Building a computer

I've never put a computer together from scratch before, but I have installed video/sound cards and I have a decent handle on the guts of one. What I'm thinking of doing though, is to build some higher end computers for fun, and maybe even turn a bit of a profit on ebay. Does anyone know what all I would need to get started? And is it possible to get every component I need from ebay, or would there be a better place to look? As I said, I've never even tried doing this before, and it's mostly for fun.

I would like to build something with a quick(er) Athlon processor (like 2+GHz), 1-2 gig of RAM, 256 MB video card, custom case of course....something that gamers would be interested in.

This link is for building computer :
http://www6.tomshardware.com/howto/20020904/

and these are some guides for building pc's of various gaming budget( they are in indian rupees but they will give you a good idea for a broad range)

http://www.techtree.com/techtree/jsp/home.jsp?cat=556

hope this is what you asked for

Found this one too in my bookmarks, missed it

http://www.extremetech.com/category2...,838239,00.asp

I'd check out http://www.pricewatch.com for stuff. I don't think ebay is a good place to get parts for a new system.

yes, you are right, i have checked it myself, for new items prices on ebay are little on higher side. for me it is good only for second hand items( but have to be extra careful for that too :-)

for new system, if you plan to build in good amount better contact a dealer, you will get discount based on your subsequent orders.

Hi keezel:

and welcome back to the REAL avatar :)
Try to build a PC for yourself first, no time constraints, or price watching ..........
see what you get ...............

Then sell THAT ..........

See what the market is like.

Use the experience to see just how good a 'budget' box you can make, with your specs, keep the RAM to ONE GB Max
256 vid card
400w PSU
AMD 2.4GHz CPU is reasonably priced and capable enought to run any game or app that your target audience would be interested in.

Pax

I strongly advice to build computers for yourself first, next consider the complete picture when you sell computers to others, first think that you need to work out some garantee agreement, otherwise they will think you give them lifetime warranty. Also consider the sort of clients you are going to get, do they ***** up their box with viruses every week and are you going to offer software support too? Do you know enough about the hardware market to know chipsets and their reputation about stability, speed, ... don't believe all reviews cause a lot are biased. Are you going to search out good power supplies or just going to purchase the first cheap 400w psu you see? Are these boxes custom built for clients or are you going to built thme your self and sell them as is? Did you look at the market? If you look around then you are going to see that a lot of brands exist and that they probably are going to offer boxes that are very close to your price counting parts. A lot of questions, and yep you said it's only for fun, therefor these questions to illustrate that just for fun can be tricky.

You people speak about 2.4ghz Athlons ??? you mean real speeds or the advertised speeds? I hope you don't wan't to sell 'new' boxes with an AthlonXP cpu (socket A, s462)??? That's completly old, even the s754 is 'low budget' now. A new made high end box based on a AMD cpu should have Athlon64 s939, FX or normal, or the AthlonX2 dual core cpu.

My brother is also building a computer to take to college, he's buying all his parts from http://www.newegg.com they have really low prices and good items. Check it out :) Here's another site for buying parts, they also have good forums that can help you lots on making your computer (but so can AO :D) http://xoxide.com/

Thank you all very much for your input, and especially thank you VictorKaum...that's good stuff.

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Originally posted here by VictorKaum
you need to work out some guarantee agreement, otherwise they will think you give them lifetime warranty.

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1 year, parts/labor, which is just the warantee that comes with the parts that I could buy from stores connected to pricewatch.

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do they ***** up their box with viruses every week and are you going to offer software support too?

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Prolly not, but I might could put a .txt file on the desktop with some links to programs I recommend. Basic free for personal use firewall, spyware removal, virus/trojan removal stuff and instructions on how to update and run them.

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Do you know enough about the hardware market to know chipsets and their reputation about stability, speed?

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Not hardly. I don't even know where to look to find information about them yet, but as I said, this is mostly for fun and as a learning experience. If I make any money on the side from this at all, I'll be pleasantly surprised. My goal is to at least come out even without pissing/ripping anyone off.

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Are these boxes custom built for clients or are you going to built thme your self and sell them as is?

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I'm planning to build one at a time (all slightly different until I find something I like) for myself, and then hopefully auction them off one at a time on ebay.

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Did you look at the market? If you look around then you are going to see that a lot of brands exist and that they probably are going to offer boxes that are very close to your price counting parts.

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You're right, of course. And there is plenty of competition from people that have been in the market for a long time who know exactly what they are doing, and are able to get parts for cheaper (and thus sell cheaper) and offer better warranties. It doesn't look like it will be easy...

