Going to take a stab at building my next desktop. People that have done this before, where is a good place to order parts from? Thanks for the info

 

newegg

 

Newegg. Period.

 

What they said. And my one piece of advice for first time builders (actually any builder) is do not cheap out on memory or your power supply.

 

and you're in NJ -- those newegg parts will come to your house fast (i think they have a shipping warehouse out of nj)

the last build i did i got impatient and just bought everything at frys locally. i would have saved like 50$ but i didnt want to wait 4-5 days.

 

on Newegg

 

Newegg.com>*

They may not be the absolute lowest in price, but a lot of times they are and their service is supreme. I've had a lot of hard drive problems lately and they haven't batted an eye on my exchanging, and finally refunding my purchases.

So this is your first build? I'm going to give you some very basic fundamentals, I'm not trying to be condescending, so please don't take me that way. Anything that I'm saying that you already know, just skip. Hopefully I'll give you some info that you don't already know. If not, then I got to practice my typing.

When you search on Newegg.com pay special attention to the title of the product. At the end of the title you will sometimes see "Retail" or "OEM" listed (CPU's, Sound Cards, Network Cards, you name it). Sometimes you will see what are seeming identical products, however one says "retail" the other "OEM" and sometimes there is a price difference, sometimes not.

Here is an example (the following text are hyperlinks, click to go to Newegg.com):

Western Digital SE16 500gb Hard drive RETAIL

Western Digital SE16 500gb Hard drive OEM

These are two identical drives, however the difference is what they come with in the packaging. The RETAIL drive comes in a box, with cable, paperwork and possibly a CD-ROM. The OEM drive comes with NOTHING, no box, no cable and nothing else, just enough to ship it safely. It is cheaper, but it requires you to order anything you need to hook it up. I gave hard drives as an example, but this goes for ALL products marked "OEM." One thing these two drives do have in common is the warranty. OEM components typically carry the same warranty as their Retail counterparts.

That is just something to look for when ordering your components. BTW: Motherboards typically come with cables to hook up a hard drive, so the OEM hard drive would be just fine.

If you are looking to build all of your computers from now on I recommend that you invest in a good quality case. I'm still using cases I bought a decade ago, some of them have had 3 or 4 sets of components in them. Cheap cases don't hold up too well through multiple builds. Personally I use ANTEC although my main workstation is in a Cooler Master case right now.

The other place to REALLY spend your money is the power supply. The power supply is the foundation upon which the rest of your build sits. A bad power supply can cause problems unlike that which you could ever imagine. That $30 600 watt power supply may look great, but you are setting yourself up for a LOT of heartbreak. Get something at least 600 watts for future upgrading, however don't think that you need 1000 watts unless you're building the mother of all gaming machines. A high quality power supply should last for years and years and be good for multiple upgrades. Good brands on the market: PC Power and Cooling, OCZ, SilverStone, Zalmann. There are other good brands, but I have personal experience with those.

Due to personal experience I can no longer recommend Antec power supplies, I had 5 go belly up in short succession. After opening them they all had the same failure (a regulator released the magic brown smoke.)

Another bit of advice is don't go for the mega-expensive motherboards (>$200). These boards are typically aimed at the experienced builder/ overclocker and have to have a lot of configuration completed just to boot properly the first time. It can be VERY vexing for someone's first build. For my own personal use I use the more inexpensive mainstream boards, because at most I mildly over clock my systems and I like the ease of use. However I HAVE built uber-gaming rigs in the past for customers, it is fun to get into the guts of the BIOS to make all those little adjustments, but it isn't an area for the uninitiated.

My last bit of advice (did you make it this far!) is to select your components then post them in this thread. Those of us who are experienced builders can then give you positive critiques to help your first build go smoothly.

Here is your shopping list:

1. CPU
2. Motherboard (ATX form factor)
3. Memory (2gb, and don't waste your money on 4)
4. Video Card
5. Power Supply (ATX 2.0)
6. Optical Drive
7. Hard drive(s)
8. Case (ATX formfactor)
9. Mouse (if you don't have one already)
10. Keyboard (if you don't have one already)
11. Monitor (if you don't have one already)
12. Sound Card (if your motherboard doesn't have one on board, most do these days.)

There is a lot more that you need to know, but I didn't want to write a book.

Besides you need input from different people, not just me.

CanopyFlyer

 

newegg.com
jr.com is pretty good too
and try tigerdirect.com too

 

Newegg or tigerdirect

You can also find the best prices on pricewatch.com

 

after reading canopy's essay it just struck me. if this is your first time doing a build, and you are already asking for where to buy parts, you may have not done enough research on how to actually put them together when you get them. because if you did, you would have read a bunch of reviews on parts already and people would have suggested where to buy them.

then again, you may just be picking our AZ brains to see if we say anything diff

gl

 

Thanks for the info.

