Advice & Suggestions On Building My Own Computer

[livinthailandos]

I am hoping most of you out there can provide details, advice, suggestions, or comments as I plan on building my 1st desktop PC. I've set aside a budget of 10,000 baht to use. Things I know I need already include

Case

CPU Fan ( any suggestions of what brand is good to buy )

Power Supply ( any suggestions of what brand is good to buy )

Motherboard ( any suggestions of what brand is good to buy? Asus, Gigabyte, Intel etc )

CPU ( Should I go with AMD or Intel? which is good for multi tasking )

Hard Drive ( Should I just look for seagate Harddrive )

CD / DVD Drive

Ram ( Whats a good brand to buy? Kingston, etc )

Monitor, Keyboard, Mouse have already

What I want to know mainly is any advice, suggestions on things to do or not to do right. Also I am confused mostly about motherboards though, do all motherboards support AMD or Intel CPU. Don't most motherboards have some sort of Video compoments on board. also I'm aware that there are 2 different kinds of Hard Drives SATA, EIDE any major differences here especially on attaching it with the power and PINs. any other things you guys can add will help. For the OS most likely I'll just use XP or Ubuntu.

[Supernova]

Here's my recommendation...

CPU: AMD

- This my personal preference; AMD is generally cheaper than Intel chips. The best bang for your buck if you're on a limited budget.

RAM: Corsair

- Again, a personal preference. From my experience, Corsair memory also provide better overclocking stability. When buying RAM (whatever brand you choose), plan on getting at least 4 gigs minimum.

Operating System: Windows 7 and/or Linux.

- Installing Windows XP on a new machine seems like an awful waste to me. It's time to move on to the next level.

Edited October 13, 2009 by Supernova

[d0ndela]

4 gigs RAM in a 10,000 baht build is a bit optimistic. If your budget is 10,000 baht you will be quite restricted to picking the cheapest in pretty much all categories.

[rgs2001uk]

4 gigs RAM in a 10,000 baht build is a bit optimistic. If your budget is 10,000 baht you will be quite restricted to picking the cheapest in pretty much all categories.

I get by on 2 gig of ram, but I dont play games.

If the op tells us what the pc is to be used for, it may help.

If its just for surfing the net and sending e-mails 1 gig of ram is plenty.

Does the op intend to digitize a music collection, then buy a decent soundcard.

How long is a piece of string?

[livinthailandos]

well just for basic use, email, websurfing. Like i said this will be my 1st project building a computer I can easily go higher than 10,000, I could do 40,000 baht if i really wanted to but I figure do it at low cost, incase I screw up really bad. I have had some experience already in removing and installing new

RAM

Hard Drives

CD / DVD Drives

Power supplies

Floppy Drives

Just never installed any motherboards, CPU, CPU Fan before

Thats why I asked for the advice, hope this helps. The reason for this is in December I need 3 new computers and i'll be installing windows 7 so I'd like to have some experience before I build 3 new computers

[spacemunk]

CPU - AMD Phenom II X2 545 3.0GHz - 3,380.00 บาท

Mainboard - BioStar TA780G M2+ AMD 780G/SB700 Chipset Mainboard for AMD Socket AM3/AM2+/AM2 Retail - 2,180.00 บาท

Rams - Kingston ValueRAM 240 Pin 2GB DDR2-800 x 2 - 2,840 บาท

Power Supply - Enermax 450W ATX12V v2.2 Tomahawk Power Supply Active PFC Retail - 2,180 บาท

HDD- Seagate 500GB Barracuda 7200.12 16MB Cache S-ATA II NCQ Hard Disk Drive Model "ST3500418AS" OEM - 1,940.00 บาท

DVD Drive - LG GH22NS 22x22 DVD Writer w/ 16x16 DL 12x DVD-RAM S-ATA Retail - 810 บาท

Casing - Depends on what you like. CoolerMaster cases mid tower around - 1,180 บาท

CPU HeatSink - Cooler Master "Hyper 212" CPU Fan/Heatsink for AMD & Intel Retail - 1,220.00 บาท

Pretty basic set up for - 15,730 บาท

SATA Cable

PATA Cable - Parellel ATA

The mainboard has onboard sound/graphics.

Realtek ALC662 6-Channel HD Audio & ATI Radeon™ HD3200 Graphics, On Board Graphic Max. Memory Share Up to 512 MB

Just read all the manual which comes with all the parts its pretty easy to set up.

Once u get the hang of it. You can set a system up in 5mins.

Edited October 13, 2009 by spacemunk

[astral]

Add an earth wrist strap, to avoid damaging anything with static, to your list.

A long thin philips screw driver with magnetic tip will help you get screws in to awkward places.

[ballzafire]

CPU Fan: Anything with lots of copper...

Power Supply: good quality generic should suffice

Motherboard: Asus (reliable)

CPU: AMD (more cost-effective than Intel)

Hard Drive: Samsung Spinpoint (Has a liquid bearing; both of mine are still whisper quiet after years of use)

CD / DVD Drive: Toshiba

Ram: Corsair

Video card: GeForce

Keyboard: Logitech

I would also invest in a case fan for each hard drive you plan to run. They can be positioned right above each HD using insulated wire to secure them into place. Make sure you direct the airflow DOWN onto the top of each drive. This will help them last longer and maybe avoid the common, heat-related sector failures and/or crashes many people experience.

