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PhdHater

New Member
So I am about to start my first computer project. Here's a little background, I have a compaq evo n600c laptop, it's the only computer I have ever had. I use it for internet pretty much exclusively. I have done some reading online the past few days on what is what inside of a computer and what stuff does what. I don't know any brand names or what companies make good products. That is about the extent of my computer knowledge.
I plan to buy a Compac DC7100 to upgrade into a home theater computer to go with my new LCD HDTV. I will not be doing any gaming or high demand stuff. I just want to surf the web on my tv and use it to watch movies. I like that model mainly because of the horizontal format (it will fit nicely in my entertainment center), also it has 2 PCI slots, a PCI express 1x, a PCI express x16, and a bunch of USB ports. There are 4 slots for ram and I plan to max it out with 4 gigs but I don't know what company makes good ram. I also plan to upgrade the DVD drive to a blu-ray/DVDrw drive (Lite On IHES206-08) and add a video card (a few that I liked the specs on were the KFA2 GeForce 9600 GT, and the Visiontek Radeon HD 3450). The power supply that comes in the dc7100 is only a 240 watt, I want to upgrade to at least a 400w minimum but I don't know if power supplies are universal or if I need a specific one for the horizontal case. I will also be getting a wireless keyboard mouse set as well but that's not very important.
So I think I have all my bases covered, but if I missed something that I will need please please let me know. Also I welcome and request all input on brands or components and all advice will be greatly appreciated. If you need any more info to make recomendations please do not hesitate to ask. Thanks.
~Drew
 
Irishwhistle said:
Welcome! :) Why not save money and build from scratch? Aside from saving money you can also get a nice case that's actually meant for a media center PC... something like this, for instance: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811204035

Have fun! :)
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Honestly I'm not very confident in my ability to build one from scratch. That case is $80+ for just the case, I can get a DC7100 on ebay for $125 shipped to my house and it already has a socket 775, a 40gb hard drive, and a 3.2ghz pentium 4 installed, all I have to do is change out the dvd drive for a blu-ray drive, install some ram, and install a video card, and maybe upgrade my power supply if I need to/can, all of which seems basic (I've never opened a computer before so I could be in for a rude awaking but I think I'll be ok). I wouldn't know where to start with all the wires and connectors involved in building one from scratch. I'm sure in the future I will want to take that route but for my first build I want to start with some sort of base to upgrade on. All I want to do is be able to surf the web on my tv and watch blu-ray movies, I just don't know what parts would be good enough for what I want to do and what brands to trust and which to avoid.
 
PhdHater said:
Honestly I'm not very confident in my ability to build one from scratch. That case is $80+ for just the case, I can get a DC7100 on ebay for $125 shipped to my house and it already has a socket 775, a 40gb hard drive, and a 3.2ghz pentium 4 installed, all I have to do is change out the dvd drive for a blu-ray drive, install some ram, and install a video card, and maybe upgrade my power supply if I need to/can, all of which seems basic (I've never opened a computer before so I could be in for a rude awaking but I think I'll be ok). I wouldn't know where to start with all the wires and connectors involved in building one from scratch. I'm sure in the future I will want to take that route but for my first build I want to start with some sort of base to upgrade on. All I want to do is be able to surf the web on my tv and watch blu-ray movies, I just don't know what parts would be good enough for what I want to do and what brands to trust and which to avoid.
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Well, you don't have to get an $80 case, but anyway, tbh that's not really much of a system...
 
well I don't need much and it's good enough for a base, I'm not a gamer and it litterally will only be used for browsing the internet, watching movies, and listening to music. I really have no idea about cpu's but if mine is a 3.2ghz and yours in only a 3.0ghz doesn't that mean mine would be faster or more powerful or whatever that number means? Also mine will have 4gb of ram and you only have 2gb so wouldn't that make mine that much more faster than yours? Maybe I am confusing the meanings of these numbers so if I'm wrong please set me straight.
 
Numbers don't mean anything on ghz. TBH. A pentium 4 is a slower processor from my experiences. I run an AMD Dual Core at 2.2 ghz, and another computer is a Intel Celeron at 2.8 ghz. Yet my amd runs faster, and the fact that Celeron just suck.

