Looking to get a cheap system to learn from, what to look for

Rugnir_Viking · May 7, 2013

looking for a system for £10-£40 to learn to build pc's so i dont screw up my planned upgrade to a homebuild

would like to see sugestions as to what to look for. i am mostly looking on ebay.
questions
should i prioritize a small flatscreen monitor? i got a hdmi tv and a dvi 15" monitor already.
should i get an overclockable cpu to mess around with that? i am willing to learn about it but dont want to totaly break the system... however seeing as i'm not gonna be actually using the system how high an overclock dont matter so much as finding voltages/multipiers (ye so i know a few keywords :/) in the BIOS
also key is it worth getting exact type components i will use like ddr3 vs ddr2 or getting a cheapo pci x16 gpu
Thanks all.

g-unit1111 · May 7, 2013

That ain't happening. Unless you buy a 7 year old second hand system off Craigslist or something like that.

unoriginal1 · May 7, 2013

Personally... I think the very best place for knowledge "starting out" is freeaplus.com
Professor messer has some extremely easy to understand and amazingly complete videos on the basics of A+ cert which basically... Is a certification that says you understand the basics to how computers work inside and out.

Theres about 50-60 videos just for a the A+ studying. (give or take) and avg about 5-7 minutes long for each one. You would learn a wealth of knowledge and far far more then you'd ever learn with an old beat up system. Plus... It's free

manofchalk · May 7, 2013

Your posting here, so you have a computer of some kind I assume (though could be a laptop/tablet). Pull that apart and put it back together.

I learnt by mix-and-matching two dead machines that were lying around, took the best components from each and stuck em together. Used it until I eventually built my current.
A great resource I learnt from is NCIX Tech Tips on Youtube, there is literally a video on everything.

g-unit1111 · May 7, 2013

manofchalk :

Yeah I learned by adding 56K ( :lol: ) modems and sound cards to my parent's old Gateway rigs and that was back in the mid 90's when a sound card was $300 and a 100MB hard drive was $400. :lol:

I still have the old 3Com 56K PCM card that came with my first Dell laptop. Shows you how far back my knowledge goes. :lol:

Rugnir_Viking · May 8, 2013

got a laptop. thats why i wanted an old system. note i only want it to boot so i can see if it works after whatever i do to it. just wanted to know about any major changes in how computers are put together.
Thanks for your comments

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Looking to get a cheap system to learn from, what to look for

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