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- Thread starter jhowley58
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franklin97355
Technical User
Most come with the case or are not needed depending on the case design. I wouldn't build a system from ebay parts as a first system. Check or other discount sites to find good values.
The only thing that you might need extra is correct size screws - sometimes harddrives don't have them included in my experience. I bought a little box with an assortment of computer screws, etc for very little - unfortunately I can't tell you where to go as I live in Japan - possibly somewhere like Radio Shack. It can be very useful to have them available.
Kim.
Kim.
My opinion,
For your first PC build, buy local!
You may pay 10% more but you will be able to get advice and have "Come Back" if anything goes wrong or you just plain don't know what to do.
Small custom build shops like ours will be able to supply known compatible parts and even fit your CPU heatsink free of charge for peace of mind.
Building a PC isn't rocket science but for the first timer there are so many possible pitfalls it's just extremely useful to have someone close at hand to give advice about the parts they have just sold you.
FSB jumpers
Brass standoff's
Front panel wiring
Bios settings
Memory type
Cable orientation
Heatsink fitment
Cooling advice
and even operating system installation are all topics for questions you may need advice about and the trouble often is that the advice can come too late (say if you mount the motherboard wrongly and short out the motherboard)
Having the shop close by means you can easily ask or even show the problem to someone if you are in dought at all about how to do something.
And of course this forum can help!!
Martin
Replying helps further our knowledge, without comment leaves us wondering.
For your first PC build, buy local!
You may pay 10% more but you will be able to get advice and have "Come Back" if anything goes wrong or you just plain don't know what to do.
Small custom build shops like ours will be able to supply known compatible parts and even fit your CPU heatsink free of charge for peace of mind.
Building a PC isn't rocket science but for the first timer there are so many possible pitfalls it's just extremely useful to have someone close at hand to give advice about the parts they have just sold you.
FSB jumpers
Brass standoff's
Front panel wiring
Bios settings
Memory type
Cable orientation
Heatsink fitment
Cooling advice
and even operating system installation are all topics for questions you may need advice about and the trouble often is that the advice can come too late (say if you mount the motherboard wrongly and short out the motherboard)
Having the shop close by means you can easily ask or even show the problem to someone if you are in dought at all about how to do something.
And of course this forum can help!!
Martin
Replying helps further our knowledge, without comment leaves us wondering.
I buy all of my parts from newegg. they have awesome customer service and fast response times. I'm not very comfortable ordering off ebay unless the buyer has 99-100% positive feedback with a rating of at least 500.
The first step you want to take is decide what your budget is. there are so many choices out there, it's easy to say, well I could spend the extra 50$ and get a 200 GB hard drive instead of a 120.. etc, it adds up quick.
second, you will want to piece together many different setups. do some research and decide if you want to try amd or intel, nvidia or ati, maxtor or western digital, asus or gigabyte, etc etc.. there are so many different brands out there. Take any reviews with a grain of salt, as most reviewers will tend to be biased towards or against the product partially just because of the brand name. ie intel guys will bash amd, and amd guys will bash intel.
once you have weeded your choices down to 2 or 3 systems, post up on message boards and see what others think. again don't take their responses as the end all be all solution, just use it as guidance.
Once you have your perfect system, start ordering the parts. once all the parts arrive, plan out how you want the wiring to run, where you want to stick the drives, what IDE, SATA, or SCSI (not likely for a first pc) channels you want which devices to use. then put the motherboard mounts in, then the motherboard etc. before you know it you'll have your computer built, then put in the power supply, get power to all the devices, get the data cables hooked up (make sure you ask questions if you have any), and remember rule #1, if it doesnt fit, don't force it.
ask questions every step of the way and you should be able to build an awesome pc with your own 2 hands
The first step you want to take is decide what your budget is. there are so many choices out there, it's easy to say, well I could spend the extra 50$ and get a 200 GB hard drive instead of a 120.. etc, it adds up quick.
second, you will want to piece together many different setups. do some research and decide if you want to try amd or intel, nvidia or ati, maxtor or western digital, asus or gigabyte, etc etc.. there are so many different brands out there. Take any reviews with a grain of salt, as most reviewers will tend to be biased towards or against the product partially just because of the brand name. ie intel guys will bash amd, and amd guys will bash intel.
once you have weeded your choices down to 2 or 3 systems, post up on message boards and see what others think. again don't take their responses as the end all be all solution, just use it as guidance.