Building a computer isn't all that hard. I can work with programs very well, as a web designer and when i built mine i didn't think I could do it but I did. Don't underestimate what you will be using your computer for, when i started i wanted it for what you described but i was able to do much more. Don't get a compac, just don't.

www.newegg.com Search on their for pre builds if you don't wanna build one.
 
well for the cpu part you wrong phd.
you have a pentium 4 which is a single core and if i am not mistaken irish has a dual core. his is better. sorry.
 
phantomofrussia said:
well for the cpu part you wrong phd.
you have a pentium 4 which is a single core and if i am not mistaken irish has a dual core. his is better. sorry.
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Yeah, that's correct. Even at stock 2.6GHz mine should run faster.

Also, RAM doesn't mean anything if you aren't going to use it... what I mean is, if you run Windows XP and a regular load uses 700MB of RAM (which is pretty heavy for XP) you won't notice a difference from 2GB to 4GB. So for what you're doing, all you'll need is 2GB.
 
I just built my first system, I was reasonably confident but before turning it on I decided to take it to a friends to double check and to get on the net. (went well)

I didn't have the internet so I built it by scratch from the all the guides that come with the parts, they worked pretty good.

Basically if you already have the net it should be quiet simple, I would recommend building it yourself, the only issue I had was not being SURE that what I had done was correct, but having the net would solve that problem for you.

In saying that though alot of people have said that buying a prebuilt lower end machine isn't much more or even the same prices as building
 
I wouldnt get too worried about taking a look inside a desktop computer. There not that complicated. You have the motherboard that everything attaches to and that manages the interaction between all the components, your processor, memory, video card and drives
 
so would you guys recomend AMD or Intel CPU's? Ok then I will look for something with a dual core either way then. How do I know what components will fit in what case? Are they all pretty much universal? how do I know what power source will fit?
 
PhdHater said:
so would you guys recomend AMD or Intel CPU's? Ok then I will look for something with a dual core either way then. How do I know what components will fit in what case? Are they all pretty much universal? how do I know what power source will fit?
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All good questions. I am sure you will have more before I finish this answer so i am going to reccommend the stickies around this forum. They are dated as far as price/parts but the general knowledge, i.e. the questions you have, are answered pretty well in them.

Don't stress to much. I was in your position about 2 weeks ago. Now I am confident buying and building (for the most part) thanks mostly to this forum.
 
PhdHater said:
so would you guys recomend AMD or Intel CPU's? Ok then I will look for something with a dual core either way then. How do I know what components will fit in what case? Are they all pretty much universal? how do I know what power source will fit?
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For a budget rig I always recommend AMD, you get a lot more for your money.

There's different form factors of cases, motherboards, and PSUs... for what you want I'd recommend going with parts that are MicroATX. That means that when you go hunting for parts you have to make sure you get a case, mobo, and PSU with the MicroATX form factor. Get a AM2+ motherboard (it'll say what kind it is wherever you buy) if you want to go dual core AMD. Also, I'd recommend doing your shopping at newegg.com and once you decide what parts you want make a thread here to make sure all the parts will work.

Now, about brands... for a motherboard you're gonna be best off with ASUS or Gigabyte... there's other brands, but those seem to be the top two.

For a power supply (PSU) the following brands will work nicely: OCZ, Antec, Corsair, and Rosewill

For memory (RAM): Corsair, Kingston, G.Skill, Patriot, and OCZ. One word of advice DO NOT USE OCZ RAM WITH AN ASUS MOTHERBOARD, people have been having issues with them working together lately.

If there's anything else you want to know, feel free to ask. :)
 
i completely agree with irish there. i mean about the cpu brand. if you want a budget pc at the moment go with AMD for it. if you want the best cpu out there then go inel with there new i7. otherwise just stay with AMD good company.

Furthermore i would recommend seagate for the harddrive. the 7200.11 barracudas are nice and not that expensive.

since you want to make this desktop into a hometheater computer i would recommend a normal atx motherboard and case. better airflow and then its just easier to upgrade when you need to.
 
phantomofrussia said:
i completely agree with irish there. i mean about the cpu brand. if you want a budget pc at the moment go with AMD for it. if you want the best cpu out there then go inel with there new i7. otherwise just stay with AMD good company.

Furthermore i would recommend seagate for the harddrive. the 7200.11 barracudas are nice and not that expensive.

since you want to make this desktop into a hometheater computer i would recommend a normal atx motherboard and case. better airflow and then its just easier to upgrade when you need to.
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I personally would go with a Western Digital 7200RPM hard drive, but Seagate is good too.

As far as ATX vs MicroATX goes, you'll find that MicroATX is generally less expensive than ATX (basically, MicroATX is just a smaller version of ATX.)
 
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