Buying a new computer (Spun-off HIV topic)

(This message is message 274 of the "HIV research - for the ones you love." topic. - Adminnemooseus}I have built all my own machines plus ones for my entire family and most of my friends for about the last 5 years.1. Buy everything from Computer Parts, PC Components, Laptops, Gaming Systems, and more - Newegg.com. Seriously they are the best and if you are unsure of the quality of your product they have a product review system where people can post their comments and ratings.2. Unless you are a totally processor speed freak, when looking for a processor always get the lowest speed of the newest stepping. These tend to have less issues with cooling and wont turn your home office into a furnace.3. Don't buy Intel unless you want to pay too much for hardware that does not perform as well as the alternatives.4. Of the many things not to skimp on in terms of quality probably the 2 worst ones are memory and disk. Bad memory causes freaky hard to diagnose problems and it is better just to not go down that road. The importance of your disk is just that if it happens to be the thing that fails you have more to loose. Everything else that has potential to break is mostly easy to diagnose and repair.4. Don't spend $300+ on a video card. I promise that a quality $150 one will play all the games you would ever want to today and you wont notice.5. Cases should have a removable motherboard tray if you are building yourself. This will save you lots of time and those annoying cuts on your fingers.6. If a case comes with a power supply make sure it is not some generic brand that they just threw in as a "bundle" look for Antec power supplies if possible.As long as we are talking about brands here are my favorites.Motherboard - Asus 100% anything else is trash.Processor - AMD64 and if you need the extra performace go for the FX series.Memory - Corsair or CrucialHard Disk - Seagate. I trust no other brand.CD/DVD ROM - Sony or LiteOn (which is just Sony without the name)Sound - Whatever comes on the motherboard. Unless you are a serious audio person you probably won't be able to tell the difference.Video Card - My favorite over the years has been LeadTek. Their availability has been waning as of late and I have had good luck with Asus cards. Shy away from cards that have the same video processor but are much cheaper than one of the well known brands.Cases - Antec is great but just pick a case you like and is lightweight. The thing to watch out for is just the power supply that it comes with. See if you can get a case without a power supply. It costs a little bit more but then you can be sure to get a quality power supply.Power - Antec all the way but I have heard good things about Vantec and Coolermaster.Network gear - Linksys or U.S. Robotics have always brought me luck. I avoid D-Link and Belkin like the plague.I am a wealth of useless computer hardware knowledge. Ask away if you have any questions.(This message is message 274 of the "HIV research - for the ones you love." topic. - Adminnemooseus}

...and post them at a good place - HERE.AdminnemooseusThis message has been edited by Adminnemooseus, 02-14-2006 06:34 PM

Both LeadTek and Asus make video cards based on Nvidia and ATI chipsets.I have heard good things about alienware cases.

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Of course, biblical creationists are committed to belief in God's written Word, the Bible, which forbids bearing false witness; --AIG (lest they forget)

Oops...Sorry about that. I'll move my comments right now.

From the other thread:Thanks muchly Jazz, I'll take note of everything ^^I buy AMD chips and nothing else - my current PC has an Athlon XP and I love it to bits. I had to travel 60 miles to get to a computer store that sold laptops with AMD chips - literally every shop in my home city had Intel and nothing else (and I swore never to buy from a few places after they said "What kind of Pentium is that?" Morons...)I got a 250GB hard drive at the moment. I may have to buy another if my fiancee doesn't stop downloading cartoons.My favourite video cards have always been NVidia GeForce - I usually look for the newest one and then buy the one a step or two steps down from that.When I buy cases I go for SIZE... ease of access and all that. (Size does matter!)Now, I've heard some good stuff about Alienware computers - and yes, I have drooled over them, because a local internet cafe has a bunch and they look like the ultimate gaming machines on the planet... I'm wondering if it's possible to build a computer with the same specs and fine tuning of an Alienware? I don't have a few grand to throw away on one, otherwise we wouldn't be having this discussion - but I'm wondering if I can make myself something close to one without going completely broke.

Alienware PC cases look like big green blobs. On the other hand, their laptops look amazing...*cries over lack of money*I was browsing their site last night, so I'm wondering about how much the components they have listed will cost.

