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DooMguy's PC Building Tips: Pros, Cons, How-To

DooMguy

Hi I'm DooMguy, you might remember from such games as doom, doom 2 and doom 64. I'd like to write about one of my hobbies today and that's PC building



Now that the intros over lets talk about some of the pros and cons of building your own system from scratch.


Cons:


It does take quite a bit of time



instead of a one click order, you'd have to do some research then write down the costs, plan out what you want to buy etc. Then there's the assembly. It can be a time consuming process



It can be tricky



It can be quite awkward to actually get some of the screws in place, so you might find yourself twisting your hands in awkward angles and on top of that you might end up dropping more then a few screws inside the case



You are the support



[ watch?v=teEMyw6QsdI&feature=player_embedded ]



"Will we have tech support?"


"What are you kidding ? You are the support son !"



You can't really send the whole PC off for repairs, each part will have its own warranty, so if something goes wrong its down to you to find it and arrange for a replacement


Pros


After the stock market there's the aftermarket



There are many businesses dedicated to producing after-market part and they don't do it for the fun of it. These parts really can improve performance, and when you build your own you'll have a wide range to choose from



You can tailor it to meet your needs



You can cherry pick each part of the PC and really make it a personal computer. You can pick the parts for whatever you want it to do. A custom made PC doesn't have to be for gaming e.g. lets say if someone wanted a PC for streaming videos. They could invest in a decent sound card and network card. Or maybe even build a legacy machine with one of the old single core CPU just because you want it for some reason.



There really is a lot of variation here, if you want/need to build a Christmas tree, wind turbine or snorkel you can do that



Price



Most PCs today will start at about £300 but what if you want something cheaper ? Since you can cherry pick each part you can build from around £200 or less (if you go for older parts). On top of that most of the parts I purchase were on offer, if you wait for offers you can save quite a bit



Also see what Hitler has to say below





Now lets move on to the how to section, how do you actually build a PC ?


First things first I want to say that it's not as hard as it looks, you don't need to know that much about computers to build one, all you need is the basic knowledge of hardware



If you're planning to build you own the task can seem a bit daunting, there's almost too much choice so to narrow things down I think a good place to start is size. How big is the PC ? Where do you plan on putting it ? This helps to narrow hings down a bit and you can start to select what form factor (ITX, mATX etc.) you want the PC to be



Then decide what you want it to do and work out the specs from there and start writing them down, if you're on a budget it'd be best to go the AMD route for your CPU and that limits you to the AM3 or FM2 socket (if you do go AMD you really do need to get an aftermarket cooler unless you get the wraith)



Once you've got everything now the assembly can begin ( I wasn't actually building a new machine, just swapping out a case and installing a new cooler)


DooMguy's take on PC building (Pros, cons, how to's etc.)

The MB above is the backbone of your system, everything connects to it and it's mostly foolproof because all of the connections only go in one way. You don't really have to worry about doing anything wrong, at the most you'll just have to pull a wire out and put it back in.


DooMguy's PC Building Tips: Pros, Cons, How-To

(this is just the build order I do) First I start with the CPU, pay attention to the image above. Notice the triangle in the bottom right corner ? That's how you put the CPU in, you match up the mark on the CPU with the mark on the MB. If you mess this part up you could risk bending the CPU pins and then it's all over so be careful with this part.


DooMguy's PC Building Tips: Pros, Cons, How-To

Of course, don't forget thermal paste/grease.


DooMguy's PC Building Tips: Pros, Cons, How-To

After that I put the fan/heatsink and RAM on the board and then put the MB to the side. Now I begin to work on the case and put the PSU in.


DooMguy's PC Building Tips: Pros, Cons, How-To

The PSU has a bottom vent so it goes in upside down for this case, the panels for the expansion cards just snap off, some cases will have screws. At this point I do this part all in one go, I snap the panel off and put the motherboard in the case, and screw it in place


DooMguy's PC Building Tips: Pros, Cons, How-To

Now everything's almost done, the first expansion card is in and the chassis fan has been connected to the MB , the next step is connecting up all the wires for power and data. The motherboard needs two connections to the PSU, on 4 pin for the CPU and the 24 pin (on the right) The sata power is done individually and PCI cards may or may not need to be connected to the PSU (it just depends on the card)


DooMguy's PC Building Tips: Pros, Cons, How-To

^ and that's it, all finished (sorry about the picture I was rushing) Everything's plugged in ready to go. You can see the HDD bottom right and the disk drive is up top. After that it should be ready to go. You just have to install the OS, that's the easy part



you may want to check your temps after that as well



Seems easy right ? It's basically an advanced lego/meccanno set. If I can do it you can do it. If you've ever wanted to build your own now is the time.


Just do it !


DooMguy's PC Building Tips: Pros, Cons, How-To



Do it
Just do it



Don't let your specs be specs
Yesterday you said tomorrow
So just do it
Make your specs come true
Just do it



Some people dream of buying computers
While you're gonna wake up and build it
Nothing is impossible


You should get to the point
Where anyone else would quit
And you're not going to stop there
No, what are you waiting for?



Do it
Just do it



Yes you can
Just do it
If you're tired of starting over
Stop giving up





A few closing notes



And that's a wrap, remember even if building a PC ends up more expensive, the feeling of the work paying off when you start that baby up is priceless



I was thinking about adding a few common problems but then I didn't so . . .



I highly recommend using Anti-static gear when building *cough cough* @Jager66



I know the able management isn't perfect but I'm going to install some case fans and a new GPU soon



I hope this take encourages people to do it



Jargon translator here (for those who're out of the loop):



OS = Operating system, this is the software and interface that runs on the hardware


PSU = Power supply, it provides power to everything on the MB


MB = motherboard, basically a large circuit board


HDD = hard drive where all the data is stored


SATA = That's serial ATA, these are data cables that connect drives (of any type) to the MB


CPU = processor, it runs all the calculations


RAM = Memory that programs use to run


Specs = specifications, this is just the ins and outs/ list of all the parts


Form factor = That's the size of the case/MB



DooMguy out (also don't ask me about my PC's specs . . . if you ask I'll . . . I'll have to do something, I didn't have a big budget alright ?)


DooMguy's PC Building Tips: Pros, Cons, How-To

P.S. the editor kinda messed things up for me

DooMguy's PC Building Tips: Pros, Cons, How-To
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