Randar's Tech Page: Building a Personal Computer

BUILDING A PERSONAL COMPUTER

BASIC THINGS TO KNOW:

The best way to build a system is to build your own from quality name-brand parts. (The cheapest way is to shop the Internet for killer deals. [Go to NewEgg.Com for starters!] Or, for a little more money, wait for sales at Best Buy, CompUSA or Fry’s Electronics for all of the parts for your system.) The next best way is to use a quality “mom and pop shop,” and make sure they only use name brand not generic parts. After that, overall, Dell and Gateway are still rated highly for quality machines and service. Also, Sony, IBM and eMachines are getting good reviews. If you buy a complete system from any vendor, make sure they include the full operating system CDs and any and all software for the motherboard and all the hardware drivers on separate disks. At the very least make sure there is a System Recovery CD. (This is so that if anything happens to your system, you can always reinstall everything from scratch and start over!) If they include any software programs, make sure they include the disks as well.

Do not get a proprietary system! You want an open-architecture system that you can easily upgrade. Proprietary systems are closed systems and are not always easy to upgrade. They use non-standard (i.e., special order and expensive) parts that you cannot easily replace. Make sure that even with Dell or Gateway you are getting an open-architecture system. Ask!

If you need a basic system for Internet, Email and simple Word Processing only you can get a good deal on basic complete systems at CompUSA and Best Buy. Stay away from Compaq and Hewlett Packard. Sony and IBM and even eMachines are now getting high marks in the trade magazines. But, if you need a high-end gaming or multimedia system, build your own or have it built for you. (You can always build a better system than any eMachine, Compaq, or Hewlett Packard! Keep in mind that eMachine, Compaq, Hewlett Packard and others are proprietary to at least some degree.)

If you are going to build your own system do your homework! For starters go to TomsHardware and research your dream machine starting with the motherboard, chipset and CPU. Some of the consistently best boards come from either Intel or Asus. There are a ton of motherboard and hardware review sites out there. Use Google to search for reviews of the specific boards you are looking at. You don’t care about overclocking (that’s for geeks) which is what most of these sites concentrate on; but you do care about quality, stability, and features. (If a system can be overclocked and it is still stable it is a very good system!) Motherboards can come with built-in everything (i.e., sound cards, video cards, network cards, modems, etc.). Avoid the ones with built in video cards but everything else is okay if it’s quality.

Go with either Intel or AMD CPUs. They are both excellent! Intel may be a little bit better, but they are usually much more expensive. Remember to research the chipset (the core functionality of the motherboard) and note that every motherboard has its own chipset and drivers. Make sure that the motherboard you want has a great web site where you can go to get the latest BIOS and driver updates. You will probably need them!

Do not get the latest and greatest cutting edge technology! If you do, realize that you will be paying a premium for the privilege, and you will also be one of the first to experience the joys of being the first to see if there are any bugs or glitches with the new toy. Go for the “tried and true.” That means it has been fully tried and it truly works. So, don’t go for the absolute fastest CPUs and video cards. (Unless you’re a geek wannabe.) Buy the ones that have been around awhile and the ones that have all of the patches and fixes in the form of updated drivers and firmware.

As stated before, get only quality parts, but this is especially true of memory! Do not under any circumstance get cheapo memory, ever! Most current motherboards use DDR memory (avoid RAMBUS memory) and it’s more expensive than the old SDRAM. (But DDR2 is coming!) Memory by Crucial or Kingston or Corsair or Mushkin is very good. Do not get no-name or store brand memory or even low-end PNY memory. It is very tricky buying RAM. It must be exactly matched to your system! (Read the motherboard documentation!) As a general rule, buy the biggest single stick of RAM you want that your motherboard will support. In other words get a 512 Meg stick rather than two 256 Meg sticks. If you must have two smaller sticks, make sure that they are exactly the same brand and have the exact same specs. (Yes, you can mix and match sticks but it usually ends up being more trouble than it’s worth.)

