Hey how many of you have built your own computers? I am leaning towards building my own cause I think it would be a cool experience, plus I need something challanging...

If you guys did build your own, what case(s) did you use? I was looking at a site wwww.frozencpu.com and they had some sweet moded cases there. Plus if you look on ubid or ebay you can find some nice cases, but some I have never heard of and I know that there are some shady cases out there, I want to go with a nice top of the line case....I know Lian-Li makes some nice ones, any other suggestions?

Also any of you do the dual cpu? How hard is that to pull off?

Building PC's is what I do. Plus, it's what I've been doing with my own personal PC for the past five or six years. The case I have used the most is by Enlight, Corp. (www.enlightcorp.com) Very easy to get into and add just about anything you can dream of. :D

Hi!
Building a computer is more of a screwdriver technology nowadays... But a cool experience for the first time anyway... :)
Also you can really maintain hardware after this very well... :)

Best of luck..
Have a great day :)

Regards
Amar

I built my own computer:

1.1GHz
512mb ram goodness
and a geforce 3 :)

www.tomshardware.com

They just did a review on some case manufacturers.

Been building my own PCs since 10 yrs ago, put together my 1st circut board 25yrs ago? :cool:

yeah, er, broken a few aswell! :eek:

I have to agree with bobcares, it is more of a screwdriver art, a delicate art at that :) (and not touching the components on the hardware).

Plus you get more options (upgradability) and you actually *know* your hardware so if something F's up you can generally fix it quickly..

I built 5 computers since around 2000...

3 of them were 500's 1 was a 1.2Gig (built it when 1.2 was the fastest on the block) and my latest is a 1.4

My current machine was built when I got my tax check.

ECS K7S5A Mainboard
SiS Wave 7012 Sound (intagrated, but ok for my use)
SiS 900 LAN (integrated but had good experiences with the SiS 900 LAN)
1.4GHz Athlon (with nice heatsink)
512 MB SDRAM-PC133 (I'll upgrade to DDR soon)
30GB maxtor UDMA 100
40GB Maxtor UDMA 100
425MB Maxtor (quite old but it is in my HD Caddy)
24X CD-ROM
Case w/ 2 chassis fans and 300W power supply
Voodoo3 AGP w/ TV out (Bought this when Voodoo3 was good for my first 500MHz computer :) I like this card, and never had any problems with it. It also fits my requirements as I dont need a GeForce)
Realtek 10M LAN Adapter (provisioned for my ISP and serves the WAN when I ran my local server yet separated it from the main LAN)
PCI Fan (Right next to the Voodoo3 Heatsink and is the strongest fan I got :) )

After Running for 36 hrs my CPU temp is about 126F and my system (case) is around 79-86F (standard FL household environment ;) )

But I do have to admit... this box sounds like a Saturn V Rocket at liftoff :eek: with all the fans in it... I could prolly throw it and it would fly :D

Just my 2 cents...

I have only one for myself (I have built more for other people however) from the ground up. I used one of the Enermax brand cases with the removable motherboard panel/plate. Another one you might consider is the newer Antec cases, they rock ;)

cool all this advice/experience is great. hopefully I can pull this off, although I may be getting in over my head cause I am looking into the top of the line stuff, I want the P4 2.2Ghz and I am looking at getting the NVidia Quadro4 XGL 900....
:homer: mmmmmmmmmm graphics........ Oh yeah those new Antec cases are sweet that is the case I am leaning towards, they have that cool Alienware look to them

< this guy builds his own computer and for others aswell as a hobbie :)

...building my own system. I have always stuck to things like DELL, HP so that I could get support. Then, as I used my computer more and started a few of my own businesses, I realized that support would be easier doing it myself! LOL!!

I just finished building this:

- Antec SX1030B (Black in color) SWEET CASE!!!
- Enermax 450 Watt Power Supply
- Tyan Tiger MPX S2466 Motherboard
- Dual AMD 1800+ Retail Chips
- 2 GB of Registered DDR Ram (Kingston)
- 2 x 60GB 7200RPM HDD (mirroring)
- 2 x 20GB 7200RPM HDD (striping)
- ATI A-I-W 64MB 8500 Radeon DV Video Card
- ATI A-I-W 16MB Video Card
- SIS 8MB video card
- and a bunch of the little stuff (network card, modem, etc....)

The system worked the first time I booted her up.....installed Windows XP Pro without a problem. Been running a few weeks now and no problems!

I will build my next computer myself also after this experience.

