Building your own PC

[Kaboose the Moose]

Well the time has come at last for a new machine I think and this time I want to build it myself. The only problem is I have no idea how to. Do any of you know if any good sites or any Escapist user groups that can help with advice and instructions for assembling a gaming PC?

 

[grimsprice]

Building your own PC is quite easy, Its no harder than assembling a 30 piece boxed lego... thing.

I don't know if we have any PC assembling groups, but i know there are 3,040,504,032,193 youtube videos that will take you through every conceivable step and problem.

 

[Om Nom Nom]

There's also this handy general PC-building resource [http://www.buildyourown.org.uk/].

 

[Kaboose the Moose]

Cheers guys.

 

[PurpleSky]

Building a pc? You mean buying all of the parts separately?

My amateur advice: Just make sure you have a good power source,and that the chipsets are compatible,and then all should be good.

 

[gellert1984]

Building a pc? You mean buying all of the parts separately?

My amateur advice: Just make sure you have a good power source,and that the chipsets are compatible,and then all should be good.

This, post a copy of your shopping list on a website, here or one of the easily found general pc help forums available online and ask someone to check it over, you'll likely get some trolling but it should be easy to pick out of the majority of posts.

When you put the PC together the only part you can really screw up permanently is putting the CPU in its cubby hole, instructions should come with the thing to tell you orientation etc. Other than that its mostly cables that can be removed and reattached until you get it right.

If your a patient person who's used to long term projects then I'd say spend a lot of money, get a good quality main box (ideally a full tower that you'll never ever need to replace) that fits plenty of extraction fans and a decent PSU (just preference but on every shop bought PC I've been asked to fix its been the PSU thats gone), then pickup whatever parts you desire, pick your CPU first, then motherboard then everything else.

If you dont have patience take your old PC apart and put it together a few times to get the gist of what your doing.

More expensive isn't always better, check benchmarks, check reviews ask around.

Good luck.

 

[Hansliszt]

Step one: Find a webpage or retailer that has decent prices, research is key.

Step two: Decide what you will use your rig for (gaming or work, or to sit on?)

Step three: Assemble a list of components, check basic compability (does the motherboard fit in the case, is the powersupply strong enough, does the motherboard support the other parts you want?)

Step four: Make additional edits to your component list according to reccomendations and tests online.

Step five: Order the parts. The basic stuff you should have;

A static electricity removing bracelet (easy to get in PC stores, static can with a low probability ruin your components)
A case
A powersupply
A motherboard
A processing unit (get cooling paste!)
A fan for the processing unit (often included)
Ramstick(s)
A harddrive (reccomend finding one with higher RPM count)
A graphics card
A DVD drive
The apropriate wiring usually comes with the packages.

Step six: Wait.

Step seven: Review the booklets you recieve with your PC parts, youtube is also a great source for PC building. I build mine like this:

Case first
Then screw in the powersupply
Then the motherboard
Then the HDD and DVD drive
Then the processor
Then ram and graphicscard

Then plug in all the wire, strap away where needed. Make sure the wires can reach where you decide to put the component.

Step 8: Try starting your pc, does it boot?

Step 9: Enjoy your pc or start looking for faults, the most common are:

- PSU not strong enough to boot
- Wires loose somewhere
- Dud components, often due to static electricity or bumps

Step 10: Review faults with a proffesional and replace parts if broken. If pc works, ignore step 10.

Step 11: ???

Step 12: Profit.

 

[Daedalus1942]

Well the time has come at last for a new machine I think and this time I want to build it myself. The only problem is I have no idea how to. Do any of you know if any good sites or any Escapist user groups that can help with advice and instructions for assembling a gaming PC?

My advice is go for an AMD core. They are alot cheaper than anything Intel produces, and are of the same quality if not better. As long as you do your research on graphic card chipsets, you shouldn't have too many compatibility issues.

 

[MindBullets]

It's not as hard as it first looks. The parts mostly come with instructions so as long as you put the right bits in the right places and don't break anything, you'll be fine...

Spoiler: ...

...That's what she said.

Sorry.

 

[Crops]

Most retailers are probably willing to build it for you if you order everything in one go. So if you know what components you need/want, but are worried about putting it together, have someone do it for you. Could also save you a bunch in shipping when you're ordering online.

Other than that, I guess the staff of any store/site that sells components will be more than willing to help you finding the right components based on your needs and budget.