Shinobi Train
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Alright, so I'm about to put one together myself for a client (I do odd jobs sometimes), so I figured now would be a good a time as any to make a thread on it. ^_^
Step 1: Do Not Be Afraid
Step 2: Buying Your Components
Alright, so you're set now, try to put most of your money into the Motherboard and graphics card, you'll thank yourself for doing that later. My PC was around $1,200 ($1,400 or so with the monitor I guess), but it's a beast, you really don't need this stuff at all, it's ridiculous. You can probably get by with $800-900 and have a great machine that will play most games really well. I guess you just have to put it together now...:devil:
Okay...I'm so sorry I have to tell you this...the first time you press the button once you're through, it will not turn on. Don't panic: this is normal, it's an inside joke that every computer you build, the first time you try to turn it on, it won't do anything. I just wanted to tell you this now so you don't freak out when you're done.
Step 3: Build It
Don't forget to buy some decent virus protection either. Enjoy your mean machine for half the price of Alienware or something like that, it's also just a lot better too, plus you're not afraid of working on it now either. Somehow doing this tunes you into your computer, you know more about it and when something acts up it's like you know what it is that's wrong with it.
Step 1: Do Not Be Afraid
Seriously, people do this all the time, and if they can, so can you. Just like anything, if you go into it being afraid of it, you really won't be able to do it, so there's no point in trying unless you can get over it. "But what if I touch the wrong thing or do something to ruin it?" Who cares, it's not like you're gonna' throw components around the room or anything, I assume you'll be careful, and while being careful you cannot damage anything...just don't take your screwdriver and rake it across the CPU's contacts and you'll be fine. xd
There really isn't any more to it than this first step, but I guess I'll continue anyway.
There really isn't any more to it than this first step, but I guess I'll continue anyway.
Step 2: Buying Your Components
Well, first you want a good price on things, and if you live in the US it's really hard to beat Newegg. Not only are they low, but also very reliable; Newegg has a great return policy too, not that I've ever had to use it, just that it's nice to know it's there. They also supply Canada, but I think their prices for Canada are a tad higher, so you might want to shop around a bit. For those not in the US, I have no idea...sorry, you might have to put a little more effort into the shopping part. xd
Now, for those that aren't familiar with this, there are two brands really: AMD and Intel. AMD is cheaper but less reliable, Intel is also a little bit better all the way around too, especially if you're wanting a gaming system you'll want Intel and Nvidia. Now I'm probably gonna' get flamed by the AMD lovers...they're just sore because they can't afford the higher end Intel stuff. xd Get what you want though...AMD isn't bad, just not as good.
So what you'll need is:
1. A case (preferably one with a few fans, I like Antec, they look awesome).
2. Power supply (you want this to be at least a 720 watt, but I have a 1000W so I have room to grow, go for the 1000, you'll thank me later).
3. Motherboard (this is a tad tricky because you need to make sure the CPU and the MB go together, plus you want something serious too. I like Gigabyte Motherboards a lot, they're very stable from my experience. You want to pay attention to certain things though, like how many PCI-E slots there are, you probably want to make sure there's three. How many memory slots there are and what they can take, I personally have six and you want to make sure it takes DDR3. With Newegg these things won't be hard to figure out and you can always ask me. xd)
4. CPU [processor] (Since I really don't know or care what AMD CPUs are like, I'll just tell you about Intel. There's the "i" series which is what is going now and you at least want something like an i5. However, what really counts here is the GHz and the cores. I have an i7 with something like 3.4 GHz, 4 cores and 8 threads so it can take all the crazy applications and stuff I throw at it, but if you're looking for gaming then I'm not sure if more threads and cores is better or worse...maybe someone else knows. xd You do want the 64-bit though, make sure you get the 64-bit.)
5. RAM [memory] (Of course you want DDR3 and you want like 6 or so gigabytes. I think most games do okay with 4-6 but I'm not sure about that since I really don't game on my PC. I have 12 gigs of RAM though myself.)
6. Graphics card (Yeah, just go Nvidia...it's designed for games, okay? xd There's a few really good companies that make Nvidia cards, but what you really need to look at is the CUDA cores. You really want like a GTX 470 (not GTS, don't get them confused). One GTX 470 or higher and you'll be singing a little song while you look at life spring forth before your eyes. Now, this is where the three PCI-E slots come in though, you see...you can string three graphics cards together with SLI as long as they're the same card; so if you buy one card, then later on you'll have to by the same one again in order to dual SLI the two (then three at some point), so you want to make sure the first one you buy is a monster to begin with.)
