design was identical, as at that time AMD still had license to Intel's designs (something that began at the time the original IBM PC came out, and IBM wanted multiple sources for 8088 CPUs). The K5 was AMD's first original x86 CPU, and their 133 MHz "5x86" was the fastest 486 ever made.
"(Man) tries to live his own life as if he were telling a story. But you have to choose: live or tell." --Sartre
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".
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.
No, but LEGO dudes are.
Did you read the article? Heck, did you even mouse_over the link, to see where it was pointing? (hint: ***LEGO***.dave.dk)
Whoever stated that signature sizes should be limited to one hundred and twenty characters can just go ahead and kiss my
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
Quiet PC are UK based and sell all manner of quiet/silent fans, PSUs, enclosures etc. I haven't shopped there but I know people who have with no problems. Be warned - it's not cheap.
---- Den ene knappen er powerknapp, den andre er Bender voice knapp "Bite My Shiny Metal Ass"
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
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
Dude, it was sarcasm.
Geez you guys only take me seriously when I'm trying to be funny.
How is it possible to take my silly comment about the toy palm pilot as trolling?
Heh. Dumb moderator.
SYS 64738
load "linux",8,1
Speaking of hooking up floppy drives, does anyone remember the Tandy computers that decided it would be a good idea to send power to the drive down the ribbon cable?
I had a client who had a drive go out and he replaced it with a standard floppy. The cables were exactly the same. He said his office smelled like smoke for a week.
load "linux",8,1