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Every six years or so my home PC gets a little long in the tooth and I build another, near state-of-the-art one from scratch.
First I couldn't run Win95 on a '286, then I couldn't run Win2K on a '486 and now, even though XP runs OK on an Athlon 2100 I simply cannot play or capture, much less edit, HD 1080p video which is what I want to do. So it's hardware upgrade time again.
For those of you who have considered building your own PC, it's really not all that difficult. You certainly don't need degrees in electrical engineering and computer science, just some patience, willingness to read through the instruction manuals and a modicum of manual dexterity. There are potential problems along the way which the manuals don't warn you about and that is what this blog is for, to help you avoid making the mistakes I have in the past. Hopefully, other useful suggestions will show up in the comments. Also, there's a certain sense of satisfaction in using a machine that you built yourself. So let's begin.
The first thing to do is to set a performance goal and a budget, then do some research to see if your goal is feasible within that budget. Depending on your present system it's entirely possible to get a 10% to 30% boost in performance by simply upgrading your CPU/RAM/HDD's: find the bottleneck(s) and upgrade them. In my case, however, the CPU/RAM/HDD's and motherboard are all bottlenecks and replacing them all will require a new power supply, so I'm building a completely new system and keeping the present one as a backup.
Performance Goal: At least double all major performance parameters (CPU speed and number of CPUs, RAM size and speed, HDD size and speed, graphics capability). The system must be reliable for at least six years so we'll be using high quality components.
Budget: I'm already paying $2/day just for cable internet access and I use the computer for at least a couple hours every day so I don't think it's unreasonable to pay $1/day for the computer itself. Over six years that's around $2000 and that will be my allowance for this project. Adjusting for inflation, that's comparable to what the previous four systems cost.
Upgrade Path:
| Circa | CPU | Speed | RAM | HDDs | Removable Media | Graphics | OS |
| 1985 | 80286 | 12 MHz | 1 MB | 40 MB | 5.25" Floppy | 32x240 | DOS/Win3.1 |
| 1991 | 80486 | 33 MHz | 8 MB | 200 MB | 3.5" Floppy | 640x480 | Win3.1 |
| 1998 | K6-2 | 450 MHz | 256 MB | 500 MB | CD R/W | 1024x768 | Win95/98SE |
| 2002 | Athlon 2100 | 2 GHz | 2 GB | 2 TB | DVD R/W | 1920x1200 | 98SE/XP/Kubuntu |
| Target | Quad Core | 4 GHz | 4 GB | 4 TB | Blu-Ray | 3840x1200 | XP64/Kubuntu/Win7 |
After about 30 hrs of research I found that I could reach the target within budget except for the 4 GHz CPU. Nobody makes them yet. A little more research reveals that with the right CPU/motherboard combination I should be able to overclock a 3GHz CPU to 4GHz without too much trouble. (The 3840x1200 graphics above is spread over 2 24" monitors) Here are the parts I decided to use. (Disclaimer: I'm not affiliated with any of these companies, it's only that for the first quarter of 2009, for my situation, they deliver the best bang for the buck IMHO and my experience with them over the years has been mostly positive. YMMV.)
CPU: Intel Q9650 3 GHz Quad Core w/12MB L2 cache
CPU Cooler: Zalman CNPS9700
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-EP45T-UD3P
RAM: 2X OCZ3RPR16004GK PC3 12800 7-7-7 Reaper DDR3 2GB RAM modules
Graphics Card: Sapphire ATI Radeon HD4870
Hard Disks :2X 300GB 10kRPM SATA3 WD Velociraptors in RAID0 (System/Apps/HD scratch)
2X1TB 7200RPM SATA3 WD Black HDD's
Removable Media Drive: LG GGW-H20L Blu-ray/HD DVD R/W
Power Supply: Antec Signature SG-850
Case: Antec P182SE
Monitor: Samsung T240HD
Once you've decided what parts you want to use, shop around. Take a month or so and keep an eye out for specials, rebates and bundles that can save you hundreds. For example when Intel announced their latest CPU the one I picked dropped 40% in price. Stay away from the bleeding edge unless you really want it or it will bleed your wallet for only a modest performance increase. I also received $140 in rebates after 12 weeks from the above companies. (Keep copies of all the documentation, some unscrupulous companies have been known to rely on the odds that after 3 months you'll have forgotten about the rebate. If you run into one of these be sure to use the words 'rebate fraud' when you call them up. You'll get your rebate real quick.)
Now that you have all your parts …....
It's time to assemble them into a working PC and that's the subject of next weeks blog.
Click here for Part 2.
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Re: Build Your Own Computer, Part 1
