Ebaying and building a PC

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Hello all.

I have decided that I am going to make a PC from scratch. I hope to use the power of the Ebay(and others) to get the bits and pieces I need, and I plan to spend about £300 or £400 over the course of a year to do it.
So, I started looking at different components and hit a bit of a wall - actually, a lot of a wall.

I was hoping to get an AGP 512MB graphics card, 2.6 or higher with the processor, 2 dvd/cd drives and
the whole thing is made for media and gaming.

It's easy browsing sweet graphics cards and thinking I will have one of those, or choosing the RAM and cases, but I was hunting down a processor and then realized that they sometimes come with motherboards and sometimes not. Will I have to buy fans? What's the deal with the power supply... the motherboard will need to be compatible with EVERYTHING right?

I usually approach these things calmly and try to be analytical but I have a feeling this is one of those hobbies that is riddled with pitfalls, including the Ebay side of it.

All advice and recommendations are very much appreciated, especially if you have made your own PC from scratch which I'm sure many of you here have.

Many thanks
Owain

 

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Use Ebuyer instead.. if parts are DOA then you'll be able to get a replacement/money back fairly easily compared to ebay..

I build a decent PC for about £320 inc a nice gfx card. They also provide specs for the majority of there components so it's easy to make sure all parts are compatible with the motherboard. EVERYTHING will need to be compatible with the motherboard. Pay special attention when choosing a processor e.g. an intel processor won't work on a motherboard that only supports amd, and slot/pin types.

Moving onto fans.. they're usually built in the case so it really isn't a problem.. make sure you choose known brands for your components particular the PSU because it could end up destroying everything if it goes wrong..

 

Er cough... AGP is sooo yesterday.. why not go for a PCIe which i think superseded AGP circa 2004

CPU fans or i should say standard CPU fans come with the CPU.. getting that on the CPU and the CPU on the MOBO is one of the trickiest parts of the build, or that might be just because i'm as blind as a bat these days

You can get more efficient fans from third parties but they are only really necessary if you are into 'overclocking' your CPU, which makes it run hotter and thus isn't recommended by yours truly.

Read up on anti-static precautions!!

As for the power supply.. don't skimp here, make sure it's capable of supplying at least 500 Watts of power and thats it's preferably a well know brand. Thermaltake etc.

My preference for CPUs at the moment is Intel.. I personally use a Core 2 Duo which gives you probably the best punch per buck on the market.

Go for decent RAM and 4 GIGs is a nice round figure, though 32 bit operating systems will only be able to address 3.5GB

64 bit operating systems can give you headaches finding reliable drivers for your hardware.

 

I thought AGP was WAY faster than PCI-E?!?!

 

Oh Oh!!! This system is also required for a virtual lab too..
Which i need to get sorted because I cant phone little old ladies for the rest of my life working for a charity 8

 

Source http://ezinearticles.com/?Computer-Video-Cards---AGP-Vs-PCIe&id=2456743

Actually you would be hard pushed to find a modern motherboard with an AGP slot on it.

 

If you build a decent computer capable of running modern games, it should also be capable of running virtual machines.. running VMWare or Virtual PC etc is straight forward enough.. the amount of RAM probably being the key to a good experience.. hence the suggestion of 4GB

 

I think you might be getting confused with AGP and PCI.
PCI-E is a much faster standard (the E stands for express) and the slot on the mobo is a PCI-E x 16 slot, there are usually slower PCI-E slots on the board for normal expansion devices.

 

I agree with the above. PCIe is the way forward AGP died a while ago.

If your buying a processor get Intel core 2 duo.

As for power supplies you want atleast 500w and you should be looking at decent brands like Thermaltake, corsair or seasonic

As for coolers you should get one with the cpu but as bluerinse says if your into gaming and going to overclock you need to buy an aftermarket cooler.

you should be looking at everything being ATX

 

My advice don't use Ebay. Sure buy routers and stuff for CCNA etc. But not components to build a PC, stick with a retailer like aria, scan etc.

 

Well it's not quite like that Blue. If you buy a Retail processor, it will come with a heat sink and fan. If it's an OEM processor, then it will just be the chip, so you'll have to buy the HSF seperatly.

As for fitting heatsinks these days, well it's no where near as hard as it used to be (certainly with the retail ones it's not hard). The old Athlon's and Athlon XP chips were the worst though with the core exposed and incredibly stiff clips that needed to be locked down. I had a few hairy moments with them in the past, but fortunately never killed one ...

Not as simple to just give that advice now GBL. You can get some incredibly good value AMD X2 & X3 chips now that will come in cheaper and be faster than C2D's. Saw an AMD X2 Black edition 2.7Ghz yesterday for about 40 quid as an example.

 

Indeed, he would be able to build a good PC easily within his budget with brand new parts from online retailers. In fact you could get a pre-build one that would fit his requirements for that money no probs.

 

Places like Scan, Novatech and Overclockers do barebone systems and mainboard bundles.

Other places to consider for components EclipseComputers, Ebuyer and ebay.

You typically get a matching processor, mobo, heatsink and fan and memory in a mainboard bundle.

That takes care of the hardest part.

AGP is effectively dead, AGP cards are legacy meaning you will pay extra for what is a crappy old product.

AGP was replaced by PCIe (PCI Express), it comes in different bus widths, x16 being the one used by most graphics cards.

The next thing you will need is a case and PSU, 500W is minimum for PSU, high end systems can need 1000W+. You can work out the power draw for each component if you hunt around on the net.

The case needs to be physically big enough to hold the mobo and drives, graphics card etc and allow air to circulate. Most Mobos are ATX form factor, and most cases are designed for this.

