Like Bob, just exchanging parts now and then.

"Building from scratch" makes it sound a bigger deal than it is, it's not like you are actually building a custom design or something.

You just buy the parts, stick the stuff in the places where they fit and use a screwdriver to fasten everything. I don't think it's a lot more complex a task than connecting all the cables of monitor, mouse, dfp etc. to the back of a prebuilt computer.

Advantages are price and being able to select the parts you want, f. ex. a quiet PSU.

its very easy (hey if a 14 year old can do it (ie me!) then you can!) plus, theres nothing quite like looking down at that "l33t machine" and thinking "I built that!" plus, you wil be able to make a pc that isnt Beige!

Quote from J.B. :

Like Bob, just exchanging parts now and then.

"Building from scratch" makes it sound a bigger deal than it is, it's not like you are actually building a custom design or something.

You just buy the parts, stick the stuff in the places where they fit and use a screwdriver to fasten everything. I don't think it's a lot more complex a task than connecting all the cables of monitor, mouse, dfp etc. to the back of a prebuilt computer.

some people like to design their own motherboards in mentor

Quote from J.B. :

Like Bob, just exchanging parts now and then.

"Building from scratch" makes it sound a bigger deal than it is, it's not like you are actually building a custom design or something.

You just buy the parts, stick the stuff in the places where they fit and use a screwdriver to fasten everything. I don't think it's a lot more complex a task than connecting all the cables of monitor, mouse, dfp etc. to the back of a prebuilt computer.

Advantages are price and being able to select the parts you want, f. ex. a quiet PSU.

Except locating some of those little power leads for the HDD LED, Power switch, reset, etc. Especially when the MB markings are ambiguous and the locations don't match what is depicted in the manual. That can be a bit of a puzzle sometimes. Otherwise, I completely agree

I built it, I mean not quite eeemmmm my brother did.

Quote from Shotglass :

some people like to design their own motherboards in mentor

If you say so... illepall

Quote from rabidmaddog :

Except locating some of those little power leads for the HDD LED, Power switch, reset, etc. Especially when the MB markings are ambiguous and the locations don't match what is depicted in the manual. That can be a bit of a puzzle sometimes. Otherwise, I completely agree

Yeah, forgot about that. I used to do that part by trial and error until once something started smoking when I wired up an USB port wrong. No major harm done though.

I used to always buy my computers, but as of late they all seem like utter rip-offs, so I build my own. Not being a cheapskate or anything, I really like working on computers, the savings is just a big benefit.

My last two computers have been self-built, the first one had a 3ghz P4 and an ATI AIW 9800PRO. The one I'm using now has an AMD Athlong 64 3500+ @ 2.47ghz, 1gb g.skill pc3200, and an ATI AIW X800XT. All designed to be overclocked, now if I could just work out how to increase my overclock some more.

I'm quite into the style aspect of my computer as well, most computers you get buy retail are just too ugly, and often poorly-build using cheaper parts.

Anyway, now onto some pics of my supposedly beastly rig.

Quote from SHIFT_ :

All designed to be overclocked, now if I could just work out how to increase my overclock some more.
Anyway, now onto some pics of my supposedly beastly rig.

General rule of thumb for all things electrically powered:

The colder it gets, the less resistance the current will get, the faster the operations can perform.

So, looking at your pictures, I'd say, dump all the fans (who needs airflow?) and stick in some liquid cooling with peltier elements for the videocard, and a phasechange deepfreeze for the CPU... That should get it to about -15 celcius and able to overclock a lot further... Oh, when you do that, make sure you insulate the whole part you place a coolblock on, or it will get wet from condensation and fry. Also, the hottest part of your PC will be the RAM, so you might want to consider cooling that a bit too (passive liquid blocks would do the trick), and make sure the PSU is OUTSIDE the case (as that thing will always blow hot air into your case, heating up the "apparently-not-so-useless" ICs on your MB.

Quote from TagForce :

...and make sure the PSU is OUTSIDE the case (as that thing will always blow hot air into your case, heating up the "apparently-not-so-useless" ICs on your MB.

errm... the psu usually sucks the hot air out of the case. Never had any blow-psu.

BTW I built almost every computer from scratch, except my c64, bought this thing with my father and modded it into a nice wooden kb-frame without touching the guts :-)
Since then I always bought the upgrade I needed, atm I have a 3200+, 512mb ram, 160gb hdd, a completely modded 400w psu, and a 9800 pro in an old throwaway server bigtower. Enough to play lfs i think.

