Thinking of Building MY Own PC, Suggestions?

[Chris Freeland]

I am thinking of building my own PC as a replacement for my 5 year old Dell GX1 500 mhz machine, partly as a learning experience, I have never done this before, I know software better then hardware (I have MCP's in Windows 2000 Professional and Server). I plan on re-using XP Home OS from old machine since it is going to be a replacement machine, I also plan on re-using old HD in addition to a new one, current DVDplayer/CD-RW in addition to a new DVD-RW+RW and my current 17" monitor to keep costs down and I also plan on adding a TV-tuner card. I hope to do this for about $400 - $500. I am not much of a game player and the types of games that my wife and daughter play do not require a game machine, I would like some DVR and video editing type functions. Any suggestions would be appreciated?

[marko]

Let's see here, going to be tough with what you need to bring it in at 400-500, but I'll give it a shot. Not sure if you are an intel or amd person, but to bring in the price low enough for a pretty decent machine, amd is the way to go in my opinion. This is similar to what I did a couple of weeks ago, and I spent a good bit of time researching everything.

Start with core of what you need. I selected the FIC AU13 Max MB because of it's built in firewire/spdif out, has decent overclockability, and most importantly, for the features, seemed to be cheaper than any comparable board. But you can pretty much pick and choose there, decide what you need in a motherboard, then pick out one that fits.

AMD Barton 2500-----------$88.
FIC AU13 Max MB-----------$82
256 Meg Mem---------------$40 -
Gigabyte Radeon---------- $68 - 9200 model
Cheap Case---------------- $40
120 gig hdrive--------------$60 -salecompusa $130 with $70 rebate this week
DVD -RW+RW---------------$100 - (sale at store with mail in rebate??)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total so far------------------$474
Cheap tuner card ---------$48
-------------------------------------------
Cheap tuner total--------- $520


dish dvr capable card/remote/ir emitter ---$200
---------------------------------------
dish dvr capable pc total ---------------------$674


The capture card situation is a tough one. I assume you want to use DVR funtion on a dish network setup? If not(cable or over the air), or if you just want to set two timers, one on a dish network machine, and another on the tuner card, I imagine you can get any sort of cheap tv tuner card, such as Leadtek Winfast deluxe for $48. But if you want to control dish network through IR emitter with an out of the box software package, I think your choices are pretty limited. I think snapstream and sagetv offer the ability to do that. I would probably say the minimum you can get in for that would be about $200 for snapstream + pvr 250 bundle + ir emitter there too. There might be other options, such as open source pvr software that can do some of this, but I personally would like the idea of a solid guide, and pretty sure snapstream and sagetv offer that.


I built a similar computer like about 1 week ago, and spent a lot of time researching this. i was in a little bit of a differerent situation, having access to XP Media Center Edition(msdn subscription), so I just purchased a refurbed piece of crap pvr card (avermedia 179 for $40), and a remote for $32. I did opt for a better case and power supply listed above ($80 for that instead of $40), and I already had a dvd-rw drive.

[RichW]

Marko did a great job coming close to your price target

What I would do differently is this and marko verifies it by his statement

"I did opt for a better case and power supply listed above ($80 for that instead of $40)"

Buy the best case you can afford - one with lots of room, a couple of fans, and a hefty Power Supply (400W). This will cost you far more than $40 bucks, but in the long run will save you time if you start upgrading and adding to your system. Most of the boards in a system become less than state-of-art within 9 months. A good case will accomodate future designs (though I did have to get a new case when the industry went from AT to ATX style motherboards.

I like to keep my systems fairly up-to-date but I actually buy the technology that was just replaced with the newest versions (CPUs, MoBos, video cards, etc.). If you have a good case with plenty of physical capacity and a hefty power supply, you woon't find it necessary to dismount everything and mount it in a new box when an upgrade requires more space or power.

So perhaps defer your purchase of TV-tuner and go for a more expensive case first.

[Bogy]

If you are going to be running two HD's and two DVD's I would make sure to go with the better case and power supply. It's all to easy to figure that the case doesn't matter, after all its just something to hold all the other parts together, but the power supply is a very vital part of the system. If the PS doesn't have what it takes to run the processor and drives you are just going to have problems. Plus, having once having made the mistake of buying a case (a cheap case) without taking consideration accessibility to drives, cards, memory, etc. I now make that a high priority.

[RichW]

Gee, talk about like minds! :)

Since we both posted the same comment at the same time, it must be a liberal conspiracy orchestrated by Chinese case manufacturers. :)

[Bogy]

:D

[Sandman]

I am the process of doing the same, but have been stalled by what dvd writer to install, what is the recommendation between the + and the - format, from what I have been reading the + is becoming the standard and is compatible with most home dvd players, but do not always believe what I read, are there any draw backs on the +- combo.

Bob

[marko]

I am the process of doing the same, but have been stalled by what dvd writer to install, what is the recommendation between the + and the - format, from what I have been reading the + is becoming the standard and is compatible with most home dvd players, but do not always believe what I read, are there any draw backs on the +- combo.

Bob

The only drawback of a +- combo, in my opinion, is that you still have to make a decision as to what format you are going to burn your dvds in. Well, that isn't really a drawback, but it doesn't solve the format problem completely. That was part of the reason I didn't think it worth it to get a dual format at the time. But now, dual format prices are not much more than non dual, so for a little more money, you have more flexibility for the future.

[Mark Holtz]

If you want a good power supply, I recommend the Antec TruPower supply. (I have it installed on my computer.) Unlike the other power supplies which share the 5v and 12v lines, these power supplies have a dedicated 5v and 12v line. The cost is a bit steep (newegg lists it for $76), but if you are troubleshooting, a good power supply will eliminate some headaches.

If you buy a case with a power supply, you may get a el-cheapo power supply that may not meet the power needs, or be underpowered. The faster processors use more power.

[Chris Freeland]

Thanks guys for your responses, I too think if I do this I will go with the better case and power supply, I may do just a basic tv tuner at first and upgrade to the full dvr capabilities latter. I picked up a PCMax magazine today which has a step by step guide for building a PC and recommendations, the most important one's you guys have said here, maybe I did not need to spend the money for the mag. ;).