You still need a floppy drive! Many companies are trying to tell you that the floppy drive is no longer needed. Nonsense! You need a floppy for quick and dirty BIOS upgrades, backups of small files, startup and emergency disks, etc. True, most of that can be done using CD-ROMs, but some low-level utilities for computer systems and hard drives require a floppy drive. Even some operating system installs may require floppy drives for additional drivers during installation (i.e., RAID, SCSI, etc).

NOTE: It is possible to get by without a floppy drive on a newer system. Most motherboards allow you to boot from CD-ROMs and so many utilities can be run from the CD. Some motherboards even allow you to flash the BIOS from a CD or online source or even from within Windows. With the appearance of flash drives floppies are really no longer needed except in the rarest of circumstances.

If you are going to use Windows 2000 or Windows XP you must go to the Microsoft site and check out their Hardware Compatibility List (HCL) to make sure that all of the hardware in your system is certified to work with those operating systems. If you cannot find the hardware on the Microsoft site then make sure that the vendor that makes the hardware certifies that it works with those operating systems. (If you cannot find specific certification for your motherboard or major hardware, do not buy it!)

BUILDING A PC IS AS EASY AS 1 ... 2 ... 3 ...

1. Prepare – Do your homework! Make sure you have all system parts in front of you make sure that you have read all documentation. Also, you need to go to the various vendor web sites for each and every piece of hardware and download the latest drivers and documentation and burn it all on to a CD. (And, make sure that you have and use an ESD wrist strap!)

2. Populate the Motherboard – Unpack the motherboard and carefully place it on your work area. Use the antistatic bag and foam as a “base” for the motherboard. Install the CPU, heat sink and cooling fan. Set all jumpers, if any. Install all memory modules. (You did read all the documentation, didn’t you?)

3. Place the Motherboard in the System Case – Line up the motherboard in the case very carefully and make sure that it sits properly on the brass standoffs. At the same time, make sure that it fits properly into the IO back panel shield on the case. (Most motherboards will provide for their own IO shield – use it!) Screw the motherboard into the standoffs very carefully. Do not over tighten!

4. Connect all Power Cables and Front-Panel Controls – Make sure that you read the case and motherboard manuals for this! The main power cable from the power supply is pretty easy, and sometimes there is an additional power connector, depending on the motherboard. But, the front-panel connections are usually a pain.

5. Install the Video Card – Remove the slot covers on the system case for the AGP card. Carefully install the video card. Some cards also use an extra power connection. Sometimes cards require a little bit of “force” to push them into the slot, but be gentle. (Some techs like to power up the system briefly at this point just to make sure that the system starts up normally. But, as soon as the system attempts to boot, hold in the Power button for a few seconds until the system shuts down. Of course you have to have the monitor, mouse, keyboard, and power cords all properly attached!)

6. Install the Hard Drive, Optical Drive, and Floppy Drive – Again, read the hard drive manufacturer’s instructions and then install the hard drive noting any jumper settings, if necessary. Install the CD/DVD-ROM drives into a separate motherboard connector or channel (i.e., controller). It is best not to have your primary hard drive and your optical drive on the same cable or channel. The floppy drive has its own motherboard connector. And all drives have their own drive bays, rails or cages. The system case documentation will explain everything about drive location. Carefully attach all power and ribbon cables, noting proper placement for each cable. The drive and motherboard documentation will explain everything. (Remember, there is a difference between parallel ATA/IDE) drives and the newer SATA drives!)

7. Install the Add-in Cards – Choose a PCI slot for each add-in card. Install your NIC (LAN) card in the first slot, then your modem, and finally your sound card. (Of course, your board may have some or all of these built in. Great! But, if not, it might help to note the order.) Place the sound card furthest away from the AGP slot. (It would not hurt to leave a little “air space” around the video card, so you might want to leave the first PCI slot empty.) You should note that it is always best to install “one board at a time” and then make sure that everything is working happily together. Once you get one card working, go on to the next, and so forth. This means that you really must install just the “bare bones” system and then install the Operating System next. Get it up and running, then proceed to add one board at a time. The reality is, most don’t do it this way! But, it would definitely not be a bad idea to install at least the sound card after everything else is working. The two cards (and their drivers) that will give you the greatest potential source of conflicts are video and sound cards. Network cards (now usually built in to the motherboard) rarely give you any problems. Modems can sometimes be a little troublesome. If you have any other specialty boards or cards to add, you should definitely install them after the entire base system is up and running.

