[bomberz1qr20]

I bought a used comp from my work, and I've been rebuilding it and tweaking it.

Almost as addictive as bike mechanic work.

Anyone else built a system from the floor up?

 

[JRB]

I think lots of people have. Not me, but lots of other people.

 

[bomberz1qr20]

Oh, duh...

Specs:

Athlon XP 2200+ overclocked to 2400+
Thermalright SLK900A heatsink w/ 90mm 56cfm fan
Asus A7N8V v.104
768 megs DDR 2100 ram
2 x 60g IBM Deskstar HDD
Lite On 52x24x52 CDRW
Radeon 7500 video (next upgrade is a 9550XT)
Avertv Stereo TV tuner
Crappy Compusa case

New Antec case/PSU on the way in UPS...

All told so far: $396.00

 

[surfinguru]

Yeah, I'm a tech nerd. Been building my own rigs for a while now. Latest foray is water cooling.

P4 2.8E @3.2GHz
Abit IC7-G
ATI 9800 Pro
SB Audigy Gamer
Swiftech H20-120-P watercooling kit
buncha hard drives
oh...and a big ol' 20" LCD monitor!

Really good technical, geeky site: http://www.ocforums.com/

 

[bomberz1qr20]

Yeah, I'm a tech nerd. Been building my own rigs for a while now. Latest foray is water cooling.

P4 2.8E @3.2GHz
Abit IC7-G
ATI 9800 Pro
SB Audigy Gamer
Swiftech H20-120-P watercooling kit
buncha hard drives
oh...and a big ol' 20" LCD monitor!

Really good technical, geeky site: http://www.ocforums.com/

I am definately using the same approach as I do with bikes:

Cheap
Durable
Easily upgradable
No regard to weight
Quiet (I ride a 36lb single speed)



Unfortunatley the water cooling approach would not fit in my scheme. At least not with any kits available. I think I'll have to hit the aquarium stores and throw something together...

:devil:

 

[Ciaran]

I have built many, many a computer in my day. Just don't let your friends find out, otherwise you will become their built in IT guy. Have fun!

 

[Roasted]

I have probably built a few 1000. Been building for 19 years almost.

And ciaran is right. Never let your friends find out. Everyone wants to mooch your skills once they find out.

 

[bomberz1qr20]

I have built many, many a computer in my day. Just don't let your friends find out, otherwise you will become their built in IT guy. Have fun!

Already there.

My roommate; "Hey, my computer is really slow, and I get all these nasty pop-ups, and my homepage is on some weird site I've never been to before....You're good with this stuff, can you take a look at it? "

Me; "Uh..no."

 

[chicodude]

I showed a teacher how to use Acrobat reader a few days ago, now every class i have "Chris, can you look at this for me?"

Uh.....no

 

[Austin Bike]

I think lots of people have. Not me, but lots of other people.

Built more than my fair share. I use notebooks exclusively now, but built my server.

Unless you know what you are doing or have a LOT of spare time to be your own tech support, computers are too cheap to not buy and get a warranty.

 

[JRB]

Built more than my fair share. I use notebooks exclusively now, but built my server.

Unless you know what you are doing or have a LOT of spare time to be your own tech support, computers are too cheap to not buy and get a warranty.

So this is a cheap plug for Dell huh???

 

[zod]

Been building them for over 10 years now.......old skool geek

 

[binary visions]

Been building computers since I was in 7th grade

Got addicted... Been a geek ever since

It's a great feeling to get all the parts together, assembled, hit the power switch and hear it hum...

 

[Toshi]

you guys aren't building, you're just plugging stuff into sockets and hooking up wires. create a computer from iron ore and silica and i'll be impressed

 

[math2014]

I have probably built a few 1000. Been building for 19 years almost.

And ciaran is right. Never let your friends find out. Everyone wants to mooch your skills once they find out.

Word, i ve been doing it for 12yrs, and always i was the PC slave of the family... anyhow since 2 yrs ago i got a compaq laptop and i have never touched a bolt since.....

But i miss a desktop...

 

[jacksonpt]

Yes, several time... though not recently. I don't do it because of the "addiction", I do it because it's waaay cheaper than buying a box off the shelf.

 

[Ian F]

I keep thinking I should for the cost benefits... my problem is I hate the damn things and have no patience for them whatsoever when they don't work. :mumble:

 

[HypNoTic]

Built all my comps, so well over 500 since the time. The only thing I didnt built myself is my work laptop, which was loaned by the company, an IBM Thinkpad T40 (that I slightly upgraded).

Of all, building a NAS for the office was the most challenging one. 12 Maxtor 160 Gb SATA in RAID 5 with 3ware card, 3 backplanes, dual Athlon MP, 1Gb RAM running Gentoo with Samba. This is the backup buffer before dumping to LTO tapes. Finding a 12 disk-drive slots 3U rackmount case was tricky, but I found some. I had to play with the Dremel a bit to fit the backplanes I needed. A sweet baby. Too bad the LTO unit didnt fit in there.

Hacked some Cisco Pix also. The 525 used to be a Intel 440BX motherboard with a standard Pentium 2 400Mhz. Imagine a 1.2Ghz firewall... :evil:

Yes, I'm a geek.

 

[Echo]

I've always built my own. Well, except my laptop

 

[Austin Bike]

So this is a cheap plug for Dell huh???

Damn, ya smoked me out

They're so damn inexepensive now it would practically cost me more to build my own - IF I didn't have a closet full of part. I have more computer parts than bike parts.