 

Newegg sucks.

 

+1 newegg built three computers got all parts from them

 

I hope this isn't considered a thread hijack but I too am looking to build a new PC. I have lots of time becuase Diablo III won't be out for some time.

Anyway, the last PC I built was a while back. 10 Years, actually. I built me a Pentium II 400 MHz complete with 4 meg AGP video and a VooDoo 2 card for 3D graphics.

Can anyone here give me some quick advice about some things to consider or some pitfalls for someone who's been out of the loop for a while. For example, a poster above recommended not cheaping out on the Power Supply. That's good to know and thank you. The last time I built a PC the cheapest power supply was adequate. (Actually, I think they came with the cases.) Can I just put a new good P/S in my old ATX case? Or do the new motherboards use a different style of case?

This is my first stop in my quest to build a new PC and will appreciate any advice or recommendations you all have.

 

The answer to the latter is yes. There were some new ATX formats, like micro ATX, but they never really caught on.

I've always liked ASUS motherboards. One cool recent feature is if there is a problem booting up, instead of the regular POST 'beep BEEEEEP beep' it says, 'Check CPU' if you have headphones plugged in. That is awesome.

For power supplies, if you are willing to plunk down some cash, I highly recommend the Seasonic SS series. They are stable, quiet, and energy efficient, (theoretically it can pay for itself over time!)

Don't underestimate, especially if you like to upgrade your computer, the joy of having a good case. I have a Lian Li PC50B and it's just wonderful (except for the front USB ports which have a retarded hookup).

- Frank

 

newegg is great, but sometimes aren't the cheapest.

 

Newegg is fantastic. I've also been happy with mwave and tigerdirect for things that newegg doesn't have in stock or has too high a price for.

 

Zapp, I just want to corroborate Chod's comment above, he is spot on. ATX has gone through some revisions, but they are more toward the power and technology end of it. The physical form factor is virtually unchanged. I'm still using two cases that are well over 10 years old.

The only thing I would watch, and honestly everyone has to watch out for this regardless, is that the power supply you select will fit into your case. I purchased a PC Power and Cooling 750 watt power supply a couple of months ago and the thing is a monster. It is considerably longer than a normal power supply. I have two cases, both mini towers, that it will not fit without serious modification to the cases. Fortunately it does fit into my full tower cases.

I have some OPINIONS on the current state of hardware, but I am by no means the be all and end all, and I make no guarantee that I'm 100% correct.

I think right now is a bad time to build a PC... The reason is, very simply, Intel's Core i7 is about to hit the shelves. This technology represents a very significant leap in performance over the current technology. Also the first Core i7 components are going to be VERY expensive when launched AND all of the older stuff will probably take a nose dive in price. About the middle of 2009 Core i7 will drop in price as well.

So my thought is the best time to buy current generation components will be after Core i7 is launched and hits the shelves. OR, if you want to latest and greatest, wait till whenever the prices of i7 components drops, which will probably be in mid-2009, but I'm not really certain.

With the above stated, let me tell you that I just upgraded my main workstation THIS WEEK with an Asus P5Q Pro motherboard and E8400 Core Duo processor. I had a mitigating circumstance though, my old Asus NForce4 board finally worked my last nerve. When Core i7 drops in price I plan on upgrading to that and using this P5Q/ processor to upgrade my wife's system (which is an Asus A7N8X Nforce 2 MB and Athlon 2500 and has a LOT of miles on it.)

As far as general component recommendations, stick with Intel for processors. They are spanking AMD, just like AMD did to them a few years ago. Unless you absolutely HAVE to have SLI to play games, stay AWAY from Nvidia's NFORCE chipsets. Nvidia hasn't made a good chipset since Nforce2 (which was a stunningly spectacular performer in its day), but since then they have made nothing but junk. The best chipset for Intel right now is the P45. It is cheaper than the X48 and just as fast, the only real difference is the P45 isn't the "enthusiast" chipset and doesn't do some of the nTH degree things that the x48 can. If you're not an "enthusiast" go with the P45 and don't worry about it.

Just my nickel with three cents change.

CanopyFlyer

 

imaginary rep points if you build an oil cooled computer... Pics with azine loaded to prove it would be needed.

 

Yeah then your pc would smell like french fries!

 

^ bingo!

 

Thanks guys for the advice. I appreciate it. I probably will wait for awhile before I build it.