Note: CUDA power in graphics cards is somewhat "new" development (nothing's really ever new for long though), and the only time they're really used is when playing games. To my knowledge, Nvidia are the only ones that have it, and you want it, trust me.
7. Hard drive (now there are solid state drives which are really nice, but way too expensive for even my taste, wow. So unless you're crazy, you're just going with a good ol' fashioned disk drive. Why not get the 1T though, that's a 1000 gigabytes of storage space without much of a price difference. However, you need to check that read/write speed and compare that stuff, it won't mean much it you have a T but it can't perform. The brand I recommend is Seagate, I think that's just because I've had a bunch and they haven't let me down.)
8. DVD burner (Why not? They aren't that expensive really. LG is a nice brand, but I really don't pay attention to that much...these things are so cheap in comparison to everything else that you won't actually care. xd).
9. Keyboard and mouse (duh).
10. Speakers (just get the Gigaware, don't fight it, it's $75 I think for the nice ones, you really will thank me later).
11. Copy of Windows (or you can go Linux for free, but please don't steal.)
Now set everything up! Oh...wait...you can't see anything! :crazy:
12. Monitor (Yeah, baby, and you thought the monitor was the computer before, didn't ya'... Now you're going to need to pay close attention to the specs and stuff, I actually have spent an hour or two picking out monitors in the past. For that badass graphics card you bought to shine in all its glory, you'll need full HD 1920:1080p. It's more than that though, you have to pay attention to the colors it can display, it's brightness and contrast and its refresh rate. This can get a little tricky actually, don't just look for the big one.)
Now, for those that aren't familiar with this, there are two brands really: AMD and Intel. AMD is cheaper but less reliable, Intel is also a little bit better all the way around too, especially if you're wanting a gaming system you'll want Intel and Nvidia. Now I'm probably gonna' get flamed by the AMD lovers...they're just sore because they can't afford the higher end Intel stuff.
xd Get what you want though...AMD isn't bad, just not as good.So what you'll need is:
1. A case (preferably one with a few fans, I like Antec, they look awesome).
2. Power supply (you want this to be at least a 720 watt, but I have a 1000W so I have room to grow, go for the 1000, you'll thank me later).
3. Motherboard (this is a tad tricky because you need to make sure the CPU and the MB go together, plus you want something serious too. I like Gigabyte Motherboards a lot, they're very stable from my experience. You want to pay attention to certain things though, like how many PCI-E slots there are, you probably want to make sure there's three. How many memory slots there are and what they can take, I personally have six and you want to make sure it takes DDR3. With Newegg these things won't be hard to figure out and you can always ask me. xd)
4. CPU [processor] (Since I really don't know or care what AMD CPUs are like, I'll just tell you about Intel. There's the "i" series which is what is going now and you at least want something like an i5. However, what really counts here is the GHz and the cores. I have an i7 with something like 3.4 GHz, 4 cores and 8 threads so it can take all the crazy applications and stuff I throw at it, but if you're looking for gaming then I'm not sure if more threads and cores is better or worse...maybe someone else knows. xd You do want the 64-bit though, make sure you get the 64-bit.)
5. RAM [memory] (Of course you want DDR3 and you want like 6 or so gigabytes. I think most games do okay with 4-6 but I'm not sure about that since I really don't game on my PC. I have 12 gigs of RAM though myself.)
6. Graphics card (Yeah, just go Nvidia...it's designed for games, okay? xd There's a few really good companies that make Nvidia cards, but what you really need to look at is the CUDA cores. You really want like a GTX 470 (not GTS, don't get them confused). One GTX 470 or higher and you'll be singing a little song while you look at life spring forth before your eyes. Now, this is where the three PCI-E slots come in though, you see...you can string three graphics cards together with SLI as long as they're the same card; so if you buy one card, then later on you'll have to by the same one again in order to dual SLI the two (then three at some point), so you want to make sure the first one you buy is a monster to begin with.