8. Power On and Check the PC Setup – Plug in the keyboard and mouse and monitor into their respective ports. Plug in the power cord and then turn on the computer. Listen for basic normal “startup” sounds (i.e., fans and hard drives spinning up, etc.) and then enter the system BIOS by pressing the appropriate key before the machine begins to boot. You will usually see startup information scrolling down the screen and pressing the “Del” or “F2” key will take you into the Setup. In Setup make sure that everything in the first screen is right. (Do I need to mention that you must read the documentation? Every system setup is different.) It wouldn’t hurt to take note of the system temperatures. Also make sure that the section that deals with the system’s boot order is correct. You most likely will want to boot from the CD first, then the hard drive. If you are going to be using any on-board features, you will need to find the correct menu to enable or make changes. Again, read the instructions!

9. Install the Operating System – For newer operating systems you should be able to insert the CD and reboot the system. The OS install setup should then begin. Follow all instructions carefully. Eventually, after a reboot or two or three, you will be up and running ... that is if everything goes as planned. (If you are going to use RAID, you need to make sure that you know what you are doing and that you have the correct drivers available on a floppy for installation at the beginning of the OS install process. Setup will ask you for the drivers and you will have to press “F6” at the appropriate time. Additionally you may have to set up the RAID configuration in the system BIOS before you begin the OS install, especially if you are going to boot from the RAID configuration.)

10. Update Windows and all Drivers, then Install your Programs – Once the Windows install program is finished, install all the latest chipset drivers for your motherboard. (You did remember to burn a CD with all the latest hardware drivers for your system, didn’t you?) After you have installed a firewall (and not until then) go on the Internet and do all Windows Critical and Driver Updates. Install your antivirus and other security programs, update them as well. Finally, after your basic system is set up and everything is working, do a backup! Then begin to install all your various and sundry programs for business and whatever. (Now if you can just keep it all running smoothly!)

THERE ARE SOME “GOTCHAS” IN PUTTING TOGETHER YOUR OWN SYSTEM!

If you are going to build it yourself read all the instructions and manuals!!! Take your time and make sure you know what you are doing. (It takes at least three to four hours to put a system together and install the operating system. This assumes two things. First that you have read everything and basically know what you are doing; and secondly, that there are no problems.) If you have a basic do-it-yourself spirit you will do fine ... if nothing goes wrong. But, make sure you have someone to back you up if you get into trouble! (It is rare to put a system together and have nothing go wrong.)

˜ If you buy a part at a time here and there because it’s on sale or has rebates, great! But, you won’t know if it works until you put everything together and by then some of the store return policies may have expired. Also, realize that with most electronic stores there is a restocking fee for returned parts.

˜ If you are going to do it yourself, you must use electrostatic discharge protection (i.e., a special ESD wrist strap that connects to the computer case) and take all recommended precautions! All it takes to blow some of the sensitive circuitry on a computer is around 30 volts! You don’t feel ESD until it gets to around 3000 volts! Don’t work on the computer unless it is completely unplugged. And don’t ever plug a keyboard or mouse into the computer unless the system is completely shut down. (There are exceptions, like USB, but don’t take chances unless you know what you are doing.) And, while we’re at it, don’t touch anything but the edges of the motherboard, memory or add-in cards. And, never touch the actual gold connectors on memory and cards. (Also, keep everything in its anti-static bag until it is ready for use.)

˜ If you are thinking of flashing the BIOS, don’t do it unless there is a compelling reason to do so! If you must do it, then make sure that you know exactly what you are doing (Read all documentation!) and use the correct BIOS and flashing utility from the motherboard/vendor website. It is possible to trash the BIOS during the flash and render your motherboard completely inoperable. (The only way to recover from bad flashings on some motherboards is to physically replace the BIOS chip!) One of the best things to do to avoid serious problems is to buy only a quality motherboard with a “boot block” feature which allows you to recover the BIOS if anything goes wrong.

