about pc building

[thermobaric]

Hi everyone

2 months ago i told a friend i realy want a good pc and that i got the money, and he told me i should build a pc. He told me he built his own pc and that he would love to build one for me. And he did! awesome machine, i love it and worth every penny.

But i realize that i cant ask my friends every time to build a pc for me or to upgrade it. So i decided i want to learn building pc\'s! i looked some things up, like how to change the CPU of a computer and how to add memory (what even wasn\'t THAT hard ). But of course adding memory and replacing a cpu is a small part of building a pc.

could someone tell me the general steps (not every specific step how to build a pc, just the general) to build a pc? it would realy help me to get started.. i appreciate every little help!

[colmo]

1. Define the purpose of the PC, thus the software to be used, including OS, thus the minimum and recommended hardware requirements. PSU wattage is important in gaming rigs with hungry GPUs, for example. Image or video work needs big harddrives.

2. Define the budget.

3. Consider things like screens, chairs, peripherals and backup PSUs in case of power failure. These things will be around a lot longer than the box, so choose wisely!

4. Take anti-static precautions when handling components.

5. Get the install right - try to make a backup or restore of the clean, new OS install, to revert to when things go wrong.

6. Keep the wiring tidy, but don\'t cable tie it into place unless you\'re sure everything goes where it should.

TBH, these days it\'s a piece of cake - virtually everything is on the motherboards these days and the days of dip switches are over.

The rest...well, it\'s all over the Internet and there are books aplenty.

[XenuOT3]

In general you just want to make sure that everything is compatible with each other. The first place I start is with the motherboard and processor.

If you have a specific type of processor that you like then you can start with that, I usually like to put AMD processors into my machienes so I\'ll look for an AMD board to start with, so for example, I recently upgraded to the new FX series processors from AMD so I shopped around (mostly on newegg.com) and looked up boards that were compatable with the type of processor that I wanted to put in there. Then I just made sure that the board had things on there that I wanted. I made sure that it had a proper video card slot, that the board supported the ammount of RAM that I wanted to put into my machiene, if it had SATA 6.0Gb/s ports for the hard drives and whatever else I wanted with it.

Once you have those two things its pretty much just fill in the holes after that. Just pick yourself up a video card, a hard drive, an OS, and whatever other things you want to put in it. Just make sure that you get compatible RAM for your motherboard and a Power Supply Unit (PSU) to make sure things stay powered and thats pretty much it.

Newegg has nice little helpers to show you which RAM is compatible with your board and an estimator on how much power you will need to run your machiene so they make it pretty easy to get yourself up and running.

Hope this helps!

[Ydoow]

In general you just want to make sure that everything is compatible with each other.

This is the toughest part of building a PC. And it\'s only tough if you\'re a beginner. Once you learn what\'s what, you begin to know what is compatible with other things and what isn\'t.

It\'s just a matter of learning new material.

As for where to begin, determine what you want your computer to do.

Animation, Audio development, Rendering - get a high speed processor

Play lots of games with great fps - get a good graphics card

A general good pc - determine what you\'ll use most on it then refer to the two lines above

i.e. if you\'ll play games mostly, focus on a graphics card. If you\'ll just be web browsing and multitasking, focus on a cpu.

After that, I\'d say find a compatible motherboard and build the rest of your pc.

A motherboard connects ALL the pieces, so ultimately your motherboard determines what will go in your PC and what won\'t.

This is why I suggest starting with finding what you want your pc to do, find that one piece that will satisfy the PC, then work the rest of your computer into it.

The actual assembly is REALLY easy. Just don\'t be stupid about it.

Like, don\'t assemble it on a carpet, or drag anything across a carpet.

Don\'t have it plugged in while assembling.

Remember to touch the case now and again to equilibriate your static charges

And don\'t stand next to a tesla coil while building.

[frogger]

Ok so i like lists .

every time i go to upgrade or build a new computer i start with a list.

I generally start with the core components

1. CPU (Heart of the computer)

2. Motherboard

3. RAM (memory)

4. GFX / GPU (graphics card)

5. Hard Drive

6. PSU (power supply)

As stated earlier making sure you have the right CPU / Motherboard combination is most important. Following that would be making sure that you have the right memory (ram).

Take some time looking up these things, particularly the CPU type (generally AMD or Intel) and the number of Pins the CPU has. You have to make sure your motherboard CPU socket matches the amount of pins.

With memory some motherboards (and CPU) run more efficiently with different combinations of memory sticks. Some like mine are better using 3 channel memory so i would either use 3 sticks or 6 sticks. Others are dual channel, would be better using 2 sticks or 4 sticks. (this isn\'t a must follow thing, but recommended).

I then would add the other components needed on the list.

7. Case

8. CPU cooler (aftermarket)

9. Case fans

10. CD / DVD drive

11. other internal cards ( TV tuner, Sound card, etc)

12. Screen

13. Keyboard

14. Mouse

15. Saitek X52

16. Logitech G25

17. TrackIR

18. on and on and on and so on

Lastly I would check on a site such as :

http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

or

http://www.thermaltake.outervision.com/

To find out what the rough power requirements will be for the whole system.

I would then research a DECENT (quality) power supply that suits the bill. Don\'t go too cheap on the Power supply as if it goes it has the potential to take everything else with it.

As for assembly:

Well its pretty much put it where it fits, but don\'t force it. Assemble everything on a clean bench to see where it all goes. You can normally have the CPU and Memory installed onto the motherboard before you put the motherboard into the case. Ensure all the power plugs and other cables are neat and firmly in place, and then power it up.

Anyway this is my process, Hope it helps .

Thanks.

[thermobaric]

thank you guys for all your replies! it helped me a lot. next time if i want to upgrade/build a pc, i know where to start

TNX!