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Piecing together a computer is not rocket science, in fact, it's fairly straight-forward once you know what to buy and the basics of hooking everything together. The hardest thing for me was choosing the parts. It became an almost full-time obsession. The thing most DIYers want to do is to maximize bang for the buck. To do this, you need to know what hardware's worth the money and what's not. This requires reading reviews and product comparisons. You can find a lot of this on the Net, but there are also good reviews and evaluations in consumer magazines such as Maximum PC and Computer Shopper.
I found the following online sources invaluable when I was preparing for buying and building my PC: Street Tech (of course!), Tom's Hardware, AnandTech and Hardware Central (which features lengthy, detailed DIY guidelines). If you want to buy a book, I've heard good
things about Tom's Hardware Guide.
I chose to build my machine around an AMD K6-II processor running at 300MHz. Later, I also built a machine at work with another K6-II running at 350MHz. The speed difference between the two machines is quite noticable. The parts that went into the computer I built for myself were chosen for optimum performance on a tight budget. It's always possible to make a DIY computer cheaper, but cheaper means performance loss. Buying faster RAM speeds up the computer enormously and a good video card delivers more firepower for gaming, and a better sound card... well, you get the idea.
To build my PC, I first stripped my old 166MHz Pentium of any useful parts: the internal Zip, CD-ROM and hard drives. Later on, I decided to go ahead and get a new hard drive and a better CD-ROM. I found out, after completing the hardware installation, and after working with Win95 for awhile, that I was lacking around 25% overall performance (from what I'd expected in comparison to similar systems I'd tested). I suspected that it might be my old CD-ROM drive that was the culprit, so I bought a new one. Voila! No more ten second delays when the drive is accessed and no more poor processor performance! Also the new CD-ROM can rip audio CD tracks so that I can make compressed MP3 music files. The slot-in design (no disk tray a la CD car stereos) hasn't failed to impress geek and non-geek friends alike. Apart from the object value, it's much more practical with slot-in: the CD slides halfway out when ejected and you just grab the disk by the edges without having to pry it from a disk tray. The design is also better at protecting the drive interior from dust.
A note of caution with the above setup: This system isn't that fast any longer and the Microstar motherboard doesn't work with the new Soundblaster PCI64 V (the old version of the card works great, though). You probably want to get a faster processor, which you can now get for the price I paid for my 300MHz.
Choosing Your Components
The choice of processor and motherboard is a choice between an expensive system and a cheaper one. Thanks to AMD's line of products, you don't have
to buy a more expensive Intel processor. The Intel Celeron processors are price-competitive with AMD, but do not have as good performance numbers overall as the K6-2. When you're choosing a processor and motherboard, be sure to frequent sites like Tom's Hardware and AnandTech. These sites provide extensive computer hardware reviews and testing data. Don't be alarmed if you don't understand everything the first time you read techie articles (like this one!). After you read a few and compare info, you should be able to get enough background and advice to make intelligent choices. Also, feel free to stop by Shop Talk, Street Tech's conferencing area, and ask the resident geeks there for help.
Memory: If you build your computer around a modern processor (K6-II, Pentium II and above), you'll need to use PC-100 SDRAM, which is the standard type of memory that can run at 100MHz bus speed (the speed the processor communicates with the other components on the motherboard). Using slower memory, such as EDO RAM, will severely limit the power of your processor as you'll need to use a slower bus speed setting. Older SIMM modules need to be installed in pairs of identical modules to work, which is not the case with modern DIMM. The PC-100 RAM are DIMM modules, which means they can be installed in any configuration. Most often, the memory can be placed in the RAM slots on the motherboard in any order - check your motherboard manual for more details. Another thing to remember is your motherboard's cacheable memory size. If your motherboard has only a 512Kb cache, and you're using a K6-II processor, you're allowed a maximum of 128MB RAM. Should you add more memory, the system will work, but it'll become a lot slower as the cache will be disenabled.
Chassis: There are basically two different types of computer chassis for the PC: the AT and the ATX form factors. The AT style is the older standard, which can also come in a smaller BabyAT configuration. You have to choose a chassis that fits your motherboard (or the other way around: a motherboard to fit your chassis). The ATX chassis is a modern standard which features such things as automatic power-off. It's also much easier to work with, especially the wider case version that features a swing-door for the motherboard and a roomier interior. On my ATX case, the entire 3.5" bay area (where you can usually fit two disk drives and a hard drive) pops out with a single maneuver. Compare this to fitting stuff into the cramped space of an AT tower where you have to screw each unit directly onto the skeletonal chassis.
Video Card: The question to ask when choosing a video card is: will I be using this computer for a lot of gaming? If you are, you'll want above-average video performance. One thing you can do, if money is an issue, is add a 3D accellerator, such as a Voodoo II card later. If you have to start off with a cheap video card, be sure to get at least 4MBs of video memory, preferably 8MB. More memory means better graphics performance. Video cards can run on two different slots, either the standard PCI or AGP (Accellerated Graphics Port) slots. The AGP slot offers better performance, and most modern motherboards have AGP. Use it if you can. An extra 3D accelerator can be installed in a vacant PCI slot and the video card is connected to the accelerator with a short VGA cable. The signal is then passed to the monitor through the regular video cable. Video cards with on-board Voodoo chips are also available.
Monitor: Consider buying a good quality monitor if you can afford it. A larger monitor is much easier to work with and it's the only piece of hardware that doesn't lose its value in half a year. Get at least a 17" model, and make sure it has a decent refresh rate (at least 75Hz at 1024 x 768 screen resolution, preferably 100Hz or more). The new LCD monitors are still too expensive for most of us. Reasonably-priced ones are available, but they often have poor image quality. As flat screen monitors become more popular, conventional monitors drop in price.
Sound Card: You can get a SoundBlaster 16-compatible card for next-to-nothing. There are two types of sockets on your motherboard for the sound card: ISA or PCI. If you get a PCI card, it will drain less processor power, therefore keeping gaming performance faster. The SB16 cards (and compatibles) will add a lot of static to the sound, so if you plan on connecting your computer to a stereo, get a higher-quality card.
Hard Drive: Get at least a 4GB drive, or as big as you can afford. You'll need the extra space sooner or later. There are two different types of connectors to connect the drive to the motherboard. The standard one is IDE. With IDE, you'll be able to connect up to four devices on the IDE interface. SCSI is the other interface type, which is faster but also more expensive. Not only do the units cost more, but you'll need an extra SCSI interface card to communicate with them.
CD-ROM: The CD-ROM also connects through the IDE port (there are SCSI versions available as well). The CD-ROM is very likely to give you a lot of trouble and slow you down if you buy a cheap one.
Mouse and Keyboard: (Make sure they'll fit your motherboard's connectors). Most new boards have a PS/2 keyboard port, older boards might have the larger DIN-style connector. What contact your keyboard uses doesn't matter much as long as the keyboard and motherboard fit together (if they don't, you can get an adapter). For the mouse, things are a little different. It uses either one of your valuable COM ports (used for modems and other peripheral equipment) or it can use a separate PS/2 mouse port, which is pretty much the standard on most motherboards these days.
TIP: When you buy items like CD-ROMs, disk drives, processors, memory, sound and video cards, you don't need to buy retail versions. You can get a better price by buying bulk (meaning no fancy retail box and no manuals). Who needs manuals, anyway? Often, they're more of a pain than a help.
On Friday, Part Two: Assembling Your Homebrew PC.
- Joel Westerberg [4/29/99]
DISCLAIMER:Street Tech is not responsible for any damage or injury caused by the application of the material printed here. This information is for educational purposes only and we make no claims about its accuracy.
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