Jamba Posted February 19, 2009 Posted February 19, 2009 Hey guys, I'm hoping to be putting togther my own system later on this year because I'd like to learn a lot more about pretty much well everything to do with my PC. Now I've been out of the loop with PC hardware for a good 5 years or so now so I'm fairly unaware of what is available, how things compare to each other and how to design a set up as a whole. I've heard many horror stories about ppl buying expensive systems only to have them bottleneck somewhere or have components disagree to some extent. Essentially, I'm looking for resources really. A good website or 3 where I can actually learn a bit about what I should be looking out for. I know a lot of people here know their stuff but I thought it would be best to make an informed decision with advice rather than just on the back of advice. So yeah.... thoughts?
Nolan Posted February 19, 2009 Posted February 19, 2009 I'm not entirely sure what you want, just a site where you can find sure fire info on building a PC? I think your best bet would be to browse through different hardware sites and read through recent reviews and perhaps look at their builds. Particularly the builds they do at certain price points, like a $500, $1000, $1500 rig. After that, in my experience information just comes from talking to other people who have already learned it. That and a few hours of Wikipedia. Check out Hardocp, Toms Hardware, and AnandTech
The fish Posted February 20, 2009 Posted February 20, 2009 Beware of Tom's Hardware - becoming too obsessed with their performance charts will cause you to start working out the value of core/cards on Ebuyer and the like - that's several hours you can never get back - I would know, I've been there... If you find all the components you're interested in, post it on this here forum, and the tech-heads (and myself) will nit-pick it, and, generally, price hunt for you. On a more relevant topic, the things you need to match up (roughly speaking) are: Processor/motherboard socket RAM speed/motherboard compatibility Graphics card type (PCI-E or AGP)/motherboard Hard drive & DVD drive/motherboard - make sure the board has enough SATA and IDE ports Enough USB ports on the board. Enough frontside USB ports/headphone jack on the case, if you want that kind of thing. The basic components that you always need are (shorthand form in brackets): Motherboard (Mobo) Processor (CPU) Memory (RAM) Hard drive (HDD) Graphics card (GPU) DVD drive Processor cooler - a lot of them/all of them come with one Case Extra fan(s) if you're running a powerful rig Monitor Keyboard & mouse (duh) Speakers/headphones Don't splash all your money onto one component - a good graphics card is pretty irrelevant without a good processor.
Jamba Posted February 23, 2009 Author Posted February 23, 2009 I'm not entirely sure what you want, just a site where you can find sure fire info on building a PC? I think your best bet would be to browse through different hardware sites and read through recent reviews and perhaps look at their builds. Particularly the builds they do at certain price points, like a $500, $1000, $1500 rig. After that, in my experience information just comes from talking to other people who have already learned it. That and a few hours of Wikipedia. Check out Hardocp, Toms Hardware, and AnandTech Thanks for the links Lee, that's pretty helpful. There are tons of compare websites but it's hard to know which ones are any good. I'll post some more specific questions when I get a bit closer to actually ordering stuff On a more relevant topic, the things you need to match up (roughly speaking) are: Processor/motherboard socket RAM speed/motherboard compatibility Graphics card type (PCI-E or AGP)/motherboard Hard drive & DVD drive/motherboard - make sure the board has enough SATA and IDE ports Enough USB ports on the board. Enough frontside USB ports/headphone jack on the case, if you want that kind of thing. Yeah, I'm pretty well there... just want to be getting to the stage where I can find a motherboard that isn't going to be holding back the processor I get or the GFX. The basic components that you always need are (shorthand form in brackets): Motherboard (Mobo) Processor (CPU) Memory (RAM) Hard drive (HDD) Graphics card (GPU) DVD drive Processor cooler - a lot of them/all of them come with one Case Extra fan(s) if you're running a powerful rig Monitor Keyboard & mouse (duh) Speakers/headphones Dude, seriously?! No sound card and more importantly no PSU?! Crazy foool! It's all good really, I'm slowly picking up bits from Wiki and sites that profile the progression in GFX chip architecture but its going to take a little time before I can really start learning about the N-bridge and S-bridge on my processor... (I almost sound like I know something about this stuff!)
Nolan Posted February 23, 2009 Posted February 23, 2009 north and south bridge are on the motherboard, but yea. PSU is needed, but sound card isn't ......if you don't mind onboard sound that is.
MoogleViper Posted February 23, 2009 Posted February 23, 2009 Dude, seriously?! No sound card and more importantly no PSU?! Crazy foool! Sound card isn't needed. Onboard sound is fine.
Raining_again Posted February 25, 2009 Posted February 25, 2009 To be fair I think he was right saying that you need a PSU though (imho its probably the MOST important thing) When I was into techy stuff I had a subscription for PC format. Good for drooling over the high end performance gear, and some really good reviews. And there are lots of other mags out there. Scout around for specialist forums/review sites and you should find plenty.
McPhee Posted February 26, 2009 Posted February 26, 2009 It's all good really, I'm slowly picking up bits from Wiki and sites that profile the progression in GFX chip architecture but its going to take a little time before I can really start learning about the N-bridge and S-bridge on my processor... To be honest you don't really need to know much about the Northbridge and Southbridge technology to build a computer, that's getting quite deep in to the electronics side of things. What you need to know is the difference between motherboard chipsets and the advantages/disadvantages of each one. You can usually glean this info from motherboard reviews. As for sites, hexus.net used to be really good but they seem to be taking a lot of money-hats at the moment. The forums are still pretty good though, fan-boy free and the advice is usually spot-on. Bit-Tech and Anandtech are good for reviews.
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