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Are you going to search out good power supplies or just going to purchase the first cheap 400w psu you see?

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Although I'm still learning the differences between power supplies, the one I'm looking at is 550w.

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You people speak about 2.4ghz Athlons ??? you mean real speeds or the advertised speeds?

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I'm not sure yet, I'm still looking into what kind of chipset/motherboard I should use. Right now, the 2.4GHz Athlons look like a good deal to me. They aren't nearly as expensive as others but offer decent performance (afaik).

I have much research to do still, and many things are open to change. Right now I have a 2.4GHz Athlon 3400 system, 256MB vid card, decent sound card, 10/100 networking, 550 power supply, CDRW/DVD drive, 80 GB HDD, and a pretty sweet looking case. Not including shipping...the cost right now would be $564.

I'm very much open to suggestion about what should be tweaked, and I'm looking especially at different/faster cpu's.

550 watts...hrm...sounds a lot like the PowMax Demon..which is a cheap powersupply with an undersized power output circuit that is prone to failing and taking out parts with it.

In some cases the transformer (input side) goes out first creating a spectacular *bang* and the output side usually dies around the same time killing components.

The fact that the PCB on some of these cheaper boards is made of corrugated cardboard instead of silicone (some crossover-circuits on speakers from Bose suffer the same cheap-ass cardboard design) leads to environmental problems with humidity, and of course heat/burning. You really want to avoid the low-end/imitation stuff if you are building these computers to sell to people.


I'd recommend starting by looking at the relatively new XClio power supplies, which have been recognized by those "in the know" to be decent stuff. Forton Source (FSP) / Sparkle should also provide you with reliable power supplies for your budget builds, while Antec's TruePower II series can provide slightly-better-than-spec power regulation for higher end builds.

This will keep you on the right track for your average gaming & wordprocessing machines, which will likely be most of your sales.



Things like the chipset and the processor are important for certain features and performance numbers. But few things are as vital as a quality power supply unit.


BTW, has your analysis of people selling new computers through *bay shown that there is profit to be made? Many people try getting stuff dirt-cheap on *bay, so I'm not sure how successful that kind of model will be. If you can afford to "invest" in the market of limited supply goods there is a small margin to be made online. But it isn't easy work and requires a lot of work to keep up with which supplier has what, and how you can get it from them to people who are willing to pay an extra 10% to have it NOW (who hopefully don't know your supplier - this is rare now-a-days).

www.pricewatch.com is your best bet for parts unless you have a tax number in which case you can get a decent list of wholesalers from M$'s OEM system builder program...but a tax # is required to purcase from them.

My first tutorial is a bit outdated but may at least point you in the direction you need to get started. I'm working on a followup to address new technologies as well as whats coming down the pipe over the next couple of years. Look for that one in the next few days.

Re: Service warranty - see my tut on computer businesses for a few tips there - always get a contract on what is covered and what isn't. "Abuse" is a vague word and can get you out of a lot of trouble when used in appropriate context, but it can also get you into trouble, so "This warranty is void if the problems obviously arise from user abuse" is definitely out - I'd word something like "If problems arise which are directly related to user activity, this warranty is void and a fee of $X per hour (2 hour minimum) will be assessed for repair of the machine" along with a nice, verbal, user-friendly assurance that normal, safe operation won't cause that clause to be called into play.

Re: actually building the thing -
1. from experience as I've fried many, watch the jumper settings on the MoBo, even if the shop that sells it to you assures you they're set correctly. Remember once you let the magic smoke out of the card it won't work anymore. The idea is to keep it inside where it belongs.

2. Always get the hardware docs, and keep them for yourself in case you ever come upon that specific part in the future. Don't give these to the client or you'll entice him to go 'exploring' and attempt to mod his own box.

3. Don't expect an astronomical price for your work. Hardware is still the cheapest thing you can do in computers, and yields the least amount of monetary return. Repairing hardware is a bit more lucrative, but not by much.

Luck to you!

[off topic]
you are a senior memeber and you have never put together a computer?!?!???!!!?!

i was 10 when i built my first computer that functioned *486*
when i was 6-10 i would take anything apart to see how it worked... thats my start with comps
[/off topic]


great advice right here

If it doesn't fit... don't force it..

and be around as much wood as you can... prevent static
only use the screw raisers you have to on your motherboard when you set it in your case... extra may cause shorts

if you dual channle ram... THE STICKS HAVE TO BE THE EXACT SAME *chips on both side, same size, same brand, same model... if not you will have a very fun time figuring out why they dont work*

hide as many wires as possiable!!
air flow is KEY!!


enjoy your new PC

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Remember once you let the magic smoke out of the card it won't work anymore.