Edited October 13, 2009 by ballzafire

[dave_boo]

Agree with the RAM and motherboard choices. Crucial makes some good pieces for decent prices. Not too keen on Biostar. Astek is a good company, the Toyota to Asus's Lexus. Samsung makes great drives; extremely under-appreciated but decent performance and a quality you wouldn't except for the price. A dvd r/w is a dvd r/w although I am partial to Lite-On. Video card...in my opinion nothing beats Nvidia--but I run Linux! If you're going to be on Windows an ATI 4770 will do you well. I also disagree with using a no-name PSU....that's the foundation of your system...you wouldn't try and subsist on McDonald's would you? I realise that PC Power&Cooling is beyond the means of most people (do they even sell that brand in LOS?), but Corsair or OCZ or other name brand will get you a supply that will last till your next couple of builds.

[spacemunk]

Agree with the RAM and motherboard choices. Crucial makes some good pieces for decent prices. Not too keen on Biostar. Astek is a good company, the Toyota to Asus's Lexus. Samsung makes great drives; extremely under-appreciated but decent performance and a quality you wouldn't except for the price. A dvd r/w is a dvd r/w although I am partial to Lite-On. Video card...in my opinion nothing beats Nvidia--but I run Linux! If you're going to be on Windows an ATI 4770 will do you well. I also disagree with using a no-name PSU....that's the foundation of your system...you wouldn't try and subsist on McDonald's would you? I realise that PC Power&Cooling is beyond the means of most people (do they even sell that brand in LOS?), but Corsair or OCZ or other name brand will get you a supply that will last till your next couple of builds.

its a pretty decent set up for the price.

I agree that samsung makes great drives i personally like the F1/F3 spinpoint.

As for me the PSU is the most impt in the whole system. i prefer brands like Enermax , PC Power&Cooling , Coolermaster UCP Series , Corsair , OCZ , Seasonic. Which is all available here but highly priced.

Currently the HD4770 is decently priced at 3300baht for the Sapphire HD4770. I myself is currently using 4770 crossfire.

[bendejo]

OP: as far as costs, it's good to have a base estimate, just don't be too strict on budget. If a decision between crucial items (like motherboard, graphics card, memory) comes down to 1k baht or so, maybe best to make cost a lower priority.

I don't know where you are, or how important it is to you that you make it yourself, but if you're in Bangkok and you went to Prantip to one of the shops that sells all the components they will probably build it for you very cheaply, if not free, if you buy all the essential components from them. You could also bargain to be able to watch, learn and ask questions.

I built my own some years ago, in 80386 days. I shopped around for the best deals on all stuff and put it together myself. There was some weirdness somewhere in the box that would rear its head occasionally, but none of the places I bought components from would accept it was the fault of their product, it was probably the (insert name of other component here), and I couldn't offer proof positive of exactly what it was either. Next time I got a new computer I found a place that built-to-order and the building itself was free, all I had to do was choose the components. If there was a problem there was only one entity to deal with.

As for OS, go dual boot, win7 and Ubuntu. A new Ubuntu is due any day now. I had a career doing Unix development and would love to use only Linux, but all the fun software runs on Windows. But try for yourself.

[ballzafire]

Yeah, I agree a name-brand PSU would prolly be best, but unless the OP plans to stress his system daily with intense gaming demands, maybe a good quality generic (however that translates) might be sufficient.

Afterall, they are known to fail after a few years, anyway, but before they do they contribute to mysterious system hangs, misdiagnosed component failures, etc. Very frustrating experience when you first encounter it and don't know what the real problem is (also potentially expensive if you go replacing components that don't need to be replaced!)

[garyh]

AMD is cheaper but Intel chips run cooler and use less power.

[dave_boo]

FOR 70,000 BAHT BUDGET

My little sister is also going to order a system for trading the SET stocks with the following components. pls advise. THX MUCH.

ALSO ANY ONE KNOWS A COMPANY WHICH MIGHT HELP HER ASSEMBLE AND TEST THIS SYSTEM, PLS?

Obviously if you're going to be trading stocks the MOST important thing is stability.

Having stated that, I think you should look for a workstation level board.  You can get them in LGA1366 trim, but I do question the need for such a fast processor.  Furthermore, you'll want ECC ram.  I forget where I read it, but Google stated there's quite a few errors they get each year per machine from RAM that is corrected by the ECC module.  A regular old computer would pass the error on.  Insisting on 'ES' drives (enterprise grade) would be a good idea also.  A bit more costly but more reliable.  The Raptor is considered an enterprise grade drive; not sure about the terabyte though.  Do you really want to install wireless in it?  Putting sensitive information out in the air is never a good idea; run hardline to your machine and that makes sure that you never have to worry at your end.  If I were you I'd also be leery of the OS they're suggesting to install; dodgy Windows installs are the norm, not the exception in Thailand.  Having a 64 bit OS is a good idea, it will allow you to utilise all the RAM you're installing--XP 64 isn't that well supported compared to Vista 64.  Those 'free' softwares are also mostly crap, install your own.  Another thing to consider is whether you even need Windows.  Do you do all your trading through the browser?  It's a serious question because I honestly don't know.  But if you do, consider installing Linux or BSD.  Rock stable and much less virus prone.  The tools included overwhelm what you get with Windows but could be lacking if you need a certain Windows programme.

[ignis]

I would also invest in a case fan for each hard drive you plan to run. They can be positioned right above each HD using insulated wire to secure them into place. Make sure you direct the airflow DOWN onto the top of each drive. This will help them last longer and maybe avoid the common, heat-related sector failures and/or crashes many people experience.

myself use the HDD fans, have done for years

[ignis]

Also use a better CPU Fan on my AMD

Have a Asus DDR2 Socket AM2+ Motherboard + 4GB DDR2 Memory

also have a GeForce 1GB 9800GT Graphics card

Be sure to buy a good/best Power Supply... Not the biggest... check how many pins on the motherboard 20 or 24.