Anyone Build their own PC?

I've actually had bad luck lately. ; My mom rebuilt her computer too, and I did a lot of the real assembly work. ; In the end when it was all together it would not turn on.

The end story is that after unplugging the power leads to all the drives it worked, and when I plugged them back in it still worked. ; So I can only guess that one of the wires is a little funky and there was a short the first time that the power supply detected and it refused to turn on as a safety measure. ; Fiddling with the wires must have cleared up whatever the issue was.

My dad's system refused to turn on also. ; I don't remember what the problem was. ; It's possible that it wanted the RAM in the other set of sockets. ; After fiddling with it for a bit it worked like a charm and has been reliable since.

Still not a big problem in either case, but both times I pushed the power button and nothing happened. ; Not a good feeling.
 
Plenty of good advice so far. One thing not mentioned yet if you're considering a Mac, is that nowadays they are PCs, and can run Windows natively. Either with a program that runs under the Mac OS, or with the Apple supplied reboot software, you can install Windows and all you current programs, so no need to buy new versions or switch licenses. That way, you get the best of both worlds, your old programs, and those that run only on the Mac OS (Aperture, Final Cut, or whatever). More options is always good.

Erich
 
"PolynesianMedic" said:
You can purchase a 3 license version of Windows 7 and it is only about $30 more than the single license version.
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I did not know that.
 
Okay- emboldened by all the good advice I got plus a lot of reading over the weekend I went ahead and ordered some stuff last night. ; I started off thinking about a kit but could not find one anywhere that was exactly what wanted- (they seem to toss one poorly rated part into each kit for some reason…) ; So I ended up just kind of picking and choosing the stuff I wanted. ; Mostly from Tigers Direct but a few things from Newegg also.

-Roomy Mid Tower Case with space to grow and some cool looking red led’s
-1100W Power Supply (way oversized- turns out I’m a sucker for red led’s I guess)
-Intel Core i5 650 & ASUS Motherboard Bundle
-Hitachi 1TB Hard Drive (big enough since I store & backup pictures on external drives)
-4 GB DDR3 SDRAM (enough for now- may add some more later?)
-Cheap DVD Drive, Card Reader & Network Card
-Windows 7 64 Bit Home Edition OEM

Still no video card- I may pick a cheap one up locally between now and when all that stuff shows up later in the week. ; Not sure I even need one since I’m not really into gaming or anything. ; Anyway- thanks for the help all. ; Hopefully I can get it all put together now.
 
"Jeff Fillmore" said:
Still no video card- I may pick a cheap one up locally between now and when all that stuff shows up later in the week. ; Not sure I even need one since I’m not really into gaming or anything. ; Anyway- thanks for the help all. ; Hopefully I can get it all put together now.
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Lightroom and PS both thank you in advance for not using the onboard video.

Now would be the time to get a video card that can handle dual monitor outputs; you're not as worried about getting 60 fps at 1900xYYYY resolution but rather something a little more than what the onboard can handle. ; I'm thinking 128mb would be enough, and available cheap...not sure if you need AGP or PCI-e though.
 
I'm sure I'll get a video card before the big build day- although now I'm second guessing if I want the double monitors. ; I may fix my old computer and give it to the kids with the 24 I have and just upgrade. ; I was at CompUSA and saw some 28" single monitors in the $320 range. ; They were kind of mesmerizing to look at actually. ; (And not just because they had womens beach vollyball streaming in slow motion on them either...)
 
awesome thread!
thanks for all the tips and advice to everyone!

I too have always wanted to build my own system, not to save money, but to get the parts I want and need.

Jeff, I always use tigerdirect too, so that should go great. Sounds like you are getting an awesome setup.

I cant wait for my monitor to break so I can one of those giant ones. They have come down in price SO much in just a short time!
 
"Craig" said:
I cant wait for my monitor to break so I can one of those giant ones. They have come down in price SO much in just a short time!
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No kidding! ; I think I paid $1200 for my 24" several years ago.
 
"Jeff Fillmore" said:
I'm sure I'll get a video card before the big build day- although now I'm second guessing if I want the double monitors.
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I have a dual-monitor video card that I'm about ready to pull out of a system. ; If you're interested, PM me and I'll send the details.

At my previous job, my employer came back from a customer site where they all had dual monitors. ; Since we were about to upgrade our PCs, he wanted to give all of us dual 19-inch monitors. ; I tried it out and told him I'd rather have one big one. ; I did some research and found a study that said the most efficient monitor size is 42 inches. ; Impractical, but efficient. ; We ended up with 24-inchers, but just to make him happy we bought dual-monitor video cards for the PCs.
 
Another (silly) question: Do I need to buy a separate CPU heatsink/fan? I was at CompUSA today and talked to two different sales people about one and came away quite confused. (One person told me I needed one to keep the air from getting 'old' in the case and the other person recommended a model based solely on what the last person they had helped purchased- without knowing anything about my computer. ; ??? )
 
if you get a new in the box intel cpu they come with a fan and heatsink. ; not sure on amd as I never use them. there are oem versions that do not come with one. ; I like the old air comment. ; hard to believe these morons sell and in some brick and mortar places work on computers
 
"Jeff Fillmore" said:
? I was at CompUSA today
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Hot Tub Time Machine? ; I thought theys was closed. ; ;D

Anyway, second to Howie unless you plan on overclocking. ; It does need a fan though.
 
"Jeff Fillmore" said:
the other person recommended a model based solely on what the last person they had helped purchased- without knowing anything about my computer. ; ???
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That ought to lead to an interesting discussion with a the manager after that moron sells someone something that won't fit and they try to return it.
 
I was poking around youtube last night and the first couple videos I found on that i5 processor were both talking about the lousy factory heat sink- so I went back to CompUSA armed with my own information this morning and picked one up. Seems like a minimal added investment to make sure everything works well into the future.
 
...and here we go...

4463090002_a87035694e_b.jpg
 
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