Once you have your perfect system, start ordering the parts. once all the parts arrive, plan out how you want the wiring to run, where you want to stick the drives, what IDE, SATA, or SCSI (not likely for a first pc) channels you want which devices to use. then put the motherboard mounts in, then the motherboard etc. before you know it you'll have your computer built, then put in the power supply, get power to all the devices, get the data cables hooked up (make sure you ask questions if you have any), and remember rule #1, if it doesnt fit, don't force it.
ask questions every step of the way and you should be able to build an awesome pc with your own 2 hands
- Thread starter
- #8
Thanks for the info guys.
THis my first PC build but I have been in computing , software mostly but also hardware for nearly 40 years now. Except for ther past 4 years it was all in mainframe and mini computers.
40 gig , probably two of them would do for a startup.
What about RAID? a mobo with two IDE slots for that?
If I was to make a server, what would I do differently with the hatdware?
Cheers
John
THis my first PC build but I have been in computing , software mostly but also hardware for nearly 40 years now. Except for ther past 4 years it was all in mainframe and mini computers.
40 gig , probably two of them would do for a startup.
What about RAID? a mobo with two IDE slots for that?
If I was to make a server, what would I do differently with the hatdware?
Cheers
John
40gig HDD's are very small nowadays, 80's or even 120's are better value as they only cost around 25% more for the 80 and 30% more for the 120gig.
Server specs are quite differant, specific server motherboards (dual CPU's)
Scissi Hard drives
Neither are particularly suited to desktop use so you need to make decide what the PC is going to be doing most of the time.
Raid is good for both
SATA is good for desktop particularly
Martin
Replying helps further our knowledge, without comment leaves us wondering.
Server specs are quite differant, specific server motherboards (dual CPU's)
Scissi Hard drives
Neither are particularly suited to desktop use so you need to make decide what the PC is going to be doing most of the time.
Raid is good for both
SATA is good for desktop particularly
Martin
Replying helps further our knowledge, without comment leaves us wondering.
- Thread starter
- #10
Although SCSI is more expensive, I build all my systems (desktops and servers) using SCSI.
The 160 and 320 are easy to setup, you can have 15 devices, can add external devices easily. Simply assign the device #, and termination is on the cable.
The drives usually have 5 year verses 3 year warantees.
They are faster and very reliable. Older SCSI drives can be used.
I think that Windows desktops run a lot better.
The 160 and 320 are easy to setup, you can have 15 devices, can add external devices easily. Simply assign the device #, and termination is on the cable.
The drives usually have 5 year verses 3 year warantees.
They are faster and very reliable. Older SCSI drives can be used.
I think that Windows desktops run a lot better.
I agree with the above but you only have to read a good hard drive review to realize despite their amazing speed in server applications they are just no quicker (and sometimes slower) in a desktop enviroment.
This is simply down to driver optimization or in other words specificly designed for a particular job of work.
If you want the best desktop performance against cost then people in the know are opting for a couple of SATA Western Digital "Raptor" drives, these are the new 10,000rpm 8mb cache units and in many desktop applications are at least as quick if not quicker than SCSI, BUT!!! this is why I asked what is going to be the bulk of this systems work, because SCSI is damn good in server apps.
Martin
Replying helps further our knowledge, without comment leaves us wondering.
This is simply down to driver optimization or in other words specificly designed for a particular job of work.
