Barebones or From-Scratch?

Hey all,

I'm looking at building a new computer, but I am torn between buying a bare-bones system and hooking up the components I want or building it entirely from scratch. I was wondering if anyone has any experience with building your own PC and could suggest which to choose?

I'm pretty much at a loss when looking at the components involved.

Thanks,
Joe

It's not hard...Just figure out what you want it to be able to do, do some research to find the best setup to do it with, and buy the components to do so.

Once you get everything, it's pretty much a matter of just hooking it up and powering it up. Get an OS on it, and load things as you go. I'm sure you can handle it. Just do a lot of research and make educated buys on your components. I would say build it all from scratch.

Any suggestions as far as intel or amd goes? Or is that more of a matter of personal preference?

btw, I really like the look of this[=http//www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=RED-ZMAXDP&cat=BBK]this

It depends on what you plan on using the computer for.

Intel's Core 2 Duo has proven itself as an excellent dual-core, and also has amazing overclocking potential (if you expect to ever in the future).

AMD also has a dual-core line the X2s.


You probably won't notice much of a difference, but if you're looking for the better choice Core 2 Duo

What is your budget? What are you going to use for (if games, which ones)? Do you plan to overclock?

[quoteef925d827f="Daggoth"]What is your budget? What are you going to use for (if games, which ones)? Do you plan to overclock?[/quoteef925d827f]

Budget is flexible -- prefer $400-500 range, but will increase for quality. I'm going to use it for everything and if I play a game (like City of Heroes, WoW, Civ III) I don't want it to lag. I'm not a big gamer, but I play on occasion. Also, I will probably burn a lot of DVDs with it.

I probably won't overclock because I don't know how to and would prefer not to accidentally fry my cpu.

http//www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131142

http//www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145034

http//www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819115005

900-1000$ is the best budget line right now for a "good" computer IMO. You can go down to 800 or 700 or maybe lower but you really need to trace deals like no other. And usually you have to know a lot about the component when you chase those deals.

http//www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813138037 - Cheaper Mobo

http//www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820231044 - Cheaper RAM (No OC)

Motherboards & processors are two things I'm pretty shaky on, which is why a barebones is a bit appealing.
Any idea how that barebones kit would operate if I hooked it up with
1 - AMD Opteron 270 2.0GHZ[=http//www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=OSA270CBBOX-DT&cat=CPU]1 - AMD Opteron 270 2.0GHZ (with plans to add a second processor later
1 - 1 GB of RAM (compatible with the motherboard) (one stick & will buy 2nd later)
1 - SATA Hard Drive (probably a caviar from woot)
1 - DVD-RW (I'll find a deal somewhere -- do these come IDE or SATA?)
1 - miniPCI wireless card (or a cheap ethernet card)

I think that would cover the basics, right? It has a "NVIDIA nForce3 Professional MCP chipset" which covers the video card right?

Any help is appreciated as I am quite the computer noob. + karma to all that have helped me so far )

Thanks,
Joe

No, that is the chipset on the motherboard. Why would you build a computer with onboard video anyway?

The 650i is a amazing mobo for the price I would still stick with it. Biostar is good too though. I just picked the ram that was on the first page, corsair is pretty good g. skill is too.

I have not heard anything about the opteron s940s but I didn't think they where multiprocessor motherboards. I have stayed away from AMD this generation because the intel core 2 is so amazing.

If you want to pay me 50$ I will tell you what parts to get and put it together for you and then ship it to you. PM me if you are interested. If you get a barebones you are likely to get a shitty motherboard which is a big part of your computer, and also a shitty PSU.