Power supplys that come with cheap cases suck, and do more harm to your computer than good. Once my power supply failed during an outage, I had to go buy another one. I spent $80, and the temp inside my case dropped 13 degrees F. I no longer have heating problems, and everytime there is an outage, it has built in protection.

I'm more than a bit nervous about actually building the thing as well - any advise? Tips? Is it anyway hard, anything I should look out for?

If you are short on cash then you might want to think about spending so much on a case. My case is a very plain antec case without any colors, without a window, without any neon lights. But when I take it to a LAN party what matters is that it performs. If that neon lighted processor fan can console you after taking a serious beat down from me and my plain offwhite system then by all means. =)Seriously now though. Spend the money on a nicer monitor or a better video card. You spend 99.99999% more of your time looking at you screen and what it can render then you do looking at your case.

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Of course, biblical creationists are committed to belief in God's written Word, the Bible, which forbids bearing false witness; --AIG (lest they forget)

Starting with good parts building a computer is quite easy. Unless you are totally incompetent and try to force square parts into round holes you will be fine. I would also be willing to take a look at your parts list before you buy to see if I can identify any potential hang ups.The actual act of building can be scary the first time. If you want to be totally safe you can take some steps.1. Make sure the surface you are standing or sitting on is not carpet or something plush. Static can damage motherboards and expansion cards. I always build on my kitchen table where there is tile underneath me.2. Don't go out and buy a bunch of static protection stuff. You don't need the static mat or any special tools. If you plan on doing lots of hardware work in your lifetime you can invest a few dollars in a anti-static wrist strap. I have one and I never use it. The poor mans static guard is just the remember to touch your case to ground any static you have in your body before you touch any components.3. You should not need to push anything into a slot or port any harder then what you can naturally produce with the muscles in your hand. You should never need to use your body weight or do anything strange to make something fit. Usually there is just something blocking the way and taking a second look in better light with usually reveal the problem. This rule does not apply to mounting heatsinks on older processors. Anything you buy new though should not be hard to assemble.4. Don't worry about getting everything right the first time. Modern motherboards are smart and will give you post beeps if something is weird. (I even had a board once that had voice warnings) There is no more jumpers to set for clock speed or special things you have to do with memeory. It has become cheaper for motherboard manufacturers to detect this stuff in software.5. Don't worry about treating the hardware like a new baby. I have dropped processors on their pins before and they still worked. While I don't recommend being careless you can bend a videocard a bit to get it around that annoying capacitor or bend the capacitor!For peace of mind, before you build just make sure you have all the tools you may need. I recommend:1 medium sized phillips screw driver
1 medium sized flat head screw driver
A pair of small forceps if you have them. I actually bought a medical pair because I found them so useful. These are great for jumpers on hard drives, cd roms, motherboards, or for those annoyingly small pins you have to plug your case buttons into. A pair of needle nose pliers that are reasonably thin also work.
Lots of twist ties for taming the cable mess.
Scissors
Paperclips. For poking things and/or for holding the MB manual open.

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Of course, biblical creationists are committed to belief in God's written Word, the Bible, which forbids bearing false witness; --AIG (lest they forget)

Hey, don't get me wrong Jazz - I don't want a big green blob for a computer.My current case is white and blue, and doesn't have any silly LEDs or whatever. It DOES have a big shiny silver power switch so I can turn it on with my foot though.

Damn, you must have done this a lot... thanks so much for all the advice!I've heard I'll have to fix or attach the heat sinks to the processor along with a heat pad or something?