If you want the best desktop performance against cost then people in the know are opting for a couple of SATA Western Digital "Raptor" drives, these are the new 10,000rpm 8mb cache units and in many desktop applications are at least as quick if not quicker than SCSI, BUT!!! this is why I asked what is going to be the bulk of this systems work, because SCSI is damn good in server apps.
Martin
Replying helps further our knowledge, without comment leaves us wondering.
- Thread starter
- #13
Here is a link for more info.
Also
Two leaders in controller and disk technology.
Also
Two leaders in controller and disk technology.
Nah don't forget SATA now that will out run the SCSI and Cheaper too but with a bigger raid array you will also get faster speeds either way SATA has some drives out there with a 4.2MS seek I would never dump the Money in scsi unless u want more than 2 drives per cable. I have 4 120GB drives on a Koutech IDE controller with raid-1 set pulling 70MB's a sec and writing 56MB's with will even out do some SCSI but well enough alone SCSI speeds aren't quite as fast anymore do to IDE Drives finally getting transfers faster.
Ideally i would go with a 40GB 7200rpm 8MB Cache for OS and what not then storage or data drives either SATA 10000RPM 4.2 MS seek for GAMING , or normal storage 7200RPM 2mb cache although getting the 8mb cahce will make a noticable difference.
Ideally i would go with a 40GB 7200rpm 8MB Cache for OS and what not then storage or data drives either SATA 10000RPM 4.2 MS seek for GAMING , or normal storage 7200RPM 2mb cache although getting the 8mb cahce will make a noticable difference.
I would suggest you look at the prices at:
before you look at things on E-bay. This will give you a guideline when you compare new prices to prices on E-bay. Personally, I have never purchased anything from E-bay. I like because of their good customer service, and fast shipping.
You have to be careful to order parts and test them immediately when you buy them. Many sites only give you 7-30 days to return parts. Know the Return policy before making a commitment. Also pay attention to shipping charges. Most new Processors, Motherboards, and Memory can be purchased online with no shipping fees. Make sure you add shipping to the price when you make a comparison.
If you do not like my post feel free to point out your opinion or my errors.
before you look at things on E-bay. This will give you a guideline when you compare new prices to prices on E-bay. Personally, I have never purchased anything from E-bay. I like because of their good customer service, and fast shipping.
You have to be careful to order parts and test them immediately when you buy them. Many sites only give you 7-30 days to return parts. Know the Return policy before making a commitment. Also pay attention to shipping charges. Most new Processors, Motherboards, and Memory can be purchased online with no shipping fees. Make sure you add shipping to the price when you make a comparison.
If you do not like my post feel free to point out your opinion or my errors.
Don't buy off ebay, its not clever when it comes to pcs i have brought 2 processors and some ram of their and each one came either badly packaged, late or in the case of the RAM DOA it had been exposed to static, the seller later decided to tell me!
- Thread starter
- #19
Thanks for all your posts.
Sorry my reply is late I've been in hospital for a couple of days.
My experience of Ebay as of this week is 75 % OK. I don't think I'll use it again for critical stuff.
You've turned me off scsi. And I checked the price too!
I'm in the UK. Does NewEgg ship here?
John
Sorry my reply is late I've been in hospital for a couple of days.
My experience of Ebay as of this week is 75 % OK. I don't think I'll use it again for critical stuff.
You've turned me off scsi. And I checked the price too!
I'm in the UK. Does NewEgg ship here?
John
The SCSI is higher, but you have to consider that most hard disks come with a 5-year warranty. The SATA disks come with a 1-year. It is as broad as it is long.
Seek time 9.3 SATA v 3.8 on SCSI.
SATA transfer rate is 150MB while 320 on SCSI, therefore these units are not faster.
Seek time 9.3 SATA v 3.8 on SCSI.
SATA transfer rate is 150MB while 320 on SCSI, therefore these units are not faster.
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