Then you just need a graphics card and harddisk and you have a bootable system. Grab a spare mouse, keyboard and monitor or buy them if you've got none spare. You'll also need a DVD drive if you want to install an OS in a straight forward manner.

You can get cheap tested barebones/mainboard bundle stuff off ebay from online shops. Sometimes this is a good idea if you've got some old bits you want to reuse to build a cheap PC for someone.

I recently bought a GTX 295 off ebay for £200 recently, so it can be used for bargains. There are risks however.

Modey is correct in that if you know what you're looking for you can get some good well priced prebuilt bundles, the price differences can be negible so only build if you need a custom spec or just enjoy doing it. In fact many places also specialise in custom specs or supply system configurators so again theres often no need to self build.

You could even put together a spec and ask companies for a quote for their closest matching system. Buying in bulk means that you can avoid paying the retail mark up on every single item.

 

Well, in a bid to help you and save you from buying anything with "AGP" on its name description (lol), I decided to build for you a complete PC with Keyboard, Mouse, Webcam and Headset included!

It is fairly good for gaming, sporting a ATI RADEON hd 4850 512MB w/HDMI and a massive 4GB of DDR2-1066 RAM.
The CPU is also very good, a AMD Athlon X2 7850 2.8GHz Black Edition 3MB.
The monitor is very good too with a decent 5ms and has HDMI which means you can plug your consoles there as well.

And here is the list:

Casecom KB-7760 Black ATX Midi Tower Case - No PSU, No Case Fans Included - £10.99
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/108280

Arctic Power 500W PSU With PCI-E 2x SATA, 20+4 ATX12V 8pin +12V Connectors - Retail Boxed - £28.98
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/124922

Hannspree XMS HDMI 19" TFT widescreen 1440x900 700:1 300cd/m2 5ms VGA/HDMI Speakers Black 3yrs Warranty - £84.99
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/146911

AMD Athlon X2 7850 2.8GHz Black Edition Socket AM2+ 3MB Cache Retail Boxed Processor - £48.65
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/164048

Gigabyte GA-MA770-UD3 770 Socket AM2+ 7.1 Channel Audio ATX Motherboard - £57.65
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/159073

OCZ 4GB Kit (2x2GB) DDR2 1066MHz/PC2-8500 Reaper Memory HPC Edition Dual Channel - £48.26
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/141930

Sapphire HD 4850 512MB GDDR3 Dual DVI Dual slot cooler HDTV Out PCI-E Graphics Card - £79.99
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/148468

Western Digital WD3200AAKS 320GB SATAII 16MB Cache 7200 RPM - £33.35
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/124735

LG GH22NS40 22X SATA DVD±RW/DL/RAM Black Bare Drive - £16.00
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/151999

80mm Black Case Fan - 3pin Connector - Screws Included - £1.49
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/23880

Extra Value 120mm Internal Case Fan In Black - 4 pin connector - £2.49
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/63281

Nexos 4 MegaPixel 2304*1728 Video Webcam - USB - With 6 LED Lights and Microphone - £10.99
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/140187

Cosonic Black Multimedia Headphone With Microphone - 3.5mm Jack, 2 Metre Cable Length - £6.99
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/111651

Logitech Deluxe 250 Black Keyboard USB - £7.19
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/119298

Logitech RX1000 Black/Silver Laser Mouse - 1000DPI - USB - £10.38
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/114181

Cart total including VAT: £466

All from www.ebuyer.com (I always buy there)

Enjoy!

*Comments and sugestions are more than welcome. Let's bury AGP once and for all!*

 

Thanks for the insight m3lt, as I just ordered this monitor from ebuyer and can't wait to get my greasy paws on it

My current monitor 19 inch NEC MultiSync LCD 1880SX was given to me by work over 2 yrs ago and only supports display 1280 x 768.

I recently bought pro evolution soccer 2009 and think this monitor can't cope as I keep getting error message on Vista Ultimate 32 bit version that the program caused an error and has stopped working please close program.

Fingers crossed

 

Glad to help.

But I dont think the monitor itself was the cause for the problem with Pro Evolution Soccer 2009. Monitors as far my experience goes, *very* rarely are the cause of a problem from a software point of view.

What can in rare events happen, is that the monitor might not support some resolutions or refresh rates but, your windows is not affected by it to the point of saying "the program caused an error and has stopped working please close program".
This is normally due to some error with either the OS and the software itself (imcompatibility) and/or the graphics card drivers with the software/OS.

Because if the monitor went in an out of range resolution/refresh rate you would see a black screen and possibly an information on the monitor itself telling you that the resolution/refresh rate is not support. Which in either cases you would not be able to see that message you told us about.

But enjoy the new monitor you have bought, seems very good and a very nice price indeed.

 

Just keep in mind when building a system from the ground up you start out with every door in the hallway open. You eventually want to get all the doors closed accept for one, which is essentially your shiny new system. So you have to chose either close the AMD door or Intel door. Now that you've chosen that you can decide which type of mobo to look at. Narrow down some doors by chosing either nVidia or Radeon. Now close some more doors with which exact mobo, proc and GFX card fit in the budget. Throw at least 4GB DDR2 RAM at least in, a CD/DVD RW combo, a 500Watt PSU at the minimum, and a cheap case with some fans. Now your pretty much at the last door.

 

Radeon.. um what about ATI... lol, not that i would nVidia gets my vote today.. lets see what tomorrow brings

 

Thanks m3lt, knew it wasn't the fault of the monitor but just mentioned that as a higher resolution screen would come in handed. I recently bought a graphic card GT9600 512MB DDR3 OC Geoforce. I think it's something to do with the graphics card though but have updated the graphics drivers but still to no avail and even updated the direct x software to 9.0c.

Oh well, the funds of wanting to play a game on a PC I suppose. Thanks for the thoughts anyway