Just to add - I use budget memory a lot, and never really had any problems with it; I buy faster memory than my motherboard can support (like, PC2600 for a 2100 motherboard).But the one place where trying to save a buck winds up costing me more is the power supply. It simply can't be overstated that you need a good one. As mentioned, Antec and Coolermaster make some good PS's. Make sure it has the kind of connectors your motherboard needs; I bought a microATX PS the other month and actually had to solder on the 4-pin Northbridge connector because it didn't have one. Asus is good. Abit and Biostar is good, too. Stay away from PCChips. Very flaky. Also, be aware that the video card makers are abandoning AGP for PCI-E. If your mobo doesn't have a PCI-E slot you'll be locked out of any future graphics upgrades. (It's hard enough to find a AGP video card now as it is.)About cases - I'm a casemodder so I have somewhat different goals in mind for cases. Lian-Li and Coolermaster make some great cases; they're simple, well-built, easily expandable and moddable. Coolermaster cases usually have passthrough holes for their watercooling products.Or you can just get a cheap Chinese case, throw away the PS that will probably come with it, and put your Antec job in. Or run your computer in a cardboard box or taped to a wall with duct tape. Really the case is just supposed to hold all your components together and promote good airflow. Pay as much or as little as you want, get something that you like the look of or you think you can mod for the look you want, and try to get frontpanel USB ports. They come in handy.About cases; it's incredible what you can do with a Dremel and a few cans of Krylon spray paint. Hitachi is rock-solid (they took over the IBM Deskstar line.) Western Digital is usable. I find that Best Buy occasionally has incredible after-rebate deals on hard drives.And you know what? Don't short yourself on keyboard and mouse. These are your interface to the system, so they should feel just right. I use a Saitek gaming keyboard (comes with a little 9-button macro pad) but they make a regular keyboard too; it lights up blue (which is good in the dark) and has a very good tactile feel, and none of those ridiculous "Internet" and "Email" buttons along the top. So it doesn't take up a lot of space.Can't go wrong with a Logitec mouse. Wired or not, your choice; although it's always seemed kind of pointless to have a wireless mouse for a system that's always going to be in one place, with the added disadvantage of having to buy batteries for it. Plus I find the wire is an added tactile clue about which direction is "up" on the mouse. Oh, and once you've gone optical, you'll never go back.

Dealing with installing a processor is the thing that most people fear and I suppose it is the most complicated thing you need to do.You shouldn't have a heat pad, thermal tape, or any kind of shim object that sits between the processor and the heat sink. Some people do use these things but most of the time you do not need them. If you buy a retail processor rather than an OEM it will come with everything you need to install the processor. That is actualy a good thing to point out that I forgot. The OEM processor will be listed as cheaper but all you get is just the chip. When you buy retail you get the heatsink with any thermal substance either already applied or included.One of the reasons I recommend getting a case with a removable motherboard tray is that it makes installing the processor a lot easier. You can do it outside the confines of the case. For most new processors you buy retail the steps are pretty easy.1. Pull the locking lever.
2. Drop in the processor (see the MB manual for orientation)
3. Close the locking lever
4. Place the heatsink with the thermal patch directly over the core. (again check your MB manual for orientation)
5. Use whatever clip mechanism that comes with to clamp it down to the board.Most of this is outlined in the MB manual too. Also you can easily find howto for installing processors of a specific type online.If you do buy an OEM chip and heatsink seperatly then the only thing that is different is that you have to apply thermal grease from a tube to the processor core before you place the heatsink. This is a bit of an art which is why I don't recommend it unless you plan on becoming an enthusiast like me. Just buy retail processors and it will be fine.

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Of course, biblical creationists are committed to belief in God's written Word, the Bible, which forbids bearing false witness; --AIG (lest they forget)

If you buy your mobo, CPU, and heatsink in a bundle they'll do this for you. Otherwise follow the instructions carefully. The heatsink usually clips onto the processor socket with a spring clip that's quite stiff and applies a lot of pressure to the CPU; if you don't have everything aligned quite right you could break your CPU.They may give you an adhesive heat pad, if not, you'll have to use thermal paste. They usually give you a little tube with the heatsink. Wipe the contact area of the heatsink to get rid of any dust (or any old paste), put a little dab on top of the CPU after you've locked it in the socket, press the heat sink down, and then wiggle it a little bit to smear around the paste. There should be only a very thin layer between the chip and the heatsink, not a big glob of it. (If you use too much it actually retards heat transfer and you'll slag your chip.)It sounds scary, and you do want to be careful, but it's not that hard. Maybe it's easier these days with the Socket 939 chips and stuff. I haven't seated a CPU since they stopped using Socket 7.