Newbie Making a PC from Scratch

[00fil00]

Never done it before... im not even gonna attempt to "glue" it together but will buy the seperate bits and get someone to chuck it together. just wondering if its simply a case of gettin the main parts and screwing them together or if theres "trade secrets" and things that arent commonly known about like heat dispersing gel, surge protectors, fans, a case size that actually fits, u know like things a newb wouldnt know about first time? heres what ive got roughly so far... tell me if u have any improvements. its a pure gaming machine, tryin to keep the cost down. wont be overclocking - dunno how

CPU:
Athlon 64 3000+ or 3200+ cant decide, what do you get for that extra 200+?
AMD Athlon 64 3200 (Socket 754) - Retail (CP-060-AM) - £208.56

Mobo:
dont know anything bout mobos but heard this ones good enough. any comments?
MSI K8T Neo-FIS2R (Socket 754) Motherboard (MB-010-MS) - £89.30

RAM:
dunno much bout RAM, is 1 gig really necessary? remember wont be overclocking.
GeIL 512MB (2x256MB) PC3200 Value CAS2.5 (GE5123200BDC) (MY-004-GL) - £71.23

TOTAL---- £369

Graphics:
Already got a ATI 9800 Pro but god damn power surge fried it last week.. back to my riva tnt which is why im so pissed im starting from scratch. guy said its physically ok but memory might be damaged as pc just reboots. any way to flash it back to health? is it a write-off?? il be WELL pissed if i have to buy another 9800 pro :\!!!
Sapphire ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB DDR TV-Out/DVI - Lite Retail (GX-017-SP) - £156.92 (?? hope can fix, might not need this price ??)

HD:
- ill try to steal an old 80gig one from this PC, keep costs down.

OS:
- sure i can find one. if not ive got win98 right here. with all the talk of win64.. and todays 32OS's, whats win98? its what i use.

SOUND CARD: dunno but everyone goes for audigy so who am i to argue? have to do research on this one for the model

POWER SUPPLY: whats the 9800s min specs again? 450w? i forget. just above whatever it is to be safe.

CASE & MONITOR: dunno anything bout these. any tips welcome here. the monitor im on when i try set a game to 2000+ res only quarter of the screen shows up.. presume its cuz its 4 years old.. this wont be a problem whem buying today will it?

and thats it.... i think... is it just a case of connecting all these things up to bring it to life or have i forgotten some important thing thatll turn it into a massive paperweight? ive no idea. laugh at me if its alot more complicated than just screwing them together but also tell me what else needs to be done too so i learn

thanks for listenin! hope it was interesting to some of you.

 

[rainz]

Never done it before... im not even gonna attempt to "glue" it together but will buy the seperate bits and get someone to chuck it together. just wondering if its simply a case of gettin the main parts and screwing them together or if theres "trade secrets" and things that arent commonly known about like heat dispersing gel, surge protectors, fans, a case size that actually fits, u know like things a newb wouldnt know about first time? heres what ive got roughly so far... tell me if u have any improvements. its a pure gaming machine, tryin to keep the cost down. wont be overclocking - dunno how

This is really simple and easy .. but if it's a lot of money for you and you're a lil bit nervous about it .. and you dont know how.. Just ask a friend or any tech to do it for you .. It can suck to blow up a part and you have to wait many days for the new.

CPU:
Athlon 64 3000+ or 3200+ cant decide, what do you get for that extra 200+?
AMD Athlon 64 3200 (Socket 754) - Retail (CP-060-AM) - £208.56

I recommend the 3200 .. Both 2Ghz for the clock but 1MB cache for the 3200+ instead of 512k for the 3000.

Mobo:
dont know anything bout mobos but heard this ones good enough. any comments?
MSI K8T Neo-FIS2R (Socket 754) Motherboard (MB-010-MS) - £89.30

Yeh i saw many reviews about this one .. but i cant recommend it .. never tested myself .. but i can recommend the one i'm using .. and i saw a tons of reviews on it too.. Prolly the best so far for the 754 socket.