)Note: CUDA power in graphics cards is somewhat "new" development (nothing's really ever new for long though), and the only time they're really used is when playing games. To my knowledge, Nvidia are the only ones that have it, and you want it, trust me.
7. Hard drive (now there are solid state drives which are really nice, but way too expensive for even my taste, wow. So unless you're crazy, you're just going with a good ol' fashioned disk drive. Why not get the 1T though, that's a 1000 gigabytes of storage space without much of a price difference. However, you need to check that read/write speed and compare that stuff, it won't mean much it you have a T but it can't perform. The brand I recommend is Seagate, I think that's just because I've had a bunch and they haven't let me down.)
8. DVD burner (Why not? They aren't that expensive really. LG is a nice brand, but I really don't pay attention to that much...these things are so cheap in comparison to everything else that you won't actually care. xd).
9. Keyboard and mouse (duh).
10. Speakers (just get the Gigaware, don't fight it, it's $75 I think for the nice ones, you really will thank me later).
11. Copy of Windows (or you can go Linux for free, but please don't steal.)
Now set everything up! Oh...wait...you can't see anything! :crazy:
12. Monitor (Yeah, baby, and you thought the monitor was the computer before, didn't ya'... Now you're going to need to pay close attention to the specs and stuff, I actually have spent an hour or two picking out monitors in the past. For that badass graphics card you bought to shine in all its glory, you'll need full HD 1920:1080p. It's more than that though, you have to pay attention to the colors it can display, it's brightness and contrast and its refresh rate. This can get a little tricky actually, don't just look for the big one.
)Alright, so you're set now, try to put most of your money into the Motherboard and graphics card, you'll thank yourself for doing that later. My PC was around $1,200 ($1,400 or so with the monitor I guess), but it's a beast, you really don't need this stuff at all, it's ridiculous. You can probably get by with $800-900 and have a great machine that will play most games really well. I guess you just have to put it together now...:devil:
Okay...I'm so sorry I have to tell you this...the first time you press the button once you're through, it will not turn on. Don't panic: this is normal, it's an inside joke that every computer you build, the first time you try to turn it on, it won't do anything. I just wanted to tell you this now so you don't freak out when you're done.
Step 3: Build It
So take the case out first, that's what we're putting everything in to by the way. Then get the Motherboard out...careful, don't drop it. >.> Now bring forth from its beautiful blue box, the CPU. Uh, that little chip is it, that's the processor...not the big fan on top of the heatsink. Okay, try to lay your Motherboard out so you can work with it, maybe just keep it in the box. To save yourself a potential headache, go ahead and install the CPU. Just slap that sucker in there, don't be afraid of it. There are instructions on the socket for the whole thing and the processor only goes one way if look at it carefully, there should at least be an indicator.
The fan is a bit more of a struggle and this is why you want to do this first. It has plastic thingies (real descriptive there, pal) that open and close when you turn them, so close all four and slide them into their respective spots and open them. Give it a little tug before you declare it done.
All the screws you'll need came with the Motherboard, and there's a bunch of small but slightly long ones that hold the board in. You can test them on the case first if you aren't sure of which ones to use. Different boards fit the cases differently and not all the screws will be used. It's also best to have a non-magnetic screwdriver, or at least one that has lost a ton of its magnetism.
Next I guess you can put the power supply in, really straight forward there, but some cases have there PSU slot on the bottom, so it's good to check and see if your power supply has it's fan on the top or bottom, but I don't think it's a huge deal. :/ You can start connecting stuff at this point because there are a few wires that might be easier to plug in before the graphics card is installed.
If you haven't plugged the CPU fan into the MB yet, go ahead and do that too. The main MB power cable is real easy to spot, and if you can put the square in the square hole this shouldn't be a challenge. You might have to really push it in though, don't be all namby-pamby, I told you to set aside that fear, didn't I? Get that RAM in there too while you're at it, and just take a look to see which way they go in. You'll have to push a little hard on those too, but be careful not to bend them at all, just press straight down and make sure they're going in the right way. The clamps on the side will hold them once they're all the way in.
Now, there's a group of tiny wires that are attached to the case and one of them runs the power button while another is the reset. They say things like "reset" and "power". There's also USB connections there too and other things depending on your case. If you didn't throw your Motherboard instructions away like me, then somewhere in there should be a diagram of how it should all go in and what's positive and negative, that is if it isn't easy enough to figure out by just looking at it for a moment.
