Building a computer

Some of you may remember my prevous video camera saga, but now I'm in a new one. I have a question for people who've built their own computer. I was just wondering how much it cost you to build yours and if it is worth the effort? Thanks!

Charlie Weingartner

400 dollars for a P4 2.8 HT Processor, Case, MB, Power Supply, 512 MB PC3200 RAM, and got to reuse the rest of my hardware (cd drive, hard drive, video card, etc.) Building my own comp was worth it for me.

It's the off-season, I can say this is related to coasters in the way that hey... you can run No Limits better the faster computer you got!!! :)

Well, mine cost me around 800 total cost...
That included:
- a Alien case (not Alienware, but similar with uber-fans & tricked out lights),
- P3.0ghz
- 1gig RAM
- ASUS Motherboard
- All-in-Wonder 9600
- 250gig HD

That's not including the alread-have 120gig HD, CD & DVD ROM & other little sutff...

It wasn't cheap, but it's well worth it & will last me years. You gotta shop on-line, and it's probably better to get a new computer unless you got half the parts from your old that will carry over.

Hmm, I wasn't looking into replacing a computer, but instead getting one for myself besides always having to share one with my family. Maybe I'll just buy. I'd still like to hear from a few other people, though.

my 486dx2 66mhz running dos 5.1 cost me 700, around 10 years ago, and it still works...

Putting your own system together is so much better than a oem machine. You get to pick and choose each and every component that gooes in and the end result is a much better and more reliable machine.

Not sure if this is a good comparison but here goes. I have a machine at home that I built a few years ago with a Celeron 300 processor (running w2k) and I have a Compaq Presario with an AMD chip running at over 400mghz (running 98se)....end result? My homebuilt pc runs circles around the Compaq.

I could go on and on... but I won't. If you are confident that you have the skills to put one together... I'd say go for it.

If you need a good site to check out component reviews... try checking out http://www.tomshardware.com

This is a good place to start and has tons of info and reviews.

Ralph

Well I just got done building a computer for my grandpa. I didnt get the best of everything good, just what would pass. Go to Tiger-Direct and buy all your parts. I built a new computer, 650 mhz (About 1ghz) because its an offbrand processor, 128 mb ram, 52x burner, and 20 gig hard drive.

The final cost was about 170 and it works great.

Tiger Direct is EXPENSIVE... you're paying near-retail prices (that's not a good thing)...

You want resonable prices with GREAT customer service and reliability? Goto New Egg (www.newegg.com). I got most of my parts from there, and they're definately legit

Never had problems with www.atacom.com and their processor and motherboard prices are hard to beat.

1.5 years ago, i built a P4 2.4ghz, 512MB RAM, GeForce 4200, case, power supply, 32x CD burner, DVD Rom, 60GB hard drive, modem, 3 cooling fans, round cables, and a blue cold cathode light for 800 bucks.

-seth

Besides the internet, the computers main use will be put in Adobe, Macromedia Flash, Pinnacle Studio, etc. Basically, I need a good amount of free space/memory. Also on it will be a ton of internet files for my site/other sites. No extreme game use except for every now and then No Limits, and Age of Empires. What size hard drives/cards/(all that junk) would you suggest getting?

Charlie

The best site for pricing components is PriceWatch. It's your friend. Use it!

Ack! Computer Speak!

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me feel unsmart

|\|o, +|-|i5 15 C0mPUTeR 5p34|<!

"4LL YOuR b4$E Bel0|\|G +0 US"

Or you could use my method, and dig a computer out of your local dumpster. I found a Windows 98 SE computer with 192MB of RAM, an 8.4 Gig HD, and Windows Small Business Suite all installed. Talk about a find! I mainly use it for games, though. :)

I've built several machines over the years. I guess that fact that I've built several indicates that Ilve been satisfied. Of course the biggest advantage is the opportunity to get exactly what you want.

The cost savings is greatest if you already have a machine and can salvage parts of it. For new parts, I've found that different parts are cheapest at different locations.

Hard drives, CD & DVD drives, monitors, RAM, and some other items are usually cheapest when they are on sale at the big chains like Best Buy and CompUSA.

Cases, mother boards, floppy drives, and some cards are cheapest at computer shows and hamfests. You can also often save on grey market software at these events. Also, if you can use some used parts, they are cheapest at the show.

And I'll bet that dumpster dive had sensitive data on it, too.

I'm actually falling behind in some ways. My home theater PC is "only" a Pentium 4 1.6 (pushed to 2.13). The desktop is a Pentium 4 2.4. Neither is hyperthreaded. Must...resist...urge...to...upgrade!

Along those lines, consider that you never have to upgrade all at once. My machine has evolved over the years while occupying only two different cases and the same floppy drive. A long series of motherboards/CPU's, hard drives, video cards and CD/DVD drives have been in there. I've been on my Athlon 2000+ for almost two years now, and I'm in no rush to upgrade it.

Yup. That's how the secondary PC came about at all -- whenever I upgraded the desktop, I'd have a component sitting around, until I had a full second working PC. More recently I HAVE bought components for the second PC (DVD drive and video card capable of driving my HDTV), but it started as a hand-me-down.

Which reminds me, I need to make a run over to the Goodwill store and drop off some stuff...

I just got all of my stuff off of newegg.com and it wasnt too espensive.