RAM:
dunno much bout RAM, is 1 gig really necessary? remember wont be overclocking.
GeIL 512MB (2x256MB) PC3200 Value CAS2.5 (GE5123200BDC) (MY-004-GL) - £71.23

Just get 400mhz ram ( decent brand and any value ram ) not the HyperX or things like that for overclockers since you dont want to O/C I have 1 thing to say about the 1GB VS the 512mb .. I dont think the 1GB is SOOO importnat right now .. but i started to see the difference in somes games with the 1GB ( new generation games ) ... like in Far Cry ... 1GB is more than usefull .. and if you host big games too .. and all the future games coming .. So i recommended to get 1GB ..

TOTAL---- £369

Graphics:
Already got a ATI 9800 Pro but god damn power surge fried it last week.. back to my riva tnt which is why im so pissed im starting from scratch. guy said its physically ok but memory might be damaged as pc just reboots. any way to flash it back to health? is it a write-off?? il be WELL pissed if i have to buy another 9800 pro :\!!!
Sapphire ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB DDR TV-Out/DVI - Lite Retail (GX-017-SP) - £156.92 (?? hope can fix, might not need this price ??)

When you bought this card ? You might be able to exchange it ..

HD:
- ill try to steal an old 80gig one from this PC, keep costs down.

Why not ! 7200rpm at least ?

OS:
- sure i can find one. if not ive got win98 right here. with all the talk of win64.. and todays 32OS's, whats win98? its what i use.

Try to get WinXP .. or Win2k .. Win 98 suck!

SOUND CARD: dunno but everyone goes for audigy so who am i to argue? have to do research on this one for the model

Buy an Audigy or if you really wanna keep the price down .. use the built-in solution on the motherboard ... not the greatest thing but it's decent if you have a tight budget.

POWER SUPPLY: whats the 9800s min specs again? 450w? i forget. just above whatever it is to be safe.

hehe no a High Power PSU around 300 watts is enough but .. always depends on all the things you have in your comp .. More things .. more power you need.

CASE & MONITOR: dunno anything bout these. any tips welcome here. the monitor im on when i try set a game to 2000+ res only quarter of the screen shows up.. presume its cuz its 4 years old.. this wont be a problem whem buying today will it?

You can use 1280x1024 and 1600x1200 ? if so .. just keep this one.

and thats it.... i think... is it just a case of connecting all these things up to bring it to life or have i forgotten some important thing thatll turn it into a massive paperweight? ive no idea. laugh at me if its alot more complicated than just screwing them together but also tell me what else needs to be done too so i learn

thanks for listenin! hope it was interesting to some of you].

Oh yeh so interresting, you made my day

RainZ

 

[00fil00]

that was a perfect reply, big help, thanks! more! more!

9800 pro fry-up = ebay = no chance

howd u tell ur HDrpm? my dad just buys whatever the techheads persuade him to when buying.

 

[Captain Chickenpants]

Have a look on the old drive, it may be listed on there, if not you could try a search for the model number.

A couple of things worth mentioning.
If you spend a bit extra on the case then it can avert the bloodletting that inevitably happens on the cheaper cases which seem to have specially sharpened drive bays, otherwise get a supply of sticking plasters

If your power supply is switchable (i.e. it can be used in the US and the UK) then check that it is set to UK voltage.

Drives. At the back of the CD/DVD drive and the hard drive are some jumpers for configuring master/slave or cable select. I would generally put all of them on Cable Select , and connect the hard drive to the IDE1 header and the CD/DVD to IDE2. Not sure why, that is just the way I have always done it.

If this is the first time you have done this then the trickiest bit will be the connecting of the case bits and pieces (power button, leds etc) to the motherboard, you have to use the Motherboard manual to figure out which ones connect where and it tends to be really fiddly.
I look forward to the day that it is just one standard connector that you plug in.

Hope this helps, have fun!
CC

 

[Dio]

If you're the sort of person who naturally fiddles with stuff (dismantles things to fix them, etc.) then a PC will hold few fears. You can do everything with one screwdriver.

That said, the first time you pull one apart it's better if there's someone who knows what they're doing to show you the ropes. A few things (like getting the heatsink onto the CPU) are a little intimidating.

 

[00fil00]

really appreciate all the help, expecially the bloodletting one lol. dont think ill be building it by myself, i can barely afford all this stuff let alone break any piece of it . my friend will charge me £10 to stick it together and ill supply the plasters, but hes giving me no help with choosing bits and usually just calls me a noob and egnores my questions on which to buy.