Author Topic: build your own computer (Read 6594 times)

red98 · « **on:** 28 November 2015, 05:08:31 pm »

Help needed please foccers, as some of you know I a complete numpty when it comes to anything to do with computers.......my son however is a big gammer,16 in feb and hes expressed an interest in a IT course at the local collage when he leaves school next year, results permitting.....hes mentioned on more than one occasion that he would like to build his own computer, with the collage course in mind and christmas coming up I thought I could kill two birds with one stone

problem I have I haven't a clue where to start, what I need or where to go....or if even if its worth it.....would I be better off going for a standard set up from PC WORLD and letting him swap parts over time ?.......how much is he going to learn from building his own ?

Any help greatly appreciated........keep it simple please foccers

NorthWestern · « **Reply #1 on:** 28 November 2015, 05:29:38 pm »

I get my bits from scan as it's just up the road, not looked at prices at pc world but it used to be well worth building your own (cost wise), I believe scan have bundles / pre built systems etc now

NorthWestern · « **Reply #2 on:** 28 November 2015, 05:38:57 pm »

How much you learn is debatable really, nowadays you just plug and play everything, install the operating system, drivers and what not. I guess it makes it less intimidating once you have done it.

Grayo · « **Reply #3 on:** 28 November 2015, 05:40:42 pm »

I used to buy parts from computer fairs up until about 7 or 8 years ago. You used to save a lot of money by building your own computers but these days it's hardly worth it because there is so much choice out there.
My son still builds his own though just because he enjoys it and he likes to upgrade different bits and pieces when he can.

chris.biker · « **Reply #4 on:** 28 November 2015, 05:48:32 pm »

I did an open college course ''build your own computer'' and as already said it was a case of bolting the bits together, finishing with loading the Windows program. I would find a computer some one is ready to get rid of and let him work on improving that, also I think to study further he may need two computers.
Hope he gets on the course he is hoping for.

NorthWestern · « **Reply #5 on:** 28 November 2015, 05:49:21 pm »

Start with your budget.

Val · « **Reply #6 on:** 28 November 2015, 05:53:43 pm »

Quote from: red98 on 28 November 2015, 05:08:31 pm

Help needed please foccers, as some of you know I a complete numpty when it comes to anything to do with computers.......my son however is a big gammer,16 in feb and hes expressed an interest in a IT course at the local collage when he leaves school next year, results permitting.....hes mentioned on more than one occasion that he would like to build his own computer, with the collage course in mind and christmas coming up I thought I could kill two birds with one stone

problem I have I haven't a clue where to start, what I need or where to go....or if even if its worth it.....would I be better off going for a standard set up from PC WORLD and letting him swap parts over time ?.......how much is he going to learn from building his own ?

Any help greatly appreciated........keep it simple please foccers

Building your own high spec gaming PC is definitely cheaper than buying some PC world outdated components.

You can get parts here: http://www.scan.co.uk/

He can learn a lot, because first he will learn how the components work in order to chose the best ones, second will learn about PC hardware assembly.

Note the danger here is not brake or mess something by trying to assemble parts before he has learn how to do that properly. Obviously if you assemble PC the warranty you have is for the parts only not for the whole PC.

Long story short the graphic card is the most important part in gamer PC: http://www.pcgamer.com/the-best-graphics-cards/

You can get any help here in the process, just ask for anything he needs to know when he start the build and the training.

Scan have pre-configured Gamer PC systems with all parts chosen for you and they will build it for you too:

http://www.scan.co.uk/shop/pro-gaming

They cost anything between £600-£4xxxx

Here is one top range:

http://www.scan.co.uk/3xs/configurator/overclocked-custom-gaming-pc-carbon-ti

slappy · « **Reply #7 on:** 28 November 2015, 07:27:57 pm »

My son has built gaming spec computers for himself and a few of his mates, he always uses Scan, he built his first one just using their bundles but now picks and chooses the particular parts.
I think they still do a guarantee that if you bugger something up when fitting they will replace the part, of course you pay extra for it but not a bad idea.

