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build your own pc (1 Viewer)

gouge.away

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in short:

a) need a new computer for uni; preferably a desktop
b) heard that building your own is much cheaper and better in terms of tailoring to personal use

help a noob out?

eta - i'm not a massive pc gamer, but i have a lot of music + photos
 

theism

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in short:

a) need a new computer for uni; preferably a desktop
b) heard that building your own is much cheaper and better in terms of tailoring to personal use

help a noob out?

eta - i'm not a massive pc gamer, but i have a lot of music + photos
sure.

what is your budget?
and does this budget include the monitor/keyboard/mouse?


also how would you rate your knowledge of computers?
 

ClockworkSoldier

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theism said:
also how would you rate your knowledge of computers?
Don't jump in at the deep end with false confidence or you'll end up spending more for parts you broke/touched with statically charged hands etc etc.
 

harrisony

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Computers are relativity easy to build. challenging first time but theres usually only 1 way for a part to go in. Personally I would have someone that has built a few computers before with you just to supervise although really its just plug a few things in here, plug a few in there.

Turn it on, spend the rest of the day installing software and drivers.
 

SnowFox

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Static band and someone to supervise, all you need is to shortout your CPU and snap the Motherboard putting PSU cables in.
 

Makro

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Static band and someone to supervise, all you need is to shortout your CPU and snap the Motherboard putting PSU cables in.
Seriously, he's not an idiot. I'm sure if he was going to do it himself he'd read up on it. If not he can still buy the parts and get the shop to put it together for him for $70.

MSY-The Name you can trust-More than 13 years in IT industry-Nationalwide branches serve you & always offer the best up today IT price is on average the cheapest place around, excuse the website.

What are your uses (gaming? any photoshop? video editing?)? How much can you spend on everything. Please specify if you need monitor/kb/mouse/speakers.
 

HughAllan

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A little unrelated but I have heard some people do compter box modification which can make your computer look very unique.
 

SnowFox

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Seriously, he's not an idiot. I'm sure if he was going to do it himself he'd read up on it. If not he can still buy the parts and get the shop to put it together for him for $70.

MSY-The Name you can trust-More than 13 years in IT industry-Nationalwide branches serve you & always offer the best up today IT price is on average the cheapest place around, excuse the website.

What are your uses (gaming? any photoshop? video editing?)? How much can you spend on everything. Please specify if you need monitor/kb/mouse/speakers.
Never said he was, pull your panties out of your ass.
 

kramxel

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ccpu in carlingford have good prices on parts...and they build it for you too. i suppose you could knock off some of the price if u just bought the parts
 

gouge.away

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sure.

what is your budget?
and does this budget include the monitor/keyboard/mouse?

also how would you rate your knowledge of computers?
1. budget would be around <$2000, but a friend of mine [i'll call him C for future reference] built his for around $800

2. pretty shit; judging by how much i didn't initially understand when reading the replies, probably around 3/10. i'm reading up on everything before i get the money out though

Don't jump in at the deep end with false confidence or you'll end up spending more for parts you broke/touched with statically charged hands etc etc.
"statically charged hands"? i had no idea about that. thanks.

+1, get someone who knows what they're doing to supervise you for the first time and you should be set after that :)

As for components, do your own research, read reviews etc, ask friends who might have certain parts.
that's what i'm doing now. thanks :)

Seriously, he's not an idiot. I'm sure if he was going to do it himself he'd read up on it. If not he can still buy the parts and get the shop to put it together for him for $70.

MSY-The Name you can trust-More than 13 years in IT industry-Nationalwide branches serve you & always offer the best up today IT price is on average the cheapest place around, excuse the website.

What are your uses (gaming? any photoshop? video editing?)? How much can you spend on everything. Please specify if you need monitor/kb/mouse/speakers.
i'm a girl, btw.

a friend of mine is getting his done there. good to know other people know about it too.

for now, it's probaby more of a storage space for my music + photos and watching movies [besides general uni use]. now that i think about it, a good monitor + speakers would figure greatly.
 

theism

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$1,150 ($1,450) AMD Gaming Config
CPU: AMD AM3 Phenom II X4 955BE $192
Mobo: Gigabyte MA785GT-UD3H $108
RAM: G.Skill-Ripjaws 4GB DDR3-1600 $140
HDD: Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB $105
GPU: 1GB ATI Radeon HD5850 $370
Case: Lian Li Lancool PC-K58 $99
PSU: Silverstone Strider ST50F 500W $66
ODD: Sony-NEC Optiarc AD-7240S $39
CPU HSF: Coolermaster Universal Hyper TX3 $29
Peripherals: [ 23" / UltraFlat / MX518 / X-230 ] (+$298)
Total: $1,148 ($1,446)








