Making A Computer?

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Papasmurf89

Member
Hi,

I frequently go to LAN parties and recently a new kid joined are group. Everyone just thought of him as a normal gamer just like all of us but I noticed that his CPU didn't look like one that you can buy off of the shelves. I asked him about it and he said he made it himself. We started talking about it and he said he saves tons of money building it and he can build his computer around what he wants to do, to game.

I thought to myself, wow, I wish I could do that and after some thinking, why couldn't I? So, I decided to ask here to see if someone can point me in the right direction. Maybe give me some links that are helpful or give me a few pointers. Oh yeah, just to let all of you know, I'm a complete noob when it comes to computers, I don't know what the mother board is/does! Yes, I'm that stupid. So, if possible, I need everything from square 1!

Thank you for all of your help!

P.S. One more thing, does anyone know where to download Microsoft Word? I reformatted my computer and it didn't come with Word. Thanks!
 
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EMO-TOCROSS

New Member
Okay, building the computer is the easy part. The part you need to focus on right now is this - Whats your budget? What do you want your computer to be capable of? What would you like to use it for?

Than we can help you by giving you a background on some of the parts we'd recomend. By the way, Here's a helpfull list that I wanted to know when I was new at making computers too:

What parts make up the computer (general parts)
1: Motherboard
2. CPU (Processor)
3. CPU FAN
4. Video Card
5. Audio card (optional, sometimes built onto the motherboard)
6. Hard drive
7. CD Drive
8. Computer Case
9. PSU (Power Supply, sometimes included with the computer case)
10. Case fans (optional but reccomended)

Hope that helps you feel more educated :)

Ask questions, there should always be someone in this forum to answer you quickly :)
 
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Papasmurf89

Member
Thanks that really helped. I'm not going to build a computer now because I already have my AMD but I want to add some new hardware so that I can run Half-Life 2 when it comes out.

So far all I know about my computer (I didn't make it, we had it custom built) is that:

AMD Athlon XP1700+
1.11 GHz
512 MB of RAM

That's basically all I could find on my computer (Yeah, I'm that stupid :)). So if you want to tell me what I have to do to find out my computer stats, please tell me and then maybe from there we can work out what I need to run Half-Life 2.

Thanks!
 
smitherz

smitherz

New Member
there is no way you can build a CPU, it needs to be made in sterile conditions. what you can do is update your system i.e if you are a gamer then go for the obvious approach and go get your self a wicked graphics card that will do the job.

smitherz
 
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ZER0X

VIP Member
Your requirements will be able to run Halflife 2 fine....what Graphics card do you have???? you need atleast a TNT2 that is stated for the game but recomended is Radeon9600, or Geforce FX5900 ultra :)
 
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EMO-TOCROSS

New Member
I'd reccomend a Radeon 9600PRO 256mb :) It's definetly a great gamer's card for the price in my opininion, it handles doom 3 great :)
 
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KillermilleR

New Member
cpu~~~~~~~~~~hmmmmmm..aint that the mircoprosessor chip (pentium/amd etc...)u can build your own if you have enoff funds to buy peice of intel factory or amd!!!!lol

anyways EMO-TOCROSS is right!!!!
 
Praetor

Praetor

Administrator
Staff member
1. Building your own CPU isnt that hard. A handfull of courses in digital design stuff should give you the capability to do so. Of course thats prolly not what you/he meant/has. For all intents and purposes, its impossible (for average Joes) to build their own proc

2. Might i remind some people of the forum rules.

Cheers
 
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Papasmurf89

Member
Oh sorry about that. Anyways, I got the problem figured out with Microsoft Word.

Anyways, thanks for all of the replies. I guess I'll just get a new graphics card but the kid that I was talking to said that I might also want to look into a new processor. I'm not positive what graphics card I have right now, if my memory serves me right I think I have a GeForce 400 or something. I know it's a GeForce. Anyways I could find out what my hardware is?

Thanks!
 
Praetor

Praetor

Administrator
Staff member
Anyways I could find out what my hardware is?
Click to expand...

To determine your system specs; goto Start --> Run, Type dxdiag and click OK. Your CPU (processor), Memory and DirectX version is listed on the System tab. Your video card specifcations can be found under the Display tab under Name and Chip Type. Your soundcard is listed under the Sound tab in the Name field.
 
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Papasmurf89

Member
Okay, I looked and here are my system specs:

AMD Athlon (TM) XP1700+
DirectX 8.1
NVIDIA GeForce2 MX/MX 400
GeForce2 MX
Integrated RAMDAC
SB Live! Wave Device

That's all I really thought you guys would need. I'm really sorry if you need more, I just have no idea what you need to know (Wow! I really repeated myself, it appears the lack of sleep is catching up!). So, from these specs (Tell me if you need more) what else would I need to upgrade to run HL2? Thanks!
 
Praetor

Praetor

Administrator
Staff member
These specs (tell me if you need more) what else would i need to upgrade to run hl2? [/quote]
anything past a gf3ti500 can play hl2 Optimally you'll want something of the calibre of gf4ti or better :).
 
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