[Novalug] Building my own

[JRR]

"JRR" wrote:

Bonnie Dalzell wrote:
> On Fri, 2 Oct 2009, Nino Pereira wrote:
>
>   
>> I can recommend getting Igor Birman to build a computer for you.
>> Getting something that benefits from his expertise is worth
>> the extra money, certainly if you count the time you save.
>>
>> It's different if you'd rather want to develop your own experience:
>> the mistakes that you make in the process usually cost a lot.
>>     
>
> Actually I did not have an expensive problem learning to build a computer 
> because the brick and mortar store employees were very willing to teach 
> me. The important thing was to make sure the components were compatible. 
> The first computer I built was when Crazy Steve's computer trailer was 
> still on Cat road in Bowie. This must have been 20 years ago. Crazy Steve 
> specialized in selling computer parts that were compatible. Then you had 
> to worry about wether the different boards that went in your slots used 
> different IRC addresses and you had to set those addresses. Crazy Steve 
> made sure you knew about that. Now IRC's do not seem to be a problem.
>
>   
Setting IRCs and forcing hardware went away with the ISA slots.........
> In 
> my experience now the really important things for building a computer 
> are
>
> (1)Turn off the power when mucking around inside (best way to 
> assure this is to unplug it).
>
> (2) do it when it is humid in the summer so that static electricity 
> is not a problem and make sure you ground yourself anyway. I do not have 
> carpets but when doing stuff inside the machine in the winter I only 
> wear cotton jeans and te-shirts and I take my shows and socks off to 
> reduce static. Touch something metal before going into the machine.
>
>   
touching something metal won't help at all. You have to touch metal 
connected to the chassis and power supply by metal.........
> (3) Make sure the components match
>
> (4) After all is together make sure the COU and northbridge and graphics 
> card fans are all runnning.
>
>   

most recent Intel brand motherboards have system monitoring software 
that gives the speed of each fan, actual voltage on each bus.
> (5) Don't let mice get in the case and pee on the circuit boards.
>
>   
use George Forman's' fryer instead.
> I like having some of those slide out drive drawers so you can swap 
> drives. However I found that I could not run 4 at a time and they worked 
> best with master slave settings rather than cable select.
>
>   
I NEVER use cable select. I want hardware to be the same on every 
boot........
> One thing about building a machine - you become able to mostly fix it.
>
> Here are a couple of my other derived from experience
>
> <computer humor>
>
> Mostly do not try and fix your computer clueless friend's computers other 
> than replacing drives and inserting memory chips they bought under 
> instruction from the manufacturer. Let them pay a professional with a 
> shop to do anything that requires more diagnostics. It is less 
> expensive in the long run.
>
> One of my clueless aquantainces brought his computer to me - does not 
> turn on. When we opened it and tested cables etc and then plugged it back 
> in it sort of exploded. Turns out he was carrying it loose in the back 
> of his pickup truck with the rest of his furniture when he moved - no 
> protective boxing or anything like that.
>
> If you take a laptop apart be prepared to have things left over if you get 
> it back together successfully. Surpisingly the laptop may well continue to 
> work....
>
> </computer humor>
>
>
>   
>> Nino
>>
>>
>> Igor Birman wrote:
>>     
>>> Tiger Direct is spotty - I recommend NewEgg if you are going to buy
>>> online.  I have a computer business and we order many of our products
>>> from them.  Barebones computers tend to come with really crappy cases.
>>> I like to build computers with the Antec NSK4480B II case - you can
>>> usually find it for under $100 and it has a really nice power supply.  I
>>> only buy Asus and Gigabyte motherboards, and WD drives.   The new AMD
>>> Athlon II X4 chips start at $99 and are pretty good.  They are AM3 but
>>> the AM2+ motherboards are backwards compatible if you want a lower
>>> priced motherboard.
>>>
>>> Igor
>>>
>>>       
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>>     
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>                         Bonnie Dalzell, MA
> mail:5100 Hydes Rd PO Box 60, Hydes,MD,USA 21082-0060|EMAIL:bdalzell at qis.net
> Freelance anatomist, vertebrate paleontologist, writer, illustrator, dog
> breeder, computer nerd & iconoclast... Borzoi info at www.borzois.com.
> HOME www.batw.net    ART bdalzellart.batw.net  BUSINESS www.boardingatwedge.com
>
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