$1,300 ($1,600) Intel i5 (LGA1156) Multi-Purpose Config
CPU: Intel Core i5 750 $229
Mobo: Gigabyte P55-UD3 $132
RAM: G.Skill-Ripjaws 4GB DDR3-1600 $140
HDD1: Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB $105
HDD2: Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB $105
GPU: 1GB ATI Radeon HD5850 $370
Case: Lian Li Lancool PC-K58 $99
PSU: Silverstone Strider ST50F 500W $66
ODD: Sony-NEC Optiarc AD-7240S $39
CPU HSF: Coolermaster Universal Hyper TX3 $29
Peripherals: [ 23" / UltraFlat / MX518 / X-230 ] (+$298)
Total: $1,314 ($1,612)


cpu – i5-750 = $229
motherboard – ASUS P7P55-LX = $127
ram – 4GB Kit DDR3 1333 = $119
gpu – 1GB 5850 = $369
hd – wd 1tb = $105
hd – wd 1tb = $105
drive – pioneer 218 = $35
psu – antec tp 550w = $119
case – antec 300 = $81
os – win 7 hp 64 bit (oem) = $115
+ $60 for them to build it
total = $1464
better?





cpu – i5-750 = $229
motherboard – ASUS P7P55D-LE = $145
cpu cooler – noctua U12P-SE2 = $93 (if overclocking)
ram – 4GB DDR3 1600 = $140
gpu – 1GB 5850 = $369
hd – wd 1.5tb = $140
drive – pioneer 218 = $35
psu – antec tp 550w = $119
case – antec p183 = $215 (not at msy)
os – win 7 hp 64 bit (oem) = $115
+ $60 for them to build it
total = $1567/$1660






the first time i build a 775 based build i had to replace the motherboard.
it's not like a socket on the 478's, so be careful ;).


oh also, don't buy from fluidtek.
eddie is unreasonable most of the time.


1TB is more than adequate i think.
i've got 1.2TB, and most of that is isos/movies.
i've also got a 1tb external which i use as a backup.
if you want you could probably do a RAID 0 setup if you wished


also, i7 i s not worth the money yet. (especially for your needs)
get an i5, then overclock it if you want
 
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SnowFox

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Fuck. When i put together my first computer .. in .. 1997?
It was all like. Static electricity are TERRORISM OUT TO GET YOUSE!
Put the fear into my little index's.

1. Don't assemble on carpet.
2. Touch metal/psu - ground yourself. A lot. Constantly. (or get a wrist strap. fuck it. theyre cheap)
3. You'll probably be fine.
I know there's a lot of "oh but you might have latent damaged this but you'll never know". Fuck. Rubbish if you follow 1&2 properly.

Back then, things weren't all click and licky. There was thermal paste and push this shit like a broken puzzle piece into a meccano set and when it breaks, you have to turn it 90 degrees and then strip this wire and melt a light bulb, glue the ram into a garden glove. And connectors could be done wrong and EVERYTHING WOULD EXPLODE LIKE MACGUYVER SAID THEY WOULD.
It was still not difficult.
Also, there was no google.

Now you can plug and play EVERYTHING. It is like plugging in an ac adaptor into a giant school assembly hall. Except that the giant school assembly hall only has one door and it's in the shape of a pelican and so is your ac adaptor so you know that that is the PELICAN ADAPTOR.

Basically there is no reason to pay someone to put your computer together unless you're the sort of person who enjoys paying gizmo $200 to come remove spyware. It is like ordering a taxi to the corner shop and paying for an airport trip.

ijk.com.au ain't a bad place for trippin your parts.

Yeah, youd be surprised how many peeps pull out their brand new shiny metal cases out of the Styrofoam packaging, not realising its just created a static bomb.
 

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It's not hard to build you own. Just be sure to read all the components manuals before you start building. Don't jump ahead, because you'll almost certainly stuff something up. There's a few videos on youtube that will outline the basics of building a pc.

Make sure you use sites like staticICE - Compare Prices - Australia - Price comparison for gadgets and computer hardware to price check the components you are purchasing. The sites I've had the best experiences with are PCCaseGear, ITEstate and MSY. All had good prices and tolerable postage costs. PCCG had the best service. MSY can be a tad dodgy at times, just the website is a pain to navigate.
 

Makro

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You wont need anymore than this.

$950 ($1,225) AMD Multi-Purpose Config

CPU: AMD AM3 Phenom II X4 955BE $192
Mobo: Gigabyte MA785GT-UD3H $108
RAM: G.Skill-Ripjaws 4GB DDR3-1600 $140
HDD: Samsung Spinpoint F3 1TB $105
GPU: HIS 1GB ATI Radeon HD5770 $185 ---- This well let you do any gaming reasonably well if you (or your family) ever decides to
Case: Lian Li Lancool PC-K58 $99
PSU: Silverstone Strider ST50F 500W $66


Peripherals:
Monitor: 23" Samsung P2350 $235
K/B&Mouse: Logitech EX100 $35
Speakers: Logitech LS11 2.0 $17

Total: $895 ($1,187)

Only thing I would add is another hard drive. 1 TB can fill up if you "legally" acquire movies. Also, if you like sound/music a lot then you can look into better speakers. These ones don't even have a sub. Let us know though.
 