The thing I do recommend is DO YOUR RESEARCH! Make sure the parts you are buying are compatible with all the other parts you are buying! I originally had PC2100 RAM and had to return that for the Registered DDR RAM for it to work with that particular motherboard......oh well, it's all good now!

building a computer isn't as challenging now as it might have been couple years ago with jumpers and hardware driver problems and etc. even overclocking things have become easy...

the toughest part of building your own computer is deciding which components to buy and what will be best for your use - and also finding the cheapest place to get all your hardware

overall, much cheaper and you will be better able to maintain your computer - easier to upgrade etc.

if you have any questions, just PM me or the others who are giving you feedback and I'm sure they'll be more than happy to give you some answers ;)

good luck!

Oh... Dont forget to invest in an "Anti-static wrist strap" to help reduce the chances of static electricity. Or unless you are VERY careful.

Ohh... speaking of jumpers and the like, I had (back in 1997) some pieces to a *BUNCH* of old desktop systems (The tall ones where the ISA cards were vertical).

I managed to put all kinds of parts together to successfully build a 386 25MHz computer with 1024KB RAM and 25MB HD complete with a color moniter with a resolution of something like 72x30 (9 pin connection)...

*pulls out an ISA Paradise EGA Autoswitch Video card... Hmm... this is old.

As far as research is concerend, DO IT... Yup... Theres homework involved. I did some research with my stuff, and found no known issues with my potential hardware configuration. I have been running 15hrs a day for about 7 weeks with only 1 software problem (it happened before though).

I was looking into the Tyan Tiger MPX S2466 Motherboard for building a dual system in the future. I noticed there isnt very many mobos for dual AMDs... The days of rendering a 61,355 frame, 1024x768 CG Animation with Raytracing, caustics, etc can maybe get out of the double digit day rendering times. :eek:

I have thought about it. Just don't have enough time on my hands.

I've always built all of my PC's...

PriceWatch (http://www.pricewatch.com)

Great prices.. but, beware a little bit of scam artists are moving in...

I mean if you see a 100gig ATA HD goin for 20 bucks... leave it alone...

Just use common sense...

I built a:

Asus MB w/ 850 MHz (Athlon)
512 MB Ram
60 Gig HD
Radeon(sp?) All-In-One 32 MB Video Card

for under $800...

Ohh... Pricewatch, definately has a spot in my Favorites (which are backed up along with all my documents and important files) you can snag some good deals from there. Yea sometimes some of the prices do get a little suspicous.

My latest computer... See above... Not the 25Mhz one but the 1.4 I built for just under $300.

I built one a few months back for the first time. There are two types of components - those that will break if you push too hard, and those that won't go in unless you push too hard. If any component fits into both of those categories, you're in trouble. The problem is that you won't know which category it's in until after you've put it in. :D

Seriously, it's not hard, just a screwdriver job mainly. Watch the CPU fan, as they can be hard to get on, and it's easy to damage your motherboard or CPU if you slip up. Plugging in all the LEDs can also be a pain. But it's not hard.

And no, I didn't actually break anything :)

Have to try it one day :)

Those LEDs are even worse to connect if the mobo manufacturer didnt label the connections.

Me and a friend once swapped a case on his machine, just to find out that some of the connections were labeled. He ended up having to push the power button, then pressing the "reset" button twice to get it to start up. We eventually figured out the wiring pattern, but a week later he got a new machine :mad:. Figures huh.

I've been building my own computers ever since Hewlett Packard screwed me with their piece of junk lemon which they called a computer. If you're looking for something challenging, then I suggest that you look somewhere else. :D Building a computer is really easy. All you need is a screwdriver, and you really can't plug anything into the wrong place. You don't really need an anti-static wrist strap. Just touch a metal portion of the case to discharge yourself from any static electricity.

Do some research. Search groups.google.com to make sure the parts that you purchase will work with each other. I've run into incompatibilities with stuff that SHOULD have worked fine together, but don't because of some freak incompatibility.

Many people recommend pricewatch.com to find parts. eBay is a great place to find bargains, but use some common sense so you don't screw yourself.

The case that I have is the Tornado 1000 with a 431 watt power supply available at 3dcool.com.

Lawrence made a good point. Some heat sinks are really hard to get on, and RAM is one of those things that won't go in unless you push hard enough, so I recommend that you install the CPU, heat sink+fan, and RAM before mounting the motherboard into the case. Also, make sure you apply thermal compound between the CPU and the heat sink. That's very important with the fast processors that are available now because they get pretty hot. There's a third type of component: those that make you think it's in when it's really not. If you're going to be installing an AGP video card, make sure you push it in all the way. They snap in twice.

That's my advice. Hope it helps.