Looking for Basic Knowledge on building my own system.

[ajsellaroli]

Hello, I'm new to this forum, and am looking forward to meeting some of you, and hopefully getting some great info from the 'pros' lol.

Here's the story: I've been looking all over the place for guides that show me how to build my own computer. I found some, but many were a year or more old, and I want to make sure I'm up to date. I've owned a dell for 4 years and have never built a computer before, but being the huge computer buff that I am, I feel the need to.

Here's the problem: I need some very basic knowledge on how to do this, I have many small questions I hope you guys will be able to help me with.

Many of my initial confusion has to do with the motherboard. I am very confused about what you can and can't do with certain motherboards. What makes them different? If I have a motherboard on my dell right now that supports a Pentium 4 processor, could it also support a newer intel core 2 duo? Why or why not?

Another question, what is "L2 cache." and what can it do for me?

To clarify, is Front side bus the speed of data transfer between the motherboard and the ram?

How do I know what whatever motherboard I choose to buy will be compatible with?

These are my initial questions, I hope someone out there can answer them. (oh, and don't worry, once you answer these, I'll be asking you for advice on where to go to buy my hardware, etc.) lol.

thanks
-AJ

[Cricket]

Originally Posted by ajsellaroli Many of my initial confusion has to do with the motherboard. I am very confused about what you can and can't do with certain motherboards. What makes them different? If I have a motherboard on my dell right now that supports a Pentium 4 processor, could it also support a newer intel core 2 duo? Why or why not?

Depends on which P4 you've got now. If it's an older Socket 478 P4 then the motherboard won't support a Socket T (LGA775) Core 2 Duo processor...the two processors and sockets are physically different from one another.

If it's a Socket T (LGA775) P4 CPU then you have to check with DELL to see what CPUs the motherboard supports. It most likely won't support a C2D CPU because the chipset will more likely be an older one. But you have to check with DELL to verify.

Originally Posted by ajsellaroli Another question, what is "L2 cache." and what can it do for me?

L2 cache is memory on the CPU itself and it runs at the same speed as the CPU so data access is very fast. The more L2 cache you have on the processor the more data it can store for quick retrieval.

Originally Posted by ajsellaroli To clarify, is Front side bus the speed of data transfer between the motherboard and the ram?

It's the data path between the CPU and the northbridge control chip.

Originally Posted by ajsellaroli How do I know what whatever motherboard I choose to buy will be compatible with?

The motherboard specs tells you a lot and from this you can determine compatibility with other components and many motherboard manufacturers have CPU compatibility charts.

Cricket

[ajsellaroli]

Great information, Cricket, thank you alot. It doesn't really matter what motherboard my dell has, I'm planning on just building a new computer from scratch. What is a good amount of L2 cache in modern days? What is the northbridge control chip?

[Cricket]

Originally Posted by ajsellaroli What is a good amount of L2 cache in modern days?

The amount you'll get depends on the processor you're considering. Most of the modern processors have a lot of L2 cache.

Originally Posted by ajsellaroli What is the northbridge control chip?

Read this.

Cricket

[FalvinP]

I started having a fantasy of building my own pc around two years ago. I finally brought that fantasy to it's conslusion this month.

I try to do as much research as I can before I actually ask a question in the forums. I used Google a lot. I read the PC Mechanic guide to building your own pc and then googled terms in the various sections to get more info. I must have 50 different bookmarks regarding all manner of computer stuff relating to building a pc.

I found that by doing much of my own research I was able to learn and retain the new, somewhat mystifying information I encountered.

At various times during my research, I became completed flustered with the amount of detailed information I encountered. At that point, I had to step back and review the general concepts about a particular component. For example (and to perhaps tie in to your questions above) when I researched motherboards, I came across detailed information about what exactly the Northbridge and Southbridge chips did. I wasn't ready for this information yet and it didn't really did matter when it came down to building my pc. I stepped back and looked again at the general function of the motherboard. I was able to determine which features I needed and then chose which motherboard to buy.

My general point is don't get get bogged down with the very specific details (as my anal retentive personality led me to do) until you have a fairly firm grasp of the general concepts.

Like you, I wanted to be a big sponge and wanted to immediately absorb any and all information that was thrust my way. This became overwhelming at times.

My advice might not be to everyone's taste, but it worked for me.

As much as I have learned from people like Cricket and GLC, I still have to ask simple questions here in the forums from time to time.

I'm happy to now start contributing to these forums based on my recent experiences.

Welcome to PC Mech! And good luck with your planned build.

[ajsellaroli]

Thanks Falvin, I have done some research, sounds like I have a ways to go though. I'll just jump in then! I am very interested, I think knowing about this will definitely help me later in life (I'm 19 now).