Building a computer

[Scott B]

Hello
At the end of the year, I will probably be building a new computer with birthday money and stuff. I was hoping someone would help me compile a list of good parts. My budget is going to be ~$375-$400, and I will probably just move my old hard drive to my new computer.

I will give 50 credits to anyone who contributes to this thread

[Spartan Erik]

Hmmm.. well do you plan on gaming with it? Will it be a media center? Basically what do you plan on using the computer for?

[Scott B]

maybe both, I was just wondering the best possible combination of hardware with $400 =]

[cowctcat]

Well you could scrap your old compputer and use its parts if it has any good ones thats free!!!~!

[pasacom]

Well, I have built my own computer before and I love it and can give you some recommendations.

Get a Dual Core compatible motherboard. The one I have is the Kn8-sli motherboard.by Abit and it is compatible with AMD Anthlon Dual Core processors. Together it was about $130.

In either case, make sure you have a mobo that supports PCI x16 connections because you want a good, new video card.

I'm not sure what you're doing about the case but there's honestly nothing much that is different in cases. Just make sure you get one that allows good ventilation as heat is a computer's worst enemy. Fans are a must and you should have a wind current flowing through the front and out the back.

Power supplies: You should get one that has more than one 12 volt rail. The rails are basically different circuits so you don't overload on one rail. Mine is a 650 watt Power supply and it has modular cabling (which means you can select the cables you need and plug those in without having a bunch of clutter from other, unnecessary cables)

RAM is up to you... Just get a least 1GB

Video Cards:
Go on newegg.com and look at their video cards. Find the ones with good reviews. Those people who review them generally have good expert advice about video cards. Get at least 256mb of ram on the video card.

CD/DVD: These drives are up to you.

Goodluck!

I strongly urge you to use newegg.com as a priority source for buying things. They have the BEST prices and the reviews are really helpful in deciding what's best.
:drool:

[Ainokea]

$400 isn't much to work with I would recommend building a computer that can be easily upgraded as you get more money.

I would agree and get a dual core cpu, you could try and overclocking for a few faster mhz.

When you buy ram I doubt you'll be able to afford 1 gig or ram. So check how many slots you have on your motherboard plus if its dual channel ram. I would buy like 512 than later upgrade to 1 gig. Well then again I'm not too sure about building budget computers.

Dont forget OS unless using old, this adds up. If you really need to you dont need a case, yay better ventilation just make a makeshift one. But be sure not to smash your parts to bits... I would recommend buying OEM's as there are much cheaper but only come with limited manufacturers warrentys.

[Livewire]

$400 isn't much to work with I would recommend building a computer that can be easily upgraded as you get more money.

I would agree and get a dual core cpu, you could try and overclocking for a few faster mhz.

When you buy ram I doubt you'll be able to afford 1 gig or ram. So check how many slots you have on your motherboard plus if its dual channel ram. I would buy like 512 than later upgrade to 1 gig. Well then again I'm not too sure about building budget computers.

Dont forget OS unless using old, this adds up. If you really need to you dont need a case, yay better ventilation just make a makeshift one. But be sure not to smash your parts to bits... I would recommend buying OEM's as there are much cheaper but only come with limited manufacturers warrentys.

Yeah, $400's limited, but there is a shortcut: jack as many pieces as you can from the pc before it. The one I'm on cost me aorund $450, but it uses the hard drive, dvd-rw, fan, keyboard, mouse, stereo, and monitor as the pc before it.

And with some luck on newegg's sales week, lol - dual core 3.0ghz amd athlon x2, 2gb ram, 512mb video card, and a $20 psu to run it all.


It's possible to build a computer from scratch on $400 too - just don't plan on it doing much when it's done, cause frankly you put $20 into a case (plus $20 s&h), $20 into a dvd burner, $20 into a cheap keyboard/mouse combo, and $20 into a PSU and you've already sapped $100 of the $300 without actually buying any of the guts.

Jack what you can that works; you can always upgrade stuff like a drive later.



And one tip with the OEM suggestion - make sure you've got the cables to run the stuff (ex: have a sata cable for the sata drive or an IDE cable for any IDE drives - some motherboards come with some, others don't. OEM's don't come with anything other than the drive itself - no cables, no manual, no fancy box in many cases)




EDIT: And for gods sakes google for reviews. Otherwise you'll buy boards like the one in mine; after I searched it I found the onboard lan failure rate is about half and half. Seems I'm on the bad half - had to buy a $30 wifi adapter cause it's a royal pain in the backside to replace a bad motherboard.

[yoggy]

i can assure you that $400 isn't a budget for a fast computer even if it is custom built. I would use at least double that for a computer that will last longer before technology overtakes it again.

[Spartan Erik]

For $400 to build a decent gaming/daily use computer isn't much.. $600 would provide enough for a pretty good setup.

I suggest you check Newegg's Daily Deals section and its occassional Shell Shocker for big savings

[Rayburn]

I agree that $400 is cheap. But like everyone else says, get as much stuff from your old PC as possible. That will cut down the cost. I've been able to build a nice and fast budget AMD Sempron system for just under that that I use right now and really enjoy. So it is possible. I don't really recommend MSI boards, ASUS and Intel boards are really good, but they cost more than most motherboards. nVidia makes good video cards and Creative makes really good sound cards, even their budget Audigy SE is really nice for about $35.

You may even be able to find decent stuff for cheap on Ebay. I've been able to do some cheap upgrades by buying from Ebay. Just make sure the seller(s) have good feedback.

Have some fun building it!