I've had 2 computers, both built from scratch. A 486 DX4 back in 1997 and a Celeron 633 back in 2000, which I've modded. Now it has a Pentium III 900, 512 RAM, Radeon 7500 DDR, DVD writer and a nice, silent case.

Still, it's beyond outdated, more like a dinosaur! But I'm not so sure about upgrading it, I have no reason to do it besides LFS, since I only do the basic Word-Firefox-Windows Media Player-Messenger thing and my budget isn't too good.

If I do it, I'll do it from scratch. Cheaper, and I get to see every single component that will go inside, so I don't end up with a crappy memory or something like that.

I have purchased mine but I am still rebiulding it changing its parts

I bought a Fujitsu Siemens, why did I buy instead of build? So I can blame someone else if it breaks!

Quote from Marty502 :

Still, it's beyond outdated, more like a dinosaur! But I'm not so sure about upgrading it, I have no reason to do it besides LFS, since I only do the basic Word-Firefox-Windows Media Player-Messenger thing and my budget isn't too good.

Er, I believe both of those were "beyond outdated, more like a dinosaur" when you say you built them . My Pentium 75 mhz was outdated in 1995 when I bought it.

That should answer the question-- "during the build"

Quote from der butz :

errm... the psu usually sucks the hot air out of the case. Never had any blow-psu.

Yeah, that's what I said and thought, until I got one that managed to blow air into the machine, even though the fans were supposed to suck it out... PSU aren't the most perfect boxes for airflow, especially the bigger 600W+ PSUs... And if you're not careful, it will make the machine slower... It's not like it manages to overheat the components, but it's noticable.
I took the PSU out of the case, and it saved me some 12 degrees celcius inside the case (with absolutely no fans in sight).

Quote from TagForce :

Yeah, that's what I said and thought, until I got one that managed to blow air into the machine, even though the fans were supposed to suck it out... PSU aren't the most perfect boxes for airflow, especially the bigger 600W+ PSUs... And if you're not careful, it will make the machine slower... It's not like it manages to overheat the components, but it's noticable.
I took the PSU out of the case, and it saved me some 12 degrees celcius inside the case (with absolutely no fans in sight).

Must have been a crappy PSU.

Quote from TagForce :

Yeah, that's what I said and thought, until I got one that managed to blow air into the machine, even though the fans were supposed to suck it out... PSU aren't the most perfect boxes for airflow, especially the bigger 600W+ PSUs... And if you're not careful, it will make the machine slower... It's not like it manages to overheat the components, but it's noticable.
I took the PSU out of the case, and it saved me some 12 degrees celcius inside the case (with absolutely no fans in sight).

I have a hard time believing the PSU causes a 12c heat increase. At worst, my rig has a case temp. maybe 6c over room temp. while playing a game; normally it's 3c over room temp. Even if I removed the PSU, it's still not going to be room temp, since all the other components create heat as well. PSU maybe contributes 1-3c (depending on PSU fan set-up) to overall case temp..

Quote from mrodgers :

Er, I believe both of those were "beyond outdated, more like a dinosaur" when you say you built them . My Pentium 75 mhz was outdated in 1995 when I bought it.

Probably right.

I've never had much of a budget to deal with, so that's the best I've been able to do. Still, my 486 ran Duke Nukem 3D, and even Age of Empires! And that was good enough for me.

Quote from SHIFT_ :

I have a hard time believing the PSU causes a 12c heat increase. At worst, my rig has a case temp. maybe 6c over room temp. while playing a game; normally it's 3c over room temp. Even if I removed the PSU, it's still not going to be room temp, since all the other components create heat as well. PSU maybe contributes 1-3c (depending on PSU fan set-up) to overall case temp..

Not if the fans suck (or don't as it may be)

I've always bought a fully built PC and then upgraded it as the price of the highest end components that fit come down in price. Once I can't go any further with upgrades without a motherboard change (which usually means new CPU, RAM and possibly video card anyway) I buy another ready built PC and donate my latest reject to my Dad.

I never buy a 'brand' PC, but rather use a company that build with components I specify. I've never managed to source all the components cheaper to build it myself - the closest I got, the OS would have tipped the balance. So to have it built and get it all warrantied for a year has always (so far) made sense. As I work with electronic equipment and PCs during the week, it's nice just to get stuck in with a fully built PC rather than have the ball ache of building one. Or maybe I'm just lazy