˜ If you are going to build a system for yourself you must make sure that you have all the latest drivers and firmware for each and every piece of hardware that you are going to install in your system. (The drivers that come with your hardware can be as much as a year old! Newer drivers will address problems and fix bugs found since the hardware was released.) This is one reason why you only buy name brand hardware. All the big companies keep excellent web pages and up-to-date drivers on those web pages. Even more important is the fact that they also usually have good technical support online if you need it. The most important drivers to keep updated are your chipset, video and sound card drivers!

˜ As a general rule, don’t bother upgrading the CPU unless you are going to double its speed. At the very least, make sure that you are going to increase the current speed of the CPU by no less than 1 GHz, preferably more. Any less than this and you probably won’t notice much of a difference. Remember that the CPU is not the only bottleneck in your system. You should also consider RAM and the video card as excellent candidates for upgrading. All things considered, RAM is the very first (and easiest) thing you should add to almost any system that needs a boost. Go for a Gig! If you do anything that requires graphics intensive work (3D modeling, gaming, video editing, etc.) consider the video card next. Finally consider a CPU upgrade ... but realize that many times a significant CPU upgrade may very well require a new motherboard and a new motherboard may also require new memory.

˜ Don’t scrimp on the system case or the power supply! Buy a full tower with at least a 350 W (400+ W is better!) power supply. Make sure that the case has plenty of bays for expansion and at least two or three places for case fans. Trying to work in a small case is a real pain, so get a good quality case, like Antec. One of the most frequently overlooked problems in troubleshooting computers is the power supply. A faulty power supply can cause all kinds of erratic and difficult to track down problems! There are far too many cheapo power supplies on the market. Your system is worthless without a good clean constant supply of power. One more thing, don’t use an old power supply with a new motherboard. By all means, get a new power supply for a new board. (If a motherboard ever suddenly dies, do not replace it without replacing the power supply as well!)

˜ When you install the Operating System, do yourself a favor and make at least two partitions on your hard drive. Make the first for the system files (OS and basic program installations, even games if you want, etc.) and make a second partition for the archiving of all the critical data files you create. Use this second partition for all the files you download and for all the backups you do of your system saves. Why? Because if your OS ever “barfs” all over itself, you have all of your critical files on the second partition. All you have to do is reinstall your OS on the first partition (and, of course all your programs) and most of the time your second partition with it’s important data is safe. So, why do nearly all computer companies you buy a system from partition the hard drive as one giant single partition? Because they are brain dead. If you buy a system that is formatted with one huge partition, you can either reformat it intelligently or you can get yourself another hard drive and use it for archive and storage of critical data and other important files.

˜ A couple of last points. If you are serious about your computer you need to have a good Internet connection – the faster the better! (Sorry, but broadband is the only way to go. You just cannot download all of the system updates and patches that are now essential, without a fast Internet connection. Too many important files and fixes are now in the multi-megabyte range and would take an eternity with old fashioned dial-up networking.) The only way to update your operating system and find various fixes and patches and drivers is online. And, if you are going to be online, you must have a good anti-virus program like Norton AntiVirus. You will also need a good firewall like ZoneAlarm Pro. Most important of all is keeping everything updated. Use the Windows Update feature for your operating system and download all Critical Updates and any others that you may need. And, for your anti-virus product, use its Live or Online Update features to keep your virus protection current.

A FINAL CAVEAT:

Once you get your system up and running and everything is stable and working beautifully – leave it alone! Every time you tweak your system or add some new program or do an update or add a piece of new hardware to it, you always run the risk of a system conflict. Of course the great thing about having a computer is playing around with it and pushing it to its limits. It is hard to just leave it alone when there are so many toys and games to play with. But with each new toy or game install you run the risk of crippling your system. If you are always playing around with your system and adding and removing hardware; updating everything all the time; installing and uninstalling all kinds of programs and games; surfing the Net and downloading stuff; etc., sooner or later you will “pay for all of your pleasure.” Don’t say you haven’t been warned! A simple solution is to never play games on any computer that you must use for serious work. Use one computer for business and another for gaming. (Of course this means that you have to have two computers!) A more practical solution is to have a good quality system on which you do both business and pleasure. If you only have one system, then you must do backups of your critical data on a regular basis and archive it on some form of media, like CDs. In other words prepare yourself for a computer failure and figure out how much data you can afford to loose because someday your computer will crash. It’s not if, but when! The data you create is invaluable (i.e., letters, reports, email, business, taxes, etc.) ... save it!

