Any computer building experts on here?

[computerbitz]

Jezus guys! :shock:

Now I know how my wife feels when I am talking bike/cars/ships with people!

I am a end user on computers, I really must learn more. Reading this thread has actually been a little illuminating!

Any advice on where I can find out more about how computers work? I'm intrigued. Do they do a Ladybird book of computers?

no but they do, do a haynes manual not sure if its any good like as i never used but they got one none the less

 

[JeRkY]

My 2 pence worth:

Intel over AMD at the moment, there was a recentish price drop in intels core 2 duo range which simply makes them much better bang per buck than AMD's offerings of current.

Motherboard, buy quality. A friend of mine recently summarised this to me in a way that makes sense, If you skimp on the mobo and cover it with top end other bits, it is just like kitting out a townsend frame with XTR.

The key thing is buy what you need though. Personally i play a lot of games (far too many i suspect) and tend to buy super fast graphics cards etc. The average PC buyer requires nothing of the like in terms of technical specification or financial wallet plundering.

Onboard graphics cards work for a vast number of the population, sure they wont get you top frames per second in quake 479 and infact may even refuse to run some games, but if that isnt a problem dont let people put you off the idea of keeping it cheap and simple.

Im in the process of umm'ing and arrr'ing over buying a new PC as the newer games are starting to show the age of my PC, If however i didnt game it wouldnt be an issue and my current rig would do me for general PC usage and even work usage (high end CAD software) for at least another 18months.


incidently if any one can recomend me a shuttle barebones (or similar) SFF capable of decent core 2 duo support and PCi express graphics, that doesnt cost more than a small village in norfolk, let me know. Ive owned shuttles since 2000 but now they seemed to have price hiked them out of my "its worth the extra to not have a monolith on the dining table" range

 

[computerbitz]

check out

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Systems/Shuttle/+Shuttle+SD32G5+Socket+775+Barebones?productId=25661

all depends on how small your village is

 

[ape]

check out this then

http://www.komplett.co.uk/k/ki.aspx?sku=321080

takes you £40 over budget but you getting the amd 6000 x2 and ddr 2 800

That looks like a pretty good deal actually mate and may have to consider that one, was thinking originally of that asrock board i posted a link to, AMD 4200 and 2gb worth of Geil memory, spoke to someone at overclockers though and really seemed to know his stuf, advised against the asrock board says they're not great, and told me that I would be better with corsair memorry at the same price with AMD as geil doesnt work that well wih amd stuff and is better suited to intel stuff

 

[computerbitz]

yeah its a good deal they do cheaper ones at overclockers like but for the same spec setup from them its £240 the only thing you may struggle with is your power supply but if that aint up to scratch then look at this http://www.ebuyer.com/product/129422

yeah its a budget psu but i used that brand before and had no issues, as a matter of fact i got the 720w version in my tower at the mo.

If you need anymore help feel free to pm me over it if you want.

 

[computerbitz]

another option for you is look at http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/spec ... l?BB-E672G

they do there own barebones systems and thats the board cpu memory case it comes assembled andtested for you and all you would need to do is move drives from current tower to new one

its an intel setup like but if it was me i would use intel anyway

 

[ape]

Well I've realised that price keeps creeping up as thiings do anyway so probably not going to do it all in one go so budget may be higher anyway, whats thoughts on secondhand mothernoards?, worth thinking about or a definate no no?. And do you know anyone who has used that setup that you posted the link for computerbitz? (the £180 one)

 

[cce]

dell support are spot on. they could teach HP a thing or 20. although HP have bachman turner overdrive as their hold music.

 

[carrtter]

I've build one or two from scratch and upgraded a few as well.
computer tables

 

[highlandsflyer]

I've build one or two from scratch and upgraded a few as well.

Good to know.

The OP may well have done by now as well...