Enkay Blog

Any tips on building a computer?

So, as I mentioned last week, my computer decided to die on me after 6-7 years of faithful service. It seems as though I have fried the motherboard and not having a desktop, per se, has meant that I have to use my netbook at all times. Don’t get me wrong, I love my netbook but using it for everything can be a pain sometimes because the keyboard and the lack of a full mouse can be an issue.

Well, I decided that instead of spending $2,000 to buy a brand new computer, that I’d go through and build my own computer from scratch so I decided to do some research and maybe you can guys can give me some pointers if you’ve built your computer before. Here is a list of all the parts I’ve ordered or already purchased:

1) Intel Core i5 Processor – This is one of the new processor systems by Intel and its the younger brother of the i7 system but apparently theres not much of a difference in performance so I picked up the i5. The price? $160. These usually sell for around $230 so I saved about $70 on this purchase by picking it up at MicroCenter which seems to have some good prices on the processors.

2) A-DATA Gaming DDR3 Low Voltage 4GB RAM – This is one of the requirements of the new chipset on the i5 processor units. It seems as though the mobo’s that support the 1156 socket for the i5 and i7 processors require DD3 and a voltage of 1.65 or less. With that said, the RAM usually runs about $90 for 4GB but I picked this up at the local Fry’s for $70.

3) MSI P55 CD53 Motherboard – The MSI Motherboard is all brand new for the i5 processor because its the 1156 socket motherboard. Most motherboards are 775 sockets and all that means is that these new motherboards are a bit on the expensive side, or atleast they can be more expensive. I paid around $105 for this motherboard through ZipZoomFly.

4) OCZ Technology ModXStream Pro 700W Power Supply - All my experience with Dell meant that I needed a better and more powerful power supply in order to provide juice to the system. The old power supply, provided by Dell, was a 350W and so I decided to double it up and move to 700W with the OCZ Power Supply. Best part is, that it comes with some wire management goodies so I can make sure things look organized inside. The Power Supply runs around $130 but I picked it up for $80 with a $30 rebate, so we’re looking at $50 after the rebate.

5) HAF 932 Full Tower Case – Now, this case was not something I was expecting to buy. I decided that a mid-tower case around $60 would have been perfect but the HAF 932 is definitely a full tower case with 4 fans. 3 of the fans are 230mm with one fan being 140mm. These fans are much larger than average and all that means is that the case will be super cool at all times. So in other words, firing up the motherboard, wont be an issue next time around. The case runs for $140, but I spent around $100 at the local Fry’s.

The total price of everything was around $485 since shipping was usually free and tax was eliminated on quite a few of the products. You might be wondering, what happened to the video card and such but I am actually using my video card, audio card, hard drives and dvd drives from the old computer. That allowed me to save quite a bit of money since I actually had a really good video and audio card and my hard drives were over a 1TB. I felt there was no need to upgrade those so lets hope that I can put all this together.

My first issue is, where some of the pins go on the motherboard and actually, how would I actually install the processor and although these seem like dumb questions, for someone who has never done this before, I think its actually not a bad place to start. Ive been doing my reading and I might even put a video up of me building the computer. Hopefully things work out just fine! Wish me luck! and if you have any tips or guides on how I can do this without ruining anything, I would appreciate it!