Want to build my own

i would like to build my own puter and i think i would like to build the one discussed on this site: "Dream Performance:Your very own Tom's Hardware PC!". however, the one thing that bothers me most is purchasing the correct components. i'm aware of sites like Pricewatch.com, but i'm not comfortable ordering the various parts from different vendors and worrying if i've messed up. are there any good vendors that you can suggest where i might get good prices and help on making sure i get all the best/compatible components. (go easy on me boys...i'm a real lamer). thanks,

Megaton

I've seen many sites which sells barebone and all of them priced higher than buying pieces seperately. It's also very hard to find one that lets you select good mobo and heatsink & fan and powersupply.

Even more important than getting the right components is making sure that you earth yourself before working on your pc, static electricty is a killer of pc's, there wont be a spark or anything, it just wont go, ever, get a grounding strap or continually earth yourself on the chassis, with the power cord plugged in

Tell you truth, may want to wait to you can get a retail Athlon C, I hear the OEM's are not as good...

=Quantum
AO Admin
The Dr.Twister Network
http://ao.drtwister.com

Quite honestly I think it is a waste to build Tom's dream system. For a small performance increase you have to shell out a boatload of money. If you are rich and can affort to build the dream machine then by all means go ahead, but I would recommend building the standard fast as hell machine and spend the extra money on things like scsi hard drives and a CD burner.

If you are looking to build a really good system for a good price go with:

T-Bird 1000 or higher
Asus A7V
256 Meg PC133 (Which is cheap as hell right now)
SCSI HD and controller card or ATA 100 Hard Drive
Any GEForce 2 Ultra card

Also, if you are lookin to buy cheap parts I would recommend computer shows. www.marketpro.com is a really good place where you can find shows around you (depending on where you live). You buy them direct from vendors so there is no worry about online ordering.

I agree with Deltat but I would go with the A7V133 266mhz fsb and a C chip. Just be sure to get them separately or call and make sure it's a c chip. You will see performance gain over the A7V but it will only cost you $10 at most.

Check it out

ASUS A7V133 $157.00
AMD THUNDERBIRD K7 1133MHZ(1.13GHZ) 266MHZ $240.00
PC133 256MB SDRAM DIMM $80.00
Total cost $477*
or
just 256 megs DDR 266mhz $303

if you have the money and feel the need to have the biggest and coolest get DDR if you are looking at getting the best deal go with a 266mhz fsb and pc133

*price quote from www.mwave.com

mbaha

tell you truth...athlons really aren't too hard...my first comp i built was for a frend,...it was almost a copy of Tom's from Part 1 of that building a comp....



=Quantum
AO Admin
The Dr.Twister Network
http://ao.drtwister.com

Whoever said to go with an intel for your first buit computer is obviously naive. I built a T-Bird 1000 with an A7V board (not my first time building a computer) and the processor required no jumpers to be set, switches to be pulled, or bios settings to be messed with. I just popped the processor in turned the box on and it posted at 1000 MHZ with no work whatsoever. I am not sure if it is that easy with the use of boards other than the A7V but I am sure that it can't be that hard. Anyone who would go with an Intel chip based on the current market situation (i.e. astronomicaly large Pent. prices and T-Birds superiority in general) deserves to be tied to the back of a pickup truck and dragged through the streets.

But thats just my opinion :-)

hey deltat... i don't know if i mis-communicated in my original post, but the dream machine specs i meant to refer to are as follows (based the article on this site):{i know there was an article on a super fast dream machine, but that's beyond me]:

Motherboard Asus A7V, Socket A, VIA KT133 chipset $145.00
CPU AMD Athlon 800MHz (overclockable to 1000MHz) $109.00
Cooler Swiftech MC370-0A $25.00
System Memory 256MB PC133 SDRAM $83.00
Case ATX Mid Tower with 300 Watt power supply $55.00
Graphics Card Asus V7700 32MB, GeForce2 GTS with TV Out $230.00
Hard Disk IBM DTLA-307030, UltraATA/100, 30GB, 7200RPM $149.00
DVD-ROM Drive Toshiba SD-M1402, 10/40X ATAPI $85.00
NIC 3Com Fast Etherlink 3C905B-TX PCI (100Mbit/s) $35.00
Sound Card Creative Soundblaster Live! Value PCI $49.00
Accessories Mouse, keyboard etc. $30.00
Total $995.00

anyone care to comment on these specs considering i'm not a gamer?








Megaton

thanks fugger!!! you just saved me $100 bucks absolutely. tom's is one hell of a site because it has some great talent willing to help others including us lamers. thanks again, megatonone (excuse me, i just checked and you only saved me $94.00!! oh well...guess i'll just have to live with it.)

Megaton<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by megatonone on 02/22/01 10:23 PM.</EM></FONT></P>