How To Build Your Own PC: Three Part Series

this should get you excited about making your computer better than your friends


Building Your Own PC:
Know-How for Do-It-Yourselfers


Imagine you want to build a new PC and want to use a few remnants from your old system. If you were satisfied with the performance of your CD-ROM drive, hard drive, printer or monitor, then it could be worth it to simply buy the remaining components - you might not even need a new case.

Many are intimidated by hardware. Some people won't even put in a new card on their own if they can help it. Yet the computer is now a mass-market product that, thankfully, has also brought about broad standardization

read the full article here with pictures
How To Build A PC, Part 1: Component Selection Overview
How To Build A PC, Part 2: Choosing the Right Vendor
How To Build A PC, Part 3: Putting It All Together

Extras:
Building a Low-Power Home Theater PC System
Building Your Home Theater Around the PC

Nice find egghead. Looks to be very informative. Building a system can be very rewarding and to add to that having good information to draw from for those hard to make decisions is a blessing......

Yeh, for someone that's just getting into building computers, information like this is helpful. I had no information at all when I built my first computer. There weren't tutorials around like this. I had to wing it. :) I was very happy with the results though :) Too bad computers age :( Anyway...Good Find!

The Burning Rom

some might be looking forward to this

Building Your Own PC, Part 2:Assembly Step by Step


In Part 1 of this series, we covered the fundamentals of the components used in today's PCs, discussed some of the important aspects of hardware configuration, and provided some shopping tips. Now, in Part 2, we will delve deeper, using a full tower case to explain how to assemble a standard PC.

http://www4.tomshardware.com/howto/0...918/index.html

this is really good guide

cheers
egghead

Isn't this a bit heavy on the paste?

http://img210.exs.cx/img210/630/cpukuehlpaste27ej.jpg

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Yeh, for someone that's just getting into building computers, information like this is helpful. I had no information at all when I built my first computer. There weren't tutorials around like this. I had to wing it.

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- I didn't read any instructions either and it was incredibly easy - there isn't really much to it. I want to make more!

Yes that's way way way too much grease :eek: should be a very thin coat spread evenly across the core ;)

looks like he could brush his teeth with that much paste :eek:

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Originally Posted by FastGame

Yes that's way way way too much grease :eek: should be a very thin coat spread evenly across the core ;)

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I agree, way too much.I follow the artic silver tutorial where you wipe the chip and heatsink with alcohol,then with a clean plastic baggie,apply onto the heatsink,then wipe it off with a clean cloth.Then with a credit card smooth out a thin coat of paste on the cpu. :D

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Originally Posted by zipp51

I agree, way too much.I follow the artic silver tutorial where you wipe the chip and heatsink with alcohol,then with a clean plastic baggie,apply onto the heatsink,then wipe it off with a clean cloth.Then with a credit card smooth out a thin coat of paste on the cpu. :D

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what? I cleaned with alcohol pad, applied arctic silver then popped one of my whiteheads and rubbed the "arctic-sliver" in with my finger. :eek: That was Fastgame's method

I use a this process to prepare my heatsink before installation. LINK

Yup, i do Zipp's method... i bought some silver paste, and the credit card came in the pack :D

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Originally Posted by cash_site

looks like he could brush his teeth with that much paste :eek:

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Pepsodent brand works pretty well. It can keep your CPU "Minty" cool.

very informative thanx egghead

your welcome CAL

if you have any questions feel free to create a thread

Found this very usefull guide to teach you how to format and install windows xp

You will want to learn how to do this after you learn how to build your computer.

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In this guide we plan on walking you through the full format and install method of setting up Windows XP Home or Pro on your system. Then we will discuss what options to pick and which ones not to pick, and we will give you all of the essential optimization tips once Windows XP has been loaded on your system. This step-by-step process can be used as a reference point when you want to install a fresh copy of Windows XP and want to make it gaming-ready. This guide will be linked to from now on in my optimization guides as a reference point for essential system optimization.

http://www.firingsquad.com/guides/windows_xp_opt/

goodluck!

thx alot, but what would of had been better is a video tutorial ;)

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http://www.tomshardware.com/howto/02...904/index.html

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This web site is no longer available. Looks like the page was taken down.:eek:

links fixed

Cheers@