Comments on: Tales Of A First-Time PC Build

By: DOS_eqius

DOS_eqius — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 12:15:09 +0000

Historically speaking, ATI has always had awesome hardware with crappy drivers/ apps. Nvidia seems to have a balance of good hardware with decent drivers and apps. It seems when an ATI product has reached maturity, the driver bugs have been ironed out most of the way too. It’s kinda a shame that ATI still doesn’t seem to get it right in that respect. On my next build I will probably use Nvidia because of the stable driver issue. Just because ATI is on top right now doesn’t mean that they will stay there forever either. It always will be a big game of “King of the Hill” All hardware can have issues from time to time but ATI seems to just get close and get it out the door I guess.

Just my .02

By: David Kennedy

David Kennedy — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 23:39:05 +0000

Good ideas.

I’ve always saved the box, packing, etc that the PC came in for that purpose. I saved the case box for this one as well.

I need to make some images now that I’ve got it running fairly well. I haven’t had a GPU crash in a while. Never know when the next driver will be much worse.

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 20:06:40 +0000

I see endless articles on building systems, but never any in depth articles on how to save and preserve systems.

Once I have the hardware straight I go through a routine to save all the “stuff” people throw away including the boxes to pack and ship or move the PC as well as OEM disks. I also create ongoing logs in a file cabinet on each PC. Then I image the machines in three tiered sets: OEM, light Custom, and built out custom. This way I can find any information, drivers, and back step to a previous image if the system goes sideways. And, we all know that there will be a day when that happens.

By: Mike P

Mike P — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 18:35:06 +0000

Nice job David. Not too shabby. It reminds me of the guy that built a super high power, super fast machine that had (memory check, please) 20 or 25 hard drives. I use to build all my own stuff from about 1984 through 1998 and then got really lazy. I love having the UPS man show up with a plug n play, or going down to Best Buy and picking out what I want and just have the bloody thing work. (much easier to sell my wife on the money spent when its fancy and shiny) I did, however, finished a project involving some older machines. Its a old Dell Optiplex 433/lv running MSDOS 6.22 .. I kid you not. It took two of them to make one working model, but it worked. Then I fired up the bbs and it is running nicely. By the way, I still have my first homebrewed computer and it still works. I really did enjoy rebuilding the old Opti and watching it come back to life. Enjoy that nice new machine Dave.

By: Eli

Eli — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 13:21:29 +0000

Nice build!

Its very nice to be able to build your own machine, or your own anything for that matter. It really gives one a sense of accomplishment. Congratulations David.

By: David M

David M — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 17:27:26 +0000

Yes, legally you are supposed to pay the state sales tax. If you can defer paying those taxes until tax time in April, then all the better.

By: David Kennedy

David Kennedy — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 23:51:43 +0000

Good points on the prices. There are several good price checker websites. I probably should’ve used those, but in my experience, NewEgg is usually among the cheapest, and their service is top notch. So I simplified my search by using parts I could find on NewEgg.

The sales tax comment – don’t you have to pay those regardless? NC state law says if you’re not charged you report it on your income tax. I try to do that, but I’m sure some online purchases slip through the cracks. I’m be surprised in tight budgetary times if any states says “don’t worry about it”.

Shipping – yes, some sites are ridiculous. Most of my parts had free shipping from NewEgg. I think I paid for shipping on 2 or 3 parts. So that wasn’t so bad.

By: David M

David M — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 17:21:02 +0000

Congrats on your first build David! There is no shame in being proud of the fact that you did it yourself

The almost 10% California state sales tax I pay now makes buying from some websites a deal killer. Same with when they charge for shipping.

I like looking through Pricegrabber.com for deals because they will list your bottom line price if you enter in your zip code. Of course, the lowest price is not always the best deal if the lowest price comes from a less than reputable vendor. If Newegg has close to the lowest bottom line price then I usually go with them. If their price is one of the higher prices then I usually purchase elsewhere. Its definitely worth a few extra dollars to not have to deal with shady vendors.

By: TemperingPick

TemperingPick — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 14:37:03 +0000

I would have used http://pricewatch.com to find the parts. The case you bought from Newegg is $7 cheaper at Amazon. Just a thought.

Good job on the first build though.