FOR A GOOD BASIC GAMING SYSTEM THE FOLLOWING IS RECOMMENDED:

You should understand that this system is not a “killer” machine on the “cutting edge” of technology. If you want one of those look elsewhere. What follows is a solid performance machine. That is really all you need with most games out there anyway. I have personally seen systems on the “bleeding edge” and quite frankly, I am not all that impressed. The difference is not all that great when measured in a few megahertz. As a user you usually would not be able to “feel” the difference anyway. Only sophisticated benchmarking programs would know the difference. I know that “frames per second” is the “holy grail” in gaming, but after reaching the fps that a good basic gaming system could provide, the $3000 and above mega machines can hardly justify their exorbitant price tags. (The bottom line is a difference of about $1500!) One more thing, I don’t advocate overclocking. I have not found that to be all that big a deal either. Again, most of the time the only way you can tell the difference is by using benchmark programs or by the fps display from your favorite games. There is a point of diminishing returns when it comes to overclocking and there is also the very real danger of burning up your CPU or GPU, or at least leading them to an early grave. It is just not worth it. However, if that is what you want, then go for it. Just make sure you know what you are doing. (With all that said you still need to be aware of overclocking if only to know that the system you build can handle it well. If it can, you have a rock-solid, stable machine even if you don’t overclock it, and that’s worth knowing. In other words, if the motherboard and CPU combo and even the graphics card is one that all of the overclockers want, then you can rest assured that you are looking at a great system.) Well, then ... consider the following specs for a good, basic gaming system:

Full Tower System ATX Case with Power Supply

Antec cases and power supplies are very, very good!

If you are looking for the best power supply, go to PC Power & Cooling!

Do not get anything other than a mid to full tower!

Do not ever get a cheap system case or power supply!

Use additional case cooling fans!

(Eventually the ATX will be replaced with the BTX form factor!)

ATX Motherboard/CPU – Intel or AMD

For motherboards Asus or Intel are some of the best!

For CPUs Intel and AMD are the only way to go!

No less than 2.8 GHz! Faster is always better but more expensive.

1 AGP 4X or 8X (for the AGP video card)!

4 PCI slots (at the very least – the more the better) for expansion cards!

USB 2.0 capability is now considered standard!

Onboard RAID, Sound, Network, is a real plus!

Onboard Serial ATA interface for Hard Drives is now also a plus!

Don’t use ribbon cables, go with the new round high-quality cables!

Make sure the CPU has a great heat sink and cooling fan combo!

(Eventually the ATX will be replaced with the BTX form factor!)

(Eventually PCI Express [and here] will replace the PCI and AGP bus!)

(The move from 32 bit CPUs to 64 bit CPUs has already begun!)

NOTE: More changes are coming to the world of motherboards and CPUs! While system speed measured in Mhz and GHz used to be the “holy grail” of computing this indicator of a systems power will soon be no more. What is replacing it? Very simply things like 64 bit processing, hyper-threading, dual core processing (two processor cores on a single chip ... oh yes, can you say “quad-core”?), and a host of other sundry technologies that will effect both memory and CPU performance. The fact is processing speed is reaching a point of diminishing returns. As CPU speed reaches the 4 GHz mark power, heat and cooling issues become a big problem. What the chip makers are working on now are more efficient processors not faster ones. Truth of the matter is, in the real world most people don’t need super-fast systems to get their work done when all they do is a little wordprocessing or spreadsheet work, or when they just need to surf the Net and check their email. Any system around 2-3 GHz will be plenty fast. So, say goodbye to the days when gigahertz was king and the only thing that mattered was speed when it came to a system’s performance and say hello to more efficient processing in the future.

