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Do-it-yourself pc kits

Post Date: 2011-02-14
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schwing View Drop Down
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Posts: 34 		  Quote schwing Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Topic: Do-it-yourself pc kits
    Posted: 14 Feb 2011 at 10:44am
I bought a blackops assassin in January and have been totally in love with it, but then I wanted to learn more about pc building/expanding my knowledge in general and have been exploring the option of buying a really cheap DIY pc kit from tigerdirect to experiment with.. so that i can mess around and learn.  Does anyone have any thoughts on that and if i should go with one of those DIY kits that tiger directs sells or buy the components myself. obviously i want to spend very little as it will just be for the learning experience.
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ablahblah View Drop Down
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Posts: 2312 		  Quote ablahblah Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 14 Feb 2011 at 4:50pm
I'd say it's nicer and more productive to learn along the way as you upgrade the sys down the line, honestly. Just hang around  the forums, learn for a bit with us, post a bit, and when you upgrade ask for advice.
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justin.kerr View Drop Down
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Posts: 5084 		  Quote justin.kerr Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 14 Feb 2011 at 5:26pm
here is my take.
the 3 areas of building a custom PC, listed in order of difficulty.
 
1. The BIOS, this is where the magic happens. This is what takes all the time, skill, and knowledge.. This is what makes a rock stable, fast rig, this is where you can build 2 PC's of the exact same parts, and one will be twice as fast as the other.
 
2. Picking the right parts. This is pretty easy, but takes some time, and to be done right, you need to do lots of research, then you will find out to never listen to 99% of all reviewers, because they are full of poo lol
 
3. The easy part, putting a PC together. A basic one GPU, air cooled rig should take about 10-15 minutes to go from parts on the table, to completed PC.
 
So you can see that the actual building is very easy, and if that is what you want to do, thats fine, but the real skills are in the BIOS, and in selecting the best parts.
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Alex View Drop Down
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Posts: 16314 		  Quote Alex Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 14 Feb 2011 at 5:43pm
justin.kerr hit the nail on the head.

Going with a system builder such as us, allows you to tap into our experience and knowledge that we've gained building all of these systems.
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schwing View Drop Down
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Posts: 34 		  Quote schwing Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 14 Feb 2011 at 5:46pm
hey guys- thanks for both your inputs.

With regards to Justin's post, I guess I need to learn all 3 areas because  I have never built a PC before but I know its relatively easy to compile it once you have the right parts.  I just don't wanna mess around with expensive equipment and end up frying something that I don't want to.

Could you direct me to any useful guides on BIOS? I'm a complete noob here and don't know where to start or what to search for.  honestly don't even know what it really means..Confused

I probably spent too much on my gig (which I am planning to post a review of) but the experience has been outstanding.

Thanks for the help!
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schwing View Drop Down
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Posts: 34 		  Quote schwing Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 14 Feb 2011 at 6:02pm
Yea..thanks Alex...like to point out that I'd still stick with DS if I build one of those crazy $6K sub-zero liquid cooled machines...which is a definite possibility a few years down the road :)

I'm just a hands-on learner so thought that getting some practical experience with a cheap $200-300 DIY kit would be a great start.  Of course I'd still learn as much as possible from the forums and other sources (maximum PC for example)
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justin.kerr View Drop Down
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Posts: 5084 		  Quote justin.kerr Quote  Post ReplyReply bullet Posted: 15 Feb 2011 at 9:33am
Keep in mind that maximum PC is not breaking any records. lol so doubt you will find any good info there.
There are a few software programs that you can use to adjust some of the BIOS parameters, that are not permanent, so you can adjust in windows, and run a few benchmarks to see if you gained, or lost performance.
You can make changes in the BIOS, just make sure you have a saved profile of your current settings.
 
If you want to learn about the building aspect, you can usually find old PC's that don't work anymore, or just outdated ones that people are throwing out.  good stuff to take them apart, and put back together.   One downside is that things change very fast in this industry, so even if you are well versed on the current components, you will be lost in a short time, if you don't keep up on it. lol
 
And one more thing about the really cheap builds, the motherboards will not allow hardly any changes in the BIOS, the high end stuff has all the goodies to mess with.
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