Skippernick · « **Reply #8 on:** 28 November 2015, 07:40:11 pm »

I used to use dabs.com 10 years ago. Everyone else have covered everything now.

bigsteve · « **Reply #9 on:** 28 November 2015, 07:46:10 pm »

If your interested in parts for gaming computers I've used overclockers for the parts

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/

PieEater · « **Reply #10 on:** 29 November 2015, 03:09:06 pm »

Building a PC is pretty much a cross between Meccano and Lego its pretty difficult to go wrong as long as you apply common sense. On that basis I think the learning opportunities from assembling the parts are pretty slim but if your son does build his own PC he should get a good confidence boost and a sense of satisfaction. More of the learning would probably come prior to the build process from researching what parts are needed and why some are better than others and what makes them better as well as after the build should your son want to dabble in overclocking (good idea to find this out prior to buying parts for him). It isn't really the case anymore that you can build your own home PC for less than you can get one off the shelf, most self builders tend to be enthusiasts who know what parts they want to go into their machines either for aesthetics or maximum performance (or both).
For the base unit (not including monitor / mouse / keyboard) you will need;
Case
Power Supply Unit
Motherboard
Memory
CPU
CPU Cooler
Graphics Card
Hard Disk Drive
Optical Disk Drive
Windows License

If you’re on a budget then look at a build around an AMD CPU but the above is going to cost a pretty penny, certainly more than a basic £300 PCWorld machine.
If you want further advice then overclockers.co.uk have a forum where you could post what it is you want to achieve along with your budget and folks there will help you select the appropriate parts.

red98 · « **Reply #11 on:** 29 November 2015, 04:03:49 pm »

wow......a big thanks to everyone whos posted

........a great help and no pi$$ take

this is to be his main pressie from mum and dad, so we have to choose what to buy together, this could be harder than deciding what parts we need when knowing very little about them

so......had a chat to mrs red and had a quick look at all the links mentioned here and a visit to PC WORLD.....

we have decided to buy a package deal from pcw, tower, screen, keyboard and mouse,8gb memory,1tb hard drive , integrated graphics......no sure about the graphics !!!

we have an ageing family desk top PC which we will replace in the new year,he can use this to upgrade, build and learn....and have the advantage of choosing the parts himself, if the build goes horribly wrong we have not lost a lot

think that might just work

.....now, what do I get mrs red $:\$

PieEater · « **Reply #12 on:** 29 November 2015, 04:14:08 pm »

If your son is a gamer then I'd suggest making sure that the PC you buy is capable of taking a full size dedicated graphics card and maybe drag another relative or two into buying one for him (£150+).

kitcrazy · « **Reply #13 on:** 29 November 2015, 04:14:18 pm »

hi red if he wants to play games as well an integrated card will only handle the basic stuff.

red98 · « **Reply #14 on:** 29 November 2015, 04:17:44 pm »

Ah.........so I take it an integrated card cant be replaced then ?

kitcrazy · « **Reply #15 on:** 29 November 2015, 04:20:42 pm »

i think there soldered in place.

kitcrazy · « **Reply #16 on:** 29 November 2015, 04:24:35 pm »

Ive changed the card on my pc twice now for better graphics so if i can do it anyone can

red98 · « **Reply #17 on:** 29 November 2015, 04:30:14 pm »

Ok, cheers buddy.....looks like another trip to PCW , thanks for the info

PieEater · « **Reply #18 on:** 29 November 2015, 04:40:34 pm »

Quote from: red98 on 29 November 2015, 04:17:44 pm

Ah.........so I take it an integrated card cant be replaced then ?