DDR SDRAM

No cheap stuff!

Kingston, Corsair, Mushkin, Crucial, etc. is the only way to go.

512 Megs of RAM is a minimum must for gaming, but 1 GB is even better! You will notice that 1 GB of RAM makes a real difference with games like Unreal Tournament: 2004 and beyond. The current crop of action games are memory hogs and will use just about all the memory you throw at them. With only 512 Megs of RAM these games will have to swap out memory to the hard drive’s page file which creates a noticeable system slowdown.

(DDR2 will eventually replace DDR SDRAM!)

OS – Windows XP Professional

There is no reason to pay $300!

Get a legal OEM version from a computer shop.

An ATI (Radeon) or NVIDIA (GeForce) based 3D AGP Card

Don’t use a PCI video card!

Get either an ATI or an NVIDIA AGP Card!

(Eventually PCI Express [and here] will replace the PCI and AGP bus!)

After the Motherboard/Chipset and CPU the GPU is the most important consideration for gaming. There are a lot of good quality cards on the market. Look for at least 128 Megs of DDR and go up from there. You can expect to pay around $150+ for a good 3D card. (Of course the latest and greatest is always more expensive!)

Hard Drive

Western Digital or Maxtor or Seagate are best but Seagate is generally considered to be the best – especially their Barracuda drives. Get no less than an 80Gig drive. Bigger is better! Sooner or later you will fill up your hard drive – especially if you are a gamer or do any kind of multimedia (i.e., music, video, etc.).

(The move from IDE to SATA has begun!)

CD-RW Drive

Samsung, Sony, Teac, Toshiba are good quality drives. (Of course, if you are into DVDs you can always go the DVD+R/RW route, but they are still rather expensive and there are too many confusing standards to choose from. If you are thinking about a DVD+R/RW the very best is Plextor. For a good interim choice go with a CD-RW/DVD ROM! This is a CD with full RW capabilities that also doubles as a DVD player.)

Floppy Drive

Yes, you still need a floppy! (Well, sometimes, sort of ... and then only for BIOS or other utilities. Floppy drives are rapidly becoming obsolete. With the advent of flash drives floppies are virtually dead.) This is the only part that you can do the store-brand generic thing with.

IF YOU NEED IT AND YOUR MOTHERBOARD DOES NOT COME WITH IT ONBOARD ...

Sound Card

Sound Blaster is still one of the best! Also consider Turtle Beach.

Internal Modem

U.S. Robotics is best, but also consider Diamond and other name brand modems only!

10/100 Network Card

3Com, LinkSys, Netgear, Belkin, DLink etc.

Speakers

There are all kinds of speakers for all kinds of audiophiles! Don’t get the cheapest. A good set of Altec Lansing or Cambridge will do fine. Listen before you buy! Prices on these vary greatly. (Instead of spending money on fancy speakers why not consider getting a good quality pair of headphones?)

Monitor

Don’t go cheap here! You will look at this for hours. Again, get a name brand like ViewSonic, NEC or another quality monitor. Go to a store that has lots and lots of monitors all in a row so you can compare. CRTs are still generally better (and cheaper!) for gaming, but the new Flat Panel LCDs are looking good even for gaming.

Keyboard (PS/2 or USB)

Whatever works for you. Try before you buy.

Mouse (PS/2 or USB)

An Microsoft Optical Mouse is a great (only) way to go! Also, consider Logitech.

You can buy a ready-made system cheaper than you can build it using parts you get on sale at brick and mortar stores. But you can do it all for less money if you get everything off the Internet. If you are willing to live on the Net, there are some smokin’ deals out there on name brand parts! You will have to buy from different vendors and mix and match the parts you want for your system. But, you must know whom you are dealing with and check them out very carefully. Look up their ratings. Again, do your homework. Read everything. Buyer beware and all that. For a sample of what’s out there, go to PriceWatch.

Latest Revision: 10-02-05

Randar

A+/Network+/Server+/INet+/Linux+ CompTIA Certified Technician

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