At this point all the hard stuff is done. You might fight the video card a little and actually plug it into the power supply, you have to plug the case fans into the power supply, you have to install and connect the hard drive to the Motherboard and plug it into the power supply, install and connect the DVD burner to the Motherboard and power supply...see a trend here? Once all that's done and you've checked to make sure everything's there and installed properly, get a glass of water and hold it over the open case for a while and then have someone tickle you why you're doing that.
Close up that case and plug that sucker in. Set up that monitor and hook it up with the keyboard and mouse, but just plug in what you need for now, don't confuse it by plugging in a printer or something weird like that. Now...push the button... Hooray! Wait...nothing happened...darn it! Why, cruel world! Okay, so if that happens then you need to open your case again and check things out...infact I usually don't close up the case until it's on and happy.
If you can't get it to work, I'm always here to help, but most likely you didn't connect the power button correctly or you didn't push something in all the way...it's usually something silly, always is.
Now pop your Windows CD in once it finally turns on and start that installation. This will take a little bit so you can pour yourself some shots while you're waiting, beer works too, but you'll need something to calm your nerves after that...you just built a computer!
The fan is a bit more of a struggle and this is why you want to do this first. It has plastic thingies (real descriptive there, pal) that open and close when you turn them, so close all four and slide them into their respective spots and open them. Give it a little tug before you declare it done.
All the screws you'll need came with the Motherboard, and there's a bunch of small but slightly long ones that hold the board in. You can test them on the case first if you aren't sure of which ones to use. Different boards fit the cases differently and not all the screws will be used. It's also best to have a non-magnetic screwdriver, or at least one that has lost a ton of its magnetism.
Next I guess you can put the power supply in, really straight forward there, but some cases have there PSU slot on the bottom, so it's good to check and see if your power supply has it's fan on the top or bottom, but I don't think it's a huge deal. :/ You can start connecting stuff at this point because there are a few wires that might be easier to plug in before the graphics card is installed.
If you haven't plugged the CPU fan into the MB yet, go ahead and do that too. The main MB power cable is real easy to spot, and if you can put the square in the square hole this shouldn't be a challenge. You might have to really push it in though, don't be all namby-pamby, I told you to set aside that fear, didn't I? Get that RAM in there too while you're at it, and just take a look to see which way they go in. You'll have to push a little hard on those too, but be careful not to bend them at all, just press straight down and make sure they're going in the right way. The clamps on the side will hold them once they're all the way in.
Now, there's a group of tiny wires that are attached to the case and one of them runs the power button while another is the reset. They say things like "reset" and "power".
There's also USB connections there too and other things depending on your case. If you didn't throw your Motherboard instructions away like me, then somewhere in there should be a diagram of how it should all go in and what's positive and negative, that is if it isn't easy enough to figure out by just looking at it for a moment.At this point all the hard stuff is done. You might fight the video card a little and actually plug it into the power supply, you have to plug the case fans into the power supply, you have to install and connect the hard drive to the Motherboard and plug it into the power supply, install and connect the DVD burner to the Motherboard and power supply...see a trend here? Once all that's done and you've checked to make sure everything's there and installed properly, get a glass of water and hold it over the open case for a while and then have someone tickle you why you're doing that.
Close up that case and plug that sucker in. Set up that monitor and hook it up with the keyboard and mouse, but just plug in what you need for now, don't confuse it by plugging in a printer or something weird like that. Now...push the button... Hooray! Wait...nothing happened...darn it! Why, cruel world! Okay, so if that happens then you need to open your case again and check things out...infact I usually don't close up the case until it's on and happy.
If you can't get it to work, I'm always here to help, but most likely you didn't connect the power button correctly or you didn't push something in all the way...it's usually something silly, always is.
Now pop your Windows CD in once it finally turns on and start that installation. This will take a little bit so you can pour yourself some shots while you're waiting, beer works too, but you'll need something to calm your nerves after that...you just built a computer!
Don't forget to buy some decent virus protection either. Enjoy your mean machine for half the price of Alienware or something like that, it's also just a lot better too, plus you're not afraid of working on it now either. Somehow doing this tunes you into your computer, you know more about it and when something acts up it's like you know what it is that's wrong with it.
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