Should a newbie even bother trying?

[macklin01]

I like the advice to do the work sober. Very wise advice! -- Paul

 

[jabaro]

Build it... Alot of the disscusion on these forums are intimidating, but you won't have to touch 90% of this stuff. Its not very difficult, I just put my first computer togeather 2 months ago, and now I'm addicted!

 

[Mortis03]

I would diffenitly build it. I was in this position once. Obviously I chose to build it. It's a lot of fun and experience. In college, I got a lot of... "whoa you built that" kinda crap. Only good time was when a hot girl (who was actually on ggw once, hehe ) was impressed and talked to me about it a little bit once. Anyway, it's a fun experience. Nothing ever works for me the first time I try either, but when I get done its a good feeling. And about it being hard, it's not. It's a lot to take in, but read around and feel free to ask questions too.

 

[Mark620]

I have built many systems. The hardest part is buying the parts. Make sure they will match up.

you know, the processor, MB & memory must be matched up so they will go together. As a noob just get a processor & HS combo. Unless you are goung to overclock - then dont get a stock HS.

 

[JigPu]

Yes, assembling is by far the easier part of the process. I find that determining what components I'd like while staying within a strict budget to be much harder. Of course, even that's not too bad when you have a forum full of people who list their systems in their sigs, and will critique any potential system if you ask them nicely

Good luck!
JigPu

 

[JezterVA]

After my wife watched me build a server, she commented, oh that was easy, even a monkey could do that. Of course, she is right, but I didnt let on.

I'm dating myself here but I've only purchased one pre-assembled machine in my life and it was........are you ready for this?? A Packard Bell 386SX 33. I had that thing torn down to pieces many times and have built all of it's predecessors since then myself.

darthdana's wife is correct.......a trained monkey can do it. But it does give you a sense of accomplishment when you've just finished up your first home-built rig and you plug it in and turn it on and IT WORKS!!!!! WoooooooHooooooo!!!!!

Good Luck.

 

[darthdana]

Yeah but if your real cocky about home builts, you put all the parts together, including phase changing and watercooling and bolt into case and then flip the switch. Better work, or its taking all back apart.

Got a notch in the monitors for when that happens!!!

So far, knocking on fake wood floor in deathstar, the last 4 have gone without a hitch. But my first dual opteron was 5 motherboards, 3 types of ram, 2 power supplies and a video card later.

And, my wife, thinks I sit at work on my *** all day surfing the web. She's wrong, I have been playing Doom

 

[FoxBat]

Hello iseethemtoo, and welcome to the forums!

I agree with the other comments, build your own, and definately get your Mobo, processor and ram at the same time. You may even want to get them "retail" which means the store will mount the processor and ram for you and bench test the Mobo to ensure that it works. This will save you the stress of the most delicate (IMO) part of the hardware assembly.

These forums are a great resource. I don't post a heck of a lot myself yet, but I am learning a lot here. I suggest you read as much as you can here, then give it a shot.

Oh BTW, just for giggles.....

JezterVA said
"I'm dating myself here but I've only purchased one pre-assembled machine in my life and it was........are you ready for this?? A Packard Bell 386SX 33"

Well I got that beat.... how about a Tandy Model 4, circa 1979!

LOL

 

[Mark620]

Hello iseethemtoo, and welcome to the forums!
Oh BTW, just for giggles.....
Well I got that beat.... how about a Tandy Model 4, circa 1979!
LOL

At least you got to use a Keyboard with a monitor. I got to use punch cards with a paper printout. NO monitor at all...and this was in college....

 

[darthdana]

Well my first use of a computer was a System360 with my dad at IBM, but the first one I owned was a VIC20, with a tape drive that took 20 minutes to load programs and save programs uphill both ways in the snow.

I had a PackardBell 386sx16 also, its still in the attic.

 

[FoxBat]

At least you got to use a Keyboard with a monitor. I got to use punch cards with a paper printout. NO monitor at all...and this was in college....

Lol, that is so wild! Did it have one of those file cabinet-sized ring magnet ram modules that topped out at about 4K ram? A friend told me about working with those in a U of M lab 30 years ago. (Up hill both ways, bare foot in the snow, had to chop the fire wood when I got there.....LOL)

Well back to the topic... I say you should go for it iseethemtoo. It is not hard to build your own, and the rewards are there. Braggin' rights not the least...

 

[Mortis03]

I'm dating myself here...

LOL, when ever someone says they are dating them self, it's like worse then saying what they were going to say w/o out it IMO. Hehe, no offense or anything but when someone says that, you know they got some years behind them, hehe.

 

[Cjwinnit]

Welcome to the forum

It's definately fun building your own rig, apart from the fact you learn a lot more, you have far more choice over what actually goes into the computer.

There are loads of tips you will pick up when building, but a few off the top of my head:

• Don't use a magnetic screwdriver.
• Earth yourself whenever you can. Get a wrist-strap is possible.
• If you ever have a problem, ask on the forum. Depending on the time of day you should get a speedy responce. Try our un-official official IRC room for instant responces.

paaaaaaa dont be a wuzz.

Lol, harsh

 

[iseethemtoo]

Thanks for all the warm welcomes Guys and Gals...

I hope y'all are ready for some noobified questions...like how do I turn on a computer?, and "Windows??...Whats Windows??"...

Hehehe j/k, but there WILL be some noobified questions flowing out of me for sure.

I been checking out a few of the links posted so far on this forum to hopefully teach myself as much as I can, so I can ask slightly educated noob questions at least....

You guys got me all excited...cant wait to figure out what to do first!!!

 

[Mortis03]

Thanks for all the warm welcomes Guys and Gals...

I hope y'all are ready for some noobified questions...like how do I turn on a computer?, and "Windows??...Whats Windows??"...

Hehehe j/k, but there WILL be some noobified questions flowing out of me for sure.

I been checking out a few of the links posted so far on this forum to hopefully teach myself as much as I can, so I can ask slightly educated noob questions at least....

You guys got me all excited...cant wait to figure out what to do first!!!

No problem. I'm glad that you've chosen correctly (I assume you will be building your own) . Anyway, have fun. I think it's half, or more, of the phone picking out and thinking about what you're going to do next. After you get done you get to enjoy what you've done, it's a cool feeling. It's a learning process too.

 

[nova7]

I didn't read all the posts, But yeah you should... my friend asked if we had to do any soldering so i explained to him the concept of sockets and slots. you seem like you'll do fine, if you're mobo comes with an instruction manual, you should be good to go... it'll explain everything. In like six differant languages...

 

[beau_zo_brehm]

haha, i remember my dad talkin about when he was in college they had the little paper card things. like they had a box of cards, and if one of the cards was misplaced then u were screwed. im talkin like 100's of cards.... my dad said he saw one of his friends drop their box and everything fell out. laughed his *** off