My research started in July, when I was getting tired
of my machine not being able to keep up with the new programs and
processing I needed to do; I looked in all the usual places for a
pre-built machine... Time, Tiny, PC World, etc... however, I decided
that this time, I wanted to build my own machine, not only to gain the
expertise of how to build a computer from scratch, but to know exactly
what is in the P.C. I set my targets for a large tower unit with plenty
of ventilation, a high speed processor, an upgradeable motherboard, a
large amount of RAM, a high quality graphics card and a fast CD Writer,
the rest, I thought, would be standard products.
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the first part I was looking for was the Tower Unit itself. I wanted a
fairly roomy case, preferably in aluminium, and scoured the net for
days. I finally found a great looking case which had a sliding front
cover to protect the CD drives and an LCD panel which gave information
on the hard disc status, inside temperature and time. I ordered it first as I knew it would be the first priority. It cost me £79.98 from Gladiator Computers, however when I received the package from the courier, I tried to activate the front sliding panel and LCD monitor, but as soon as I plugged it into the mains, the sliding coved did not work. I opened the case further to find a loose contact at the motor itself. I contacted the company and was told that I could either fix it myself, or pay for it to be couriered back to them. I was not happy with this service. I had received a faulty item and expected it to be repaired for free as it should have been checked before it left the company's possession. I had no choice but to return it to them as my soldering skills are not up to much and I couldn't get my hands on the proper soldering equipment. I did, however, get a prompt response from them and received the package back within 3 days. I was on my way to creating my dream machine. |
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The next item I decided to buy was my motherboard, I
looked around for the best that I could find within a reasonable price
range and came up with the Asus P4C800 Deluxe motherboard for £151.87.
This was the first of many purchases from Dabs.com, which I highly
recommend to anyone who wished to buy any computer related products,
they are very efficient, quick, and use Parcel Force who allow you to
track your parcel for peace of mind. |
| The processor soon followed, and I was looking for the fastest I could afford really, I didn’t want to move away from Pentium 4, so I looked for the most powerful. I settled for the 2.8GHz Pentium 4 with Hyper Threading which "tricks" the operating system into thinking there is two processors in the machine allowing it to split the threads up and thus making it work more efficiently. It came in at a mere £165. |  |
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I then moved onto the Graphics Card and CD Writer. I, again, looked for the best for my money and since I liked the Asus Motherboard, I decided to order the Asus FX5600 128MB DDR AGP VIVO for £128 and was astounded at the dramatic drop in price of CD Writers; I purchased an AOpen 52x Re-Writer drive for only £26. |  |
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My ISAW teacher recommended Crucial for my RAM, I decided to go for 512MB DDR 2700 RAM which I intend to expand on in the near future, and with the motherboard having 4 expansion slots, I don't have much of a limit! This cost me £79.89. |
| My final item was a simple floppy disc drive. I know in our modern days of DVD's, USB Keys and wireless networks, they are rarely used, but for those rare occasions, the £7.75 that I spent on it was no fortune! |  |
I kept one of my old 60GB hard disks and hope soon to purchase a new 120GB Seagate Hard disc. The same with my sound card, I had a Sound Blaster Live! 5.1 Digital card which I kept and am now using with a set of Creative 5.1 5500 Digital Speakers (A little extra I thought I should splash out on!).
Assembly was straight forward. The motherboard came with most of the instructions needed and all of the cables, fixtures, and fittings for attaching it to the case itself. It only took a few hours to fit it all together and I was up and running.
Windows was installed very quickly, and I’m disappointed to say, it was only Windows XP Home edition as the funds were running out! The rest, as they say, is history!
I have enjoyed making the PC myself and will never go back to buying a PC "off-the-shelf" and don’t think I will need to for a few years as I have made sure this PC will be able to be upgraded. I also think that just under £800 for everything, the system is well worth its money, all quality products with the best available.
Copyright 2004 Christopher McBride
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