Modern CPU's have integrated graphics giving computers the ability to render graphics on a limited basis, this will be good enough for a casual gamer playing minecraft and The SIMS but not for the most popular titles which I suspect your son will be into. A computer with integrated graphics will be relying on the CPU rather an a dedicated graphics card, which obviously cuts costs. Also to cut costs / size some motherboards will not have the appropriate slot(s) for a dedicated graphics card and some power supply units may lack the required connectors to power the card. Worth checking on both accounts.

BBROWN1664 · « **Reply #19 on:** 29 November 2015, 09:34:58 pm »

I would suggest not buying anything. That's right, not a thing.

Give him the budget of what you will spend and let him choose the parts he wants and then order them from the places he finds them. That way he gets exactly the spec he wants and is involved in the whole process.

Dead Eye · « **Reply #20 on:** 30 November 2015, 12:49:21 pm »

People have more or less mirrored my views on this already; I love my PC's and have built all but my first.

The actual assembly is straight forward enough and typically will only require a screwdriver (some newer builds don't even require that!). The real interesting and complicated stuff that will determine just how efficient / stable the end result is in the choosing of each individual part. They each have a knock on effect with others and certain items from different manufacturers work better with other items from other manufacturers... it's rather complex - probably to the same scale as trying to tune a performance race engine.

Everything from the case for your PC can have an impact on performance (size, airflow and noise can be big factors). I would recommend the same as BBROWN1664; a budget to build a PC from scratch is a good way to go and there can still be plenty of room to upgrade later.

Most custom systems are better value for money once you hit about £400-500; below that you can often find deals on pre-built systems. The catch being that you often lose customization options. I'd say a mid-range gaming PC is probably starting at £500-800. More advanced systems go on in to the thousands; my last "update" to my system was around £2,500~

There is a magazine I subscribed to a for a few years called Custom PC. They had sections each month showing the recommended components they would use to build a PC from various price ranges including the price and source of the part. This might be a great idea to buy the advised parts and let me assemble it and upgrade in the future? I'll pull out one of my old mags and upload a photo so you can see what I mean. I believe they still do an offer of 3 issues for a £1 then it moves on to quarterly billing

Dead Eye · « **Reply #21 on:** 30 November 2015, 11:47:59 pm »

Here's the magazine I was talking about. It's an old edition, but it still runs

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Custom PC

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Custom PC

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Custom PC

red98 · « **Reply #22 on:** 09 December 2015, 06:53:29 pm »

Update.....ordered a desk top today for tom....12gb 1tb and intel graphics thingy, came to just over £500 with 22in hd screen....this will be his christmas pressie, in the new year we will look at rebuilding the family PC,how he wants it .going to be a steep learning curve.....for both of us

Dead Eye · « **Reply #23 on:** 10 December 2015, 11:26:39 am »

If you have any questions, feel free to ask

I was tearing apart two of my servers yesterday installing new hardware and reconfiguring them ^.^

It's getting a bit out of control now... I have my "low power" server which is effectively a NAS now (Network Attached Storage) which houses all of my totally legitimate

TV Shows and Movies (9.5TB of disk space at the moment with protection against disk failure), then I decided I needed some more processing power but didn't want to spend any money on parts, so dug out my old server which was way over-powered at the time, but is useful now. Set up the OS on a spare SSD I had lying around, everything else was intact so that's now providing my media collection online (needed to be powerful to transcode the movies which is what my newer server was struggling with).

So those two are quietly humming away underneath / behind my TV, then there is my main PC which I've spoken about before. I have a 1U Server Rack with dual Intel Xenon processors doing fuck all behind my sofa and another HTPC (Home Theatre PC) that used to be used to stream my media to the TV but that is now doing nothing as well. Oh and then there is my laptop...

Hmmm... maybe I need another PC

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Old Server (Core i7-2600k)

Big black box under the Virgin TiVo thing... it hums a lot...

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NAS Server

Black box behind the TV; modern and quiet... but too slow and couldn't be assed to spend money to make it faster

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Old Computers

Thin silver case is the 1U Rack Server and the black box above it is the HTPC