Built my first PC
 

My old Dell 8400 did pretty good work, but after 5 years it wanted a break and Premiere was kinda taxing its brain a bit. After much shopping around I decided to take a chance and build one myself.

http://i81.photobucket.com/albums/j2...x/IMG_9599.jpg

Don't know if anyone else builds their own machines, but if you do, id love to see some pics - especially those who are into case modifying :)

looks very nice.

Congrats.

I used to build my own. However, now I typically will have mine custom built by a place like ibuypower.com, newegg, etc.

Last machine I grabbed from jdavis as I needed a better backup or secondary machine for some applications. But normally I need more power than buying off the shelf, and I do not like buying computers with preinstalled garbage. Which was why I used to build my own.

However, I found a few places I could custom order, and not get that crap. Unfortunately machines end up running $1500-2000.00. But I am always more happy.
:2 cents:

Looks interesting, what are the specs?

I built my first pc back in 98.. haha it was a AMD 400MHZ with 128 of ram and ATI all in one wonder video card.. but since then I haven't built one

Would love to do a new dream machine but really prices of PCs are so cheap it's almost cheaper to just buy whole pcs

I hear you there, one of the main reason for building my own was to avoid bloatware and to get some good power for the money. I took a look at ibuypower.com and even though they did seem pretty reasonable compared to the normal equivalents I couldnt resist having a crack at a self build :)

As you say, they may end up running to $1500 and more but, from what I'm told, off the shelf they'd be twice that.

Works nice too :)

Nothing crazy, I went for a proven spec. Antec 900 case, Intel Quad 6600 2.4ghz, 730w PSU, Gigabyte EP45-UD3R, Geforce 9800gtx, Gskill 2x2gb, 2x Seagate 250gb hd's, freezer pro, other shit. Windows Vista ultimate. Overclocked to 3.6 ghz.

Its running all 4 cores at 30c, case temp about the same, running stable at 3.6.

Probably swap the MB and processor out when the i7 processors are more proven :)

They're pretty cheap, i'd have to agree.

Having opened the case of a relatively new XPS and looking at the quality of the components though, id opt for the self build eveytime, Now anyway :)

Big power supplies, multiple large fans, beautiful and expansive M/b's, super cool running temps etc etc, I'm not sure you get any of that from the off the shelf manufacturer in the early 4 figs.

Yeah I build mine too. I'm not so much into case modifying as I don't really give a shit what it looks like (it's out of view anyway). It was cheaper than most companies would charge and free of bloatware!

I have built my own for some time now. I can't say I will never buy a pre-made computer again, but I would have to be in a situation where I needed something fast to buy one. I just like that you can hand pick everything and know exactly what is in it and how it was put together. It doesn't hurt that I have a friend that works in the prototype lab at Intel so I often get some very nice stuff from him.

The last PC I built was one I just made about 2 months ago.
Intel Core 2 Q6900 3.2 ghz processor
8 gig ram
pretty nice 512 meg pci express video card
2 X 240 gb hard drive
DVD writer
Windows Vista home premium 64 bit ( so it can take advantage of the 8 gig of ram)
I also bought a new monitor Samsung LCD flatscreen 22 inch
It is so much nicer and faster than my old computer and I have to admit this is my first time using Vista and so far I really like it.

Also,
My first real business (meaning something I made money at) was me and a friend building computers. We would buy the stuff and assemble it then sell the computer via ads in the news papers. This was back in around 1996-97 when the profit margin on hardware was still pretty high. We could build a system for around $800 and sell it for around $1500. I think we sold 1-2 a month for a couple of years, but we never had the ambition to try to build it up and then the cost of computers started to drop drastically.

I build my own computers and generally have no probs; it's when I start adding or swapping around hardware that things start going wrong. I swapped out an old celeron single board with a Pentium D 3.0 and an Asus deluxe motherboard, something that should have taken about 30-45 mins max... first problem is when I dropped the CPU on the floor and couldn't find it for about 10 mins. Then when I found it and was cleaning the old thermal grease off it I dropped it onto the tiles, JUST missing the cat's water bowl. That probably should have been a sign to give up then.

3 hours later I still had a blue screen a few mins after the Windows CD starts booting, a gigabit ethernet card that for some strange reason consistently auto-negotiates to 10Mbps half duplex (I'm surprised my switch even supports that!), and a sound card that doesn't work. I had also swapped over the PSU and memory modules in an attempt to cure the bluescreen.

The computer is working now but the point is I usually end up wasting a shitload of time because of my extreme bad luck...

I built all 5 of mine.

The latest is core i7 overclocked to 4ghz, 12GB of ram.

Next month, the i7 XEONs get released, so I'm going for the dual CPU beast with 8 cores.

Nothing chews through animation frames like these Intel i7's.

looks hot :)

That's nice, but I'm getting rid of 3 of my q6600 systems after building the i7 rig, which renders 2.5 times faster. I can't have that slow shit taking up space anymore.

I've been abusing that i7 since it got released. It's been great so far. Take the leap. I love the i7. I rub my dick on it every night.

I have the same case. Only had it a short while and one of the fans occassionally sounds like a bearing is going or something. Doesn't do it all the time, but it sure pisses me off. Will have to try putting a drop of oil in it or something.

Otherwise a nice case.

I did build my computer too but I'm not into case modifying, just bought some case.
It looks like this:
http://www.tdjdata.se/images/produktbild_6900614.jpg

I have my i7 920 overclocked at 3.4Ghz on a ASUS P6T motherboard with 3 gigs of ram.
I am encoding video in seconds.

http://nexus404.com/Blog/wp-content/...puter-case.jpg
http://nexus404.com/Blog/wp-content/...ase-detail.jpg
http://nexus404.com/Blog/wp-content/...e-detail-2.jpg
I want this one!

Last time I built a computer it was more hassle than it was worth.

Last time I bought a computer I walked into the store, asked which computer was the fastest, and then told them to box up two of them for me. Done.

My time is worth much more money.

Last year built my own. Hope I can post some pics later today. Yours looking good

I had a dude build me a video editing comp back when I first started doing video in 2003.....It was a good deal for $500...I would've never found a comp for video editing that cheap back then.

nice :thumbsup -

Not minding Vista either

Amen to that shit BRO.

ibuypower.com, and a few other sites, let you basically pick each piece, the OS, how you want your cabling, and so on. It runs up the price of the machine, but I can get all the pieces as I want. The cabling as I want, in the case and dual fan set ups I want.

Not too bad, but as I said, it pushes the cost up to $1500-2000

I hear ya......and I thought my build would be similar, maybe next time

I nearly went for the 940 this time round, a mate who's a MCI persuaded me not to. Mostly due to it being a newer processor type, i think they've already bought the 950 and 975 out.

I've heard good things about them so far :)

totally understand, its not for everyone

TY :) post um up

Nice case,

I'm not really into modifying cases either, just wanted to see if there are better ways of doing things.

You don't have to get the 940. Just get the 920, and you can overclock it way above the speeds of the 940 and beyond. These chips are the best overclockers I've ever used. Reached 4ghz on my first few attempts. You need the right motherboard, Ram and cooling, but it works great and never crashes.

Congrats..Very good choice

Nice looking machine. I used to build my own and then started buying from Apple. Has saved a ton of headaches over the years and their OS is off the chain.

I've built several, mostly for high-performance gaming. But I was never really into putting lights inside the case or any of that stuff.

i realized the key around this, is purchasing from the 'small business / home office' section. They are usually cheaper / more powerful and you can get them with just an OS.