How hard is it to build your own PC. I have always bought Dell Machines in my home country and negotiated very good discounts. But am thinking about building my own desktop machine this time. Advice from anyone who's got experience Building there own machine would be great.

Maybe this link helps you to get started,

http://lifehacker.com/5828747/how-to-build-a-computer-from-scratch-the-complete-guide

It's not all that hard. After all, you are basically combining few Lego parts to work with each other. Building your own computer is a very good learning process to understand what each part of the system does. It will also let you to appreciate the system a bit more as it has your own work included. Even if the first try would be a bit of failure, you'll gain more knowledge for the next computer. Whether it's a ready build machine or next one you build by yourself.

For the first try, large enough case with adequate power supply could be a starting point. Ask for recommendations which motherboard you should get (and CPU to go along with it).

It's not very difficult, especially if you follow instructions from the guide mentioned above by MJCM.

Alternatively, you may just select all the components that you want for your new computer, for instance from a local IT chain's website (such as this one: http://www.advice.co.th/products/) and ask the staff at the shop of your choice to assemble all the parts for you. It doesn't cost much in addition (usually about 100 baht or maybe a little bit more but not too much in honest shops).

I wouldn't recommend to let them install an operating system and/or other programs though: it's where you could have bad surprises (often, they would just install pirated OS and software from an image file that is not optimized for your hardware, and it's not uncommon to end up with an infected system).

I've only built my own PCs. Used to have a page showing one of my builds step by step but not available at the moment. There are lots of guides on YouTube and this one is for the first timer. You can head over to Invadeit.co.th to check out parts and costs.

not very difficult. The only "dangerous" part is putting the cpu in. Everything else is simple.

Choosing the right parts is the challenge. What will the PC's main purpose be ?

I'd suggest having a go at it. I remember the first time I opened the case on my first computer to add a dedicated GPU (a second hand Voodoo card if I remember correctly) it was quite intimidating. That first step got me totally hooked on computers and I've been building my own ever since.

Maybe this link helps you to get started,

http://lifehacker.com/5828747/how-to-build-a-computer-from-scratch-the-complete-guide

+1

Good advice and step by step guide. Determining the use is the hard part, once you decide and build the machine you may find more uses and interests. Then researching the parts needed and shopping for best price / support is the something you can enjoy or hate.

Building and enjoying your work is the reward.

Fairly easy, but you need to define the primary use for the computer and then select the components. Spend a lot of time on the internet researching the parts you are considering and reading reviews. The main ones are the motherboard, CPU and memory. Get those right and the rest will fall into place.

I just finished building a high end graphics/gaming computer. I purchased everything through InvadeIT. I also spent months researching before placing an order.

If you don't have one, consider adding a good UPS.

Good luck.

Actual building the computer is quite simple with only a few tricky steps i.e applying thermal paste to CPU. Choosing the components is where the know-how comes in. If you are in or near Phuket come by our computer group meeting on Sunday mornings, can walk you through it.

Choosing the right parts is the challenge. What will the PC's main purpose be ?

Thanks for all the replies. Its a computer for financial trading. I already have the graphics card. Its a Nvidia Quadro Quad Card. It needs a PCI Slot on motherboard for the graphics card. I would like 2 spare PCI Slots on the motherboard incase I want to fit another graphics card. The processor needs to Mutli core 3GHZ or faster, Hardrive 7200RPM and 1GB Free Space, Memory 4GB or more.

Actual building the computer is quite simple with only a few tricky steps i.e applying thermal paste to CPU. Choosing the components is where the know-how comes in. If you are in or near Phuket come by our computer group meeting on Sunday mornings, can walk you through it.

Where about's in Phuket are your computer group meeting's held?

Choosing the right parts is the challenge. What will the PC's main purpose be ?

Thanks for all the replies. Its a computer for financial trading. I already have the graphics card. Its a Nvidia Quadro Quad Card. It needs a PCI Slot on motherboard for the graphics card. I would like 2 spare PCI Slots on the motherboard incase I want to fit another graphics card. The processor needs to Mutli core 3GHZ or faster, Hardrive 7200RPM and 1GB Free Space, Memory 4GB or more.

Don't make the mistake I did and plan to do SLI down the road, only to find the motherboard you got does not support SLI

Sounds like you need an i5 4760k - you could go i7 for 8 cores, but that depends on your application. Get the K variant which will allow for easy and safe over clocking (as long as you invest in a good cooling solution). 4.5Ghz is easily achievable. For your storage, it's cheap enough to consider SSD's of a decent size. I've two 250GB's raided into a single volume, with a small 60GB SSD acting as a cache for my magnetic media - several terabytes. Also consider 8GB as your absolute minimum memory size, it's dirt cheap.

I was just reading another thread about PC Building. Cooling is going to be very important. The PC will be running for 12 hours a day and I dont run any air con.

I was just reading another thread about PC Building. Cooling is going to be very important. The PC will be running for 12 hours a day and I dont run any air con.

You can look here for cooling solutions - http://www.jedicool.com/

I was just reading another thread about PC Building. Cooling is going to be very important. The PC will be running for 12 hours a day and I dont run any air con.

Corsair H80i - keeps my OC'd chip below 30 degrees and you have full control over how it acts to heat. Comes with a lovely control panel you can create profiles with for different conditions/seasons.....

I was just reading another thread about PC Building. Cooling is going to be very important. The PC will be running for 12 hours a day and I dont run any air con.

Corsair H80i - keeps my OC'd chip below 30 degrees and you have full control over how it acts to heat. Comes with a lovely control panel you can create profiles with for different conditions/seasons.....

3770K i7 OCed below, pretty good cooling. I see JediCool has it - http://www.jedicool.com/product.php?id=2208