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Teclis

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If you have a $2000 budget... well... My rig would go like this... I'm not going to go into pricing details, have a look yourself.

Core i5 or AMD Phenom II X4
4GB of RAM is more than enough
Motherboard. For a beginner I'd go with a Gigabyte just because their instructions are rather easy to understand.
- A good power supply and case. I like Antec because they're solid. You should also look for one that has a good cable management system. If you're new to PC building cable management can be a bitch. I just put 2 new Hard Drives and a new Power supply in my Desktop... took me forever to get the cabling right. You want a good power supply so your expensive parts don't all die. Make sure you leave plenty in your budget for this (but don't go overboard... you don't need 750 Watts unless you're running 2 graphics cards kinda thing)
- Solid State HDD (64GB i think is a good number, because it means you can install your most regularly used programs on it)
- Storage HDDs. I would actually recommend getting 2 500GBHDDs and running them in RAID 0. About $20 more expensive if you buy seagate (which I think are the way to go), but quite a bit faster and they have redundancy which is always good. If you get a case with a few extra slots you can upgrade and put more HDDs in at a later stage if you run out of room.
- benQ make nice cheap monitors
- you can get $20 black Logitech keyboards. But careful about USB keyboards... because they won't be enabled on first boot you won't be able to change any settings or use them sometimes. If you've got an old, shitty Beige keyboard use that when doing your setup (I think it may just be a Gigabyte and Asus thing though)


Just some thoughts

And your best source of info is probably YouTube because you can then watch people do it.
 

harrisony

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If you have a $2000 budget... well... My rig would go like this... I'm not going to go into pricing details, have a look yourself.

Core i5 or AMD Phenom II X4
4GB of RAM is more than enough
Motherboard. For a beginner I'd go with a Gigabyte just because their instructions are rather easy to understand.
- A good power supply and case. I like Antec because they're solid. You should also look for one that has a good cable management system. If you're new to PC building cable management can be a bitch. I just put 2 new Hard Drives and a new Power supply in my Desktop... took me forever to get the cabling right. You want a good power supply so your expensive parts don't all die. Make sure you leave plenty in your budget for this (but don't go overboard... you don't need 750 Watts unless you're running 2 graphics cards kinda thing)
- Solid State HDD (64GB i think is a good number, because it means you can install your most regularly used programs on it)
- Storage HDDs. I would actually recommend getting 2 500GBHDDs and running them in RAID 0. About $20 more expensive if you buy seagate (which I think are the way to go), but quite a bit faster and they have redundancy which is always good. If you get a case with a few extra slots you can upgrade and put more HDDs in at a later stage if you run out of room.
- benQ make nice cheap monitors
- you can get $20 black Logitech keyboards. But careful about USB keyboards... because they won't be enabled on first boot you won't be able to change any settings or use them sometimes. If you've got an old, shitty Beige keyboard use that when doing your setup (I think it may just be a Gigabyte and Asus thing though)


Just some thoughts

And your best source of info is probably YouTube because you can then watch people do it.
If your spending that much I would want to squeeze in a core i7. I've never had a problem with using a USB keyboard to set things up on my Gigabyte mobo

Although personally I would only buy a mid priced desktop, save the money and constantly upgrade. Cheaper and better bang for ze buck
 

Teclis

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If your spending that much I would want to squeeze in a core i7. I've never had a problem with using a USB keyboard to set things up on my Gigabyte mobo

Although personally I would only buy a mid priced desktop, save the money and constantly upgrade. Cheaper and better bang for ze buck
i7 is only going to make a difference over an i5 if you are working with lots processes...
and the only i7 worth buying is the 920....

and that's only worth buying if you overclock to about 4Ghz (like I did :))
 

Activate

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oh also, don't buy from fluidtek.
eddie is unreasonable most of the time.
1
First, nice Whirlpool references ;)

Second, I think when going to Fluidtek Eddy being unreasonable is the last of your concerns. I'd be more concerned about getting lung cancer from second hand smoke.
 

Gibbatron

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i7 is only going to make a difference over an i5 if you are working with lots processes...
and the only i7 worth buying is the 920....

and that's only worth buying if you overclock to about 4Ghz (like I did :))
Im buying my parts from pccasegear and they dont sell the 920 any more :( Have to go with a 930 instead.
 

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