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Lol

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you are a senior memeber and you have never put together a computer?!?!???!!!?!

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I have taken my own apart and put things back together, but that doesn't count I don't think... And I've installed a video and sound card before, and a dvd burner, but that's pretty much it.

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THE STICKS HAVE TO BE THE EXACT SAME *chips on both side, same size, same brand, same model... if not you will have a very fun time figuring out why they dont work*

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I knew that 2 different types of RAM or one 512 and one 1GB stick wouldn't work together, but I wasn't aware that they had to also be from the same manufacturer. I had a roomate that had a fun time figuring that one out. ^_^ The way he found out was on a box that said it could have up to 1 gig of RAM, so he plugged a 1GB chip into the computer....when there were 2 open slots... That didn't work. =)

Actually you *can* mix and match ram, it's just not recommended, and in some cases it won't work at all, or only one stick will work while the others just sit and look pretty in their slots. I used to do it all the time back in the days of good ol' FastRam. Nowadays it might be more stringent, but somehow I think there's a combination out there that works...

sorry to the duck, i didnt mean to brag

when you use unmatched sticks in a Pentium box your chances of it working are a lot higher

AMD... good luck...

i think it was something like 80% chance Pentium 20% AMD

and if you do get it to work... you will have phantom problems somewhere i promis you

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Originally posted here by keezel
Thank you all very much for your input, and especially thank you VictorKaum...that's good stuff.


1 year, parts/labor, which is just the warantee that comes with the parts that I could buy from stores connected to pricewatch.


Prolly not, but I might could put a .txt file on the desktop with some links to programs I recommend. Basic free for personal use firewall, spyware removal, virus/trojan removal stuff and instructions on how to update and run them.


Not hardly. I don't even know where to look to find information about them yet, but as I said, this is mostly for fun and as a learning experience. If I make any money on the side from this at all, I'll be pleasantly surprised. My goal is to at least come out even without pissing/ripping anyone off.


I'm planning to build one at a time (all slightly different until I find something I like) for myself, and then hopefully auction them off one at a time on ebay.


You're right, of course. And there is plenty of competition from people that have been in the market for a long time who know exactly what they are doing, and are able to get parts for cheaper (and thus sell cheaper) and offer better warranties. It doesn't look like it will be easy...


Although I'm still learning the differences between power supplies, the one I'm looking at is 550w.


I'm not sure yet, I'm still looking into what kind of chipset/motherboard I should use. Right now, the 2.4GHz Athlons look like a good deal to me. They aren't nearly as expensive as others but offer decent performance (afaik).

I have much research to do still, and many things are open to change. Right now I have a 2.4GHz Athlon 3400 system, 256MB vid card, decent sound card, 10/100 networking, 550 power supply, CDRW/DVD drive, 80 GB HDD, and a pretty sweet looking case. Not including shipping...the cost right now would be $564.

I'm very much open to suggestion about what should be tweaked, and I'm looking especially at different/faster cpu's.

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Ok, this clears up a lot.

- About the cpu, that was a misunderstanding you mean an Athlon 3400, so it's a S754 or S939 based cpu running at 2400mhz stockspeed... ok that's a decent choice, even you can go lower and save lot's of money on the cpu (for instance a 3000+ or 3200+) as far as it's not meant to be a game box in the first place.

- About the video card, the amount of video ram isn't that important once above 128mb, better look to the quality of the components (capacitors, speed of videoram, make of ram, ...) A faster 128mb card outperforms a crapy 256mb card.

- networking is mostly integrated to the mobo (realtek, marvell, intel are common suppliers of on board mobo chips) or into a chipset (nvidia nforce networking, even some come with integrated firewall).

- 550w power supply, like said by Tom, the power rating is not everything. You need to look at the voltage line stability, and at the maximum output in ampere on the several lines (5v, 12v, 3.3v) specialy the outputs on the 12v rails are imortant cause the new 64bit cpu's need a lot of stable input. So a decent 380w power supply that can offer enough combined power is a lot better than a cheap 550w one that is rated with unrealistic load conditions. I have seen an AOpen powersupply fail where an Antec psu of the same rating worked without problems. I can recommend OCZ, Enermax, Antec, Tagan.

- DVD-RW, go for the dual layer NEC series, those things are cheap but very good quality. You can't get a better price/quality (at least here in Belgium).